Teens shoveling snow

[Anonymous]

Okay, I didn't read all the posts, but a few doozys caught my eye. My DCs are 9 and 10 - still relatively cooperative, though I know the window is shutting on that. They have a fair amount of homework and activities at this age. But I still strive them to participate in these kinds of chores. Wish I was more consistent about it, but I try. Tell DH that they need to understand what it takes to be a member of the family. Sometimes I think my parents coddled us too much in this regard. Well, not really coddled - it was easier for them to do it themselves when we were younger, but then we were resistant to being helpful when we were older and had no experience of doing so. Probably driven by my regret for not being as a helpful of a child as I could have been....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In our neighborhood the list serve posts were from both teens and parents, but all posts directed interested parties to contact the teens directly, via phone call or text.

Ours too. On ours you have to be on the list serve to post and no self respecting teen wants to be on our neighborhood list serve. Then you'd have to see the messages from the old biddies about dog poop and trash cans and speeding and whatever the issue of the day is.

So on some posts people complain you can't get teens to do odd jobs. Now we have people complaining that they aren't asking for them in an old school way?

[Anonymous]

Free shit doesnt exist

Actually, it's one of the few things left that's free!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The going rate was apparently around $60 for teens today. This seems ridiculous to me. I'm not saying do it for free. But $60?!? come on.

Wow! My boys didn't make that much!

[Anonymous]

I absolutely LOVE the teenagers working for some extra cash. I was happy to pay them, they earned it. Great role models for my young kids to actually see other kids working hard to earn money around the neighborhood. I hope when they are teenagers they do the same.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't have an issue with teenagers earning money by shoveling snow.

I find it a bit helicopter-ish for the moms to be the ones doing the advertising and negotiating pay.

[Anonymous]

I send my teens (almost 18 and 16) to shovel our driveway, and two older neighbors. They get paid in hot chocolate and brownies. It is part of doing a good turn daily. DH and I shovel too. Another neighbor with a smaller sized snow blower takes care of two other older neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOVE IT. I paid the neighbor boys $40 to shovel my driveway and sidewalk today. No way in heck was I going to do it at 7.5 months pregnant, and DH was on calls and fighting fires on his laptop all day. Just finished up a few minutes ago; I'm so glad he doesn't have to go out and do it now.

Lame that your DH couldn't do it.

He could have...but then he would have been working for a couple hours longer to make up the time lost to shoveling. Much happier that he is now able to relax.

Totally support, her DH earns more than $40 working on the computer ---- highest and best use of DH's time is not shoveling.

I paid teens $40 + a $20 tip to do our sidewalk and driveway while DH was at the Caps game. Money well spend IMO and I was glad to see teens outside hustling for work.

[Anonymous]

I think it is good hat the OPs listserv made the terms clear. If you want a teen to shovel it costs x. Otherwise you have the neighbors putting the teen in the middle on the price. Only people with snow blowers do it for free these days, elderly or not. It was all I could do to get our teens to shovel our drive, much less someone else's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nowadays, you can't go knocking door to door. It isn't safe. I don't blame the parents for advertising on a listserv.

plus 1. Agree.

Maybe--maybe--alone. But I don't see why two 16-year-old boys can't go door to door safely in their own subdivision. As I posted earlier, they were all driving out of my neighborhood yesterday on their way to have fun, and they sure didn't have Mom and Dad in the car with them.

I don't know how old your children are, but you will soon realize today's teens are OVERWHELMED. I have a feeling more than a few teachers assigned extra work for kids during this snowcation. Between schoolwork, extra curriculars, projects, jobs and whatever else they have going on, I'm impressed they'd even get out and shovel for money.

Seeing how busy--and impressively willing to work--their children are, some parents will try to help them out a bit.

I see nothing wrong with that.

+100 Being a teen today is NOTHING like when I was growing up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whatever happened to walking the neighborhood knocking on doors? That's what the grown men in my neighborhood looking to make a buck today were doing.

You mean illegal immigrants that do not speak English? Yes, we had 4 different ones come with trucks knocking on our door between 7:45am to 9am. They kept knocking and pushing the door bell. The dog was barking, the baby woke up crying.

I am NOT a fan of door solicitations, especially from grown men. I would gladly give $20 for a teen that sent an email but I would never throw a dime at the "grown men."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely LOVE the teenagers working for some extra cash. I was happy to pay them, they earned it. Great role models for my young kids to actually see other kids working hard to earn money around the neighborhood. I hope when they are teenagers they do the same.

+1 but I want them to do the emailing and knocking, not their mommy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whatever happened to walking the neighborhood knocking on doors? That's what the grown men in my neighborhood looking to make a buck today were doing.

You mean illegal immigrants that do not speak English? Yes, we had 4 different ones come with trucks knocking on our door between 7:45am to 9am. They kept knocking and pushing the door bell. The dog was barking, the baby woke up crying.

I am NOT a fan of door solicitations, especially from grown men. I would gladly give $20 for a teen that sent an email but I would never throw a dime at the "grown men."

Yes, the immigrant lawn crews (who already washed up most American and/or college-based landscaping companies) fighting it out for money in our neighborhood too. I so wish we had an HOA so they couldn't come to our doors. We didn't see one person use them anyway which was great!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're the most articulate 17-year-old I've met in awhile.

Or, you're a parent who is complete apologist for his/her children.

Apologist?

What are we talking about here? Parents who advertise their children's shoveling services?

What's wrong with helping out their children in that way? It's the kids who are going to go out and do the heavy lifting.

I have an idea: Why don't we all worry about how we raise OUR OWN CHILDREN? How's that?

If the parent wants to help their child build/organize their clientele, fine. If a parent makes their child go door to door, fine. If the parent allows their child to sleep in all day, wake up at 2 pm to drink cocoa and watch movies, fine.

WORRY ABOUT YOUR OWN CHILDREN.

Because it's always the ones criticizing other parents and their kids who end up having sheer hooligans on their hands.

NP here. I wonder if the people who are criticizing that the parents posted the ad even let their kids post shit on listservs. Or the people who say 16 year olds can't go door to door for safety reasons- where the hell do you people live? FFS- 16 year olds are driving alone and have part-time jobs. A few teens tried to make some money with a day of manual labor- how is this a bad thing?

The responses in this thread have blown my mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, where have you been for the last 50 years? Kids aren't going to do it for free or for whatever you decide to pay them. Get a clue.

lol this isn't Tobacco Road