Child labour - how young is too young?

I can remember my first paid job. I was eight years old ( I am a girl by the way). I was so thrilled to have the chance to earn some money of my own as my parents were not well off enough to give us "pocket money" on a regular basis.

Quick background to this situation was
My mother was a full time cook in the UK, in a stately home where we also lived rent free but pay was surprisingly bad and hours very long. My mum worked 12 hours a day , sometimes more if there were dinner parties, seven days a week. This was back in the early 1970's. She was paid £20 per week for her 72+ hours of work. My father a regular architect - self employed but finding only occasional work. We are a family of four children so a lot of mouths to feed and school uniforms to buy!

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This is a photo of where we lived - photo courtesy of HHA.org.uk

My job I was so pleased to have was cuttings thistles out of a meadow in front of the great mansion that you can see in the photo above. The job was done with a tool which was like a hockey stick but with a curved metal blade at the bottom which cut the thistles.

The rate of pay myself and my brother were offered seemed strangely high for the time. The owners of the place offered us a huge 50p an hour - just after decimalisation came into being for the UK back in the early 70's.
I think they never thought we would last out in the hot sun for more than a few hours.

Of my own volition I worked from dawn until dusk for three days until my hands were raw and bleeding with blisters. I wrapped my damaged hands so I could work more hours - all in the name of pocket money. I knew this would add up to not only give me pocket money but buy food for the whole of my family.

If at this point some well meaning social worker or caring adult had walked into that situation to see the skin falling off my hands and my sun burned face then it could have looked to an outsider as if I were being taken advantage of.

Yet for me , beyond the physical pain I was feeling was a much greater feeling of achievement for what it would mean for me and my family.

With my earnings I bought a bunch of exotic fruit from the passing vegetable van for he was the only caller to the house and the village was some way away. Plus we bought hardly any fruit ever as it was usually an unaffordable luxury.

After the field was cut I was out of a job. They never found other paid work for me

( probably after realising I was a non stop workaholic eight yr old! lol )

so that was the extent of my earning as an eight year old but from that time on I actively sought work.

So I feel we should be aware of children's positions before completely outlawing child labour. Of course there are many being taken advantage of in terrible conditions - I would never condone such things. But a lot of children need and want to earn money around the world and should be allowed to - just in controlled and healthy environments.

Wishing you a beautiful day!