Kids and chores

I recently had a very disturbing conversation about the amount of work farm kids "have to endure". I was told that as farm parents we are I fact just as bad as those people who run child factories. In my opinion, this is not true! Yes, most farm kids work harder then most kids living in the city. Yes most farm kids can have a lot of responsibilities that they must take care of. Yes most farm kids start working with large equipment quite young.

But, in return these same kids develope a sense of self pride, self confidence, and self worth! They develope a work ethic that makes employers happy to have them, and they become the desired employees. They also become responsible young adults who respect the value of a dollar and know where that dollar comes from and what it took to earn it. It is a way of life that to me is slowly diminishing because too many people have decided that children need to be pampered and not given chores.

Please do not get me wrong, I am not painting all kids raised in the city to be lazy, and not much use as I know this is. Not true! I am merely stating the way I see my side of the conversation, and what a lot of the employers we have dealt with have told us.

All so true! And neither should on paint all farm kids as hard workers, some that I know are unpleasant, over indulged, lazy brats created by parents who do all the hard work so they can enter 4H, become rodeo princes and princesses and expect to be trailered at a drop of a hat to equestrian events. You are right! There are two sides to every coin.

That is true!! I was meanin those farm kids that do have to do chores and work hard!! . We also know a few spoilt brats who have grown up on the farms, but figure the world owes them a living.

Nothing wrong with a little hard work.... builds character! I find it sad that today we try to build our kid's self esteem with words.  We are told to never say "no", to always find only the positive.  To me this builds a false sense of self esteem.  We tend to tell our children that they are the smartest, fastest, strongest, the very best at everything.  They will find out that's often not the case and then they are crushed AND we have lied to them.  Real self esteem comes from being productive, from actually doing our best and from doing things well.  We must keep in mind that each individual has different strengths and help develop those strengths.  I believe that we should simply expect we all do our very best. I will never be a great artist, I don't have the ability to paint the Mona Lisa but when I do paint (limited to fences and walls) it will be to the best of MY ability!

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”


― Albert Einstein

Being a farm kid still counts for something...my son found that out last winter when he was asking around about careers in the oilfield. A manager that he was talking to said that being raised on a farm is considered a real positive point when they are hiring.

I can absolutely see having a farm kid as employee would be a real plus!  Generally speaking they have been exposed to many kinds of equipment, tools and machinery.  Most farmers have an amazing work ethic too. Smokyriver, I would like to say I am sorry anyone would compare a kid having farm chores to child labour in third world countries. That would be quite hurtful I am sure. As a kid I was always disappointed that we lived in the city but my lucky cousins lived on the farm. I loved going out there to visit and yes we all pitched in to do what needed doin'.

I exclusively hire farm-raised people as employees. They keep their cool in stressful situations, they think outside the box, they can work unsupervised, they're not easily grossed out, and they work HARD.

My girls do chores. My two year old helps with chicken chores (collects eggs and feeds scratch), and my 8 year old can do chicken chores by herself and helps my husband with the cattle - she holds onto syringes, tools etc. and hands them to him as he needs them. She knows the cattle better than I do. Both kids help with yardwork, and both girls assist me when I am building things. A two year old is the perfect age to hand me small tools and screws and a pencil, and she thinks it's fun. My 8 year old can run a drill and an impact driver, charge/swap batteries, keep an eye on the level, and hold the end of a board.

I think all kids are big enough to do something - even a crawling baby can be taught to pick up their toys and put them in a basket. My two year old will happily pick up all the toys and put them in the bin so I can vacuum. Sometimes she MAKES me vacuum - picks up all the toys and says "mama, vacuum!" She loves to dust and helps with dishes.

I envision a bright future where my useful, hard-working daughters rise above all the entitled twits people seem to be raising these days and run businesses and generally kick @ss.

I was a farm kid but I would expand this to include almost any family business. Wifey's parents ran a different sort of business so she helped out in the office. You learn that there is something more important than your own little wants.

People are funny and anything that is different from their normal is seen as just not right.

Yes my kids have animal chores every single day and yes they moan about it BUT they have animals they love and I do not over schedule extra circular activities. They play outside and have free time (where I have to listen to I'm bored....). I hear the same thing you hear Smokey from parents at the kids school in town but then I also hear them yakking about how many extra circular activities the kids have every day after school and weekends good grief!! The stress of those hectic insane schedules makes me cringe!
Most of these parents I listen to are the same ones you can see at science fair have done the project for the kid

To each their own I guess but I don't feel bad about my kids having chores. They chose the animals and they aren't terribly overworked. They each have about 20mins chores every morning and evening and then on weekends they have to help with pen cleanups etc. I know in our 4-H club there is always parent chatter about the kids that parents do everything but well that happens with school work and other things as well.

A child that learns and does a job on their own will always learn to take pride in themselves. I am always always there to guide and help but when my children do well at 4-H, in school projects or other extra curricular activities they know they have done it on their own and that pride is priceless. JMHO

I think farm morals are great for kids
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