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Job and School
Can Your Teen Handle Both? By Deborah Boehle
Seventeen-year-old Kevin Wren spends about 50 weekends each year selling funnel cakes at carnivals with his grandparents. While the Morgan, Texas, teen enjoys the money he makes, he knows his friends think he's crazy for having such a limited social life.
"They think I'm nuts, because I don't have any free time," he says. "Oh well, I gotta make the money for my truck and everything else I spend it on." Everything else includes his own computer, television, telephone, cable TV, Internet connection and bicycle, as well as the insurance, maintenance and gasoline for his truck. And like many teenage boys, he also wants money to spend on his girlfriend.
In spite of his heavy workload, he received only one B on his latest report card; the remainder were A's. He is even taking a college English class and plans to go to college next year to study computers.
Wegman, who also spearheaded the committee that produced "Protecting Youth at Work: Health, Safety, and Development of Working Children and Adolescents in the United States" in 1998, said it is a good idea for most teens to have jobs.
"I think they learn aspects of responsibility, punctuality, dealing with people, money management and some independence," he says.
But as usual, too much of a good thing can have negative consequences. Wegman suggests teens not work more than 20 hours per week. Some should work even less, depending on their grades at school and how many extracurricular commitments they have.