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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think the mum asking for money in the park after her children go round...

54 replies

k2togm1 · 22/08/2012 17:07

Offering cakes is not right?

I don't have anything against the kids entrepreneurial spirit, but I would not, if I was their mum, go with them and do the asking for money for them. AIBU? The girl is at least 8yo and was accompanied by her younger brother.

OP posts:
ChickensArentEligableForGold · 22/08/2012 17:09

That's...odd.

MrsKeithRichards · 22/08/2012 17:10

Wtf?

So were the kids.handing them out then mum making people pay?!

Sounds like an extortion racket!

scentednappyhag · 22/08/2012 17:15

Oooh... Grin

LineRunner · 22/08/2012 17:17

It's begging, is it not? God I sound like a right cow, but ... Have a cake from my small kids; now I'm asking for money. That's not on.

LineRunner · 22/08/2012 17:18

And don't you dare drip feed OP and make me sound even more horrible!

Sirzy · 22/08/2012 17:22

I would have said to the mother "no problem, just show me all your food hygiene and other certificates to show you can sell them and I will pay"

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 22/08/2012 17:24

Did she wait until they'd been eaten? If so I'd say "cake? what cake?" and if not, I'd have given it back. Cheeky cow. Come to think of it I wouldn't take a cake from anyone hanging around the park nearest us anyway, it's probably have drugs baked in it Confused

noddyholder · 22/08/2012 17:25

They might be skint

tethersend · 22/08/2012 17:26

Illegal.

LineRunner · 22/08/2012 17:27

I've seen kids set up a little stall outside their own home and sell stuff. I've bought small things from them like a book. That seems ok.

Maybe I just need to relax a bit.

MarigoldsInTheWindow · 22/08/2012 17:27

is it really illegal?

JumpingThroughMoreHoops · 22/08/2012 17:29

Why is it illegal if garage sales or yard sales aren't?

Although, I have to say the only thing that gets sold in our local park is weed Hmm

light bulb moment perhaps they are hash cookies?? Grin

pictish · 22/08/2012 17:30

Is it not just a bit in initiative on the kids' behalf really?

I remember my friend's son aged about 9 drawing a load of comics and then taking them round the neighbours houses and selling them for a pound each. My friend was mortified when she found out, but to be fair he did make a tenner! Grin

My brother used to knock on doors and offer to wash cars for coinage.

Can't see the big deal here.

Pandemoniaa · 22/08/2012 17:32

There's all sorts of food hygiene requirements that you need to observe if you plan to sell food. I doubt they had been observed in this case and although I'm a bit meh about germy paranoia, it's also very cheeky to go round offering cakes and only later send the heavy mob parent round to collect the cash.

Sirzy · 22/08/2012 17:32

If they were using their initiative they would be asking people if they wanted to buy a cake. Giving something out for mum to then chase for money isn't using initiative

lovebunny · 22/08/2012 17:34

shouldn't be selling food unless you can show food hygiene rules have been kept. also the park probably has its own kiosk or other vendors, who might have paid for their 'option' to sell there. the mother shouldn't be supporting this. perhaps they're all a bit dim?

exoticfruits · 22/08/2012 17:34

I can't say that it would bother me-I would just say 'no thank you'.

NCForNow · 22/08/2012 17:35

Well I kind of admire her balls. I can see it now. She's broke...nothing in the bank...but she's got enough for some Asda's own brand flour, eggs, icing and sprinkles...she's like "Right kids...get round the park and offer these out!"

Pandemoniaa · 22/08/2012 17:38

Like I said before, I'm not so bothered about the food hygiene. I'd also be prepared to buy cake (provided it looked worth eating) from children trying to make a few bob. I'd be very pissed off at eating what I thought was free cake only to be chased, later, for money. So it's not so much what was done, more how it was done.

LineRunner · 22/08/2012 17:42

I think Pandemoniaa says it very well. There's a difference between 'Would you like to buy a cake?' and 'Would you like a cake' which a lady then asks you for money for once you've said yes and possibly picked it up.

Anyway, who knows. I wasn't there. I know nothing.

JumpingThroughMoreHoops · 22/08/2012 17:43

There's all sorts of food hygiene requirements that you need to observe if you plan to sell food.

thats 95% of the crap offered a school cake sale out of the equation then

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 22/08/2012 17:45

It is illegal to give someone something and then demand money afterwards.

It is extortion, not selling.

If they were selling, i.e. 'would you like to buy this cake' then that is a different matter and fine.

exoticfruits · 22/08/2012 17:46

That's what I thought JumpingTMHs!

Original poster
k2togm1 · 22/08/2012 17:47

Oh it's not that they are skint (I sort of know them through a friend in common, they have a 4x4 and their 4 kids go to a fee paying school, although I realise that those things don't mean they aren't skint!) and it's not the legality of it which annoys me, just the fact that it was the mother go was asking for money while the girl was ahead just asking 'would you like a cake?'
As I said in the OP I applaud their initiative (the kid's), but they should be left to it!

OP posts:
saintlyjimjams · 22/08/2012 17:48

Yeah with pandemoniaa

Would be happy to choose to buy if clear it was for sale. (I eat stuff ds1 brings home from school - not worried about food hygiene) but would be v pissed off at being asked for money after eating the thing!