My son wants a Nintendo switch (video game system). Mrs jmudler and I dont shell out cash for our kids to buy stuff. They have to earn it. This was my son's Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Man was it hot. He still has to do a 2nd coat. While he was painting, I remembered a quote from Mark Twain. “To make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.” — Mark Twain



I will never forget my summer job my junior/senior year in high school. I dug footings for tobacco leaf storage warehouses in Concord NC at Philip Morris. It was brutal. I cherished the 69 mustang I was able to buy with the money I earned. What was your "thing" you worked so hard for as a kid?

If we all would have this same mentality with our kids we would be better off as a country. To much entitlement these days. Good job!!!

Mark Twain was a smart man. I have loved all of his books and essays.

You are a smart man for teaching your kids to earn the things they want.

For me it was lawn mowing and baby sitting. Over the years I bought a shotgun, nice bike, and a small boat to fish out of with my summer earnings.

My favorite Rush song.

Raked several yards and lots of weed eating went into a ruger 10/22 when I was 11. $176 for it and a scope. Still got it and I bet it’s had 10,000 rounds down the pipe, been stolen and found, left in the woods for a month til I found it, stock broke, and killed tons of animals. Started saving the next 3 summers and bought a 90 and a 94 Toyota pickup when I was 15.

yep

Good heavens at the neighbors.

a Honda 350x 3wheeler...other than just not getting my butt beat for not showing up to work on time. I was raised as farm labor and did it every holiday or anytime I wasn't in school.

Colt series 70 worked over by Jim Mcullogh. That thing taught me how to really get good with a pistol. I'm no Lena Miculek but I'm okay for a blind health affected dude.

Worked 20 extra shifts in fast food but I got it done. Good times.

Good job, that'll make him appreciate whatever he chooses to purchase

As for me, I never got an allowance nor was I paid for working around the house. I hoed and picked cotton for my mad money. I usually spent most of that on drinks and candy bars at the local store at the end of the day

That is Jono23 inlaws

Suzuki LT500R. Couldn't keep it hooked up. Worth every penny.

As a pre-teen and teenager, I always worked outside.

I worked a brick mason gopher - age 12-18.
Haul hay - age 12-18.
Thoroughbred racing farms cleaned stalls and whatever else - age 14-18.
Cleaned commercial chicken houses - age 14-18.

I always worked for cash and always had cash on me. Most of the money I would just piss away on gas for the boat to go water skiing or dates. The only big ticket items I remember was rims and tires for my 67 Mustang, new seats and upholstery for same car and a Remington 1100 3” Magnum.

Heck yea! 2 badass machines!

Didn't Tom Sawyer trick Huck Finn into painting the fence for him? Now that was smart!

My Favorite Rush song as well, which I played in my '69 Camaro 327 , 3 speed with a Blaupanct stereo that I worked all summer to buy and restore in 1983.

It was Blaupunkt. Probably the finest car stereo audio system ever made.

When I was a kid I cut grass and weeds, painted, worked in the garden and whatever else my dad told me to do and I got paid with food and a place to sleep. With my kids I went the route of I will pay you for this work around the house. I now believe feeding and housing them is payment enough, and if I could do it over that is would do. I think doing without is the best way to make people appreciate what they have once they are grown.

Until you added equalizers and amplifiers. Blaupunkt death was their impedance and voltage on their low level output was horrible. Plus all the proprietary din plugs they used. You would spend $100 in adapters just to use their head units.