Opportunities for 16 year olds+ - Food for Thought

Recently we’ve been trying to source part-time, seasonal and full-time work for 16-year-olds plus. I’m a great believer in letting young people out into the real World as soon as they are ready, it expands life experiences, allows them to earn their own money, builds self-reliance & confidence and allows them to meet other good role models at work like Managers and more mature workmates. We also have to remember that not every child wants to take the “Academic Route”. So preparing them for work provides alternatives to help them develop just as much or indeed to excel beyond their peers, if they choose to leave school earlier. And remember just because you didn’t get the opportunity to go to College doesn’t mean that your child will want to go, now that you're making it possible. Is your child prepared to work? This brings me to “mollycoddling”. As parents it’s important to know the difference early on regarding being protective and being overly protective. Parents, who smother their kids with too much mollycoddling, actually do them more harm than good. Your kids will remain dependent on you and will be incapable of making decisions or fending for themselves and this will hurt when it comes to employment! Recently a Manager of a very large Restaurant chain told me that she is disturbed by the amount of parents who are calling into stores with their 17/18 year old's in town asking for jobs! Yes Mammy is asking the Manager if they have any jobs for “Little Jimmy”? She said this is a definite No, No! There’s not a chance that they will take on this young person. Surely if they cannot speak for themselves how are they going to interact with customers under pressure? So if your child said “Mam, I don’t want you to come with me! They were absolutely right!!” So listen up parents, you’re not helping your child by doing this. Confidence building needs to start early on! You need to teach your children life skills and responsibility through age appropriate tasks under supervision to make children learn new things and also help them gain independence, manners and confidence. It is all a part of growing up. Tasks like going to the shops, sending your child up to the waitress to ask for a fork!, asking for the bill, letting your child pay for their own purchases, answering the phone, taking messages, chores about the house, setting their own alarm for school, these are all little things that will help grow their confidence. You’ll be surprised how capable your child can be. If they make a mistake they will learn from it. Letting them choose their own clothes, yes even on a cold day. If they forget a hat and scarf they will be cold, but they will remember it the next time. This is how they master the art of right decision making. They learn the consequences of wrong decisions and how to weigh up options before committing. So hopefully your child will be able to walk up to a Manager and leave in their own CV & get the Job!! There are many sites giving information about Life Skill tasks for children you'll find them if you google. For Jobs try www.jobalert.ie