Helene Lens (@HeleneFrenchie.bsky.social)

My son is a senior in high school who works thirty hours a month at a sporting goods retailer. He submitted a written time-off request four weeks in advance for his high school graduation ceremony and family dinner. The supervisor signed the paper and pinned it to the bulletin board. When the weekly roster was posted, the store manager had scheduled him for a closing shift right through the exact hours of his graduation ceremony. When my son brought the signed approval sheet to the manager’s desk, the man shrugged and said: "Business needs change. If you don't show up for your shift, consider it job abandonment. In the real world, you learn that your job comes before personal plans." My son sat in the car in our driveway, completely defeated, genuinely believing he had to choose between walking across the graduation stage or keeping his job. I walked into the store with him, found the manager, and had my son hand over his nametag and uniform shirt on the spot. I looked the manager in the eye and said: "In the real world, you are a retail manager attempting to manipulate a teenager into missing a once-in-a-lifetime milestone he worked twelve years to earn, all to fold sweatpants on a Friday evening. His resignation is effective immediately." The manager stammered, turned red, and started offering to find shift coverage on the spot. We walked out. Teach your children early: an hourly job that demands you sacrifice your education, your milestones, and your self-worth does not value you as a human being. Never let an entry-level supervisor convince your child that their future is negotiable.