Farm children working hours

[Exfarmer]

I am not arguing that children don’t need sleep, nor am I arguing that they should be worked to the bone.
If they had no screen to watch or play on, till the small hours, they would be going to sleep a lot earlier and rising sooner.
All the evidence suggesting they would benefit from a later start comes from North America, where teenagers actually head for school very much earlier than here, often catching buses well before 6 am! This is due to the school bus system out there,doing one round picking up seniors for an 8 start and a second to pick up juniors.
All the evidence shows the body clock will correct itself to whatever bed time is adopted within a very few days.
I strongly believe children ahould have a lot of R&R together with a high level of socialising.
Part of this can and probably should be doing jobs they enjoy and earning pocket money for.

 

[glasshouse]

Its a tough balancing act my son is 14 and helps out at weekends and holidays but his mother makes sure he has time for his drumming and basketball hurling etc
Also she is very health and safety conscious and overrules my more traditional approach to ' making a farmer' out of him.
My father was very old school and considered me a man when i was fourteen and therefore capable of a mans work Like many of my generation i was driving tractors as soon as my feet could reach the pedals .
He also inisisted on me staying at school til i was seventeen .He sent me to england to work with releatives who were in the building business to give me what he called another option before starting farming
That was some year the big money , the drinking ,the women.....

And you gave up building.......

 

[wasted years]

That was 40 years ago. Agriculture has come on in leaps and bounds since those days.

Those folk to keep an eye on kids working don't exist anymore. Which farm workers would be happy to be responsible for looking out for someone else's kids in the workplace?

First and foremost, kids should get an education, giving more options in later life.

Work smarter, not harder.

I agree and whilst dairy farming in particular can't always be sugar coated I chose robot milking in front ofa parlour as a way of making the job more attractive and to be fair it works as the days of constantly looking at my watch at weekends to check for milking time don't exist.
All 3 of my kids are perfectly capable of re setting the robot alarm for me , which teaches them all sort of things without them knowing but would I put my kids in a parlour and tell them to get on with it?
No I would not.

 

[glasshouse]

That was 40 years ago. Agriculture has come on in leaps and bounds since those days.

Those folk to keep an eye on kids working don't exist anymore. Which farm workers would be happy to be responsible for looking out for someone else's kids in the workplace?

First and foremost, kids should get an education, giving more options in later life.

Work smarter, not harder.

Agriculture hasnt changed at all, neither has kids desire to drive machinery.
Under proper supervision its ok.
They are far better outside with sheep or trning hay than sitting on an x box

 

[Will Wilson]

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”

 

[farmer james]

This is the first year my eldest daughter, aged 14 has helped at harvest, this was needed as our GFW left in the spring. It was a straightforward harvest but made easier with the extra pair of hands.
All in she
Probably only has done 60 odd hours and the most of 10 in any one day. Enough IMO for a 14 year old.
She has always helped at Lambing during the holidays and is happy to be up at 4 or 5 to help me.
FJ

 

[pappuller]

I agree and whilst dairy farming in particular can't always be sugar coated I chose robot milking in front ofa parlour as a way of making the job more attractive and to be fair it works as the days of constantly looking at my watch at weekends to check for milking time don't exist.
All 3 of my kids are perfectly capable of re setting the robot alarm for me , which teaches them all sort of things without them knowing but would I put my kids in a parlour and tell them to get on with it?
No I would not.

Exactly the same here, did my 30 yrs in the pit dont expect my son to do the same, soft or not lifes to short

 

[Cowcorn]

And you gave up building.......

Its al long story short version reports reached home via an aunt who was a matron at a london hospital .unknown to me she had been charged with keeping tabs on me.
My mother a good and saintly woman became concerned obout my ahem...... lifestyle.

 

[RushesToo]

If my kids layed in bed till ten oclock id go mental farming or no farming thats unacceptable in my house.

Times change, people are different, mostly it all works out.

I give you a well said phrase.
“A mind set in its ways is wasted. Don't do it.”

 

[RushesToo]

What has sleep got to do with medicine?
There is no evidence children need more than 8 hours. As any other human does.
The main problem today is children are staying up till the small hours .
So they do not want to rise till 8 - 10 am the screens whether tv, phone or tablet are the cause of needing a lie in nothing more , nothing less.

Like everyone they need the amount of sleep they need. As children it is your job as a parent to make sure they get it. The transition from child to adult is hard - the parents should help them do this.

If they don't start sleeping till too late - this isn't their problem their children ..........

 

[Farming4Freedom]

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

I half agree, I am a pre-teen and work from 7am when I get up to 6pm when the animals go to sleep, which has helped me a lot, but my dad on the other hand had a serious accident when he was young from stupid amounts of work and suffers from terrible pains and cramps even now he's over 60. Basically, you're right in my opinion.

 

[Highland Mule]

I half agree, I am a pre-teen and work from 7am when I get up to 6pm when the animals go to sleep, which has helped me a lot, but my dad on the other hand had a serious accident when he was young from stupid amounts of work and suffers from terrible pains and cramps even now he's over 60. Basically, you're right in my opinion.

You’re a pre teen and working 11 hour days? Stop that right now, for your own good.

 

[Farming4Freedom]

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”

Well, most of them do, anyway.

 

[Farming4Freedom]

You’re a pre teen and working 11 hour days? Stop that right now, for your own good.

It's not really intense like my dad did, I'm just trying to support him as much as possible

 

[Highland Mule]

It's not really intense like my dad did, I'm just trying to support him as much as possible

You’re a child. If your dad needs 11 hours a day of support from you, there’s something seriously wrong.

Learn from him as his pains and cramps - if this isn’t a wind-up as I suspect it is.

He had you when he was in his late 40s/ early 50s?

 

[New Puritan]

Being "busy" seems to be a badge of honour across many parts of society. It's used as an excuse for being late or doing something badly quite often. There's been times in my life when things were very hard and I was very busy, but I did what I could to make things better and be less busy. Making your kids work horrendous long hours is just going to push them away from you.

When people start stealth boasting about how hard they work / how early they had to get up, I'm always reminded of this song by Half Man Half Biscuit:

- as well as the man wanting a medal for getting up early(ish), there's a lot of other things to like, not least the Aga owners who don't know how to use them and the man who "speaks as he finds".

 

[Magnus Oyke]

nowt wrong with a good work ethic at a young age, but don't foget to be a teenager

 

[thorpe]

Sometimes , from youngsters i've spoken to over the years, they consider their "education" finished when they can
read the tractor reviews. And i've ceased to be amazed at the number of farmer's who think that the only reason
to keep animals is to get a subsidy cheque, which is then spent at the machinery dealers. If, at some point in the
future you will only recieve farm support by signing up to an enviroment scheme, which limits your stocking rate,
the Sh*t will hit the fan.

WOW what fore sight!