Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #638 To Work or Not to Work; That is the Question

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#638 To Work or Not to Work; That is the Question · Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families podcast. It's the podcast for the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: time poor parent who just wants answers.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Now, I wouldn't have said yes to my parents.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: I was like, no, I'm working, he's Trolley's totally have
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: your parents tell you to wash the car.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: I cannot tell you how much fun I had zooming
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: around the shop and Center car park on Trolley's at
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: nine point thirty at nine I mean it was and
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: I was allowed to be there doing it. It was great.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: And now here's the scars of our show, my mum
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  Speaker 1: and dad.
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  Speaker 2: Hello, this is doctor Justin Coulson, the founder of Happy
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Families dot comte Are You and the parenting co parenting
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: expert and co hosts of Channel nine's Parental Guidance. I
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  Speaker 2: knew i'd get there eventually. I'm here with Kylie, my wife.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: We decided to take on something a little bit different
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  Speaker 2: today and answer the question, should my kids get a job?
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: How can that help them with their mental health? That's
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  Speaker 2: the conversation for our discussion, Kylie, before we dive into
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: the broader discussion around this, did you have a job
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: when you were a teenager? I can't for ever asking
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: you this, but I don't remember you ever talking about
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: it either.
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  Speaker 3: So my mum actually worked for a family friend from home,
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: that's right.
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  Speaker 2: And I your mum was working remotely before it became
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: a thing, and.
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  Speaker 3: I had the privilege of being able to work from home,
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  Speaker 3: so I never actually had.
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  Speaker 2: To deal with a boss. Well your mom was yea,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: your boss yeh. Yeah. And so that work was I think,
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: what do you call it, like pieceworks?
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  Speaker 3: So normally I would be doing that in a warehouse.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Was warehouse work yep, you know, kind of packing and stacking.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: But we were able to do it from home.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Cool. I had more than one job when I
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: was a teenager. I was pretty industrious. My first job ever,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: I was a checkout chick. Can I say that? It
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: was a checkout chick at Willworth's. I did that for
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: quite a long time. But I worked in a pizza shop,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: making pizzas for Bruce's Ossie Pizza at East Gosford. Bruce's
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Ozsi Pizza. How good is that? I just love the name,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: and he actually made really really good pizzas. I was
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: a delivery driver. I worked as a trolley pusher. I
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: worked fruit and vegetable shop. You worked at the Charcoal Chicken.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: I worked at the Charcoal Chicken. I stuffed chickens, my
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: favorite thing. When people would come in to buy chicken
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: and chips, sometimes they'd buy half a chicken, and I'd say,
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: because you know, when you buy a quarter, you say
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: which quarter would you like? The wing or the leg?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: When they'd say, like a half a chicken, I'd say,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: which half would you like? I thought it was so funny,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: and they mean like I was some kind of a weirdo.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: It's just the kind of guy I am, And I reckon,
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: I reckon. I've had a whole lot of other jobs
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  Speaker 2: that I've just put out of my memory over the years.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: And that was before you left high school. Yeah, that
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  Speaker 2: was all while I was a high school student. I
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: had so many jobs sacked lots. I did get sacked.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: I did get sacked a couple of times. But I
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: think that's one of the We're going to talk about
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: the pros and cons of your kids having a job soon,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: but I reckon that's actually one of the pros. I'll
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: explore why that is in a sec Economically, right now
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: is one of the very best times. I don't think
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: there's ever been a better time. For our kids to
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: go get jobs. You don't have to have any prior experience.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Employers are screaming for staff, and they're pretty much saying,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: you don't need any skills, you don't need any experience.
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  Speaker 2: You can be a school kid. We'll put you on
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: the minimum wage, and you can work part time in
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: the afternoons and after school and on the weekends. And
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  Speaker 2: there is such a demand for staff, especially for casual staff.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And from a statistical point of view, fewer teens have
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: jobs now than ever before, So teenagers are actually working
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  Speaker 2: less than they used to when we were growing up,
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  Speaker 2: or even ten or fifteen years ago.
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  Speaker 3: Just listening to your big, long list of experience that
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: you had before your eighteenth birthday, I'm kind of feeling
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  Speaker 3: like I missed out on a whole lot.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I've got I mean, I can't remember all
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: of those jobs, but when I look back on all
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the jobs that I had, I've got really cool memories
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: of it and what I learned from them. I actually
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: think that it taught me a lot. And so we've
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: encouraged our kids to have jobs, but a lot of
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: parents aren't encouraging their kids to.
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  Speaker 3: My parents didn't want me to have a job. So
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: why why did you They wanted me to focus on
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: my schooling.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think, how did that work out for you?
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  Speaker 2: Just incidentally, do you know what I mean? Like, we
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: make this big to be Oh, kids've got to do well,
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  Speaker 2: You've got to make sure you've got your schooling under control.
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  Speaker 2: But a lot of kids just don't. Actually, they don't
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: care that much, and having a part time job doesn't
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: really interfere with it all that much either.
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  Speaker 3: But I think that they were also parents who lived
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: in fear, and they were concerned about the influences that
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: I would be exposed to once I left the home.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that is one of the drawbacks of having a
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: part time job, which we'll talk about in just a
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: secon actual why don't we do that now? Why don't
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: we dive into the pros and cons of your kids working?
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  Speaker 3: So why else do you reckon? Parents are stopping their
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: kids from getting a job. It's not even so much
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: that they're stopping I think they're just not encouraging them.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Sure, Well, actually I know several parents who have
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: said to their kids, I will continue to give you
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: pocket money because I don't want you to get a job, Like,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: I'm aware of a number of parents who have taken
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: on the responsibility, of the financial responsibility of bringing their
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: children through because they really don't want them working outside
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: of the home.
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  Speaker 3: As an outsider, just listening to that conversation, it's very
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: easy to see how children grow up feeling entitled when
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: somebody is just handing them over money.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, in each of the cases that I'm describing, the
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: parents said, I don't want you to get a job.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: I'm going to give you pocket money, but here's the expectation.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: So there's been that, and the kids have been pretty
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: happy to be complying with it, which I find striking
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: because I wouldn't have said yes to my parents. I
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: was like, no, I'm working.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: He's trolley's totally have your parents tell you to wash
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: the car.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: I cannot tell you how much fun I had zooming
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: around the shopping center car park on trolleys at nine
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: point thirty at nine I mean, it was and I
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: was allowed to be there doing it. It was great.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I think though, that what we're seeing ongoingly, We're seeing
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: increased pressure from parents towards kids and increased pressure on parents.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of ego involvement here in the sense
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: that if our children aren't doing well, it's something or
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: other that it's a reflection on who we are as parents.
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  Speaker 2: The increasing fetishization and intensification of parenting, I think is
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: really driving this. Plus there's a lot of kids, like
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: you said, who are pretty content to sit back and say, yeah, cool,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: I'll just take your money and I'll just ask you
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: for a fifty, a twenty or whatever, and parents seem
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: to be happy to dish it out. I think with
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: the current economic instability that we're about to face, based
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: on rising interest rates inflation, I kind of think that
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: parents might become a little less willing to hand over
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: all the cash. But that's a conversation for another day.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I was just thinking, based on my experience growing
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: up and what people are experiencing these days, that there
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: is definitely a lift in economic stability than there was
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: when I was a kid.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we seem to be doing better as a community overall.
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  Speaker 2: That's certainly not the case for everybody. But there has
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: been an increase in wealth as property is taken off,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: and as long as people are in the market, people
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  Speaker 2: are making more money on that kind of thing. Having
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: fewer kids as well, and that's going to be part
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: of it. So let's talk, Kylie, pros and cons of
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: your kids having a job while they're in their teens.
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  Speaker 3: Do you want to start con?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do the cons first. Let's do the bad
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: stuff and they'll go to the good stuff.
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  Speaker 3: Okay. I think number one is actually the fact that
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: it interrupts family life and for parents who are already
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: feeling time poor, the ability to get their kids from
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: a to b or be awake at ten o'clock at
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: night when they finish their shift to pick them up.
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  Speaker 2: So case in point, we've got a fifteen year old
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  Speaker 2: who's got a job at a local shop down the
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  Speaker 2: road and once a week she has a shift that
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  Speaker 2: finishes at ten pm. And I am so grateful, I'm
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: so overwhelmingly grateful that we have two teenage daughters who
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: are now adults who say to us, yeah, you guys,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: go to sleep, we'll be awake, we'll get we'll get it.
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  Speaker 2: And we're like, oh, thank them, there's that because we
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: are gone by like eight thirty nine o'clock at night,
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  Speaker 2: and the kids go and get that daughter and bring
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: her home. But it does it kind of messes up
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: your plans. And at the moment, we're trying to plan holidays, right,
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: We're trying to get Christmas organized and work out when
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: we can disappear for a bit here or a bit there,
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: and the kids like, oh, yeah, but I'm not allowed
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: to take time off work because in retail apparently, even
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: if you're a casual kid employee, you're not allowed to
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: take the time off. So it's really, really, really complex
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: in terms of the way it interferes with family life.
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  Speaker 2: Actually sucks well.
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  Speaker 3: Then, and that flows into kids' schooling. So, like you said,
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: we've got a daughter finishes at ten pm at night.
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  Speaker 3: That means she wakes up the next morning, she's exhausted,
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: she's groggy, and she's not much good the next day,
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: and it really does have an impact on her ability
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: to kind of flourish for the next few days.
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  Speaker 2: It's also the reason that each of the parents that
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: I was describing before said, I don't want my kids working.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: I want them to concentrate on school. It's very important
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: to me that they get the very best grades that
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: they can and having employment is going to take away
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: from study time. Now I disagree with that. I think
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: that kids need to have that outlet. I think that's
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: great for their resiliency. There are so many advantages to
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: having a job, but it's certainly a reason that a
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: lot of parents will give for why they don't want
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: their kids to have a job. And I can see
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: how it could be a con. I think it's a
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: legitimate con in some context, so we'll leave it in there.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: My big con is money. Like, it's great when the
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: kids have got their own money, but it's also it's
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: a double edged sword. Once they've got their own money,
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: they're no longer accountable to you for the things that
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: they're spending their money on, and you don't always know
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: what they're spending it on, how much they've got, where
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: it's going, and every now and again the kids can
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: utilize their money for nefarious means, for things that we
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: might not want them to be spending their money on
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: and might not want them to engage in.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: Well, I guess that flows into the next thing that
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: just opens them up to other influences outside of the home,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: whether that be people or like you said, the additional
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: money and affluence that they feel allows them to do
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: things that you wouldn't otherwise be doing.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: So I'm inclined to be dismissive of that because they're
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: going to be exposed to external influencers everywhere they go,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: whether it's a sports club or whether it's the at
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: school or whatever it might be. But let me argue
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: against myself for just a sec. Because when our eldest
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: daughter got her first job and she was working at
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: Chicko's at fig Tree in Woollongong. When she was working there,
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: she was not hanging around with other fifteen year olds.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: No, And that's what I was about to say. At school,
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: they're hanging out with kids roughly around the same age.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: HPS.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: Now they're hanging out with adults, and it's a completely
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: different playground.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: A lot of young adults sort of eighteen through twenty
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: five in that environment, and all of a sudden, now
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: fifteen year old's like, can I just hang around at
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: work until eleven thirty because they're all going.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: To Oh, I'm going to go to that party.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Yeah, I've been invited to so and So's
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: nineteenth And I'm like, no, you're fifteen, like this is
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: and so you do encounter those having gone through that list,
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: it kind of makes it sound like your kid's getting
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: a job might not be the best idea. Let's talk
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: about the pros.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: Well, there's actually a substantial list for the pros, because
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: I think the most important thing our kids learn is independence.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: You know, they go from being completely dependent on us,
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: and then we get to that twelve year old thirteen
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: year old stage where they really start to buck the system.
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: They want to be independent, but they still don't have
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: the capacity to do everything on their own. By the
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: time they're ready to get a job, they actually are
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: at a point where they can start to be a
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: lot more independent, whether that be catching the bus to
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: get to work, riding their bike, walking down the road
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: to the local store. If that's where they get their job,
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: it really enables them to step up and have a
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: sense of independence.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: What else have you got on your list?
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: So the second thing I've got is they learn financial literacy.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: It's about responsibility and accountability and it plays.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Would they need some oversight from us?
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: I was about to say we have a huge part
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: to play in that, but as our children have got jobs,
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: sitting down with them creating a budget and while they
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: actually don't know this, we actually kind of force their
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: savings just because of the way we position things.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: That's exactly right. So we set up all.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Their accounts and they pay board. We get them to
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: pay themselves, so they actually have a savings and we're
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: really on that savings like it's really it's actually an
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: exaggerated savings account because when you're that age, what do
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: you actually really need to spend your money on?
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, put as much money away as you can, is
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: what we tell the kids.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Number three. It's another avenue for them to make friends,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: another opportunity for social interactions, which is so imperative.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: And we've seen that every single one of our kids,
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: haven't We we've seen them actually really enjoy that social aspect.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: Gain competence, and learn new skills.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Ye.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: And like you said with your big long list, the
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: reality is you kind of look at it and go,
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: what did I actually learn? But you learn life skills,
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: you learn people's skills. So I guess the next thing
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: on my thing is navigating relationships outside the home.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, you don't.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: You don't get to have a volatile blow up like
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: you do with your sister in the bedroom because she
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: wore your dress when somebody upsets you in the working environment,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: So the opportunity to navigate with those relationships outside the home,
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: I think is probably one of the most important things
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: I learn.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: And as much as we don't want our kids to
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: have a toxic boss, a lot of bosses are not
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: quite as nice and nurturing and gentle as we are
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: as parents, and so they do get to experience what
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: the world can be like. And our kids generally come
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: home and say, I like it here. It's nice. You
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: guys are nice to me. People are nice in this house,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: generally like it's a good place to be.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: As we've watched our older kids obviously go through a
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: number of different jobs, watching their kind of processing, their
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: mental processing as they kind of go I really like
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: this environment, yes, as opposed to that environment and recognizing
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: that they actually can pick and choose where they work.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: So you've pretty much said a number of things that
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: I had on my list. We haven't compared lists ahead
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: of time, so I'm just crossing a few of mine off.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Do you have anything else, because I've got a couple
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: of things that we haven't touched on.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Oh, you just just show off, nor go off.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: I just came up with a couple of things. It's
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: all so I think one of the things that I
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: love about what I've done is that I did so
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: many different things, and I found stuff that I loved
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: and stuff that I hated I forgot. I was a
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: furniture removalist and I also worked in radio station. I
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: got part time job there. I worked in a printery,
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: a print shop, doing laminating and printing and that sort
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: of stuff. As was I mean, I had a lot
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: of jobs, but I found the stuff that lit me up,
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: the stuff that energized me. And it wasn't the chicken shop. No,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: it wasn't the chicken shop. You ate a lot of
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: chicken every now and again. I still think maybe we
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: should open one up, because it's pretty reliable income. But
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: what I learned was to follow my energy. I also
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: learned what it was like to not like something and
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: then have to take a big deep breath and say
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: do I or don't I quit? And learning to quit,
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: learning to have the courage to front up and say
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: to somebody, this isn't working out for me, I don't
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: want to be here anymore. That's a really important life skill.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Another life skill is learning how to deal with the
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: rejection of being fired. And yes, I was fired from
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: a number of places, from Bruce's, Lossie Pizza and the
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: fruit shop.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Sometimes I wish Mum had fired me and the Laminating shop.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: I wasn't fired from Woolworth's. I think I was fired
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: from the trolley pushing. How do you get fired as
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: a trolley pusher? You learn the value of money in that,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: you learn what it is to work for a minimum wage,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: and you discover how hard it is to save up
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: for that thing. Like Mom and Dad might say, yeah, look,
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: it's going to be tight, but we can We'll find
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: the money, we'll fix it up. But when you're as
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: a child, as a teenager, when you're like, I want
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: to do that thing. It's going to cost me two
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty bucks. Oh my goodness, I have to
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: work for twenty five hours or eighteen hours or whatever
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: it is to get that. That's like three weeks or
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: four weeks or five weeks. That's a lot of work
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: to be able to get that thing. So it teaches
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: the value of money in some really great ways. But
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: I really think one of the most powerful things is
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: it just teaches you how the world works. Like if
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: you want something, you have to go and ask for it.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: You've got to put yourself in the position for it.
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: You've got to create the space where this can happen.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: So and you know what, you start to appreciate your
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: parents a whole lot more as well. I reckon, that's
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: a pretty good job to get a pretty good reason
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: to get a job, because all of a sudden, you're like, Wow,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: my parents worked really hard for me, and it's hard
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: to earn money, and it's hard to do all this stuff.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: And wow, that holiday cost how much? Or that restaurant
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: meal that we decided to have as a special celebration
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: for the family that cost how much? I would have
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: to work a long time to do that. So lots
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: of advantages, a handful of disadvantages. The one that we
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: haven't talked about. I think it's good for mental health.
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Kids are doing something purposeful, they're outside the house, they're
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: doing something that makes them connect with others, they're being
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: physically active. A lot of the stuff that you need
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: to be mentally healthy can be found in employment, even
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: as a teenager.
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: I know sometimes jobs can lead in the opposite direction
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: as well, let's acknowledge that. But there's a lot of advantages,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: and that's my.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: List well, I think it's a pretty comprehensive list.
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: So if you've got kids that aren't working, I reckon
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: send them out and get them into it. The Happy
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Family's podcast is produced by Justin Rulan from Bridge Media,
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: with Craig Bruce as our executive producer. If you'd like
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: more info about making your family happy, please visit us
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: on our Facebook page, Doctor Justin Coulson's Happy Families, or
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: at happy families dot com dot au.