Comments by "upabittoolate" (@upabittoolate) on "MSNBC Host Challenges Bachmann" video.

You make a good point about 23 seeming excessive. That's part of it that I don't quite understand. But I (also a Chicago native) have been working since age 8 or 9. And you're correct about it bordering the realm of earning one's keep. BUT, I don't think there's anything wrong with working on the family's farm during planting season. It's been done since the dawn of time. I know that doesn't take it "right" per se but I don't mind kids working. Many kids today act entitled as it is.
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@chgosatrap I lived most of my 20s on the North Side in the West Town, Wicker Park area. My father managed a realty company in Lincoln Park. If we didn't when I was 13, I'd've probably gone to Disney then Lane Tech. I know all too well about the entitlement kids on the North side (& the West Side & in Denver where I am now). That's why I don't mind Bachmann making her kids (even her fosters) work. There's a proverb that says on the 1st day you're a guest. On the 2nd day you pick up a broom.
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@chgosatrap (cont'd) What I've seen in the comments is many people implying that she didn't send the kids to school in an effort to make more time for them to work on the farm. That doesn't make sense to me because conventional school years in WIsconsin don't overlap the season between planting & harvesting. Bachmann is insane. But I don't think she's not Miss Hannigan.
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@chgosatrap Don't get me wrong. There's so many variables & nuances that it's a gray area. Is it abusive to make the eldest child be the primary caregiver & babysitter in a family while the parents work? No. But that's a lot of work for any person let alone a kid. That's not to say that it's as physically grueling or as potentially hazardous as dragging a plow or running a combine. But hey, work is work. Right? Ultimately, DCFS is the authority but that don't make them right.
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@chgosatrap Yep. I went to the same grade school (Bryn Mawr) and had the same teacher (Mr. Martinez) as Mrs. Obama. And Black people live on the North Side now, it's just north of Wilson or near Rogers Park. Hell, The Greens were on the North Side. As for the jobs I did, they didn't require a permit but it's not like they were easy jobs. It's hard to find work at all these days.
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As I've been saying, I can't just jump on the bandwagon on this 1. I don't care for Mrs. Bachmann at all. BUT, I've no problem with a parent homeschooling their kids; not even the adopted 1s. I've no problem with foster parents putting their kids to work either. Now if it was a situation were labor was being exploited; that's different. But this sounds more like old school parenting to me. HOWEVER, I can't explain away that 23 kid thing. Then again, nobody else stepped up to care for those kids.
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So if my parents take in some foster kids & give them chores, that's child labor? I'm letting her off the hook this time.
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@fonkymaster I don't know why they didn't realize that in the 1st place. The fingerprint in his writing style is too easy to spot.
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@wtfjaftw The market doesn't regulate itself because it has no reason to. That's a ridiculous premise on your part. Also, paying taxes isn't shifted ownership. You pay to live someplace. That's how it is. It's not oxymoronic to have a range of political & socioeconomic outlooks. It's called being intelligent enough to frame your own ideas. The moron is the guy that insists on dichotomy in things like taxes without acknowledging that the initial comment was about taxing MACRO-CORPORATIONS.
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@chgosatrap Classicallady came at me all wrong. That's why I had to rip her. And I don't think anyone approves of child exploitation. I'm just saying that it's not uncommon for kids to work. It's even less uncommon that they work in the family business. Not only is it the their best interests survival-wise, it helps kids develop things like work ethic & skillsets. Therefore I don't consider it exploitation. Also, people are making up scenarios (cont'd)
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That was a pretty dumb remark but you're forgiven. What I'm saying is that I'm not so quick to call this a child labor violation. In my own experience, we kids worked around the house. I always worked on the cars, the yards & the house my pa. I always did chores in the house with my ma. At the height of the business, my father's family had 5 grocery stores. Guess who manned the mops & pricetag guns on weekends & after school? The kids did. Read my ENTIRE comment before saying dumb shit.
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@chgosatrap Yep. I delivered the Defender, caddied at South Shire Country Club, mowed lawns, delivered groceries, worked at the family stores & restaurants, bussed tables at the neighborhood steakhouse & fried Chicken at Popeye's all before I was 16. I remember getting a permit so I could work at a pizza parlor. I'm not the world's greatest man but I know the value of work. Kids today don't. And if Bachmann truly cared for those kids as her own, you better believe she instilled that value.
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@FloridaLiberal (cont II) I'm saying all that to say that I can't say she turned her kids into slaves. For 1, farming season in MN ain't all year 'round so we can't say she took them out of school to work the fields. For 2, the kids were working for the family business. ie, their survival depended on how well the crops did. It's pressure to put on a kid. Sure. But many kids have worked many farms for many centuries with that same pressure. Them being foster kids seems incidental to me.
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@justonefirefly1 Maybe but...
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@FloridaLiberal If the quality of the kids' education was bad, I'm concerned too. But I don't object to kids learning the value of hard work. My father was a sharecropper who had 9 brothers & sisters. I wasn't forced to work on any farms but I did during some summers because it was something I wanted to understand about my old man. As a teenager. I did various jobs at home because I was a member of a family. I helped build fences & lay sod for a family friend too... after having caddying. (cont)
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