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Arguments against teens working after-school jobs

While it's perfectly natural for a teen to seek a job, or for a parent to tell an adolescent individual to earn some money, there are a few reasons why some people would prefer job-less teens. As a matter of fact, some of these reasons could even affect college, which is why a college note is added to each relevant section.

- Socialization
When people think of schools, sure academics come to mind. However no one can think of school without the idea of "jocks", "band geeks", "mathletes", "drama kings" and other types of club-related cliques. Let's face it: a teenager who has a job probably won't audition for the school musical because they have too many rehearsals; sports are a no go as most sports require around 3 hours daily of activity; there'd be no time to participate in school-sanctioned charities; even after-school fields trips to the museum, local ball game, or the beach would be a no-go. A teen who works won't have as much time to focus on the other aspects of human groupwork.

College note: Since clubs and events usually show more personality than a random job that a teen could get, they look far much better on college applications.

-Homework
Another aspect of time, very similar to the section above. Unless that teenager has a job where dillydallying into doing homework is allowed, chances are homework won't be started until after work is over. Now, if the job ends rather early, that wouldn't matter much. However, if this young worker is saving up for something relatively expensive and takes on a few too many hours, homework will most likely be left to morning or never.

College note: A student who has a job during high school will probably want to have work during college. Since many professors let homework be optional, suddenly that kid who never had time to do homework in high school due to work but somehow did well will figure it's ok not to bother with college homework and bam....just like that, he/she falls behind.

-Safety
A slightly different reason for teen unemployment. If you're lucky to live in a town where everyone knows and trusts each other, and your teenage kid lands a job within reasonable distance, you may not think twice about safety. However for those where the only available teen jobs require buses, or even driving a bit too far, and for those where the job is in a "bad" neighborhood, you just may not feel that comfortable letting your precious one off to work just yet. It's only natural. For

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