How to Brainstorm the Best Jobs For 13 Year Olds This Summer

Are you looking for fun summer jobs for 13 year olds? To keep them from whining about being bored?

Or is your older teen dreading having to work at a fast food restaurant and smelling like a grease ball at McDonald’s or Burger King?

Thankfully, McDonald’s is not the only teenager job in town. But the best jobs for 13 year olds and older during the summer really depends on her interests.

Here’s how my daughter and I brainstormed the best teenager jobs for her this summer.

First, I asked her to think about…

What does she enjoy doing? What are her interests and hobbies? Or what would she do for free whether she gets paid or not?

My daughter loves horses. She spends countless hours during the summer in the stable…brushing, grooming, cleaning stalls, and of course riding her horse. So it didn’t surprise me when she came up with the idea of getting a horse-related summer job.

And her second choice was swimming. She’s on the high school varsity swim team and even lettered in her sophomore year. So getting a job around water would be a lot of fun too.

Here’s what we came up with for horse-related teenager jobs:

Working at a horse camp

Riding Stable

Stable Help (cleaning, feeding, grooming)

Horse Sitting

Saddle & Tack Shop

And for swimming-related teen jobs:

Lifeguarding

Swim Instructor

YMCA Pool

Summer Swim Camp

Sounds like some pretty fun jobs for 13 year olds, right?

But the BEST part is that any one of these teen jobs wouldn’t seem like “work” at all!

Just FUN.

But do any of these jobs pay well?

After doing a little research and some calling around, we were happy to discover that all of the above jobs paid better than minimum wage. Your area may pay more or less, but the average was $7.50 an hour.

Now all she had to do was pick which teen jobs to apply for.

After much thought, she decided to start her own business. So she made up some flyers and brochures offering to “horse sit” for people going on vacation.

And she’s making money doing what she loves to do…and I don’t have to nag her about waking up to go to work!

You Can Follow These Same 3 Steps to Brainstorm the Best Teenager Job:

1) Find out or ask your teen what he would do for FREE whether he was paid or not.

2) Brainstorm related job or home business opportunities (be creative here!)

3) APPLY, APPLY, APPLY!

It’s really that simple…good luck!