In some families, it's not a choice - teens work after school or during the summer because they have to. I'm definitely an advocate of teens working, but I'm also an advocate of helping teens strike the right balance between work, school and downtime.

For what it's worth, I'm no proponent of after-school jobs, but full-time summer employment is a good thing, as is work on weekends during the school year.

Finding Time

Just as financial advisors recommend paying yourself first when building a money budget, make sure your teen adopts a similar "pay your primary responsibilities first" philosophy regarding their time budget. Here's what I mean:

People don't get enough sleep these days, yet it's the foundation our mental and physical health are built on - and nobody needs its more than teenagers. Eight-and-a-half to nine-and-a-half hours a night to be exact, according to the National Sleep Foundation. To that end, make sure that sleep time is budgeted as a fixed time allocation.

School hours should be set in stone as well. Cutting classes -- or days -- to meet the demands of a job is a precarious habit.

Time to eat 3 well-balanced meals a day - also a fixed time allocation.

Homework, extracurricular activities and household chores can be variable time allocations, but they have to be figured out realistically and can't be shortchanged.

Time off means just that and shouldn't have to be accounted for. In the movie Broadcast News, Holly Hunter, playing perhaps the most organized person on the planet, scheduled 15 minutes every morning for a good cry. That level of organization is probably not something to aspire to, but everyone needs to devote a certain amount of time to recreation and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns.

Does all of that leave time for an after-school job? Maybe not. You can't cram more than 24 hours into a day.

Education First

To no great surprise, there's a correlation between education and earning power. Successfully navigating their school time should be the main focus of our teens.

This holds true for both sexes, but here's a place where boys are especially vulnerable. A 2002 study of the Massachusetts school system showed that boys were 36% more likely than girls to drop out of school.

Why? They're more likely to spend a lot of money on their cars, more likely to get jobs above the minimum wage and more likely to be seduced away from completing high school and going to college.

During the economic boom of the 1990s, this trend started to become so pronounced that college freshmen males were almost becoming an endangered species. Even in the current economy, a disproportionate 60% of college degrees are awarded to girls.

Evaluating Jobs

A good job for teens is one where they'll learn something of value. Maybe they'll assume real responsibility, maybe they'll deal with the public. Whatever the case, it should be more than just rote work. Internships can be valuable experiences, but don't usually pay.

Some of the best jobs in terms of long-term value are the ones that pay the least. In fact, not a cent. Of course, I'm referring to volunteer jobs. They frequently can involve a lot more responsibility and give your teen a chance to really make a difference. Some can even equip teens to better deal with problems at home.

Kids who want to make this kind of positive impact deserve our support. Consider an allowance that's half of what they could make had they decided to go the for-profit route. You could also treat them to a movie, or pick up the tab for them to go on a date.

I'd argue they deserve our support later in their life, too. If your college senior tells you, "I don't want to be an investment banker, I want to get a Master's degree in physical therapy and work with kids with cerebral palsy," and you can afford it, I'd say set up a trust fund to supplement their income.

It's easy to think of work as being good for our teens, but not all jobs are created equal. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported that an average of 231,000 teenagers under the age of 18 are injured at work each year. If you can, steer your kids away from these types of jobs:
 

• Driving, delivery and operating or repairing motorized equipment.
• Working alone, especially late at night, in cash based businesses.
• Cooking where they're exposed to hot oil, not water and hot cooking surfaces.
• Construction and working at heights.
• Selling door-to-door in traveling youth crews.

Choosing Wisely

Be involved with your teen in choosing the right job, but take care not to assume responsibility that should be theirs to own. Discuss safety, training, location, schedules and even the social status factor (working at a gourmet grocery is different than being a cashier at the market attached to the gas station). See to it that your teen does enough research to ensure they pick the right job and level of commitment.