Raising Kids on a Homestead!!! Benefits that we have found.

@thefarmerswife and I were talking last night about our kids and the childhood they are able to have here on the homestead/farm. I might be a little biased but I think we are giving our children an amazing childhood full of experiences that many young people will never have. After talking with my wife, we came up with three things that our kids will benefit from by our choice to raise them out in the country.

Number 1: They are learning what work is. Our children work! I know in today’s society that might sound extremely harsh. No, our kids do not work 8 hours a day. We are not by any means slave drivers. But our kids do know how to work and there are times that as a family we all have to chip in and work extremely hard. I think a work ethic is something that many young people are missing. When I was growing up my family ran a goose hatchery in the spring and summer time. From age 8, I learned how to work and work hard. I have so many good memories of our hatchery and it taught me so many valuable life lessons. I think learning what work is at a young age will be a huge advantage to any child.

Number 2: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, expect death and taxes”. Benjamin Franklin. This is one of my favorite quotes. We won’t be talking about taxes here. That is the subject for another post. Death though is a part of life. There is no getting around it. Here on the farm our children get to experience death. They learn that death is hard and can be very difficult but it is a part of life. More than just learning that things die, I hope we are teaching them that life is precious and that we need to be living it to our fullest because in the end we all will die. That sounds so harsh and dark but it is true and on the homestead/farm we come across death sometimes much more than we want to but when you forget to lock the chickens in the coop at night the owls and foxes will eat them. A lesson my oldest son has learned on more than one occasion. My hope though is from those hard lessons on life and death my children will come to an appreciation for this wonderful gift of life we all have been blessed with and live their lives to the fullest.

Number 3: How to manage money. At 9 years old my oldest son knows how to run a small business. His business is selling chicken eggs. He has learned that in order to have eggs to sell you must first keep an inventory of laying hens, which cost money to buy. He has learned he must keep a steady supply of chickens growing because chicken do get old and stop laying and he does forget to lock the chickens in the coop at night and sometimes they get eaten. He has also learned that chickens eat a lot of food, which costs money. If he wants his little brother to help him with the chickens then he has to pay him. All these expenses of having chickens has to be paid out of the egg money earned. He has learned that just because someone gives him $3 for a dozen eggs, that it is not all profit. It is learning how a business works and about expenses and profits that I believe my 9 year old son will benefit from in the future. Even though it is a very small business, he is still learning from his mistakes which I hope will enable him to be more successful in the future.

Those are the things that I was pondering with my wife last night. By no means am I saying that you have to be a homesteader or a farmer to teach you kids these three life lessons. I think you can teach them these things no matter if you live in a city, subdivision, or out in the country. This farmer just feels that these three things that my wife and I are intentionally teaching our children are very important. I hope this gets you all thinking about the important things each and every one of us are teaching children, whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle or just a family friend we all are responsible to teach the children around us life lessons that will enable them to be productive members of our society