How much did your children work during school?

[Soror]

For those that have had their children work while in school how many hours did your child work? My son seems to think he can work more than we think he can handle.

*I know that some don't have their children work at all so obviously your answer would be 0, I'm looking for those that do allow some work to answer.

[hippiemamato3]

I know kids who work a LOT - almost full time - their senior year. My son worked just Sundays during school, and only after he had his license. 

 

[catz]

Do you mean high school age kids?  

My kids aren't working right now, but I'd allow 10-12 hours of paid or volunteer work a week.  And I certainly wouldn't jump from not working at all to working more than that.  If 10-12 hours was easy for a kid for a few months and I thought that was a decent use of time for that particular kid I might consider more.  

ETA - I think there is a difference between a kid spending time on something that might be a future vocation and a kid who is not college bound and a kid who is college bound and another kid who just wants a bunch of money to buy video games and another kid saving for college and use of time  during the high school years.   I think this can be a balancing act depending on future goals, kid temperament, and your values as a family.  I can see how it might be perfect for some older teens to be working close to full time in certain circumstances.   Another kid might be better off spending more time with the books or extracurriculars.

Edited August 24, 2020 by FuzzyCatz

[J-rap]

My kids all worked in high school, but generally only between 8 and 12 hours/week.  When they were in a seasonal sport or extra-curricular activity that required daily practice, they'd generally take a break from work during those times.  (They had an understanding boss who let them do that.)  

They worked more during the summer months -- usually not full-time, but they liked getting in a lot of hours when they could.

[saraha]

My senior is currently working 24 hours a week. She would like to work more, but she has two dual enrollment classes fall semester and three spring semester, and I am just not confident she can keep up. I don't really like the 24 hours but people are rushing to get their vacations in that they didn't take earlier in the summer. Hopefully before school is in full swing her hours will go down. My 19yod works at the same store in the deli department and they have her scheduled for 28 hours this week! She is a full time college student now and knows this is too much, but same thing, there are people trying to get their vacations in that didn't go earlier in the summer. Their department is also understaffed so there is a lot of pressure on her to work more hours than she wants. We'll have to see how that shakes out. Ideally, I would be ok with each of them working 20 hours a week as neither has any other commitments outside of school.

[QueenCat]

Mine just did pet sitting in high school (which turned into pet/house sitting for professors in college). They were too busy to work a more regular paid jobs. One was knee-deep in drama and the other in Scouts and a few other things. 

[teachermom2834]

My second ds worked sometimes as much as 30 hours per week in high school. It was okay for him because he was not in any extracurriculars at all (much to my annoyance) and he just wasn't one who was going to be productive in his own down time. He was doing dual enrollment and it just came really easy to him. So it totally made sense for him to work that much while taking three college classes. It made sense for him and he saved for college, paid for repairs when he had a car mishap, etc.

My third ds is working about 12-15 hours a week. It is plenty. So I really would say that is as much as a kid that is appropriately challenged by school and has some other activities and interests. 

[fairfarmhand]

10-15 hours; I dont like my kids working more than that. They also like to do extracurricular stuff like music, drama, etc. More than 10-15 hours along with school stuff means that they are a. burning the candle at both ends, b. not taking time for essential things like church, friendship, and fun. I want them to learn balance even as teens. 

 

BTW. We live about 20-30 minutes from their extracurricular activities, friends, work places. This means that every thing takes at least an hour longer due to driving. If we lived 5 minutes from work and 5 minutes from everything else, it might change my opinion.

Edited August 24, 2020 by fairfarmhand

[Junie]

My two oldest worked during their last two years of high school.  I let them work as many hours as they were given, typically 20 hours a week, although it was more during the holidays for dd18 who worked retail.  I eased off on the school work on weeks that she worked more than 20 hours and then she caught up later.  (Later, in her case, being the covid shutdown.)  I was glad that I allowed her to work the hours while she had them.

[RootAnn]

Eldest volunteered two or more hours a week. Dd#2 works 3-5 hours and is the president of a non-profit that takes 2-20 hours/wk (totally depends on the week) of her time. If she was pressed for time, I'd restrict her but she seems to make time for her hobbies. 

[EKS]

Both of my sons worked during their senior year of high school.  They both worked 20 hours per week with very different outcomes.  The older one was going to the CC full time and had no trouble with it.  The younger one was going to the public high school (essentially) full time, and it was too much.  He was about to reduce his hours but then covid came along, and he was laid off.

 

[Bambam]

Assuming you are talking about high school and not college:
One child worked 15-18 hrs/week. School was 2 DC classes + other subjects at home (full load). Volunteer activities probably averaged 2-3 hours/week. 
Other child was super busy with volunteer stuff + outside activities (8-12 hours/week volunteer, outside activities 2-3 hours/week) + 2 DC classes + other subjects at home (full load).

You never know until you try. Is it possible he can start working the number of hours he wants, and then agrees to cut back if it is negatively impacting grades or other stuff (getting things done at home + getting along with everyone is worthy)

 

[athena1277]

Dd17 started working a job in retail in June.  She’s averaging 20-25 hours a week.  We have very firmly told her that if her grades start to fall, she’s quitting the job.  Since starting school at the beginning of a July, she has so far kept up, although she sometimes has to finish on Saturday.  She has an AP online class that started today, so we will see how she does with that addition to her schedule.  At the moment she is also very motivated to get her schoolwork done because our cover school has graduation in early May, so she wants to be done by then.  

[Scarlett]

5 hours ago, soror said:

For those that have had their children work while in school how many hours did your child work? My son seems to think he can work more than we think he can handle.

*I know that some don't have their children work at all so obviously your answer would be 0, I'm looking for those that do allow some work to answer.

When ds20 was 16 he started working about 2 hours a day. 5 days a week.  Full time on breaks.

[EmilyGF]

This is the 90s. but I took a schedule of classes that was exceptionally strong, even for today, so I think it is relevant.

I worked 8-12 hours per week. I worked 7 hours every Saturday and a few hours babysitting many Friday or Saturday nights. I also did sports (cross country) and extracurriculars (especially choir and mock trial). One September I didn't get any hours, so I trained with the cross-country team every Saturday during the optional trainings. I got so much better that month! So, I think what I did definitely hurt my sports performance, but was good for me as a whole person in the long run.

Now, my kids work about 3-8 hours per week. DS15 teaches piano for 3 hours per week. DD13 writes and does technical things for a website 4-8 hours per week (depending on how much money she needs.

Emily

[Wheres Toto]

My oldest worked her junior and senior years of high school at her dance studio.  She worked about 15 hours a week, and danced for another 10-15 hours a week.   

Once she was in college, she took off her freshman year then started working retail about 25 hours a week her sophomore year.  

It was actually very helpful for her to figure out in high school how to juggle all the commitments for school, work, dance, and cheerleading.   Those skills served her well when she went to college.  

[mom2scouts]

My senior only works a few hours a week during school and only at extremely flexible jobs. He mows lawns/shovels snow and goes out to pick up loads of scrap metal and takes them to the scrap yard. It averages about 4 hours a week. Because he has quite a few extracurricular interests that use up much of his time and he works slowly, I wouldn't encourage him to work many hours at a regular job.

[Junie]

6 minutes ago, OKBud said:

When I was a teenager there were legal limits on how many hours a child could work. Have they done away with that? 

In my state, my kids were considered high school dropouts because they weren't enrolled in a school.  They could work at any time of the day for any amount of hours.

[Meriwether]

Dd17 worked/volunteered about 15 hours per week. It was a lot, but mostly because it was small chunks do lots of driving time. All 3 of her jobs have been affected by Covid. She'll work about 10 hours this week. Hopefully that will turn into something closer to 15 soon.

Ds16 just recently started working. He is thrilled. He has wanted a job forever. But with Dd working, I asked him to wait until we had a 3rd vehicle. Then Covid delayed us from looking. He is scheduled for 23 hours this week (but three of the hours will be partials). We'll see how he does. He is really excited to be earning money, but he is also my slowest worker in school. He is committed to making it work, so I will do what I can to help him.

[Carrie12345]

Last year, my high schoolers worked nearly full time in the fall and late spring, but that was balanced with not working at all for more than 6 months.  It’ll be about the same for my senior this year. She’s talking about wanting to work a different job (Fewer hours) once the season winds down, but I’m not sold on that at the moment.

We did have to do some careful planning before they turned sixteen because they also volunteer, and those hours are supposed to be included in child labor laws.

[ktgrok]

My oldest really didn't, but he had a lot of issues in highschool that precluded all that. 

But I did work in highschool. I worked 12 hours a week, I think.  I worked two weekday afternoons, and Saturday mornings. That seemed reasonable. I maintained that amount of work in college as well. 

[freesia]

Around 10 seems to work here.