My parents owned a Dunkin Donuts when I was 13, and I went to work every weekend with my Dad at 5:30 in the morning. It was brutal. But, I loved making money and didn't mind working. I liked being the first of my friends to buy a new music CD. I did some babysitting here and there too for my cheer coach or family friends.
But, Emily...well, she's not as motivated. You'd think money would be a good motivator, but seriously, my kids don't want anything. They have almost nothing on their Christmas list. Ben has zero items on his wish list. Noah has 1 thing that I got on ebay for $6. Emily has asked for some new wall stuff for her room since she is transitioning out of little girl owls and wants other stuff. Fine. We won't don't need lots of presents for Christmas, but what about wanting to make money? Emily really hasn't wanted to make money because she doesn't want for anything.
One of her friends babysits. But, that's not really Emily's bag. Then, we got a flyer on our door awhile back about pet sitting. I told her that would be perfect for her. She could walk and feed animals in our neighborhood. I told her we could make a webpage and advertise on the nextdoor website for our area. She seemed meh. I mentioned this to a friend. Then, last weekend, they were going to be gone all day in Phoenix and she asked if Emily would come walk her dogs. Sure! I thought this would be an awesome first experience.
So, David, Emily and I walked over on Saturday morning. Now, it would be a lot easier if Emily just rode her bike, but we wanted to go with her and we were walking Rocko anyway. So, we all went. We got Pearl and Hazel and went out walking.
It was just a 30 minute walk and we returned them home and got them settled. Our friend had left Emily $10. It was the first money she ever made.
I told her that she should save half and spend half. She could buy a Starbucks or something. She loves frappaccino's and I probably get her about 5 a year.
So, did it motivate her to want to go into business? Nope. She's still not motivated. But, heck, I'm motivated! I'm thinking it's genius. I can walk and feed dogs all day long. I should do it! There's actually a new app called Wag!. It's basically like Uber. You request someone to come walk your dog and they show up. You can see a map of where they walk and everything. It's pretty cool, but it's obviously going through a middle man that takes 40%, so they charge $20 just to show up and walk your dog for 30 minutes. I'll charge $10! But, I got a lot on my plate right now, so we'll see.
In the meantime, Emily is happy to sit around with Noah's feet hanging over her shoulders. It looks pretty cool though.
4 comments:
Omg.. Emily ..ur cousin Tiffany signed up for wag..I don't know yet if she got the job...tiffy also has another job..but she wanted a 2nd job..it is cool to make ur own sss...well tiffany is 20 years old.
n ur 13..but walking a dog can be cool..n u make some money...I love you, Granny :)
Love that you are encouraging Emily to start earning a bit of pocket money and at the same time giving her an idea of what is yet to come. It is true that what children have to do in these times is so much less than in past generations but it is definitely time for them to share the family responsibilities. They are well behaved, hard working kids and are very much able to help out around the house. Both you and their dad are good roll models for them. I think the dog walking idea is great I couldn't imagine being paid $10. to do for one walk. I would be more inclined to think $10. for a weeks worth of walking. Goes to show how out of the loop I am. :)
As always thanks for keeping me up to date on stuff!
Love,
G
My oldest (12) is saving up to buy a Nintendo switch so he can play the newest Zelda game. He has chores about the house simply for living here but I also have a pay list he can work off of to earn some extra money. I don't pay well because he also lives here (LOL! He knows it, too) but he racks up about ten dollars a week doing things I don't want to do like toilets and sweeping and such and he's on target to be able to get his system and game by Christmas. I'm thinking I need to get him wanting to save for something else next because I don't want to go back to cleaning the toilets and he needs a motivator to work my pay list ;-)
Interesting and funny.
My sisters and I were more like Emily. None of us had first jobs except for Babysitting until we were around 16 and even then - meh. I still can't wait for work to be done and Jim is basically the same way. We both had good work ethics modeled for us in our parents, but it just didn't transpire to us I guess, even though of course we've worked all these many years.
Love, Linda
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