It started when they were 15-16 and looking for their first "real" job.

And my daughter says "at school they told us to find a job you love." So she fills out 1-2 applications and then is surprised 2 weeks later that she hasn't been hired yet.

My wife found this awesome article in the local paper that she cut out and put on our fridge - and we've used it in discussing jobs with our kids ever sense. Some of the main points are:

People will pay you to do one of two things: 1) to do a job they don't have the skills or knowledge to do themselves or 2) to do a job they don't want to do themselves. So unless/until you've got the skills and knowledge to do a job they can't do for themselves - you're going to be stuck doing jobs they don't WANT to do.

They don't want to do yard work or mow the lawn - so you do. They don't want to cook dinner - so you cook or serve at the restaurant. They don't want to grow and harvest their own food - so you're working at the grocery store. etc., etc., etc....

And until you have the skills and knowledge to do the better jobs that they can't do for themselves, you're just hoping to find something you don't hate. Because chances are you aren't going to love it all the time.

Next - if it were fun and if everyone wanted to do it then a) they wouldn't call it work, they would call it play; and b) they wouldn't pay you to do it - because everyone would do it for free!

That article has been extremely useful for us over the years. Because when Mom and Dad say it, well, that's just Mom and Dad lecturing again. But when it's a published article written by someone else - they can't discount it as Mom and Dad being Mom and Dad.