hindsight is always 20-20. what seems too young, too small, or otherwise just plain irresponsible might not have been looked at under the same light 10, 20, 30, or 40 years ago. years ago on a farm everyone did what they had to (including small children) in order to get by. look at your parents - i doubt they ever made you do anything where they thought you could get hurt, but i can guarantee that the standards are different today. it is so much easier to be aware of dangers now because we've had that many more years to learn from, and mass media to spread word of dangers that might not have been thought of before.
think about bicycle helmets. they are required by law here until age 16. a few years back, even before they were law, if you let your child out on a bicycle without one, you would have been branded an unfit parent. go back in time a few more years and the only people you would see with helmets on were the hardcore amateur/professional riders. parents didn't even consider having their children wear bicycle helmets 20 or 30 years ago.
i remember hauling logs for firewood with my family back when i was a child in the late 70's. i don't remember my exact age, but i am certain i was under the age of 10 - somewhere between 7 and 9 i think. they put me on the tractor - an old narrow front end john deere - and had me dragging the logs out of the woods so they could later be cut for firewood. the tractor had no bucket for weight, and with the logs on the 3ph, the front of the tractor had a tendency to bob up and down. i was so small i had to stand to use the clutch. i remember having to pull against the steering wheel to have the strength to press the clutch pedal. i know my family wasn't deliberately negligent in having me do this - it was just the way things were done then. in fact, they were really making the safe choice - the work to be done that way was dropping trees, limbing trees, and hauling them out. any of the other tasks would have involved giving a 7 year old a chain saw.
