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There is no set age at which children should start working, since no two people are exactly alike, and children are definitely 'people'. Having said that, I will not qualify it as follows: among us ITI, children pretty much begin doing some kind of 'helping' as soon as they can walk, and by the time they've walked the earth for five years or so, they are making real - though small - contributions to the family's workload. The same is true for farm- and ranch-raised children.

With the blessing of my grandmothers, I began helping them when I was about 4, but I was a precocious child. I could read and write by then, so of course I was expected to do 'something useful', under the watching eyes of my Elders, and with their guidance.

On my own, because I was an Independent Child, I started working at my Uncle Ernest and Auntie Laura's farm, picking beans and "pickles" (cucumbers). I remember making 7 cents a pound for beans and 4 cents a pound for pickles, which was pretty good money for a little kid. I couldn't haul as big a bag as bigger people, but I picked really cleanly, leaving no usable pods or pickles behind, so I was paid the same as the big kids.

I was exceptional in this way, though. Most seven-year-olds wouldn't last more than half an hour in the field, but I stuck out half days most of the summer, because I had goals, even at such a young age, thanks to the attention of my grandmothers and uncles. Had my Elders pushed me to work, I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much, and I likely wouldn't have put out so much effort. I know that many of my cousins resented having to work, but we didn't have a lot of money in our families, so everyone pitched in at various jobs throughout the year.

During school, our primary job was learning, but we still were expected to earn some money doing odd jobs in order to pay for frills such as movies and The Root Beer Stand, which was a big thing for us. If we made more than our elders thought we needed, we were expected to put some in a passbook savings account "for a rainy day".

Young people today are very soft, rude, and disrespectful, as a rule, and it is their elders' fault for allowing them to be that way. I didn't let my children get away with laziness, rudeness, or bad attitude, and I have no bums. The same goes for my grandchildren, and none of them resents me, either. They brag that I'm "one tough mother", but then they add, "but she's fair, too". How do I know this? I've eavesdropped on occasion. Sometimes I couldn't help it; sometimes I could have avoided hearing, but I figure the best way to find out the truth is to listen when they don't think you're able to hear them. You can't head off problems if you have no idea what's brewing, after all.

Children today are targeted as consumers long before current fashions in child raising posit them as being able to earn any part of their 'keep'. My approach is, every child can do something to earn at least part of the money toward that latest "gotta-have!", and it's up to us parents to find one or more of those things the child can do to earn some of the money, and guide them. If they're old enough to want a thing, they're old enough to do some work toward getting it - provided the parents approve of the thing..

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