young people working

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cdestroyer

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When I was 11 years old I delivered a newspaper. It was the spokesmand review. Unlike the local paper,(which could be folded into a compact square) the spoksman was to big so it had to be rolled and rubberbanded. I had to get up early, ride my bike to the drop off point, roll and band all the papers and deliver them. I only lasted one month because when it came time to collect the money many people would not pay even after having the paper delivered for a month. Today I doubt you can get a youngster to deliver the paper now.
 

Here in my town, the daily newspaper could be delivered by carrier pigeon. It's a shadow of itself, and frankly, not worth its cost.

There are fewer and fewer newspapers in print these days.

I worked for one of the major dailies for six years. Our Sunday edition had to be delivered in two parts. One on Saturday, along with the normal Saturday newspaper and the rest on Sunday. It was massive. Because it was so big, there weren't any newsboys anymore, everything was delivered by contractors in cars.
 
cdestroyer said:
When I was 11 years old I delivered a newspaper. It was the spokesmand review. Unlike the local paper,(which could be folded into a compact square) the spoksman was to big so it had to be rolled and rubberbanded. I had to get up early, ride my bike to the drop off point, roll and band all the papers and deliver them. I only lasted one month because when it came time to collect the money many people would not pay even after having the paper delivered for a month. Today I doubt you can get a youngster to deliver the paper now.
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You make a good point about not seeing a child delivering newspapers. Here in the UK we have strict laws about children working. If you are interested you can see them on this UK Government website. https://www.gov.uk/child-employment There are exceptions, we wouldn't have had Harry Potter if it weren't for those exceptions.
The reason it all changed was because there was exploitation of children, mostly in what we termed, sweat shop industries.
You started working at eleven, I was nine. But I didn't see it as work. My mother died young, my father couldn't simply give his job up back then and be a carer to me. During the long school recess I stayed at my grandmother's fish & chip shop where I would operate the potato peeler and the hopper that the potatoes went through to make the chips. My granny spoilt me, paid me handsomely, like I said, it certainly didn't feel like work.
 
When I was in my late preteen to early teen years and too young to work in the factories, I would hustle in the summer mowing lawns, and hustle in the winter shoveling snow. I had regular customers, and would get paid dependent on the size of the job to be done.

A winter snowstorm was a day off school, and a day of economic opportunities; just grab your snow shovel, dig several people out, and hours later you’d be beat but kid-rich with perhaps eight to twelve dollars newly acquired in your pocket! That was real money then, it was manna from heaven, and when you’re a kid, muscular soreness passes quickly and you rebound fast.

You probably won’t see gangs of kids roaming the streets looking for snow-shoveling jobs following winter storms these days, or many looking to regularly mow your lawns in the summer anymore… but that was how I made cash before turning 16… ☃️
 
I was 12 when I started babysitting. I charged twice as much as everyone else ($1/hour) and I had a lot of clients. They liked that I played with their kids until bedtime, fed them dinner, cleaned up after us, and if the children were old enough, I taught them how to read. I had a great time with those kids.

In high school, I got jobs, in addition to babysitting when I had time. Burger King, Chick Fil-A, a teen clothing store for teens whose parents had religious objections to them being in style, the book department at a department store. The department store job was my favorite because people always wanted suggestions and I always had them. The clothing store was boring because I spent half my time unpacking and putting out stock.

Chick-Fil-A fired me because I didn't smile enough for no reason when the mall was empty. That is so weird, expecting an employee to stand at a counter, smiling at nothing. Also, I suspect I didn't fit in. It was like Stepford employee time. I am friendly, work hard, and smile at everyone -- but I didn't do it right. They are still my favorite restaurant for Chicken Sandwiches though.
 
Fyrefox said:
When I was in my late preteen to early teen years and too young to work in the factories, I would hustle in the summer mowing lawns, and hustle in the winter shoveling snow. I had regular customers, and would get paid dependent on the size of the job to be done.
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My brother raked leaves, shoveled snow, mowed lawns, starting when he was 10 -- a tall, well-muscled 10. Our dad wouldn't let my sister and I do that because we were girls. I was really pissed off, because by that time I was 16 and making far less money than my little brother.

This is the same dad who made boys who wanted to date me come to our house to meet and talk with him three times before he'd let me go out with him. I was too embarrassed to go out with the captain of the football team because of that. Basically only the boys who were just friends were subjected to that. When my mom took one of them and me somewhere, he would sing the song My Ding-A-Ling. In front of my mother! He sang it a few times before I realized my mother didn't know what a ding-a-ling was.

I was in my mid-20s before my dad let me mow one short strip of lawn, because I begged to do it just to see what it was like. It sure looked like fun, but I got over that when I started mowing my own lawn 2 decades later. Before that, we had a yard man. When we moved to house with a 2-acre lawn we bought a riding mower. I soon turned that over to the boys because I was afraid it would tip over on small hills or if I drove too fast. Thus, the grand adventure ended prematurely because it takes too long to mow 2 acres at the slowest speed. And my anxiety over mowing with that thing also lasted too long. And everyone teased me. The other women in the area drove tractors and other farm equipment with no problem.
 
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I think its a good idea for youngsters to begin to earn money at an early age. Babysitting, lawn mowing, shoveling snow, etc., gives them a good starting point for future financial knowledge. If they learn, at an early age, that buying something requires "earning it", they are far more likely to avoid financial troubles in the future.
 
When I was a kid, I walked 8 miles to school. Uphill there & uphill back.
We couldn't afford shoes, so I walked barefoot.
In the snow. In freezing temperatures.
It built character.

Well, OK, it wasn't quite that bad.
I rode a new bike.
I always had new sneakers.
It never snowed & the average temperature was 73.
I have no character.
 
BTW I was paperboy. My route had 104 customers-six day a week, holidays included, rain, or shine/snow/sleet/heat/cold/wind, etc., etc. I got paid in tenths of cent for every paper I delivered. So it was a week, or two on the job,. before I could buy my first yacht. If a customer didn't pay, that would wipe out any profit I made. Collecting was worse then delivering the paper. I had one customer, who didn't wear clothes at home. I gave it up, because I began owing more money to the paper than I was making, because we were charged by the number of papers we got, and not buy what customers paid. It's amazing how many "good folk' would stiff a kid for free papers.
 
My eldest son at the age of 12 started his own lawn mowing service.
I was so very proud of him, he had 30 regular yards he maintained and managed to save up for a ride on mower.
It's how you bring them up, parents these days would rather buy their child an electronic game or some sort of console.
As long as the child is occupied and out of there hair, they are happy.
 
When I was a kid I had the usual odd jobs for neighbors and most of my friends had a certain degree of hustle in them to earn a few bucks.

IMO the Boogeyman has put a damper on most kid's ability to take the initiative to go out and make a few dollars.

In this area, paper routes were determined to be too dangerous for kids many years ago and the few remaining routes are handled by adults.

Babysitting has slowed over fears of responsibility/liability if something happens or concerns over the safety of the babysitter.

It is much the same with lawnmowing, weed whacking, or any odd job that requires the use of power tools and equipment.

It's even considered too dangerous to go out and pick up bottles and cans along the side of the road.

I understand it but it makes me sad.

When we attempt to remove the risks from our lives we end up removing many of the rewards.
 
There were posts on the local FB group by a woman saying her grandson was looking for part time jobs. He’s 12.

We no longer have delivery of the weekly paper/ads. They couldn’t find kids or adults to do it. One of the kids was accompanied by his mother. Sometimes she did it alone. Doubt he learned anything rewarding from that job.

It’s impossible to find a kid to shovel snow in the winter.
 

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