I lived in town, so when I was 12 years old I got a paper route...which I kept for almost 3 years. I learned about making my own money, paying my own bills, saving and paying cash in order to cut costs...and responsibility. Those newspapers aren't going to deliver themselves, no matter what you think you'd rather be doing. And I learned about customer service. If the old lady with the walker wants her newspaper hung on the inside door handle of her storm door, just tossing the paper on the porch isn't gonna get it. I also learned about deadbeat customers...the folks who'd keep promising to pay you, get 4 or more weeks behind on their bill, then they'd call the newspaper office to complain if you tried to cut off their service for nonpayment.
I also learned about being on time. It was an afternoon paper route, and school got out at 3:30. I had a couple of customers who worked in town, but lived out in the country...and they got off work at 4 o'clock SHARP. So I had to have their paper delivered to their car, or to the appointed drop-off spot, before these customers left work. I also had 4 "newsstand" stops in town...two drugstores, the ice house, and the local hospital. Those also had to be delivered in a timely fashion, or else the retailers didn't have the fresh newspapers to sell.
It also taught me that nobody gives a DAMN when YOU have a problem, if it affects THEM negatively. It doesn't matter if you're in a wreck or in the hospital...to the employer and to the customer, those are EXCUSES. And nobody likes people who make excuses. That's an important lesson for a kid to learn on a job.
I'd suggest that, if there is ANY job a 13 year old can legally do outside the family home, you send him in that direction. Learning to please an employer, or a customer, rather than just pleasing yourself, is one of the most valuable lessons a kid can learn.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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