[maestroia]

I grew up on a farm in the US Midwest. When I was 4 (early 1970s), I was given my chores of watering livestock. I also started bottle feeding my first orphan lambs, and started getting other orphans from neighbors. It became quite an income stream.

When I was 5, I started driving an older tractor. When I was 6, we were fixing a pasture fence when my dad told me to go drive the pickup the 50 yards or so to where we were at. He verbally walked me through it, and let me go get it. I remember that moment like it was yesterday.

And that was not a unique experience, for farm kids at least.

Now, parents would be criminally charged with something.