My little one, “Barb Marley”, is a huge fan of the whole “Lemonade Stand” gig. She loves to set up shop, well, allow me to rephrase that— she loves it when I help to set up lemonade-shop as she sits out front hollering down the streets “LEMONADEEEEE STANDDD!!!! ONEEEEEE DOLLLARRR!!!!! GET YOUR LEMONADE!!!”
My husband came home a couple nights ago and told me a story he had heard on NRP about two little girls, ages 7 and 8, whose lemonade stand was shut down because they didn’t have a sellers permit.
Hey, I get that we have to follow the law. I am required to drive a certain speed on the freeway, and when I forget to do so (which is often), I am fined with an astronomical ticket. Those are lessons to learn and rules one should follow. No urinating in public, check. No vandalizing, check. I’ve got most of this shit down, and furthermore, the majority of it makes sense.
However, shutting down a lemonade stand because a 7 year old doesn’t have a sellers permit? Are you fucking kidding me? Can a 7 year old even apply for a seller permit?
In today’s society, it is DAMN hard to teach our kids a drop of responsibility. I’ll admit, I do a lot for my daughter. She lives a very fortunate life. However, life is really fast-paced and, honestly speaking, some days it is easier to send her on her way with the iPad so I can get some work done or something accomplished around the house.
However, for me personally, I find it extremely important to stop every once in a while and teach my young one, “Barb,” a thing or two about responsibility. I’ve explained that the home we live in is paid for by the work that I do at my computer all day and the work that her dad, “Barb-the-Dude,” does all day also contributes to the things we are fortunate enough to have. She understands that shoes cost money, food costs money, that electricity costs money, etc. She seems to get the idea that we, her parents, WORK, so we can provide her with the life she has; food in her belly, a roof over her head, etc. Some days I think she hears my words in Russian, but other days I believe that my words/lessons do penetrate.
A while back, we started doing lemonade/fruit stands here and there. It’s a shit ton of work towing all the crap outside, setting up a sign that the wind repeatedly knocks over into the neighbors front yard, and trying to explain to your child that you cannot drink and eat all the snacks that you plan on SELLING.
However, it’s a hell of a lot of fun, and, again, it’s an important and a useful lesson. We set up shop not to long ago in the back of my car to protect ourselves from the sun and discussed ways we could use the money she could raise. At first, her only idea was something for herself. I went on to explain the idea of raising money for OTHER people. She seemed interested. The kid has a heart of gold and we sat and chatted for a bit. I brought up our friend Alan who is a man less fortunate than us and lives outside of the gas station near our home. I could see the wheels spinning in her head as she clutched the dollar bills tightly in her tiny hand. She mentioned buying him a house with the three dollars she had made by that point, “maybe a sleeping bag?” she questioned. I could see a small shift in her lemonade-stand-mentality: “How can this benefit ME?” turned to “What could I buy for Alan with this money?” The conversation continued and I explained that there are a lot more people out there like Alan that could benefit from her “bucks” as she calls them.
My husband’s sharing of the two young kids who were shut down (and apparently others as well) really hit me in the gut. We are at a point where we don’t have the manpower to help with issues that are actually needed, yet we can take the time to shut down two kids selling freaking lemonade? I mean, really? Health and safety violations? It’s fucking Minute Made! I’m about 4000 times more terrified of the meat served at the Red Dragon Chinese Take Out down the road than I am of a cup of lukewarm lemonade.
My young one, “Barb Marley,” overheard my husband telling me the NRP story he had heard while driving around during his work day and came running to us asking three million questions:
“WAIT. Will I go to jail if I do another lemonade stand?” she asked.
“Maybe if you set up shop out front of any police stations or government buildings, yeah.” I responded.
“THEY HAVE KID JAIL!?” she screeched back.
“NOOOO. We are kidding. No one will take you to jail for your lemonade stand. Apparently, just like over-using the water from hose in the front yard, we’d likely be fined.” I explained to my miniature entrepreneur.
Well, Barb had A LOT to say about that. A LOT to say. She asked me if we could make a video and I wasn’t initially planning on posting it as I have about 4000 Barb videos in my phone, but this one was too good not to share. In all honesty, for going completely off the cuff with the details she knew, I’m pretty proud of my girl.
So, I present to you—Barb Marley’s Lemonade Stand Disappointment:
As you can see, it appears that some of the lemonade/fruit stands we’ve done and our little chats about how we can help people with the money we raise did penetrate her sweet 7-year-old brain.
Our AWESOME mailman Barb mentioned in the video 🙂
Shutting down a lemonade stand? Come on.
Do you do lemonade stands with your kids?
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I feel like this was a weekly thing when I was growing up! I can’t believe they are actually shutting kids down selling lemonade. That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard recently. What are they scared of? That the parents are poisoning the lemonade for unsuspecting customers??? Give me a break.
Damn right we do lemonade stands! From scratch not powder…which I guess is worse…Lol as far as being perishable..So lame! We are having one next weekend and we will be changing our sign to “we happily accept donations…LAMEonade.
LAMEonade. hahahahahahahah!
I adore her passion! I never did a lemonade stand, but I did once sell decorated pinecones with a friend. And I went door-to-door selling Girl Scout cookies. They were all valuable lessons for me! It’s sad to think that kids today could miss out on this type of experience. Seriously, do the police have nothing better to do with their time?
My sister and I did stuff like that too, Bev! Around the 4th of July, we would make candles and walk around our neighborhood selling them. I agree, those are super valuable lessons–teach the young ones that they have to work for extra money! It stinks silly stuff like that is being scrutinized and shut-down. As Sara said “”LAMEonade”! ERRR
I heard about the little girls’ lemonade stand get shut down and I think it’s ridiculous. They are just kids that were trying to do something nice for their dad. I personally have not done a lemonade stand with my kids but they make money in other ways. I have a son that is a very talented artist and a lot of people have paid him to draw pictures for them. When kids make their own money it helps them learn the value of a dollar.
That is SO cool that he can draw–and how neat is that people pay him to draw pictures?! That is so awesome! And yes, I completely agree–the lesson in the value of a dollar! SO important!
It makes me so sad to hear that they are shutting down kids’ lemonade stand because like you said…I can think of a thousand other WAY more productive things the government can be doing with their time than getting in the way of kids making a couple of bucks. We not only had lemonade stands my mom let us “host” a fair at our house every summer and we’d charge all of the neighbor kids to play games…we learned a lot about the value of a dollar with our little business.
Oh my gosh, Julie!! My sister and I did the same thing to! We made carnival games with construction paper and markers and we used our stuffed animals as prizes and threw a little fair/carnival. Right, it is sad; kids learn a lot about business and hard work through lessons like that.
I feel like having a lemonade stand is a rite of passage for being a kid. Growing up I lived on a bad corner so we would always have to set up our shop up the street. Our neighbor, also the bus driver would lend us her yard so no one would get hurt pulling over for lemonade. I still remember my Mailman giving my neighbor friend and I $5. You thought we would have won the lottery.
There are so many life lessons in lemonade stands. You hit on a bunch of them in your article, understanding how to sell, the value of a dollar, what happens after you make the money. That government “authority” is doing the next generation a dis-service by shutting them down and clearly doesn’t have enough to do if shutting down lemonade stands is high on their list of priorities.