the lemonade stand

i really need to write a poem about this, but sometimes, it comes first in prose. sometimes conversation. one never knows, so one moves forward with the moment and lets it come as it will.

my daughter has been pestering me about a lemonade stand. of course, i am hearing her request as,

will you do all the work so i can have a lemonade stand?

to which i wholeheartedly and emphatically say,

no.

forgive me child, but i'm tired. and the last thing i want to do is make lemonade. there are no june cleavers in this house, last i checked. i don't think a roseanne even lives here. i'm a different kind of mother, which hasn't been typed.

i'm sure, i'm squashing her entreprenureal dreams, but if those dreams are hinged upon my bearing the load, then they aren't realistic dreams to begin with. i feel this way about poetry too. if you've got something to write or say, say it or write it. don't wait upon others to make it happen because it simply won't. when it comes down to it, writing, like being an entreprenuer is all about self starting.

this is how i will justify it later, i'm sure (though it could be argued i'm justifying it now, which of course, i am).

so i disengage from the whole process and not without much effort on my part. i'm wasted tired the past week and the girls want me to go to town for cups.

first of all, you can't have a lemonade stand without cups. so if you've got no cups, you've got no stand. part of planning any entrepreneurial enterprise is to have on hand needed items for said endeavor. not pestering mom to make it happen.

when i said no originally, i was done. amen. nothing more to be said or done on my part.

my girl does not let go of an idea so easily.

so she spends the weekend gathering supplies, and today she made signs which are apparently around the block.

she made tea and lemonade and is now down at the curb with a little friend. their table set in the roasting sun (how i wish the city hadn't leveled the shade tree that would have covered the area they chose, but again, it is out of my hands entirely).

i did offer her a tablecloth and some hygiene instructions. i can't imagine the intestinal woes that can come from such a venture. but the whole point of buying a cup of lemonade from some kids parked on the street is not for the lemonade i'm sure. but to support the entreprenureal streak resident in those children.

i'm proud of her for not letting me thwart her plans entirely.
i'm proud of her for letting up and not pestering me to get cups when i was tired. some battles are not worth fighting, she knows this.
i'm proud of her for sitting out there in the sun, while i'm parked in the air conditioning boasting about her.

i guess i better go buy a cup. but that means i better get out of my pjs.