Teens and Summer Jobs

I see a lot of teens for a variety of issues in my practice (anxiety, social anxiety, poor body image, low mood, bullying etc).

Today's teens are presenting with different issues than ten years ago in my experience.

In a world of instant communication and apparent 'connectedness', teens are more disconnected from their peers and from society than ever before.

Social anxiety has increased and this can fuel low mood if it is persistent over time.

Most teens (girls in particular) spend an inordinate amount of time in their bedrooms on their phones.

If you are over 40 yourself as a parent, you will likely remember that you spent most of your time as a teen out with friends- whether it was walking around the town or village or over at friends' houses.

We engaged face to face with our friends and we also engaged in chats with our grandparents and other relatives. In this week's blog post, I want to explain why I believe that part time work for teenagers is important for their wellbeing and long term mental health.

When a teen gets a summer job or casual work at weekends, preferably in a role where they have to engage socially with others, suddenly they need to improve their communication skills.

They may need to learn to engage in chit chat for the first time ever with people of different ages and from different backgrounds, e.g talking about the weather!

Face to face conversation means we pick up a person's body language, their energy and the overall feel of a person. Screens do not provide the same opportunity for learning communication and social skills.

Disliking elements of a summer job builds resilience and tolerance to feeling discontent and sometimes uncomfortable. We have all had jobs where we didn't like the boss or a certain customer.

If teens can learn to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable, they learn that it's OK to not always feel happy.

If your teen struggles with some social anxiety, part-time work can provide some regular practice at talking to people and build their confidence.

In contrast, bowing out of social situations and avoiding people will only fuel the social anxiety further. The more practice they get with talking to people, the better!

Having their own earnings allows a teen to manage a budget and put a value on money. Suddenly they see how long it takes to earn the money for those Nike runners! Working can encourage their sense of appreciation of you as a parent.

Try to help your teen to find a job where they need to talk to lots of people daily so that will boost their confidence and social skills. Allow your child to treat themselves to something they's always wanted with their first pay check. There will be plenty of time for learning about the value of money and it's better to go with a carrot rather than a stick approach to encourage your teen to keep up the work.