LOL Perhaps my dad getting us to perform those tasks earlier than some was in response to that? Actually, back in those days, it was rather common for us farm boys to grow up pretty fast. I remember at the age of 5 or 6 the call upstairs of “boys it’s milkin time” meant more than that he was headed out.
You were blessed. Srsly.
My mother was born in London and studied with Keynes. She had no clue about country living at all. My father was off around the world making money. Mom grew up with only an older sister. I think her first two sons (I was #2) just completely baffled her.
I know my running a few dairy goats and up to 100 ewes was a great education for me as well as for my daughter. And when facts of life time came around, I just suggested she hang around and watch when I turned the rams in. Then my wife took over on the finer points while I helped on the moral issues.
But it’s more than just right and wrong and mechanics. It’s the wonder of a steaming, warm lamb when the weather is in the teens and twenties. So she’s a city girl now, but I think she still is influenced by all that.
She also took a fair amount of grief in high school for living on a sheep farm, and I hated to see her suffer. But I think she became proud (in a good way) of it, though she got a mite tetchy when I picked her up from school in the pickup instead of the aged Volvo wagon.