The police in Overton Texas have scored another victory over neighborhood lemonade stands. We have periodically seen these cases where police swoop down on stands run by kids in one of the oldest traditions of American life. I do not blame the police as much as the City of Overton for failing to have a code that can accommodate such kid lemonade stands or a modicum of discretion afforded to police in the enforcement of city permit regulations. In the meantime, Andria and Zoey Green’s business is closed by order of the city.
A video shows the police questioning the mother and instructing her that a permit is required. When a friend went down to city hall to obtain a permit, the family was told that the city was willing to waive the $150 fee for the city’s Peddler’s Permit but would need to contact the health department for permission to operate the stand. This in turn would require an inspection that must be conducted and a permit must be issued in order to sell anything that must be temperature-regulated to prevent bacterial growth, including lemonade. In case you missed the gist of the story, this is a child’s lemonade stand that would require a variety of adults inspecting, permitting, and approving the operation before they can sell their first cup.
Source: KLTV
David:
“Businesses should be free to hire young children under 16, even those under 12, to sweep the floors or do other tasks that they are able to do.”
This does not sound more taxing than babysitting, delivering papers, or shoveling snow. Some of those activities are legal in some states, and not in others.
I obviously want to protect children from overwork, abuse, or anything that would interfere with their education. (Here in CA there is a very long history of migrant children dropping out of school to work the harvest.) But anything that is not overly taxing has the benefit of teaching a child a work ethic, responsibility, pride in earning his own money, and hopefully lessons in how to save and manage that money.
Kids learn how to spend their money more wisely when they earned it themselves, rather than had it handed to them. Ask any parent who gave their kid a BMW, vs the parent who matched their child’s contribution to buy a dependable, used vehicle, who treated that car more responsibly.
I also think that it is interesting that those who protest about changing child labor laws proudly list their own history of working as a child.
The irony . . .
Annie, Glad I didn’t have to ask for your help in the late 1700’s. History shows our collapse is inevitable and accelerated due to technology. So is living off of others hard work what you really want? If so, shame on you.
17 states have already modified child labor laws as they apply to agriculture. Was that a giant step backwards?
Any talk about modifying child labor laws inevitably creates hysteria. It’s a simple topic – will a proposed modification protect children from abuse or overwork, or not?
When I hear people mocked for owning guns in rural areas, I always think the same thing:
Are you going to come to my house the next time I find a 4 plus foot rattler in my yard where my kid plays, striking at my dogs, and try to chop its head off with a blunt shovel? You have to get pretty close, and on a hot day, those rattlers move SO FAST. You could stand a safe distance away and kill it humanely with snake shot, or you could stand right next to it with your little toesies vulnerable in your Birkenstocks, and keep whacking at it with a blunt shovel like an ISIS beheading gone wrong. The big ones have really thick necks. We remove the heads to protect wildlife after they’ve been shot, and they’re quite difficult to get off. But, then again, a shovel is not a guillotine.
Some people think guns are just for gang members.
Amen.
Wade “love to make people lazy” williams, I’m sure you do think “violent revolution” is bad since it might allow people to be free on the other side.
Well Jim, I think it’s pretty darn dangerous and odd hoping for a civil war. Brother fighting brother, like in the Civil war, is that what extremists really want? If so, shame on you.
I don’t think anyone is indicating that children shouldn’t have chores or help out at home, on the farm or even in their parents business. But getting rid of child labor laws would be a step backward for any modern educated country. We would be the laughingstock of the civilized world.
Annie, I’m all for hitting the reset button. To me, we are so far away from being free it is a long time coming. It sucks being part of the generation responsible for the decline.
Annie
I think my reading comprehension is pretty good. I don’t think somebody needs to quote the Tree of Liberty in order to understand they plan to overthrow the government by violent means.
I think a violent revolution is a very bad idea.
Somebody needs to explain my reasoning to ol’ Jim Bob 22.
I don’t think anyone wants to return to the days of “The Jungle” where rats ate an overworked little boy.
But not all regulations are inherently good, even those regulating child labor.
Obviously, farm children should be allowed to work on a farm, a business owner should be allowed to bring his kid along to “help out”, a restaurant owner should let his kids bus tables to make money, and you should be allowed to hire a kid to shovel snow so he can earn money. My own 5 year old helps me throw hay to our horses, gather eggs, and guard the chicks from crows. If I had an agricultural business, farm kids could only help me with labor in some states. So for those who are freaking out about relaxing child labor laws, 17 states already have exempted farm work from labor laws. Kids can help with the harvest at Grandpa’s farm in those states, but not others. Many states make parental employment or family farms exempt.
Sometimes, that makes sense, as in the case of farm kids working hard to bring in the harvest. Other times, it can be detrimental, such as overworked migrant farm worker children.
This is about balance, but too many people make it about extremes. Any effort to relax regulations, such as the above common sense scenarios, and people start proclaiming we’ll go back to chaining children to sweat shop sewing machines.
Which scenario is healthier for kids – sitting on the couch all day eating potato chips while playing video games, or shoveling driveways for older neighbors to earn money to buy a bike? And which one is more more harmful?
Wade,
I hear many comments from this group that could easily be considered ‘attention seeking’. The outlandish, outrageous statements, happen every single day, lol. It’s as if they think of how close to saying clearly racist, bigoted statements they can make without someone actually calling them on it. It would be comical if it weren’t such a sad reflection on them. Not only has DBQ made comments about revolution, so has David. At least they haven’t used that quote about “watering the tree of Liberty with blood” or whatever the heck it is, yet.
DBQ, issac would probably propose we tax the crap out of these evil kids and use that money to pay for the sickness they cause (But then would freely admit that the money would be used for other things like hand outs for lazy kids). And man, what did you ever do to get under Wadewilliams skin?
DBQ – we are inhibiting kids’ ability to grow in responsibility and independence.
On http://www.lemonadefreedom.com, they also discuss kids being prevented from shoveling snow without a permit.
Isn’t that how all kids made money to save up for something? Shoveling snow, moving lawns, washing cars, and selling lemonade?
This is a really good opportunity to contact local governments to identify and fix absurd rules like this. Hey, we might not be able to get World Peace this year, but by golly, we can legalize lemonade stands quite easily. 🙂
I wonder if Dusty planning a revolution is considered an attention-getting device?
Perhaps they could codify that any lemonade sold at a kids’ stand is to be consumed “at your own risk.”
That is an assumption that I use for any place that I buy food. Restaurants. The County Fair food booths. Cookies at a bake sale. Tamales from the lady down the road who makes them in her own kitchen and sells them once a week. (And boy are they are good). Mobile taco stands in LA. I’ve eaten from food vendors in Mexico and Central America. I’ve never once died.
Making money as a child by being entrepreneurial is evidently now forbidden by the food police and Big Nanny who wants to control every last aspect of our lives.
Although I did get a chuckle at someone blaming Texas and Rick Perry for the lemonade gestapo, apparently this is going on across the nation:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/08/03/the-inexplicable-war-on-lemonade-stands/
And it is the provence of LOCAL governments.
For anyone still confused, wanting to blame conservatives, here is a MAP:
http://www.lemonadefreedom.com/2011/07/29/map-of-restrictions-on-kid-run-concession-stands/
Good old Liberal stronghold CA has had a great many lemonade stand shut downs. We hear about it on the news from time to time.
So, now that we’ve removed politics from the room, now is a good time to contact your local government, find out if this problem exists in your area and FIX IT.
Seriously??? We’re outlawing kids’ lemonade stands, bake sales, and the sale of mistletoe for Christmas.
NOW is a really good time for local governments to take a few minutes, see if they have waivers for kids’ enterprise like this, and if not, get them. Perhaps they could codify that any lemonade sold at a kids’ stand is to be consumed “at your own risk.”
Wade, some people cannot discuss real life issues without letting their odd personality quirks discolor the conversation. That is kind of sad.
Young children will stand @ the edge of the pool as they prepare to jump in. They will yell, “LOOK @ ME, LOOK @ ME” trying to get attention from anyone to pay attention to them. Children can be needy. They think jumping into a pool is a great feat. Actually, it is a big deal for them. Just sayin’.