You're Hired!

You're hired! Donald Trump says that to his apprentice but your teens may not be hearing those words or seeing any signs that say "Help Wanted" this year. In the current economy, teens in my area are seeing fewer and fewer opportunities for summer jobs. Some of those jobs usually taken by teens are hiring more adults (who have lost their jobs) and some businesses are simply not filling positions.

How can your teen learn a few life lessons and make some money without having a summer job? That will require some creativity. Here are some of my ideas. Hopefully they can serve as a springboard to your own creative solutions.

The Punch Pass-I'm a huge advocate of teen entrepreneurship and like to support those youth who start their own businesses. This summer in order to save a few bucks, most of us have resorted to mowing our own lawns, washing our own windows and staying home more often. However, a teen interested in starting their own lawn mowing, window washing or babysitting business could hand out punch passes, not only to advertise their business, but also to give an additional incentive. Would you be more interested in having the neighbor boy mow your lawn if every 5th mow was free?

The Chore File-Let's face it. If they don't get a job, you will be paying for everything from their entertainment to their school extracurricular camps, so hire them yourself. A good friend earned extra money from her parents by selecting an extra chore from a file box. Each card listed the chore and the money to be earned. Payment was dependent upon the satisfactory completion of the chore--inspected, of course, by mom and dad.

Another idea is to give them most of the responsibility for a family project and pay them to do it. Some suggestions are the laundry, including the washing, drying, and ironing; cooking meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner; the planting, weeding, watering and harvesting of the garden; deep cleaning such as washing walls, shampooing carpets, and cleaning light fixtures.

If you work and they watch the younger children, pay them to do so. Expecting a teen to babysit younger siblings and not pay them for it is selfish and fosters ill feelings in the teen. Occasional babysitting is a part of being a family member, but everyday tending is a different matter. That responsibility and work deserves a paycheck.

Enlist Support from Grandparents-Your parents may have the means to pay grandchildren for good help. I believe that grandkids should help their grandparents often without expecting any money, but I always appreciated the opportunity to help my grandparents with a project and earn some extra money.

Volunteer-This option doesn't include any money for your teen at the present time, but may earn huge dividends in other ways. Most college scholarships are awarded to students who excel in one of three ways: academics, leadership or service.

Some students have opportunities to travel to faraway places and build schools or wells and that is impressive. But equally as impressive are those teens who give sustained, meaningful service in their communities. What do I mean by sustained? Service that goes beyond the one-night young men or young women service project. Service that continues for weeks, months and even years that may have begun as a simple one night project but became more than that.

What does your teen enjoy doing? What are they good at? What careers are they considering? Answering those questions can be a starting point for finding service opportunities that would be meaningful for your student and help their desire to serve last longer than one night.

Go to Summer School-Many school districts offer courses for credit during the summer months. Summer school is fabulous way to take some required courses that would allow a teen to take additional electives during the school year. My niece and nephew have both done this by attending classes at their local school and taking online classes from the Utah Electronic High School. Applied Technology Colleges also allow high school students to take courses for credit.

Work is a blessing and a part of the plan of salvation. In order to teach the plan to your teen this summer, you may have to hire (and maybe fire) them. Best wishes for a great summer. Only 82 more days until school starts again!