… and by ENTERTAINER, I don’t mean that you’re a juggler or a circus performer, or the kind of person who’ll suddenly lean over and pull a quarter out of someone’s ear. What I mean is, do you like to entertain? If you had to rate your love of entertaining on a scale of 0-10, how much do you enjoy it? Zero means you don’t want anyone to ever set foot in your place of residence while you are alive, and ten signifies that you’re practically an event planner who thrives when there’s always someone at your place or about to drop by and you wouldn’t have it any other way because this is the Natural Order of Things.
My recent Canada Day post got me thinking about this topic. If you spend any time online in the week leading up to Canada Day you have surely seen articles about “Fun Activities for your Canada Day Bash,” or “12 Recipes for a Canada Day Cottage Party,” or “Best Canada Day Desserts For Your Canada Day Picnic.” I’m sure the rest of the world thinks that Canadian gather at cottages and lakes in great crowds, drink beer and eat strawberry shortcakes and burgers by the bushel. And in some places, I know it’s true. Some people spend Canada Day that way, and it’s nice, I’m sure.
I have never in my life hosted a Canada Day party, and you know what’s weird? I feel bad about this.
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Our two daughters have been employed since they were 14 and I can’t begin to describe how positive of an experience it has been for them. It’s also been great for us, the parents. Their wages contribute quite a bit to our household. It’s not as if they’re handing over their wages, that’s not what I mean at all, but it means that we’re not forking over an allowance or doing all of the heavy lifting as it pertains to saving for their university educations.
As an added bonus working teens are, obviously, gainfully occupied. Besides the financial incentive, they’re gaining responsibility and very important life skills, not to mention, getting a head start on their resumes and university applications.
But what if teens can’t find work or are under-employed (in other words, not working full-time hours over the summer)? I would love to start a conversation here and generate some ideas for parents who are looking for an answer.
Under-employed teens can’t realistically spend the summer lounging around the house and/or watching Netflix and surfing their Instagram accounts. Downtime is important and everyone deserves a break over summer, but binge-watching Buffy for the third time is neither a healthy nor productive way of spending that downtime.
I was at an event a couple weeks ago and Alyson Shafer, a therapist, published author, and parenting expert mentioned the idea of summer goals. I really liked this idea. I want my teens to choose their own activities and goals because as we all know, if the parents choose for them it’s doomed to fail.
So what can a teenager do over the summer? And how can we make this seem like it’s their idea? ;)
- Double-check their mandated volunteer hours and get ’em done.
- … or volunteer for a cause they are passionate about.
- They can teach themselves something new based on existing interests. It could be a new sport, cooking, sewing, drawing, ukulele, coding, animation, skateboarding. Anything!
- They can focus on getting active: download an app and undertake Couch-to-5K training, spend an hour walking with a new podcast every day, meet up with a friend to play tennis, do laps at the pool, sign up for yoga classes. How much can be accomplished in one hour every day? (Answer, more than you think.)
- They can start a side gig: dog walking/pet care, child care, lawn and yard maintenance, making jewelry, reselling vintage clothes. There are so many cool things they can do to earn a few extra bucks.
- Read! I don’t know if teens are reading enough, are they? I use Goodreads to track my reading and I have a yearly goal. It’s fun to challenge my friends and it gives me the added motivation to keep reading.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this issue. Are your teens busy this summer? What are they up to? Do you plan their busyness or do they? Or maybe your kids aren’t quite teens yet but you already have ideas. If so, I’d love to hear them.
