Viewpoints
Opinion

Farm Chores, Family, and the Backlash Against Work

This isn’t exploitation; it’s education. It teaches resilience, resourcefulness, and responsibility in ways no worksheet ever could.
Farm Chores, Family, and the Backlash Against Work
A tractor with a field cultivator at the Orange County Farm Toy Show in Middletown, N.Y., on Nov. 21, 2015. Holly Kellum/The Epoch Times
Mollie Engelhart
|Updated:
0:00
Commentary

The other day, I reposted a video of my husband working alongside our children. In it, my 8-year-old daughter was driving a Caterpillar 416 while my 10-year-old son maneuvered a John Deere Skid Steer, augering holes for a new greenhouse. To me, it was an ordinary moment of family life on the farm. To the internet, apparently, it was shocking.

Mollie Engelhart
Mollie Engelhart
Author
Mollie Engelhart, regenerative farmer and rancher at Sovereignty Ranch, is committed to food sovereignty, soil regeneration, and educating on homesteading and self-sufficiency. She is the author of “Debunked by Nature”: Debunk Everything You Thought You Knew About Food, Farming, and Freedom — a raw, riveting account of her journey from vegan chef and LA restaurateur to hands-in-the-dirt farmer, and how nature shattered her cultural programming.