I have ancestors who were fighting wars, running businesses, and raising multiple children at the age of 16. So do you.
I think treating teenagers as helpless children until age 18 or beyond, and then seeing them wait until their 30s to get married and have their own kids, is contributory to much societal disorder and individual unhappiness.
Go right ahead and keep digging.
Having under 18's engage in hazardous work used to be the norm. And it did produce a hardier American.
Children perished at very young ages on farms and in factories and mines.
But that was expected because if you didn't work in those conditions you would likely starve to death, if you didn't die of disease.
This was a publicity stunt funded by wealthy, attention seeking parents...and now subsidized by taxpayers.