by Ann E. Smith

Created on: October 30, 2008

The teen years are very important and special years for any youth. Adolescents are going through many changes during this time. They are increasingly feeling more independent from their parents, more interested in dating and in social activities, and more in need of their own voice.

This stage in a person's development can be awkward, but also hugely instrumental in shaping the future. Teens experience such strong emotions, and can go from being joyous and infallible one day to miserable and self-loathing the next, as they start to experience all kinds of things - dating, rejection, stress over grades, peer pressure, to name a few.l

On top of the volatility of the teenage years emotionally, there is focus on academic and athletic pursuits, as well as religious functions and extracurricular activities. Teens are busy people, after all.

During these years, many teens start working steadily after school to earn money to buy cool electronic gadgets or to pay for their dates. While working is typically a great thing, I dare to argue that after-school jobs may not be the way to go for teens. A few arguments against encouraging your teen to take on structured employment are outlined below.

WITH SCHOOL, SPORTS AND OTHER EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES, TEENS HAVE ENOUGH ON THEIR PLATES

It seems that most teens today need a Blackberry to keep them on track for all of their activities such as study groups, exam dates, soccer games, volunteer functions, and school clubs. Kids today seem to get a great deal of pressure from adults to build up a number of achievements through their high school years so they can be admitted into really good colleges.

Often times, in fact, high school kids are focused on their grades and on developing other extracurricular activities in hopes of being granted academic scholarships to university. A strong focus on school and other activities can be a full-time job.

With all of these things going on, why overload teens with additional after-school work? They have enough on their plates and may perform better if not taking on additional responsibility.

EARNING A PAY CHECK CAN BE A DISTRACTION FOR OTHER TASKS AT HAND

Some teens who take after-school jobs prefer earning money to studying for tests or writing papers. They are turned on to the instant gratification of their weekly paychecks, and then neglect what their major focus could be.

While this is not the case with all teens, many who take on work at early ages do neglect their studies. Their success in

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