The Reason People Are Arguing About This 14-Year-Old Burger King Employee
The proud father of a young Burger King employee sparked a controversial debate online earlier this week, after his Facebook post detailing the amount of time his son devotes to his job went viral on Twitter. Chis Crawford, whose son is just 14 years old, made a social media post praising his son's work ethic, writing on Facebook: "HUGE shout out to this kid of mine, 14 years old and has a PT job at Burger King, not only does he work every day he can including weekends when most kids are out enjoying their summer." He went on to say that his son "goes in early and stays late almost every time he works" but that he "loves every minute of it."
"Making his own money, saving for a car, and being responsible in his decisions, become a respectable young man!!! I couldn't be more proud of him," he wrote, adding that some adults "should take notes." But while the teen's work ethic is certainly impressive, some people are wondering if working every day in a fast food chain is really a good thing for such a young person.
Many Twitter users felt the teen was working too much for his age
A screenshot of the post made it to Twitter, where quite a few users weighed in on the question of whether it was really healthy for a teenager to spend all his free time working, rather than getting the chance to simply be a kid and enjoy his summer. "I see the good intention of trying to teach working hard and responsibility but I think it's subscribing to a dangerous view of putting off today for tomorrow — which many Americans do for their entire lives.." @dondoeee replied, while @mfernvndv simply posted "LET KIDS BE KIDS!" "Seriously advocating for child labor is insane to me," @theworldisblu agreed.
Some users also shared their own, less-than-fond memories of being forced to spend their summers working instead of enjoying being a teenager. "I got my first job when I was 16 and I regret it because I missed out on so much stuff. let this kid be a kid. that couple hundred bucks in the long run means nothing. time > money," posted @soIoucity, adding "Like 16 isn't even out of the ordinary. But 14?!?!?! Let him play Xbox and eat pizza rolls."
Some agreed that learning the importance of hard work as a teenager can be beneficial
However, others chimed in agreeing that learning the benefits of hard work and money management at a young age can be a good thing. "Nice! The sooner that kids learn the importance of hard work, the more successful they will be in life," replied Twitter user @AskLibertarian. "Why is this depressing that he likes to work? I worked my senior year of HS at 17, it made me feel responsible and I did it on my own will," agreed @Heehaw_JWF.
Others pointed out that working "every day he can" can still often mean just a few hour shifts per week for part-time staffers. "When I worked retail, part timers were often asking for more hours because 'every day possible' would be 2 days for 2-4 hours each day one week, 3 days the next, or even just 1 day for the week for 6 hours on a Sat.," @SwiftNinjaFox explained. So while the young teen is no doubt a responsible person and a hard worker, let's hope he is also able to take some time for himself to relax and have fun this summer too.