In this article we will analyze in detail why it is worth teaching a child to work and work from an early age, we will talk about how and where a child can earn his own money, how this will affect his future and how to competently weave this process into the general education system.
So, I earned my first money at the age of 10 at a gas station . It was in the summer, my friend and I went out of town to one of the gas stations. There weren't many gas stations back then. But it wasn’t difficult to get there; we took a regular bus. There we refueled cars, for which some drivers gave us a small reward.
I remember that I myself decided to work at a gas station. More precisely, it was our joint decision with my friend. Well, to be even more precise, we would hardly have decided to do this alone, but together it seems to be more fun and not so scary.
Our parents didn't encourage us to do this. Both me and my friend grew up in ordinary Soviet families. The family had enough money and we did not live in poverty. However, I remember now that I wanted to have MY own money , not begged from my parents, which I could spend on anything.
We wanted to be independent, adults. As a child, you usually always want to grow up as quickly as possible, and when you grow up, you want, on the contrary, to become younger.
In childhood, almost every child has many different prohibitions: smoking is not allowed, swearing badly, staying out until nine, not getting a bad grade, not playing around, not jumping, not showing your tongue, etc. Therefore, every child perceives adulthood as a kind of liberation from prohibitions.
Children look at adults and see that they can do anything. And all they hear from adults is: “This is not possible, that is not possible.”
Subsequently, when I got older and worked part-time in other places, I remember that I always did it with pleasure, since the work and the money I earned gave me a feeling of adulthood and independence , which is what I was striving for.
Although I speak for myself now, I am sure that for many children, work at an early age evokes similar feelings and emotions. If you are reading these lines and you have children, then here is the first benefit of working at an early age.
Give your child the opportunity to feel independent and grown up
By the way, if I loved working for money, I hated working NOT for money.
For example, I hated working in my parents' garden. Planting and harvesting potatoes, weeding grass, picking berries - all this tired me terribly. If I endured the first few hours calmly, then I began to get frankly bored. Moreover, parents always went to the garden from early morning until late evening.
So if you have children and they don’t like to go with you to the garden or dacha, then either take them for a shorter period, not for the whole day, or motivate them with something. You can do it either with money or in other ways, for example, with snacks, movies, etc.
But let's go back to my first job. In general, this way of earning money for a child is still relevant today . There are gas stations where fuel attendants work on a permanent basis, and there are gas stations where such employees do not exist and are not provided for.
We worked at a gas station without any agreements. They just came and started working. Nobody drove us away, although the time was different then. Now, most likely, you will have to first communicate with one of the gas station employees. For refueling itself, this will only be a plus, because it’s convenient when you don’t have to tinker with the gas tank cap and pump nozzle yourself, especially when the car is dirty.
Learn to negotiate
Common situation? You still have to give your children money and you still have to ask them for something and get nervous when they delay or don’t do it at all. Why not reconcile these two issues? Moreover, it is important to teach children to work and it is also important that children must learn to value both their own work and the work of other people. A small payment for this work from parents will help in the difficult task of raising children.
If a child has learned to earn money in some other way, for example, by making interesting videos that promote products or simply popular videos and photos on his blog, for example, about how to draw, sculpt, play or cook something. If such a channel becomes popular, then it can be monetized and receive money from advertisers, and for this, again, you need a bank card.
At what age can you work officially?
Labor legislation states that you can officially work from the age of 14. Perhaps some of the gas station managers will be afraid to take on such responsibility. Although, you can always agree and find a way out. For example, you can prepare children in advance and teach them what to answer in case unknown people start asking them various tricky questions.
I can say for sure that my first job at a gas station changed me a lot. She showed me the process of how money appears from a completely different perspective.
I used to always think that my parents had money, and that was always the case. Yes, I understood that they went to work, but I didn’t fully understand what it was.
Even when my parents told me that they had no money, I always knew that they were cheating. They always had money, so it seemed to me.
When I understood WHAT a job is and WHAT a salary is, many things fell into place. I have become more respectful of money. I realized that before money rustles in your pocket, you need to work hard and make some effort. Accordingly, I began to part with money more carefully.
If I had money, I was in no hurry to spend it left and right. I began to approach my purchases more rationally and carefully. But what’s most interesting is that I learned to realize the value of certain things.
I knew that in order to earn, for example, 100 rubles, I would need to work for a week. And when I subsequently saw something in a store, I could already estimate its value not just in rubles, but in the number of days that I would have to work in order to earn the required amount for it.
It is very
important that your child is able to evaluate certain things not in rubles, but in the amount of effort expended , then it will be easier for him to understand the value of certain things.
He will realize how difficult and difficult money is. Perhaps for some adults such reasoning will seem banal, but for a ten-year-old child the appearance of such conclusions is akin to Mendeleev’s discovery of his ingenious table of chemical elements. In terms of developing financial literacy, this was a real breakthrough for me.
So if you are still wondering whether your child should be sent to camp or given a job this summer, now you have compelling arguments to make a decision.
Many parents think that summer is a period of rest, when you need to swim, sunbathe, eat fruit and gain strength. And about work they think: “Work makes horses die.” And they transfer this philosophy to their child, they worry about him, that the poor thing will overwork, God forbid.
I assure you, a few weeks of work, or even better, a month, will have a much more fruitful effect on your child. You shouldn’t go to extremes either and send him to some kind of labor camp for the whole summer.
Also, it is important that the child wants this , so that his desire is conscious. To achieve this, I recommend doing the following. Find out what your child dreams about. Perhaps among his desires there is some expensive toy, for example a bike or a computer console. Offer your offspring to earn part of the amount, and you will add the rest to him for the purchase.
In general, you need to turn your child’s employment process into a game . After all, not every child wants to work in the summer, while his peers swim and sunbathe on the lake.
Here you cannot use force and force the child to work. We need to act more cunningly. It is necessary to show him the advantages of work, to convey weighty arguments to the child so that the child himself wants to earn money.
For those who stayed in the city
It is not always possible to organize a country holiday for a schoolchild. If he wants to relax and work, you can try to implement one of the “urban” ideas for making money.
Posting advertisements, distributing leaflets
Work that does not require special skills and qualifications is most often accepted on the basis of an oral agreement. But here you will have to walk a lot, this can lead to high loads on the legs and rapid fatigue. In addition, the weather is not always conducive to comfort during the distribution (posting) of advertisements. The price for such work is about 500 rubles per hour, it is best to do it with friends.
Read also:
Purchasing an existing business
Dog walking
Often people don’t have time to do this, but animals also want to run around for fun in the summer.
For a dog-loving eleven-year-old schoolboy who knows his future charges, this is a good way to make money.
Just don’t walk dogs of large aggressive breeds, even if they treat the baby well. In the event of any unusual situation, he simply will not be able to maintain control over the animal. The asking price is 100-200 rubles per walk.
How can a teenager make money on the Internet?
When we talk about work for children, teenagers, and schoolchildren, we primarily mean work in the summer. After all, in the fall, winter and spring, children study and, as a rule, they have no time to work.
But with the advent of the Internet in our lives, this situation has changed dramatically. Now any child can easily earn pocket money on the Internet at any time of the year.
If you have a computer with Internet access, you can earn money at any time of the day. You want it early in the morning, if the child is studying in the second shift, you want it in the evening or even at night.
In general, this method of earning money should be put in first place, because working on the Internet is simple, any child starting from the age of 9-10 can easily cope with it. To master this work, you don’t need to take any special courses, study for 5 years at an institute, or read a bunch of books.
You will not be fired from this job. You can work for a week, then go to your grandmother’s village for a month or two, then return and continue working.
You can be sure that your child will not get injured at work, he will not get hit by a car, and some hooligans will not take his honestly earned money.
Copywriting is a great activity for a beginning writer.
What other job is suitable for an 11-year-old child with a salary? Copywriter, rewriter.
Surely, by the time your child began to think about earning money on his own, he had already written hundreds of essays at school. So why not use this as a source of income? There are copywriting exchanges on the Internet. This is a trading platform that specializes in selling articles for websites on the Internet.
You can write texts to order or sell them yourself. This is especially suitable for children who have perseverance and patience. Payment for 1000 characters can reach up to 50 rubles. But the starting level is 6-10 rubles. for 1000 characters without spaces. So, if your child has the ability to express his thoughts beautifully and competently, then it’s definitely worth trying his strength in this direction.
How else can a child earn money?
Try contacting your local employment center or your city administration. Perhaps they have some public organizations or special companies that employ children.
In our city we used to have a special organization, I think it was called “Cobra,” which employed teenage children. I remember later, after a gas station, around the age of 13-14, I worked part-time in this organization. It was spring and we were clearing snow from roads, walkways and areas in front of entrances. In the summer, we usually spent time cleaning different areas.
We worked several hours a day, didn’t get very tired and received good wages for the children.
This was work that was closer to reality. If at a gas station we were akin to individual entrepreneurs , we ourselves decided what time to come to work and what time to leave.
At Cobra we were already hired employees. Work began at a certain time. I remember how worried I was about not being late for it. Now I understand how much this work influenced my responsibility and punctuality.
After that, I didn’t work anywhere else until I was 18. At the age of 18, I already started working seriously, like an adult. But that is another story. Now let's look at what other ways there are for children to earn money.
Sales of newspapers
In my city there is a free advertisement newspaper, “Fair,” which invites teenagers over the summer to distribute their newspaper. They are given bright yellow T-shirts, given newspapers, which they offer to buy in crowded places, in markets, near shopping centers, etc.
Overall this is a good school. I believe that the subject of “selling” should be taught in school. One way or another, much of our life is built on sales. When we meet a girl, we “sell” ourselves, our charm, sense of humor, etc. When we get a job, we “sell” our knowledge, skills and useful experience. When we persuade someone to our opinion, we are “selling” their advantages. When we build our own business, the key skill that an entrepreneur must have is the ability to sell.
There are many more examples that can be given. If you have a child, I strongly recommend that you teach him sales. But if you yourself don’t know how to sell, then give it to a place where they can teach it. Newspaper sales is one such place.
How to save money for a schoolchild aged 11-12 years old
There are many directions and areas where you can put your efforts. Sometimes it is useful to listen to the children themselves - they always have a fountain of ideas.
In addition, school and country friends who have already had similar experience willingly share it, earning authority in the children's team. Here's what one mother heard from her eleven-year-old son as motivation and strategy for implementing the plan:
Anton (a school friend, a year older) last year earned ten thousand rubles in the village over the summer. It was an interesting job - I helped on the farm, cleaned, took care of the horses, fed them. He knows a lot about horses now, has learned to ride and is going to a riding club in the city. As soon as he saves up money for a club card” - since in the village where we are sending Sasha (son) there is no horse farm, she suggested that he help vegetable farmers choose and bundle radishes. I thought she would refuse, but he was happy. Every morning I got up at 8 am (although I am a true night owl) and ran to work. Then I swam with the crew, and at 11 o’clock the boxes were taken away. Although I learned a little about the life of radishes, I also earned more than Anton - as much as 17 thousand, which I was terribly happy about.
Marina, mother of eleven-year-old Sasha, Vladimir region.
For those who spend their holidays outside the city, home business ideas for an eleven-year-old schoolchild may be related to agriculture and nature. In addition to the above, other solutions are also being implemented.
How to earn money and where to get a job during the summer holidays
Teenagers working as counselors in children's health camps earn money and relax at the same time.
To earn money for a schoolchild in the summer, the online earning options from this article are suitable, except for long-term ones. For example, running a blog or website requires full dedication, and therefore three months is not enough for promotion.
If we consider offline activities during the holidays, then the options from the article are also suitable when taking age into account. When applying, notify the employer that you want to find a job for the summer.
Ideas for part-time work for schoolchildren from agricultural regions:
- manual labor on fruit and vegetable plantations;
- care and supervision of livestock on livestock farms;
- landscaping of parks and playgrounds.
Where can girls work and where can boys work?
From the above options, a girl can hold the position of a cleaner, write a blog, write reviews, and take surveys. We recommend that the guy consider the following ideas:
- posting advertisements;
- car wash;
- delivery of postal items, food;
- dog walking;
- pumping up game accounts.
Both girls and boys can earn money as an SMM manager, on freelance exchanges, or as an animator (not earlier than 14 years old).
The video below shows additional ways to generate income.
Video: Working ways to earn money for schoolchildren.
Who and what kind of job can you get?
According to Russian legislation, minors can be hired when they reach 14 years of age. That is, from this age, schoolchildren are allowed to earn extra money. However, when choosing vacancies, keep in mind the limitations:
- Labor time should be up to 24 hours per week for children under 16, up to 35 hours for minors under 18.
- Types of labor. It is prohibited to use child labor in hazardous conditions, when moving heavy objects, or in activities that can harm moral development.
Before getting a job, a teenager should remember that going to work at the age of 14 is possible only with the consent of the parents. Upon reaching 16, earnings for children are possible with an official employment contract.
Online work with attachments
Risky teenagers try jobs that involve investing money. This includes options for leveling up characters in online games and blogging. Cash injections start the process faster and allow you to make easy money.
The blogger will need the expense to advertise the page. The amount depends on the desired speed of account promotion. It could be 1000 rubles/month or 5000 – 10,000. Those who have experience create websites, promote them, and earn a lot of money.
When looking to make quick money, you should beware of online scammers. Offering children to make money on the Internet, they ask for a contribution to purchase materials, open paid accounts for mail services, messengers. It is worth remembering that hired labor should bring money, not take away. If even before cooperation the employer begins to demand funds, this is fraud. For it, as for the theft of money, criminal penalties are provided.
