Work or play the summer away

The kids in my neighborhood are having a fine summer going to camps, the pool and just hanging out. I see them on their bikes or in cars buzzing around and that’s just fine...or is it?

What happened to getting a summer job? My dad owned a grocery store so the job thing didn’t end at summer, my brother and I worked all year long after school and on weekends. I also babysat a ton. At fifty-cents an hour I thought I was rich!

My kids all had jobs too. With four kids they had to help with getting their own spending money and besides...in my humble opinion...I think it was really good for them. Even the bad jobs they got like yard work for the skinflint down the street taught my son he did not what to do this for the rest of his life which meant get a good education!

My kids had all kinds of jobs. My one daughter worked at King’s Island, an amusement park here in Cincy. She worked the merry-go-round with an assortment of amazing hand painted horses.
The tunes used to drive her nuts but again working a job that is not terrific teaches a kid to get an education or do this for the rest of your life.

My son got a great computer job in high school that paid really well. He’s one of those computer geeks that has always gotten it and works for P &G now in computers. This first real job taught him what having real money felt like and the respect that went with it. It was great incentive and a look at the real world of making money. 

My other daughter babysat half the neighborhood in the summer, another worked in a t-shirt store and I had the the good luck to work at a camp in Maine as a tennis teacher. That was a blast.

So what about you? Did you have a summer job? Did your kids? Do you think it’s a good idea?