Some people say that one of the best ways that parents can help their teenage children prepare for adult life is to encourage them to take a part-time job. I totally agree to this idea and would like to explain why I agree with below three reasons.
First of all, children can learn the real value of money and labor through his part-time job. Whenever teenage children need the money to spend, they can get it from their parents easily, so it is hard for them to know the real value of the money they use. If they work and make a money by their part-time jobs, they can directly learn how hard to earn the money. For example, when I was a freshman of the university-18 years old, I started to work in a restaurant as a part-time job. Even though I worked for 6 hours a day after school and it was really tired job with standing all the time, my salary was not enough to meet even my monthly spending. At that time, I learned a lot about how hard to make a money and appreciated my parents to support my expense.
Second, children can experience the real society in advance through a part-time job. Children usually do not know exactly about jobs, so they have a difficulty or do a wrong choice in choosing a major in university. I think that children can think of their future jobs more through diverse part-time job experiences. For instance, one of my church students did a part-time job in a pet clinic when he was in high school. He liked the caring of dogs and cats a lot and he entered the veterinary school in university to become a vet.
Last, children can get a confidence on their lives. Through the part-time job, they can show parents the signs of the financial independence and get a confidence to make a living by themselves. It can lead them to prepare and think of their adult life early. For example, teenage athletes who are famous or make a money are usually so confident and independent on their lives, because they learned and experienced lots of hard procedures to that position.
To sum up, one of the best ways that parents can help their teenage children prepare for adult life is to encourage them to take a part-time job, because children can learn the real value of money and also experience the real society in advance and get a confidence on their lives through a part-time job. In this regard, I strongly agree to the idea that one of the best ways that parents can help their teenage children prepare for adult life is to encourage them to take a part-time job