image source

Instead of hanging around at the local parks with your mates, get together with some industrious friends and form a car park, carwash team. All you need is a few buckets, some cleaning cloths or sponges, and a small bottle of cleaning liquid. All these can be borrowed from home and you can buy cleaning agents for next to nothing at your local store. Make sure there is somewhere around where you can access clean water.

It’s important that you make a sign on a piece of cardboard (or flag) so that potential customers know what you’re doing. Walk around your local store car park and ask people going into the store if they would like to have their cars washed. I’m sure they would say yes, just because they admire your diligence. They don’t have to leave you their keys or anything. All they have to do is say yes and pay you.

Make sure that the service is excellent and that everyone in your team behaves appropriately. Kick them out if they don’t. They’re bad for business. Remember to keep your prices affordable and serve with a smile. You’ll keep getting customers that way because word will get around. You may even get extra tips if you do a splendid job.

Be Creative

image source

Most teenagers can do something with their hands – and very well. Find out what you can do. Can you paint pictures, create jewellery, make phone charms? Can you knit baby bonnets, scarves, socks, mobile phones and gadget cases? Can you make interesting greeting cards? Whatever you can do, do it. I’ve bought jewellery I didn’t especially need because they were made by an active teenager who was doing their bit to earn some money wisely. Your friends, teachers, friends’ parents, youth workers, parents’ friends etc, are all potential customers.  If you’re the right age you can also sell your creations on e-bay, but if not, an older sibling or your parent can help you set up an account and manage it on your behalf.

You can also practise doing spray tattoos until you’re good at it and charge your friends and their friends to get it done. Learn to do braids and corn- rows and advertise yourself as the pre-holiday hair make-over person. Get your clients to bring their own rubber bands so that you won’t have to buy any.

You can also make cushions and bean bags. Go to these websites for more information if you’re interested.  Instructables.com,  How to make it.com Learn how to make stuffed animals here. Flickr site is good too, but you have to sign up. Great ideas on making and selling jewellery can also be found here. Obviously this list just barely skims the surface. You can find a site to show you how to make virtually anything.

In the Neighbourhood

image source

Look for people in your neighbourhood who may not be able to/haven’t got time to cut their own lawns. Senior citizens, single people – both men and women, people who work late hours, people who do shift work, young couples, people living in rented accommodation, people who live in flats with little gardens, single women with young children. All of these and more are your target market.

Come together with some good friends, design a poster, and ask your school to print them out for you. Your school should be able to do this. If not, your youth club or any local youth club will. It’s what they’re there for. Knock on doors and talk to people, if they seem interested, leave the handouts, but don’t just put them through random letter boxes, no one likes to get junk mail in this way.

You will have to use manual grass cutters or light, petrol ones. Your group can put together money to buy two of these by borrowing the capital (money to start the business) from all of your parents. Make sure you pay them back when you start earning or they won’t lend you money if you need some to repairs your tools later on.  

Better still, if someone in your group can provide the tools for free, you’ll only have to pay for the minimal upkeep or petrol required for use. Running this sort of business will not only top-up your allowance. You’ll be earning quite a lot of money if you build up satisfied customers who like and trust you and your work. They will also recommend you to their friends and family if your work is excellent.

Babysitting

image source

Whether you’re male or female, ask your local youth club to run a baby-sitting course. It’s their job to help you in this way. Make sure you have a certificate at the end of the course. Take this with you when you approach potential clients. Don’t wait for people to come to you. There may be a new family in your area who need a baby sitter but don’t know who to ask. Advertise your service and expertise. Be nice, decent and always behave appropriately when you’re working in someone else’s house. You’ll get recommended this way and can earn a whole lot by doing your job well. There’s always enough time when you’re on your own to watch TV and talk to friends on the phone.

Don’t smoke, drink or swear in your employers’ homes. Treat them and their kids with respect and you will get this returned to you triple-fold. You can earn a substantial pocket-piece babysitting if you’re doing it right.

Work for Parents

What type of work do your parents do? There may be something you can do to help so that they don’t have to hire someone else to do it. Even if they’re not employers, there may be some way you can earn by doing a small bit of their job. For example if your mum works in a salon, you can talk to her about asking the boss to allow you to come in on week-ends to clean the curlers and hot irons, sweep up the floor and dust off the items on the shelves. Is your dad a builder? You can do a variety of manual labour on site at the week-ends and during school holidays.

Does the office need a paper boy/girl, a filing boy/girl during the holidays? Your dad is a chef at the local pub? Do they need an extra someone to wash up on Saturday afternoons? What about the local pool or leisure centre. Do they need someone to help drain the pools early on Saturday mornings, and your aunt already works there? Make known your willingness to do this sort of work and you could soon be earning a significant amount of extra money.

In the Home

by Haxxah and KraZug via Flickr

• Does your dad take the car to the carwash on Saturday mornings? Does he use a valet service? If so stop him right there! You can take this over and do it for a five percent discount. Besides, he doesn’t have to use petrol to drive there.

• Does your dad (granddad) go to the barber around the corner? Are you a dap hand at cutting hair? Ask him to trust you to do it just once. Do it for free the first time (just in case you get it wrong) then charge him for subsequent cuts. You can take this over, earning a good amount of money for yourself. When you become confident enough you can start doing your friends’ hair, your dad’s friends’ etc. Your dad will be happy to give you the money instead of his barber.

• Does your mum (grandmother) have her nails and hair done? Have you been to the salon with her a few times and think that you can do the job just as well? Try it then. First time free then charge her for subsequent top-ups. She’ll rather go with you, as she won’t even have to leave the house to get primed up.

• Does your mum moan about getting the ironing and the washing done? Ask her to hire you to do them. Remember that this will be your job. If you want to get paid you have to do them regularly and properly. If your mum is satisfied with the job you do, she will reward you generously and respect you even more. Your responsible nature will not go unnoticed and you may even be allowed more freedom than usual. But of course, this will only happen if you do your job responsibly and properly. You’ll kill two birds with one stone – get more respect around the house, and earn yourself some decent cash. It’s all win-win.

• If your grandparents pay someone to come in once a week to do some cleaning, lawn-mowing etc, who better to do the job (and get paid) than you? This also enables you to spend some more time with them. Remember though, that if you’re not serious about doing the job effectively and efficiently, you shouldn’t take it on because it can potentially damage the good relationship you have with your grandparents. This is the last thing you want to happen.

Paper Delivery

This is one of the major little money earners for teenagers. Delivering papers is quite easy to do, and it’s a regular earner. You can also do it alongside other little jobs.

Supermarket Jobs

image source

The local little markets and supermarkets are always looking for teenagers for Saturday jobs. There are till positions for which you’ll be trained, but there are others such as trolley boy/girl, where you’ll be responsible for taking the trolleys from the bays in the car park back to the front of the store. There are also positions for stacking shelves and recycling the cardboard boxes.

Any job is to be done with pride. Parents tend to respect kids who’ve made the decision to earn a bit of money on their own. You’ll see a different side to your parents when you start working because they are likely to welcome you (at least partially) to the adult world when you take on this responsibility. Good luck with earning.

This is what is called the Funnel Metaphor in friendships. What this means is that upon first meeting someone, you have a small hole that eventually leads to a much wider hole. Gaining trust in another person is something that has to be done slowly, especially if the person at first does not appear to be trustworthy.

Once an individual gets to know a person, more personal information may be confided in the new friend. Starting with the narrow opening is much better than a larger opening, because if the larger opening is made smaller, by then the damage is already done: the new person knows too much about you and can use any of that information against you if given the chance.

If you keep this metaphor in mind you will be able to make and keep friends, and not have to worry about what another person might do to you. Remember, another person can only do things against you if you allow it to happen. Do not allow the chance to happen and you will cultivate many good relationships.

You may certainly want back your ex-girlfriend but the question is “how to get your ex girlfriend back?”. In most of the cases getting your relation back is achievable. However, the only thing that you should know is the right way to do it. If you follow the wrong techniques or advices you might end up driving your love away from you or even make her avoid you. When it comes to relationships there are certain things that you have to consider.
Try to build up your self esteem and be more confident. Go for shopping or gym, then you should be able to remain calm and confident. Patience is very important. When you are good, your genuineness can pull her back.

Go to the library.

I know the library is the last place that a teen would want to go but if you find a good book, it can be very fun. If you’re a book worm it would be the best place to go.

Go to the park.

If you like playing basketball, swinging, or even just to go hang out with your friends it could be the perfect place to go.

Go swimming.

Swimming is always fun and relaxing. It’s the right place to go if it’s hot out.

Work out.

A work out is good for your body and can be very pleasing. You don’t have to push yourself to the limit but just enjoy it.

Draw.

Of course this wouldn’t be for everyone but if you let your imagination soar and then put it on paper, you could end up drawing something really cool.

That’s pretty much all there is to do but I hope it helped.

Image via Wikipedia

Teenagers are smart.  They want to be independent but they like having food provided and their clothes cleaned so they hang around home.  The problem is that they don’t always want to live by “house rules.”

My wife and I have been married 37 years.  We didn’t think we were going to be able to have children but lo and behold after being married 10 years we had a son followed by two more sons.

Over the years I have been “taken to school” by these fine young men and I thought, if you have teenagers, I could pass what they have taught me (often without meaning to) your way so that perhaps you could use less headache medication than I have had to take.

Here are three ways to know your teenager is not telling you the truth or is up to something:

1. Massive Showering
   

   Your teen comes home and goes straight to the shower.  The shower creates steam and privacy.  A teen can take their cell phone into the bathroom (with the phone placed between towels) and live for days.

   Reasons for going in there may be to wash off the smell of smoke, alcohol or to wash the sleep out of their eyes because they didn’t sleep at the overnight the prior evening.

   Another takeoff on this same theme is to hurry to the bathroom indicating they are in distress.  The whole idea is to avoid initial contact with a parent whose nose and/or eyes may get too close.

2. Your Teen Often Asks to Spend the Night at a Friend’s House
   

   The problem with friends is that you don’t know who is going to be home.  They may live with seven dwarfs.  Also, there are some pretty crazy parents.  Some feed the kids booze and at least on one occasion we had a mom be less than circumspect while getting dressed.

   A red flag should go up when your teen says that one of their friend’s parents works third shift so you cannot talk to them about rules and who is going to be there when your teen is spending the night

3. Anger is a Great Source of Information

   If you ask your teen about something they may have done wrong and they fly off the handle chances are good you have done a good job.  Remember, teens always operate by the methodology “A good offense is the best defense.”

While I am writing this with a bit of tongue in cheek, I would urge you to take inventory if your teen begins to want money all the time because that may signal drug use.

When your teen changes those kids he or she hangs with all of a sudden then there be trouble “a-brewing.”

Today though, parents almost have an unfair advantage.

Why?  Teens are lazy.

There are many computer sites kids go today such as FaceBook and MySpace.  Kids get and post messages as well as pictures.  Often they roll merrily along thinking they are safe.  The problem for them is they don’t sign out of their site so when mom or dad rev up the computer in the morning to check the stock market, they see their teen in the latest Victoria’s Secret “pajamas” or puffing on something they can’t quite identify.  Or better yet they see a verbal response from one of their teen’s friends congratulating them on their latest success at “fooling their parents.”

Of course there are still such things as eye contact but why worry about such mundane things when most of the time our teens, God love’em, simply shoot themselves in the foot.

I will retain you in my prayers

But what if you spent a summer working as a freelance writer?

Freelancing is not a common summer job by any means. No teenager wants to sit in front of a computer all day writing articles in the middle of summer break. You would have to be a retard to chose such a job! Who would be inside writing during summer?

There is probably only one person who would do that. Me. I am in no way a nerd, yet everyday during this summer, I planned out two or three articles after getting out of bed. Why did I do that this summer? Because I need money, but I can’t get a summer job.

You see, here in Texas, you need to be at least sixteen to get a job. But I just recently turned fifteen. I knew there was no way to make money from a fast food store, so I turned my attention to the world on the internet.

At first, I was looking for a way to make money using a website, using affiliate marketing, and all the other good stuff. But until June 17, 2009, I had no clue that I could make money by simply writing. How could I know this? My internet was down until a few days before June 17. But somehow or other, I found out and became a freelance writer.

How was my experience as a freelance writer? Very Bad. Because of freelancing, I got headaches almost every day which ticked off my mom. What happened then is just history. But who cares about history? Not me. I was just writing for the money and recognition.

Did I get that? Sort of. I got the recognition, but I barely made any money. This summer, I have made a total of about eight dollars and eighty cents. I was expecting this to get me a lot more money than that. I thought I would make at least five hundred dollars. I could have, but I didn’t start in the right direction.

I first started to write for a company called Triond. I thought that it was a good website. I heard that you got paid for writing, which provided all the inspiration that I needed. But when I started to write for them, I made only a few cents in one month. For example, my first billing statement said that I earned only one cent. Only one measly cent. I was just about to quit.

And I almost did quit. But what stopped me was getting more money the next month. But that was still only two dollars and ninety six cents. I found new places to write, but I just didn’t like them much.

But now, I wish I did quit Triond for other sites like ConstantContent, or Helium. At least I would have made the money I dreamed about.

So is it worth it to be a freelance writer as a summer job? Yes. You just have to find the right place to submit your content.

While you don’t have to take any driving lessons you do need to obtain what is called a “Temporary Instruction Permit”. In order to do this you have to make a trip down to your local Secretary of State office. You will need to bring your picture ID, the actual Social Security Number Card, birth certificate and at least two proofs of residence. Depending on your situation your document list will be tweaked a bit here and there. For example, if you were born out of the states your birth certificate wont do you any good, you will need proof of legal residence. This can com in the form of a Permanent Resident Card, a Workers Permit or the United States Passport if you are a citizen. If you are married or have had a name change for other reasons make sure you bring your marriage license or other proof of that name change along with you.

With all of the docs in tow go to the Secretary of State office and tell them that you need to take the written exam for a drivers license. The test is pretty much common knowledge, although it is always good to read up on the subject to gather more information. If you want to grab the “What every driver must know” booklet you can get it from the nearest Secretary of State office, or if you have no time for a trip there just download it from the government website, it comes in chapters formatted as a PDF. By the way, don’t fret you can read pages 68-95 and you will have sufficient info to pass the exam. You should of course read the whole book at one point or another though.

The test is all multiple questions and it goes pretty fast as well. You know if you passed on the spot and your permit is issued right there. If you pass the fee is $25.00, if not then you do not have to pay anything.

Your permit is valid for six months and after a thirty day period of having your permit you are eligible to take the driving portion of the exam. The clerk at the Secretary of State office will give you a list of places where you can get your on the road testing done. Once you pass your driving portion of the exam you go back to the Secretary of state with your results in order to get your license.

On Saturday July 25th 2009, The Search for Miss Teen Canada- World came to its dramatic conclusion in the John Bassett Theatre of the Metro Toronto Convention Center and Smojoe will never forget it.

Fifty four Canadian teen girls will never forget it either. It was probably the biggest night of their lives. For a few moments each of these girls tasted celebrity, and the experience no doubt raised the bar under which the rest of their days are measured.   Beauty pageants yield turn-key celebrity status.

The Miss Teen Canada-World (MTC-W) competition is the only national search that conducts provincial challenges across the country to select over fifty finalists.  The stage show produced in each province showcases the girls’ talents, and each winner becomes “Miss Teen” of their home province or region.  The remaining finalists are awarded city titles and invited to travel to Toronto to compete for the title of Miss Teen Canada-World.

Hours before the pageant, Smojoe gets an All Access pass

The two words ALL ACCESS printed on a plastic laminate card clipped to my collar let me walk through the entire complex completely unmolested by security and stage hands. Those two words granted me this exclusive, behind the scenes look at Canada’s biggest teen beauty pageant.

Back Stage at 5pm

Backstage there was plenty to see, like Kent Oakley of Music 21. The guy looks just like Jimmy Page, and he’s most of the brains and some of the brawn behind one of Canada’s foremost entertainment support companies. This guy, by virtue of his stage show genius became central to the successful execution of Michelle Weswaldi’s complex music and dance fantasy. Kent set up the audio, lighting, and screen projections. Two movies were shown using rear projection on a central white spandex sail beside two similar sized gobos on the right and left that showed the Miss Teen Canada– World logo in pink. Kent’s stage crew also rigged four booms with lights, and managed the twin microphone podium that preceded and followed the hosts to and from the stage.

In the dressing rooms

Hair and make-up people from Pro Makeup were kept busy grooming the finalists all afternoon in the facilities available backstage at the John Bassett theatre. This is the realm of Chris Fry and Adam Colbourne from Newfoundland Pageants. Backstage, these two sheriffs marshal girls around to various stations from one obligation to the next and keep a tight ship running on schedule.

At five pm there was another rehearsal

Shawn Cuffie was the 2009 MTC-W choreographer and first choice of Michelle Weswaldi to design the dance production. Over the course of year he’s travelled all across Canada with the MTC-W tour. Although I’d met him a few times before this afternoon, I initially didn’t recognize him here because in our previous meetings he didn’t say too much. Now his voice was hoarse. Shawn’s usually a pretty cool customer, but today he was really working, and breaking a sweat every time he looked at his watch.

Shawn Cuffie the choreographer

With a solitary clapping of ‘one, two, three, four’ Shawn put the girls through the beats to check their moves. “No spinning and no waving” were the five words he repeated almost fifty times. Cuffie rehearsed with the participants and policed their hand gestures – each girl fought their natural instincts to wave to an imaginary crowd, or twirl her imaginary dresses. Shawn watched carefully as fifty four girls presented themselves at the front of the stage. ‘No spinning and no waving’ he’d say again. I’ll be honest the first rehearsal looked pretty shaky, yet it was also very informal and strangely relaxed.  Mispronounced names during the roll call accompanied awkward bumping on stage as the mechanics were continually refined. At 5:30 pm, Shawn and his two assistants knew they still had lots of work to do before the eight pm show.

Some Conceptual Obstacles

Smojoe watched and wondered how Shawn Cuffie could possibly be expected to prepare fifty plus contestants for stage movements that only twenty finalists would actually execute? The number drops again for the final ten, and then again when only five are left on stage. The answer is repetition. Each girl practised everything once and then went to Hair Make-up and Wardrobe between bouts of dancing and strutting.

The 2009 Search for Miss Teen Canada-World had 54 outstanding teenage girls that are all accomplished in many different avenues. Each began the journey with no idea what to expect, nor did they understand the commitment, the time, the effort and the strength it takes to be a national finalist. They do not just win a crown and smile and look pretty. There are many aspects of the pageant. They even award a $2000 academic scholarship for the best written essay.

Back Stage Banter

The relationships that had sprouted online for three months prior to meeting here, had blossomed now as all the girls had become friends during this past week in Toronto. Now there was lots of talking and laughing and friendly banter. Many girls took pictures of each other and shared them instantly with sophisticated smart phone technology. And there were plenty of inside jokes and broken sentences with secret meanings that would cause riotous laughter and break the ranks. These girls were having fun, just before the biggest night of their lives.

Here’s Rob Campbell the Smojoe with hosts Adamo Ruggiero and Paula Brancati at the conclusion of the 2009 Search for Miss Teen Canada – World.

Another great backstage blog post is on Wendy Huang’s blog and Katherine Fountain

On stage at the end of the evening the event came to its natural conclusion -  every single person in the John Bassett Theatre held their breath when five girls became two girls.

Andaria Alexander age 18 from Alberta is a provincial figure skating champion and has lots of practice in front of large crowds – she was the first runner up, and that meant that winner is…

Siera Bearchell, age16 and from Saskatchewan, is the 2009 Miss Teen Canada -world. 

This girl’s personality, pose and overall excellence won the competition. Here is a link to Siera Bearchell’s OnSugar blog where she wrote about the tragic house fire that left the Bearchell family homeless this winter and how that catclysm inspired her disaster relief platform – her story also inspired the judges.

I can’t even turn on the television without seeing pregnancy at a young age being glamorized. Sixteen year old girls whom are pregnant have their own show. Since when was teen pregnancy something to be proud of? I’m not stating that it’s something to be ashamed of, because yes, accidents happen and you should support your child if that is the case, as it is one of the most important things that they require at a time like that, but showing it on television only makes young girls want to grow up an “be like her”. This is the media’s way of saying “have sex and live off the government” because in most cases, that’s what ends up happening. Yes, there are many teenage mothers that receive support from their families and are able to finish school and give their child a healthy and loving life, and there are some who aren’t able to finish school and able to do this, but all too often this is not the case.

We shouldn’t be glamorizing teenage pregnancy, we should be teaching our children that sex is something that may indeed bring with it dire consequences and to abstain at all costs, but that if they aren’t going to, that they must indeed protect themselves.

I was young when I had my son, not sixteen, but nineteen, and I managed to obtain my diploma through correspondence classes and now have a great job and am able to take care of him and bring him up in a loving home. He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I wouldn’t change a thing. But I also had the love and support of my family and his father. I was one of the lucky ones.

I feel for these young girls who are scared to ask their parent’s to allow them to go on birth control, or who don’t use protection because the guy says he doesn’t want to, or even the ones who feel that they are ready for a child, when mentally, most of them aren’t.

Today’s generation is being brought up and a twisted world and the media is playing on their sponge like minds. This has to come to an end.

To parents, the thought of your “Little Baby,” or “Innocent Baby Girl/Boy” growing up too fast and learning the warmth of the opposite sex’s body would more than make a mother or father shudder.  I am about to start my freshman year in college, and as I can recall back in the 8th grade, some of the other students were already picking on me for still being a virgin.  This is horrible, considering that times are only getting worse.  I am afraid that by the time my children are in 6th grade, the world of sex will be all around and closing in on middle schools.

Parents may feel like talking to their children about it in middle school is a bad idea, but in fact, it is not.  If you want to protect your kids, I suggest the earlier you tell them the better.  After all, if you don’t, then who’s to say that your neighbor’s child will not either?  Nobody is to say that…

Moving on to the high-schoolers…  This is where the term sex gets more of a meaning than just a quote like or such as “ewww” or “that’s nasty!”  During these years, students and teenagers begin to compliment and boast to each other about their sexual activities.  NO ONE IS SAFE FROM HIGH SCHOOL AND SEX!!!  Even the quiet girl in the corner is bound to be approached in a sexual manner at least once or twice a year, so even if your “Baby Girl” or “Little Man” has straight A’s and is on every sports team and two of the school’s clubs, talk to him/her!

So in conclusion, parents need to talk to their children and teenagers as soon as possible (when the child or teen is old enough to comprehend the WHOLE conversation).  Remember that if you wait too long, then some other youth will be able to talk to your son or daughter first and give them the wrong ideas.  But if all else fails, it’s time to perform a “Hail Mary” and make sure that your child will always inspect their partner’s body of visual signs of an STD, always WATCH the male properly equip the condom (FEMALES), and never have unprotected sex.  EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER!!!  NEVER!!!!