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MONEY SMART KIDS
Job Advice for Kids
by Janet Bodnar

Since I wrote about kids and summer jobs a few weeks ago, I have been deluged with requests for help from teen-agers not yet old enough to get "real" jobs. Here's a sampling:

• I want a job over the summer to get my dad off my back. I'm sure that I can do a lot of stuff, but I don't think people will give me a chance.


• I am 13 and want to get a summer job to earn some cash. I've thought about it, and I can't really come up with any good ideas. Can you help me?


• If you have any suggestions for a job in Baltimore, please help me out.


• I am 13, and I want a job. I know I'm young, but I think I can take it.


• Janet, I need money for a paintball gun. Do u [sic] have any suggestions?

As much as I'd like to help, I don't have the resources to find jobs for individual kids. But I'm happy to volunteer some advice. Kids, show this column to your parents. Parents, be sympathetic to your children's predicament. Give them ideas and help them market themselves.

Children this age need service jobs convenient to home and useful to people in the neighborhood. In addition to the suggestions in my previous column, here are a few more tasks that adults would be willing to pay for:

• Be a parent's assistant at birthday parties, helping to entertain the young guests, take pictures or just keep order.



• Offer to lug trash cans and recycling bins to the curb on collection day -- and bring them back when they're empty. Elderly neighbors and working couples would appreciate the help.



• Look in the classifieds for weekend yard sales, then volunteer to set up a lemonade-and-snack stand to serve refreshments to customers.



• Exploit your talents. If you're good at math, offer to tutor younger kids. If you like books, offer to read aloud to a shut-in neighbor.

One youngster writes that he's willing to "cut grass, hedges, wash cars, water lawns, whatever needs to be done." As long as he's organized about making fliers and canvassing neighbors, he's sure to have takers.

For other ideas, see Fast Cash for Kids (Career Press), by Bonnie and Noel Drew, and Better Than a Lemonade Stand (Beyond Words Publishing), by Daryl Bernstein.