I worked my ass off on our ‘family farm’ and often question the hours and time I put in. Was it a learning experience? Definately. Learning how to work hard is not a bad thing. Freezing your ears, hands and feet is. Learning how to birth animals and watching animals die, a good learning experience. Fucking over the feds in farm subsidies and other schemes, bad. I know there is no way to take back what was taken from me on the family farm and my FREE labor, but I am enthusiastic about the changes;
The Department of Labor has proposed 85 pages of new rules for child labor in agriculture. The rules haven’t been updated in 40 years and the agency says the changes are being made to protect children in one of the country’s most dangerous industries.
Two things stick out for me. First off, 85 pages of new rules is far to LITTLE and secondly, the rules not being changed in 40 years tells us something.
It used to be that farmers treated their children like working property on the family farm, (think pre-civil war) some still do, this is unfortunate. Let your kids be kids and let the work be done by MEN. And if those men are not capable, they should sell the farm.
Glad to hear that you “worked your ass off” on the farm. One thing I can tell you, is an employer can always tell when they hire a “farm kid” from a “city kid,” is the farm kid “knows how to work and isn’t afraid of work”. Be proud of it!
I too, grew up on a farm in SD. We lost it in the mid 80s. (Thanks Reagan, you son-of-a-bitch.) We did work hard, but Dad didn’t start us when we were little. We always had some work to do, and had plenty of time to play too.
Mostly, that time to be children was because our father stood up to his father. His dad, born in 1894, believed that the best reason for children was their value as farmhands. In fact, he beat up his other son because he wasn’t a satisfactory worker. That son became an alcoholic and died in his 60s, never having succeeded at anything.
Most farm families that I know treat their children well, but there are exceptions, and laws are needed to protect those children.
I think the part that bugs me the most is that Noem and Thune have no clue about what goes on, on family farms. I’m sure Noem’s kids have done some hard labor but Thunes’? Laughable at best. I would prefer politicians do a little research before they come out and say they know something about child labor laws (what this is really about). I would agree with you and Reagan. One of the main reasons why my brother and I had to work so hard was because our parents both had full-time jobs to help make the farm payments. I’m not sure we ever made a profit.
“It’s an example of Washington D.C. being completely out of touch with what’s going on in the real world,” Senator John Thune said.
I would agree John, you are a Washingtonian and you are completely out of touch.