It’s tough being a young child. There are things you want, but you have to wait until your birthday or Christmas to get it. Or you have to save up your money, but it’s not like when you’re 10 and 13 you can really go out and get yourself a job. So what’s a young child to do?
Well, if you’re my kids you charge money for odd jobs. My oldest daughters have been walking our neighbor’s dog for money for several months now. It has been great for them. They have spending money for the things that they want. And they have been learning that maybe buying all of that candy is not such a good idea because $5 a week only buys so much candy and there are other things they want.
Things Like A Dog
Recently my children have had a desire to have their own dog. While we keep telling them no they keep asking. My husband told them if they save up their own money ($200) then we could get a dog. It really started as sort of a joke. I mean they make $5 a week. It would take them forever to save up that money and honestly so far both of them haven’t shown the greatest of restraint in spending.
So they began figuring out how long it would take them to earn the money. They figured it would be about 5 months, but with Christmas coming up it would probably be longer. So they wanted to come up with a way to earn money faster. And since neither one of them can get an actual job just yet they decided to do odd jobs for money for people in the neighborhood.
I Was Hesitant At First
They wanted to put an ad on Craigslist. That I was not okay with. There are a lot of crazies out there so I said it would have to remain local. So they began making signs to put up around the neighborhood. We discussed it and what the signs should say and I was really unsure how to do it. I mean I didn’t want to advertise that they were young girls, but I also wanted to make sure we knew who they were working for.
We had them put on the signs that all jobs are subject to parent’s approval. I figure that way I can have a little say so in this and make sure the people they do these odd jobs for are on the up and up. Still, it does kind of make me nervous because we don’t really know many of the neighbors.
An Important Lesson
There is a lesson for them here though. They are learning that it takes hard work and things aren’t just handed to you. They are learning how to save up their money for something they really want. That might mean making sacrifices. It also means taking on more work to make it happen.
I know this is a good thing for them, but I don’t want to put them in a position where they could get hurt either. I am proud of them that they have been working together to come up with this list of jobs and make signs and go out into the neighborhood and post them.
And every night for the past 3 nights they have had to put up new signs because the wind has blown them down or someone is tearing them down. I think they are getting a little discouraged that they continue to have to replace the signs. And no one has contacted them yet. We warned them that it could take some time. They are very determined to earn this $200. Hopefully they get some kind people to hire them and they earn this money quickly. I am loving their initiative in this in the meantime.
Would you allow your young children to advertise for odd jobs around your neighborhood to earn money?
I think that this is such an important lesson for kids to learn. My kids are younger but my husband and I have been talking about how to teach them about the value of money and hard work. It’s true – it’s not that easy and it takes hard work to save up money for the things that we want. I probably wouldn’t let my kids advertise in the neighborhood because we live in a large city. But I would probably let them advertise to our neighbors who we know and trust.