Child Labor Laws Destroying America?

[crashhelmet]

My fear in the issue of child labor, especially in the family farm scenario, is the balance of work vs. education.

if a kid is in school for 6-7 hours a day and has homework to do most nights, shouldn't they be limited on the number of hours that they can work? At what point does the family farm take precedence over the child's education?

[AdminAssistant]

In my experience, education comes first. The majority of the work happens during the summer and for a bit in the spring (planting) and fall (harvest). Now, depending on the family, they may not be able to participate in sports. But a lot of the kids I knew did 4-H and FFA-type stuff that fit into their schedules. I honestly can't see it as much more of a distraction than, say, doing sports all the time, or pageants, or dance, or whatever.

Are there rules as to how many chores a parent can ask a child to do on any given day?

[crashhelmet]

In my experience, education comes first. The majority of the work happens during the summer and for a bit in the spring (planting) and fall (harvest). Now, depending on the family, they may not be able to participate in sports. But a lot of the kids I knew did 4-H and FFA-type stuff that fit into their schedules. I honestly can't see it as much more of a distraction than, say, doing sports all the time, or pageants, or dance, or whatever.

Are there rules as to how many chores a parent can ask a child to do on any given day?

No, but there are rules about maintaining a minimum GPA to be able to participate in extra-curricular (sports) and co-curricular (marching band) activities in school.

My concern is when either greed or desperation sets in and the head of the farm needs every able bodied hand to work. The conflict of school vs work would vary depending on the crop farmed and its planting and harvesting seasons.

[wolfie]

When you grow up on a farm, even if you're a girl who has no interest in farming, you work, especially during the summer. You chop cotton, you help lay polypipe, you help keep the generators on the wells going. As soon as you can drive, you're pulling a water wagon, bringing lunch to fields, running to the co-op or implement store for chemicals or parts. You're loading fertilizer into the sprayers. My sister and I spent our summers doing that because 1) Dad needed it done, and he couldn't afford another hand and 2) he wanted to teach us what *work* was. Hard physical labor, in 100 degree heat, from 5 am until he was done with us. A cousin of mine decided he wanted to drop out of college. He was sent to live with us for a year, and Dad was instructed to convince him to go back to college. It took less than a year. Larger families, especially if the kids want to grow up to be farmers? Those kids are driving tractors, hi-boys, and pickers before you can legally drive.

Exactly - ever heard the song "On The Combine"? One line goes "seven tons of steel and a 12 year old" - running the combine before he could legally drive a car.