Sarah Nigbor

I didn’t know I was living on Wall Street. Listening to my four children this weekend made it feel like it. Who knew we were raising future stockbrokers?

My daughter received a candle-making kit for her birthday from her godfather. She made a lime-scented candle for the Pierce County Fair for which she earned a blue ribbon. This inspired a grand business plan to make candles to sell and a budding entrepreneur was born.

She has made candles as birthday gifts and we have a cinnamon one burning in the living room as I write this. Today we worked on designing a logo for Carolina Candles, which is an exciting step. Our kitchen smelled like cinnamon, apple and vanilla as she experimented with making layered fall candles. She has a lot more patience than I do: boiling water, melting wax in a special pot, adding color and scent, carefully pouring it into its receptacle, positioning and trimming the wick. They truly are works of art.

Our 16-year-old, Ethan, who works at A&W, recently took a marketing class; he’s also considering a degree in business, so of course he’s an expert in everything to do with money. He must have money burning holes in his pockets, because he offered to be an investor in Carolina Candles. This prompted our 14-year-old Dawson to jump into the fray, offering his hard-earned McDonald’s money as investment. As I listened to them argue back and forth, I laughed, because one deal sounded too good to be true (he would make $11 a year) and the other sounded like a rip-off (she’d basically make no money).

Ultimately, Carolina decided to remain an independent business owner and took no investment offers from her brothers. Of course, this means that Mommy will be a silent partner providing all the capital with no return on investment, as least in the beginning. I guess I can accept that, considering she wants to save the money she earns for college.

When I was growing up, I didn’t get an allowance. My two best friends didn’t either, that I know of, so we put our three heads together one night to form the “Money Making Club.” We sat in my friend Meghan’s bedroom full of enthusiasm, convinced we were going to become rich. We compiled a list of money-making ideas sure to get us rich quick. I can’t remember most of the ideas on that list, but two of them stand out to me because they were completely ridiculous. One involved gathering rocks along the side of the road and polishing them to sell to the pet store for fish aquariums. The other was collecting aluminum cans from the ditches and going door-to-door for them too. Needless to say, we didn’t become millionaires.

This weekend I became so tired of kids who can’t keep their hands to themselves, that I made a new rule. Anyone who touches another person (slap, kick, punch, hit, lick, flick, etc.) intentionally has to pay that person $1. It took all of three minutes to see my plan put to work. Lincoln (12) had to pay Ethan one precious dollar when he chose to slap his foot for no reason. He is lamenting the loss of his dollar and the poor decision he made. I’m hoping it motivates people to want to keep their money.

Who knows, maybe Carolina Candles will be a hit. It’s sure to be more popular and profitable than polishing road gravel for fish aquariums.