Work for a 14 year old

ChilliBob

Misslayed said:

FYI - skittles used to happen in a long narrow room behind the pub, mostly in the West Country I believe. It was similar to ten pin bowling, in that you rolled the ball down the alley to knock as many pins as possible over. It consisted of one 'alley', with 9 wooden pins and three solid applewood balls that would fit in one hand. Sometimes it also had a bar, connected to the main pub area. Teenagers were engaged to stand in the pit at the end of the alley and replace the pins after each person's turn. No technology! A whip-round (and a sneaky cider) usually made it well worth their while. Local leagues were very common. I think most of the alleys have now been converted into dining rooms, function rooms, even a beer garden in one local hostelry. 

Interesting, sounds good! Alas, anything like that in East London was gone eons ago probably! 

strawb_shortcake

I never realised skittles were a regional thing. When I was doing this in the 90's I'd get either £6 or £12 an evening depends on if it was the summer or winter league - one was a longer evening than the other. 

My parents still play, I think the odd time my Son has stuck up he's come away with around £20. 

Savvy_Sue

annabanana82 said:

I never realised skittles were a regional thing. When I was doing this in the 90's I'd get either £6 or £12 an evening depends on if it was the summer or winter league - one was a longer evening than the other. 

My parents still play, I think the odd time my Son has stuck up he's come away with around £20. 

I'm still struggling to see what you'd need a sticker upper for: we don't seem to find it any hardship to have a couple of people rotating at the end to stick up ... 

I suppose if it was a serious game, a league, you might want an independent person doing it. And I'm no expert, I was robbed of my place in the final last time. 

ChilliBob said:

Misslayed said:

FYI - skittles used to happen in a long narrow room behind the pub, mostly in the West Country I believe. It was similar to ten pin bowling, in that you rolled the ball down the alley to knock as many pins as possible over. It consisted of one 'alley', with 9 wooden pins and three solid applewood balls that would fit in one hand. Sometimes it also had a bar, connected to the main pub area. Teenagers were engaged to stand in the pit at the end of the alley and replace the pins after each person's turn. No technology! A whip-round (and a sneaky cider) usually made it well worth their while. Local leagues were very common. I think most of the alleys have now been converted into dining rooms, function rooms, even a beer garden in one local hostelry. 

Interesting, sounds good! Alas, anything like that in East London was gone eons ago probably! 

BTW Google seems to indicate there may be skittle alleys in London still. 

ChilliBob

Yep, so it seems! I guess I got the feeling it was attached to a pub type thing and hence was as common as say a dart board or pool table in some pubs. Alas, I'm derailing my own thread, oh and Happy Easter all! 

JGB1955

Skittles is very much alive and well in Gloucestershire.  We pay our stickers £30 for an evening - 3 hours work.  We're far too old to be bending over and picking up and replacing over 1,000 pins in a game.

Spendless

A lot is going to depend on your local job market. Here a lot of places prefer to take 18+ because they are able to sell age  restricted goods. My daughter struggled with finding something till she hit this age and my friend's son discovered the same thing last summer aged 17. In addition here a lot of the work-places for part-time jobs want 'full availability' something I struggled with when my kids were young because if I'd had full availability I wouldn't have been look for part-time work I'd have been looking for full-time! 

Add in the restrictions someone posted further up and until he's 15 he might be as well offering to do odd job for neighbours and family friends, car washing, moving grass that sort of thing. Then have a look for when he turns 15 and see if anywhere will hire from this age, if you're in an area where there's a few independents then they may be more open to hiring at 15 whereas the chains might have a national policy about what age they hire at. 

Check times places are open till to. When I mentioned before my daughter's struggles, someone mentioned coffee shops. There's a lot of independents where we live, the coffee shops close at 4 at the latest, which didn't fit in with term-time midweek. Realise it's some time off but at 16+ more things will become available but I'd look at the ones that don't sell age restricted items. McDonalds I believe pays a decent hourly rate and will take on from 16.    

gwynlas

At 14 he is very restrictedin what is available regarding child labour laws. If he is physically capable then he could look at garden maintenance/odd jobs perhaps advertising in newsagents windows. He could also look at on line sales buying in charity shops/car boots etc. Being big for his age and probably looking mature be careful that he is not exploited as he rremains a child in law until the age of 18. It is good that he wants to earn, I started working in an hotel at 15 but only realised later that I had missed out maturing alongside school friends as my work colleagues and friends were mostly older.

ChilliBob

Spendless said:

A lot is going to depend on your local job market. Here a lot of places prefer to take 18+ because they are able to sell age  restricted goods. My daughter struggled with finding something till she hit this age and my friend's son discovered the same thing last summer aged 17. In addition here a lot of the work-places for part-time jobs want 'full availability' something I struggled with when my kids were young because if I'd had full availability I wouldn't have been look for part-time work I'd have been looking for full-time! 

Add in the restrictions someone posted further up and until he's 15 he might be as well offering to do odd job for neighbours and family friends, car washing, moving grass that sort of thing. Then have a look for when he turns 15 and see if anywhere will hire from this age, if you're in an area where there's a few independents then they may be more open to hiring at 15 whereas the chains might have a national policy about what age they hire at. 

Check times places are open till to. When I mentioned before my daughter's struggles, someone mentioned coffee shops. There's a lot of independents where we live, the coffee shops close at 4 at the latest, which didn't fit in with term-time midweek. Realise it's some time off but at 16+ more things will become available but I'd look at the ones that don't sell age restricted items. McDonalds I believe pays a decent hourly rate and will take on from 16.    

Thanks, yeah, that totally all makes sense. I think that's why I started the thread. It's a minefield really. And the exploitation side of things I suspect is rife. He's 15 in August.

There's an independent, and decent, fish and chip shop near us asking for staff. We asked, they said must be 16 or over, "a few years ago we'd have gotten away with 15 or 14 but not these days".. Which makes me think places that 'will' do if might be a bit iffy! 

ChasingtheWelshdream

Don’t discount hotels and cafes. 

My 14 year old works in a local hotel along with a few others. They do 2 hour shifts at weekends and extra during school holidays which is allowed under the child employment license. 

Several local cafes advertise for Saturday help age 14+.

We are a fairly rural area and there is little to do for teenagers- even the closest McDonald’s  is a good hour’s drive away. So the local cafés give youngsters an opportunity if they can as a stepping stone and to earn a little independence.

Brie

A card in the local shops or the online equivalent of something like NextDoor might do the trick....I've seen younger people looking for gardening, odd jobs including assembling things from Ikea, car washing.  There's a local lad (might be 16) who does a full car valeting starting at £20 a car.  Focusing on the older crowd and depending what your local area might want.  I have a good size garden but can't bend/kneel to week so hire someone to do that. 

I'd happily pay for a once a week hour to sweep/weed/tidy outside as there's always things need doing and never enough time or energy to do them.  I'd pay a tenner/hour if I knew someone was intelligent enough for the job, could take direction where required and was dependable.  We occasionally get younger kids offering at the door - some as young as 10 yo and I'm going to make a list so when they surprise me on random Saturdays or summer weekdays that I can give them something to do.