Page 344 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

Students Earn Money as Proxy Parents

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BOUT two years ago, Miss G. Alison Raymond, a graduate of Bryn Mawr,
found it impossible to locate anything other than a temporary job. After
weeks of unsuccessful scouting she realized that she would have to make her
own job. Making a job is, of course, much more difficult than finding one.
However, Miss Raymond’s special aptitude for organization has enabled her
to make an unusual success in an out-of-the-ordinary enterprise she calls
Proxy Parents.

“Proxy Parents” provides employment for young students who find it
necessary to make money during odd hours. These “proxy parents” are on
call any time during the day and evening. For instance, if Mrs. Jones’ little
daughter is coming home from school or camp and the mother cannot meet
the train, she calls Proxy Parents and a student is called to take over the job of
seeing that Priscilla reaches home safely. Or, if a mother has a convalescent
child and wants someone to amuse him, read to him or play games with him,
she calls “Proxy Parents.”

Besides meeting trains, amusing convalescent children in their homes or in
hospitals, Proxy Parents will take charge of play hours during rainy days,
take children singly or in groups to museums, the moving pictures, beaches,
playgrounds, parks, or other specified places. Students are also on call for an
hour or two to stay with a child while the mother shops, or they will take
charge of a child during the evenings when the parents are away.

A clever girl whose course of study is not too heavy could develop such an
enterprise during her third and fourth college years with the idea of
continuing it after graduation. A card file of students names, free hours, and
special abilities, and a list of families in town having children, form the basis
for a “proxy parent” business.

Collar Specialty Pays Profits