When I was growing up, it was a family rule that when you turned 16, you got a summer job.
When my three older siblings and I were initiated into the “real world” of working, we left the house as teenagers and returned feeling like adults after just a few shifts. Those first summer jobs were a rite of passage to a different understanding of life; we left the carefree days of youth behind while learning the efforts required to earn money.
My daughter turned 16 before the start of this past summer, so according to family tradition, she got a job as a hostess and busser at a busy restaurant. She walked into that interview a nervous girl, and a mere three months after working there is now a confident and assertive young woman.
Among many other life lessons, her summer job became a crash course in finance — a lesson she desperately needed as a modern-day teen.
I used to pay for her things
It takes mere seconds on social media for my daughter to see the latest makeup or skincare items, the “it” water bottle, or the coveted footwear or apparel that everyone “must have.” Peers also constantly post photos of their new car or their luxury handbag, turning the teen years into an endless scroll of the haves or the have-nots.
Before my daughter got a job, I was tired of being “the bank of mom,” so I opened a bank account in her name so she could learn to manage her own money. Instead, I found myself constantly hitting the “transfer” button on my banking app to move money from my account to my daughter’s.
Online banking and the inability to watch tangible cash literally disappear as you spend it completely skews a kid’s perception of money. All they have to do is swipe or tap a card to a payment machine, and just like magic, their purchase is taken care of. While my daughter has always been very appreciative of whatever I buy for her, there was a disconnect in her understanding of how much things cost.
She learned the value of money after she started working
Once my daughter got a job, she learned firsthand the hard work that goes into earning every dollar herself. The experience completely transformed her comprehension of money and spending. Now that she works for an hourly rate, she does the math in her head on what purchases would cost her in time working. When she’s considering buying a cute shirt at the mall she’ll say, “This will cost me more than four hours of work! That’s so not worth it!”
She appreciates the purchases she makes herself so much more because she knows the literal sweat that goes into affording them: lugging the trash to the dumpster in the dark at the end of her shift, cleaning out the bathroom stalls, clearing and wiping every table in the restaurant on a busy Saturday night, and getting yelled at by patrons when their booth isn’t ready on time.
Now, when she deposits her paycheck into her own bank account, she feels a great sense of pride and appreciation for the money she is able to save. She is by far the youngest employee at her job, and she has witnessed the plight of her coworkers and their need to make a living: single moms struggling to make rent, college students trying to afford school, and dads supporting their families by working double shifts daily.
Not only has working a summer job made my daughter more frugal and discerning with her finances, but it has also made her more empathetic and understanding — and these are the types of life lessons money can’t buy.
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