There are such divergent opinions on this kind of thing, and I really can see both sides... I got a special work experience thing so I could have a job-job, with taxes and all, all summer when I was 14, and I made like $3k in my menial, $4.25 an hour minimum wage way, and blew every bit of it on absolute bs like school clothes, taking my whole family out to dinner and other events - it was an eye opening experience for me that helped me understand money, since at the beginning of the summer the idea of THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS loomed large as this huuuuuge amount of money but come fall - I was broke. I guess in that situation it's like, if I could have been doing something enriching or of value, that would have been better, but as it was I really would not have so working was probably better. I would feel obligated to counsel my own kids, if they were earning hundreds of their own dollars, on saving, and more expensive personal things they'd wanted and possibilities they weren't considering. Basically I would not feel comfortable sitting back and letting them spend it all on things like taking the 7 of us out to dinner over and over...
I worked throughout high school, in the afternoons and on Saturdays - in a warehouse, as a nanny, as a secretary - and saved up and bought my own piece of shit car, and paid my own insurance/gas, and had savings, and things like that. I think the middle school summer job helped set me up for that. I mean my mother was no longer in town and my dad had given up on life, so I was living with grandparents. They were like yeah we'll feed and clothe you and take you to the doctor, and get you birthday and Christmas presents, but if you want regular spending money or a car or something, you have to get a job. And I really liked that, honestly. I had my own bank account even as a sophomore, and a budget I stuck to. I felt very autonomous and capable.
At the same time, one of my best friends was absolutely not allowed to work in high school, was told she had to focus on school, etc. She did do slightly better than I did - she was in the top 10, I was in the top 25, which were separate overlapping distinctions in our graduating class of about 450 people, and I think she actually passed the AP exams at the end of some of our AP classes (I aced the classes but didn't bother to sit the exams for additional college credit). I mean I still had time to teach Sunday School as a volunteer, run around goofing off with friends, travel around the country with the church, fall in love/get knocked up, etc, in senior year :p
I think about this a lot. That same friend wasn't allowed/supposed to work in college, either, had her way paid, etc. Everyone else I knew had to figure fafsa out on their own and make it work. I see pros and cons both ways, I really do.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2015-01-31 04:32 pm (UTC)I worked throughout high school, in the afternoons and on Saturdays - in a warehouse, as a nanny, as a secretary - and saved up and bought my own piece of shit car, and paid my own insurance/gas, and had savings, and things like that. I think the middle school summer job helped set me up for that. I mean my mother was no longer in town and my dad had given up on life, so I was living with grandparents. They were like yeah we'll feed and clothe you and take you to the doctor, and get you birthday and Christmas presents, but if you want regular spending money or a car or something, you have to get a job. And I really liked that, honestly. I had my own bank account even as a sophomore, and a budget I stuck to. I felt very autonomous and capable.
At the same time, one of my best friends was absolutely not allowed to work in high school, was told she had to focus on school, etc. She did do slightly better than I did - she was in the top 10, I was in the top 25, which were separate overlapping distinctions in our graduating class of about 450 people, and I think she actually passed the AP exams at the end of some of our AP classes (I aced the classes but didn't bother to sit the exams for additional college credit). I mean I still had time to teach Sunday School as a volunteer, run around goofing off with friends, travel around the country with the church, fall in love/get knocked up, etc, in senior year :p
I think about this a lot. That same friend wasn't allowed/supposed to work in college, either, had her way paid, etc. Everyone else I knew had to figure fafsa out on their own and make it work. I see pros and cons both ways, I really do.