15 year olds and paper rounds....

[Sparklingbrook]

Does anyone have a Ds who just comes home from school and gets on with it? It's once a week, the local paper. He moans and groans about doing it for longer than it takes to actually do it.

DS been doing one for over 2 years and his sister did the round before for about two years.
And no they never stopped moaning!!!

Did you get involved Chilly? Every Wednesday it's the same. DH says we should cancel the round, but it's our road-how hard can it be?

They deliver/ed six days a week for the local paper (not a free one). Used to be about 30 odd papers when my DD did it but it's down to between 11 and 14.
So it's not exactly loads to do but still they moan. The papers have to be delivered by 5.30 so my DS eventually gets out of the house at the latest he can.
Give him the option of doing it or giving up but you're not going to replace the money he is not earning. That kept mine motivated

Well that's the thing isn't it? It keeps him in PS4 games and Coolers from Costa.
It is his GCSE year but he's moaning about one hour, once a week.

Although DS gets a bit of pocket money of us and he is now earning money as a ref on the weekend he realizes that he need the regular income of the paper round as matches get cancelled if the weather is bad or he might not get allocated matches.
When he reached 16 the paper started paying him minimum wage so his paper money almost doubled. That has made it more worthwhile but he still whinges!

The local freebie doesn't pay minimum wage - they said something about being self employed.

Have to say if they will always find something to moan about so if it's not the paper round it will be something else. Like the lack of money as they haven't got a paper round anymore!

Oh Chilly I hear you I really do. He is like a giant toddler sometimes.

On the whole he's pretty ok and reasonable, but he has things like revision and the paper round that have to be moaned about. It's all a bit wearing.

We got really fed up with the " it's too cold to go out" " it's too far!" It's too heavy" " I'm too tired" that in the end I told him to resign. I got told " Thats really bad mum, they rely on me!" [gives up!]

Oh yes olbas, there's so many reasons why it's just tooo hard to do it. Tonight he delivered about 4 papers then came back to change his trousers as it was cold.

If it's once a week, I guess the money isn't really enough to motivate him?

I'd be inclined to say if he doesn't want the cash though, let you know ASAP so you can ring the agent and tell them he doesn't want the round any more! Whingeing is dispiriting, isn't it?

It's about £7-8 a week, more if there's a lot of leaflets. I keep threatening to cancel the round, but because it's our road if he changes his mind we'll never get it back.

Where we use to live, mums and dads use to drive their child around to deliver the papers!!

My dd used to just get on with it - her round was the road at the bottom of our road, and I just never needed to be involved.

ds's round was too far away for him to walk to, and also it was a really big round, so all the papers couldn't fit into the trolley at once, so I did used to have to be involved in dropping him over there then collecting him. He used to drive me mad with the lack of planning / arranging what time he was going to do it - he'd never think that I might have other commitments at the time he decided he'd do it.

if he takes an hour then £7/8 is double the minimum wage for a 16 year old. Perhaps mention that to him

Yes, I agree with Chilly - that's FAR more (well double) what my dc earned before they got to 18

That's a good point. I don't make him put the leaflets in the papers though which I should do and that would take him more time.

DS, 14 does a morning round on weekdays. I think the fact that it fits in with his getting up for school routine helps. I suspect the money is better too.

I'm not sure he'd like a once a week round either.

Shockers - I think my DS would be moaning even more if he had to deliver them in the morning especially now that he is only at college three days a week so it would mean getting out of bed early on his days off!!

We don't have a newsagent anywhere near us, plus his school bus departs at 7.45am so DS1 wouldn't be able to do a morning round.

Two teens here, 3 paper rounds between them, 6 days a week. One moans like hell, one gets on with it. I remind her it pays for all the pretty things she likes but the moaning doesn't stop. I just try to think happy thoughts ...

DS gets the school bus at 07.40. His mornings are timed with military precision!
His round does only take him 25 minutes though... and most of it is on our street.

That's not too bad if it only takes 25 minutes Shockers, I guess the newsagents is quite nearby too?

I will go for the happy thoughts Velvet. As soon as he's 16 he will be out there with his CV. That will give him something to moan about. There's no way he's spending all next summer after his exams slouching about and expecting me to fund it.

My DS1 does a paper round in the morning and it's a struggle to get him up (he needs to get up about quarter to 7).

But once he's up it's no problem, he just gets on with it. Bless him, he recommended his sister (13) to cover when his mate was on holiday, and she had now got that round full time

£7 is pretty good for once a week - DS1 gets £12.5 for Mon-Sat and £5 for Sunday. No lie-in in this house

The newsagents is also on our street. £16 for mon-fri here. I'm going to show him this so he knows what a great deal he's got!

Yes do Shockers. My DC haven't even got a newsagents.