Seeing as their preferred summer activity is slouching on the couch scrolling through TikTok, I was happy when my two middle teenagers — 16 and 14 — decided that they wanted to get jobs. A character-building, responsibility-requiring experience? Sign ’em up!
What I didn’t realize was, well … all the things I didn’t realize: Teenage jobs come with a lot more than a paycheck and a new sense of maturity. So if your teenager is itching to join the workforce for the summer, here are some things you can look forward to.
Endlessly washing work clothes.
My kids’ respective jobs include a pizza place and a fast food joint, and both are required to wear a company-branded shirt. But guess how many company-branded shirts they were both given upon their hiring? ONE. Which means we have to be either super on top of the household laundry (just when I thought I’d get a smidge of a break for the summer!), or they’re frantically searching for their shirt and realizing it’s still dirty 15 minutes before their shift starts. If your kid is working for a place with a dress code, have them ask for more than one shirt. You can thank me later.
The smell.
If your teenager isn’t working in foodservice, this probably (hopefully?) won’t apply. But if you’ve got a teen working in fast food, you know that everything starts to smell like grease. They come home absolutely reeking of it, like they ended their shift by taking a quick dip in the fryer. My son hangs his apron and his hat on his bedpost, and his entire room — no, that entire end of my house — smells like someone is about to pop out and ask, “Do you want fries with that?”
The chauffeuring.
The thing about teenagers is, they develop active lives long before they’re old enough to drive themselves anywhere. But if you thought shuttling your non-driving teens to practices and social engagements was bad, prepare for it to get worse. If, like me, you live in a town with no real public transit, you somehow have to miraculously figure out how to get them back and forth to their jobs. One of mine typically works from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. … and the other works from 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Make the logistics make sense! I am constantly having to pause my workday to drop them off, and get out of bed to pick them up. And then doing the whole shebang over again with the second kid, just one hour later. If there’s anything that makes me less apprehensive about the thought of my kids being behind the wheel, it’s the thought of not having to drive them to and from work!
It’s hard to schedule anything as a family.
When your kid has a job, any spontaneous summertime family outings go right out the window. Especially since 9 times out of 10, it “slips their mind” to tell you they’ve picked up an extra shift, or are scheduled to work on a day they’re usually off. You’ll have big plans made for the day and they’re suddenly derailed by, “But Mom, I have to work at 3.”
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And family dinners? Forget about ’em.
Throughout my kids’ lives, one thing has remained consistent: We try to eat dinner together as a family as often as we can. When they were little and had less to do, that was relatively easy. But the older they get, the harder it is, and when they get jobs — which can take up afternoons and evenings — it feels impossible sometimes to get everyone together around the table. Not only that, but it makes cooking dinner suck that much more. Whipping up a whole meal after a long day that only a couple of us are around to eat … and then saving the leftovers, only to hear, “No thanks, I ate at work,” gets a big thumbs-down from me.
They spend their paychecks on ridiculous things.
My husband and I have advised our kids as to how they should spend their money, putting back a certain percentage for savings and all that responsible stuff. Beyond that, though, they’re in control of how they spend their earnings. And spend it they do, though heaven forbid they use any of it for practical things like clothes and shoes. Instead it’s a pricey bottle of cologne here, a something-or-other for their gaming system there. Between my kids and their purchases, I swear there is either someone from Amazon or DoorDash on my porch at least twice a day.
… But they will still ask you for money.
Despite their newfound earning power and burgeoning bank account, the words “Can I have $20?” somehow still do not escape their vocabulary. They have the audacity to boast about having picked up an extra shift this week, then turn right around and hit me up for cash. I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve said, “You have a paycheck, use that!” They’re eager to spend money … they just don’t want to spend their money.
You rarely see them.
Between work and their social lives, your teenager will seem further out of reach than ever. You know it’s all part of growing up and don’t want to begrudge them those formative teenage experiences, but as a parent, it’s just another heart-wrenching reminder of how lonely raising teenagers can actually be.
You’ll actually go to their workplace just to catch a glimpse of them … and they’ll be mortified.
I try not to eat too much fast food, but having two kids in the restaurant industry means my fast-casual food intake has gone up significantly as of late, because there’s just something heartwarming about visiting your kid’s work while they’re on the clock.
Photo shared with (grudging) permission from the author’s son
Seeing them doing their job, being responsible, interacting with their coworkers … maybe snapping a photo like a creeper (ahem) … it brings a tear of pride to a mom’s eyes. Kind of like when you peered into their classroom when they were little without them knowing: a sense of relief to see that they’re doing just fine on their own, tinged with a sense of sadness at how quickly they’re growing up.
But for your kid? Yeah, it’s not such a heartwarming experience. Any parent of a teenager knows that annoying them is as easy as breathing, looking at them, or asking about their day (the nerve!) — so a workplace drop-in, even if you don’t interact directly with them, will almost always elicit an eye-roll … if not a straight-up lament of “Why did you come in here?!”
Despite my complaints, though, I’m glad my kids have jobs. Working is a great experience for them (everybody has an interesting story from their first gig!). It teaches them a lot about being responsible, reliable, and a team player … and just how fast a paycheck can disappear.
Before you go, check out what these celebrities had to say about the jobs they worked as teens.