Searching for a replacement for the boy-chore duties around here

Locust Fork

I'm telling you guys.....its a sad state around here.   The weedeating hasn't been done since Larry bought that silly zero turn thing he just HAD to have.   There are limbs and piles of leaves to deal with too.    I knew when he got it and I wasn't going to pay to have the lawn done any more that this would happen.    Riding the mower around is great fun, but doing the trim work and raking the magnolia leaves onto a tarp and dragging them to the woods isn't fun at all.     We're too out of shape to do everything that needs done around here ourselves.    I'm about to start spraying everything with poison that I can.

The nearby boys have all grown up and moved on.    So, I just called the son of the local pharmacist.   It was the typical "you woke me up" phone call....."helloooooo".   I think the phone was mashed between his face and the pillow from what I heard.   It looks like he is going to be touching base with me on when he can come.    He's 16 so I should get a few years of work out of him before he moves on to whatever greener pastures are ahead of him.   

My grandson is only 2, but I'm sure he will eventually jump in to fight the privet hedges that seem to want to take things over here.

Grasshopper

I hear you, a lot of teens are mommy fed all the way through and don't or won't have to work. I guess I am older but darn I started mowing lawns when I was 12 and proceeded from there and anxious to make all the coin I could.

Horse Plains Drifter

I hear ya Kasey! I myself have threatened to get a couple barrels of Roundup and turn this yard work into a non-issue. Not many of the boys around here want to work but there are a couple high school girls that can out work the boys by a factor of at least two. Sadly, one girl graduated last year, and one just graduated this year, so they're moving on to bigger and better things. The girl who just graduated has a brother that is a year or so younger that is a good worker, but he is busy busy since he is one of the few that will work. She also has a twin brother that is a bum and an environmentalist, and just lays around playing computer games.

dreher

My son is 21.  He complains that it is almost impossible to get kids to work these days.  He does occasional jobs on the weekend when he isn't working his construction job.  He says a lot of his side jobs are really two people jobs but he tells me it is easier to just do it himself rather than try and pay one of his friends to help him.  The part that really chaps his butt is that he says his friends are better workers than most of young people he knows.  

I hope you find a kid that wants to work for you.

scooterdriver

Work ethic is near the top on my list of “Traits to cultivate in my children”. Seems to get harder with each new generation.

B17-P51

I will be your Man Slave for Food and free guns and ammo.

Butchdog2

Maybe in the winter, too darn hot down you way this time of the year.

Ditch-Runner

 good luck
I stopped by a local gas station (  couple miles away )   young girl at the register struggling with my CC 
 the owner stepped in  helped ( the girl had just started ) he said he has trouble getting help and a lot of the younger ones work a week maybe two  get there fist check and never seen again .

chme

Our GRANDKIDS are grown- and working full time jobs- and I wanted some help with yard work.  Thank GOD we live in the country, where you CAN find teens that WANT to work.  Mom posted on the Next Door site that her 13 & 14 yr old were looking for odd jobs for the savings accounts, posted to have them call me.  Within 5 minutes, they called.  I had 3 yards of hardwood mulch to move and place around fruit trees.  They showed up, worked like mad for 5 hours, rake, shovel, wheelbarrow,  Kept them juiced with lemonade, happily paid them for their labor.  There are good kids out there.  

hillbille

don't you have them people standing on the street corner holding signs will work for food????

Locust Fork

The main thing I try to get around is not letting any extra people know what I do here.    So, whenever I go looking for some extra help with something I try my best to get someone that I know and they know me.    The young guy stuff also includes things like unloading 25 rolls of paper that I picked up for my shipping and unloading a car full of firearms.   Some boys have made the mistake of BEGGING me to let them work for me....just to be let down by the fact that its not just shooting guns and playing around with firearms all day.   When they don't see a gun at all and they are shown the yard tools they are so disappointed.