As much as most teens would love to deny it, getting that first job is a huge step towards adulthood. Let’s face it, many teens aren’t faced with that mortgage payment or any major bills. Granted, there are those teens who are trying to help the family with bills, or those who are more advanced in the path towards adulthood, but the majority of kids don’t fit into either of these categories.
During these teenage years, most of us are trying to find our own identity, but are faced with resistance from our parents. Physically, we are adults, but to our parents, we are still in the diaper. For most of us, the best form of rebellion is to do what they, (the adults) do better than they do. We believe that we can prove that we are ready to be treated like the adults we think we are, and one of the things we see them doing is going to work. We see our parents working, and we perceive that they don’t have to follow the same rules they have for us, and they don’t have someone to answer to about every aspect of their life, (later on in life, you will all understand how vastly different that fantasy is from the reality of everyday life, but that is another story!).
I’ll let the shock of knowing that kids really do want to be like their parents settle in for a minute before I continue–
–Minute’s over. The path towards becoming one of the working class is a one-way road, and that’s something most kids don’t understand for a while. So whether they are motivated by external, (bills to pay, contributing to the household income, etc) or internal, (wanting to buy a car, wanting to get a leg up on savings, etc) factors, kids really need to be sure that they are ready to make this committment.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a kid wanting to remain a kid, for a while, but this isn’t about remaining a kid, this is about kids learning to survive and thrive financially.
Finance For Youth: The Blog 