The goal is not to learn to work, but enjoy what you do no matter the tedium. Working toward a goal can have its highs and lows. Getting through the lows with a good attitude can be hard for kids. Make it a positive experience and they will learn much more than the task at hand.
Why Starting Jobs for Kids Early Matters
Teaching them that work can be fun means they will be more likely to finish without so much complaining. Our goal as parents is to teach them good work habits, ethics and pride of work. Start small and let them find what they are interested in. Frist jobs should be safe, fast, easy and fun!
For older kids, when/if their own business, they are entrepreneurs, learning how to roll with the things that inevitably come up and take the windfalls in great stride! Kids and teens can turn these jobs into resume builders and fill college application needs. They can also turn it into a side hustle as kidpreneurs!
Child Care Assistant
Ooohhh, don’t you wish we’d called it that when we were starting out?! Babysitting is often the first job a child have. Usually young teens are taking this as a serious business, but elementary-age kids can be a great helper for parents at home. They can fold clothes, unload the dishwasher, clean counters or simply watch the kids while mom takes a nap! These are invaluable skills to learn, and invaluable time to parents who need to get things done around the house during the day or work with kids at home.
For teens, they can mention the services they offer along with simply ensuring the children are safe while you are away. If its’ a crowded babysitting market or your kiddo is trying to get a good roster of regulars to depend on consistent cash flow, they can offer extra duties, such as folding clothes (that seems to be a big ask from my readers!), tidying up the kitchen. One teen that emailed their upsell was fixing things, hanging shelves and other minor to dos while another who hoped to be a chef made freezer meals for the family based on their likes as an added cost (and time saver!). She then asked for testimonials for her new site and a like on Instagram. That’s entrepreneurship!
Party Helper, Please
Kids parties are the best! And completely chaotic. Having someone arrive ahead of time to fluff up the party bags, or even assemble them, hang those last-minute decorations and wrangle guests and packages as they arrive at your home or event site can be worth a handy sum.
If your kiddo is interested in party planning, public relations or even getting a job at a restaurant, this is a solid resume entry. Teens can ask for letters of reference from parents as well to add to their resume or college application. This is easily one of the more fun and helpful jobs for kids that teaches them a host of responsibilities and skills.
Create a Product and Business
This isn’t as far-fetched as some parents may seem. I interview kidpreneurs who started as young as 5. When mom and her son Justyn sat down to practice writing, he spun fun stories about how he saw the world. She and the family loved his take and thought they’d make it into a book to share with friends and family. It soon turned into much more and finally an Amazon bestseller. He’s now 7 with three books under his belt.
Kids can start a business based on what they like to do. Even a lemonade stand can spark their creativity and turn that experience into a business. My daughter loved having a lemonade stand, even though sales were light, at best. We designed some decorations and expanded to include cupcakes and sales picked up. She also loved unusual and fancy soaps she saw at area Farmer’s Markets. We got her a little soap-making kit to play with at around age 10. My tween now has a thriving business making and selling soap with a rather attractive table with designs she redid from her lemonade stand days. They grow so fast!
While they won’t always make money right off the bat, the skills they learn stick. Starting an entrepreneurial pursuit will give them life skills as well as business know-how.
Couponing for Cash
I love to coupon! You can save $20-$100 a month on groceries with apps like Ibotta or by combing your local paper inserts or online printable coupon sites. But! It takes time, which is definitely a commodity. This is an easy job for kids at an early age and through their teens.
Teach kids to research coupons and match them to your grocery store’s local ads. Split the profits of the money you save with them or give them an allowance for the job. Make it fun. We use Ibotta (it’s not hard, trust me, and I was a late comer) and easily save $20 a month. The kids get to keep the rebate cash up to $20. We get to reap the benefits of free soda, toothpaste, yogurt and big deals around holidays (we get a free turkey and sides every Thanksgiving).
This teaches kids to save, search for deals, and the cost of living. They now know the best price for mac and cheese and will tell me to wait for a sale if it’s over our baseline. Love that!
Car Detailing (not just suds and cents anymore)
One of the more traditional jobs for kids can be amended in many ways. Kids can wash cars at an early age. Better yet, get a group of kids together, put out flyers in your neighborhood and arm them with the supplies they need to clean ketchup and mashed fries out of the upholstery and floorboards as well as soap up the cars.
This teaches team building, work ethic (car owners can be pretty paticular!) and running a business. Charge them for the supplies and let them come up with how much they will make per person after the costs of running the business is removed. I had one reader write in that he used Mommy’s Magic Mix (recipe here) with a choice of scent (essential oils) to personalize the cleaning to each person. A little added bonus that impressed the patrons, who also tipped a little higher.
If working as a team, have them break down who does what so they aren’t all running around. Someone will need to take the money and put it in the register (a box with compartments for change and bills is good enough), someone for the interior and another for exterior and someone to be aware of customers waiting to talk to them about getting their car washed.
