What made boys turn into men like Henry Ford, John D Rockerfeller, Thomas Edison, Andrew Carnegie and Audie Murphy?
Are child-labor laws that discourage most companies from under-18 hiring partially to blame? Think about it – if young men can’t start working until 18, it makes sense that they won’t leave the nest until 25. If they start working at 14, how many young men would be better equipped to make a fairly graceful leap out of the nest at high school graduation?
Yes, there is something to be said for giving our children what we didnt’ have . I don’t think being unprepared for independence at 18 is one of those things we meant to give.
“Young men have an in-born passion to take control of the reins of their destiny. They need to earn their money, balance their own spread-sheet of expenditures, learn to make choices – before they are sent off to college, responsible for a $10,000+ investment. Too many young men fail because of responsibility in-experience” – (Delayed Childhood Devastates Our Sons).
I was invited to guest post with Delayed Adulthood Devastates our Sons at Living Better at 50+: for women with Spirit. Please stop by for the complete article.
Very well said, Maryleigh. I think our society has done more harm than good for young men these days.
Such a good post. I still have a son at home at 24. I’m still hopeful. We keep children a bit too coddled these days.
it is an interesting thought…i started working younger…odd jobs i could find and then on the loading docks on my 16th birthday…i do think we give children far too much these days and they have have little reason for ambition…
can’t a kid get a work-permit at 14 or 15? then there’s babysitting and lawn-moving and plenty of work around the house. i agree, though, that even the littlest children need the responsibility of honest work. we’ve forgotten the value of it.
I don’t know about a work permit – but businesses just do not want to hire u-18s. Lawn-mowing jobs are mostly taken by lawn mowing businesses in our area. Baby sitting is discussed in the article. We’ve found that when the money-source is not us, they treat the job much differently. The work culture treats youth much differently than it did teens in my youth.
Wise words. I am happy that our children live on a farm, where chores and farm work help them to gain needed work experience. But this is an unusual case, I realize.
Very interesting. Me and my 13 year old son have had conversations about this because he wishes he could get a job. I’m hoping to be creative in helping him find a way to do so. Definitely worth talking about.
My son doesn’t have a steady job of course, at 13, but his dad has made sure he knows how to work.
Thank you for the sweet comments you left me.
How interesting. I would love to see the statistics behind this line of thinking…..wondering if there is hard evidence to the notion behind earlier to work=earlier to independence.