My 13yo baked cookies to order and one of the parents returned the cookies
My daughter got home from school and told me she wanted to make cookies and a chocolate truffle like dessert ("brigadeiro") that her friends had pre-ordered.
She wanted money to buy a more expensive birthday gift for a close friend, more expensive than our regular budget.
She offered the options of people buying 5,10,15 or 20 cookies, with 20 being cheaper per cookie than 15 and so on.
She spent 2.5-3h preparing everything from scratch and delivering them.
One friend ordered 20 cookies for $15 CAD. Like other friends, they said they would pay her later.
At 8:30pm the mom of said friend came by and returned the cookies directly to my daughter. She said her kid is very agreeable and didn't have money to pay. She gave her $2 because one cookie had been eaten.
My daughter was visible frustrated after putting all that effort.
We bought the cookies from her.
Edit: okay, trying to read through the flood of comments.
This is not a low income family. Both parents work and make 6 digit salaries. We live in an upper middle class neighbourhood. They own their house and have a cottage. Could they've drowning in debt? For sure, I don't know their financials.
At 13, a lot of kids have allowances. A lot of her friends have bank accounts and cards. Is it the best use of one's allowance? Probably not. It doesn't sound outrageous that most of her friends would have some money (allowance or pocket money) to buy it.
But definitely was a lesson learned!