i worked as a kid - started with paper routes when i was in grade 5 - so what's that? 10 years old? 11?
once i turned 16 and could drive i got a job in a restaurant and did that until i graduated from high school.
put myself thru university doing construction in the summers.
with our kids, i figure the 2 year old is still a little young, but the 4 year old just learned that if she wanted a pink bedroom she had to work for it....
IMG_3496 by
bc-chris, on Flickr
IMG_3506 by
bc-chris, on Flickr
i think a big part of getting kids to see the value in getting a job starts with the parents saying 'no' to things they want. when i was a kid times were tough in ontario (brutal recession in the early 80s) and my folks didn't have the money to just buy us what we wanted - so i got a job and saved up my money and bought stuff myself. i know i sure appreciated my stuff a lot more becuz i knew how long i had to work to get it. i think it also helped me not 'impulse buy', becuz if i bought stuff on a whim it just meant that i had to work even longer to save up the money for what i really wanted.