Do your pre-teen or teen kids have jobs?

[CliffFletcher]

I delivered Flyers at 12. Had a paper route at 13-4. Also babysat. Cleaned my dad's offices at 15. Started a real job as a busboy at 16.

My kids are too young yet, but I'd like to hope they'll be working by 16. The problem is there don't seem to be as many of those types of jobs around as there used to be. Or they're all taken by adults. Food courts, for instance, used to be staffed entirely be teens. Now it's all adults.

The root of the issue, as others have noted, is we pretty much just give kids things that we had to pay for ourselves as kids. I got presents at Christmas and my birthday. And my parents would pay if we went to McDonalds or for ice cream. Other than that, I paid for everything out of my own pocket by 13 or so. If I wanted a book or an album, I had to pay for it myself. Slurpee? Paid for it myself. Rent a movie? Paid for it myself. And that wasn't because my parents were poor or cheap - they just figured kids should pay for that stuff themselves.

When I hear of 25 year olds who have never worked, I question the wisdom of that choice. Maybe they're focusing on school. But by that point in your life, you've been routinely spending significant amounts of money for a decade or so without any sense of connection with where that money is coming from. The older you are, the harder it will be to make a connection between the things you like to have or do and the labour and toil it takes to earn it.

[CaptainCrunch]

the one thing is that I absolutely refused to work in the food services industry, I had opportunities to work in restaurants and grocery stores, and I put my footdown on that pretty hard.

I'd rather load trucks all day, and I still feel that way.

[manwiches]

and everybody whining about minimum wage... i'm not baby boomer, but i remember being paid $4.85 as a bus boy, with $20 bucks in a tip a week. then $5.15 as a server, with $100-$150 tip days. when i finally got my first summer job in my field, and was offered $10.50, I couldn't sign on the dotted line soon enough. Now starting wage in my field for someone with NO experience is $20/hour... crazy...

[Chingyul]

Did flyers as a kid (10ish). Worked well when the weather was nice, but my parents were too nice when it got cold. They'd follow behind in the van and help out, and got to the point where it wasn't worth it!

Did Stampede in the summers of high school. Worked 10 days and had enough petty cash for the summer.

In university, I taught at Kumon (math tutoring for kids).

Nothing major, but glad I had small jobs when I was younger. Would probably push my kids to do at least some basic job.

[Wormius]

Originally Posted by troutman

My son also took the babysitters course, and had his name in the community paper with his peers. He only got called once. Sexism!

Ha. We were going to get my son to do that course at the YMCA when he turns 12. Is it worthwhile if your prospects of making money are slim?

[Lubicon]

My kids (senior high school) have had summer jobs and then a few non-official jobs like house sitting, cutting lawns for some neighbors etc. but never part time jobs during the school year. That was a decision we made so they could focus on school and also their out of school activities (sports etc.). My experience is that extra curricular activities and jobs do not mix well and it was not fair to either group to try and split the difference. We also give them some spending money for small things and in return they do house chores. We feel that is a fair trade off.

Growing up I always had full time summer jobs from the time I was 13 but again never worked during the school year for the same reasons as we don't expect our kids to.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Wormius

Ha. We were going to get my son to do that course at the YMCA when he turns 12. Is it worthwhile if your prospects of making money are slim?

It seems parents prefer calling female babysitters, especially with younger children.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by manwiches

and everybody whining about minimum wage... i'm not baby boomer, but i remember being paid $4.85 as a bus boy, with $20 bucks in a tip a week. then $5.15 as a server, with $100-$150 tip days. when i finally got my first summer job in my field, and was offered $10.50, I couldn't sign on the dotted line soon enough. Now starting wage in my field for someone with NO experience is $20/hour... crazy...

Luxury! $3.00 per hour as a dishwasher, no tips.

[burn_baby_burn]

My daughter starting working in a clothing store in the mall when she was 17. Her 2nd year in University she was working 35 hours a week while going to school full time.

I would have preferred her working earlier in life. I grew up on a cattle ranch and was expected to be down at the barn every evening after school from age 6 until I left home.

[Frequitude]

My dad told me recently that he steered us towards customer service jobs (golf course backshop, driving range, bellhop for me) so that we learned at an early age how to interact with adults. In hindsight I really appreciated that experience. It definitely helped me later in life.

[Weitz]

Was never home enough in the summer to have a job. Would do some odd jobs the last few summers of school while we were home though. Then worked full time after high school as we no longer were out of town during the summer.

I'll likely suggest to my kids they work during the summer in High School, but doubt I would suggest they work during School. Rather they focus on school. I would also ensure they get good paying jobs while out for the Summer in University or do Co-op.

[Buff]

My oldest is 12 and he just quit his job delivering flyers. He did that for 3 years. We helped him immensely the first year. He didn't like it because you had to bundle the flyers together and the pay went directly into his account so he never actually got to see the money.

In the summer he cuts lawns for old people in the neighbourhood. He enjoys that because he gets cold hard cash. Occasionally he'll go to my in-laws and shovel their driveway for cash too.

We believe in the value of teaching kids how to work and it is never too early with the proper guidance or supervision. My younger two kids would help deliver the flyers some days and we'd pay them from our pocket for helping their brother.

[Raekwon]

I did the paper route with my older brother so was able to do it at a younger age, I was a bus boy and then cook from 11-14. from 14-16 I just did Hire a Student with friends calling in and getting new jobs everyday was fun. 16 until 19 I worked at a liquor store. My parents didn't have much money so getting a job was liberating, I feel like we spoil our kid now and we will ruin his ambition.

[Lubicon]

Originally Posted by manwiches

and everybody whining about minimum wage... i'm not baby boomer, but i remember being paid $4.85 as a bus boy, with $20 bucks in a tip a week. .

Originally Posted by troutman

Luxury! $3.00 per hour as a dishwasher, no tips.

$2.92 / hr my first summer job bussing tables / dishwashing and the servers would give us a couple of buck in tips each day usually.

[Swift]

Pfft, 2 quid an hour working in a large chain grocery store back home. In 1997. 2.02 to be exact.

[WhiteTiger]

Man, reading through this brings back some memories of jobs. I delivered flyers and papers using my bicycle for a couple years. Stocked shelves at the local grocery store. Mowed lawns in the summer, and shoveled driveways in the winter. One of the suckiest, yet most amusing jobs I had was spending a summer driving/riding around one of those bicycle/ice cream coolers, and hawking ice cream.

I worked from 11 until college, at which point my parents told me that since I'd been working TO college, they'd cover my general expenses while IN college, so I could focus on my schoolwork.

[Bagor]

Grew up in a small farm in rural Ireland.

Came home from school in September/October had a quick bite to eat before the local farmers came round with the cattle trailers and the kids all piled in to go to the fields to gather potatoes.

There were six (3 girls, 3 boys) of us. I was second youngest and probably about 9 or 10 when I first went.

First pay was 10p a hundredweight bag, was usually able to do 4 in an evening before dark and 12 on a Saturday for around 3 pounds sterling a week.
Bought my first ever watch with potato money.

And we got one bath a week, on a Saturday night.

Mine are 14 and 12 now. Have been out shovelling driveways for $ this year for the first time. Simple lesson if anything is that there is money to be made if you go looking for it.

[keratosis]

Mine started at 12 and 14. Not because we made them, but because we told then we weren't buying them iPhones.
That was 15 years ago though.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by keratosis

Mine started at 12 and 14. Not because we made them, but because we told then we weren't buying them iPhones.
That was 15 years ago though.

iPhones? 15 years ago? I can't be that old...

[GirlySports]

Close.

First iPhone was June 2007