If life gives you lemons…

Childhood memories are the stuff of dreams; riding bicycles around the neighborhood, building forts, and pocketing a cool 3 bucks from an afternoon peddling lemonade to friends and neighbors.

Image courtesy of graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Lemonade stands for many were the first innocent taste of capitalism – “if I make it, they will buy it and i will have money for candy and toys”. It’s a simple and faultless equation in which children exhibited productivity and were rewarded for their efforts (and made some tasty soft drinks to boot).

Today’s children are coming of age in a very different time. Gone are the days of a free local market as regulatory oversight has found it’s way from Wall street to your street and it’s the children who are feeling the pinch.

Ambitious lemonade kingpins (of the under 10 age group) in Wisconsin, Iowa and Georgia have experienced an onslaught of neighborhood stand closings thanks to the zealous work of local police forces.

Three girls in Georgia were shut down recently by police after discovering that the girls were raising money for a trip to a waterpark. The police informed the girls that in order to realize their water park dreams they would need to shut down their stand and reopen when they had the appropriate business license, peddler’s permit and a food permit to operate the stand legally.

The costs incurred from these respective registrations work out to roughly $180 per year. While the exact costs of the water park excursion are unknown at present, this writer feels confident that the total cost of the day out would not come remotely close to this figure, even with multiple helpings of cotton candy and churros.

Image from www.mysnoopystreetfair.com

Image from www.mysnoopystreetfair.com

Fortunately, there are those still fighting for the cause – Lemonade Freedom Day was celebrated on August 10th this year and saw people across the States defiantly setting up their lemonade stands. And why not? The joy of a lemonade stand is multi-faceted; from the inception of the idea, to mixing the delicious drink in a jug, to painting a meticulous sign and collecting quarters for a float.

Though the need for permits makes it difficult for law-abiding parents to join in with the Lemonade Freedom movement all year-round, it’s definitely still an issue that needs debating, and not just for nostalgic reasons. Children should always be supported in their money-making pursuits; it encourages their determination, ambition and independence and if you can’t make lemonade out of life’s lemons, it’s a very sad state of affairs indeed.

Image courtesy of dusky / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image courtesy of dusky / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Comments

  1. True.

    Dapat talaga pag may gusto mga bata, andito ang mga mommys to encourage them not bring them down – it will affect their thought pattern about what future they want to have in the future din kasi e dba?

  2. This reminds me when my daughter was four, she insisted to have a lemonade stand at her Pap’s porch so wer let her, my FIL’s neighbor who is a teacher was her first customer and you can just see the joy in my daughter’s face when the teacher handed her the dollar lol. I like lemonade but I like kalamansi not the type of lemon here in the US..

  3. Oh my, why do the local police do that? the little girls don’t do it for pure income but for a cause, and besides, the money they could earn from selling lemonades are not that big so why bother get a permit.

  4. Kids should be able to learn how to make money and learn some responsibility having that little job as young kids. Besides its cool and they usually love doing it. Today its a big no no! In some places you cannot have a garage sale either without a permit or license!

  5. I do feel for this article. I mean, I heard the news about some kids with a police officer who asked the kids for the permit. And this happened a long while ago. That is so sad that even little kid’s lemonade stand can no longer continue because of too much government.. like gone are the old days where it is a joy for kids to be able to have their own lemonade stand and able to raise money for whatever purpose it may be. That is so sad. I do like Lemonade by the way, but I didn’t grow up drinking the Lemon Juice Lemonade, but Calamansi juice, which is a bit different, but still from the citrus family.

  6. Aww, this news is so sad. Hindi na pla pwede mag set-up ng lemonade stand kahit sa tapat lng ng house? Why should the police ask for permit eh hindi naman kalakihan yung kinikita ng kids. Mas natutulungan pa nga yung kids na maghanap ng way to raise money for something na gusto nila bilhin. 🙁

  7. Raising money through selling lemonade is better than stealing, I just hope that the police would have been more lenient to them as it was for a good cause.

  8. really?? They shut down kid’s lemonade stand. Kawawa naman yung mga kids…

  9. I heard about this news. Tsk3x… the kids could’ve sell lemonade if an adult is with them too so it could work good that way. I don’t know if the parents was with them during the time they were selling.

  10. WOW! Everyone should encourage kids these entrepreneurial skills instead.