Paper boys

Our boys became paper boys last week.  In other words, they each got their first job.

The Woodmen Edition is a free paper that is supported by advertiser money.  It is delivered on Fridays by kids and teens (and their mothers, I imagine) all over the city.  Several families in our ward have paper routes, and Zach and Tyler have been begging for the job and the income.  The pay is tiny--just 5 cents per paper per week--so our route of 200 papers pays $44.25 per month.  Zach and Tyler split the pay.  Twenty-two bucks seems like a ton of money to the boys, and they are happy to do the work (so far).

First they roll the papers and secure them with a rubber band.  On days when it's raining, or rain is forecast (like yesterday), the papers must be bagged.

Then we deliver them.  We were lucky enough to pick up a route very close to home.  I drive up and down each street and the boys throw the papers from the right side of the van.  Gavin and Lexi are mightily jealous of the whole operation, and they are desperate to fold and throw a few papers themselves.

Last week it took us over an hour to deliver the papers.  This week it took 30 minutes.  It would be super simple except that there are several houses on every street that have requested no delivery.  We have to watch out for those, and about once a month we have to pick up "dead papers," or the ones that have been sitting in the gutter for a while.  If papers pile up at one house or another, we add the address to the "do not deliver" list.  It's an interesting process.  I'm glad we'll have several weeks of experience when school starts and our afternoons are crunched.

I hope the boys stay excited about delivering the paper.  They would really like to pick up more routes because more papers mean more money.  We'll see.