When Kids Work the Neighborhood, Everyone Benefits

Recent concern about falling birthrates has led to considerable discussion about the family-unfriendliness of most American neighborhoods. Proposed solutions as simple as adding sidewalks to local streets could make it easier for children to play and walk freely and safely near their homes, reducing parental stress. Other research has suggested that the increase in anxiety among school-aged children could be effectively reduced by increased independence—the kind that would allow children to use those sidewalks to get to school on their own or make a trip the corner store for a slurpee.

Beyond building sidewalks, however, how else can we make neighborhoods safer and more communal while also reducing childhood and parental anxiety? I propose a solution that was common in the twentieth century but today is quite unusual. To increase neighborhood connectedness and safety—and to encourage confidence and self-regulation among children—I suggest a return to the practice of letting our kids “work” the neighborhood.

There are countless small jobs that need to be done in a neighborhood that are well-suited to children’s skills and maturity levels. In my neighborhood, a 50-year-old subdivision on the outer edge of a small town, we have a wide variety of residents of different ages, family compositions, and professions. These neighbors have yards that need mowing, leaves that need raking, toddlers that need minding, dogs that need walking, mail that needs collecting, flowerbeds that need weeding, snowy driveways that need shoveling, and stomachs that are hungry for sugar cookies sold by child-bakers. It is a veritable cornucopia of opportunity for industrious children. And not only are kids fully capable of performing this type of work, but neighbors who no longer have children of their own at home often respond with enthusiasm to child entrepreneurs. They don’t want the neighborhood children sitting inside staring at screens. They want the kids running lemonade stands on the corner instead, and they are ready to put money on it!

Indeed, there is a real thirst out there—among my neighbors, at least—to support kids who are doing good things. Not everyone wants to hire a teen to mow their lawn and not everyone will buy my kid’s homemade cupcakes, but my family has found that many of our neighbors really do want to do these things. Indeed, when my older three children, aged 7, 10, and 13, venture out into the neighborhood with the goal of making money, they never fail to find work—and usually they get paid more than they ask. Our neighbors understand that it is good for children to take intiatives like this, and it brings them joy to support kids at work. 

Getting this sort of neighborhood network set up is about building relationships between families, [and] creating networks within the neighborhood to help everyone living there thrive.

There are, in fact, multiple benefits to having children do odd jobs for neighbors. First of all, when we allow our children to engage with the community by performing these small tasks, the experience leads to increased confidence and ability. Experiments like the Let Grow project make this eminently clear. But having children do this work also helps the community as a whole, by developing networks of neighbors who have reason to interact due to their common interest in the local children. This, in turn, reinforces the safety of families within the neighborhood for the simple reason that neighborly ties increase friendliness and mutual aid. Instead of living parallel lives, people within the neighborhood are now actually known to each other. When there are conflicts, they can be solved through conversation. And when a child skins a knee on the street or an elderly person falls and breaks a hip in their living room (or even just needs somewhere to go for Christmas dinner), they are now more likely to be both noticed and helped by a neighbor. Interpersonal solutions within the neighborhood begin to take precedence over beaureaucratic ones.

Working the neighborhood does require some preparation. Children need to learn how to engage with neighbors appropriately and should be old enough to perform the job in question safely. A Let Grow license helps in conflicts with strangers, and giving children basic social safety training is important. Parents will want to make sure that their child’s internal compass is oriented toward the family and parental values. It can also be helpful to send kids out in groups instead of alone—or a parent can accompany the child to make sure that everything is in order, at least the for first time or two. Getting this sort of neighborhood network set up is about building relationships between families, not about abdicating responsibility or placing burdens on kids or neighbors. It’s about creating networks and environments within the neighborhood to help everyone living there thrive.

With sensible safeguards in place, working the neighborhood is good for both kids and neighbors. For my own family, it has not only led to pocket money for the kids, but to numerous acts of kindness, both small and large. One neighbor actually gave my child his old lawnmower when ours broke down during a lawnmowing job; another helped my son with a band-aid when he fell at the other end of the block; and after noticing the kids’ lemonade stand on the corner, our mayor (who happens to live in our neighborhood) even invited my daughter to lead the Pledge of Allegiance at the next town council meeting. Nowadays we even keep a list of neighbors’ names and phone numbers on our fridge in case of emergency. “If you need help,” the list says, “call or go find...” and then neighbors are listed in order of closeness and likely availability. 

If we want family-friendly communities, these are the sort of ties we need to create where we live. But in our culture, this is unlikely to happen without deliberate effort. The best way to build a community is for people to notice and help one another, and the best way to protect and nurture children is to have lots of caring adults nearby to support them. That is, of course, what a neighborhood is for. If we want to build more family-friendly communities, it’s time to start by letting our kids work the neighborhood.

Dixie Dillon Lane is an American historian and essayist living in Virginia. Her writing can be found at Hearth & Field, Current, and Front Porch Republic, among other publications, as well as at her newsletter, TheHollow.substack.com.