Never hurt me or my siblings, we hated field work, soon as we were able we got out of it and went on to other things. But a work ethic installed at an early age to earn your keep and work for what you get is likely the best gift parents can bestow on their children.
When I was a child in grade school, and all grades, in up state Michigan, we were let out of school for two weeks in october for potato picking vacation..... and that is what we done, picked potatoes off the fields to go to market, and it did not hurt any one.... We picked cherries at a very young age, to earn money, and also strawberries paid by the quart, by the farmer, actually picking strawberries is not hard labor, especially as a small kid, close to the crop...
I just got home from visiting my wife’s aunt and uncle. They are in their upper 70s. He told me about his daily requirement for picking cotton on the family farm when he was 6 years old. He asked me to guess. I guessed two pounds. I was very far off. He had to pick 50 pounds per day.