[the_jesus_villa]

>Now adults have to compete with children??

Yes and no. Most children share homes with adults. I went on calls with my dad (he's a plumber) since I was 7 and helped him more and more as I became adolescent. Similarly, my current daughter sometimes helps me with coding jobs. It helps our home. So I guess child labor helps families and hurts single people, because it means families can grow additional workers.

[jeremyjh]

Do you think there are labor laws preventing daughters from helping their dad with coding jobs? We are talking here about children participating in the labor market, not apprenticing with their parents in a casual way.

[tnel77]

I think they were talking about states trying to get more teenagers working to help with the “labor crisis.” I had a similar upbringing to what you described, but idk if that’s what they meant.

[SamoyedFurFluff]

You never forced your daughter to work all evening, skipping school hours, or in a butchery, which is what I’m talking about.

[the_jesus_villa]

I've done all of that except the butchery part (because that wouldn't make sense). She is homeschooled, and working with me on software projects is part of her homeschooling. Sometimes if the project is fun it could take all evening (like when we make videos demoing stuff for documentation).

As a kid, I went into dirty crawlspaces, helped my dad weld, and went on roofs, which for a little boy was pretty much the coolest thing imaginable. Whenever we were with a client who had a pool, my dad would ask the client if I could jump in, and they always said yes. I learned so much about technology from working on air conditioners. The process of troubleshooting, how machines work, and tons about sales and how to work with customers. My dad was also aggressive about SEO once that became a thing, but even before then, he did all kinds of marketing stuff himself.

I'm a freelancer today and wouldn't be able to if I hadn't been "forced to skip school for long evenings in the butchery", to put it into a phraseology that more matches your own. I think people have an idea of kids working based on school textbooks, which is sometimes (but not usually) accurate. When school textbooks teach the history of laws, it's always in this naive, doe-eyed kind of way.

Right now I'm in Guatemala, and child labor is everywhere, and to be honest, none of it seems as dreary as school does. Imagine as a kid being forced to do an office job where you sit down and do nothing for 6 hours, surrounded by friends who you cannot speak to, skipping play hours so you can study textbooks that teach a completely made up version of your country's history.

[chrismcb]

Child labor laws are different for family members.

[the_jesus_villa]

I'm discussing child labor, not child labor laws!