Can I hire a kid?

G

GP44

Member
I have seen locally where young people are looking for work.
Usually they ask for yard work jobs but I could use a different kind of help.
I have thought about how nice it would be to have some help carrying groceries in on grocery day and now that I have the compression fractured L4 I wonder if I could use help putting our 24 pound water cooler jugs up on the cooler.
I carry and roll six three gallon water bottles in off of the porch once a month.
I can’t figure out how a person would pay for these services.
Every Friday for the groceries and by the month for the water bottles?
Seems like I would have to find a good natured teen to have someone who would come when called like that.
Seems I would be ahead if I could hire a neighborhood kid.
Then there is the question of fair pay.
I wouldn’t want to be too cheap or too generous.
Should I advertise or just ask around?
Any thought on this?
 

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You might try calling the high school nearest you. The guidance counselor is at the schools are generally pretty good at picking out which children are honest and helpful and which ones are not.

You can likely find somebody to help you, whether or not they will be dependable for more than one or two times would be the question.

I have never had any luck finding high school help. Number one I live pretty far out and their parents would have to drive them. Number two I need Barn work done and nobody wants to get dirt under their fingernails for any length of time. They would be too busy wanting to talk on their cell phones and that would be a no-no for me.

for my part, I would never advertise for any sort of help because you never know in this day and age what kind of character is going to turn up at your doorstep but that’s just me, there aren’t too many people I trust in this day and age.
 
I was fortuante toget good helper off of Nextdoor web site....I put a
notice in that I needed someone to get my mail from my rural mailbox
which is across a street abbout 60feet away....cannot walk that very often,
So a lady came by with her oldest son and he did
it for 2 yrs till he joined..the Marines.....now I have a younger brother
of his that does the mail for me 2 times a week.
 

I found help through my husband chiropractor. He used to hire footballers to help him with hay & had a kid that liked to earn money. He helped us with firewood, weed wacking & other things around the property. He graduated & then we found another couple of brothers whose mom worked at the office. The oldes on graduated & moved out of town, so we are down to one boy. He'll graduate next year, so we'll have to look around again for help.

As far as pay, they are always fed lunch & I upped it to $13 an hour this past year.
 
hawkdon said:
I was fortuante toget good helper off of Nextdoor web site....I put a
notice in that I needed someone to get my mail from my rural mailbox
which is across a street abbout 60feet away....cannot walk that very often,
So a lady came by with her oldest son and he did
it for 2 yrs till he joined..the Marines.....now I have a younger brother
of his that does the mail for me 2 times a week.
Click to expand...
Do you feel safe using that site?
 
I have some really nice kids that live next door and my wife pays one girl to help her in the garden at times.
4 girls and one teen boy. Three girls are preteen to teen and a younger one who always smiles and waves.
The boy is a typical teen - coming and going all of the time. Seldom even looks our way. So busy.
The littlest girl is a real sweetheart and likes us along with the next to youngest that helps my wife. The rest don’t care to have anything to do with us and are not even real friendly.
Almost make it a point to ignore us.
The dad is a nice friendly guy but the mom is kind of a recluse or something.
Seldom see her and when we do she pretty much ignores us.
Just seems strange that they can be so hot and cold but I guess it’s natural that not everyone is going to be the friendly type.
Do you think of your neighbors this way?
 
GP44 said:
I have some really nice kids that live next door and my wife pays one girl to help her in the garden at times.
4 girls and one teen boy. Three girls are preteen to teen and a younger one who always smiles and waves.
The boy is a typical teen - coming and going all of the time. Seldom even looks our way. So busy.
The littlest girl is a real sweetheart and likes us along with the next to youngest that helps my wife. The rest don’t care to have anything to do with us and are not even real friendly.
Almost make it a point to ignore us.
The dad is a nice friendly guy but the mom is kind of a recluse or something.
Seldom see her and when we do she pretty much ignores us.
Just seems strange that they can be so hot and cold but I guess it’s natural that not everyone is going to be the friendly type.
Do you think of your neighbors this way?
Click to expand...

They have since moved, but a family did live 1/8th mile away that the mom was a flake short of a full bale of hay.

There were many things that annoyed me about her. Let me just say, I took in their two senior dogs, who had grown up with their sons, when I got wind that she told her husband to take them to the dog pound because they were moving to town.

She KNEW full well those dogs came to my farm all the time and that I rescued dogs on occasion. I went over on my 4-wheeler, and told the husband I would take both dogs, a Black Lab and a Weimaraner.

The Weimaraner had huge benign tumors under her armpits when I got her ; that cost me $500 to get them removed. Both dogs lived their lives out on my farm and are laid to rest in my Pet Sematary.

So yes, nut jobs abound😡😡
 
First, I would check if there is a service to deliver water once a month and place the bottles where I needed them instead of leaving them on the porch. If not, I would hire a service which provides background checks insurance coverage, even though it would cost more than hiring a teen. I would not be willing to take on the unique risks associated with hiring an underage person to work in the home.
 
Hiring young people in my neighborhood is pretty much impossible. There are no more young people in my neighborhood. Not even little kids and there is a school two streets over. They have just disappeared since I moved here in 2012. Just older neighbors in the area now.
So around here, unless you have access to a contractor or other professional service, you're not getting anything done.
 
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GP44 said:
I have some really nice kids that live next door and my wife pays one girl to help her in the garden at times.
4 girls and one teen boy. Three girls are preteen to teen and a younger one who always smiles and waves.
The boy is a typical teen - coming and going all of the time. Seldom even looks our way. So busy.
The littlest girl is a real sweetheart and likes us along with the next to youngest that helps my wife. The rest don’t care to have anything to do with us and are not even real friendly.
Almost make it a point to ignore us.
The dad is a nice friendly guy but the mom is kind of a recluse or something.
Seldom see her and when we do she pretty much ignores us.
Just seems strange that they can be so hot and cold but I guess it’s natural that not everyone is going to be the friendly type.
Do you think of your neighbors this way?
Click to expand...
That's normal now. I lived in my neighborhood about 14 years and never even met or spoke to my neighbors. Everyone here is this way.
 
I am pretty sure that (in the UK) if you hire, say a teenager, to help with chores then you have to have liability insurance in case your helper has an accident or becomes ill due to the work they do for you. For example, if you hired someone and they hurt their back while carrying shopping.

You might be better off to do online shopping and just get the heavy stuff delivered to your door.
 
The next door neighbors are a large family and I have often hired one or more of them to do work here. I keep safety equipment on hand, closely supervise them and make sure they use it (safety glasses, gloves, masks). If power tools are being used (saws, drills, etc.), I watch to make sure they are using them properly and safely.

Now, however, the older ones all have their own businesses; word has apparently spread about them, they are getting larger, better paying jobs, and it takes more time to get them over here. Either that or they are tired of working on this fixer upper, lol. Maybe...can't say I blame them.

As for insurance, homeowners does cover liability, $5k I think? Not much.
 
In a perfect world, yes, hire a kid for cash. But in reality you open yourself to all kinds of risks like accidents, accusations, child labor laws, etc. A better option might be to see if Social Services can find a helper. Also, having some adult friend or family member help would be a good choice.
 
Michael Z said:
having some adult friend or family member help would be a good choice.
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The few adults I know are my age and in worse shape than me.

I do have wheel barrows and a very good hand truck; if I can manage to get whatever it is onto one of those, it's all good. But one of those big water containers, full? I would change that to either a smaller one or a different source of drinking water. Maybe a filter connected to the kitchen sink plumbing? Or a counter top filtration system? Berkey? Britta? Lots of choices there.

In situations like this, I look for another way to do whatever it is. How can I change things that would allow me to do this myself?
 
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