should chores b considered as child labor?

Question

for debate my class has on monday=] im for it, but i'd love to hear both sides (non-biased answers preferable)

Answer 1

"Child labor" is, generally speaking, work for children that harms them or exploits them in some way (physically, mentally, morally, or by blocking access to education).

BUT: There is no universally accepted definition of "child labor". Varying definitions of the term are used by international organizations, non-governmental organizations, trade unions and other interest groups. Writers and speakers don’t always specify what definition they are using, and that often leads to confusion.

Not all work is bad for children. Some social scientists point out that some kinds of work may be completely unobjectionable — except for one thing about the work that makes it exploitative. For instance, a child who delivers newspapers before school might actually benefit from learning how to work, gaining responsibility, and earn a bit of money. But what if the child is not paid? Then he or she is being exploited. As Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report puts it, "Children’s work needs to be seen as happening along a continuum, with destructive or exploitative work at one end and beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest - at the other. And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development." Other social scientists have slightly different ways of drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable work.
Source: http://www.childlaborphotoproject.org/childlabor.html

It is first necessary to clarify what is not meant by the term child labour. Children's or adolescents' participation in work that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as being something positive. This includes activities such as helping their parents care for the home and the family, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays. It contributes to children's development and to the welfare of their families; it provides them with skills, attitudes and experience, and helps to prepare them to be useful and productive members of society during their adult life.

In no way can such activities be equated with child labour. Child labour refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling:
by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;
by obliging them to leave school prematurely; or
by requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
In its most extreme forms, it involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities - all of this often at a very early age.

Child labour is work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

But it is difficult to give a precise dictionary definition of the term "child labour" applicable to all situations and all countries. How can a line be drawn between "acceptable" forms of work by children on the one hand and child labour on the other?

Whether or not particular forms of work can be called child labour depends on the child's age, the types of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors within countries.
Source: http://www.ilo.ru/ecl/def.htm

Child labour is defined as any work that is damaging to a child's physical, social, mental, psychological and spiritual development. It comprises full time work by children at too early any age. Children in exploitative child labour conditions spend too many hours working with inadequate pay and too much responsibility. It is work that hinders a child's access to schooling and undermines that child's dignity and self-respect.

Child labour has to be distinguished from "child work" that children do around the house, domestic errands, assisting the family with household duties. These are considered to be normal and as a prerequisite for the child's socialization.
Source: http://www.labour.go.ke/child_labour.php

Answer 2

It is NOT a child labor because a child is not an employee of a parent. Instead, chores are part of the responsibility as a part of family member.

Being a family is not only give or only take matter. Every member works to make the family function. As such, any capable person should contribute his talent and energy. If you are capable of taking out the trash, do it. If you are capable of mowing the yard, do it. This is all while, your parents work and take care of things that you as a child cannot do.

By the way, you will need to learn how to take care of your family matter and many of the things your parents do around the house, JUST IN CASE you grow up to be an adult and have your own family.... How else you'd learn all that.... you know?

You'll actually appreciate your parents for MAKING YOU do all that "stuff" when you get there. Trust me on this.

Answer 3

No chores are not child labour, chores teach children responsibility and chores help the family work as a unit. Why should one person have to be responsible for most of the upkeep and day to day routines of a household, when they can do it as a team?

When every member contributes to daily chores they take less time and everyone has more free time to do what they want. Working together would also bring a family closer since they are working together for a single goal.

Answer 4

I don't think so. Chores teaches children how to be responsible and take care of themselves.
Chores will benefit them in the long run.
However, abusing the time of the child can be considered child labor or abuse.
There are parents who leave all the responsibilities of the home for the child while they are comfortably doing nothing.
Chores also brings about maturity, in that, the child feels responsible which makes them feel like they are valued and their self worth is recognized.

Answer 5

My answer is no, I don't believe they should be. To me, chores fall into another category altogether, the process of growing up. Chores are typically short-term (seldom lasting more than an hour at any given chore: washing dishes, cutting the lawn, walking the dog, vaccuming the house, whatever) and are not necessarily daily though they often are. The point is that they are not so much to profited from in the typical manner (financially) but more are a character building exercise.
Chores teach a child that there are many and varied 'small' things that need to be done simply for a life and the family involved in that life to function. They teach the child that there are certain necessities (want to own a pet, learn to walk it and/or clean after it depending on species; want to eat extravagantly, you have to wash lots of dishes afterward because of the many different ingredients, etc) that have to be taken care of and prepare the child to be on their own where, as the saying goes 'Your momma ain't here to clean after you anymore'.

Answer 6

Depends on the chores. Cleaning your room and doing dishes or taking out the garbage once in awhile should NOT be considered child Labor. I think that teaches a person responsibilities.

I would never make my kids do dishes everyday, I am the mother and the one who had them so I should take care of them. However showing them how to do them and asking them to pitch in once in awhile is another thing. I do believe children should clean their own mess though ie picking up their things that they play with or use.

It makes my skin crawl when most farmers make their children milk cows or feed animals. That's their job not their children's.

Answer 7

It depends on the chores. Families need to work together to survive, but if the jobs a child is asked to do can put them at risk there's something wrong.

Good luck on getting non-biased answers; how children should be treated seems to be one of the most subjective arguments on the planet.

Answer 8

Winning a prize isn't the same as having a job. (And children ARE actually allowed to work in the entertainment industry -- where do you think all those cute and obnoxious child actors come from?) Unless it's interfering with the child's schooling, it's not an issue. (Whether it's emotionally healthy or damaging is another matter ... but that wasn't your initial question.)

Answer 9

No, chores should not be considered as child labor. Chores help children get ready for their own resposability. It also helps them to grow and learn in diffrent ways. Childen have to learn to do things on their own sometimes. Parents are not always going to be there. It aslo helps them to be neat and have structure. For all parents that give their children chores they should continue because it will benefit them later on in life.

Answer 10

no-kids need to learn that there is more to life than having your parents work so you get stuff. they need to learn the value of hard work. or else they will be just like every other lazy-butt kid out there today (myself included). i wish my parents had taught me how to work and not just complain all the time. then it would be easier to get a job