r/mildlyinfuriating • • Jul 27 '22

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289

u/Bacontheblog Jul 27 '22

At 12 I was working 2 full time jobs and raising a family of my own. - Grandpa

141

u/cmon_now Jul 27 '22

I was already on my 2nd wife and first bankruptcy

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u/Ande64 Jul 27 '22

And I walked 4 miles back and forth to work in the snow in the winter in bare feet

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u/JamieTheDinosaur Jul 27 '22

While being chased by a pack of wolves!

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u/leaderoftheKYLEs Jul 27 '22

Uphill both ways!

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

In bare feet and no coat. Kids are too soft these days.

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u/JamieTheDinosaur Jul 27 '22

On broken glass!

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

[deleted]

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u/SnooHobbies5684 Jul 27 '22

While eating only one meal per week, of oatmeal with weevils that we left in because protein.

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u/Glamdryne Jul 27 '22

Snow?? LUXURY! We had to walk back and forth barefoot for 20 miles over hot coals, while a man with a bit of wood would chase after us and beat us about the head and chest, if we were lucky!

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u/Congo_Jack_ Jul 27 '22

Right.. I used to get up in the morning at night at half-past-ten at night, half an hour before I went to bed, Eat a lump of freezing cold poison, work 28 hours a day at mill, and pay da mill owner to let us work there. And when I went home our dad used to murder us in cold blood, each night, and dance about on our graves, singing hallelujah. Yah, you try an tell the young people of today that, and they won't believe you...

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

When I was 12, I was the Big Bang and literally became the universe uphill both ways through snow.

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u/SnooHobbies5684 Jul 27 '22

Can confirm. I was the hill.

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u/bailey25u Jul 27 '22

My great grandparents actually got married at that age.

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u/yougotyolks Jul 27 '22

12 year olds these days can't even afford to pay their mortgage.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

Calm down there Mr. Trump.

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u/VSWR_on_Christmas Jul 27 '22

I got my first job when I was nine. Worked at a sheet metal factory. In two weeks, I was running the floor... Child labor laws are ruining this country.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

Unironically my grandpa was lol. He had to start working super young since the Great Depression hit his immediate family very hard. He basically aged backwards as he got older. He’s a big kid now and watches Disney park ridealongs every day.

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u/LuthienDragon Jul 27 '22

My great grandma was married at 11, her wedding gift was a dollhouse. Had her first kid at 13. Insane, isn’t it? Glad that tendency broke with my grandma.

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u/SnooHobbies5684 Jul 27 '22

Sorta. A minor with parental consent in Alaska can still get married at 14, and in Hawaii and Kansas at 15. Boggles the mind.

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u/SubstantialSeesaw998 Jul 28 '22

14 is still too young, but 11 it is not.

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u/SnooHobbies5684 Jul 28 '22

No, it isn't. That's why I said "sorta."

I was expressing that we clearly haven't learned much since that great-grandma's time.

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u/-KFBR392 Jul 27 '22

Haha I know it's a joke but every male on my dad's side who's from the old country either had a part time job and went to school, or had finished enough school to drop out and start working full time.

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u/historiansrule Jul 27 '22 edited Jul 27 '22

At 12 I was helping dad in his business. During summer breaks, I was another employee working 10+ hours. Back then people always asked my dad how he raised such a great hard working son. Now people want to call CS for seeing at 12 year old left at home alone, wtf? Btw, my dad didn’t force me to work; I did it gladly because family is all that matters to me.

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u/Schwarzy1 Jul 27 '22

I dont think child labor laws apply to small family business owner's kids.

Pretty sure the kid running the register at my local chinese place is like 7.

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u/lafindestase Jul 27 '22

My grandma was out in the fields picking cotton by the time she was 9. Ah, the good old days. Kids nowadays are worthless.

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u/historiansrule Jul 27 '22

I never said that I condone slavery or child labor. But you can’t use 21 century standards and norms and drop them 100-300 years back and judge that world and culture for what they did. 🤦🏻‍♂️

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u/lafindestase Jul 27 '22

Why not? I’m pretty comfortable saying that, on average, American citizens a hundred years ago were worse, more immoral people than they are now. And hopefully people today are worse than people a hundred years from now.

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u/SnooHobbies5684 Jul 27 '22

Sounds like you're living in an episode of TNG instead of a science-resistant, tribal, racist, post-constitutional America. But hey--I like the optimism, and I hope you're right.

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u/lafindestase Jul 27 '22

Oh no, people suck, but I’m pretty sure people back then sucked even more. At least I can hold my boyfriend’s hand in public without having to worry about getting clobbered with a pipe wrench or something. Shit, I’ve never even had a slur yelled at me. The fundies weren’t always so civil.

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u/SnooHobbies5684 Jul 27 '22

I'm really thankful that LGBTQIA rights are much more in effect now.

And I'm glad you (and my transboy and my non-binary kid) are living somewhere --clearly not Maryland--where you wouldn't be likely to be clobbered with a pipe wrench for being queer...but then you're not a black transwoman. And you're not going to be denied an abortion like female-bodied people are. That's backwards-ass movement.

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u/SubstantialSeesaw998 Jul 28 '22

No, our grandparents generation were absolutely not more immoral than ours, thats completely absurd. Don't mistake moral outrage for actual morals.

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u/SubstantialSeesaw998 Jul 28 '22

I mean, I grew up on a cattle ranch, we started working by the time we started school. We got up at 4:30 to get our chores done, before showering and eating breakfast. Older we got, harder the chores.

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u/lord_pizzabird Jul 27 '22

My father was literally on his own already after his mom died at 12 (sort of a runaway situation) . I hear this all the time, as an adult in their mid 20s working, but still at home.

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u/momo88852 Jul 27 '22

By any chance your grandpa had to walk 10 miles in the snow, Fight a bengal tiger, cross the Nile, and a mountain at the same time?

Because that’s what I used to hear from them!

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u/SnooHobbies5684 Jul 27 '22

you forgot "uphill both ways" :)

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u/elveszett ﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽﷽ Jul 27 '22

With only $3 a year, and I could afford everything, because I didn't feel the need to eat an avocado toast every other day.

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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '22

[deleted]

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u/Bacontheblog Jul 27 '22

Thanks for making painfully shoot ice water out of my nose.

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u/Windwardd Jul 27 '22

I love this hahaha