Does your Daughter have a Job?

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Feb 7, 2016
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My daughter has been hinting at wanting to find a job. She’ll be 16 in January and will have her license soon after. We’re not sure how to balance a job with all the softball commitments we’ll have (School ball starts in February and Travel ball will pick up when School ball ends in late spring).

She doesn’t need to work but wants to have spending cash and money for gas if she needs it. She actually said she doesn’t want to have to ask us for money all the time. Really level headed kid!

Looking for ideas, experience or advice from other families and how their daughters balanced working a part time job with school and softball. If it came down to choosing, I’d support her focusing on school and softball and we’d figure out how she could earn gas/spending cash.


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Nov 18, 2013
2,255
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Mine got a job at a softball training facility. After her shifts she could work out or use the office to do homework.
 
Sep 17, 2009
1,637
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My suggestion would be to let her try to figure it out/solve the problem on her own. If it's important to her she'll make it work. Of course make sure she has priorities straight: self/family, school/grades, softball/commitments, job/spending money.

The need to juggle a lot of things, work hard, prioritize, etc. only becomes more challenging as we get older, right? Let her start to practice now with low-risk part-time job, ie, if it's too much she quits it and no harm.

If you're worried she'll like the job more than softball, well that's another (common) story, but again, her choice, right? (not saying you are doing this)
 

Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,855
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My dd's job was getting the grades. We let her know the expectations and she wanted to work hard at her game so she didn't have any free time. NONE.
 
Feb 12, 2014
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My situation is similar to Cannonball's - in fact, I probably stole the way to approach if from him. DD is taking a full college course load as a HS junior and does something softball related every night of the week and at least one day on the weekend. Some nights it's CrossFit, some nights it's her offseason school workouts, some nights it's hitting, many nights it's a combo of things. Her travel team will be starting winter work as well this month.

The kid has her plate full and works her rear end off. I've told her that she has her whole life for a job and just these few years for this experience. Because of that, her mom and I have made the decision to make sure she has the money she needs to be a kid without having to consider having a job.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
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The kid has her plate full and works her rear end off. I've told her that she has her whole life for a job and just these few years for this experience. Because of that, her mom and I have made the decision to make sure she has the money she needs to be a kid without having to consider having a job.
That is pretty much how my parents were with me (albeit I didn't really need any money). That said, my wife pays all the bills as if left up to me we would be without water or heat because I would forget to pay them so there is that :LOL:
 
Oct 21, 2016
189
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DD works in the summer only. There's just not enough time during the school year with school, softball, and all her other after school activities (internship, school clubs, church youth group, etc...)
 
Apr 30, 2018
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Most employers don't give a crap about your activities. The types of jobs that most kids can get and the amount of turnover that most of these jobs have, if you are a good worker they can put a lot of pressure on kids when someone else calls out and most of these kids end up with more job than they need and end up quitting other activities. Plus the "steady" paycheck of most retail and restaurant jobs has talked a lot of kids out of even pursuing education at all. Of course it has persuaded others that geez I need to go to school.

If a kid is really wanting some spending cash that they earned, this is a great time to encourage some low risk entrepreneurship. Any kind of arts or craft skills. Maybe an errand running business. Anything that allows them to control the clock instead of someone controlling it for them. May set the stage for all kinds of opportunities in their future.
 
Jun 11, 2012
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Aside from occasional babysitting and umping rec games DD didn’t work at all in HS. The past 2 summers she’s scooped ice cream in town but now that she has an apartment she’ll be near school year round. She has a very part time job near school that she should be able to add a ton of shifts during breaks and summer.
 
Feb 26, 2018
328
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My DD is 13 and she umps in the local rec league 2 days a week in the spring/summer. When I go pick her up I bring her bag and a bucket of balls and she hits 5 or 6 buckets.
 

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