Where are the neighbourhood kids?

Growing up, my parents had to constantly turn away young boys who came knocking on our door to shovel the snow or rake the leaves.

Every Summer, someone on our street was always selling lemonade.

When I was old enough, I used to babysit a couple of kids on my street.

Our neighbourhood was full of children competing against each other to make an extra buck. 

Today, that’s unheard of.

What happened?

 Is it that parents give their children too much of an allowance? Or maybe children don’t see the need to work because their parents hand them everything on a silver platter. Or it could be that parents hire others to do what they could have their children do for free.

In the nine and a half years that I’ve lived in Ajax, I’ve come across two children who were serious about making some extra money.

The first was a four or five year old girl on my street. As I was coming home one afternoon, I noticed that this little girl had a lemonade stand and a sweet table set up on her parents drive way. I went over and bought some lemonade. I don’t recall what she was saving for or if she was just doing this for fun.

This weekend, a young boy was passing my house with a weed remover looking for work. I hired him to pluck up those annoying dandelions on my front lawn. He worked for about half an hour and walked away with $15.

I am extremely proud of these two children for taking the initiative to earn some pocket money. They are definitely entrepreneurs in the making. Who knows, maybe their peers will soon follow in their footsteps.

Children need to be taught from an early age that they need to work for what they want. I’m so thankful that my parents never gave my siblings and I everything we asked for. They taught us to work for what we wanted and how to save for what we wanted.  

What did you do as a kid to earn some extra money?

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When you get a chance, please visit my friend Tyrone’s blog. His posts are insightful and very thought provoking. See his blog here.

Thanks for reading and keep smiling :)