Get your child involved in farm life as early as possible, mum tells seminar
Tuesday March 17 2009
How young is too young to encourage your child into farming?
One mother insists that there's always some job around the farm that even the smallest toddler can complete.
Sharon Clarke was speaking at a seminar entitled 'Encouraging Young People into Farming' at the Lismullin Centre in Co Meath. She had some practical advice for delegates on the conference theme and on everyday family life.
The mother of eight from Kells, Co Meath, stressed the importance of involving children in all aspects of life on the farm, health and safety permitting, and giving them full membership of the most important committee of all -- the family.
"It gives children great discipline to be in charge of something," she said.
"If your child wants a pig, buy two of them and let them at it. But you have to say, 'these are yours, they need to be fed every day and cleaned out two or three times a week. If you're going to football training, you have to arrange for someone else to feed the pigs."
Mrs Clarke said if children are expected to do something, they rarely disappoint.
"If it's not up to your standards or specifications, it doesn't matter, you can always fix it later," she said.
The full-time mother also had some good advice for a man who wondered how to involve non-rural people who had moved to the area. As chairman of a local committee, he said the onus was on him to welcome new families to the village but he was at a loss as to how to go about this.
"The key there is mothers and toddlers," Mrs Clarke advised. "Mothers tend to make friends quicker than dads do and a 'mothers and toddlers' group is a terrific idea. Let them know what else is going on."
- Majella O'Sullivan
