Farm children working hours

wasted years · Aug 13, 2018

My eldest is 16 and wants to come home to work but is going back to the 6th form in September.
It is always difficult with your own but overall he is excellent, likes things done right, steady and careful with machines and fully 'gets' what me and his mum are trying to do.
He doesn't start with me first thing but has done plenty of 10 and 12 hour days, quite often working over 50 hours a week when I stop to think about it.
Every now and then he seems to run out of steam and lose interest , as he is still a student in my eyes I leave him to it and in fairness if I want him to come out and get up a gear he will, I have to remind myself sometimes that he is on holiday and wants to lie on his arse for a while.
What does everyone else do with your own, force them out every hour every day, indulge them or what?
I'm not worried at all but it would be interesting to know others experiences.

PSQ · Aug 13, 2018

A pertinent thread as my eldest lad is 15 and just emerging from teenage bedroom 'hibernation'. He shows an interest and has risen to the challenge this past week, filling in for someone off on the sick. But it's always been hard work getting him out of his bed in the morning. Looking back through rose tinted glasses, 'it were different when we were lads', but I'm sure we were all much the same.

The big difference is 'my generation' (I'm 46) were usually apprenticed to any of the full-time staff members needing a hand, and learned everything from sweeping floors to ploughing and everything in between. But there aren't many full timers left in farming, and Dads are probably the worst people to work with when you're young, both sides say things to each other you'd never say to non family employees. I really want to bring him on, but realise it's a fine line between encouraging a young lad, and completely sickening him.

Blod · Aug 13, 2018

Have you considered a child swap?
Seriously I think it could work. How many of us get told our offspring are charming guests when at home they're monosyllabic Jekyll/Hyde?

Beowulf · Aug 13, 2018

Teenagers NEED their sleep. Our 15 year old can sleep for 12+ hours when he needs it, and regularly sleeps 10 hours on an average Saturday or Sunday.

These are still young kids, their bodies are both growing and developing and burning unthinkable calories in the process. I look at how much he eats, and wonder how he puts it away, but then remember back to my own teenage years when my Mum would serve my dinner on two separate plates.

Expecting them to graft 16 hours a day will either turn them against you or stunt their development, depending on their attitude.

Let them be teenagers, and accept that adolescents need more sleep than the rest of us.

Boysground · Aug 13, 2018

I didnt push my son when he was that age. I certainly didnt want him tired at work and that to potentially cause an accident.

I do remember when my daughter started her A levels the school suggested that the children should do no more than 8 hours of work a week. This was so that work did not impact on the A levels.

Both my children are at uni now so fairly nocturnal and i dont know what they are up to

Bg

Zippy768 · Aug 13, 2018

wasted years said:
My eldest is 16 and wants to come home to work but is going back to the 6th form in September.
It is always difficult with your own but overall he is excellent, likes things done right, steady and careful with machines and fully 'gets' what me and his mum are trying to do.
He doesn't start with me first thing but has done plenty of 10 and 12 hour days, quite often working over 50 hours a week when I stop to think about it.
Every now and then he seems to run out of steam and lose interest , as he is still a student in my eyes I leave him to it and in fairness if I want him to come out and get up a gear he will, I have to remind myself sometimes that he is on holiday and wants to lie on his arse for a while.
What does everyone else do with your own, force them out every hour every day, indulge them or what?
I'm not worried at all but it would be interesting to know others experiences.

Sounds like you are doing a good thing - cutting him some slack when he needs it and letting him have "some" of his school holidays.

When I was that age I would only emerge about 10:00am usually, unless actually needed earlier. Once routine work was done in the morning and everybody had had breakfast I would join the gang.

ARW · Aug 13, 2018

I think hard work at a young age is vital, humans need struggle in life to develop a good sense of achievement.

Bury the Trash · Aug 13, 2018

Boysground said:
I didnt push my son when he was that age. I certainly didnt want him tired at work and that to potentially cause an accident.

I do remember when my daughter started her A levels the school suggested that the children should do no more than 8 hours of work a week. This was so that work did not impact on the A levels.

Both my children are at uni now so fairly nocturnal and i dont know what they are up to

Bg

There is no Uni atm. summer jobs

Beowulf · Aug 13, 2018

ARW said:
I think hard work at a young age is vital, humans need struggle in life to develop a good sense of achievement.

Utter rubbish IMO. Accomplishing anything requires a desire to do so and a bit of luck along the way. You can't "teach" effort, or ingenuity, or common sense, or any of the other things that qualify "successful" people.

I've employed hundreds of successful people over the last ten years, but I've never been able to identify a single characteristic that identified them as such. Somehow they just were.

I have identified the useless ones however, which often counted a private education, grossly unrealistic outlooks on life and a desperately elevated sense of self-worth among their less desirable traits. I don't employ them any longer.

Old McDonald · Aug 13, 2018

ARW said:
I think hard work at a young age is vital, humans need struggle in life to develop a good sense of achievement.

I feel completely the opposite and agree with those who let their kids sleep as much as they (the kids) feel they need. I have always treated my livestock this way too. One place I farmed I had two not very far away neighbours who used to compete with each other as to who was first out in the morning giving hay to their stock. 5 a.m. in December and January was normal and earlier in other months of the year. Stupidity. Would you want to be woken in the middle of the night with breakfast stuck in front of you? Then wait until the middle of the next night to be fed again.

Nobody ever needs to struggle to develop a sense of achievement. I was never pushed at home to get on with work. I appreciated that. Achievement is gained when one achieves something no matter what has occurred previously.

DrWazzock · Aug 13, 2018

Light work makes strong horses.

Bury the Trash · Aug 13, 2018

DrWazzock said:
Light work makes strong horses.

that would make a good thread title

stewart · Aug 13, 2018

wasted years said:
My eldest is 16 and wants to come home to work but is going back to the 6th form in September.
It is always difficult with your own but overall he is excellent, likes things done right, steady and careful with machines and fully 'gets' what me and his mum are trying to do.
He doesn't start with me first thing but has done plenty of 10 and 12 hour days, quite often working over 50 hours a week when I stop to think about it.
Every now and then he seems to run out of steam and lose interest , as he is still a student in my eyes I leave him to it and in fairness if I want him to come out and get up a gear he will, I have to remind myself sometimes that he is on holiday and wants to lie on his arse for a while.
What does everyone else do with your own, force them out every hour every day, indulge them or what?
I'm not worried at all but it would be interesting to know others experiences.

Send him overseas to work for a couple of years, Australia,Canada or NZ. It will be the best investment you could make, both in the farm and in your kids.

kiwi pom · Aug 13, 2018

ARW said:
I think hard work at a young age is vital, humans need struggle in life to develop a good sense of achievement.

I'd agree with you there. I was 15 when I left school and started work full time (not that long ago) my boss was a good bugger and I didn't do huge hours but did work on another farm at weekends and had a summer gardening job.
Not getting out of bed in a morning is a bad sign in my opinion.
I'm not a farmers son though, maybe they're a bit precious?

I liked John McEnroe's comment when asked if his children, who enjoyed tennis, would be pro players. He said probably not as they suffer from 'affluenza'

MF 168 · Aug 14, 2018

Growing up all of us were made go out and feed calves before school and when dad hurt his back (regular enough) the brother and myself were out at 5:30 to get the foddering done before heading to the school bus at 7:45 which we had to walk to. Kids today are to namby pamby and wrapped up in cotton wool. All the young farmers I know who are good honest hard working people all were made work hard and grew up with an appreciation of what it takes to succeed in this world. The layabouts and wasters were raised to think everything comes easy and someone else work and will pay for it.

Ali_Maxxum · Aug 14, 2018

Don't push him, let him be a teenager, getting on his back will be the quickest way to wind him up and make him not want to do anything.

When I was 15 I remember seeing the careers officer and me wanting to be a plumber went on for a good 6 months, looked at courses and all sorts. Left mid way through a business lesson to do my tractor test, passed, came back the next morning and I knew I wanted to be a contractor, I knew all along really.

I've always been left to do get on with whatever I've wanted to do within reason and I think I've turned out ok! I was never pushed and always told I didn't have to do something if I didn't want to. However I've always been taught if you want something you have to work for it, but at the same time I was given a lot as well, but I did appreciate it.

Come to think about it I did plenty of 12-16hr days from age 14 during harvest times. Remember me and another farming friend we used to babble on about how the other kids our age didn't know what a day of work was, a lot of them still wouldn't know now....

I'm still crap at getting up in the morning, unless it's harvest or hay making. I can easily go all night where others are keeled over after tea time.

Walterp · Aug 14, 2018

No wonder the industry is on the way down...

In my youth boys who wanted to go farming with their old man would often begin to skip school to work on the farm when they were 12. By then they were proficient tractor drivers, could milk the cows, raise the calves and had at least a general idea where the family business should be headed.

The school leaving age was 15, and the 'whipper in' (truancy officer) would generally turn a blind eye in such situations, particularly if the boy was desperately needed on the farm, as was often the case. A former Beef Farmer of the Year, now farming over 1,000 acres, began his farming career in just such fashion, as did countless others. He started out on a poor, rented, place of 60 acres, with no money and little prospects, and has founded a modest farming empire through his own efforts. He is still at it, 40 years later, and has just bought another farm.

These 'boys' were, to all intents and purposes, young men: they got up at 5 am to milk the cows, then did a full day's work, then milked the cows again.

Now let us examine today's young entrants - they receive every consideration, sleep late, and are mollycoddled. They think they know what work is, but a lowly immigrant Pole or Bulgarian would put most to shame. (Which, of course, is why such are often hated).

They will found no farming empires.

[And before anyone asks, I was delivering milk and veg retail when I was 8, could do a full day's work on a tractor when I was 11, would load hay bales by hand back in the day when 20,000 bales were needed each Summer. I subsequently succeeded in practice because I was willing to do three men's work when my colleagues would be sleeping in on weekends, going on holidays, and generally providing the reasons why the UK's productivity record is falling off a cliff while everyone else on the planet is working harder.]

DeeGee · Aug 14, 2018

Beowulf said:
Teenagers NEED their sleep. Our 15 year old can sleep for 12+ hours when he needs it, and regularly sleeps 10 hours on an average Saturday or Sunday.

These are still young kids, their bodies are both growing and developing and burning unthinkable calories in the process. I look at how much he eats, and wonder how he puts it away, but then remember back to my own teenage years when my Mum would serve my dinner on two separate plates.

Expecting them to graft 16 hours a day will either turn them against you or stunt their development, depending on their attitude.

Let them be teenagers, and accept that adolescents need more sleep than the rest of us.

Christ, I wish I could get by on 12 hours sleep!
I can sleep soundly around the clock, I have gained international honours for Wales at numerous slumbering contests during sheep shearing tournaments around the world.

Never push youngsters too hard, but do encourage them, and also let them know that nothing comes without some effort. They have to chose which path to take.

BDBed · Aug 14, 2018

As my family didn't farm I spent most of my time as an early teenager milking after school and mornings or a Saturday on a local dairy farm. Through this I saved up enough money to by some sheep and by the time I went to ag college I had my first tractor with the help of my parents putting their name on my loan as I wasn't 18 yet. I had what I wanted to do in my head and worked for it. My father did push my hard as well and to be honest made me feel guilty if I didn't spend every waking hour working.

As I got my own family I realised how much I missed of my eldest sons first year from working. I decided that this wasn't right and had a major shift in my work and family life.

Now my eldest is not into teenage years (so a lot can change) but not far off, I have realised that the passion and drive I had is not likely to be the same for him. To expect him to have the same attitude as me is ludicrous. He is not me! (Also hated it when Dad used to say to me if I was you I would have done it differently. My response was always I'm not you so don't expect me to be.) I do not for any second let him of the hook when he should see an chance to help or learn but the desire and the willingness to find that chance on his own is not there. I feel the influence he has in his childhood are completely different to mine and this effects his attitude a lot.

As has been already been mentioned I work on the basis of encouraging him with what ever he wants to achieve but make sure he realises that he only gets out what he puts in!

unlacedgecko · Aug 14, 2018

Walterp said:
No wonder the industry is on the way down...

In my youth boys who wanted to go farming with their old man would often begin to skip school to work on the farm when they were 12. By then they were proficient tractor drivers, could milk the cows, raise the calves and had at least a general idea where the family business should be headed.

The school leaving age was 15, and the 'whipper in' (truancy officer) would generally turn a blind eye in such situations, particularly if the boy was desperately needed on the farm, as was often the case. A former Beef Farmer of the Year, now farming over 1,000 acres, began his farming career in just such fashion, as did countless others. He started out on a poor, rented, place of 60 acres, with no money and little prospects, and has founded a modest farming empire through his own efforts. He is still at it, 40 years later, and has just bought another farm.

These 'boys' were, to all intents and purposes, young men: they got up at 5 am to milk the cows, then did a full day's work, then milked the cows again.

Now let us examine today's young entrants - they receive every consideration, sleep late, and are mollycoddled. They think they know what work is, but a lowly immigrant Pole or Bulgarian would put most to shame. (Which, of course, is why such are often hated).

They will found no farming empires.

[And before anyone asks, I was delivering milk and veg retail when I was 8, could do a full day's work on a tractor when I was 11, would load hay bales by hand back in the day when 20,000 bales were needed each Summer. I subsequently succeeded in practice because I was willing to do three men's work when my colleagues would be sleeping in on weekends, going on holidays, and generally providing the reasons why the UK's productivity record is falling off a cliff while everyone else on the planet is working harder.]

Eastern European immigrants do not have a monopoly on hard work.

Farm children working hours

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