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Why don't we allow child labor anymore?
When I was a kid, I was a master saleswoman. I sold Girl Scout cookies door to door. I sold wrapping paper, magazine subscriptions and holiday gifts for school fundraisers, also door to door. I had a daily paper route, for which I road my bike around my neighborhood and expertly threw papers onto people's DOORSTEPS — even second floor apartment balconies.
What happened to those times? Now, kids send order forms to work with their parents, who set it on the break room counter and hope people sign up to buy something. The newspaper now comes flying out of a car window as the car sends pollutants into the air. Mind you, I am happy with getting my newspaper delivered to my home. But why can't it be a kid on a bike earning some extra bucks for summer camp? Working as a child taught me about responsibility, work ethic, respect, and how to make and budget my own money. But now it's "not safe" to send kids out to sell door to door. They might get robbed! Or kidnapped! Or hurt! Now kids just sit at home watching TV and playing video games bought by mommy and daddy's hard work. What is up with this picture?! (Sorry to vent ... ) 15 comments from 13 users
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posted by
GrpThink
on Jul 12, 2007 at 01:39 PM
The reason why adults deliver papers today is that they need the income because higher paying jobs have all be outsourced.
MS. MORNIN: That’s good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute. BUSH: You work three jobs? MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes. BUSH: Uniquely American, isn’t it? I mean, that is fantastic that you’re doing that.
posted by
marsh
on Jul 12, 2007 at 01:43 PM
I'm comforted these are the people who will be paying into our social security benefits when we retire. GDP may fall, and we'll have to subsist on cat foor (or cats) but we'll be world masters at the Nintendo. And think of all the gas we're saving with all these kids staying indoors to play, instead of driving them a block to little league or something else! Way to go America!
posted by
tonyh
on Jul 12, 2007 at 02:18 PM
I delivered the Californian in the 70's off of my bike. That's how I know Anglo1. His Parents lived on my paper route. posted by
anglo1
on Jul 12, 2007 at 02:22 PM
They have "all" been outsourced? Wow. Maybe just a slight exaggeration. I don't like the child labor laws but I know if they weren't in place you would see a lot more kids missing school to help cut grapes or whatever piece work the parents were doing. You see it now sometimes but when I was a kid it was more common, some of my friends missed school to help their parents make more money.
posted by
Hardliner4freedom
on Jul 12, 2007 at 02:28 PM
I don't know, but my uneducated guess as to why the kid's paper route has gone the way of the test pattern is that one dreaded word that strikes terror and chills the ambitions of people with good intentions, a word that ought to be formally stricken from the English language, effective immediately: "Liability." (The word "responsibility" will remain in force to pick up legitimate civil claims...) posted by
woofwoof
on Jul 12, 2007 at 03:21 PM
That brings up a question: Why is the school year only 9 months? Didn't it orginally coincide with harvest schedules for farmers? Why hasn't that changed yet? Didn't kids help in the fields over the summer.....back in the day?
posted by
RoyTullis
on Jul 12, 2007 at 03:25 PM
Now let me see. What jobs did I have between the ages of 10 and 16? I delivered papers, I worked at Kress in the stock room, I worked at Mitchener's as a dishwasher and later as a soda jerk (wonder where they got that name. Hopefully from pulling the handle for carbonated water), I worked in the potato fields and I cleaned out cow pens. Can't think of any more. Can't remember my folks suing anyone even when I got my arm broke in the potato fields.
Spam code- VJDFG Wonder why they use so many V's and Z's . posted by
randomfactor
on Jul 12, 2007 at 03:28 PM
Because they get more Scrabble points that way, Roy.
posted by
jbaldwin
on Jul 12, 2007 at 03:28 PM
I also babysat (starting at age 11!) and worked at a family friend's jewelry store (in high school). I never did any time at fast food joints, though. Never appealed to me.
posted by
randomfactor
on Jul 12, 2007 at 03:40 PM
In fact...hey Jason! Could you get the programmers to add two more characters to the spam code? Then we could have an ongoing Scrabble session on a daily thread, with a prize for the highest-total word spelled with the spam code letters... Hmmm....BMTKY "MY" or "BY," not many points there but at least I didn't lose a turn... posted by
possummomma
on Jul 12, 2007 at 04:45 PM
As record holder for peddling Girl Scout cookies in my council (during the 80s), I just have to say that today's girls don't "bring it". ;) LOL I was a leader for a few years and the spark just isn't there anymore (plus, the cookies are expensive and easily copied, now). My first "job" was picking produce. Ugh. I think I was eight or nine..of course, it was totally under the table and a family business so... I had no legal recourse. When I was 14, I got my first "real job" as an A&W carhop. Then, I moved into working at a skating rink. I basically worked from the age of fourteen on... That said, I don't know that I want my kids to hold down jobs in high school. I'm really torn about it. I didn't get a lot of sleep as a teen because I was working AND studying. It wasn't very healthy, in hindsight. So... I'll probably just continue to give the kids a shite' load of chores and projects and see how life pans out. posted by
sagefever
on Jul 12, 2007 at 07:22 PM
Whats wrong is parents buy stuff for the little darkings(I was gonna change that,but..) to "pay off" their quilt for not parenting.Say no,say do your chores,say "we can not afford that"~all worked real well for me.I did not have a job till I left home at 15,then it was either work or both school and work and be a parent.But you can not compare one's youth to todays youth~and this sounds very much like every generations"I walked both ways uphill in the snow with no shoes to school" mantra
posted by
NancyII
on Jul 12, 2007 at 08:21 PM
The kids in Tehachapi used to get to "smudge" in the winter for extra money as long as they kept their grades up. On nights when the sustained temp was to be below a certain degree, they would go in to the bunkhouse and spend the night. Other times when the sustained temp got to a certain level they would call and the parents would have to get up and take the kids to the bunkhouse. In the middle of the night. Or in the wee hours like 3 am. Mark (motopoet) did that as well at work in a gas station but his first job was a paper route for the Californian when it was an afternoon paper. Only on Sunday did he have to get up at the crack of dawn, or before). The stack of papers was delivered to our sidewalk and we (yes "we") would get up, roll them and rubber band or bag them and off he would go on his bike. When he had a flat or it was storming guess who drove him around. Still, it was good for him and he had some pocket change the was all his. posted by
RoyTullis
on Jul 13, 2007 at 12:47 AM
The Grand Daughter was so happy to turn 16 before summer vacation so she could her first job...She has a job for all summer as a life guard and is really proud when she gets her pay check.
posted by
AudreyB
on Jul 13, 2007 at 07:54 AM
I started working at age 15 at Sills potato shed in Shafter. I had to get a special work permit from the high school in order to get a job. Most of the high school kids in Shafter did some kind of agricultural work during the summer; chopping cotton, loading freight cars, whatever. I graded potatoes, sometimes for 14 hours a day. The girls got overtime after 8 hours and double time after twelve. We got a lot of double time pay. Even so, it was nice to hear the words, "last truck unloading". Working helped pay for my clothes and school supplies. But even more important, it taught me to work HARD. Sometimes when I get a whiff of chlorine I get the strongest memories of my time in the sheds. Not bad memories at all.
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