Can teens WORK for money nowadays?

[drankin]

Today, while working from home, a couple of young girls, probably 14-15yrs old, came by and asked if they could shovel my walk. "How much?", "$10", "ok". I wasn't getting to it myself right away and thought that I would be cool help these teenagers earn some cash by actually working for it! They only had a squared end garden shovel so I went out to the garage and gave them some snow shovels.

Then my dad comes by and invites my wife, daughter, and I to lunch. The girls were about half done so we paid them and went to lunch. When we came back, the walk wasn't finished and our shovels were gone!

So much for trying help a couple of teenagers earn some cash.

 

[binzing]

Don't generalize. ; )

Sorry bout your getting ripped off though.

 

[drankin]

Don't generalize. ; )

Sorry bout your getting ripped off though.

I know what you mean but man, try to help someone out and you makes you wonder if teenagers are taught a little decency anymore. These were the only kids that have even come by to ask and we have had snowfall for weeks.

When I was a kid, all us neighbor kids would get together and shovel everything in sight making good hard-earned spending money. When I saw snow, I saw opportunity. This just shows me that attitude of our teens.

 

[turbo]

We got some record snowfall when I was a kid, with snow half-way up ground-story windows and piled on roofs. I couldn't handle all the business I was generating, so I recruited a couple of hard-working kids to help me, and we worked our butts off clearing roofs, opening windows and doors and clearing drives so that service vehicles, emergency vehicles, etc could enter drives. I charged $5/hr (early '60's) for a 3-man crew and split it evenly, although I was the one trudging though drifts to make the deals. I guess I was pretty stupid, in retrospect.

 

[Danger]

I felt pretty bad about this last week. A girl about 12 or so came and asked if I'd like her to shovel my walk (and she had her own shovel). I would have liked to have given her the job, but my next-door neighbour does all of the shoveling and lawn-mowing. In return, I pay for his cable. Given the amount of snow around here, though, I'm sure that she had plenty of business.

 

[bassplayer142]

I did some work like hta tlast year. My bro had his bosses truck and plow so it made it nice. Problem happened when I was talking to my customer and he said something about getting new grass in his lawn. A few minutes later my brother (being not too experienced) tore up a huge hole in the lawn. Bad as it was the look on his face was priceless. I feel really bad about all that though.