Child labor is a sensitive topic to many, but to others, it is quite plain that a child after he reaches a certain milestone in his growth should be able to go and grow himself a backbone, build responsibility, attention, and the idea of being able to supply to those around him. Notice this is all by choice of the individual whether he wants to work or not, absorb the benefits of working, responsibility…, or not. However, you might want to change your mind about a child with a job, because this is up-to-date labor, and if we go back a hundred years from now it wasn’t exactly as appropriate in western society today, rather a child with a job, it was a job with a child. Historically children have always been a vulnerable spot for society, their age, needs, and medical approaches, but unlike today’s society, kingdoms couldn’t support their age or needs. Children, if they weren’t born into a wealthy or middle-class environment, would struggle with their families economically.

During the peak of the enlightenment and the popularization of the industrial revolution. Children as young as 7, would move with their parents to cities, as urban life was proposing many more opportunities. Let’s put this in perspective, it wasn’t as promoted, rather false promoting, and the families fell for it, making the wealthy, wealthier. Child labor during the Industrial Revolution was a supplemental way for families to make an extra wage to be able to survive, kids wouldn’t go through their education to help their parents make a living, and parents didn’t care as much about sending their kids to environments were dangerous chemicals known to cause permanent damage to their kid’s health, and industrial owners took advantage of this, giving children and women low wages as much $0.50 a day.

It is researched on the working environments of children, “As a reflection on the past, children were used for many common occupations such as coal mining, rat-catching, and chimney sweeping – just to name a few. According to Paxton Price in his research on Victorian child labor, children, as we see within mills and factories, work excruciatingly long hours, typically a ten to fourteen hour day.” These jobs simply seem, from a modern-day perspective very cruel to give to a child, something that adults have taken control of, which was once a child’s job back in the post-medieval ages. Although children do these gruesome jobs, they still do them to assist their parents. Ironic! But families do it for their own survival, not all, but the majority. This is exemplified in a movie known as spirited away, where the child fights, not for money, not for fame, but for her parent’s survival. 

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These jobs didn’t undermine children wage-wise, but also health-wise. The importance of health, physical and mental was undermined not only by factory owners but by parents, believe it or not, parents. It’s researched, “Many of the children, who were examined by Dr. John Johnson Boutflower, appeared pale, slim, and exhibited respiration issues such as wheezing, hoarseness of voice and difficulty in breathing. 5 Children were working up to fourteen hours a day, causing their growth to stunt due to the hard labor.”

Parents, shouldn’t be scared in our, very graceful times to let their children exhibit their own traits and skills or to find their natural skills. “I remember once finding a fragment of a raccoon’s jaw in an alder thicket. I sat down alongside the two children with me and encouraged them to find out who this was with only the three teeth still intact in a piece of the animal’s maxilla to guide them.”-Children in the woods, Barry Lopez. I am not asking or requesting you to send your 3 year old child on an explicit adventure, but rather make them explore their traits. Children are the innocence of this planet. Teaching them the Fundamentals will give them a strong backbone to rely on ,in any situation.

A really good sense of responsibility goes a long way in life too.