I grew up in the country. I mean the real country. It has its advantages, but it's absolutely true that it's a negative in terms of teens and jobs. I was fortunate to get a small part-time job at my high school. My brothers drove 20 miles to work at a fast food place.
Farm jobs: It's all well and good to say that teens should work on the farms, but these jobs are few and far between -- and, realistically, they go to the children of farmers and/or their friends and relatives. For example, I rent out my farm land. The farmer who tends my land (and the land of X number of other people) employs his son as his "helper" and his wife as bookkeeper. He doesn't need (and probably can't afford) more help. Yes, farmers DO hire extra help occasionally -- such as hay season -- but that's only a few days of work. As for working with animals, most farmers keep only as many animals as they can reasonably care for (really, beef cattle, for example, don't require loads of work on a regular basis), and -- again -- if the farmer does need help, he's probably going to hire his nephew rather than a stranger. Additionally, these jobs tend to go to guys, leaving the ladies jobless.
Babysitting: I always wanted to babysit, but I never found a family who needed a regular sitter. My own girls were the same way. We all "sat" on the occasional Friday or Saturday night, but it was never a regular thing. My daughter's roommate, however, had a great after-school gig that lasted two years while she was in high school. Great deal for her -- but not something you can count on finding.
If I were suddenly a teen again in that situation, I could do better. Today I'd use care.com to search for babysitting gigs, and I'd also consider offering help to the elderly who might need just a couple hours of assistance in cleaning and cooking each week. I'd consider putting up signs by the library, etc. My parents were always willing to drive us to/from jobs, even late at night, but they weren't particularly supportive in terms of helping us FIND jobs. Some adult guidance would've been useful to me at that point in my life.
I suppose that's the real moral here: If you choose to live in the country, be prepared to "be there" for your teen when he or she is ready for a job. Kids need guidance through those first jobs, and country kids DO have fewer opportunities than their city counterparts.
Living in the country definitely has its perks -- we still own land, and when we retire, we're heading back that way as quick as we can rent a U-Haul truck -- but for a teenager, the job scene is a negative.
Biking 5 to 7 miles to school or work is perfectly reasonable for a kid in middle school.
Middle school? No. High school, maybe. Biking on country roads where I grew up wouldn't have been a particularly safe choice. Narrow roads; no shoulders; and with distances so far between ... well, everything, people tend to drive fast. Keep in mind, too, that typical teenaged jobs -- say, at the grocery store or the CVS -- tend to keep the kids working 'til 9:00, then they have to spend perhaps 30 minutes "closing". That'd put them on the roads after dark.
Realistically, a country teen either needs a vehicle or a family member who's willing to drive him.
Another issue with rural areas is lack of local colleges. The three oldest have all lived in the dorms in college, since most "local" colleges are >25 miles away (most colleges use this as mandatory live on campus distance). Room and board are running $12k or more this year, and many have mandatory live on campus freshman year rules to boot. Can't save money living at home.
Yes, living in a rural place does cut down on your options for higher education. Most schools DO allow freshmen to live off-campus with their parents; however, it often requires a waiver. Regardless, if your college student lives at home and commutes 25 miles, he or she will probably need a reliable car, and that commute will cut into time for studying /working. It's something each family must consider in the balance when choosing a school.
I think this is a great point. The jobs that are easy to get or at the mall or etc. may not be the best jobs for them to have. A lot of those jobs just teach people to take orders and not think.
I'm not saying kids should never take those jobs, you can still learn a lot from them. But being out in a rural area or where jobs are scarce could teach them about work that's more than just punching a time clock or about making their own opportunities.
Disagree. I think those jobs are fine for teens. They're learning to deal with people in a different way, and while scooping up ice cream or selling shoes may not be as valuable as an internship, etc. in terms of future employability, the shoe-selling job is a whole lot easier to get.
And a big plus: I've known plenty of teens who've had "a-ha moments" while working such jobs. My own daughter had one recently. She got a job waiting tables in a retirement home, and she's learned a whole lot that has nothing to do with food. For example, she complained heartily about her mean boss, and I said optimistic, encouraging things ... 'til the afternoon I went with my daughter to pick up her paycheck, and I saw the boss in action. Looking at her with adult eyes, a whole lot of things fell into place for me: The boss is a 30-something woman with no education and few job prospects, and she
enjoys being mean to the teenaged honors students whom she knows will not be working in food service all their lives. I understood why she's always really nice to the idiot girl (yeah, she's a student at my high school, she is genuinely an idiot); she knows that girl will follow in her footsteps and will have it rough. Oh, and there's some racial stuff going on too. Yes, while I stood around for that half hour, everything my daughter had been telling me fell into place. On the way home, I pointed out to her WHY this boss is so nasty to her, and my daughter learned a life lesson about work. At 17, she didn't have the life experience to process it all. After that, she was better able to deal with this boss. Not all lessons are positive. Anyway, having a crappy job can be good for a kid.