Originally Posted by
mulveyr
And yet I hear people complaining when they spend a couple of hours inside playing on the computer; "They should get summer jobs!"
Yep, right. They could deliver papers. Oh, wait, nobody hires kids for that anymore. Heck, newspapers barely exist, for that matter.
They could mow lawns and weed gardens! Except for the fact that everyone has lawn care services or does it themselves--and those who don't fall into that category won't hire kids because they're "afraid they might hurt themselves."
They could work on one of the local farms: Nope, same problem as above.
"I worked as a stockboy at the grocery store when I was 14!" So did I. Nobody hires kids at stores until they're at *least* 16 now.
etc, etc, etc.
Their friends are in the same position; doing great in school ( and studying subjects in middle school that we didn't get to until we were at least Juniors in high school ), participating in any number of activities that aren't immediately visible to anyone who doesn't know them, and they'd love to get jobs, but nobody will hire them because the adults are afraid.
Labor laws have made it nearly impossible for kids under 16 to work these days. However, there's nothing stopping the kid from working on a farm or mowing lawns, it may take some parental guidance however. My goddaughter's only 10, and she works at a local fruit farm / horse stables on weekends during the school year and over summer vacation. She was looking for something to do, I knew the owner and accepted all responsibility in case she got hurt or didn't show up when she said she would, she started working for practically nothing until she proved she was a valuable asset (same as in the real world IMO).