Teenager reluctant to get a job

clumsymoo

I'm in similar situation with my Daughter but she has been trying and there is nothing out there.
September is the time though for hiring for xmas staff and altho only temp will be better than nothing. Who knows once she gets her foot in the door......:j

castleton

This is only my second post, but I felt had to reply. My son worked for his first two years at Uni but not for the last year. He got a 1st Class Honners Degree. Working and earning his own money made him appreciate thing more.

LittleTinker

Beencounting wrote: »

Hi all

I'm usually a lurker on the board, but hope someone has some ideas that can help with this problem!

My eldest DD, 18, will be starting uni in September. She'll be staying home with us and commuting (her choice). OH and I would like her to get a part time job to help with the costs and especially the cost of her expected social life. However, she's quite reluctant.

OH and I have tried to explain the situation re our finances and have told her that she will only have a very small allowance which will basically just cover her food during the day at uni.

I'm quite sad that she's not making much effort to find a job as I feel that she will miss out on so much, and of course, being a mum I feel guilty about not being able to provide more (yes, I know that's my problem!)

Has anyone else experienced this?

Does anyone have any ideas on how to motivate my teen to find herself a job?

Thanks

Beencounting

She wont help herself by getting a part time job because you keep supplying her with her money.

Stop the money pot and she will HAVE to work.

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind.

Oldernotwiser

LisaLou1982 wrote: »

Whilst it is her parents responsibilty to pay for her food and board whilst they are receiving state benefits for her, £20 a week CB and a few quid tax credits isnt going to get her very far. !

You underestimate how much child tax credit can be. On the Benefits Board at this time of year there are regular posts from parents whose children are starting university who wonder how they're going to manage when the child leaves home and no longer receives it.

In addition I am not so old as to have forgotten how students live but I never said that they should be studying all the time. What I did say is that they should be active in other aspects of student life other than study and socialising.

Employers look for well rounded individuals who have made the best of their time at university by being active in a variety of aspects of student life, rather spending their time working to fund their shopping/booze habit.

ciderwithrosie_2

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You underestimate how much child tax credit can be.

Nope, it's about £40 a month

Wilma33

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

Nope, it's about £40 a month

Huh, are you thinking of Child Benefit? Although even that starts at £20.30 a week.

Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit can run into many hundreds of pounds a month.

ciderwithrosie_2

Wilma33 wrote: »

Huh, are you thinking of Child Benefit? Although even that starts at £20.30 a week.

Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit can run into many hundreds of pounds a month.

Nope, I'm not confusing it with Child benefit. The previous poster only mentioned Child Tax Credit not WFTC. As I'm only eligible for the child tax credit element, not WFTC, which replaced the old tax allowance for having children, the most I've ever got is £42 a month for 3 children, now I only have one that qualifies it's dropped to £38. I've just been on entitledto.com and it's correct. I think you'd have to work a 40 hour week for peanuts and have about 10 kids to earn 'many hundreds of pounds a month in tax credits' However I will miss my Child Benefit when that ends completely, it dropped by over half last year when the two oldest passed 19/started working full-time

regards CWR

Wilma33

Child Tax Credit amounts can be found here:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/leaflets/wtc2.pdf

Someone with three children and earning £15,000 could get £7,455 in Child Tax Credit.

Jacks_xxx

A friend of mine just finished a nursing degree which was quite time intensive.

She had a part time job as well - and she's thankful for that. She said it taught her good time management skills.

I should also mention that she is a single parent with three children under 14, and so she also has all the housework shopping and cooking etc to do as well.

If she can do all that and still be smiling then any student can manage a little part time job.

There's 168 hours in a week.

Assuming we get a solid 8 hours a night we spend 56 hours asleep,

Then what? 50 hours at college?

And another 25 hours a week in independent study

that still leaves 37 hours for socialising, watching tv, loafing about

- and a part time job!

And that's just for 8 months of the year!

For 4 months or so they have absolutely no commitments at all! :eek:

Rather than having a detrimental effect I think getting a job teaches them so much that they're missing out by not having one.

The students I know who are at Oxford and Cambridge where part time jobs are frowned upon evidently all work their socks off in the 4 or 5 months a year they are on holiday from college to build up funds to get them through the next term.

My son used to be the laziest tyke ever. He wasn't very social and didn't want to work in a customer facing job - but he got a job washing up in a restaurant from age 16 while he was at college. Through it he made new friends, learned how to get along with all kinds of people and gained his independence. That little washing up job was so good for him. It really helped him grow up.

Having a part time job is a rite of passage and an important developmental stage. Don't let your child miss out if you can help it.

Imp

If the Original Poster's daughter is doing art, then that is one subject which could become all consuming. If that does happen, she probably won't be spending more than £20 a week after accomodation and travel to the studio, as she won't have the time to spend it, let alone earn it.