A mother's job is to teach her children not to need her anymore.  The hardest part of that job is accepting success.

As you probably heard on the news, our country is currently experiencing a shortage of workers.  Many of us have drawn the conclusion that people lose an incentive to work when they are given money to survive.  While the issues with our country are a bit more complicated than that, the principle remains:

When you provide for a person, he/she often loses the motivation to provide for him/herself.

If we understand this fundamental truth, why are we not applying it in our homes?

We cannot expect our teens to be resourceful and independent without training them to be that way.

Your teen should get a job.  The lessons learned from a job include: how to deal with a boss, how to get along with co-workers, how to manage a work schedule, how to fill out paperwork.  The list could go on, but you get the idea.

Perhaps the biggest reason for your teen to work is to provide him/her with a chance to earn and manage money.  But as I mentioned before, your teen will not have a burning desire to earn money if all his/her needs (and most of his/her wants) are provided for him/her.

As each family has its own set of circumstances, there is no one right answer to the question of how much your teen should be responsible to pay for.  Therefore, I have put together a list of 7 things that your teen can (and should) pay for in order to grow their sense of independence and accomplishment.  Feel free to use this list as a starting point to decide how you will begin to transition the financial burden to your teen.

Remember, time is short.  Many of you have only 2 or 3 years left, don't miss this important learning opportunity.