why did most kids work back in the 1970's /1960's

celligraphy · 28-12-2015 03:12PM #1

Hi guys currently reading a true life book , focusing on how for example a 10 year old would be taken out of school and made to work by lazy alcoholic parents , appentlt happened to a lot of people I knew too ,parents would stay home drink all the wages and expect the kids aged 5 and upwards to either mind the younger kids or go out and work and hand over the full wage packet at the end of the week wtf .

I just couldn't imagine how crap parents were

Stheno · 28-12-2015 03:13PM

celligraphy wrote: »

Hi guys currently reading a true life book , focusing on how for example a 10 year old would be taken out of school and made to work by lazy alcoholic parents , appentlt happened to a lot of people I knew too ,parents would stay home drink all the wages and expect the kids aged 5 and upwards to either mind the younger kids or go out and work and hand over the full wage packet at the end of the week wtf .

I just couldn't imagine how crap parents were

What's the name of this book?

28-12-2015 03:15PM

Um, I worked from the age of 10. I wasn't taken out of school. My parents didn't drink. I just wanted some cash for the important things in life, dingos jeans, basketball boots, Roy of the Rovers comics etc.

Azalea · 28-12-2015 03:19PM

I doubt that kind of exploitation was widespread. Most of them just worked from very young because money was a lot tighter those days.

MilesMorales1 · 28-12-2015 03:41PM

Just the way things were for a certain time, its not exclusive to the 60s/70s. Many kids did and still do work. I was out trying to earn from as young as possible, them video games/pokemon cards weren't paying for themselves.

Azalea · 28-12-2015 03:50PM

Other than babysitting, I didn't start working full days (only during holidays) until I was 16 (the 90s) but plenty of people I know started working years before they were 16, and they weren't poor or forced to do so or growing up in th'olden days. It's good to use long holidays to make a bit of pocket money imo. There was nobody who had regular cash work for me before I turned 16, but my brothers got plenty - painting and labouring etc.

_Brian · 28-12-2015 03:58PM

Lots of work for young lads on farms in the 60/70's. All sorts of manual work and handy tractor driving.

I worked with my dad from I was able. Handy pocket money and saved up. 70/80's were hard times and money was scarce, put myself through college and had a car of my own at 18. My 12yo daughter is keen to work at bits, I'd get her to help with handy stuff and throw her €5, she's saving for college already. She has a plan in her head what she can work at while at college to keep money coming in too. (Realistic plan too)

cml387 · 28-12-2015 04:03PM

Back in the 70's childern were sent up chimneys, and sometimes the fire might be out.
Then they'd have to walk home 20 miles barefoot, and nobbut' at home to eat but a small piece of stale coal.

Gael23 · 28-12-2015 04:06PM

You had to pay to go to secondary school up to the mid 60s so a lot of people, particularly girls went to work as teenagers.

fatknacker · 28-12-2015 04:06PM

Kids these days. Pure lazy.

ASoberThought · 28-12-2015 04:08PM

Out cutting people's grass and doing odd jobs from the age of ten and then working in retail with a forged document by the age of 14.

Having that willingness to work and earn from a young age isn't a bad thing.

28-12-2015 04:10PM

Because we were a poorer country and education ended at a much earlier age at that stage- from talking to my own dad the inter cert was the natural end of it for anyone not specifically aiming for a profession so 15 was not in any way a strange age to be done with it and entering the workforce.

Leaving at ten wouldn't have been the norm but mightn't be too far off the equivalent of leaving at 16 today without a leaving cert (seems strange to paint the story of one pity porn memoir as in any way indicative of the full picture tbh).

The Backwards Man · 28-12-2015 04:10PM

Gael23 wrote: »

You had to pay to go to secondary school up to the mid 60s so a lot of people, particularly girls went to work as teenagers.

My grandad won a scholarship for secondary school education, suppose that would have been the mid to late 20s though, and his family still couldn't afford to let him go, there were too many mouths coming behind him that needed fed, so off to the tatie fields he went. Was the way it was then unfortunately.

celligraphy · 28-12-2015 04:20PM

Sins of the mother by Irene Kelly , ju at got me thinking about how my own parents family sent them out to work young and yet the parents didn't work themselves just literally kept having kids and just were dirty alcoholics , who would hand the new born straight to the oldest girl who was too young to work let's say age 7, apparently it was the born where they lived

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1 · 28-12-2015 04:35PM

At no point does Irene Kelly say this was the norm. Indeed it was far from it in the 60s. Yes it happened but don't assume it was widespread.

28-12-2015 04:37PM

celligraphy wrote: »

Sins of the mother by Irene Kelly , ju at got me thinking about how my own parents family sent them out to work young and yet the parents didn't work themselves just literally kept having kids and just were dirty alcoholics , who would hand the new born straight to the oldest girl who was too young to work let's say age 7, apparently it was the born where they lived

It looks like English...but for the life of me I can't decipher what it means...

Annasopra · 28-12-2015 04:58PM

I doubt most kids of 5-12 were working in the 60s and 70s

Nodin · 28-12-2015 05:03PM

celligraphy wrote: »

Hi guys currently reading a true life book , focusing on how for example a 10 year old would be taken out of school and made to work by lazy alcoholic parents , appentlt happened to a lot of people I knew too ,parents would stay home drink all the wages and expect the kids aged 5 and upwards to either mind the younger kids or go out and work and hand over the full wage packet at the end of the week wtf .

I just couldn't imagine how crap parents were

I worked at 15, nothing to do with parents. Different now.

Nodin · 28-12-2015 05:07PM

Deleted User wrote: »

It looks like English...but for the life of me I can't decipher what it means...

I think the poster is mistaking the specific for the general with regard to
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/what-s-on/arts-entertainment/book-review-sins-of-the-mother-by-irene-kelly-1-7407915

cml387 · 28-12-2015 05:10PM

It's nice to know that nowadays there is no such thing as drunken parents abusing their offspring:rolleyes:

To Elland Back · 28-12-2015 05:15PM

I was a teenager in the mid 70's and had what you would call a comfortable upbringing. From around 12 on, I would do neighbour's grass cutting and also did the milk rounds, going door to door. I did it because I wanted to and for a few bob. I was never sent out to work and never heard of any of my friends who were.

Delighted to say my sons inherited a good work ethic. It is standing to them now

NachoBusiness · 28-12-2015 05:25PM

I cut gardens at 15 so I could buy cans of Tennents and back patches for my sleeveless denim.

My parents refused to give me money for either.

Palbear · 29-12-2015 12:11PM

celligraphy wrote: »

Hi guys currently reading a true life book , focusing on how for example a 10 year old would be taken out of school and made to work by lazy alcoholic parents , appentlt happened to a lot of people I knew too ,parents would stay home drink all the wages and expect the kids aged 5 and upwards to either mind the younger kids or go out and work and hand over the full wage packet at the end of the week wtf .

I just couldn't imagine how crap parents were

My childhood in Dublin 7 in 1960s and that of my friends was nothing like your book describes.

what book are you reading?

Palbear · 29-12-2015 12:12PM

sorry.
Just noticed the title Sins of the Mother.
Must look it up.

FloatingVoter · 29-12-2015 01:16PM

It happens today. But it is not widespread. I grew up in the 1970s - most of my pals didn't work until the part-time supermarket jobs started in tandem with the underage drinking / serious fag habit at about 15 / 16. Of course, farmers kids worked for free. Still do, always will.
My father was born in 1943. Him and his brothers quit school at 12 and went into apprenticeships. They were working and learning a trade at the same time. That was very common then before free education.
The book the OP is reading is about an exceptional case a la Angelas Ashes.

RobertKK · 29-12-2015 04:36PM

I was helping and working on the farm since I can remember things as a child. Born in the 70s, never taken out of school to work, but would help bringing in the cows to milk, feeding calves, sitting on a plough like device for planting potatoes with my mother and sister as my father drove the tractor and we sowed potatoes and I was probably around 5 then.
When a little older, it would be stacking square bales of hay in the field - still under 10, then sitting on top of the bales on the trailer as they were brought home, ducking to avoid branches of trees.
The most dangerous occasion as a child was in 1985 when we were bringing in the bales and the famous thunderstorms hits, there were several strikes very close, and I mean it they were closer we would have been hit, no sitting on top of the bales that day on the way home...
Then milking the quiet cows, the ones that wouldn't kick you...
When moving cattle we would have some longer walks like 2 miles with the cattle, but we were lucky that we had a great dog who did most of the work like running to the next gap to stop the cattle going to where they shouldn't be.
Then my uincle had a farm and he had no help so we would have to go over and help him as well.
I have worked all my life, but when working with your family, people you love, it is not the same as working for someone else.
I thought it was a great childhood.

Stojkovic · 29-12-2015 04:57PM

Paper round from age 7.
Working in pubs from 14.
Still went to college.

At age 8 would get bus in Dublin after school with my 5 year old brother to meet mother in Arnotts.

Teenagers nowadays can hardly dress themselves.

Stojkovic · 29-12-2015 04:57PM

Paper round from age 7.
Working in pubs from 14.
Still went to college.

At age 8 would get bus in Dublin after school with my 5 year old brother to meet mother in Arnotts.

Teenagers nowadays can hardly dress themselves.

_Brian · 29-12-2015 05:03PM

Joeytheparrot wrote: »

I doubt most kids of 5-12 were working in the 60s and 70s

They were on farms, and many 8-12 YO's (particularly lads) living on farms would still be involved in some manner of work.. Its not always suitable work but there is a history/tradition of everyone lending a hand, unfortunately it also leads to farm deaths of children..

We live on a farm but I keep my kids away from the work, 12YO has just recently taken first tractor driving lessons, by 12 I'd been driving a few years and was doing basic jobs like cleaning sheds, scraping yards and feeding cattle. My 7YO feeds and looks after chickens, she doesn't love cleaning out their house but its all part of having them.

Skatedude · 29-12-2015 05:18PM

working in the family pub from about the age of 12, washing glasses etc. then often struggling to stay awake in school the next day. was fairly normal for a family run business

diomed · 29-12-2015 05:33PM

As said above you had to pay for Secondary school. It was important to get a scholarship to pay the fees.
One of my bosses started work at 14 and got his Leaving Cert by studying while working. The company helped.
I worked in the school holidays stacking supermarket shelves, newspaper round, pumping petrol at a filling station.
Houses didn't have central heating so you cleaned out the fires and reset them every morning.
Getting a fridge was a big event. Mostly you went to the shops on your bicycle every day for meat and stuff.
Parents didn't have loads of money.

why did most kids work back in the 1970's /1960's

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