Hiring teenagers--help me get better at this!

[Anonymous]

As the mom of teens, I can say that some are just more responsible and responsive than others. Also remember that some parents stay behind their kids and give them reminders to follow up with people, etc. and some parents leave it all up to the kids. A lot of the teens I know who juggle volunteering, demanding classes, sports, etc. are the most responsible kids.

When I used to hire sitters, one of them would always return my calls promptly, etc. and another would leave me hanging for days, not knowing if she could do the job or not (I stopped calling her). Just remember that teens, no matter how mature they seem, are still just kids and are years away from thinking the way we do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As the mom of teens, I can say that some are just more responsible and responsive than others. Also remember that some parents stay behind their kids and give them reminders to follow up with people, etc. and some parents leave it all up to the kids. A lot of the teens I know who juggle volunteering, demanding classes, sports, etc. are the most responsible kids.

When I used to hire sitters, one of them would always return my calls promptly, etc. and another would leave me hanging for days, not knowing if she could do the job or not (I stopped calling her). Just remember that teens, no matter how mature they seem, are still just kids and are years away from thinking the way we do.

+100 OP you have not talked to the right teens yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

In contrast, I lived in a working class area of Atlanta recently and almost every teen I knew had a retail type of job and many wanted to pick up a few extra hours here and there around the neighborhood to supplement income. I think the excuse in these upper middle parts of DC (and NJ) is always that the kids are SO high achieving and between getting straight As, captain of the sports teams, and other ECs, there is just no time. But the teens that I knew in ATL were no less high achieving -- lots of straight A kids there too but many were supplementing their incomes to save for college, cars etc.

Chalk it up to wealth and helicopter parents who have never held the kid responsible for anything -- don’t know how they handle “real” work places.

I do not think those kids will grow up to do the lawn service or babysitting. They get "real" jobs, like doctor, lawyer, same as the parents. They just are not working class.

Um -- the kids who work in high school, whether wealthy or not, are also not going to grow up to be babysitters or lawn service guys. Just saying that when kids are unwilling and unable to handle any responsibility and parents find reasons to excuse that (he doesn't need the money; she has ADD; the employer didn't text me), it is a long struggle with any kind of "office" type of internship in college as well because the attitudes are engrained and yet the parents are (hopefully) not there to make excuses for them.

[Anonymous]

Good luck finding teens to do your chores for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two very young kids, so no teens myself, but I'm hoping that mothers and fathers of teens can give me some advice. I've hired teens to do a few different things for me this summer (swim lessons for my older DC, weeding the yard, babysitting/mother's helper). In each case, I've been reminded of why teen labor is so cheap. A few examples....

-- The swim teacher teen and I agreed to three lessons a week at specific times on specific days. The teen then double booked other families for those same times and told me that it's okay because I can just come at an earlier time. I explained that I agreed on the other times because those were the times that worked for our schedule. He seemed genuinely perplexed that I couldn't just change my schedule because he wanted to book someone else at the time we'd already agreed upon earlier. I canceled all of our lessons, since the times no longer work, but then he bumped the other families and suddenly he's available again.

-- Hired a neighbor girl to do mothers helper work. All three times she has agreed to come over, she suddenly flakes at the last minute (an hour or so beforehand) with a very flimsy excuse for why she can't do it that day--and then I see her out playing with her friends. She has never once actually sat for us.

-- I attempted to hire a different neighborhood girl to do the same job. She was very enthusiastic about the position and said she couldn't wait to start. I emailed her two days ago with a list of dates and times to see which ones would work for her. She never responded to the email, so I sent her a nice text asking if she got the email and, if so, could she just let me know if those days worked for her. I don't know if teens use email as much as adults, so I could imagine that she didn't see the email. It's been 24 hours and no response to the text either.

-- We hired a teen boy to do some yardwork. 30 minutes after he arrived, he told us he had to leave because he forgot to take his medication. Never returned.

Parents of teens, any advice on how to successfully hire a teen to do work for you?! We are very nice people with a nice home and sweet kids. We pay well--more than I often see listed as rates for these jobs on DCUM, and always above minimum wage. We live one of the top school districts in the area, so presumably these are smart kids. I'm at my wits end, though. I don't need a $15-20/hr nanny to watch my kids--I just need a nice, responsible teen to play with the kids while I get some cleaning and yardwork done while DH is traveling. Ditto with the weeding--I don't need a landscaping company, I just wanted someone to help with the weeds that are taking over the yard. I should note, in each instance, I have hired these teens off of their OWN advertisement!! I didn't approach them with work, they advertised on our local listserv. What am I doing wrong?

Sorry for the long post!

OP: Your expectations are from another era. Sorry. They are probably posting with the idea that the want a job, not the reality. Its not you.

[Anonymous]

OP, I could've written your post. Only I've hired graduate students that were equally flaky! It's really frustrating. I still haven't found a dependable person.

[Anonymous]

I'm one of several PPs who have posted to say that we're the parents of responsible teens who are fortunate enough to find neighborhood job opportunities. Based on this experience, my initial thought was that OP has just been unlucky, but last night my DD had some friends over and I asked them how they would respond to OP. All these kids -- guys and girls -- do a fair amount of babysitting, and they immediately asked the question, "what are the kids like?" They all said that the number #1 reason they would turn a job down is if the kids are out-of-control. They had some pretty hilarious stories of babysitting feral kids; the best of these involved twin 5 y.o. boys who, after being tucked into bed, opened a bedroom window and climbed out onto the roof. Forunately, a neighbor spotted them, rang the doorbell and told the babysitter that the kids were out on the roof "again."