Anyone ever do a paper route with a young child?

[blessedmama59]

I am looking to bring in a little extra income to help pay off some bills and help with our move in a few months. I've explored a few options-I applied for pt work as a lactation counselor (work at home), considered going back to work one day a week, and now I've been thinking about a paper route. I've seen it mentioned on here, but wanted more opinions about this. I would be bringing along my DD who is almost 16 mo. I think she would do fine, as long as we wouldn't be in the car for hours. I even think she may sleep during it if it was early enough.

[dachshundqueen]

You may need to check into whether or not your car insurance policy considers that to be a commercial application and if it negates your existing personal coverage should something happen while you were delivering the papers.

Liz

[Drummer's Wife]

DH delivered the paper for extra money years ago (before we had kids), and the thing about it was that he was required to put the paper together before his route. It was for the Denver Post, so maybe this only applies to bigger papers - but he had to get to work by 2 am, and make huge stacks of all the various sections. Then he had to start putting them together, and either bagging if it was a chance of wetness outside, or rubber-banding them if not. Then loading them in his vehicle. This all took several hours - the goal was to be out delivering them by 4-5 am, which often meant he had to be there closer to midnight if he wanted to get out on time. The size of the route makes a difference, too. Delivering took a couple hours, he would usually not finish until 7. He had to get out of the vehicle a lot of times, b/c certain customers want it on their porch, or in their backyard, or it was an apartment building (biggest PITA).

It's a lot of wear and tear on your vehicle with all the stopping and going, and at least with his route, his car was packed to the brim (he'd often have to go back and load it again to finish delivering). So, having a car seat and child in there wouldn't have worked. I helped him a few times (hated it), and I did notice a couple who had brought a sleeping child with them while they were puttin g the papers together in the warehouse - the kid was asleep laying on a table. I just can't imagine doing it 7 nights a week - which when DH worked, was the only option. If you couldn't cover your route, someone else had to.

Just my experience, and really, it may depend on the city and the paper - usually they don't come off the press until midnight or later the night before, and customers tend to want it delivered before 6 am. So, it can be a long night, not just an hour or two tossing papers in the morning.

[LaLaLaLa]

Before I had kids, I did a paper route for awhile. Well, I did it for a month and then couldn't take it anymore.

My issues with it:

It was a morning newspaper, and the newspaper company had X amount of people doing routes, but only enough little carts for about half that number. So in order to get to the counter and get your papers (I think I had between 100 and 200) and be able to carry them to your table to fold, then haul them out to your car, you needed to wait in line about an hour before the newspaper office opened. Or bring your own wagon. I was waking up at 3:00 in the morning in order to get to the newspaper office, and it was March, when there was still sometimes snow coming down. No snow days for the newspaper.

If, for some reason someone called the newspaper company and said that their paper wasn't exactly where they wanted it (inside the screen door, at the top of the driveway, on the front steps, whatever inconvenient place a person would want their paper left), pay was docked. No questions, no explanations, the customer was always right and if you made them unhappy, then pay was subtracted from your check. More pay, incidentally, than I earned delivering a single paper. So if everyone on my route had complained in one day, I would end up owing the company as much money as they would have otherwise paid me for the day.

There was a time limit, too. Papers had to all be delivered by 6:00.

Because fewer and fewer people are getting newspapers delivered these days, I ended up driving a ridiculous amount of miles in order to deliver the under-200 papers. Sometimes I'd drive through an entire neighborhood in order to deliver a single paper. Lots of wear and tear on the car, with so much stopping and going back and forth, too.

There was no way to get any time off. If I'd wanted to go on vacation or take a weekend to visit my parents, or even if I were deathly ill, I'd have to find someone to take my route (and how would I manage to find someone who would be willing to learn the route in order to take it over?).

The problem was probably that in my area there is a high concentration of Brazilian immigrants, and the vast majority of the newspaper carriers for this particular paper were Brazilian. I think there is far more abuse of and far less leeway given to immigrants. The job sucked because nobody challenged the rules, because most of the carriers weren't in a position to challenge the rules. I was lucky to have the ability to quit after a month when I decided it wasn't for me. Newspaper routes in other places might be very different.

Oh, and since it was almost entirely time in the car (except for waiting in line and folding papers inside a big warehouse-building), it is something that could be done with a small child. I actually was testing it out to see if it would be a possible source of income for after having a baby. I decided to explore other options, though.

[blessedmama59]

Well, I do believe I've talked myself out of this. Aside from everything you all have said and the things my fiance brought up about it, it would just not be worth it. I never considered issues with insurance or having to drive in bad weather. If this winter is anything like last winter, that would be a definite no-no. I also don't believe the pay, which ranges from $600-$1500/mth, would really not equal out to much once I factor in gas/maintenance/etc. Soo..I think I'll just continue looking for other income options. Thank you for sharing your experiences!

[just_lily]

My DH has been doing a paper route for nearly a year now for extra income. It generally sucks, but he makes it work.

His paper bundles are delivered to the exterior of a local store where he picks them up. He doesn't have to assemble them (that sounds like it would really suck!) but does have to either fold them with an elastic, or bag them if it is wet out. He figured out he can save a lot of time if he puts the elastic around the paper as he is walking from the car to the door of each house instead of doing the folding all at once. Bagging always takes extra time.

His bundles are dropped off by 1:30 am, and need to be delivered by 6am. He has two routes, about 140 papers in total, and it takes him about 2 hours. He covers a lot of area.

It really messes with his sleep. He is always tired. He usually goes to do his route around 2am, gets back around 4am and sleeps for another couple of hours before work.

There have been a couple of times he had to take DD with him, or I had to when I filled in for him. She was good for me and just fell back asleep, but screamed for him the whole time. We brought her toys and snacks, but she was really just not at all impressed.

Whether or not it is worth it is all relative. We are both already working full time, and still needed extra income. The money he makes is what bridges the gap. There are a lot of crappy aspects, but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. We keep hoping we will be able to get rid of it, but things always happen that makes us need the income more.

I wouldn't want to do it with a child every day though - I think it would just mess with their sleep patterns too much. It would be much better if you could leave your baby home with your fiance if you follow this path.