How a paper route helps kids ... and the parents, too
Aside from basic money management, there are ‘big-picture’ things children can learn
After years of listening to my students describe how little they know about money management, I reckoned it was a good idea for my three oldest to get weekly paper routes.
My middle child got hers when she was almost nine, which is young, I admit, but she was so steadfast in trudging along and helping her older brother with his routes every week that after a few months, we agreed to let her have her own.
They lug the stacks of papers and flyers into the house, put them together, pack them up, load the van and then their dad drives them from our rural concession to their routes in and around the village.
I asked my 13-year-old what he likes about delivering papers, and he replied, “When it’s done.”
I hope this means he’s learning to get satisfaction from honest work, even if he doesn’t relish the task.
The kids are paid 10 cents per house by the paper; they’re allowed to collect tips once a month, so the vast majority of their income depends on connecting with the people on their routes.
Going up and knocking on someone’s door to ask for money is hard enough, but to do so and also be able to carry on a short conversation with adults is daunting.
I can’t overstate how proud the kids are when they find they can actually make small talk and chat with their customers.
Other parents might disagree with me here, but we’ve asked the kids to save everything they make.
I struggled with this, because I know experts recommend kids spend their own money as motivation to earn; to learn budgeting; and also learn about buyer’s remorse. But I have kids with ADHD, and the usual advice doesn’t always translate.
The consequences and regret of a misguided purchase just wouldn’t stick — impulse buys would almost always win.
I’m hoping that in the long run, seeing how the money can add up will instil as much responsibility and awareness as looking back on misguided purchases. As time goes on, they’re more and more chuffed by watching the numbers grow.
So, yes, all the usual things kids learn from paper routes have applied: Responsibility, communication skills, understanding the value of a dollar, the benefits of saving, etc. But my kids have also learned things I didn’t expect — things in the “big picture” sense. Most significantly: What does it mean to be rich?
Most of the houses on the kids’ routes are worth more than a million dollars, some much more, with luxury cars in the driveway. And yet half of those houses don’t give the kids anything at all.
It’s led to some fairly philosophical conversations about why people share or don’t share, and how in fact, statistically, the people with the least share the most. We’ve talked about what our family gives away, and why, and how the kids can take part.
(In a culture where we gripe about how entitled young people are , it seems strange not to donate the cost of a latte to support the kids who are trying to work.)
The kids understand the role they play in the newspaper ecosystem: When readers pay for the bulk of their free paper’s delivery with tips, they’re supporting local news by lessening what the paper has to pay its paper boys and girls.
And as insipid as local weeklies might seem (yet another front-page picture of a toddler eating ice cream at a fair), they’re integral to civic life, reporting on local politics and events, and on community issues like poverty and living with autism.
I’m guessing they’re also an economic driver, given the ubiquity of their robust stack of flyer inserts.
The small picture is this: The people who smile when they see it’s the kids at their door; who know the kids’ names and leave them an envelope marked “Thank you!” and even send an email to let them know it’s in the mailbox, and who give them something at Christmas ...
To those people: I wish you could see the smiles on the kids’ faces every time they turn away from your front door with a crisp bill.
I’m not kidding — every damn time. They kill me, those smiles — the pride and barely-contained excitement. Yours are the houses where the kids remember to put the paper right up against the door in bad weather.
And when you give them their tip and wave to me in the background, I feel like we’re in this together, this project of raising kids, and I’m grateful to you.
Actually, that’s probably big picture stuff, too.
Latham Hunter is a writer and professor of cultural studies and communications; her work has been published in journals, anthologies, magazines and print news for 25 years. She blogs at The Kids’ Book Curator.