Kids and farm equipment, how old? -poll

[boondocks]

[]
It's amazing what people debate these days. Here we are trying to convince people that it's ok for children to operate heavy machinery.

I think (hope) some people just like to argue and we're not really back in the 1400's.

"Light" machinery ain't much better in the hands of wee ones.I almost did myself in a few times as a kid (on a tippy 3 wheeler) and my brother (age 8 or 9) hit a tree on a snowmobile. Lots of kids get hurt on ATVs every year. The age people let kids on them is ridiculous. (Google Britney Spear's niece).

To the larger point re farm equipment: if a person can't make a living (in whatever (literal or figurative) field) without forcing their children into dangerous working conditions, maybe it's time to consider another line of work. (I'm not talking about gradually introducing them to things. I'm talking about giving them primary responsibility for an adult's workload, using machinery sized and calibrated for adult use. Kinematics are a real thing).

Country folk often rail about irresponsible urban parents who don't adequately supervise and oversee their kids. We need to make sure we're not giving ourselves a "pass."
Are we really wanting to head back to the days where farm kids were little better than indentured servants (at best)? When families were big so that you could afford to lose a few and still bring in the harvest?
Work them, sure. Make 'em sweat, learn things over time, fine.

 

[True Grit Farms]

Boondocks, I didn't force my kids into anything. They wanted to help - be in the way. I'd tell them your to small or you don't know how to operate this or that. I was proven wrong every time. And yes kids shouldn't operate equipment and there's a lot of grown ups that have no business operating a piece of equipment either.
Like it or not folks, all kids aren't created equal.

 

[M-5]

I've already started my 10mth old grand daughter steering my Kubota , it's never to early to learn

 

[Brute 23]

Just watched a video of a 4yr old who races motorcycles. Fastest one goes 45mph.

 

[herofan]

[]
It's amazing what people debate these days. Here we are trying to convince people that it's ok for children to operate heavy machinery.

I think (hope) some people just like to argue and we're not really back in the 1400's.

"Light" machinery ain't much better in the hands of wee ones.I almost did myself in a few times as a kid (on a tippy 3 wheeler) and my brother (age 8 or 9) hit a tree on a snowmobile. Lots of kids get hurt on ATVs every year. The age people let kids on them is ridiculous. (Google Britney Spear's niece).

To the larger point re farm equipment: if a person can't make a living (in whatever (literal or figurative) field) without forcing their children into dangerous working conditions, maybe it's time to consider another line of work. (I'm not talking about gradually introducing them to things. I'm talking about giving them primary responsibility for an adult's workload, using machinery sized and calibrated for adult use. Kinematics are a real thing

I agree. I never felt like having my kids on machinery at a young age would make a difference in my livelihood. If the line is that close to make or break, I think another line of work is in order.

Perhaps nobody forced their kids to operate equipment at a you d age, but I'm sure there was an encouraging atmosphere even if they didn't realize it.

It's somewhat like sports parents who claim they didn't push their kids into playing sports. They might not have held a gun to their head, but I know some dads who would have had a heart attack if their kids weren't interested in Sports.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

My daughter is 9. She's been sitting in my lap to run skid steers for probably 5 years or so. I've been letting her run one by herself(I stay close by) for a year or two now, but not throttled up, and only in CAT's on tracks......VERY smooth to operate. She steers the semi for me on the back roads, drives and docks the boats, knows the basics of driving a post and stretching wire, and knows what $20k in cash feels like in her hands. I've tried to expose her to as much as possible to prepare her for what's to come. My wife and I both want for her to understand what it takes to be successful, and are willing to do whatever it takes to show her the best we can. Not every 9 year old is mature enough to have those conversations and lessons, but at the same time, some kids are ready for it at the age of 5. There is just no way to answer the survey, as quite simply, every situation is different.

 

[mwj]

The thing that sticks out to me was ,why was the 3 year old in the same area as the young operator. I run a skid-steer on a daily basis and am paranoid about who is in the work area.

 

[Craig Miller]

and knows what $20k in cash feels like in her hands.

I think im almost old enough to learn that myself so if you will send it on to me

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

and knows what $20k in cash feels like in her hands.

I think im almost old enough to learn that myself so if you will send it on to me

Well, I'd love to help you out with that, but I'm afraid you're skipping the valuable part of the lesson. The cash was hers, and after she paid me back for inputs, she still had a tidy pile to put in the bank. Money lessons are easier to teach with cash, imho.

 

[Craig Miller]

and knows what $20k in cash feels like in her hands.

I think im almost old enough to learn that myself so if you will send it on to me

Well, I'd love to help you out with that, but I'm afraid you're skipping the valuable part of the lesson. The cash was hers, and after she paid me back for inputs, she still had a tidy pile to put in the bank. Money lessons are easier to teach with cash, imho.

I did miss that. Good job. :tiphat:

 

[herofan]

and knows what $20k in cash feels like in her hands.

I think im almost old enough to learn that myself so if you will send it on to me

Well, I'd love to help you out with that, but I'm afraid you're skipping the valuable part of the lesson. The cash was hers, and after she paid me back for inputs, she still had a tidy pile to put in the bank. Money lessons are easier to teach with cash, imho.

If you have a 9 year old generating $20k, you must have quite the operation going.

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

I think im almost old enough to learn that myself so if you will send it on to me

Well, I'd love to help you out with that, but I'm afraid you're skipping the valuable part of the lesson. The cash was hers, and after she paid me back for inputs, she still had a tidy pile to put in the bank. Money lessons are easier to teach with cash, imho.

If you have a 9 year old generating $20k, you must have quite the operation going.

We've invested on her behalf since she was very young. Not a fortune, just enough to plant the seeds. Once she was old enough to start understanding how things work, she was in on the decision making. It's important to understand the difference in gross and net. 80% of that cash was overhead that hadn't been paid yet. 20% was her net profit, 95% of which landed in her savings account. The other 5% went to the American Girl Doll store, as she likes to keep a diversified portfolio. My wife and I both come from common families....There are no great inheritances on the schedule. I would like for my daughter to understand what hard work is all about, know the value of a dollar, and not have to suck hind tit through the best years of her life.

 

[Craig Miller]

Well, I'd love to help you out with that, but I'm afraid you're skipping the valuable part of the lesson. The cash was hers, and after she paid me back for inputs, she still had a tidy pile to put in the bank. Money lessons are easier to teach with cash, imho.

If you have a 9 year old generating $20k, you must have quite the operation going.

We've invested on her behalf since she was very young. Not a fortune, just enough to plant the seeds. Once she was old enough to start understanding how things work, she was in on the decision making. It's important to understand the difference in gross and net. 80% of that cash was overhead that hadn't been paid yet. 20% was her net profit, 95% of which landed in her savings account. The other 5% went to the American Girl Doll store, as she likes to keep a diversified portfolio. My wife and I both come from common families....There are no great inheritances on the schedule. I would like for my daughter to understand what hard work is all about, know the value of a dollar, and not have to suck hind tit through the best years of her life.

That's a good way to look at it. Anybody who has been there understands what you mean.

 

[ez14.]

Well, I'd love to help you out with that, but I'm afraid you're skipping the valuable part of the lesson. The cash was hers, and after she paid me back for inputs, she still had a tidy pile to put in the bank. Money lessons are easier to teach with cash, imho.

If you have a 9 year old generating $20k, you must have quite the operation going.

We've invested on her behalf since she was very young. Not a fortune, just enough to plant the seeds. Once she was old enough to start understanding how things work, she was in on the decision making. It's important to understand the difference in gross and net. 80% of that cash was overhead that hadn't been paid yet. 20% was her net profit, 95% of which landed in her savings account. The other 5% went to the American Girl Doll store, as she likes to keep a diversified portfolio. My wife and I both come from common families....There are no great inheritances on the schedule. I would like for my daughter to understand what hard work is all about, know the value of a dollar, and not have to suck hind tit through the best years of her life.

how did she make this money! this sounds like a great thing for the kid though i don't know many parents who can front their kids that kind of money. (if my parents had that much for all of us we'd be pretty well off :lol: ) i wish i had the opportunity to do something like that when i was her age (instead i'm just working on losing the money i've made )

 

[Farm Fence Solutions]

If you have a 9 year old generating $20k, you must have quite the operation going.

We've invested on her behalf since she was very young. Not a fortune, just enough to plant the seeds. Once she was old enough to start understanding how things work, she was in on the decision making. It's important to understand the difference in gross and net. 80% of that cash was overhead that hadn't been paid yet. 20% was her net profit, 95% of which landed in her savings account. The other 5% went to the American Girl Doll store, as she likes to keep a diversified portfolio. My wife and I both come from common families....There are no great inheritances on the schedule. I would like for my daughter to understand what hard work is all about, know the value of a dollar, and not have to suck hind tit through the best years of her life.

how did she make this money! this sounds like a great thing for the kid though i don't know many parents who can front their kids that kind of money. (if my parents had that much for all of us we'd be pretty well off :lol: ) i wish i had the opportunity to do something like that when i was her age (instead i'm just working on losing the money i've made )

We gave her a cow every year for her birthday for the first 5 years of her life. I sold the calves on her behalf, and put the money in her savings account. I didn't deduct any for inputs the first few years, because I wanted her savings to build as quickly as possible. Once she was old enough to help and start making some of her own management decisions, she started keeping heifers. Her cow herd is now in the teens, and she usually buys all the neighborhood bottle calves....twins and dead cow kind of calves. When she sells yearlings, it's a good check, but she still owes for feed/hay/pasture/meds. We are trying to prepare her for the real world, but also set her up for success if we can. She has also purchased a good slug of dividend paying stocks, and I think the last time I looked the little chit had over a hundred ounces of silver in her box. (My Dad ramrods the silver collection) We also pay her to help with both fence businesses. She is an expert insulator putter outer, and can sweep a warehouse floor like nobody's business. She pays income tax on every dime she makes, and has even started contributing to a Roth IRA. My Dad taught me how to work my azz off every day, all day. There never was any education on planning for the future.....not because he didn't think it was important, but just because sometimes life happens. I don't want my kid living check to check. I want her prepared for life.
My wife and I are not wealthy by any means. We are just like most of the folks on here, and have our fair share of sleepless nights worrying about our decisions, investments, and future. We live in a run down turd of a house, and that's cool with us, because we believe that there are more important things right now. We have just decided that investing in our daughter is the best thing we can do, so that her nights will hopefully be more restful than ours.

 

[Jogeephus]

I did something similar with my children. Each had their own little herd. My daughter is tight and very conservative and she thinks the idea of compound interest is the best thing since Blue Bell ice cream. When she graduated high school I was pretty impressed with the amount of money she had accumulated from her cow sales and her other business ventures. She definitely won't have to bury herself in debt when she buys her first home like I had to.

 

[Bright Raven]

I did something similar with my children. Each had their own little herd. My daughter is tight and very conservative and she thinks the idea of compound interest is the best thing since Blue Bell ice cream. When she graduated high school I was pretty impressed with the amount of money she had accumulated from her cow sales and her other business ventures. She definitely won't have to bury herself in debt when she buys her first home like I had to.

Jo,

Economics and education are ok. You get points as a parent for that. What about work ethic?

At what age did she start using a chainsaw? I hope you had her trained on three phase electric before she was off to pre- school. If I remember you said once she was cleaning turbine blades in a hydroelectric plant at 6. While they were spinning!

 

[Craig Miller]

I have stared with mine. I did not start as young as you. My ten year old has one cow and calf of his own. I hope to help him build it as he gets older so he has something to start out with that he worked for. I plan to do the same with the younger two as well.

 

[Jogeephus]

I did something similar with my children. Each had their own little herd. My daughter is tight and very conservative and she thinks the idea of compound interest is the best thing since Blue Bell ice cream. When she graduated high school I was pretty impressed with the amount of money she had accumulated from her cow sales and her other business ventures. She definitely won't have to bury herself in debt when she buys her first home like I had to.

Jo,

Economics and education are ok. You get points as a parent for that. What about work ethic?

At what age did she start using a chainsaw? I hope you had her trained on three phase electric before she was off to pre- school. If I remember you said once she was cleaning turbine blades in a hydroelectric plant at 6. While they were spinning!

She was working a saw at 4 but I didn't allow her to gas it up for the obvious safety concerns. And, yes, I'll admit she was a late bloomer on cleaning turbine blades because her water wings wouldn't let her stay submerged long enough to make any real money and it just seemed so uneconomical to me. Of course the time wasn't totally wasted because as a toddler I noticed she was quite the climber the way she would scoot out of her crib at night so we got her a contract job changing light bulbs on cell phone towers till she started nursery school. At a $100/bulb this wasn't bad and with a 16 hour work day she could make some serious change. Of course, I did insist that she tie off every 100 foot.

 

[Bright Raven]

I did something similar with my children. Each had their own little herd. My daughter is tight and very conservative and she thinks the idea of compound interest is the best thing since Blue Bell ice cream. When she graduated high school I was pretty impressed with the amount of money she had accumulated from her cow sales and her other business ventures. She definitely won't have to bury herself in debt when she buys her first home like I had to.

Jo,

Economics and education are ok. You get points as a parent for that. What about work ethic?

At what age did she start using a chainsaw? I hope you had her trained on three phase electric before she was off to pre- school. If I remember you said once she was cleaning turbine blades in a hydroelectric plant at 6. While they were spinning!

She was working a saw at 4 but I didn't allow her to gas it up for the obvious safety concerns. And, yes, I'll admit she was a late bloomer on cleaning turbine blades because her water wings wouldn't let her stay submerged long enough to make any real money and it just seemed so uneconomical to me. Of course the time wasn't totally wasted because as a toddler I noticed she was quite the climber the way she would scoot out of her crib at night so we got her a contract job changing light bulbs on cell phone towers till she started nursery school. At a $100/bulb this wasn't bad and with a 16 hour work day she could make some serious change. Of course, I did insist that she tie off every 100 foot.

:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

That has to be the all time best response.