My Husband Thinks Our 10-Year-Old Daughter Has an Innovative “Side Hustle.” I Think She’s a Scammer!

Care and Feeding Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by Jupiterimages/Getty Images Plus. Care and Feeding is Slate’s parenting advice column. Have a question for Care and Feeding? Submit it here. Dear Care and Feeding, I just found out that my 10-year-old daughter “Isabelle” is pulling what I think is a terrible scam on the kids in her class. Isabelle has told everyone that she is psychic and has been charging her classmates $5 for “readings.” In reality, she goes online to the social media pages of the other kids or those of their parents and uses what she learns from there to make her so-called predictions. I told her it needs to stop immediately, although I’m torn about making her fess up to the other kids she took for a ride because I don’t want her to end up as a social outcast. My husband, on the other hand, says if these kids are gullible enough to fall for it, that’s their problem and Isabelle should be allowed to continue. His suggestion is completely unethical, right? —Fortune Fraud Dear Fortune, Feeling the spirit of the late, great Whitney Houston here. “I’s not right, but it’s OK.” Alas, what your daughter did wasn’t right, and she needs to get out of the game before she gets in too deep. She charged kids a few bucks for a little entertainment, and no one was hurt—tell her it’s time to move on. Explain to her that there are people who take these things very seriously, and that someone else’s culture isn’t her costume. Also, she went into this knowing she wasn’t really providing a real service, and that sucks. Ask her how she’d feel if someone fed into something she believed in or was curious about in order to take advantage of her. Now, I do think a case could be made for refunding all the kids and totally blowing this up, but I’d give your girl the chance to do the right thing and end the Psychic Kids Network while it’s still small. If she keeps going, burn it down. —Jamilah More Parenting Advice From Slate A couple of years ago, my parents decided to downsize. They sold our family home and put the cabin where we spent much of our childhood on the market. The cabin was in a perilous state but obviously had fond memories so, after they had it professionally valued, I offered their asking price and bought it from them. I then refurbished it and now use it as a holiday rental. The problem is that my sister-in-law has now decided that “our” refurbished cabin. Never miss new Slate Advice columns Get the latest from Prudie and our columnists in your inbox each weekday, plus special bonus letters on Saturdays. Advice Family Kids