It had been raining hard last night. I was thinking KJ & CS Lawn Service’s opening day might have to be delayed. To my surprise, the sky completely cleared up by 1:30pm, the two boys’ starting time. The rain washed the sky blue and more fallen leaves scattered on the streets and lawns. It’s just the perfect timing for leaf-raking.
When Connor got home after his Lego club meeting, it was getting dark.
“How is your opening day?” I could not wait to ask.
“Back-breaking hard work,” answered Connor like an old landscaper. I secretly thought that was the exact reason Kevin’s mom and I agreed to let them work.
“I am going to do ours now, mom” Connor offered.
“You’ve done a lot today. Go upstairs and take a rest before dinner,” I suggested, but Connor already started raking.
“I will pay you for your service, son” It’s the only reasonable thing to do.
“No, you don’t need to pay me. You did all the cooking and cleaning, but you never asked for money,” I was so moved that I got the broom and worked side by side with my 9-year old son.
“So how many household did you help today?” I started chatting.
“We did 4 or 5 houses all the way to 3:30pm right before lego club.”
“How much do you charge people?” I was curious.
“Mostly $1, sometimes a bit more like $1.25, but they always give $2 or more. People are very generous. Joel’s family gave us $5! That’s too much,” Connor was still feeling guilty.
“Did you do a good job?” I wanted to hear the self assessment.
“Yeah, we work hard, but we talked while working.” That should be allowed.
“Are you two nice partners?” I was interested in the coorperation.
“Yes. We took turn doing the sweeping and the raking. We worked well together. Alec helped too. He brought such a nice tool that saved us lots of effort. We insisted to give him money, but he only wanted 25 cents.”
“What do you say to people when they open the door?” I was wondering how they made the selling pitch.
“I say hi, I am Connor. This is Kevin. We are here to provide leaf-raking service. We will charge $1 … I stuttered a lot,” Connor was very modest.
“Did anyone turned your service down at the door?” There gonna be.
“No. That is because we only knocked on their door if there are lots of leaves on the lawn,” I was impressed.
It was pitch dark when we finished our work. The first thing Connor did upon entering the house was to count the money.
“$4.75! With this rate, I can get almost $50 for 10 days,” the simple joy of making money.
Daddy matched the highest offer KJ & CS Lawn Services got today, $5 for the superb job Connor did for our yard. I was thinking it is so hard to be a kid. This is what Connor did for his Sat:
8:00am-9:00am get up and read
9:00am-10:30am tennis lesson
11:00am-12pm homework
12:00pm-1:00pm lunch
1:30-3:30pm rake leaves
3:30-5:30pm lego club meeting
5:30-6:00pm rake leaves for home
6:00-7:00pm dinner
7:00-7:30pm piano practice
Finally it’s screen time now.
November 19, 2011 at 4:09 pm |
I am speechless impressed. At age of 9, Connor already possesses insight and generous wisdom that 90% men never did in their entire life.
Can CS lawn service extend their serving area to our house?
December 11, 2011 at 6:56 am |
Gosh, what a good deal I missed!