![\"GettyImages-1219335527\"](\"https:\/\/f.hubspotusercontent10.net\/hubfs\/3295812\/GettyImages-1219335527.jpg\")
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When I was little, the big kids ruled the block. Babysitting. Paper routes. Girl Guide cookies.<\/p>\n
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My cousin and I even used to go door to door, selling mixed tapes\u2014that had yet to be mixed.<\/p>\n
Then I grew up, and joined the generation of parents that would helicopter around our kids. Knock on random doors? Speak to strangers? Not in my house!<\/p>\n
And technology reared its ugly head, turning our attention inwards. To basement battles on Fortnite and online shopping.<\/p>\n
Really, when was the last time a neighbourhood kid knocked on your door, offering their services?<\/p>\n
Interestingly, while many of us parents are out of work\u2014either through temporary layoffs during shutdown, or unable to open our bricks-and-mortar doors until restrictions are lifted\u2014business is taking off for the young \u2019uns.<\/p>\n
I have a Grade 7 tutoring my twins. She does so via Zoom calls three times a week and even knows how to use her whiteboard.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s so savvy she can tell when my twins are switching tabs on their browser to play Cool Math Games by the reflection on their glasses. There\u2019s no fooling a middle grader.<\/p>\n
Hockey practice is cancelled until further notice, so we\u2019ve hired a Grade 9 AAA superstar to work out my eldest twice a week. The price is right and it keeps my son off the technology for a couple of hours each day he goes.<\/p>\n
The high schooler is even tougher on my son than his hockey coach is, giving him extra burpees if he and his buddy complain. He doesn\u2019t have a bench full of backseat-coaching parents watching his every move.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Summer camps are cancelled but there\u2019s word on the street that some savvy kids in the neighbourhood are teaming up to babysit small groups of kids, promising to do camp-style activities with them.<\/p>\n
You can bet I\u2019ll be looking them up once the first chorus of \u201cI\u2019m bored\u201d hits.<\/p>\n
I haven\u2019t heard of so many child-run businesses since my Babysitters Club book series days.<\/p>\n
Considering that up until the pandemic, one of my greatest worries was what our kids were going to do for a living when they grow up, I\u2019m taking this entrepreneurial tack as good news.<\/p>\n