Now that states are catching up with companies having to pay interns (and with all the pressure that kids that have to find one as companies cut more of them from their payroll)…my question is, is it better for your kid to go and work at the summer camp, wait tables, be a lifeguard at the pool, mow grass and gain life skills, or should they be a coffee runner for 6 weeks?
I worked in a kitchen when I was growing up, 80-90 hours a week, at Camp Sussex. There’s a lot of opportunities like this. Is that work nothing?
For some of the people reading this, didn’t a lot of you gain some of your best skills from jobs like this even if that wasn’t ultimately your career?
I question how much kids are learning these days from a few weeks dabbling with a few projects that have relatively minimal impact in an office setting?
All of these jobs have certain life skills about serving people, having responsibility. Lifeguarding- there’s a lot of training to that. There are other people’s lives in your hand.
Where should the emphasis be? Internships or life experiences? Shouldn’t it just be some combination of it all instead of the pressure of having to work in some office?
If your kid works hard, they are going to find a job, regardless of what they did in the summers in their teenage years and early twenties.
Nobody looks at their baby and says, “Kid’s not a walker,” when they’re just crawling.
All of these experiences have to be respected because they will all lead to something.
