• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Geek Club Books

Autism Education, Awareness, Acceptance, Advocacy

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Home
  • About
    • Autism Storytelling for Hope and Change
    • Speaking
    • Creative Team & Educational Specialists
    • Advisory Board
    • Our Benefactors
    • Press
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer
  • Blog
    • All Articles and Interviews
    • Articles By Author
  • Families
    • Welcome Autism Families!
    • Autism Resources Bundle!
    • Freebies
    • Mighty League Autism Moms
  • Educators
    • Welcome Educators!
    • Autism EDU
    • Bluebee TeeVee, Autism Information Station
    • School Visits
  • Comics
    • Autism Comics Overview
    • Autism in Real Life Comic
    • Autism Spectrum Comic
    • End Awareness Comic
    • Understanding Autism Comic
    • Mighty League 1: Autistic Hero Comic
    • Mighty League 2: Autistic Hero Comic Book
  • Resources
    • How to Find Resources
    • Asking Autistics
    • Autistic Self-care
    • Amazon Autism Book Shop
    • What is Autism?
    • Books By Autistic Authors
    • What is Autism Awareness?
    • Autism Glossary
    • Autism Myths
    • Autistic or Person with Autism?
    • Speech and Language
    • Autism Business Ideas
  • Zoom Magazine
    • Issue 18: The Black Autistic Experience
    • Issue 17: Health
    • Issue 16: Travel
    • Issue 15: Powerful Women
    • Issue 14: Trailblazers
    • Issue 13: Family
  • Take Action
    • How to Advocate for Autism
      • #Activate4Autism
      • Activator Heroes
    • Make a Difference
  • Contact
  • Donate

Why My Autistic Teen’s Job is So Important

January 14, 2020 By Jodi Murphy Leave a Comment

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on RedditShare on WhatsApp

Megan Amodeo's teen daughter wearing Popeye's work shirt

By Megan Amodeo

Part time jobs are a rite of passage for many teenagers. It is not uncommon to see teenage employees at fast food drive through windows, community pools ad big box stores. Most of us do not pay much attention to the faces we see when picking up food or buying our daily essentials.

I have started to direct my attention toward these members of society.

Why, you might ask? My oldest daughter started working part time at a local fast food restaurant. This is something many teens her age do once they reach the age of sixteen or seventeen. My daughter wants to be like her peers. She is like her friends in many ways. She has a driver’s license. She likes listening to her favorite band, doing social media and taking photographs. She is eighteen, and a senior in high school.

She is also on the autism spectrum.

She started working after she turned sixteen. We, her father and I, encouraged her to find a part time job. I wanted her to learn the many skills that a part time job can provide a teen in high school. I told her it would be a great way for her to earn her own money, learn to be more responsible, and boost her confidence. And as an autistic mom, I also wanted her to work as a way to help her with her social skills.

She was social at school, to a certain extent. What she struggled with most was working in a group. In fact, she hated working in groups. Every time a teacher required her to work with others on a project, she had a meltdown. She strongly disagreed with everyone in her various groups on every aspect of the project.

In her mind, nobody would be able to meet her high standards. Please keep in mind that being on the spectrum, she loves order and rule following. Group work can often be lopsided and unfair. Often, one member of the group does substantially more work than the other members. Sometimes group members take advantage of the person in the group who is a hard-working and responsible.

This person was my daughter.

She wanted to get the work done. She wanted to do a good job and turn in the work on time. Unfortunately for her, her peer group members didn’t always have the same goal in mind. Starting with elementary school and continuing through high school, group projects were miserable for her. She could not understand why everyone else didn’t follow the unspoken rules of group work. She expected everyone to do an equal share of the work and complete the work on time.

In a perfect world, all team work and group work would do these exact things. But, as I have tried over the years to explain to her, people don’t always do what we expect them to do. Many on the spectrum have a difficult time working with others because we expect others to think like we think. Mainly, that everyone should follow the rules of order. Everyone should do their fair share.

Working in the community with others through volunteering or part time jobs is essentially group work.

One is expected to get along with coworkers and work together. This has proven to be a challenging task for my daughter. Certain coworkers do more work than others. Sometimes coworkers don’t do what they are supposed to do and others have to pick up the slack.

My daughter is now eighteen, and has been working part time for over two years. She has come a long way. She has learned that group work isn’t always a catastrophic mistake. She has learned to socialize with her coworkers and her community. She has learned how to be responsible with her money (most of the time).

All in all, I think it is vitally important for parents to encourage their children on the autism spectrum to get a part time job. The skills my daughter has learned from her experiences, at work, will take her into the future. She’s gained valuable life skills that can only be learned in a group setting.

Read about Megan

If you liked this post, you may also like:

  • More of Megan’s Autism Insider essays
  • Autistic Entrepreneurs and Self-owned Businesses
  • 3 Hopeful Outcomes of the Autism At Work Summit
  • How to Find Autism Resources

Image of blanket, chicken and drink courtesy of Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on PinterestShare on LinkedInShare on RedditShare on WhatsApp

Filed Under: Autism Insider, Blog Haps, Penfriend Project Autism Columns Tagged With: autism insider, autism moms, Megan Amodeo

About Jodi Murphy

Jodi Murphy is the founder of Geek Club Books, a registered nonprofit committed to creating a world where autistic individuals are fully accepted, valued and have a voice. Her priority is bringing autistic individuals creative and leadership opportunities that are meaningful, empowering and support their advocacy. She works with a creative autistic team to produce pop culture-based autism awareness education that is innovative, engaging, positive and opens hearts and minds to a new way of thinking about autism. Sign up for Geek Club Books mailing list for free apps, resource guides, curriculum, audio stories and more: https://geekclubbooks.com/autism-bundle.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Join Our Neurodiverse Community:

Read Our Current Issue:

Search

Latest

  • Can a Children’s Book Make You (and Your Kids) More Curious about Space?
  • Why My Autistic Daughter’s College Experience will be Better than Mine
  • Why I’m Letting Go to Let My Transformation Happen
  • #AskingAutistics: What Triggers Your Meltdowns?
  • #ReadYourWorld – How Does It Feel to Have Sensory Differences?

Topics

  • 501c3 Mission (8)
  • Anxiety (8)
  • App & Product Reviews (12)
  • Autimisms (29)
  • Autism Acceptance (13)
  • Autism at Work (9)
  • Autism Entrepreneurs (17)
  • Autism Resources (6)
  • Blog Haps (543)
  • Buzz (6)
  • Classroom (15)
  • Curious Interviews (118)
  • Day in the Life (9)
  • Dorktales (4)
  • Impactful Blogs (9)
  • Labels (4)
  • Love (5)
  • Mighty League (31)
  • Neurodiversity (2)
  • Our Personal Autism Journey (28)
  • Penfriend Project Autism Columns (221)
    • Adriana's Awesome Autistic Book Lists (2)
    • Aspierations (16)
    • Autism Insider (77)
    • Autistic Speaks (27)
    • Being Brave (26)
    • Chloe Rothschild (3)
    • Fidgets and Fries (3)
    • Happy Aspie (9)
    • My Shaynanigans (8)
    • Neurodivergent Rebel (21)
    • Positively Autistic (17)
    • Proud Autistic Living (6)
    • Tud Sense (5)
  • Pop Culture (8)
  • Safety (8)
  • Self-Care (7)
  • Self-Esteem (3)
  • Self-Improvement (10)
  • Sensory Needs (10)
  • Social Skills (4)
  • Speech and Language (6)
  • Tell Us Your Story (29)
  • Zoom Autism (64)

Footer

Stay Connected

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Copyright © 2021 Geek Club Books

To improve your experience on our site we may use cookies. Find out more.