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  • Duke

    Dec. 30, 2011 10:53 a.m. Duke SuperDork

    aeronca65t wrote:

    I worked in a supermarket by the time I was 14. All my kids had jobs by the time they were 15 (waitress, busboy and retail).

    That's great, and I in fact support the sentiment, but even though state law says it's OK, absolutely no one around here would even talk to my daughter until she was 18.

    My father gave all 4 of us kids a decent car. Not new, not fancy, but in good repair (we each helped put them that way). I'm doing that with my 2 daughters (currently 19.5 and 16.0).

    At 17, the elder got a '98 Impreza wagon with 110k on the clock which we bought for cheap. She helped me replace the CV boots in the dead of winter in an unheated garage. She wrecked it later (not even badly, and NOT through teen ditziness) and we scrapped it - the replacement car (2002 Impreza wagon) came out of her savings and a small inheritance from her grandmother. She goes to the local state university and her grades got her a half ride. We pay most of the rest, but I am having her borrow/provide $2500 a year so she has some ownership of her education. She'll get out of school with a enough debt to learn how to manage it, but not enough to cripple her. She has also gotten a job once she turned 18 and saves most of her money - and she even got us thoughtful holiday presents this year.

    I'm not the type to think she should start from scratch if she doesn't have to, but she's learning how to provide for herself. I think she'll turn out OK.

  • mtn

    Dec. 30, 2011 11:07 a.m. mtn SuperDork

    Curmudgeon wrote:

    At 14 1/2, my daughter is a bit young to take on a job of any sort other than babysitting etc, state laws limit what kids under 15 can do. As soon as she turns 15, she needs to start looking and be ready to sling hash or whatever. Pops will help her get a car and she will have to pay him back but he's going to go dig out the chain and padlock. Just in case.

    When my kids turn 13, they will be caddying*.

    *This assumes I live in an area that has a golf course with caddies, and that the situation in the caddyshack is acceptable.

  • Brett_Murphy

    Dec. 30, 2011 11:19 a.m. Brett_Murphy Dork

    My parents had an even simpler way to deal with things beyond food, shelter or clothing.

    It was either a gift on a special occasion (birthday, xmas, whatever) or I bought it myself. I didn't earn an allowance for doing chores (taking out the trash, raking leaves, shoveling snow, etc) since they were part of living. For "extra" work they would pay me (cleaning gutters, installing new locks, painting, etc).

    Problem solved.

    TANSTAAFL

  • Brett_Murphy

    Dec. 30, 2011 11:20 a.m. Brett_Murphy Dork

    In reply to mtn:

    Being a caddy is getting harder and harder- most courses want you to rent a cart so you play through faster.

    I spent time as a caddy- carrying two bags will get you into shape, fast.

  • mtn

    Dec. 30, 2011 11:27 a.m. mtn SuperDork

    Brett_Murphy wrote:

    In reply to mtn:

    Being a caddy is getting harder and harder- most courses want you to rent a cart so you play through faster.

    I spent time as a caddy- carrying two bags will get you into shape, fast.

    There are courses out there that only have caddies. I worked at one for the past 9 years (past 7 double bagging). Almost all the private courses in our area have caddies, even though a lot of it is just cart chasing (one caddy for 4 golfers in 2 carts).

  • racerfink

    Dec. 31, 2011 7:06 p.m. racerfink Dork

    I never had a paying job until after high school, so I don't think that making kids go out and get a job at the earliest possible time is the answer. My mom and dad taught me a very valuable lesson about money through my growing years. When I turned 18 the first week of my senior year, they set up a bank account for me, and the child-support money for me went into that (divorced while I was 15) for me to pay for gas, food, whatever I wanted to do. After the first few months of running out of money at least a week before the next check arrived, I learned the value of money VERY quickly.

  • Hungary Bill

    Jan. 1, 2012 4:25 a.m. Hungary Bill Reader

    Curmudgeon wrote:

    When I was around 12 or so, I wanted a Honda SL70 so bad I could taste it. You think Ralphie was bad over that Red Ryder BB gun? He couldn't hold a candle to me. Man, I wanted that thing BAD. (Actually I wanted a Hodaka Super Rat more, but that's another whole story.)

    So I went to Dad about it. he listened, then said 'Okay, you can have one and I will loan you the money but you have to pay me back'. Nowadays I think that would be considered child abuse.

    But guess what: this Pops pays for the house and groceries etc but my kid works and saves for stuff that she wants.

    You said Hodaka!!!

    My first job was mowing lawns. I got paid $5 a week in allowance from my parents, and $5 a week from an elderly gentleman named Jack Nicholson (no joke) for mowing his lawn in the summer, and shoveling snow in the winter. That's just about when I ran into a Hodaka Ace 100 with a chrome gas tank A CHROME GAS TANK!!! (I'm 30, so these things were still older than dirt when I was young).

    Me and the "Bank of Dad" worked out that he would buy the bike (so it wouldn't disappear) and I would give him half my weeks earnings until it was paid. THEN I could ride the bike. I never missed one mother-stinking payment. The bike was $75 dollars.

    Every spare moment I had of every day was spent thinking about that bike, sitting on the bike, or drawing pictures of the bike in class. I finally paid it off in November and even though it was colder than frozen e36 m3 outside I had a gas can of pre-mix all ready to go.

    I rode that bike until my legs were so frozen I couldn't move them to shift any more. I remember that there was actually frost growing on the leading edges of my body. But I was cooler than James "wankel rotary engine" Dean on that hog. I borrowed my dads leather jacket and everything.

    I learned that dinner tastes better when you've had to sweat for it.

  • Streetwiseguy

    Jan. 1, 2012 7:29 a.m. Streetwiseguy Dork

    I wanted a minibike with a 5 horse Techumseh engine when I was 10, so I was given a John Deere "D": tractor to dissassemble and load into the 3 ton truck to sell for scrap.

    I discovered several things- D's have two great big chains in the trans case to drive the rear wheels, it takes a pretty good swing to bust the castings up, when you invite friends out to the farm for a fun afternoon, some of them don't think taking a tractor apart is fun, a scrapped D weighs about half as much as is required to buy a minibike, and if your soul is crushed hard enough, a generous older brother will kick in the rest of the cash for the minibike.

  • Curmudgeon

    Jan. 1, 2012 7:30 a.m. Curmudgeon SuperDork

    Hungary Bill, now you've done it.

    When the SL70 thing was going on, I had decided I wanted to be a pro motocross racer (yeah, right!) and the 100 class was where everyone started. Most of the bikes in that class were 'stripped down' dual purpose bikes- except the Hodaka Super Rat. It was the only purpose built 100cc MXer that I could hope to afford. new they were about the same price as the Honda so that's what I bugged my dad for first. He said no. Why? Being a 2 stroke, he thought (and honestly was right) that it would wear out a lot faster than a 4 stroke, he didn't think I could buy the bike and also be able to keep it up. Part of the whole deal was any repairs etc were on my nickel. So I went along with the Honda, which turned out OK because it was a great little bike.

    Fast forward to about 1992, a buddy bought a Super Rat and a 100B (enduro version) as a package deal and sold me the 100B cheap. I got it running and restored it. Then I got a phone call out of the blue from a guy who had a Hodaka in pieces and he wanted to sell it for $300. So I went to look, it was a Super Rat in pieces. I told the guy thanks but no thanks, as I was walking out the door he said 'just take it or I am going to send it to the crusher'. Well. That's my kind of deal. I dragged it home, then sold the 100B (spitfirebill on this board bought it IIRC) and restored the Super Rat slowly.

    The day I got it running and rode it around the yard a few times, I went in the house and called my dad (this was about 2001-ish). I asked him, 'Remember when I wanted that Hodaka?' He finally recalled what I was talking about. I said, 'Remember you wouldn't let me get one, said they were junk etc?' He said yeah. I told him, 'Well, I finally got one despite you' and hung up . He called back a minute later laughing like hell. That's one of my favorite memories of my dad.

  • Hungary Bill

    Jan. 1, 2012 10:19 a.m. Hungary Bill Reader

    Oh no. My wifes going to hate you for that picture...

    I was going to say that maintenance was part of ownership with that bike too. It was my freshman year so I took "small engines" as an elective. That little Hodaka was the basis of everything automotive I enjoy today. I honestly don't understand why parents think they're helping when they do stuff like that for a kid. Sure I missed the occasional outing with my friends, but when I showed up late I guarantee you I'd have the proudest grin on my face.

    Fast forward a few years to 2005 and it wasn't too long ago I was doing automotive odd jobs to get through my first year of college (just out of the Navy). I started busing tables at TGI Fridays (for $4 an hour plus tip-"share") and worked my way up over the next couple years into bar tending.

    But I digress, I would trade oil changes on a friends vehicles for haircuts, and there was usually someone in my classes that would run into automotive trouble through the semester. I couldn't tell ya how many times that would unexpectedly fill up the gas tank when I thought I'd be "sticking the thumb out" for sure. Usually a belt tensioner would let go on someones car, a girl couldn't change her own tire in the parking lot, or someone just wanted a tune up. I found if I didn't "charge" I usually got more money and customers

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