“In the past month, I have had at least 5 different tween/teen age boys come to my front door asking for work.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user District Shots

“Dear PoPville,

In the past month, I have had at least 5 different tween/teen age boys come to my front door asking for work. The most recent was at 8:45 p.m. tonight and the kid was about 11 years old. All of these kids, have asked to take our trash or if we have any chores they can do for cash. Is there some organization asking kids to do this? We have declined every time. Should I call some child welfare agency if it happens again? Just unusual the number of kids and the time of night!”

Ed. Note: No!! When I was a kid growing up as young as 10 me and my friend Mike McNally used to roam the streets ringing doorbells asking to shovel sidewalks (it used to snow regularly back in the 80s), rake lawns and do other chores. Sounds to me like these kids are just doing the same. If you’re not interested I would just politely so no thank you. Or is something off that so many kids are asking in the past month? Maybe it was suggested at school and good ideas spread? I guess because I used to do this myself at that age, I find the suggestion of calling a child welfare agency very unsettling. Am I being naive? I grew up on Strong Island, maybe this wasn’t common in some parts of the country? Or it’s a generational thing?