Posted on 09/24/2017 6:29:03 PM PDT by Hojczyk
Never in my wildest imagination did I think that there would be a backlash of criticism ... because hard, dirty, and sometimes even dangerous jobs have been a part of our children’s work experience from a young age.
We live on a working farm and the tasks required to keep it running require all hands on deck — even young hands.
By 10 or 11, our kids are operating tractors and front end loaders. They use machetes to cut the weeds along fence lines. They learn to drive one of the farm pick-ups when they can reach the pedals.
By 14, they are hunting in the woods by themselves and know how to kill and prepare a pig or steer they have raised to butcher. They weld, use power tools, and handle large animals.
We need more young people like Frank. At 11 years old, his gumption has earned him a place in the national spotlight for one brief moment, but I bet he would have cut that grass as carefully and enthusiastically even without one second of notoriety. They do what needs to be done without fanfare, sometimes under less than ideal circumstances. That is just how kids like Frank are. I know because I raised a dozen like that.
(Excerpt) Read more at ijr.com ...
My father was let out as a hired man at 12 and lived in a different state than his family and sent most of his pay home to support his siblings.
growing up on a farm/ranch oh yeah. kids today have no idea...
I was driving an 8N raking hay and cultivating at 8. Got in trouble with the cops when I drove the tractor to town to see Grandpa Hunted for meat too with my single .410 and helped milk the cows, fed the sheep when I got home from school.Kids no days have it too soft.
when i was 11, i had 6 lawns i mowed every week ($5 per lawn)
there is nothing wrong with having a kid mow the lawn... the WHITE HOUSE lawn is great for him (wonder how much he gets to mow it)
this should be ENCOURAGED... not diminished
of course, the left is opposed to anyone showing any type of leadership or entrepreneurial spirit. they want an entire country sapped of their drive and dependent on govt handouts
I used to go to my Uncle’s farm in Indiana for three months every summer as a kid and through high school and did all the things your kids did...
Those who were never fortunate enough to have spent a working day on a working farm have no clue.
I was learning the tool and die trade by the time I was old enough to push the broom
As we view this outrage over enterprising youth, there have to be a dozen "reporters" scrounging the backgrounds of the young man and his family, ever so eager to dig up some salacious 'truth' that ridicules this harmless episode of Americana.
When I was a kid I had to walk barefoot across the living room in order to change the channel on the TV and it did not matter if it was raining or snowing or if there was a hurricane going on outside. Kids nowadays have it way too easy.
“When I was a kid I had to walk barefoot across the living room in order to change the channel on the TV ——”
—
You were an abused child. :-)
.
I saw my first remote TV controller in 1960. It was a Zenith TV with Space Command remote. You pressed a bar and the unit went ‘clunk,’ inasmuch as it was sound activated.
Yep. I was turned loose with a JD730 diesel a week after turning 7. Left unsupervised to rake a 40 acre field of oat straw. A few months earlier I was pulling a four section harrow over plowed ground with a Oliver 770. Dad was plowing in the same field, so I wasn’t unsupervised. I look back and joke about that job. It was a brutal ride on the hills where the clay slabs practically threw me off the tractor.
My siblings and I had livestock chores by the time we were 4. I’ve got a photo of my dad feeding the chickens when he was just 2.
LOL! I did that too on my Dad's B&W TV set, actually has to turn the knob to change channels. I also had a lawn mowing business with a friend of mine, we charged 50¢ for both front and back lawns (this was in the early to mid 1960s).
I am amazed the libs haven’t yet called child services on Trump or the Kid’s parents...
And take away their iPhones.
My son was 4 when I put him in the seat of a 4440 JD to drive across an open pasture as I took another tractor across. I put it in low gear and when he got there stepped up on the tractor to stop it. He loved it and went home and told Mom. When he was 10, I had his mother raking hay as he rode with her. He was telling her exactly how to do it. He is now 27 and a wonderful son.
Me too only I got $2.00 per lawn. Financed my 1/2A model plane building and flying that way until inflation took them away from me. Could no longer afford fuel.
FRiends, without folks like us, our parents, and our progeny, this country would grind to a halt in a week.
My late grandfather was a Coal Cracker/Breaker at age 11,lived through the Great Depression and served in WWII. Life was tough. A modern football player does not know tough nor understand appreciation.
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