By Bart Theriot

I’m not really sure where it comes from, but even going back to my own youth, it seems so many children are naturally interested in commerce. Drive through any neighborhood in Loudoun County on a hot Summer day and you’re likely to see at least one lemonade stand. I’ve seen prices varying from 25 cents a cup to a dollar. My eight year old son would setup and man his lemonade stand everyday if he could. In fact, he’s tried to sell just about everything he has ever found in bulk at one time or another from sea glass and animal bones to mulberries and interesting rocks. With the exception of some of the stranger items he’s come up with, I’m very much in favor of the idea of children producing/collecting and selling goods or services, but recently I encountered an internal conundrum. Well, that’s over-dramatizing it a bit. It was more of a mental excursion into my own parenting philosophy... READ MORE...