Can you see the future for some kids at a very young age?
I was coming home from work, saw what I thought was a lemonade stand, run by a girl, about 7, and a little boy, about 5. Before Chilluns (which was BC, you know) I used to just smile and honk and wave…until my then-five-year-old daughter set up her first lemonade stand. About an hour later she came in in angry, frustrated tears saying, “I’m sitting in that heat and they all just honk and wave and NOBODY STOPS!!!” Since then, I always stop for the kids if it’s at all humanly possible. The only reason I can think of for not stopping is if I was running late for a lobotomy or something.
So I saw the kids and pulled over. Looked a little more carefully at the cooler, which had no lid and appeared to be empty, then looked at the sign again. Sign appeared to read, “Roks ten cents.” So I dug around for a couple of dimes, figured I’d buy two roks from them. Got out of the car, and as I was walking up to them I said, “Where’d you get the roks?”
They waved vaguely at the rok driveway that ran through their trailer park. I crouched and began looking through the 15 or so roks they had. I selected one, then glanced up at the sign again. Me being the math genius I am, I realized it read ”$10” and it didn’t have a decimal point in it! I squeaked “You want ten dollars for these roks?”
Little girl smiled brightly and nodded and said, “But you get them all!!”
It was all I could do not to blurt “Cheese n rice!!!” but didn’t. I did say in disbelief, “No way!!!”
The little girl shrugged,still grinning, and gestured to her little bro and said, ”He made the sign!” (Take that Adam!!)
I looked at them and said, “I thought they were a dime and I was going to buy two of them. But I’ll tell you want. I’ll give you twenty-cents for just one. Deal?”
Girl thought for a second then said “OK!”
Ten dollars for roks. WHAT is this world coming to!
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22 Answers
And then there’s this girl who turned her lemonade stand into a franchise for charity.
At that age my kids had no idea what things were worth. My 4 year old, when hearing a price would ask: “Is that a lot?” This apple costs $0.25. “Is that a lot?” The camera costs $300. “Is that a lot?” He had no idea whatsoever. Maybe the kids were thinking the same way.
10 cents or 10 dollars. What’s the difference? It is still 10 to a 4 year old.
When my daughter was in pre-school nursery, I used to walk there with another local mum and her little boy. This kid was at 5 years old, amazingly sharp and observant and very funny, and utterly confident. I always thought that there would be stand-up comedy in his future.
As I held my 4 minute old granddaughter, I said to her father “This is gonna be the naughtiest one”. She’s 20 months old and by far the naughtiest of the ten grandchildren.
I agree with @worriedguy 100%. A little guy has no idea that $10 is more than many, many people earn in an hour. It’s just a number that sounds like a lot to them. They really have no idea what it really means, or how much what they’re selling is worth.
Also, it’s cute.
As an aside, I almost never stop for kids selling stuff (and I’m a kid person) unless it’s something I want, like lemonade on a hot day, or something particularly creative. I don’t care if they’re sitting out in the heat and no one’s buying. The kid’s gotta realize eventually that not everything they do is super special, and no, most people will not spend their hard earned money on some crap they picked up from their driveway.
@Likeradar I have kids. Three grown ones. I realize they didn’t understand the value of $100 or $10 v $.10! The whole things with the “roks” and all was just funny! I’ve never had kids selling rocks before. :)
And I always stop at lemonade stands. They’re “working” for something, not asking for a hand out, and that’s worth a nod. I just wasn’t expecting rocks at this one, or I wouldn’t have stopped. But I did, and I didn’t think it would be right to say, “Oh, hail! I can get rocks for free in my own drive way!” and turn around and walk away.
My 7½ year old son was trying to sell his old, beat up skate board the other day. He wanted to buy a guitar really badly. He got some notebook paper, a Sharpie and some masking tape. He made a sign to tape on the skateboard that read “Selling 4 30 Bucks”. We tried to explain to him that he was never going to sell it, that we didn’t even pay 30 Bucks 4 it when it was new! Poor guy sat on the porch or watched out the window most of the day waiting for someone to buy his skateboard. The next morning he taped the sign on his bike he got for Christmas. Believe it or not, he wasn’t able to sell that either. Luckily, he took a job the next day pulling weeds and bought the guitar!
@knitfroggy .. :) What would you have done if he’d gotten an offer on the bike??
I got weeds too. And roks that need to be hauled. Anything else he wants to buy, send him thisaway!
@Dutchess_III Well, he got a nice bike for Christmas and then my parents took my daughter to a dinner after a Poker Run while Jack my son was in the hospital and she won him a really nice BMX bike in a raffle. So, if he’d sold that Christmas bike, I wouldn’t be mad, but we bought it on Black Friday at Walmart and I think it was only $29! LOL
He’s a good worker! He likes to ‘help’!
@knitfroggy LOL! My son liked to help! Encourage that. I remember the first time my son got big enough to beat me in arm wrestling. I was sad. Till I realized that that meant I had someone to actually help me with heavy, complicated stuff! He’s a hard worker to this day (23).
What was Jack in the hospital for??
Enterprising of them and I’ll bet they learned a lot that day even it they weren’t able to get $10 for all their rocks.
Six years ago we held a yard sale for all our old baby stuff. My eldest son decided to sell popcorn. As we were busy outside I didn’t want him using the stove so butter was out. He was selling plain popcorn for $.50 a bag. Things were going well until this old prick bought a bag, ate a handful of kernels then tossed that bag at my son’s chest and snarled, “There’s no butter on this!”. He walked away. I was stunned.
I could tell you more about that old guy future than I could about my son’s in that moment.
@tranquilsea What an ass! My neighbor girls had a Kool-Aid stand a few weeks ago. They sold me a cup of watered down Kool-Aid with not enough sugar in it, out of a dirty looking pitcher for 50 cents-each! I wasn’t going to pay just one of them! I took a sip, told them it was delicious and came inside and poured it out!
@jjmah Very cute and very funny!
@tranquilsea What a jerk!! How old was your son? What a creep.
@knitfroggy Yeah…my husband and I were walking around the block, saw a cool aide stand, bought Koolaid. I took a zip…and froze. It was the NASTIEST stuff I’d ever tasted! I smiled and held on to the cup until we got around the corner then I threw it on the other neighbors dog who BARKS NON STOP!!! I think it kilt him too. Which would have been fine with me, if it was true. :)
@Dutchess_III He was a jerk. Thankfully, my son took in stride. At the time he was 7 or 8, so maybe that was more like 7 or 8 years ago.
He actually ended up earning a lot of money as most people were happy to pay 50 cents for lunch bag of popcorn.
That is hilarious that you dumped your drink on the irritating dog!
My mom did something similar (but not with a dog and not off of buying something from a road side stand). She had nearly been soaked by a neighbour’s sprinkler the previous week when she went out via the garage to bring in the garbage bins. So she goes out again, in a hurry, to get to work and she was soaked. Pissed of royally and already wet, she marched up to the sprinkler grabbed it and aimed it right at their front door. Made her feel a bit better.
@tranquilsea So off topic, but MY mom did one of the same thing. A guy she knows drove by her walking in the rain and waved. She waited, and one day (had her car) it was raining and she saw him out front of a cafe and on purpose hit a big puddle fast. She says she laughed so hard she cried.
Yes, if I actually know them.
Of all the people I know who are working their dream job, the job the love and it shows, all of them knew around 10 years old that is what they were gonna do when they grew up. My oldest told me when he was 10 that he is going to design and build rollercoasters. So far, 4 years later, he is still on track to doing just that.
@Cruiser LOL! That reminds me! When he was about five, I asked my son what he wanted to be when he grew up. Without hesitation he said, “A dad!”
I said, “OK….and how many kids do you want?”
Without hesitation again he said, “Twelve!” I think he’d been thinking about it for a long time!
Fortunately, at 23 and as yet unmarried, he’s not on track to his goal yet. But when the time comes….you won’t be able to contain his pride and joy in his kids! He’ll be a great dad!
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