Let’s face it — between school, home, friends, and extracurricular activities, life as a teenager can be chaotic. Many teens view summer as a time for relaxation and vacation, but for some, it’s all about the money. Summer jobs for teens should be fun, social, and flexible. Here are some popular part-time jobs that let teens earn extra cash while gaining valuable experience for the future.

Camp Counselor

If your teen is interested in gaining knowledge and experience in leadership, brainstorming, and team work, working as a camp counselor is a perfect choice. As a counselor, your teen will be a mentor to other young people, modeling good behavior and other positive qualities. She will probably also be exposed to a variety of people from different backgrounds. Camp counseling is a great opportunity for teens to gain self-esteem as well as leadership skills, which they will carry with them when summer ends.

Life Guard

If your teen is at least 15 years old and a proficient swimmer, she might consider training to be a certified lifeguard. Besides spending her working hours in the sun soaking in the rays, she will learn valuable lessons in responsibility and safety. To become a certified lifeguard, a 37-hour course is required, which includes training in CPR, AED, first aid, surveillance techniques, proper use of rescue equipment, and managing spinal injury victims. Your teen will also have to pass a written test and a swimming test. Life guarding is a rewarding job that develops confidence, decision-making skills, conflict resolution, and professionalism in your teenager.

Starting a Business

Starting his own business for the summer is a great way for your teen to earn some extra cash and learn the ropes of running a business at the same time. If the business begins to flourish, your teen’s services could continue long past the summer months. Some ideas include babysitting, cleaning, messenger/errand service, car washing/detailing, house painting, and pet care. Entrepreneurship is a great opportunity for your teen to enhance her professionalism, time-management and organization skills, reliability, and confidence — while providing a helpful service to the community.

Landscaping and Lawn Care

Landscaping and lawn care are booming businesses during the summer months. Many people don’t have the time or aren’t physically capable of caring for their lawn and garden. Landscaping is a challenging job that entails manual labor and long hours. If your teen doesn’t mind getting dirty and loves the outdoors, nature, and designing, this job is right for him. She’ll hone her creativity and benefit from the physical activity, while learning about responsibility, hard work, and time-management. Plus, her hard work will be on view in the community - a free advertisement for his services.

Concert/Event Venue

This is a job fit for a teen. Jobs at concert or event venues include ticket sales/stubs, reception, concession stand, parking, security, and cleaning services. Your teen could also get involved in the technical, marketing, and coordinating side of event planning. It takes a lot of people to make large events successful, and jobs at concert or event venues can teach teamwork and build people and leadership skills. Plus, your teen will see all his favorite bands or sports teams for free!

Food Services

If your teen is a social butterfly and loves interacting with people, restaurant employment might be right for her. She can choose from such positions as cashier, host/hostess, server, bus girl, food runner, dish washer, and prep cook. Many towns have popular and unique diners and drive-ins, which make for a fun and social working environment. Food industry positions can help your teen develop people skills, self-esteem, and responsibility, while enjoying a bit of socializing.

Sports Instructor

Many teens are involved in extracurricular activities and sports during the school year. Your teen could take his soccer, tennis, swimming, lacrosse, running, jump rope, or other athletic skill to the next level while earning some summer cash. If she is personable and likes to interact with adults or kids, working as a sports instructor will be a fun, outdoor experience. This is a great opportunity that will boost your teen’s confidence, provide healthy physical activity, and improve her people skills.

Movie Theater

Free movies, free popcorn, and socializing are just a few of the benefits you get when working at a movie theater. If your teen is a movie buff, this is the perfect environment for him to spend his summer working hours. Concessions, tickets sales, ticket stubs, and usher are a few of the positions your teen can choose from. He can choose to beat the heat during hot summer days, and maybe catch a free flick at night.

Internship

Some teenagers have it all figured out and know which field they want to pursue. If your teen wants to gain experience for her professional future, an internship is the best summer employment plan for her. Many internships are unpaid, but the job experience can lead to future employment. If the experience is more important than the money, an internship will propel your teen in the right direction as she gains confidence, professional knowledge, and real-world experience.

For many families, talking about money is taboo. The adults make it, the kids ask for it, end of story. Yet financial experts agree that understanding cash, credit, and consumerism is possible, and important, for building a sense of financial responsibility in children. How can you teach your kids about money? What kind of message should you teach them? Let’s talk about money.

It’s a Good Idea!

Ask your child about what a credit card is and how it works. Tell her it’s a way to borrow money, and teach her that, unless you pay it back every month, everything you buy with a credit card is far more expensive than it would be if you paid cash. Model a cash economy yourself. Teach her the discipline of credit cards and you’ll be doing her a very big financial favor.

The ABCs of Do-Re-Me

Kids need to know how the economy works. No, not stocks, interest rates, and world markets! I mean the basic ins and outs of a family economy. You can start when your kids are very young by helping them understand the difference between needs and wants, that money comes from working, what money looks like, and that everybody has a job (a kid’s job is to learn things, to play, and to participate in the family). As they get older (once they know that a nickel is worth less than a dime, even though it’s larger), you can talk with them about credit cards, bank interest, and so on. Kids can learn about budgeting from the time they are about seven. Remember that a solid money education is one of the best tools you can give your kids—it will aid them the rest of their lives.

Ethics Through Sharing

Part of a solid money education includes teaching your kids that, as a member of a community, as a responsible person, and as a world citizen, they have a responsibility to other people outside themselves and their family. That means sharing. We all live on a small planet together, and we are all linked. Teaching your kids a sense of social ethics includes a sense of charity or giving.

It’s a Good Idea!

Steve Otfinoski’s book The Kid’s Guide to Money: Earning It, Saving It, Spending It, Growing It, Sharing It is unusual for a book on finances for kids in that it stresses the importance of both financial and social responsibility (that’s the “sharing it” part of the subtitle). Most similar books have nothing about giving. A loss, if you ask me!

You can help your child develop a sense of social responsibility by:

• Setting an example, modeling charity. Some families tithe to a church or temple, others put aside a certain amount of money every year to give to charity or service organization.
• Sharing your work specialty with others who can’t afford it is another option for people who are knowledge or service “rich” but cash “poor.” Donate your services to a worthy cause of your choice, and bring your kids along with you. They’ll learn a valuable lesson as you participate in improving the world.
• Volunteer work. People participate in giving programs during the holidays, but don’t forget the rest of the year. The nursing homes are filled with amateur entertainers in December, and empty from January through November.
• Individual participation. Stress to your child that it’s not enough that the family give, that every individual needs to participate, too.
• Giving. It’s not how much you give. Every little bit helps.
• Donating. Kids can donate old clothes, toys, time, or a percentage of their allowance.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to a Well-Behaved Child © 1999 by Ericka Lutz.