Teens Don't Want to Work

MY APOLOGIES.

I thought I was posting THIS in the BREAK ROOM.

So what happened??

I think it's OK here.

I just paid my 15 YO and his friend $10.00/hour to build a fence.

They bought all the parts (I gave them a list) and with very little supervision from me, got it done.

Now, he's just as lazy as the rest of them most of the time, but he jumped on this and did it. (I see myself at that age and there isn't too much difference except I was raised on a farm where everybody worked)

We, as parents/guardians/grandparents are indeed guilty of coddling them.

Older generations have always thought the younger generations were going to hell in a hand basket. So far they've not managed to destroy the world.

.....that would be going to hell, holding a hand held I-Basket. ha ha!

Nice fence you have there now!

Me thinks you forgot to tell them boys to put in a gate too!

Have the trailer stuck in there now, hehehe! Hahaha!

Nope. The trailer is on the outside.

The 4 foot gate's on the left and I'm welding the hinges tonight to mount it.

I had a 16 foot gate in the old fence that I never used for 20 years.

U sure u no using the ramp on the right to get the trailer over the wall?

I want a trailer but I have no fence to put a gate in.

Need to find some teens that do want to work!

Nope, it's the kid's friend's trailer. I sold mine, I never used it.

The left over fence (ramp) I'm giving to my neighbor who gives us eggs from their hens.

They did do a beautiful job on that fence ( nails or screws?)

Screws, by hand. But they got to use prefabed panels and steel pipe with brackets.

Alec's friend has a truck with a flatbed. They took the old fence out by backing the truck into it.

I told them that it had to be straight and flat across the top and they did the rest. I did give them a piece of string to use to line up the posts.

Technology has changed very, very quickly in a short period of time and I think people are suffering from technology overload. Is this the problem, not entirely.

One neighbor's kid said he wasn't getting up THAT early for any minimum wage job

Ha. Sometimes it is just the people and motivation. I put myself through university the first time working for LESS than minimum wage (way less if I am honest). If you aren't motivated and don't have goals then it doesn't matter what you do in your spare time, be it facebook or playing with a stick (or those things called girls). Parents can certainly help to motivate kids (I know mine did), so it is not all the kids and technology's fault.

Had much more, but today is a day of meetings.....

For every kid you see hangin' out doin' nothing, there are a few that are busy working already....you never see them, because the're busy....When the kid has to stand on his own two feet and feel a little hunger pangs in the stomach, well that motivation just has a way of kicking in....now what direction that motivation takes is anybody's guess.....I lived through the 60's , what a party....Tune in, drop out, but I always held a job, and I always worked hard....Everybody was sure civilization was in full meltdown mode....OMG the kids grew their hair long, it was the end of the world....HA!

I have always felt. That someone who does not have a job, has more initiative when they are hunger.

"My Ma and Pa told me, son you gotta earn some money

If you want to use the car to go driving next Sunday

I didn't go to work, told the boss I was sick.

You can't use the car 'cause you didn't work a lick"

That's the way I grew up.

Sorry,

credit: Eddy Cochran, 1958

I remember way back the 90's to when I was still a useless teenager. I was darn near useless and never did anything right that I did touch anyway.

Interesting thing was once I left home to go to college I went from being useless and never doing anything right to mom and dad offering me a full weekends worth of fuel for too and from college some 300 miles away and back plus an actual working wage given to me every month just to make sure I came home and helped out.

Turned out I did a whole lot more around there then they realized. Even more so once they they figured out just how really useless my brother was in my place.

Whole lot more than you realized also......... And I bet when people asked you what you did, you'd respond, nothing much......

I can see by the responses that parental or guardian input had a lot to do with all of you working your way to where you are today. Folks can't let TV , internet or cell phones replace parenting . Them gadgets ain't babysitters.

I grew up in the 50's and 60's. The DI My Paw didn't allow me ANY fun....at 10-11 years old he had me dragging Romex under houses and across hot attics. I knew then I did NOT want to be an electrician. At 14, I started cutting grass!

its not like it washttp://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-10/people-not-labor-force-soar-record-918-million-participation-rate-plunges-1978-level

netmaker-

I can certainly appreciate what you are saying. Just some random personal thoughts on the subject dilemma:

Each generation thinks the next generation isn't working as hard and has more things handed to them with less work than their generation.

Each generation thinks the previous generation is lying exaggerating about how hard they had to work, study, etc. The old "We had to walk 5 miles to school in blinding snow with no shoes on, etc." speech.

Unfortunately the hard workers don't get as much recognition as the lazy ones. You don't see as many hard workers because they are busy working. Those that don't want to work are hanging around on the corner where they are easily seen.

I belong to a volunteer fire company and see a lot of young men/women as junior fire fighters age 16 and 17, many new recruits ages 18 to 21 and young established fire fighters ages 22 and up. Almost all of these are hard working and eager to learn. They mostly keep out of trouble because they want to progress to become competent, reliable and productive fire fighters. After a short period of time most of these young men are better prepared, better skilled and have more desire than my generation had/has. They spend 180 hours training/learning just to become a fire fighter 1, but for us it was only 80 hours. Fire Fighter 2 is now 80 hours but was 40 hours for us. Many of these young people are much better skilled and mentally prepared than my generation was. I trust them with my life.

Youngsters take as much as we are willing to give them.

All generations want the next generation to have a better life than they do. Example: generation #1 busted their butts to buy a used junk car; Gen #2 worked for and was helped financially to buy a real nice used car; Gen #3 Mom and Dad bought a nice used car for Junior; and finally #4, Mom and Dad buy a new Audi, BMW, Firebird, Camaro, Explorer, Mercedes, etc. for Junior or Sissy. Why? We want them to have a better life than we did and don't know how to give them anything else but material things. Maybe it is our fault that we don't know how to communicate love and hard work with the benefits of these. Maybe they don't know how to accept love and hard work.

Laziness and lies are the easy ways to get by. Energetic efforts and truthfulness are harder to get started but easier to maintain.

Good Luck, Old Salt

Try living with your parents until your children are old enough to keep you.