12 year old wants to earn some money

tiff

Thats a great idea hermum.

TheEffect

Kate78 wrote: »

Check your local authority bye-laws. But usually minimum age for "light work" is 13.

Tiff has a point, many kids don't want to work, our local shop are always looking for paper boys/girls.

Lots of parents don't even give kids pocket money, just buy them things when they ask. And then wonder why the lack of work ethic in some of the younger generation.

Just read that back and I sound about ninety...

tiff wrote: »

I must be ninety then too Kate lol. My son is 13 in November, so not too long to wait.

The reason he wants a job is that I wont just give him money or buy him everything he wants and as he gets older the list of things he wants gets longer and more expensive! He does do things around the house for money but he would really like to go out and do a job if possible. I'll ask in the paper shop again, my son did ask but the man in the shop isnt English and didnt understand him lol

While I agree with you both that some children today do not want to work, I think you should give them a break. Kids are seen as vile creatures who are spoilt, selfish and lazy when in fact, that's not true for the most part. There are a lot of other children out there who are caring, polite, hard working and selfless apart from your own sons.

I'm not trying to hurt anyones feelings or anger anyone, but my job is to work with secondary school aged children and you'd not believe how many of these children put themselves last and how much they do and how hard they work.

Why not cut the kids of today some slack, they'll be the ones looking after us when we're older...

tiff

Erm, excuse me. The fact that my son wants a job means that he IS hard working and he is also caring and polite. Not sure where you got that from in any of my posts. I am proud that he wants to work and I want to encourage it. I agree that kids are criticised a lot but a lot of them are also given their own way and are spoilt and some of the problems lie with parents and their parenting.

Zeldazog

tiff wrote: »

I know this is an old thread but was looking for ideas for my 13 year old to earn some money and thought this idea was great. I'm going to suggest it to him, maybe he could try one side of our street and see how it goes. He can cycle to Tesco bottle bank and has a few friends who could help out. Any suggestions how much he should charge? What would you pay for someone to take your bottles away, especially if you dont have a car or it builds up quickly in your house?

In all honesty I wouldn't as the council takes away my bottles with my recycling... does every council not do this? Or are we lucky?

tiff

Ours doesnt collect plastic, we have to take it to the recycling area at a supermarket. They might start collecting it at some point though.

Zeldazog

I think the only thing our council doesn't take now is tetrapaks - they take all cans, tins, plastic, glass and paper, and we don't even have to separate it out any more (used to have to put glass in a different bag).

And I agree, this is not a sweeping statement, and there are many polite, hard-working young people out there, I am pleasantly surprised regularly by the attitude of some young people.... but I know there are plenty out there who have no concept of the value of things, just ask for a game when they want it, and get it - on top of their pocket money...

Only time we get a game outside of birthdays, Xmas or saved pocket money is if I want it and I find a bargain!

I think it may be working too, DS is 12, and hasn't spent his pocket money for months, apart from spending money for scouts trip - he usually saves it for PS2 games, but currently is saving for a car or university (we'll see how long this lasts!) - but at least he appears to understand that you have to save for what you want.

tiff

I wish it was collected, ours doesnt take tetrapaks either and this is Bristol City Council.

My DD had her birthday this week, she is 10 and I showed her the savings account I opened when she was a baby and told her that she can use it from now on (I always kept it quiet and used to pay in the money for them). She paid in her birthday money which was £100 (from different people) and said she was saving for a car when she is 17! She wanted something for her birthday that no-one could get hold of and now she has the money to pay for it she decided she doesnt want it now, it was ok for someone else to buy though! lol

TheEffect

tiff wrote: »

Erm, excuse me. The fact that my son wants a job means that he IS hard working and he is also caring and polite. Not sure where you got that from in any of my posts. I am proud that he wants to work and I want to encourage it. I agree that kids are criticised a lot but a lot of them are also given their own way and are spoilt and some of the problems lie with parents and their parenting.

Read my post again, I didn't say your son wasn't polite, hard working etc, I said there are other children apart from your son who are polite, hard working etc.

I was merely stating that it's not just your son who's a good kid, there are others which your post seems to forget, as you come across as 'my son is the polite, helpful and caring one while all the other kids in todays society are running around stealing cars and sitting around on their PS3's'.

Your son is not perfect, nor is anyone else, but I think a huge problem with adults today is that they see children as vile creatures who would steal your last penny, when in fact most children out there are good kids, some who care for their parents, who are in care because no one wants them, who are doing terrible jobs for their families to eat, yet a lot of people see through this and only see what The Sun publish.

Obviously I'm going to get a lot of negative comments towards my post in this thread, as I'm a teenager myself (albeit an older one) and most people posting in this thread are going to be parents, but I'd still like to get my opinion across.

tiff

I'm not saying mine is the only good child, he is far from perfect and I know there are many other good children out there. I was only saying that he wants to work and not all children want to so I want to encourage it. He has many faults, believe me. I dont really get where your post came from, but I definitely am not saying my child is perfect and polite etc.

Poppy9

Well a year on from when I last posted and I now have a 15 1/2 year old who has no interest in working!!!:D

When I mentioned the other day that she could get a job she looked horrified. She doesn't know how she would fit in socialising and school work (she is going into Y11).

In fairness she does work hard(ish) at her school work but she does like going out!!

After her GCSEs I don't think I'm going to allow her the option of not looking for a part-time job though as it's good experience.