Another reason we went seasonal, the 19 yo son, 16 yo daughter and 13 yo son get made if we do not go camping. If we stay home it is not fun. The 19 yo works some weekends but then can drive to camp if he wishes, last year he was lucky enough not to work weekends. The 16 yo works from home for her aunt so she makes her own hours.
The fact that they still all love camping makes it easy on us.
Cookie Mom, you said it all. Exactly the way we approach it. Our 15 yo DD and 18 yo DD still like to camp, but they do work. They're also very active in the church youth group. Most of our camping trips are within an hour's drive so that they can do those things and still camp. I know gas is costly, but we won't have these years with them for long. To me it's worth the $30 for them to drive home to work/church and still be able to spend time together at the campsite. We don't camp every weekend, though.
Our 19 yo DS is away at college. He stayed through the summer in order to keep his job. His sister is right behind him. Will be going to the same university. I want to make the most of these summers.
Our solution: camp nearby so your teen can come and go to work directly from camp. May not be your ideal camping location, but for a couple of years until they're on their own or off to college, it will be worth the compromise.
Great topic, We found the easy way to have your teen want to get a job and it has worked for all of ours. (five) If you want your drivers license you will have to have a part time job to pay your insurance. Stick to that and I promise they will get a job. As for camping, Ours go some but now less and less. We have done our level best to teach them responsibility and what is right and wrong. We pray every day the they make the right decisions, but they do have free will. Trust them and yourselves until they give you reason not too. Our theory is I would rather them stay home than be made to go and ruin our weekend as well.
No kidding. I have a 19 y.o. who swears she's looking every day. (6 months now). Really impressive since she sleeps until noon then takes 4 hours to get ready..... Not sure how she does it all.
Hmmm... Does the word 'enabling' mean anything to you?
68 Me & DW
93 DD
03 DD
06 F150 Screw 6.5' Bed, 4x4, 5.4, 3.73
04 Tahoe 23RB-GL Honda EU2000 Parallel Cables "I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for...food." Col. Jack O'Neill, Stargate SG-1.
No kidding. I have a 19 y.o. who swears she's looking every day. (6 months now). Really impressive since she sleeps until noon then takes 4 hours to get ready..... Not sure how she does it all.
Hmmm... Does the word 'enabling' mean anything to you?
Me, yes. The wife, apparently not. Not to mention her dad (I'm a step). I think she puts more work into not-working than if she actually had a job. She does somehow always come up with money for auto insurance and her cell phone to squeek by. We only feed her and give her Gas $'s to get to/from school. tight curfews, extra chores, etc don't seem to be motivating. Even taking the car away didn't work, she didn't do anything then but sleep and watch spongebob.
Our almost 19 yo son could care less about camping. He is an "indoor" boy, loves playing video games and can't live without the computer. At his age now, we will just leave him at home if he doesn't want to go. When he was in high school and we left him at home, we came home in the middle of our camping trip to do laundry and found him and two friends sleeping amidst a sea of wine cooler bottles. We woke the boys up and made the cleam up the whole mess. They still had about four 6-packs of wine coolers left so we made them pack them up in our cooler, dropped our son off with his grandmother (the ultimate punishment) and went back to our camping weekend. The other adults we were camping with thanked our son for supplying the booze that weekend! Haha! Needless to say, he didn't get left home alone again for a LONG time.
Our 15 yo son is the polar opposite of his brother. He LOVES camping. The only problem we are going to have when he turns 16 is camping close enough that he will be able to drive back and forth to work.
You know your child better than anyone else. If they love camping, try to work around their schedule.
Shannen (and hubby Rick)
2 sons, ages 15 and 19
2 dogs, "Duncan" (mini schnauzer) and "Libby" (lhasapoo)
1996 GMC Yukon
1986 Kit Road Ranger 234
1965 Chevrolet Bel Air
1948 Plymouth 2-door sedan
2005 Honda Foreman 500
...I think she puts more work into not-working than if she actually had a job. She does somehow always come up with money for auto insurance and her cell phone to squeek by. We only feed her and give her Gas $'s to get to/from school. tight curfews, extra chores, etc don't seem to be motivating. Even taking the car away didn't work, she didn't do anything then but sleep and watch spongebob.
I think I may have dated her spiritual twin back a few years ago...
* This post was
edited 06/18/08 07:30am by Fordlover *
02' Ford Explorer 4.6 V8 4x4, prodigy and equalizer
07' Crossroads Sunset Trail ST19CK
03' Ford Focus SVT my daily driver
04' Volvo S40 wife's daily driver
Have you seen how the young folk go job hunting? I see bunchs that go together, 2 and even 3 go into a business ask for work as a pack and fill out applications as a group activity. Then want to be interviewed all at the same time. Crazy.
Happy Trails
JAXFL
2008 3100LTD Sun Seeker
2008 Chevy Colorado Z71 4x4 Auto Toad
Me, yes. The wife, apparently not. Not to mention her dad (I'm a step). I think she puts more work into not-working than if she actually had a job. She does somehow always come up with money for auto insurance and her cell phone to squeek by. We only feed her and give her Gas $'s to get to/from school. tight curfews, extra chores, etc don't seem to be motivating. Even taking the car away didn't work, she didn't do anything then but sleep and watch spongebob.
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