All three of mine have done paper rounds since the day they were 13.
They've also worked at local Hilton hotel, two in the Covid Test centre, one now at Gleneagles (townhouse and Auchterader) as well as Deliveroo, another bakes in Tesco, and the last one is hunting a hotel job in NZ for September....
They love the money and independence, they are making friends and socialising through work. They've learned determination, new skills, met a really eye opening range of people etc etc.
I would say there's a real split in thier friends: maybe a third just have the bank of parents fund them and have never worked, the other two thirds all work.
I can’t get local adults to do a days work around here.
Even mates on the bread line won’t come and graft for me at £250 a day! By graft I mean help me lay a new chipboard floor.
I’ve paid my own way since the age of 12, when I started a paper road in a small village in Sussex later supplemented by a Saturday gardening job.
Although I suspect I was suitable blinkered from any “dodgy” adult activity, I wouldn’t have my 14yo wandering the streets of London or at a strange premises on his own these days. He has plenty of sports activity to occupy his time but we have a chore based principle for earning money and teach both kids about saving and spending and finances (cue recent conversation and illustration of compound interest) through thier earnings.
When he’s 16 I’ll be helping him with a Saturday job, which for most the default seems to be stint at one of the local large retail stores. He’s happy with the principle as he recognises this is how he’ll be saving for Driving lessons.
Aberporth, Ceredigion, west wales.
Yes I am! Although I’ve resigned myself to taking a couple of days off work and doing it myself.
I blame the teenagers! 😁
I can’t get local adults to do a days work around here.
Even mates on the bread line won’t come and graft for me at £250 a day! By graft I mean help me lay a new chipboard floor.
Where are you mintyjim - I can send you three strapping lads eager to earn that money...
I agree its a damn shame i cant get a kid to do some slave labor. Ive got hours and hours of very hard graft id be happy to pay someone a fiver for.
The problem with trying to get them to paint your banisters is that they will make far more money selling drugs.
You'd have to pay them a fortune.
The horse riding stables is a weird one, I don’t really know how they get away with it. I’ve seen this with my kids. Passionate young people who love their hobby being asked to do menial tasks like mucking out under the banner of ‘stable craft’.
It’s like paying for some MTB tuition that includes bike hire and at the end of the session they say ‘ok, time to degrease the drivetrain’. And doing it every single week.
Yes, I too used to spend all my weekends at the local stables, mucking out, saddle soaping the tack, general help with leading beginner riders, all for the love of horses.
Nettles - I asked a lady I know, her son maybe interested, a nice lad.
There are lads out there in their twenties that don't actually want to work and no amount of despair and threatening, fighting talk from their parents (my friends) can change this.
The horse riding stables is a weird one, I don’t really know how they get away with it. I’ve seen this with my kids. Passionate young people who love their hobby being asked to do menial tasks like mucking out under the banner of ‘stable craft’.
It does weed out the 'pony patters' from the serious horse owners though! A lot of kids can't deal with the mucky side and sheer hard work of horse ownership - 90% of it is menial tasks. And soon realise they really don't want a pony - and thus saving their fortunate parents £1000s! 🙂
My daughter was the opposite - she did the mucky stuff at weekends at a local stables in exchange for riding lessons.
She also quit her A-levels during Covid and found an apprenticeship place with an ex. Olympic medal winning rider. And is now working for her full time.
The pay is shit, the hours are horrendous - often up at 3am to get horses ready for an event then not back till 11pm, but... she gets accommodation in a nice cottage, stabling and feed for her horse, transport all over the country to compete, riding lessons from one of the best and she's learning the difficulties of running a professional stable yard. There's so much more to it than shovelling shit (although she does an awful lot of that!). She bloody loves it though.
She'll probably do her HGV test in the near future too so she can drive the lorry.
So volunteering at a young age isn't a waste of time, at the very least it can teach what you don't want to do.
There's also the tech "working" lad I know makes beats for rappers etc & has done since the age of 13, had stuff on the telly & discs on the wall an all, gets regular royalty payments. Certainly beats me me working on a fruit & veg stall all weathers.
My daughter was the opposite – she did the mucky stuff at weekends at a local stables in exchange for riding lessons.
My cousin did this bitd, worked out the long game & married the polo playing owner...kerching 🤣🤣
Good to hear there is potential light at the end of the cold, dark, dirty tunnel (says dad of a horse-mad 13 yr old having just cleaned the interior of the car for the 10billionth time - mud, straw, horse shit and everything else plastered all over it.
My daughter does - she’s been a qualified swimming teacher since she was 16.
She also teaches a martial arts group in exchange for a more advanced training session for herself.
Good to hear there is potential light at the end of the cold, dark, dirty tunnel
I'm sorry - there is no light at the end of the tunnel it's an all-consuming disease that sucks the money and time from your life - forever!!! 🤣🤣
I have nothing to do with the smelly things!
All of mine have, but finding a decent employer that will emply anyone under 16 is a challenge. And like others have said living in a smallish village them having a job requires getting lifts from us (which they pay for) as there is no public transport.
The rules for employing children are much more restrictive than they were when most of us had part time jobs. See this site for the details, but some issues for under 16s include most jobs being illegal before 14, only being able to work a max of 2 hours on schooldays and Sundays (and only 12 hours per week in total in term time), cant work before 7am or after 7pm, cant work on building sites or in factories and so on.
My kids experience has been varied - some great employers who trained them and put them through basic food hygiene and leadership etc qualifications, paid above minimum wage, gave lifts home late at night...and some terrible ones including a catering one that didnt bother to call us or take 14 year old to hospital when he tipped a large pan of boiling water over his foot. He subsequnetly lost the job as he was unable to stand for a couple of weeks...
Its worth adding that the minimum wage that employers get away with paying 16 year olds is an absolute ****ing scandal!
I’ve just had a look on the government website and its £5.28 an hour for under 18’s. That not far short of slavery
Depends on the job, to a certain extent. My eldest came to work in my office during lockdown, when we needed a lot of help, and complained constantly about not being paid more while doing the same job as her colleagues. Fair comment. Daughter no2 has recently started scooping ice-cream and cleaning tables. Nothing more, no responsibility, no pressure and she's happy with minimum wage.
