Working on Manhood and Earning Character

Rhonda Robinson Online ^ | Feb. 15, 2010 | Rhonda Robinson

[Rhonda Robinson]

I didn’t grow up on a farm. We feel blessed to been able to raise our children in the country. Although I’m not sure that qualifies them as growing up on a farm either.

Truthfully, one of the main reasons I wanted to raise our children in the country was so they could work.

I realize that sounds extremely foreign to most people. The concept of children “pulling their own weight” has been a part of the American tradition up until, well probably, my generation, unless of course, you were raised on a farm.

Farm kids have always grown up working, never thinking a thing about it. One farmer told me that, although he was a special case, he began learning to farm at ripe old age of four. He went on to explain that his father was missing a hand. So, from the age of four, he was his father’s right hand—literally and figuratively.

Another farmer once told me about his childhood on a farm. He said, as a young boy he was expected to milk the cow before going to school each day and again when he got home. Not only was he expected to milk his family’s cow, but also his grandparents’ cow as well.

Looking back, he, like most boys of that time he learned a great many other things working beside his father on a daily basis.