That is old enough to work? I have a 16 year old daughter who, for the most part, has had a semi-regular babysitting job. It paid her enough so she occasionally could go to a movie or out to lunch. Well, she doesn't have that anymore, and her high school friend who just graduated, wants to do something almost everyday. My daughter quickly is realizing that she doesn't have the money to go out playing all the time. It costs money to go out to lunch and movies, and whatever else they can dream up. The thing is, her high school friend does not have a job (never has), but always seems to have money to do things. I just learned that she is an only child, so I think her parents just give her money whenever she needs it. I will not do that for my daughter.

When I was in high school, most kids got a part-time job shortly after turning 16 yrs old. I know it is a challenge to juggle school and work, but I saw many, many kids do just that. My daughter is in band, which requires so much time (band camp, games, competitions), BUT I think that she is going to have to find a little part-time job to make some money to fund her social life.
So, how often do you give your teenager "play" money?

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

Most 16-year old girls love to work retail at the mall cause they get discounts

Plus they usually get to see friends at the mall while they're working.

Or have her check out waitress jobs at pizzerias, etc. Young girls with personality can make some really good tips

Not sure what you mean by play money I assume extra money they might need for clothes and food and movies so if this is so anytime they need it I would hate for them especially when it comes to food. Peace. Catherine

I had all boys, so my experience may be different since there weren't a lot of expenses for hair, nails, clothes, and the like. They were pretty simple teens. We paid for their cell phones (as long as they answered when I called) and their cars and insurance (as long as they behaved). These required at least B averages, but they all got pretty much As and were well behaved kids, so taking away the extras never became an issue. We would spend a few hundred every year on their clothing. Before they were 14, their money came from a small allowance and Christmas and birthday $ from grandparents. After that, we did not give them money other than for the above. They got jobs at various places or watched neighbor kids for spending and saving money. They always found a way to pay for gas, dates, and the extras kids like. Plus, all had pretty good savings to start college with.

All my kids were active in school sports and other activities and all managed to find a way to earn the extra money they needed for the fun stuff we weren't willing to fund.

Good luck -- I know girls are different than boys when it comes to money needs.

I have no idea what your finances are but if she is too busy to work an actual job...what if she does work for you that you could pay her for. Say wash the car, clean the house, mow the lawn etc. Stuff that you would pay a service to do for you? Just a thought. Or cleaning the house for friends or relatives? I don't think kids should be given a free ride because they need to know it's expensive to live in this world these days and need to know they need a good education so they can have a good job. They cannot freeload. Giving kids(her friend) money to blow on BS isn't teaching them anything.

On of the best things we ever did as parents was to encourage our oldest daughter to get a job at the age of 16. She is 25 now, and works as a surgical tech at a local hospital. We were just discussing this issue a few days ago, and she told her dad and I that she thinks that was a huge turning point in her life. She managed to work part time (never missed a single day of work), had good grades and was captain of the cheerleading squad. Teenagers can find the time to hold down a part time job (if they have no choice). The only time we gave her money was for her daily lunch at school and occasionally for a special trip. I worked as a teenager, and so did my dh.

Hi
I worked a s a teenager and I quickly learned the value of a dollar. The best thing I learned when I wanted to buy something was ask myself, "How many hours do I need to work to buy that?" If you don't want your daughter to be tied down to a job, what about calling a youth employment service (if you have one in your area)? You usually do errands, baby-sit, clean houses/yards, etc... Good luck!

All children that can work should work it teaches them good moral and responsible values for the future. I cannot imagine if I had to support my children and their lifestyles I would be broke everything is sooooooo expensive however if we can help sometimes especially with food we are more then happy and when they pay your back its great althought there are times it depends on the reason we will not take the money back like food or gas for car. What is really sad is that some of my childrens friends neither work or go to school and they never ever have money and always depending on their parents no way no how you must grow up sometime. Peace. Catherine

I honestly don't mean for this to sound snarky, but if she has time to go out and "play" with her friend every day, she has time to get a job.

All of my kids started working at 15. They were also active in school and community activities. We covered their car and insurance as long as their grades were good. We bought some of their clothes, they bought some. Play money and gas was their responsibility.

This is a tough issue, because teens are very busy today with school, sports and extra-curriculars. Not to mention in many areas part time jobs are tough to find. My dd is 18 and just graduated. Was in band, sports, many clubs and also did 6 hrs a week volunteer/internship at our local hospital. She used to have a couple of really good baby-sitting jobs, but one family got a nanny and the other family's kids aged out of the need for a sitter. Last fall, the perfect job came up at a local skating rink through one of her friends. She worked 3 hrs eachFriday and Saturday night, and 3 hours Sunday afternoon. They had a large staff, so there was always someone willing to take her hours if she needed to do something else.
She really didn't want to take the job, wanted to 'enjoy her senior year', but DH and I let her know that we expected her to cover some of her expenses if the opportunity came up, and here it was dropped in her lap. She actually ended up enjoying the job experience.
There is also a bonus here: colleges and scholarships look favorably upon students who are able to maintain employment along with their other responsibilities. DD actually got 2 $1000 each scholarships (actually so far she has 6 scholarships) for which it was a requisite that the applicant worked part-time during high school. So her little job payed off in more ways than one. Have her keep looking, because something may come up.

I would rather have my kids involved in school than work. They have their whole life to work. A summer job would be great but during school, kids need to focus on school IMO. I didn't have a real "job" until after I was out of school and I know the value of a dollar. My parents gave me probably around $20 a week during summer time to use going out with friends. I plan on doing about the same (except it will be more than $20...probably $30 given how much stuff costs now). I spend a lot of time entertaining friends/boyfriends at home (playing games, watching movies, hanging out) to cut costs down. I hope my kids will want to do the same

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I think it depends on the teenager. My two older kids that are now adults I did expect to have jobs and pay for things when they were teenagers, because all they did was go to school, they were involved with some school clubs, but no sports. They had time to get part time jobs and study and keep up their grades.

Now, my youngest, 14, plays sports, she plays fastpitch softball for school, slow pitch softball for school, basketball for school and she is a cheer leader, she also plays on a fastpitch softball travel team which is not related to school, she is a fastpitch pitcher, so she also takes private pitching lessons. She also maintains an A/B grade average and belongs to one school club and attends church and church youth activities. So she does not have alot of free time even for a babysitting job, and could not have a regular job.

During school there is some type of practice every day, when there is not practice there is a game, when there is not a team practice or game there is individual pitching practice or weight lifting. The weekends are playing times for tournaments for the softball travel team, Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, we travel to wherever they are playing. School softball practice is starting again this week, they have been out of school for one month, now it's time to start getting ready for the fall, they start their school practices this Thursday for fall softball. DD loves it and we as parents love it, we love watching her and her teamates play, love watching her pitch, we love watching her play basketball and love watching her cheer.

She really doesn't ask for a whole lot and we pretty much give her what she asks for. She's a great kid, never gets into any trouble, gets good grades, helps around the house. She does have the opportunity to earn money by doing "extra" cleaning/chores around the house in addition to the normal stuff she has to do. I think she realizes the value of a $$ because of what it costs to play sports, she sees how much is costs for softball equipment/cheer outfits/sweats, to travel to play, pitching lessons, what it costs to get into games as parents, meals away from home, etc.

She doesn't get an allowance, if she needs money to go somewhere then she asks and we evaluate on a case by case basis, depending on finances will depend on whether she gets it or not. Like last weekend she went to Frontier City, that was $40, it's like Six Flags, but a smaller scale, so she won't be going anywhere for a couple of weeks because that cost alot. This weekend she is playing in a softball tournament all weekend anyway.

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