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[quote=Anonymous]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![/quote]

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