Back in the day, most kids held summer jobs and were expected to do real household chores, but these days many families are focused on achievements, extracurricular and good grades for college applications.

Indeed, high school employment has moved steadily downward in the last 15 years, according to the Child Trends Data Bank. In 1999, 35.5 percent of high scholars held a job, and by 2014, only 18 percent did.

But life is more expensive these days, and kids learn important life lessons from earning their own bucks. We do our kids a disservice by willingly handing over the funds for them to buy pricey gadgets, says Ron Lieber, New York Times money columnist and author of ” The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart about Money.” Kids need to learn how to save and budget, skills required for adulthood, and we need to give them practice before the stakes are high.

A job also teaches them time management, hones their work ethic, and boosts soft skills such as cooperation, task follow-through, independent thinking, self-reliance, and getting along with others. We will talk about more of this in this article so that you can start engaging your kids with different jobs to develop them.

• What are some Jobs my Kids can do?
• What Age Should a Kid get a Job?
• Why Getting a Job at a Young Age is Good?
• How to Choose the Right Job
• Why do Children need Jobs?
• What Counts as a Young Child?
• How can parents ensure the safety of their young children 6-8 years of age?
• How can I help my Child Choose a Career?

What are some Jobs my Kids can do?

Typically, jobs at fast-food restaurants or grocery stores require teens to be 16, but your kids don’t have to wait this long. Tweens and younger teens are industrious, creative and capable people who enjoy being useful. Let them get started early by offering their own services. Aside from babysitting, here are a few ideas to jumpstart a business gig.

Read Also: How Kids Can Make Money Online

1. Pet-sitter: Your neighborhood always needs a reliable pet-sitter or dog walker. In a neighborhood, two young sisters set themselves apart with some extra flourishes. For starters, they cared for animals of all kinds, including guinea pigs, birds, fish, reptiles and chickens, in addition to dogs and cats.

They hold brief meet-and-greets with new clients, have them fill out a short questionnaire about the pets and provide no-cost extras like opening/closing blinds, turning lights on/off, retrieving mail and watering plants.

At the end of the job, they provide a detailed daily record, a small gift bag of handmade dog or cat treats and their business card personalized with a photo of the pet(s). Now that’s service.

2. Gardener: One high school son did regular gardening this summer, from weeding to pruning to sprucing up the landscaping of a property going on the real estate market. If your child doesn’t know much about what weeds look like, help him learn or have a neighbor with a green thumb give him a crash course.

3. Tech assistant: Lots of people have technology-related tasks waiting to be done but no time to do them. Does your neighbor need help moving photos from a camera to the computer and saving in the cloud? Could your child help the nearby grandparents with setting up a new smartphone, Blu-ray player or smart TV? Savvy, media-oriented kids have a lot to offer older folks who aren’t digital natives.

4. DJ for birthday parties: Lieber’s young relative and a friend started a DJ business and priced themselves to be affordable for kids’ birthday dance parties. If kids set their rates appropriately, they’re sure to be hit with parents who need a creative birthday party idea. Plus, little kids love to dance.

5. Party assistant: Lots of parents don’t even realize they need a helper until they’re in the middle of the event. Tweens and teens can help at birthdays with chaperoning, serving snacks and cake or running the activities. There are also graduation parties, bar and bat mitzvahs or other celebrations.

A young assistant will be a lifesaver.

6. Jewelry maker: One 12-year-old niece has made a niche for herself as a budding jeweler, beading necklaces and bracelets and selling them at local farmers’ markets where the vendor fee is low. She’s been known to top $50. Consider taking a product to the next level by setting up a free website at a site like GoSpaces.

7. Poop scooper: No one likes this chore, but if you have a dog and a yard, you need it done. You would hire your child if you owned a dog. To get started, suggest your child post fliers in your neighborhood.

8. Window washer: This is another task many people don’t have time to do, and elderly people probably shouldn’t do if it involves a ladder. Have your child invest in a bucket, a squeegee and a few soft cloths (or old T-shirts). (Of course this one will require supervision to make sure the ladder is steady if the window height requires the use of one.)

9. Holiday baker: For some young persons, one of their favorite activities is baking cookies and cakes, some never thought to take it to the next level. These days, teens are baking and decorating cakes, cupcakes, and other treats for special occasions. They can practice decorating cakes for their family to hone their skills.

10. Tutor: Is your child skilled in math or spelling or Spanish? More to the point, are they good at explaining concepts to younger kids in an accessible way? Lots of kids do better learning with someone who’s not their parent, and young tutor types probably understand Common Core curriculum methods better anyway.

These are just a few suggestions to get the ideas rolling, but ideas are only limited by your child’s imagination. Consider whether they have the capital to create items for sale, although we would argue that parents shouldn’t subsidize this as it detracts from the money lessons kids need to learn.

What Age Should a Kid get a Job?

According to psychologist Laura Carstensen, director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, it might not be a good idea to start a job in your early 20s. Instead, she argues, we should all be beginning our full-time careers when we’re about 40. Here are some reasons behind that.

1. People wouldn’t have to work their hardest when they’re also raising small children.

In the current system, people get an entry level job right after college or other training, usually when they’re between 20 and 25. Until recently, that was also the age range during which they were most likely to be starting a family. The average age to have a first child in the US has been rising. It’s now around 30 for men and around 28 for women.

There are many reasons for this development, including the growing burden of student debt. But another factor may be the long hours and intense dedication you often need to put in when starting out in a career. It’s tough to make that work when you’re doing 2 am feedings. Even those who don’t start having children till their early 30s should have those children in school by the time they’re 40.

2. There would be less burnout and frustration.

In our current model, “You never get a break. You never get to step out. You never get to refresh. We go at this unsustainable pace, and then pull the plug,” Carstensen told Quartz. That system doesn’t work, she says, “because it fails to recognize all the other demands on our time.”

Or our dreams. In the classic Cary Grant-Katharine Hepburn film Holiday, Grant plays a young man who’s been working hard since he was a child. He’s made a success of himself so far–and now he intends to take a few years off. “I want to save part of my life for myself,” he explains. “There’s a catch to it though, it’s gotta be part of the young part. You know, retire young, work old, come back and work when I know what I’m working for.”

Young people who haven’t take the time to do that, to see the world and try to figure out their place in it, are likely as not to embark on careers that aren’t right for them. That’s one explanation for the frequent phenomenon of people getting law degrees but then choosing not to practice law.

Taking some time to explore the world and figure out what kind of career is right for you increases the chances that you’ll be happy with that career, and want to stick with it.

3. It would accommodate longer lifespans.

Women are living to an average age of 85, and men to an average age of 82. Given those demographics, retiring in your early 60s, or even at the current “full” retirement age of 66 seems both unnecessary and possibly impractical, given how many years our retirement savings will need to last us.

If you’re going to work until you’re 75, which is becoming less uncommon, then starting at 40 will still give you the same 35-year career you would have if you started at 25 and retired at 60. It’s worth noting that, your Social Security retirement benefits are calculated on your 35 highest-earning years.

4. It would eliminate the “square wave.”

Social scientists refer to our current career paths as a square wave. You go from not working at all (or perhaps a part-time job in college or high school) to full-time employment. You do that for 40 years or so, and then when you retire, you stop as abruptly as you began.

In Carstensen’s model, instead of starting out full-time, people in their 20s and 30s could continue their educations for longer, or work part-time or as apprentices, before reaching full-time employment around 40. Then, as they age, they could retreat from the workforce gradually, working part-time or on a consulting basis in their late 60s and 70s, and retiring fully at around 80. 

This would have several benefits for seniors. They wouldn’t have the abrupt drop in self-worth that comes with having a job one day and not having it the next, or the common problem of not knowing what to do with their time. They’d also be less likely to run out of cash if they live into their 80s or 90s, or like my stepfather, into their 100s. Working later in life can lead to greater mental agility as well. 

There are advantages, too, from the employer’s viewpoint. The current wave of Baby Boomer retirements has many worried about the institutional knowledge walking out the door with these departing seniors. Given that concern and the current labor shortage, many employers are inviting retirees to work on a consulting or part-time basis for a few more years.

Why Getting a Job at a Young Age is Good?

Did you have a part-time job growing up? In the past, having a part-time job was a staple of nearly every high school student’s schedule. Recently, however, summer jobs and teen participation in the labor force are on the decline.

The employment rate among teens in the U.S. fell by 19 percent between the years before and during the recession, around 2000 and 2010. According to the BLS, teen labor force participation has been on a downward trend, and that trend is expected to continue well into 2024.

This decline in participation means that there are fewer teens employed in the U.S., but there are also fewer teens who are actively looking for work.

Today’s Students Don’t Have Interest in Part-Time Jobs

What’s causing this lack of interest in part-time jobs for Millennials and Gen Z? According to a new study from Pew Research, there are a few different factors to blame. First, the demands of college admissions offices are scaring many students off from working in retail or flipping burgers over the summer.

Now students are taking summer classes, volunteering to strengthen their resume or even taking unpaid internships, which the BLS doesn’t count as being employed.

There are also some high schools who have shifted to longer school years, meaning there’s less time in a student’s schedule to take on a summer or part-time job. The recession also didn’t help the matter, as more experienced workers often had to take low-skill, entry-level jobs to make ends meet.

This low interest in employment among teens is unfortunate because a part-time job teaches work ethic and soft skills from a young age. Although it might seem unrelated, scooping ice cream or working retail can make you a better doctor, accountant, teacher or benefit any other career path you might choose.

Are Part-Time Jobs Necessary?

The short answer is yes, every teen can benefit from working a job in high school, or as early as they’re legally allowed to have one. Even before that, having assigned chores around the house, babysitting, dog walking and tutoring younger children are all great ways to establish work ethic from a young age.

But it’s not just about teaching kids work ethic. Here are a few other reasons a summer, or year-round job, can help teens set up a foundation for future career success:

• Learn money-management skills, such as saving
• Get an idea for their future career path and decide what they like (or don’t like) to do
• Build self-confidence and develop a sense of responsibility
• Learn basic work skills such as putting together a resume, interviewing and working with different colleagues

On the other hand, working isn’t always a choice for teens. The cost of a college education gets more and more expensive every year, so many teens are forced to pick up jobs in order to help their parents carry the burden. A teen who gets a job early on in high school might be able to save up enough money that they need fewer student loans or parental assistance.

How to Choose the Right Job  

For teens who are interested in working, where can they find jobs? According to Pew Research’s study, restaurants seem to be the way to go.

Their research found that almost 2.1 million of the estimated 6.2 million teens who were employed last July worked in “accommodation and food services,” compared with 1.9 million in July 2000. Retail employment is slipping among teens however, likely due to the massive cultural shift towards online shopping.

The part-time job options for young, inexperienced workers might seem limited, but thanks to the internet and new technology, there are plenty of options out there if you get creative.  Companies like UPS can be a great option, and teach young people valuable customer service skills.

They also offer a college education program, where they can help college students fund their education. Starbucks has similar education programs and great benefits for young workers.

There are also ways tech-savvy teens can use their online skills to get a job. Join an online tutoring service, join a dog-walking app like Rover or start making YouTube videos. If a teen loves art, they can even flex their entrepreneurial muscles and start a shop on Etsy or eBay.

Why do Children need Jobs?

When your teenagers begin a job, they can look forward to learning a few lessons along the way that will help them succeed throughout their lives.

1. Learn How to Listen

Parents often tell me, “My kid just won’t listen to me!” However, this bad habit will start to wither away once your son or daughter starts working for a boss. They’ll understand quickly that respect and attention are essential in order to earn that paycheck at the end of the week.

You can’t mouth off to a superior (well, you can, but you won’t have a job very long). You have to listen to instructions and have the maturity to carry them out. If your teen is not grasping this lesson at home, he will definitely be able to learn it at the workplace.

2. Learn to Handle Finances

What’s that old proverb? Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime. Applied to the area of finances, this time-tested bit of wisdom holds water. We can give teenagers an allowance of money, pay their bills, finance their hobbies, and supply their needs and wants.

But when we do this, we are really robbing them of the chance to earn and handle money on their own. We are not saying you shouldn’t provide anything for your kids. As a parent, it’s your responsibility to care for their basic needs. But it’s possible to take this too far.

Some parents never turn down their teens’ requests for cash and are always buying them bigger and better toys. It’s wiser to encourage your teens to earn money and budget for what they want. A dollar earned is more valuable than a dollar given. When teens realize the effort that goes into making money, they’ll understand the value of being good stewards of what they have.

So every year, slowly step back from financing their lives. One year, let them pay for gifts for Christmas and birthday parties. The next year, have them help pay for school clothes. When they get a license, let your son or daughter pay for their car insurance.

In college, have them pay for books or the interest payments on their school loans. Of course, they’ll need a job to pay for all these things. But that’s good! Give them the opportunity to handle money at an early age, and you’ll be preparing them for a financially healthy life later on.

3. Learn to Work Well

It’s not all about the dollars and cents. Having a job can instill a sense of accomplishment and purpose in a teen’s life. Your child can learn what it means to be devoted to doing quality and valuable work. There’s nothing quite like the feeling that comes from a job well done. So start early, and give your child chores around the house and praise him or her for a good job.

If your teen mows the lawn, comment on how good the yard looks. If your kids are in charge of feeding and walking the animals, let them know that you appreciate their work. Reinforce the idea that working with your hands is worthwhile and meaningful. Work is not something to be avoided, but something to be embraced and done with an eye towards excellence.

4. Learn Their Own Potential

There may be some moms and dads reading this thinking, “Frankly, Mark, I think teenagers shouldn’t have to jump into the working world so soon. I mean, they’re just kids! They don’t have the tools necessary to handle that type of responsibility.“

But that is just not true. Teenagers have more potential then we often give them credit for. Let’s go back a hundred years. What would we find? Seventeen-year-olds running the family farm. Fourteen-year-olds managing large animals. Nineteen year-olds leading armies into battle. Sixteen-year-olds getting married (Of course, this doesn’t mean your high-school daughter should run off and marry her boyfriend).

Were kids inherently different back then? Teenagers today are not all that different from the teenagers of yesterday. The problem is, we expect less of them or don’t give them the opportunities to earn maturity. Give a teenager a project that has substance, or meaning, or adds value, and you’ll find them rising to the challenge and displaying levels of character you might have never seen before! Work can bring out the hidden potential in your child.

5. Learn Valuable Skills

Mom and Dad, let me ask you this “have you replaced your teen’s work with after school activities?” Now, there’s nothing wrong with soccer practice, violin lessons, or being in the chess club. Will every child who shoots hoops after school become a basketball star? Probably not.

But every child will eventually join the workforce. Instead of forcing activities on your child that he or she may not continue later on in life, why not give them a chance to develop the skills they will need to have a career one day?

If your teens’ schedule is too packed for a part-time job, it’s time to evaluate the priorities. Provide the time needed to take on a construction job, or fold clothes at the GAP, cook fries at the drive-thru, or groom neighborhood animals. Let your teens find work. In that way, you’re supplying them with needed skills they will use for the rest of their adult life.

In this culture, work is being viewed as a lifetime punishment with no possibility of parole. And while our teens are over exposed to the issues and subjects of adult life, they are under exposed to needed responsibilities. We have teens that can build complex software from the ground-up, but can’t socially interact with supervisors or people in charge.

A job can change that. And you’re not a bad parent for making your teenager get a job. In fact, you’re giving them a priceless gift. You’re teaching them the value of work.

What Counts as a Young Child?

By the time a child reaches 6 to 8 years of age, gross and fine motor skills have become much more sophisticated and integrated. One of the most impressive changes is related to a child’s coordination. They will now have the ability to finely coordinate independent movements of both the upper and lower extremities into a synchronous motion.

Successfully riding a two-wheel bicycle requires reciprocal leg motion (one side applies pressure to the pedal while the other leg relaxes) coupled with arm movements to maintain a desired direction all while maintaining the balance necessary to avoid falling. Some sports require these upper- and lower-extremity skills to be developed in tandem (swimming, gymnastics, ice skating, or hockey).

Other sports have an emphasis on upper-extremity (baseball, basketball) or lower-extremity (soccer) skills. It is worthwhile for children to experience a number of various sports to allow experimentation in as many avenues as possible. Enjoyment over success should be the focal point.

How can parents ensure the safety of their young children 6-8 years of age?

For the 6- to 8-year-old child, parents have a primary obligation of providing an emotional safety net for an often turbulent period. Reinforcing that the love and respect they have for the child is not dependent upon academic, athletic, or social success is important. Coupled with this unconditional love must be the expressed parental belief of what is expected and what consequences may occur.

Parents have an obligation to provide athletic equipment that is both age appropriate and sized correctly. The concept of “he’ll grow into it” can be a recipe for accidents. Bicycles, bike/ski helmets, skis/snowboards, and baseball bats/gloves should properly fit the child at the time the equipment is purchased. Many sporting good stores have end-of-season exchanges facilitating “trading up” in size or skill level of equipment.

While many children feel they are adept swimmers, drowning remains an unfortunate event in this age range. Whether associated with accidental trauma (head vs. shallow pool bottom) or panic in ocean waves or undertow/riptides, constant adult supervision is mandatory.

Automobile seat belt and booster seat laws vary by state and should be strictly reinforced. Parental seat belt use and avoidance of distractions (cell phones, food, etc.) all underscore that absolute vigilance is necessary when operating a moving vehicle. Pedestrian safety rules (“walk” and “don’t walk” signs) should be reinforced to children.

Passive smoke, firearms in the home, and easy access to matches are other areas in which parents can intervene to further guarantee their children’s safety.

In the end, although there are never any guarantees, all parents are shepherds who must try to guide their children safely to the next stage in life.

How can I help my Child Choose a Career?

Here are several guidelines for helping children find the career that will best suit them.

DO: Support. DON’T: Hover.

Think of yourself as a foundation, lifting your children and supporting them as they find their way to the ideal career. You boost them up, but they are the ones reaching for different possibilities.

By contrast, helicopter parents hover. You’ve heard the tales of parents who accompanied their 20-something offspring on job interviews. Make sure you are behind them in a supporting role, not circling above directing their every move. It’s their career and their happiness at stake, so now, more than ever, they need to take the lead.

DO: Speak the language. DON’T: Speak for them.

Discuss the trials and triumphs of your own job with your children from an early age. Also introduce them to career lingo. They should know about resumes and cover letters, job applications and interviews, salaries and raises, and so on.

Yes, it might be easier to fix their resume yourself than to coach them on how to fix it, but resist the temptation. It’s all a learning experience. I once had a father write me a thank-you note after I took his son on a tour of my workplace. I gently suggested that his son should be the one to write me a note.

DO: Identify strengths. DON’T: Identify careers.

Psychologists call it “strength spotting” and since you know your child well, you can help with this. Remind your offspring what they do well on a micro-level. For example, “organizing your thoughts before you speak.” Note the circumstances under which your child works best, whether it’s alone, in small groups or in large organizations. All of these skills and preferences are clues to possible careers.

To use the same example, if your child is good at “organizing their thoughts before they speak,” you might be tempted to make more macro suggestions, like “you’d be a great lawyer.” But this same skill applies to broadcast journalists, politicians, professional speakers and more, so why box your child in? Identify raw skills and let them make the leap to specific careers.

DO: Tap lists of careers. DON’T: List only careers you know.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook lists 25 career categories, descriptions of hundreds of jobs within those categories, and even average salaries for those jobs. It’s a great brainstorming resource.

We, as parents, are not aware of the entire universe of available jobs, particularly those that didn’t exist when we started our own careers. That’s another reason to refrain from naming specific careers.

DO: Use your network. DON’T: Push your field.

Once your child has named some careers they are interested in, you can leverage your contacts to help. On the quick-and-dirty end of the scale, you can help them find professionals to interview or shadow for a day. At the deep-and-meaningful level, perhaps you can find them a mentor or internship.

But stop there. Pressing your offspring to follow in your footsteps into the same field probably won’t work. If they truly do take after you, they will be much happier figuring that out on their own.

DO: Encourage summer internships. DON’T: Think they have to intern full time.

There is no better way to know for certain that you like — or dislike — a career than to work in that field. Summer internships are a great way to try different professions. For students who can’t afford to work free, some companies offer paid internships.

Read Also: How College Students Can Make Money Online

But don’t get hung up on finding a paid position. Your child could always intern part time and work part time. Twenty or so hours a week is plenty of time to figure out if you’re passionate about a profession. Working a typical summer job, such as waiter or lifeguard, instills valuable career lessons too, such as how to multitask and be responsible.

DO: Push passion. DON’T: Push prestige.

My parents pushed hard for me to find something — anything — I would be passionate about as my career. But they didn’t push me toward a particular field, and I’m grateful for that. We spend 40-plus hours a week at work. We ought to like — or even love — what we do.

At one point, the stereotype was every parent wanted their child to be a doctor or a lawyer. You may covet a particular job for your child. But ask yourself: If they’re important, will that make you happy? Or if they’re happy, is that what’s important?