Working Girls!

In my mind summer is the perfect time to get things done.  Sure we like to have some fun too, but I think it’s important that my kids know how to work.  I’ll try not to get on my soapbox about kids feeling entitled to things.  I don’t give my kids an allowance.  They rarely get rewarded to babysit their siblings or help with household chores and projects.  They are members of this family and they have responsibilities as such.  I have super strong feelings about teaching children to manage money, but I don’t believe it should be with my own.  I cringe when I hear parents claim their kid saved “their money” to buy something when in truth the kids saved their parents or grandparents money.  Anyhow, soapbox… I’ll stop now.  Abigail has been babysitting a lot this summer.  I think she’s had eight gigs in the three weeks since school got out, which is a lot considering she was gone at EFY one of those weeks.  Carly has babysat a few times as well, but naturally Abigail will typically get first dibs on babysitting jobs since she’s older and more experienced.

Carly wanted to also earn money this summer so I proposed a business plan for her and she was willing to get on board.  This was my advertisement on our neighborhood facebook page:

Are your trash containers in need of a good cleaning?  My 12 year old daughter Carly would like to earn some money this summer by creating Eagle Pointe’s Immaculate Containers (EPIC) cleaning service.  She will pick them up curbside on a Tuesday after trash collection and return them to your home clean later that same day.  Each container will cost $10 regardless of size or condition.   Carly is a hard worker, detail-oriented, and very responsible (she’s also a great babysitter, but her older sister usually gets first dibs on babysitting jobs). 

If you’re interested please send me a PM with the number of containers you’d like cleaned and we’ll let you know what day she’ll be able to service your containers. It’s a dirty job but somebody’s gotta do it.  :)

We tested out the concept with our trash containers beforehand.  It took her about an hour per can, but we keep our trash and recycle containers in the garage and always bag our trash so we knew our cans would be cleaner than most.  Here are our before and after pictures I included in the ad.

The response has been great and this yesterday was Carly’s fourth Tuesday cleaning containers.  She has been amazing – working up to 8-9 hours each Tuesday and then cleaning few more containers each Wednesday – another 3-6 hours.  Jason and Katie have helped pickup/dropoff the containers (which earns them a quarter) as well as helping with some of the cleaning and drying of the containers.  It’s been a family affair and I LOVE seeing my kids working hard.  I check each container before it gets returned, but otherwise Carly is the boss and she has rocked it.  How many 12 year old girls would climb inside of filthy trash cans? It is disgusting – she’s cleaned up poop, cigarettes, and has tediously scrapped paint off of containers.  Although she doesn’t necessary like the type of work she’s doing I know that Carly feels a great sense of accomplishment and pride with the work she is doing. I am a proud Mom.