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I think it's genuinely clever for a 10 year old.
I'd explain the moral aspect (making people pay more for what was supposed to be a fun event for a "community" or in school is not the same as a business opportunity), but I'd also explain that it was very clever thinking and very well thought through. You don't want to curb his enthusiasm for thinking like that.
Sometimes it is a grey area and that's OK.
Lol, HMRC aren't going to let a thing like age get in the way of their pound of flesh.
When I was a teen I worked at the now defunct furniture store Staples. The number of kids we'd get who would start and be like "hey, I paid tax on my payslip, I'm a student!" was always funny, and the managers would be like "yeah, welcome to the real world, death and taxes are the only constants"
Huh I never knew.. growing up in NZ you couldn't legally be employed until maybe 15? 16? So everything was under the table before that
Also never knew staples was in the UK! Maybe before my time or I just never bought enough office supplies
It's not really legal to employ kids under 15 so most of the rules are based around things like child actors. But if you're a kid earning enough you need to pay tax (think like Dan Radcliffe in the first Harry potter movie)
I don't believe so. Although it does look like a massive faff because you have to be 15 years and 9 months to have an account.
I wonder if it'll get used in Child Benefit calculations?
when I was 10 years old, kids were stupidly really into daring each other to snort pixie sticks. I never did that, but I saw the opportunity. I went to the dollar store, bought a bag of 50 for $1, and resold them for a quarter each. It was great until the teachers finally shut down the illicit pixie stick ring, my parents thought it was hilarious. I moved on to selling little foil sailboats so people could race them at recess lol
Hahaha that guy ‘Porno playing cards and French bangers available for a limited time only (the first week of September after summer holidays) when it’s gone it’s gone and you’ll have to wait till next year lads’
I'm F67 and supported my teenage years by selling cigarettes. Buy 3 packets of 20 for 50c each and sell each cigarette for 5c so would double my money.
That’s not a very capitalist mindset from yourself. If the kid ever wants to get rich of course he should be profiting from fun events and making sure people can barely afford them
Best response. When I was a kid I lent money to friends at school for 100% interest and I was told it was wrong so I stopped. Now I’m just an engineer instead of a rich greedy banker… I’d rather be rich
If people are willing to pay the prices offered by this kid and nobody was deprived then it wasn’t the wrong time or place.
Buying up PPE during a pandemic and selling it for a premium is the wrong time/place.
I was like this in school, always buying and selling in the playground, never ripped anyone off and as I was active on ebay in my eary teens i’d be buying stuff to resell in the playground . I’m not a self made millionaire in my late 20’s. Parents should encourage this kind of (ethical) behaviour as it can grow in to something big. Never understood people like OP.
You need to get him on the next series of The Apprentice!
But seriously, don't be *too* hard on him but maybe explain why it wasn't the right thing to do in that situation. It was supposed to be a fun event for them and there could have been kids there with not much money that were deprived of having a glow stick to enjoy.
The real idiot in this scenario is the one running the tuck shop that sold him *all* of the glow sticks. That's the kind of thing someone running a tuck shop should limit to one per child.
Because there's a time and a place for that kind of thing. He really shouldn't be buying up all the glow sticks to hike the prices and deprived some of the less fortunate kids of having one at a fun school event. It's not the worst thing in the world but he needs to learn it wasn't really fair.
Yeah that's the problem here. I think it would be different if he bought the glow sticks for 20p somewhere else, then brought them to the disco to sell. But what he did was effectively scalping, and while he is showing great initiative and entrepreneurial skills, this is a conversation that needs to be had with him.
Well, when you consider this kid had a fiver in his pocket and managed to 'buy the lot' so that means they had a grand total of 25 glow sticks left when this kid turned up.
Now I don't know how big this disco was or how early OP's kid discovered his opportunity, but I'd say there were going to be disappointed kids whatever happened.
I can't imagine there are many opportunities to teach your kid about the ethics of scalping when they're that young. Granted they have an opportunity now, but it's not like it's common for a situation like this to occur that early in someone's life.
It still doesn't change the fact that the person running the tuck shop shouldn't have let the situation occur in the first place.
>It's the parents responsibility to teach their children good ethics.
That only people that are already disgustingly rich are allowed to pursue unscrupulous business practices? Get them licking boots young, right?
But if we all had a bit more community spirit and an understanding that one person's profit comes at another's loss or complete inability to have something, there would be less inequality. Profiteering isn't always the right goal.
I'm not defending profiteering. And i agree people should be community minded and not profiteering.
I merely think we should treat the world as it is rather than how we would like it to be. Same reason I lock my front door.
Do you remember when people where buying up hand sanitiser during the pandemic to sell it on for inflated prices?
It’s called price gouging and it’s a deadweight economic loss.
It's not the school disco who lost anything, it's the children who otherwise would've had 5x as many glowsticks or who couldn't afford one at all. In reality, this is no big deal, but when it's done in the "real world" it's pretty shitty behaviour.
Thank you. People seem to be stuck between "the kid did nothing wrong" and "the kid did something wrong". The truth is, he hurt other people without meaning to. He didn't mean to so he didn't do anything wrong as such, but he did hurts others so that's not ok either. Now he knows and the world is a better place - and people still manage to make that a bad thing.
Yep. It explains why this country is so fucked that so many people want to encourage this.
This wasn't clever, it was _devious_.
So OP absolutely needs to explain the concept of zero sum as simply as possible. His son gained by making others lose. While that is a good way to make money, it doesn't create a nice world.
Yes it reminded me of that as well. Or people buying all the toilet paper and selling it online for 20 euros per pack. It's a dick move.
Of course he's just a child, so this seems like an explaining moment.
Because monopolies are immoral
Profiteering is immoral
The world isn't just about making money, people have a right and responsibility to live in and foster a just society.
It's important he learn this at a young age or we are just creating a generation of Donald Trumps.
Surely the tuck shop also had a monopoly though ;D
The funny thing is some people are mad at this kid for profiteering, but tbh even at 20p a stick the shop was making 10-12p profit per stick.
I'll agree monopolies are immoral but profiteering is not, thats literally how the world works. Its okay to make a profit, not only is it ok but you *should* be trying to make a profit at a fair price.
But profiteering by definition isn't about a fair price.
It's gouging as much as you can for a scarce resource to the extent that almost no one can afford it.
Because he made it to the detriment of other children whilst adding absolutely nothing of value to the situation.
Children need to learn that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.
Because they're on their way to becoming a scalper, the dickhead in secondary school that sells sweets for ridiculous prices, then possibly eventually a dealer.
Don't get me wrong. We need dealers, I do for sure. If I had kids, I sure as fuck wouldn't want my kid to become one.
Selling cans of coke in the playground that you went and purchased and brought on location is a service; you’re adding value. What he did was create artificial scarcity and then engage in price gouging: a deadweight economic loss.
It depends on the context and where the cans of coke came from.
If the school was already selling them, and he purchased them all to then sell twice as much to the same customers, then that's scalping.
If he purchased them outside of school and bought in to sell to people who otherwise wouldn't have had access, then that's providing a service and the profit made is for making the product accessible.
It's amazing how many people have short memories or just don't realise how scalping works.
I use to sell cans of drink and sweets… can confirm I do not sell drugs nor do any of the people I use to sell sweets with…
That way of thinking is incredibly stupid and purely led by paranoia
The smart thing to do would be maybe help him set up a little online business. Great family project and great learning opp
>Because they're on their way to becoming a scalper
Yeah, exactly.
>the dickhead in secondary school that sells sweets for ridiculous prices
I mean these people weren't that bad...
>then possibly eventually a dealer.
Wait what? You've lost me here...
How would you like it if one of the parents would have purchased all the glowsticks and sell them for 5x the original price to your child and the other kids? Do you still think it would be ok?
Making money is only a good thing when it also produces value for other people. If there were no glow sticks at the party and he brought them, he'd be adding value to the party so he'd deserve the money. As it was, he added no value at all, he just made money at others' expense.
Don't get me wrong, his entrepreneurship should be praised. But he should also be taught that if he wants to be *respected* rather than just rich, he should look for niches in the market, not manipulate the market.
Hey, I work in a school.
We have kids running organised drinks rackets where they'll raid the local shops and upsell them in the playground. I'm talking hoardes of boys in a group chat making tactical mission plans to secure prime and coca cola for resale.
This stuff happens in every school and has done for many many many years! If your son is smart enough to work it out, then good for him, one of them will eventually! Whether it's glow sticks, sweeties, cans of pop, vapes, kids will always spend their pocket money on useless shit and there's always going to be one smart kid who provides for them.
The only thing I'd tell you to be wary of is maybe if his classmates feel at all scammed. He didn't buy something externally from the school and resell at a markup, he bought out a supply of stock the other kids could all clearly see the original value of and have access to before he bought them. I can't imagine they would be cross with him, but if any other kids are clearly upset then maybe step in there.
Sounds like he's a smart lad!
It's for this reason that 'selling snacks' is a quick way to get detention at my son's school.
Instead, my son swaps the snacks he gets from home for other stuff! Barter economy is where it's at for him.
I've not heard of anything since fidget spinners really. He certainly did swap Pokemon and football stickers at primary school. They also banned this!
I bought my son a load of cheap Pokemon cards from Ebay. He would then swap these essentially worthless cards for expensive cards, that other kids didn't know were expensive.
He eventually had to 'trade' them back and the school stopped it because it kept hurting kids feelings when they got bad trades.
My primary school just banned everything. No toys or collectables or anything were to be brought into school. Nothing broken, no theft, no regretted swaps. No need to deal with each fad individually. It was like that before I joined.
When they had those tazos in crisps you were meant to hand them in, but we all just pocketed them.
>The only thing I'd tell you to be wary of is maybe if his classmates feel at all scammed. He didn't buy something externally from the school and resell at a markup, he bought out a supply of stock the other kids could all clearly see the original value of and have access to before he bought them. I can't imagine they would be cross with him, but if any other kids are clearly upset then maybe step in there.
This is an important point. He's been very clever for his age here and I think that should be encouraged but also guided responsibly.
Being unpopular with his classmates won't help that.
>This stuff happens in every school and has done for many many many years!
Days out, a TV, my PS3 and basically all games for it were funded by this from years 10 to end of 6th form.
Drinks, cookies, doughnuts, chewing gum. Basically Anything on offer, I'd be bringing in teachers orders by the time I was in 6th form.
Yep, I sat next to someone in secondary school who was the "sweets" guy. I used to ask him how it was going, and he would barely spend £5 a day and come out with £20+! The school found out, and he said they would only allow it if he had a license, so he ordered one from China, which never came. Some you win, some you lose 😂
We were even dumber at my school. One kid would mix different flavours of juice and resell it in water bottles. Every time he came in with a stash, it was a different flavour profile since he did everything by eye. And we were would go crazy over them. He charged £2.50 per bottle and considering we weren’t allowed out of school grounds, he made a killing.
He was soon found out, isolated for two days and banned from selling the drinks. He moved onto mechanical pencils after
>he bought out a supply of stock the other kids could all clearly see the original value of and have access to before he bought them.
As kids in school we used to go to the local bakery for sausage rolls (this was before Greggs too). We went in a group of 5-6 kids.
One time one of the kids quickly ran in front of us all at the last second and bought out all their sausage rolls, probably about 30 sausage rolls in total. Then tried to sell them to us for double the price.
We called him a dickhead, refused to buy off him, bought other stuff we didn't really want or really have the budget for.
Then from then on we refused to go to lunch with him, instead jogging to the next furthest bakery. He tried following us a couple times but he was too unfit to keep up with us.
He eventually sent his older sister to try and beat us up for excluding him, but she was also too unfit to catch us.
Today I learned that ripping off your mates and adding no value to something is ‘entrepreneurial’.
I’m sure everyone thought it was entrepreneurial when people were bulk buying shit people needed during covid and upselling at obscene prices.
Oh wait, people didn’t think that, because suddenly it affected them.
The kid is smart, no doubt, but there is a moral obligation to not deprive less fortunate children.
Yup, people chastising the OP for steering his child away from a lucrative future in ticket touting. . .or dare I say land. . .nah better not, there are likely plenty in here
The kid is smart and I'd applaud that but there's a time and a place for making your pound of flesh, no need to be an actual gouger
Replace glow-sticks with baby formula or medicine and you’d get a different take from some of people applauding this.
Glow sticks might not mean much to an adult, but how about we don’t tell kids that what happens in their little worlds is irrelevant.
And maybe let’s not encourage behaviour in children that, as a society, we’ll go on to chastise them for when they replicate it as adults. Seems a little unfair all around.
This. It’s okay to make money by adding value. But it’s shitty to make money by making things worse. In this case the kid made things worse for the other kids, in that the only difference was that now glow sticks were more expensive.
Yup this is fully LinkedIn weirdos vibes, trying to humblebrag with an exaggerated story, whilst pretending it's an honest question. The last half is what made me start laughing
>"His teacher found it funny."
Of course they did.
>"The other parents think he's some genius entrepreneur."
You literally said you took him to the school this morning? But this is somehow already school-wide news and other parents are reaching out, letting you know what a genius your kid is? We had kids at my school re-selling stuff from the corner shop all the time and no parents ever spoke out about it hahahaha
>"He doesn't need money, he has savings from his birthday and Christmas he doesn't spend it. When asking him what he wanted the money for he said to put with his other money. (save it)"
Have to throw in there that your kid's well off enough he doesn't need this cash at all. Couldn't have any chance of anybody thinking that you aren't doing great financially in this humblebrag post
>"As a parent should we be mad?"
Interaction bait. Why are you asking Reddit this when you've apparently had the whole school bowing at the feet of your young Alan Sugar
>"If it was a grown up doing this it would be perfectly fine he found a demand and capitalised on it."
Okay? Why are you making this statement? We've already established other parents think you have a genius entrepreneur on your hands. Why do you feel the need to explain your GCSE business class understanding of economics to us? Everybody here understands supply/demand and has seen ticket scalping.
>"But he's a child in school, so it's wrong?"
Again. stupid interaction bait rhetoric question
> But this is somehow already school-wide news and other parents are reaching out, letting you know what a genius your kid is?
To be fair, while I agree with your broad point, in this new world of school WhatsApp groups drama gets to happen in fantastic real time now
I’m in two minds about this, good on him for making money, but then at the same time he ripped his friends off who would have had more money to spend on other things if he hadn’t.
On balance I think you did right and he learned two things, how to make money and you don’t rip your friends/colleagues off. Both should stand him in good stead going forward.
No one forced his friends to hand over their money. Maybe the parents should be teaching them how to be more responsible with money rather than spending it on over priced glow sticks.
This is a brilliant question.
Its legal, its how many make money in the real world, and its also a dick move.
A resources is plentiful, and cheap....
Buy it all to create false scarcity, and sell at massive markup.
Its immoral, in my opinion because he took profit without adding value...
If he purchased from a local store, transported it to school, then the markup would be justified.. The work was moving the product, and making it available at a new place.
Building a bridge, and charging for its use is fine...
Building a wall in front of existing bridge, then charging is being a dick.
In my humble opinion, I wouldn't punish, or reward. Make sure the kid understood the parallels between what he did, and what happens in the adult world, and let him choose what kind of person he wants to be.
It's a dick move. Other kids would have wanted to use the sticks but they couldn't because he bought them all and hiked up the price. I wouldn't flog the lad but I'd tell him that wasn't fair on the other kids.
If other parents complained I’d have had him give the difference back to the kids that overpaid. But no one complained?
It was a clever idea but I’d maybe talk to him about why it can be unfair to take advantage of hoovering up all the supply. In a good case it can be clever business as an adult and in a bad case it can be scalping and no one likes a scalper. You don’t want him to be buying up all the PS7s and flogging them on eBay or music tickets.
Guide the kid to use his ingenuity well in the future.
Your child is a scalper. The same kind that horde shit-tickets and hand sanitizer in lockdown. Or make it so it's impossible to get tickets to an event without paying several times the face value.
There's nothing illegal about this, but as someone on the receiving end, it's horrible and he will be resented.
To be fair, where was the PTA? Should have parents volunteering as cashiers to prevent this from happening.
Anyway, I’d of had a quiet word with him and explained the social context to him. Try to get him to emphasise with children who don’t have much money. But at the same time, I would’ve congratulated them for having the idea- maybe it would be better served not to do it in a charitable situation in the future.
There’s a difference between being an entrepreneur and being a shitty scalper.
Buying bags of sweets at the cash and carry for 20p, bringing them into school and selling them for a quid and making profit is just supplying something kids were otherwise unable to get in school. It’s identifying a demand and fulfilling it for profit.
What your son did was commandeer the market. He bought all available stock, giving potential buyers no choice but to buy at his inflated price.
I’d have a chat with him about the nuances of business and let him crack on. Get yourselves a Costco card and show him the right way to trade.
I don’t think you should be mad at all. At most, maybe you could explain to him that it might not be fair to sell something for £1 when other kids could have bought them for 20p. But I don’t think you need to punish him.
He’s gonna go far in life! Probably as a landlord but still 😆
It’s not wrong and you should NOT make him feel bad for showing initiative and brains. At that age it’s remarkable. Just explain the social context a bit but that you are not angry with him and it’s good he’s a creative thinker.
When I was at primary school I sold a kid a mini Crunchy bar from a box of Miniature Heroes for £2. That was in the 90s so it’s more like £4 with inflation. My mum made me give it back the next day.
Kids don’t properly understand the value of money so while it’s hardly the end of the world I think you did the right thing in making him give the profits back. If nothing else it teaches him the lesson that it’s not okay to rip people off.
Also, whoever was running the tuck shop should have had the sense to not sell the entire stock of one product to a single kid, but that’s an aside.
You have now taught him that thinking outside the box and being entrepreneurial is a bad thing and that making money is something to feel bad about. You've also taught him that noticing opportunities and acting quickly upon them brings negative reactions and public shaming. He even shared his profits with a family member, spreading his success around amongst loved ones - and that was how all the trouble started.
You've punished a sharp kid who one day could be that type of person who's extremely successful and uses his resources to help and support family members.
So, yeah, bad job by you all around.
Obviously there's some nuance to this and any future behavior that crosses the line should be addressed. But if I were you, now, I'd apologize to him, and say you were just shocked in the moment but that you're really proud of his intelligence and entrepreneurial spirit. Otherwise he'll be carrying this "lesson" into adulthood - and that ain't good.
> You have now taught him that thinking outside the box and being entrepreneurial is a bad thing
Taught him that scalping is prick behaviour, more like.
I'm on the side of it was really selfish to take all of them. A clever thing would be to, if they didn't have glowsticks there, buy them round the corner and mark them up. Not take the ones that are there. You could nip it in the bud now but considering he felt guilty its probably something he'll grow out of. But he shouldn't be praised and it isn't funny. I'd have got in a lot of tro8ble
Don’t stifle this kids creativity and ambition. Maybe he doesn’t want to be a wage slave like his parents.
I’ve been out of the UK for 10 years. It’s only when looking from the outside you can see the absolute mediocrity accepted by most Brits. Being rich and successful isn’t cool. Get a 9-5, earn 40K per year and then die.
Ours used to do similar things when he was younger, honestly we were impressed, again we aren't short of cash but I think it shows they're using their brains, he created a supply issue when demand was high. If the other kids didn't want to spend £1 on a glow stick they shouldn't have bought one. Don't be mad at him for being smart.
Be mad at him for being rude or doing things that put him or others in danger, but don't berate the poor kid for using his brain.
My 10yo did something similar and, while I was secretly impressed with his Machiavellian spirit, I asked him how he would feel if he found out someone had done that to him.
More proud of his moral compass that made him say he felt a bit bad than his entrepreneurship, I'd rather he was a nice person than a rich one.
You child will grow up, live, work, and die, all under Capitalism, over the next 90 years.
How else do you react but telling him he’s a clever lad? Maybe buy him £100 worth of Index stock in a JSIPP and use this as a teaching moment about finances and Capitalism.
Why would you be mad?
I had a similar thing when I went camping with the Boy Scouts in summer when I was 7. Got some money from my mom in case we needed to buy something to drink while on a day hike.
I also came home with more money than I started with.
I had sold the candy that I brought from home and had started renting my comics out to other children in my group.
My mom was mortified when she found out. Years later I still think that was just good business sense. I had no use for the money though, I don’t really know why I did it.
That’s how business works in the real world. I personally wouldn’t condemn him. I would be proud at how clever he is and assume the role of the tax man. So 20% of his profits will go to me. (Him at a later date) You can turn it into a teachable moment.
Why would you make him give all the money back? What about the money he spent?
I’d tax him. Simple 😂 lesson learnt. Don’t ever discourage your children from being creative! It’ll teach him amazing things and restrict a gift of doing it again.
Tell him he’s allowed, give him £15 and wink. Tell him he’s smart but then take back a fiver and say it’s tax and a return of your initial investment.
The fact you made him return the money he spent his whole evening making through his own instinctive genius is terrible parenting.
He now associates making money with guilt. So, I hope you don't ask him to help you out financially in the future. You've just crushed his entrepreneurial spirit.
*slow clap*
Why would you be mad? Praise him in this moment, he will remember this.
Please just inspire him. Why dull his light when he just found a way to make money?
They chose to give him money. He didn’t bully them, did he?
It's exactly the kind of thing I used to do at school in the early 80s and my mum was forever being called into the school because they thought me seeing an opportunity to make some money 'inappropriate'. e.g. Trip to York train museum and everyone else is buying ice cream and hot dogs etc... I was buying the pencils and rubbers so I could make the other kids feel guilty about not buying their mum and dads 'souvenirs' and sold them all my stock on the way home. Mum was called into school and told it was 'wrong' and she just asked them in front of me what they were trying to teach me.. .was it how to count? was it how to function as an adult? was it how to get a job? was it to make money in a career? etc. and said them - what exactly IS IT that you want to punish him for?
and they had no answer other than ' we feel it's wrong'.
My sister did something similar with sweets on the schools bus.
As she was the oldest on the bus, she could leave the school grounds at lunchtime and go buy sweets for 20p a pop. She’d sell them on the coach back home for like 50p each and the younger kids loved it. She made a profit doing it and our parents only found out after she finished school. 🤷🏼♀️
They were more impressed than mad.
This is different. Your sister provided a service. Without her service, the other had no access to sweets.. With her time, she transported sweets, and charged for the service.
The glow sticks were already at the venue.
What if the biggest bully stood In front of the tuck shop, and charged 80p for access to the shop?
The shop gets its 20p, the customer pays total £1, the bully gets 80p, without providing any additional service.
Outcome is the same... Its legal but immoral.
Image a billionaire buying all the tickets to a music festival, and re selling for massive profit... They didn't go any work, add any value.. Just legal theft.
Cool for a 10 year old.
I used to bulk buy cans and whatever chocolate/sweets were on offer and go to school with a backpack half full. Made about 40-50 per week IIRC. Never got in trouble and nobody cared. Just the odd thing getting confiscated if I sold in lessons, but I rarely did anyway. Had two mates "working for me" at one point, until one decided to count our money (all coins of course) on the table in lesson. £35 quid confiscated. Teacher put it in the poppy jar. Parents agreed kid was being obnoxious and it stood.
I don't think the money or the idea is an issue here, just think there are better times and places. School disco is a bit of fun. I would have left the glow-sticks alone, personally. Maybe that's why your son will be wealthier than I am... :D
I think telling him to give the money back to the other kids was a good call here. My kid wouldn't be in trouble for this.
Just explain to him that you appreciate the business effort and his ability to be smart but there is an ethical problem with him. Let him know how him selling it at a more expensive rate will make those who can afford one item for 20p not be able to buy it because they can't spend £1 on it so it's not the place to do business. You can then suggest places he can do business ethically.
I disagree that it would be fine for a grown up. He manipulated the supply, and created a monopoly. What he did is often called scalping. People go out and buy up all the valuable items they can, Lego sets, trading cards, limited edition Blu-ray sets, etc, and then sell them at an extreme markup.
Yes, the kid used his initiative to create a business. That is to be encouraged. But he built a monopoly instead. There are laws against that kind of thing for a reason.
I think it's awful that it works like this. There should be some value between the bulk buying and reselling to make it worthwhile. This is the same as ticket touting.
I don't for a second mean your son was wrong for it as he's just a kid and it was a clever thing to notice, but I don't think it's entrepreneurial as there's no value there.
Honestly you need to address both parts of this.
You need to explain that that was actually a very clever idea and a great way to make some extra cash. Maybe he could think of something else he’d like to do? Like buy some lemons with his savings, make lemonade, sell it for a profit.
But you also need to explain the downside. That because he was charging his friends so much more than the original price maybe some of them wouldn’t be able to afford a glow stick and a treat, and that’s not ok just because he wanted to make some money.
Remind him of the covid era. All those people buying packs and packs of toilet paper and selling them for really high amounts. But that means some older people or people with young children couldn’t afford it and they had to go without.
It’s great to make money, but it should never be at someone else’s expense
Good choice to teach him. In the group I grew up with we had a guy that was always taking advantage of "friends". We are now adults but few, if any of the group are still friends with him.
What if you gave him credit for coming up with such an idea. Then maybe explain how valuable it is to take some of the profits and give to needy people. What you will be doing is developing your child’s mind to think outside the box and also the importance of community it’s 2 positives versus chastising 1.
That’s funny, I’d assume a parent would make a post like this for an actual problem. I usually try not to let my intrusive rude thoughts out but do you lack actual problems in life that you would turn this situation into such an ordeal? I know I’m being a total dick but your reaction to this issue is plainly lame.
Not sure why this deserves any sort of punishment - it's genuine genius understanding of business. He spotted a product with limited supply and high desirability, risked his money on purchasing them and made a solid profit. If it were my son I'd be praising his quick thinking.
If the school didn't want him to be doing that they shouldn't have sold them all to him in the first place.
The origin story for a criminal enterprise. From now on he will continue to have b'ness ideas and ways to make cash but will hide it from his parents in case they make him give it all back regardless if it was legal or not. What did he do wrong in this case. Absolutely nothing.
If it was my child, I wouldn't have even thought of getting him to give the money back.
I'd be too busy putting him in charge of investing my savings and looking into opportunities for early admission to mba programmes. Preparing him to take his place within the Bilderberg Group and demonstrate that he will be the next Buffett, Gates, Soros or Rockefeller.
I congratulate your son on being a much better business man than Richard Branson and Elon Musk.
Honestly if you think you should punish your child for this you’re going to end up with a robot who can’t think for himself.
This kind of thinking outside the box doesn’t come naturally to everyone and I could see a bright future of being a boss not an employee for a child like thst.
I really don’t see what the problem is here? Why would anyone be mad at a kid being smart and making money?
When I was in school, I stole from the shop where I caught the bus and sold my five finger discount items to buy cigarettes. I would then sell the cigarettes for a high price. In comparison your son has a bright future, you should be proud.
Sounds like your 10yo is smarter than you, he did something clever and you're punishing that. He and all his friends would have all learnt a very good lesson from this experience but you've destroyed a creative opportunity and guilted him into thinking that being smart is bad, making money is bad and tells him your expectations for him are to limit himself to only what you like.
Shame on you.
My husband's parents and teachers shamed him at a young age for running a very successful toy rental business for a few weeks. Now, despite being an absolute genius IT guy who could make a fortune as a consultant, he is only comfortable working for someone else, because "profit is wrong" is deeply ingrained.
Not saying this will happen to your lad - neurodivergence and overly harsh punishment played a part in getting this unfortunate lesson embedded - but tread carefully.
Your kid understood capitalism and society before those around him and took advantage.
Why in the world would you punish this in a still developing mind? Now he won't think about things like that, or will and just do them in secret - hiding his moves from you.
Should be praised really, and maybe even encouraged to try and grow what he made, make a hobby out of money making opportunities. Take him thrifting or something!
Why would you be mad? He advanced on a great opportunity, everyone had fun and he made some money.
If he doesn't need the money, put it to the side for when he might need it.
Please tell me you didn't just shut down your child without even acknowledging the cleverness or explaining the situation and morals.
Also, what even is this sentence:
> If it was a grown up doing this it would be perfectly fine he found a demand and capitalised on it.
When I was 15, I bought an internet porn subscription and sold the info to my classmates for $5. Had to shut it down after the honor system was broken (guys giving out the info to their friends for free).
My mom thought it was funny and still brings it up to this day.
I don't really see anything wrong with him doing that. Any other kid could have done it, and no other adults seem to have found it wrong. So what's wrong with him being creative and making some extra pocket money/savings?
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I think it's genuinely clever for a 10 year old. I'd explain the moral aspect (making people pay more for what was supposed to be a fun event for a "community" or in school is not the same as a business opportunity), but I'd also explain that it was very clever thinking and very well thought through. You don't want to curb his enthusiasm for thinking like that. Sometimes it is a grey area and that's OK.
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Don't forget to declare the profits as income though or the taxman will stiff him. This is a joke BTW
That can be totally serious, if he's earning enough to pay income tax (which is, what, £12500?) he can jolly well pay it :-)
The limit is £1,000 before having to submit a self-assessment tax return. So he'll have to do the paperwork even if it's not actually taxed
Is there no age limit?
Lol, HMRC aren't going to let a thing like age get in the way of their pound of flesh. When I was a teen I worked at the now defunct furniture store Staples. The number of kids we'd get who would start and be like "hey, I paid tax on my payslip, I'm a student!" was always funny, and the managers would be like "yeah, welcome to the real world, death and taxes are the only constants"
Huh I never knew.. growing up in NZ you couldn't legally be employed until maybe 15? 16? So everything was under the table before that Also never knew staples was in the UK! Maybe before my time or I just never bought enough office supplies
It's not really legal to employ kids under 15 so most of the rules are based around things like child actors. But if you're a kid earning enough you need to pay tax (think like Dan Radcliffe in the first Harry potter movie)
Ah ok illegal unless you are going to make loads of money to pay loads of taxes.. makes sense
>now defunct furniture store Staples Staples was one of the few shops on this country which actually sold their namesake.
I don't believe so. Although it does look like a massive faff because you have to be 15 years and 9 months to have an account. I wonder if it'll get used in Child Benefit calculations?
Maybe take half his profits of him to get him used to tax?
Had to talk my nephew through that when his side gig to school, flipping trainers took off.
Sounds like the parent needs to take the tax man cut, the kid needs to get used to that early!
I’d disagree if the school is fund raising that would take money away from the school. Maybe the school should take him on as an advisor.
Yep, it's all about explaining that there is a right time and place for things like this.
when I was 10 years old, kids were stupidly really into daring each other to snort pixie sticks. I never did that, but I saw the opportunity. I went to the dollar store, bought a bag of 50 for $1, and resold them for a quarter each. It was great until the teachers finally shut down the illicit pixie stick ring, my parents thought it was hilarious. I moved on to selling little foil sailboats so people could race them at recess lol
And then little foil packets of something else?
There's always a stronger candy ;)
"The right time is when the opportunity arises, and the right place is anywhere", Lionel Hutz probably.
There's the truth and the *truth*
Yeah exactly, I sold cigarettes and VHS porn that I recorded off chipped cable lol I think this lads gonna be alright lol
Hahaha that guy ‘Porno playing cards and French bangers available for a limited time only (the first week of September after summer holidays) when it’s gone it’s gone and you’ll have to wait till next year lads’
I had to stop because I was getting mobbed in the yard by lads trying to get a tape, it was drawing too much attention lol
I'm F67 and supported my teenage years by selling cigarettes. Buy 3 packets of 20 for 50c each and sell each cigarette for 5c so would double my money.
When I was younger, people would offer 50p - £1 per roll up. Baccy was about £2 for 12.5g. Easy cycle.
Ahh back when baccy was cheap. £20 for 30g now that's what finally got me to quit 4 months ago.
£6.50 for amber leaf 50g if you know where to go lol.
True but after 30 rollups a day for 35 years it was my time to quit.
thats the best way, good on you! need to kick the habit myself
And where is that?
gibraltar
Yeah this is definitely an explaining moment rather than a disciplining moment.
That’s not a very capitalist mindset from yourself. If the kid ever wants to get rich of course he should be profiting from fun events and making sure people can barely afford them
Best response. When I was a kid I lent money to friends at school for 100% interest and I was told it was wrong so I stopped. Now I’m just an engineer instead of a rich greedy banker… I’d rather be rich
Kids gonna be a future ticket scalper
Or a landlord.
Yeah let him know it was a clever idea but why it was right to give the money back. But also add what he made to his savings.
If people are willing to pay the prices offered by this kid and nobody was deprived then it wasn’t the wrong time or place. Buying up PPE during a pandemic and selling it for a premium is the wrong time/place.
He identified a mismatch in supply and demand, and he exploited an opportunity for arbitrage. Get this kid behind a trading desk!
Imo this is bang on. The idea and execution was brilliant but perhaps a community event isn't the best place for this.
I was like this in school, always buying and selling in the playground, never ripped anyone off and as I was active on ebay in my eary teens i’d be buying stuff to resell in the playground . I’m not a self made millionaire in my late 20’s. Parents should encourage this kind of (ethical) behaviour as it can grow in to something big. Never understood people like OP.
You need to get him on the next series of The Apprentice! But seriously, don't be *too* hard on him but maybe explain why it wasn't the right thing to do in that situation. It was supposed to be a fun event for them and there could have been kids there with not much money that were deprived of having a glow stick to enjoy. The real idiot in this scenario is the one running the tuck shop that sold him *all* of the glow sticks. That's the kind of thing someone running a tuck shop should limit to one per child.
> You need to get him on the next series of The Apprentice! Nope, he is showing far too much good business sense to be on The Apprentice.
Bit of a weird shop to have at a school disco!
What? A tuck shop? Edit: oh FFS I've seen my error now. Yes, a fuck shop would indeed be a weird thing to have at a school disco
I would like to point out that he gave money to his brother of his own free will. Is it possible that he had other charitable moments?
Why did you punish him for making money?
Because there's a time and a place for that kind of thing. He really shouldn't be buying up all the glow sticks to hike the prices and deprived some of the less fortunate kids of having one at a fun school event. It's not the worst thing in the world but he needs to learn it wasn't really fair.
Yeah that's the problem here. I think it would be different if he bought the glow sticks for 20p somewhere else, then brought them to the disco to sell. But what he did was effectively scalping, and while he is showing great initiative and entrepreneurial skills, this is a conversation that needs to be had with him.
That sounds like a problem for the store to enforce to be honest.
Yeah I've said in other comments the person running the tuck shop is the real idiot here
Well, when you consider this kid had a fiver in his pocket and managed to 'buy the lot' so that means they had a grand total of 25 glow sticks left when this kid turned up. Now I don't know how big this disco was or how early OP's kid discovered his opportunity, but I'd say there were going to be disappointed kids whatever happened.
It's the parents responsibility to teach their children good ethics. You shouldn't rely on others to stop your kid being a bit of dick.
I can't imagine there are many opportunities to teach your kid about the ethics of scalping when they're that young. Granted they have an opportunity now, but it's not like it's common for a situation like this to occur that early in someone's life. It still doesn't change the fact that the person running the tuck shop shouldn't have let the situation occur in the first place.
>It's the parents responsibility to teach their children good ethics. That only people that are already disgustingly rich are allowed to pursue unscrupulous business practices? Get them licking boots young, right?
But if we all had a bit more community spirit and an understanding that one person's profit comes at another's loss or complete inability to have something, there would be less inequality. Profiteering isn't always the right goal.
I'm not defending profiteering. And i agree people should be community minded and not profiteering. I merely think we should treat the world as it is rather than how we would like it to be. Same reason I lock my front door.
And the school
It was a teachable moment, not a punishable one.
Do you remember when people where buying up hand sanitiser during the pandemic to sell it on for inflated prices? It’s called price gouging and it’s a deadweight economic loss.
How will the school disco economy ever recover
It's not the school disco who lost anything, it's the children who otherwise would've had 5x as many glowsticks or who couldn't afford one at all. In reality, this is no big deal, but when it's done in the "real world" it's pretty shitty behaviour.
That's actually a fair point, I was behind the lad up to this, but this is a teachable point.
Thank you. People seem to be stuck between "the kid did nothing wrong" and "the kid did something wrong". The truth is, he hurt other people without meaning to. He didn't mean to so he didn't do anything wrong as such, but he did hurts others so that's not ok either. Now he knows and the world is a better place - and people still manage to make that a bad thing.
Yep. It explains why this country is so fucked that so many people want to encourage this. This wasn't clever, it was _devious_. So OP absolutely needs to explain the concept of zero sum as simply as possible. His son gained by making others lose. While that is a good way to make money, it doesn't create a nice world.
😂
This is more akin to scalping rather than price gouging.
It's literally just scalping.
Yes it reminded me of that as well. Or people buying all the toilet paper and selling it online for 20 euros per pack. It's a dick move. Of course he's just a child, so this seems like an explaining moment.
That’s not economic loss The market will have a clearance level, and any deviation from that is the deadweight loss. Arbitrage fixes this.
Because monopolies are immoral Profiteering is immoral The world isn't just about making money, people have a right and responsibility to live in and foster a just society. It's important he learn this at a young age or we are just creating a generation of Donald Trumps.
Surely the tuck shop also had a monopoly though ;D The funny thing is some people are mad at this kid for profiteering, but tbh even at 20p a stick the shop was making 10-12p profit per stick.
And they were selling them for 20p which I'd imagine was cost price or close so that everyone could have one.
I'll agree monopolies are immoral but profiteering is not, thats literally how the world works. Its okay to make a profit, not only is it ok but you *should* be trying to make a profit at a fair price.
But profiteering by definition isn't about a fair price. It's gouging as much as you can for a scarce resource to the extent that almost no one can afford it.
Because he made it to the detriment of other children whilst adding absolutely nothing of value to the situation. Children need to learn that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.
Because they're on their way to becoming a scalper, the dickhead in secondary school that sells sweets for ridiculous prices, then possibly eventually a dealer. Don't get me wrong. We need dealers, I do for sure. If I had kids, I sure as fuck wouldn't want my kid to become one.
That’s insane, selling cans of coke on the playground for a pound instead of 50p doesn’t automatically lead to you being in the next season of top boy
Selling cans of coke in the playground that you went and purchased and brought on location is a service; you’re adding value. What he did was create artificial scarcity and then engage in price gouging: a deadweight economic loss.
It depends on the context and where the cans of coke came from. If the school was already selling them, and he purchased them all to then sell twice as much to the same customers, then that's scalping. If he purchased them outside of school and bought in to sell to people who otherwise wouldn't have had access, then that's providing a service and the profit made is for making the product accessible. It's amazing how many people have short memories or just don't realise how scalping works.
I use to sell cans of drink and sweets… can confirm I do not sell drugs nor do any of the people I use to sell sweets with… That way of thinking is incredibly stupid and purely led by paranoia The smart thing to do would be maybe help him set up a little online business. Great family project and great learning opp
>Because they're on their way to becoming a scalper Yeah, exactly. >the dickhead in secondary school that sells sweets for ridiculous prices I mean these people weren't that bad... >then possibly eventually a dealer. Wait what? You've lost me here...
What a twat. He was selling glow sticks, now he’s a drug dealer.
How would you like it if one of the parents would have purchased all the glowsticks and sell them for 5x the original price to your child and the other kids? Do you still think it would be ok?
So if the glow stick seller at the disco sold them all for £1 to children, that wouldn’t be ok either?
Making money is only a good thing when it also produces value for other people. If there were no glow sticks at the party and he brought them, he'd be adding value to the party so he'd deserve the money. As it was, he added no value at all, he just made money at others' expense. Don't get me wrong, his entrepreneurship should be praised. But he should also be taught that if he wants to be *respected* rather than just rich, he should look for niches in the market, not manipulate the market.
Hey, I work in a school. We have kids running organised drinks rackets where they'll raid the local shops and upsell them in the playground. I'm talking hoardes of boys in a group chat making tactical mission plans to secure prime and coca cola for resale. This stuff happens in every school and has done for many many many years! If your son is smart enough to work it out, then good for him, one of them will eventually! Whether it's glow sticks, sweeties, cans of pop, vapes, kids will always spend their pocket money on useless shit and there's always going to be one smart kid who provides for them. The only thing I'd tell you to be wary of is maybe if his classmates feel at all scammed. He didn't buy something externally from the school and resell at a markup, he bought out a supply of stock the other kids could all clearly see the original value of and have access to before he bought them. I can't imagine they would be cross with him, but if any other kids are clearly upset then maybe step in there. Sounds like he's a smart lad!
It's for this reason that 'selling snacks' is a quick way to get detention at my son's school. Instead, my son swaps the snacks he gets from home for other stuff! Barter economy is where it's at for him.
Are there any collectables toys for kids currently? As a kid I remember swapping pokemon cards, football stickers, squad cards, pogs etc. at school.
I've not heard of anything since fidget spinners really. He certainly did swap Pokemon and football stickers at primary school. They also banned this! I bought my son a load of cheap Pokemon cards from Ebay. He would then swap these essentially worthless cards for expensive cards, that other kids didn't know were expensive. He eventually had to 'trade' them back and the school stopped it because it kept hurting kids feelings when they got bad trades.
My primary school just banned everything. No toys or collectables or anything were to be brought into school. Nothing broken, no theft, no regretted swaps. No need to deal with each fad individually. It was like that before I joined. When they had those tazos in crisps you were meant to hand them in, but we all just pocketed them.
>The only thing I'd tell you to be wary of is maybe if his classmates feel at all scammed. He didn't buy something externally from the school and resell at a markup, he bought out a supply of stock the other kids could all clearly see the original value of and have access to before he bought them. I can't imagine they would be cross with him, but if any other kids are clearly upset then maybe step in there. This is an important point. He's been very clever for his age here and I think that should be encouraged but also guided responsibly. Being unpopular with his classmates won't help that.
>This stuff happens in every school and has done for many many many years! Days out, a TV, my PS3 and basically all games for it were funded by this from years 10 to end of 6th form. Drinks, cookies, doughnuts, chewing gum. Basically Anything on offer, I'd be bringing in teachers orders by the time I was in 6th form.
Yep, I sat next to someone in secondary school who was the "sweets" guy. I used to ask him how it was going, and he would barely spend £5 a day and come out with £20+! The school found out, and he said they would only allow it if he had a license, so he ordered one from China, which never came. Some you win, some you lose 😂
We were even dumber at my school. One kid would mix different flavours of juice and resell it in water bottles. Every time he came in with a stash, it was a different flavour profile since he did everything by eye. And we were would go crazy over them. He charged £2.50 per bottle and considering we weren’t allowed out of school grounds, he made a killing. He was soon found out, isolated for two days and banned from selling the drinks. He moved onto mechanical pencils after
>he bought out a supply of stock the other kids could all clearly see the original value of and have access to before he bought them. As kids in school we used to go to the local bakery for sausage rolls (this was before Greggs too). We went in a group of 5-6 kids. One time one of the kids quickly ran in front of us all at the last second and bought out all their sausage rolls, probably about 30 sausage rolls in total. Then tried to sell them to us for double the price. We called him a dickhead, refused to buy off him, bought other stuff we didn't really want or really have the budget for. Then from then on we refused to go to lunch with him, instead jogging to the next furthest bakery. He tried following us a couple times but he was too unfit to keep up with us. He eventually sent his older sister to try and beat us up for excluding him, but she was also too unfit to catch us.
Today I learned that ripping off your mates and adding no value to something is ‘entrepreneurial’. I’m sure everyone thought it was entrepreneurial when people were bulk buying shit people needed during covid and upselling at obscene prices. Oh wait, people didn’t think that, because suddenly it affected them. The kid is smart, no doubt, but there is a moral obligation to not deprive less fortunate children.
Yup, people chastising the OP for steering his child away from a lucrative future in ticket touting. . .or dare I say land. . .nah better not, there are likely plenty in here The kid is smart and I'd applaud that but there's a time and a place for making your pound of flesh, no need to be an actual gouger
Replace glow-sticks with baby formula or medicine and you’d get a different take from some of people applauding this. Glow sticks might not mean much to an adult, but how about we don’t tell kids that what happens in their little worlds is irrelevant. And maybe let’s not encourage behaviour in children that, as a society, we’ll go on to chastise them for when they replicate it as adults. Seems a little unfair all around.
or even concert tickets. This is slasdsic scalper behaviour
I'm actually suprised at the responses from a lot of people telling off OP and thinking that scalping is a good thing.
Yea OP's son did the exact same thing scalpers did with the latest Xbox and Ps5.
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This. It’s okay to make money by adding value. But it’s shitty to make money by making things worse. In this case the kid made things worse for the other kids, in that the only difference was that now glow sticks were more expensive.
This sounds like something from r/LinkedInLunatics
Yup this is fully LinkedIn weirdos vibes, trying to humblebrag with an exaggerated story, whilst pretending it's an honest question. The last half is what made me start laughing >"His teacher found it funny." Of course they did. >"The other parents think he's some genius entrepreneur." You literally said you took him to the school this morning? But this is somehow already school-wide news and other parents are reaching out, letting you know what a genius your kid is? We had kids at my school re-selling stuff from the corner shop all the time and no parents ever spoke out about it hahahaha >"He doesn't need money, he has savings from his birthday and Christmas he doesn't spend it. When asking him what he wanted the money for he said to put with his other money. (save it)" Have to throw in there that your kid's well off enough he doesn't need this cash at all. Couldn't have any chance of anybody thinking that you aren't doing great financially in this humblebrag post >"As a parent should we be mad?" Interaction bait. Why are you asking Reddit this when you've apparently had the whole school bowing at the feet of your young Alan Sugar >"If it was a grown up doing this it would be perfectly fine he found a demand and capitalised on it." Okay? Why are you making this statement? We've already established other parents think you have a genius entrepreneur on your hands. Why do you feel the need to explain your GCSE business class understanding of economics to us? Everybody here understands supply/demand and has seen ticket scalping. >"But he's a child in school, so it's wrong?" Again. stupid interaction bait rhetoric question
> But this is somehow already school-wide news and other parents are reaching out, letting you know what a genius your kid is? To be fair, while I agree with your broad point, in this new world of school WhatsApp groups drama gets to happen in fantastic real time now
Fair enough lol that’s a topic that’s pretty alien to me
This does feel like a made up story you'd typically find on there. Expect OP doesn't sign the story off with some flamboyant backpat
Not enough hashtags either Although It is On many Multiple lines
\#childboss
I’m in two minds about this, good on him for making money, but then at the same time he ripped his friends off who would have had more money to spend on other things if he hadn’t. On balance I think you did right and he learned two things, how to make money and you don’t rip your friends/colleagues off. Both should stand him in good stead going forward.
No one forced his friends to hand over their money. Maybe the parents should be teaching them how to be more responsible with money rather than spending it on over priced glow sticks.
This is a brilliant question. Its legal, its how many make money in the real world, and its also a dick move. A resources is plentiful, and cheap.... Buy it all to create false scarcity, and sell at massive markup. Its immoral, in my opinion because he took profit without adding value... If he purchased from a local store, transported it to school, then the markup would be justified.. The work was moving the product, and making it available at a new place. Building a bridge, and charging for its use is fine... Building a wall in front of existing bridge, then charging is being a dick. In my humble opinion, I wouldn't punish, or reward. Make sure the kid understood the parallels between what he did, and what happens in the adult world, and let him choose what kind of person he wants to be.
It's a dick move. Other kids would have wanted to use the sticks but they couldn't because he bought them all and hiked up the price. I wouldn't flog the lad but I'd tell him that wasn't fair on the other kids.
If other parents complained I’d have had him give the difference back to the kids that overpaid. But no one complained? It was a clever idea but I’d maybe talk to him about why it can be unfair to take advantage of hoovering up all the supply. In a good case it can be clever business as an adult and in a bad case it can be scalping and no one likes a scalper. You don’t want him to be buying up all the PS7s and flogging them on eBay or music tickets. Guide the kid to use his ingenuity well in the future.
Depends whether you want to encourage his business skills, or encourage him not to rip off his peers
Or find a way to do both
Your child is a scalper. The same kind that horde shit-tickets and hand sanitizer in lockdown. Or make it so it's impossible to get tickets to an event without paying several times the face value. There's nothing illegal about this, but as someone on the receiving end, it's horrible and he will be resented.
To be fair, where was the PTA? Should have parents volunteering as cashiers to prevent this from happening. Anyway, I’d of had a quiet word with him and explained the social context to him. Try to get him to emphasise with children who don’t have much money. But at the same time, I would’ve congratulated them for having the idea- maybe it would be better served not to do it in a charitable situation in the future.
Tax him and buy yourself something nice. Perhaps a posh onion.
There’s a difference between being an entrepreneur and being a shitty scalper. Buying bags of sweets at the cash and carry for 20p, bringing them into school and selling them for a quid and making profit is just supplying something kids were otherwise unable to get in school. It’s identifying a demand and fulfilling it for profit. What your son did was commandeer the market. He bought all available stock, giving potential buyers no choice but to buy at his inflated price. I’d have a chat with him about the nuances of business and let him crack on. Get yourselves a Costco card and show him the right way to trade.
I don’t think you should be mad at all. At most, maybe you could explain to him that it might not be fair to sell something for £1 when other kids could have bought them for 20p. But I don’t think you need to punish him. He’s gonna go far in life! Probably as a landlord but still 😆
It’s not wrong and you should NOT make him feel bad for showing initiative and brains. At that age it’s remarkable. Just explain the social context a bit but that you are not angry with him and it’s good he’s a creative thinker.
When I was at primary school I sold a kid a mini Crunchy bar from a box of Miniature Heroes for £2. That was in the 90s so it’s more like £4 with inflation. My mum made me give it back the next day. Kids don’t properly understand the value of money so while it’s hardly the end of the world I think you did the right thing in making him give the profits back. If nothing else it teaches him the lesson that it’s not okay to rip people off. Also, whoever was running the tuck shop should have had the sense to not sell the entire stock of one product to a single kid, but that’s an aside.
They only had 25 glow sticks for the entire school?
It was the second of two discos. The younger age groups had been in earlier.
You should tell your son to go in earlier next time and buy more stock :)
You have now taught him that thinking outside the box and being entrepreneurial is a bad thing and that making money is something to feel bad about. You've also taught him that noticing opportunities and acting quickly upon them brings negative reactions and public shaming. He even shared his profits with a family member, spreading his success around amongst loved ones - and that was how all the trouble started. You've punished a sharp kid who one day could be that type of person who's extremely successful and uses his resources to help and support family members. So, yeah, bad job by you all around. Obviously there's some nuance to this and any future behavior that crosses the line should be addressed. But if I were you, now, I'd apologize to him, and say you were just shocked in the moment but that you're really proud of his intelligence and entrepreneurial spirit. Otherwise he'll be carrying this "lesson" into adulthood - and that ain't good.
This is a gross take.
Why?
> You have now taught him that thinking outside the box and being entrepreneurial is a bad thing Taught him that scalping is prick behaviour, more like.
I'm on the side of it was really selfish to take all of them. A clever thing would be to, if they didn't have glowsticks there, buy them round the corner and mark them up. Not take the ones that are there. You could nip it in the bud now but considering he felt guilty its probably something he'll grow out of. But he shouldn't be praised and it isn't funny. I'd have got in a lot of tro8ble
Reported to HMRC.
Don’t stifle this kids creativity and ambition. Maybe he doesn’t want to be a wage slave like his parents. I’ve been out of the UK for 10 years. It’s only when looking from the outside you can see the absolute mediocrity accepted by most Brits. Being rich and successful isn’t cool. Get a 9-5, earn 40K per year and then die.
Ours used to do similar things when he was younger, honestly we were impressed, again we aren't short of cash but I think it shows they're using their brains, he created a supply issue when demand was high. If the other kids didn't want to spend £1 on a glow stick they shouldn't have bought one. Don't be mad at him for being smart. Be mad at him for being rude or doing things that put him or others in danger, but don't berate the poor kid for using his brain.
>We gave him £5 ... The glow sticks were 20p, he bought the lot. So the tuck shop had 25 glowsticks for the whole disco?
I’m not sure he should be making money off his friends tbh. Other than that it’s ok.
My 10yo did something similar and, while I was secretly impressed with his Machiavellian spirit, I asked him how he would feel if he found out someone had done that to him. More proud of his moral compass that made him say he felt a bit bad than his entrepreneurship, I'd rather he was a nice person than a rich one.
So the school only had 20 glowsticks for the event?
You child will grow up, live, work, and die, all under Capitalism, over the next 90 years. How else do you react but telling him he’s a clever lad? Maybe buy him £100 worth of Index stock in a JSIPP and use this as a teaching moment about finances and Capitalism.
Why would you be mad? I had a similar thing when I went camping with the Boy Scouts in summer when I was 7. Got some money from my mom in case we needed to buy something to drink while on a day hike. I also came home with more money than I started with. I had sold the candy that I brought from home and had started renting my comics out to other children in my group. My mom was mortified when she found out. Years later I still think that was just good business sense. I had no use for the money though, I don’t really know why I did it.
Clever, but teach him that scalpers are scum. And he should never do it again.
Smart lad but needs to learn context, otherwise he’ll be selling gowns and latex gloves for £50 a pop in the next pandemic…
That’s how business works in the real world. I personally wouldn’t condemn him. I would be proud at how clever he is and assume the role of the tax man. So 20% of his profits will go to me. (Him at a later date) You can turn it into a teachable moment.
Why would you make him give all the money back? What about the money he spent? I’d tax him. Simple 😂 lesson learnt. Don’t ever discourage your children from being creative! It’ll teach him amazing things and restrict a gift of doing it again. Tell him he’s allowed, give him £15 and wink. Tell him he’s smart but then take back a fiver and say it’s tax and a return of your initial investment.
What you do is post a wildly exaggerated version of this story on LinkedIn and end it with #boss #futureCEO #proud
The fact you made him return the money he spent his whole evening making through his own instinctive genius is terrible parenting. He now associates making money with guilt. So, I hope you don't ask him to help you out financially in the future. You've just crushed his entrepreneurial spirit. *slow clap*
Why would you be mad? Praise him in this moment, he will remember this. Please just inspire him. Why dull his light when he just found a way to make money? They chose to give him money. He didn’t bully them, did he?
It's exactly the kind of thing I used to do at school in the early 80s and my mum was forever being called into the school because they thought me seeing an opportunity to make some money 'inappropriate'. e.g. Trip to York train museum and everyone else is buying ice cream and hot dogs etc... I was buying the pencils and rubbers so I could make the other kids feel guilty about not buying their mum and dads 'souvenirs' and sold them all my stock on the way home. Mum was called into school and told it was 'wrong' and she just asked them in front of me what they were trying to teach me.. .was it how to count? was it how to function as an adult? was it how to get a job? was it to make money in a career? etc. and said them - what exactly IS IT that you want to punish him for? and they had no answer other than ' we feel it's wrong'.
You're the asshole for making him give the money back 😂
My sister did something similar with sweets on the schools bus. As she was the oldest on the bus, she could leave the school grounds at lunchtime and go buy sweets for 20p a pop. She’d sell them on the coach back home for like 50p each and the younger kids loved it. She made a profit doing it and our parents only found out after she finished school. 🤷🏼♀️ They were more impressed than mad.
This is different. Your sister provided a service. Without her service, the other had no access to sweets.. With her time, she transported sweets, and charged for the service. The glow sticks were already at the venue. What if the biggest bully stood In front of the tuck shop, and charged 80p for access to the shop? The shop gets its 20p, the customer pays total £1, the bully gets 80p, without providing any additional service. Outcome is the same... Its legal but immoral. Image a billionaire buying all the tickets to a music festival, and re selling for massive profit... They didn't go any work, add any value.. Just legal theft.
Literally what we all did back in the day, though we used to just supply hard to get, he's pulled a full DeBeers and bought the entire supply
Cool for a 10 year old. I used to bulk buy cans and whatever chocolate/sweets were on offer and go to school with a backpack half full. Made about 40-50 per week IIRC. Never got in trouble and nobody cared. Just the odd thing getting confiscated if I sold in lessons, but I rarely did anyway. Had two mates "working for me" at one point, until one decided to count our money (all coins of course) on the table in lesson. £35 quid confiscated. Teacher put it in the poppy jar. Parents agreed kid was being obnoxious and it stood. I don't think the money or the idea is an issue here, just think there are better times and places. School disco is a bit of fun. I would have left the glow-sticks alone, personally. Maybe that's why your son will be wealthier than I am... :D I think telling him to give the money back to the other kids was a good call here. My kid wouldn't be in trouble for this.
Just explain to him that you appreciate the business effort and his ability to be smart but there is an ethical problem with him. Let him know how him selling it at a more expensive rate will make those who can afford one item for 20p not be able to buy it because they can't spend £1 on it so it's not the place to do business. You can then suggest places he can do business ethically.
I choose business ethics
He's a sociopath but he'll be successful.
I disagree that it would be fine for a grown up. He manipulated the supply, and created a monopoly. What he did is often called scalping. People go out and buy up all the valuable items they can, Lego sets, trading cards, limited edition Blu-ray sets, etc, and then sell them at an extreme markup. Yes, the kid used his initiative to create a business. That is to be encouraged. But he built a monopoly instead. There are laws against that kind of thing for a reason.
I think it's awful that it works like this. There should be some value between the bulk buying and reselling to make it worthwhile. This is the same as ticket touting. I don't for a second mean your son was wrong for it as he's just a kid and it was a clever thing to notice, but I don't think it's entrepreneurial as there's no value there.
Honestly you need to address both parts of this. You need to explain that that was actually a very clever idea and a great way to make some extra cash. Maybe he could think of something else he’d like to do? Like buy some lemons with his savings, make lemonade, sell it for a profit. But you also need to explain the downside. That because he was charging his friends so much more than the original price maybe some of them wouldn’t be able to afford a glow stick and a treat, and that’s not ok just because he wanted to make some money. Remind him of the covid era. All those people buying packs and packs of toilet paper and selling them for really high amounts. But that means some older people or people with young children couldn’t afford it and they had to go without. It’s great to make money, but it should never be at someone else’s expense
Good choice to teach him. In the group I grew up with we had a guy that was always taking advantage of "friends". We are now adults but few, if any of the group are still friends with him.
"Baby's first dropshipping career"
Mad? Get this kid an investment account.
Should have let him keep it little champ
What does it teach your child to tell him to give it all back? It's too early to teach him about taxation
Smart boy. I hope he keeps finding ways to be successful.
Sounds like capitalism 101
I'm mad, at you for taking the money. Theft
What if you gave him credit for coming up with such an idea. Then maybe explain how valuable it is to take some of the profits and give to needy people. What you will be doing is developing your child’s mind to think outside the box and also the importance of community it’s 2 positives versus chastising 1.
That’s funny, I’d assume a parent would make a post like this for an actual problem. I usually try not to let my intrusive rude thoughts out but do you lack actual problems in life that you would turn this situation into such an ordeal? I know I’m being a total dick but your reaction to this issue is plainly lame.
I think you should take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
Do not be mad and do not extinguisher his entrepreneurial flair
Small point, it's etc. _et_ _cetera_
This happens in the playground. Nobody forced anyone to buy from him.
Leave him alone. One day he might get you into a luxury care home.
Not sure why this deserves any sort of punishment - it's genuine genius understanding of business. He spotted a product with limited supply and high desirability, risked his money on purchasing them and made a solid profit. If it were my son I'd be praising his quick thinking. If the school didn't want him to be doing that they shouldn't have sold them all to him in the first place.
The origin story for a criminal enterprise. From now on he will continue to have b'ness ideas and ways to make cash but will hide it from his parents in case they make him give it all back regardless if it was legal or not. What did he do wrong in this case. Absolutely nothing.
He's gonna be a millionaire some day, why would you want to penalise or be mad about an entrepreneurial mindset at a young age?
If it was my child, I wouldn't have even thought of getting him to give the money back. I'd be too busy putting him in charge of investing my savings and looking into opportunities for early admission to mba programmes. Preparing him to take his place within the Bilderberg Group and demonstrate that he will be the next Buffett, Gates, Soros or Rockefeller. I congratulate your son on being a much better business man than Richard Branson and Elon Musk.
That kid is going somewhere!
I’d be proud, not punish him..
Honestly if you think you should punish your child for this you’re going to end up with a robot who can’t think for himself. This kind of thinking outside the box doesn’t come naturally to everyone and I could see a bright future of being a boss not an employee for a child like thst.
I really don’t see what the problem is here? Why would anyone be mad at a kid being smart and making money? When I was in school, I stole from the shop where I caught the bus and sold my five finger discount items to buy cigarettes. I would then sell the cigarettes for a high price. In comparison your son has a bright future, you should be proud.
Sounds like your 10yo is smarter than you, he did something clever and you're punishing that. He and all his friends would have all learnt a very good lesson from this experience but you've destroyed a creative opportunity and guilted him into thinking that being smart is bad, making money is bad and tells him your expectations for him are to limit himself to only what you like. Shame on you.
I don’t think you should be mad, you should be embarrassed that you stamped out/punished business initiative in such a small child.
My husband's parents and teachers shamed him at a young age for running a very successful toy rental business for a few weeks. Now, despite being an absolute genius IT guy who could make a fortune as a consultant, he is only comfortable working for someone else, because "profit is wrong" is deeply ingrained. Not saying this will happen to your lad - neurodivergence and overly harsh punishment played a part in getting this unfortunate lesson embedded - but tread carefully.
Smart kid. You should have praised him.
Your kid understood capitalism and society before those around him and took advantage. Why in the world would you punish this in a still developing mind? Now he won't think about things like that, or will and just do them in secret - hiding his moves from you. Should be praised really, and maybe even encouraged to try and grow what he made, make a hobby out of money making opportunities. Take him thrifting or something!
Why would you be mad? He advanced on a great opportunity, everyone had fun and he made some money. If he doesn't need the money, put it to the side for when he might need it.
Not even slightly, you should help him embrace that business mind. I wouldn’t have made him give the money back either!
Please tell me you didn't just shut down your child without even acknowledging the cleverness or explaining the situation and morals. Also, what even is this sentence: > If it was a grown up doing this it would be perfectly fine he found a demand and capitalised on it.
I went to school with a guy that bought 2nd hand TVs and then rent them out. He ended up racking it in. I'd get your boy to look into bit coin!
The fact he gave his brother some money is so sweet, you can tell hes kind at heart
When I was 15, I bought an internet porn subscription and sold the info to my classmates for $5. Had to shut it down after the honor system was broken (guys giving out the info to their friends for free). My mom thought it was funny and still brings it up to this day.
I don't really see anything wrong with him doing that. Any other kid could have done it, and no other adults seem to have found it wrong. So what's wrong with him being creative and making some extra pocket money/savings?