what is wrong with modern kids and no motivation to shovel?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) hold the vast majority of U.S. household wealth, owning over $85 trillion, or roughly half (around 50-51%) of the nation's total assets, significantly more than Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z combined, thanks to favorable economic timing, stock market booms, and real estate appreciation (Google). Not sure where all those poor elderly live who cannot afford $20 for snow shoveling, but they are not in the US.

BS. You live in a bubble. Lots of retired people don’t own homes and live off SS. They don’t have pensions because they were on the way out during their working years. They don’t have 401ks because they were new during their working years. My mom and her friends live off SS. Luckily they own their homes on they’d be screwed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my kids were little, I’d take them out to shovel the elderly neighbors steps and we’d do it together. Now that they are teens they know to go and shovel the neighbors steps without being asked. They do it for free because it the right thing to do.

This storm I actually helped it was a lot of work.

Why is it the right thing to do? Are you living in an impoverished neighborhood where the elderly are living in crumbling houses? Our neighbors (old and young) were happy to pay industrious teens a fair wage to shovel during a snow emergency.

I supposed if I lived in a very poor neighborhood, yet was wealthy myself, it would be a different story.

You don’t know why it’s the right thing to do? You don’t understand the concept of helping others purely for the sake of helping and not for personal gain? No one is forcing you to do it, it is what we do and a value I’m glad my children possess (and one I learned from my own parents). You don’t have to get defensive I’m not suggesting everyone has to do this I’m just sharing what we do and that with this storm the shoveling was a lot of work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are being given too much money, whether a debit card, allowance, cash, etc. Give them less, they'll work more.

No. How much do you give your kids a week! Our teens rarely spend money and in a rare occasion go to a team dinner for $15 or so. They don’t care about clothes and only ask for reasonable stuff for hobby’s and that’s generally birthdays and holidays. They don’t go to stores. They work summers and that money goes to their Roth IRA. Look at your lifestyle. Get out and shovel yourself. You are entitled to expect teens to shovel for you when you can.

Our kids are similar. They work as lifeguards and referees, but we let them keep their earnings and match their W-2 and 1099 income into a Roth IRA as a way to teach long-term saving. Despite that, they spend very little—mostly the occasional meal with friends—and have modest tastes.

They still jumped at the chance to shovel snow for neighbors this weekend and worked for hours until the ice made it impractical. Even though they don’t need the money, they were motivated to earn it.

In our experience, work ethic isn’t about withholding money. It’s about expectations, modeling behavior, and making work normal. Kids can have access to money and still value earning it.

[Anonymous]

My son at college bought a snow shovel and dug his girlfriend's car out. I was very proud of him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) hold the vast majority of U.S. household wealth, owning over $85 trillion, or roughly half (around 50-51%) of the nation's total assets, significantly more than Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z combined, thanks to favorable economic timing, stock market booms, and real estate appreciation (Google). Not sure where all those poor elderly live who cannot afford $20 for snow shoveling, but they are not in the US.

BS. You live in a bubble. Lots of retired people don’t own homes and live off SS. They don’t have pensions because they were on the way out during their working years. They don’t have 401ks because they were new during their working years. My mom and her friends live off SS. Luckily they own their homes on they’d be screwed.

Sorry, but that's statistics and facts for you, not feelings (which is why I put Google in parenthesis for you to check). If your mom and her friends didn't manage to accumulate any wealth in these conditions (which are long gone), then it's on them. No need to stiff teens because of that or imagine to yourself that you're entitled to. I'm an immigrant and in my home country yes, there are poor elders which I know very well about, because they grew up in a war-torn country and nobody had anything. American elders are the richest in the world and the most entitled as well.

[Anonymous]

Here are some more statistics for you.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/retirement-baby-boomers-peak-65-financial-crisis/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here are some more statistics for you.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/retirement-baby-boomers-peak-65-financial-crisis/

Well, then instead of expecting charity from strangers, tell your mom sell her house and move in with you. Solves her financial issues and snow shoveling problems as well. Or that doesn't suit you, does it? The teens don't have paid off houses or any houses at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are some more statistics for you.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/retirement-baby-boomers-peak-65-financial-crisis/

Well, then instead of expecting charity from strangers, tell your mom sell her house and move in with you. Solves her financial issues and snow shoveling problems as well. Or that doesn't suit you, does it? The teens don't have paid off houses or any houses at all.

My mother doesn’t expect charity and she won’t sell her house. She will give it to me. All $215k of it. Damn those boomers for sitting in their valuable real estate!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are some more statistics for you.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/retirement-baby-boomers-peak-65-financial-crisis/

Well, then instead of expecting charity from strangers, tell your mom sell her house and move in with you. Solves her financial issues and snow shoveling problems as well. Or that doesn't suit you, does it? The teens don't have paid off houses or any houses at all.

My mother doesn’t expect charity and she won’t sell her house. She will give it to me. All $215k of it. Damn those boomers for sitting in their valuable real estate!

So if she doesn't sell her house and you get it, you should pay the $40/h for snow shoveling or whatever the going rate is in your area. $215K is certainly more than a few hundred an average teenager has. Otherwise what's your problem here? Is it you who expects charity? The whole thread is about why teens don't do free/cheap work for someone who sits in their paid off house and is "poor". Maybe your mom should give her house to the teenagers on her street and they'd be willing to shovel snow then?

[Anonymous]

Wouldn’t let my teens shovel OPs driveway- she sounds unhinged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are being given too much money, whether a debit card, allowance, cash, etc. Give them less, they'll work more.

No. How much do you give your kids a week! Our teens rarely spend money and in a rare occasion go to a team dinner for $15 or so. They don’t care about clothes and only ask for reasonable stuff for hobby’s and that’s generally birthdays and holidays. They don’t go to stores. They work summers and that money goes to their Roth IRA. Look at your lifestyle. Get out and shovel yourself. You are entitled to expect teens to shovel for you when you can.

Our kids are similar. They work as lifeguards and referees, but we let them keep their earnings and match their W-2 and 1099 income into a Roth IRA as a way to teach long-term saving. Despite that, they spend very little—mostly the occasional meal with friends—and have modest tastes.

They still jumped at the chance to shovel snow for neighbors this weekend and worked for hours until the ice made it impractical. Even though they don’t need the money, they were motivated to earn it.

In our experience, work ethic isn’t about withholding money. It’s about expectations, modeling behavior, and making work normal. Kids can have access to money and still value earning it.

Mine work as a lifeguard. I cannot figure out why these kids need all this money. We matched for a Roth and they don’t touch it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are some more statistics for you.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/retirement-baby-boomers-peak-65-financial-crisis/

Well, then instead of expecting charity from strangers, tell your mom sell her house and move in with you. Solves her financial issues and snow shoveling problems as well. Or that doesn't suit you, does it? The teens don't have paid off houses or any houses at all.

My mother doesn’t expect charity and she won’t sell her house. She will give it to me. All $215k of it. Damn those boomers for sitting in their valuable real estate!

So if she doesn't sell her house and you get it, you should pay the $40/h for snow shoveling or whatever the going rate is in your area. $215K is certainly more than a few hundred an average teenager has. Otherwise what's your problem here? Is it you who expects charity? The whole thread is about why teens don't do free/cheap work for someone who sits in their paid off house and is "poor". Maybe your mom should give her house to the teenagers on her street and they'd be willing to shovel snow then?

You realize how little as is for some and how high food, prescriptions and utilities are? My teens not greedy. They can do it for others to be a good person. They aren’t materialistic. You know the teen in basic clothing and low priced sneakers. The one you make fun of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Viewing neighborhood kids as owing you cheap or free labor is pretty bizarre. I remember this when I was a teen, I didn't want to babysit for this one neighbor because the kids were absolute terrors and their dog was aggressive but they'd grumble when I declined.

Why is there this assumption people would be paying kids like they're cheap labor? No one said they were going to pay a kid $15 to shovel heavy ass ice snow for an hour. The thread is asking simply why kids aren't out there hustling for jobs Ike they used to, and that they could have probably earned a lot if they took advantage.

If someone is offering to pay low for the job, your kids could, I dunno, LEARN TO NEGOTIATE BACK FOR BETTER COMPENSATION.
No wonder kids these days are so emotionally and socially stunted. Helicopter parenting has ruined them. They can't learn basic life skills like taking advantage of golden opportunities to make money and negotiate compensation rates for themselves. Heck, I would have paid them $100 bucks for a job they could have done in about 30 minutes I bet.

You seem to have a problem with generalizations. These are neighborhood kids shoveling for neighbors. They’re not trying to extract every bit of profit out of people who have seen them since they were babies.

There was someone on the tween thread saying that teens should be shoveling voluntarily for elderly people on fixed income unless the teen desperately needed the money. I don’t agree with that either (it’s backbreaking work and if the elderly person is so poor they can cash out of their house and move to a smaller apartment), but there are good reasons that teens aren’t requiring 80$ an hour from a neighbor even though an adult might try to do so for the same job.

Why are you lowballing kids you’ve “known since they were babies?” No kid or adult wants to do back breaking work for peanuts with a side of life skills.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are some more statistics for you.

https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/retirement-baby-boomers-peak-65-financial-crisis/

Well, then instead of expecting charity from strangers, tell your mom sell her house and move in with you. Solves her financial issues and snow shoveling problems as well. Or that doesn't suit you, does it? The teens don't have paid off houses or any houses at all.

Wow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Viewing neighborhood kids as owing you cheap or free labor is pretty bizarre. I remember this when I was a teen, I didn't want to babysit for this one neighbor because the kids were absolute terrors and their dog was aggressive but they'd grumble when I declined.

Why is there this assumption people would be paying kids like they're cheap labor? No one said they were going to pay a kid $15 to shovel heavy ass ice snow for an hour. The thread is asking simply why kids aren't out there hustling for jobs Ike they used to, and that they could have probably earned a lot if they took advantage.

If someone is offering to pay low for the job, your kids could, I dunno, LEARN TO NEGOTIATE BACK FOR BETTER COMPENSATION.
No wonder kids these days are so emotionally and socially stunted. Helicopter parenting has ruined them. They can't learn basic life skills like taking advantage of golden opportunities to make money and negotiate compensation rates for themselves. Heck, I would have paid them $100 bucks for a job they could have done in about 30 minutes I bet.

You seem to have a problem with generalizations. These are neighborhood kids shoveling for neighbors. They’re not trying to extract every bit of profit out of people who have seen them since they were babies.

There was someone on the tween thread saying that teens should be shoveling voluntarily for elderly people on fixed income unless the teen desperately needed the money. I don’t agree with that either (it’s backbreaking work and if the elderly person is so poor they can cash out of their house and move to a smaller apartment), but there are good reasons that teens aren’t requiring 80$ an hour from a neighbor even though an adult might try to do so for the same job.

Why are you lowballing kids you’ve “known since they were babies?” No kid or adult wants to do back breaking work for peanuts with a side of life skills.

Mine help out our neighbors, as they know one day it will be us or them needing the help. Teaching kids kindness and helping others are important skills. If you prefer to live in a Trump world based off money, greed and selfishness, go for it. Others of us will help our elderly, single parent, neighbors with health issues or because they help us when we need it.