<p>Mine are in bed, or watching inside laughing their heads off when we slip and fall. Who is responsible for raising these spoiled brats? Yours truly, I must confess.</p>
<p>Actually, I think kxc1961 may have hit on something. Most of us have to shovel or snowblow our driveways early so we can get to work. If we have HS kids and there is that much snow, they would have a snow day from school then it’s hard to get them out of bed at 7:00 to work outside. All of my kids do snow stuff, but not the first thing in the morning first wave.</p>
<p>I don’t even know whether there are any teenagers on our street who might want to earn money by shoveling snow.</p>
<p>I have no idea who lives here anymore. Once my kids outgrew the age where they gathered outside in the evenings in warm weather (around 8th grade), I lost track of who lives here. We must have neighbors – I see cars going in and out of the driveways, and occasionally I see real estate signs and moving vans – but I don’t know the people.</p>
<p>lol at some who think that because the OP stated teenage boys and didn’t include girls that he/she was being sexist.</p>
<p>Some of you just love to start trouble and look for a reason to complain when there is none.</p>
<p>I recall we made $30 to $50 each as teenagers when we shoveled out our neighbor’s driveways back in the 60’s. Every no school day meant we shoveled driveways, and then we cleared off the outdoor ice skating rink so we could play hockey until dinnertime. After dinner we would return and play some more hockey until it got too cold.</p>
<p>My teenage boy shoveled plenty growing up…then he took off to California for school because…he hates the snow! OOPS!</p>
<p>My son makes $20/hour doing tech work. He shovels for us for no charge but there’s no incentive for him to work that hard for anyone else.</p>
<p>I don’t know why kids that like to do things outdoors and are strong wouldn’t want to do some shoveling, but personally, I don’t like the cold myself. I don’t mind a little shoveling but when we’re talking about storm number 10 and the pile is over my head, that’s not quite so much fun. </p>
<p>When I was a kid there were no snowblowers and since I grew up in lower Delaware there were only a couple of storms a year. I never shoveled anyone else’s driveway except our own. I mowed the lawn in the summer too.</p>
<p>When I was younger I helped shovel the driveway at home… Now I shovel at my house… If a teenager came around and wanted to shovel for me I’d probably be all for it… However, that being said, with this being the 548th time I’ve shoveled in the past two weeks, I’d probably be broke if I was hiring some kid every other day!!</p>
<p>I do know the neighbor boys across the street from me have a little lawn mowing thing. They do four or five yards and their dad helps them occasionally. They asked me once at the end of this past mowing season if I needed any help but I said no thanks. I may let them do it when I’m on vacation this summer… one less thing to worry about when I get home. I’m not sure how much kids get paid for things like that?</p>
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<p>When I was a kid in the 60s, my dad had a snowblower and after he cleaned the driveway and the sidewalks (ours and the neighbors), he would make one of those fox and geese routes in the yard for us to run our little hearts out. Those were the days.</p>
<p>Fendergirl–the kids in our neighborhood get $25 or $30 for mowing 1/2 acre lots (some trees so it isn’t all mowed). If they have a business, they probably have a rate.</p>
<p>MD Mom, thanks. My yard is bigger then most of the other houses in the neighborhood because I’m a corner lot. I’ll have to ask their mom next time I see her. Right now we’re buried under 5083 feet of snow, so there won’t be any mowing for quite awhile!! They’re good kids so I’d have no problem if they did it every once and awhile when I’m away. I just can’t afford to employ them regularly!!</p>
<p>Last winter I had to dig up my side yard and as a result there were 3058345 million stones in my yard all summer, so I wouldn’t have wanted them to touch it anyway. It was very hard to mow over without shooting rocks out the side of the mower. I tried to pick them all out and I planted grass on top but there are still a few rocks out there. I’m going to plant more grass and put some top soil down this spring and hopefully that will be the last of the flying rocks.</p>
<p>I don’t think adults who are older/can no longer handle the physical strain of shoveling have much choice but to turn to plowing/snow removal services, which can be fairly expensive. In many towns, including mine, teens won’t shovel or do yard work bc they simply don’t need the money. It’s the same reason they don’t work any kind of part time jobs. Their parents simply provide whatever they want or need, including vehicles in HS so they don’t need to work and have no incentive to help out and often are offended if a neighbor asks if they’d be interested in doing some physical work for a few dollars (few meaning 30-50 dollars, not 5 bucks).</p>
<p>If you don’t want to shovel/do yardwork etc, then don’t but the excuses that it’s too dangerous or kids have too much work are just that – excuses. While I won’t encourage a kid to go house to house all over town for odd jobs, in most normal suburbs, which tend to have the same families living on the same street for years, it doesn’t seen that dangerous to take up an hour “outdoor” work for someone living next door. And maybe 1% of students are too busy with AP homework, while the rest are actually on FB, watching TV etc.; not to mention – when you get 2 ft of snow, you get a snow day – or at least a cancellation of most games/ECs, so I doubt you’re spending those extra hours studying 24-7.</p>
<p>I live in a sub division where my neighbors are either too old or have too much money to shovel their own driveway…80-90% of them hire professionals. For a guy like me, with a pick-up truck in the drive way and kids not helping, I was left with no choice but to do it myself. Being stingy, I did not buy a snow blower until last year, after hurt my back throwing wet snow on my 50X10 yard parking pad and 100 yard driveway…Darn, it was a lot of work in Wisconsin. Looking back, I was amazed at how in the world I did it with my own hands for 4 years before the snow blowers…</p>
<p>When I was growing up in a suburb of Philadelphia, every snow day when schools were closed, a friend and I walked our development in the morning lining up houses to clear. We made a ton of money over the winter. As an adult, I live in the same community and things have changed. While I still see kids and teens helping their parents clear their own properties, very few seek out work clearing the properties of others. In large measure, I think that it’s because of “professional crews” equipped with snow blowers and trucks who sweep in and can do the job quickly and in a more cost effective manner based on volume. What would take 2 hours for 2 teens with shovels takes a half an hour with a snow blower. Everyone is in a rush and wants the job done quickly. It’s tough for the kids to compete both in terms of the time it takes and the cost or accessibility of equipping themselves with blowers and trucks to transport them. Same deal with lawn mowing. Compare a kid with a typical home lawn mower against the crews that sweep through with gang mowers etc. What was a home based “cottage industry” for kids has now become a “business” requiring the investment of a lot of money on equipment and mobility. As to newspaper deliveries, that industry has changed radically. The home delivery carriers are now all adults with cars who pick up their papers before dawn from central distribution centers. They drive their home delivery routes and cover multiple neighborhoods. Kids can’t compete with that.</p>
<p>aj725 - I couldn’t have said it better myself. My two sons always had part-time jobs in HS. They were in the minority - their friends didn’t want to get jobs because the job would interfere with their social lives, free time, etc. We made both kids contribute to their car insurance, gas, etc. These parents who give their kids everything aren’t doing them any favors. As far as snow shoveling goes, S1 would rarely help, except when he had to get out of the driveway. We never cleaned around his car. S2 was always out there helping us. He just went back to school after winter break and I’ve had to shovel three times so far! The big joke is that S1 is graduating this Spring, has a job in New England (yeah) and we will laugh so hard every time we hear he has snow and has to dig himself out!</p>
<p>i agree with aj and michone. Where I’m from, almost everyone had part time jobs in high school, if not junior high as well. I started working part time the day after I turned 14 in 8th grade. Still had time for school, homework, sports, clubs, etc. Funny how that works. My sister took over my old job once she turned 14. We both bought our own cars in full, paid our own car insurance, cell phones, had our own spending money, etc. We both worked throughout college as well. It’s funny hearing about other areas where kids don’t work and their parents hand them everything. If you go into almost any store or restaurant in my home town a teenager is more then likely going to be the one serving you. We work at grocery stores, fast food joints, retirement homes, the mall, other restaurants, car washes, random other stores, etc. It’s just the way we do things. They’re all extremely flexible with students schedules… so if you have a club meeting or an event or something along those lines you are able to change your schedule and work around it. We also have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the state, so it’s not like they are hogging jobs from the older generation.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s the snow plow companies that have put the teens out of business; it’s a lack of supply of teen workers that has given the plow companies their business. I know multiple empty nest couples in their late 50-60s who deal with this every time it snows bc they’ve had health/back problems and can’t shovel a foot of snow safely anymore. They all want to be able to pay a neighborhood kid $30-50 to dig them out and often don’t care if it’s done asap bc they will work from home/won’t drive to work that day anyway. However, they can’t find those kids and thus have to turn to the plow companies – they’re fast when they arrive but are often quite expensive and do give people quite a run-around bc they have so much business and often are far more interested in servicing commercial properties first since they generate more income.</p>
<p>It’s interesting how much things vary nationally w/r/t attitudes about teens/jobs. In my area, it is a rarity to have a teen serve you at McDs or work in a grocery store bc they frankly don’t need the money and thus won’t make the effort; and we’re only talking about a town that’s upper middle, not Beverly Hills wealthy. It’s just about parenting attitudes and what’s seen as acceptable bc the rare kid from my HS who did pick up a job got a lot of looks of pity from other kids and their parents in the “oh - you have to work” sense, while some parents would say to the working kids’ parents “you guys do alright, why are you making your kid work” – as if it was their business. A few yrs ago, I lived in a smaller, middle class but not “wealthy” town and it was rare to see anyone besides teens working at a grocery store. It was nice to see their initiative and I don’t think it can be said across the board that no teen in this town has AP coursework, is captain of a sports team etc. but somehow they made it work.</p>
<p>Kids who are taught to have a work ethic will find the time and opportunity to work and those whose parents do not teach them those values will not. When my daughter was in high school she was an over scheduled all honors/AP student with dance classes, voice lessons, school shows, community service after school. Her weekdays went from 6:30 am to 12 am. She worked on weekends starting at age 15 because she chose to. It was all part of her work ethic. As a college student, she has averaged 26 hours of classes each semester, is in college shows, and works as a spinning instructor 2 - 3 classes during the week and for an entertainment company on weekends. Again, she does it because she wants to.</p>
<p>It all starts with the parents. However, all that being said, it is a different world today than when most of us parents were growing up and it is a lot more difficult to find job opportunities for students. The old standbys of snow shoveling, lawn cutting and newspaper deliveries are yesteryear. And many restaurants and retail establishments are NOT flexible with scheduling. They basically tell students to take it or leave it because they know there are plenty of students out there to choose from. I have seen many students lose jobs when asking for time off for mid-terms or finals. There is often a cold disregard for the needs of a student’s life.</p>
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<p>I didn’t have time for a job in high school. My parents didn’t give me “everything” because I was lazy and didn’t want to do it. They wanted me to enjoy high school and enjoy the activities I was involved with. I got a job two weeks after graduating from high school (begging the owner to hire me at 6AM). I’ve worked off and on part-time for the company for almost 4 years now. I graduated from college in December and continue to work for the company part-time while I wait for grad school. Some weeks I’ll work 35 hours and others only 8, but I spend much more time than that doing professional development. I spend anywhere between 1-5 hours a day volunteering at our local high school and at least an hour a day doing research and studying.</p>
<p>I may not have had a job in high school, but I worked my a$$ off and continue to do so.</p>
<p>Just because one doesn’t see teens working doesn’t mean that they aren’t trying to get jobs. In this economy the young adults that my kids graduated college with (and who also went to college) are unable to find employment in their field and are working the crap jobs that used to belong to HS students. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s horrible for parents to encourage their kids to do well in school so they can get some merit aid for college. And, in real life, kids have to work hard to get good grades and are not the supernatural A students found on this forum. My youngest son makes his spending money by doing tech jobs. My older son did do the lawn service and pet jobs and my daughter did mucho babysitting/camp counselor, but generally, their real job was to do well in school.</p>
<p>I think places are flexible with kids, you just have to find the right place. Some places just are jerks about it. I have a little cousin who has worked at Walmart since he was 16 and he’s still working there on weekends while in college. He called them the other week and said he was swamped with a college project and they told him he could just take off for the weekend and that they’d see him the next weekend. I used to work for a grocery store and if I had club meetings after school or events I would go to them and then come into work after I was done for a litlte bit. I might not have done a full regular shift but I made it work. My sister, on the other hand, once worked at a restaurant and told them she couldn’t come in one weekend because she had to attend my college graduation. They then proceeded not to give her any hours for the next two weeks as punishment. My mother called them up and told them not to bother scheduling her ever again. She then hired her to work part time at her company until she found a new job. That was probably six years ago and I don’t think my mom has eaten there since. She’s trying to make a point. She was a regular there every week till their little scheduling stunt.</p>
<p>kathie, didn’t I work with one of your sons friends one summer about 6 years or so ago? I think I remember us talking about that!</p>