Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Rent-A-Kid.com

hire kids to do work for you
  (+10, -9)
(+10, -9)
  [vote for,
against]

Sometimes, kids can do things better than adults, with little complaint if they're paid. My suggestion is that the local neighbourhood gets a bunch of kids, and hires them out to people, like lonely old ladies who need their microwave clocks fixed after a lightning storm. Of course, the people who the kids are hired out to are rated on how the kids got treated, what the tasks were, etc, so that abuse of the system can't happen, and if any party acts inappropriatly, they get struck off the list. Kids could also 'specialise' in things such as computers, TVs, gardening, walking dogs, etc. Prices would vary depending on what job the kid had to do, and the money would be split between the kid and the website. This coul be good for the kids because a) it could be like work experience, and b) they get a little extra money.
froglet, Feb 14 2005

Bob A Job http://www.nostalgi...com/pop/bobajob.htm
wherein Cubs and Scouts do small jobs for small amounts of money. [calum, Feb 14 2005]

Odd Jobs Database Odd_20Jobs_20Database
by The Dread Pirate AforAssault. [calum, Feb 15 2005]

Child Labour in Glasgow, Scotland http://news.bbc.co....scotland/646426.stm
Child labour laws in Scotland - of which I am almost totally ignorant - seem to operate on a council to council region basis. [calum, Feb 15 2005]

Sex Offender Search NY. http://criminaljust...or/search_index.htm
Find the sickos. [brodie, Feb 18 2005]

Sex Offender Search TX. https://records.txd...oSearch/default.cfm
You can even search by neighborhood [Klaatu, Feb 19 2005]

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       Bob a jobbing, yes?
calum, Feb 14 2005
  

       I have a chimney...
po, Feb 14 2005
  

       I have a dream...
FarmerJohn, Feb 14 2005
  

       i have easy access to several hundred kids...WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THIS BEFORE!?!
etherman, Feb 14 2005
  

       sorry [po] but things like this in my theoretical rent-a-kid website don't happen, plus the whole idea of rent-a-kid is for kids, who'd otherwise be hanging around the city center doing god-knows-what, to earn money and get used to the idea of 'working' as in doing the dusting for some lazy housewife, or doing the gardening for some old bloke who can't bend down coz of a bad back. So no sticking kids up chimneys, i'm afraid, no matter how tempting it sounds (my little brother would make a great chimney sweep, I'm sure, but that doesn't mean I'd actually do it...) No, I don't think this is like bob-a-jobbing [calum], as a) the 'employees' wouldn't have to wear that silly uniform, and b) the proceeds go to the kids, and a small part to the website.
froglet, Feb 14 2005
  

       silly uniform? I'd love to see [calum] in his neat shirt, shorts and toggle.   

       they'd need some id surely?
po, Feb 14 2005
  

       I had to see "Pooh's Heffalump Movie" with my mother yesterday because she didn't want to go alone and we don't have any small children in our family, and it was cute and all but if they had little rent-a-kid booths in the lobby my mother could have taken one of them in to see it, and she wouldn't have minded paying for the child and she'd also be able to go without feeling silly about it.   

       So +.
phundug, Feb 14 2005
  

       Fortunately for me, there are no extant photos of me in my scout uniform, which was utterly and always bereft of badges. I had all pictures and negatives destroyed in a Year Zero style iconoclasm during an adolescent attack of misplaced vanity.   

       Anyway, considering that the UK's new national pastime is witch-hunting paedophiles, I can't see this idea flying here; hire young people to come round to your house, from the notionally anonymous comfort of a website? Hardly a winner in a climate of paranoia.
calum, Feb 15 2005
  

       <grin> I know what I mean...
po, Feb 15 2005
  

       [what the tasks were, etc, so that abuse of the system can't happen, and if any party acts inappropriatly, they get struck off the list, and the money would be split between the kid, (slave), and the website.] As a past employee of temporary job agencies everywhere can I remind you of our hero Johnny Paycheck and his song, "Take this job and shove it"?
mensmaximus, Feb 15 2005
  

       or failing that - Mr Shifter and his "The piano's on my foot"
po, Feb 15 2005
  

       I baked this yesterday. Big thick necked P.E teacher wanted my Creon in Antigone to play corner forward in his GAA match. I was having none of it. Negotiations were had. He got his corner forward and I got 5 pints of Guinness.   

       Those who do, do. Those who cant, teach. Those who bake, sell children for beer.
etherman, Feb 15 2005
  

       Baked by my grandmother. Before she died, every kid in the neighbourhood had done work for her at least twice -including us, her granddaughters- . Children are so easy to please: she used to give us simple things in exchange for our work (like candy, brownies, or let us play with her rabbits) which made it always easier to ask a kid to do things like walk the dogs, feed the chickens, clean the windows, cut the grass, "go buy some tortillas", instead of doing it herself, at a very low cost.
Pericles, Feb 15 2005
  

       makes ya wonder what she was doing with all the time she saved? hustling at bridge or something?
etherman, Feb 15 2005
  

       Monster.com for child labor....
I don't know about the rest of you, but I work too much now, I can't imagine having to do the same as a child, especially in a musty old grandma house.
brodie, Feb 15 2005
  

       Okay, why is it that everyone is now obsessed with what MIGHT happen, ie, the priests, most are perfectly okay, anyway, the sort of kids I'm talking about are the ones within the 13-17 age gap, you know, the ones you find hanging around the city center, trying to look cool in their really baggy denim jeans, or in their 6-inch mini skirts. Anyway, according to the law in Scotland, kids are allowed to do stuff like babysitting, so what about gardening? I sometimes get paid to look after people's kids, or do some gardening, or help run their shop while their're picking up their kids from school, and I haven't been booked by the boys in blue, despite my tender years, and the fact I haven't got one of those work permit things, since I'm not actually a Scottish citizen.
froglet, Feb 15 2005
  

       Exactly!! Calm down people. I think this idea is to help children learn how their time is very valuable if they do something productive with it, and how being productive can be fun at the same time, too.   

       While helping my gran, we (my sisters, the other children and myself) actually had fun in the garden, playing with the chickens while feeding them and walking to the marketplace with a purpose other than killing the day.   

       We didn't become greedy because we weren't paid cash. We were given something we liked in return for our "work". I think it was also a way she had to babysit us without us giving them much trouble.
Pericles, Feb 16 2005
  

       Thankyou [Pericles]! I am not suggesting about making a website where the dirty old bloke who lives on his own out in the middle of nowhere hire their own personal kiddie lapdancer, but some kids who'd like to earn some money doing gardening, or babysitting, or setting up a computer system for some lonely granny who wants to keep in touch with their family.
froglet, Feb 16 2005
  

       Woah.. +5/-7 as of now? That is a bit saddening. This is clearly not about exploiting kids, just some decent early learning - a safe dose of the 'real world'.   

       Perhaps enough of us didn't grow up in the kind of neighborhood this would be realistic.
SpookyFish, Feb 17 2005
  

       The real world gets to you soon enough-- why speed up the process?
brodie, Feb 17 2005
  

       Just get a foster child and not only do you not have to pay them...but the state pays you big bucks to have a personal slave.
Klaatu, Feb 17 2005
  

       I'm sure this comment will be deleted....   

       Safe to assume Michael Jackson would be a investor for this concept....
MySoulWanders, Feb 18 2005
  

       UB, as far as I know, the sex offenders register is not in the public domain. paedophiles sentenced to prison are sometimes named but I don't know whether this is always so. it used to be the case that headteachers of local schools were informed about paedophiles in the near vicinity of the school but I am not sure if even that is the case now.
po, Feb 18 2005
  

       //Safe to assume Michael Jackson would be a investor for this concept....// Nah, I won't delete it, but I'm not saying that the world is a happy place full of sunshine and tellytubbies and bunny wabbits, there are some sick, depraved tattooed bunny killers out there, so we just have to be extra careful...
froglet, Feb 18 2005
  

       [po] New York's is searchable online (link).
brodie, Feb 18 2005
  

       Yes, but you have Megan's law. We don't.
angel, Feb 18 2005
  

       Well, maybe I could get the names of all local pervs, sickos, rapists, murderers, etc, due to the freedom of information act that has been released lately round here...   

       Maybe I could also find out who the local halfbakers are (my bf is one, but he refuses to tell me what his 1/2bakery name is, he claims I should find out for myself, if we know each other so well, but I say he should bloody well tell me, coz I'm only gonna be in Scotland until December...)
froglet, Feb 18 2005
  

       Similar case here, [froglet]. I recommended the HB to a couple american and romanian friends, but they never told me whether they opened an account or not. I am sure at least two of them are hiding behind a nickname around the bakery. That makes me so curious!
Pericles, Feb 20 2005
  

       You saying we should have a Croissant's Law?
moomintroll, Feb 20 2005
  

       Croissant law? nah, I get the heebie-jeebies about my personal info to get into the hands of some of the people here, I mean, for all we know, some of the more 'respected' members of the hb, ie, wagster, po, UnaBubba, etc, might be 14 year olds, despite the fact that I seriously doubt it, I mean, the way they say some stuff obviously dictates that they are most likely who they say they are. And anyway, what would some of the dodgier members do with the info? Hunt us down? Stalk us? Murder us? Privacy is the best policy, well, for me that is, I don't want anyone knowing my real name, not unless I wanted them to.
froglet, Feb 22 2005
  

       Sheesh. Play nice, children.
moomintroll, Feb 22 2005
  

       <little whiny vioce> 'miss, miss, Johhny put sand all over me'</little whiny voice>
froglet, Feb 22 2005
  

       //I don't want anyone knowing my real name, not unless I wanted them to.//
I definitely can't argue with that.
brodie, Feb 22 2005
  

       Yep, but I know who would: Michael Jackson and his Merry Men
froglet, Feb 22 2005
  


 

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