[family4farms]

Yes!!!!

Most certainly our children need to glean from every asset the Lord has gifted us.

[yosef61]

Where else are they going to learn this? It’s not taught to them in school. You learn these things from parents, grandparents and the elders.

[sadie21962]

Absolutely! It didn’t hurt me when I was young. Feeding bottle calves on a dairy farm was one of my first jobs. It gives them a sense of belonging to something bigger than themselves. It teaches responsibility. My grandsons, 12 and 8, both work on the family 2000 acre farm in Indiana. The older drives vehicles from field to field. He can move the semi around too. They both work in the feed store loading feed for customers, writing tickets, and taking inventory. No computer here. Great application of their daily homeschooling lessons. Hard work never hurt a kid, it builds character.

[SaffronBay]

Yes, children should help whether it’s a homestead or just a home with a small backyard garden. My folks can garden & grow things pretty well but never made us kids go out and help, learn, & participate in the gardening & planting, etc. I remember being in the garden one time & I itched all over from weeds. I wish now they had made us do these things. I would not be struggling to learn it now in my 40’s. I plan on taking my grandson (just turned 4) to my parents on my Saturdays off during the growing & planting season to help with the garden so we both can learn. He likes to watch me cook a lot of times and I try to let him watch so hopefully soon he can start helping me cook and be a pro at it. (Every woman loves a man who can cook so starting him now in the learning.)

Easier to learn things while you’re young & growing then it is to learn in your middle age years. And you definitely learn more from your mistakes & others as well. Nobody taught me that growing up. I always was pushed to do my best and not make mistakes. Nobody ever told me as a child it was ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. The more children learn growing the more ahead of the rest they’ll be as young adults and be able to excel at things as they continue to learn in adulthood.

[VanessaC]

Absolutely teach the children. Working boosts creativity and promotes healthy happy adults.

[CrazyCats]

Yes. Kids are spoiled and don’t seem to play outside let alone do any chores anymore. They need to learn a work ethic if they want their allowance or whatever.

[HoneysGarden]

I didn’t see anyone else mention this . . . but, like all of us, children need to have a purpose. Those who suffer from depression, who attempt suicide, often feel like they aren’t needed and have no purpose in life. A child that helps, that has defined responsibilities – on the farm or in the household – AND gets acknowledgement for their contribution to the family – rarely suffers from feeling a lack of purpose; they feel needed and appreciated! So absolutely yes . . . the responsibility and lessons learned are important, but equally important is the mental and emotional wellbeing of your children (or grandchildren)!

[Njorun38]

This, 100%. I feel like the focus should be less on exchange for allowances and “stuff,” and more on balancing time between their hobbies / interests (sports, their favorite show, piano lessons), their studies, and doing “real important stuff” (survival basics). If you feel useless, powerless, and meaningless in life, like you just exist to entertain and be entertained, to shop ad a consumer and be exploited for a pittance wage that doesn’t match rising costs… you teach a child to be miserable, and an obedient servant. An allowance teaches a child to be a wage-slave in an ever-inflating economy. Buy them what they need and some of what they want that you can afford without overly spoiling them, or give them an allowance if you want and teach them to budget themselves, but not for doing the basics of what they absolutely need to know— no one pays you to be a homesteader, and no one is going to pay them either when the time comes. Have them work on the homestead not for an allowance, but to tell them “all that the light touches here is your human inheritance, this nature was made by your Creator, and it’s your responsibility to know how to till and tend it to survive, to pass this wisdom on when you’re older some day.” That’s not “too big” for them, it makes them feel a part of something bigger and they’re old enough to understand.

[Farmall140]

Yes!

Some of my fondest memories of my grandpa is walking between him and the tiller laying out rows to plant. It has stayed a part of my life even in adulthood

[Njorun38]

I remember shucking corn with my grandmother and picking tomatoes with my grandfather, feeding the ducks at the pond with my grandmother, as some of my fondest childhood memories too. Obviously don’t give children back-breaking labor they’re too young for or exploit them and rob them of the time to do anything they’re passionate about. But a few days a week doing basic homesteading skills and helping you with foraging, gardening, canning, even cooking… these will be deeply cherished memories one day. So simple, but so meaningful and powerful.

[coyotech]

For sure children should help on the homestead, and work hard, real work not busy work as they get big enough to handle jobs. It’s a great opportunity that town kids don’t have. But even if you don’t have a homestead, a farm, a ranch or anything like that, I think kids need to be helping seriously at home. Real work that matters. Not for money, but because they are valuable members of the family. They should also share in the profit and respect too, of course. Everybody I know who was raised on a farm, or even spent a couple of years of their childhood on one, looks back at that time fondly and learned all kinds of things they use even into their old age. They all learned to be independent and self reliant because they can do things and figure things out on their own. I wasn’t raised that way – my dad was in the service and we moved a lot. But I still had plenty of work to do at home. I moaned and groaned about it sometimes, but it was extremely valuable to me to learn to work whether I felt like it or not, and to do the things I learned to do. Make those kids work. Not like slaves of course, but as contributing members of the family and community. 👍

[culdesacgrocerygarden]

I certainly do believe children should be helping. Children learn what they live. 6 of my 7 grandchildren are being raised on an urban homestead in north Kansas City. The skills and talents that they have developed are incredible. They care for animals, garden, cook, bake , sew, build, hunt, fish, process, and have hobbys such as wood burning and carving. I was there one day last week. It was a frigid day that followed a few unusually warm spring like dsys. One if the older boys said “It feels like its almost sapping time”, and the other one said “ Yep its just around the corner”. Its such a blessing watching them grow.

[JerseyGiantChick]

For sure not just to learn and get experience, also to be able to earn some extra savings.

From what the chickens give, is for our son. His first hens are laying now, and he says thank you and gives them a huge. He knows the difference between breeding and meat chickens and is going to learn that also with rabbits.

He can help grow vegetables and fruit and share at school, like he did in Kindergarten.

The project is for the Kindergarten and school, to experience and learn how to grow.

[SpagsUnfiltered]

Yes. We do no one any favors doing all the work to eventually leave the Homestead to kids who can’t work it or appreciate it.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by  SpagsUnfiltered.

[Hippocrates_Garden]

Yes. Don’t really need to explain, the reasons are self evident.

[gardener-grey]

I know other people my age don’t like gardening and such, but I do, I’m a mid teenager, and I started gaining an interest In plants and growing a garden a couple years ago so that we can eat healthier, now I have lots of gardening space to grow better tasting, healthier vegetables than from the store.

[Hanidu-Acres]

Good for you!!!

[Terminator]

Yes when my children were growing up they helped with everything it was a way of life,as adults now they grow there own food they know how to preserve and some of them are hobby farming I agree 💯 %they need to know how more than ever