Fern helps her mum sell food in Krabi. She also speaks four languages fluently.

[metisdead]

Some more troll posts and the replies have been removed. 

[AdamTheFarang]

3 hours ago, AdamTheFarang said:

As Westerners we take school for granted but if that meant she would starve what is the better option? You have no idea how rich or poor the mother is so do not judge.

In addition The Thaiger article says "She helps me sell food after school and during weekend. She also makes sure she always does her homework.”

[Ron19]

Flame post removed.

[mok199]

cute story...but I really miss the ''honest taxi driver ''...

[AsiaHand]

11 hours ago, Get Real said:

Yep, today we disguise child labour with the nice phrase of helping her mother that is a beach vendor. That is probably what you have to do as a country that have signed UNCEF and OHCHR and all the conventions related to that.

In this country "Free School" is not FREE as the schools are set up to get as much out of the parents as possible...Many times the families that are poor with no government help just can not afford to send their children to school.

[GTgrizzly]

10 hours ago, secondfusilier said:

 

Obviously you are not from the UK or USA, as their child labour laws do not permit children to be exploited at such an early age.

Maybe now

but not when most of us were kids 

[gk10002000]

12 hours ago, manicmike68 said:

It seems as if many people here have not read the article and are just assuming things. It clearly says that she does go to school. She is in kindergarten and she helps her mom after school is finished. Please don't jump to conclusions about this child and her mother.

I hope it is all innocent and not exploitive.  Many people forget what just a generation or two ago how many people lived when countries were less developed.  In the USA when it was more rural, kids did chores all the time.  Spread some Hay for the cows, feed the chickens, get a few pitchers of water from the well, etc.  Now this one here sounds like she is probably working too much, but can't really tell from the article.

[metisdead]

Some more troll posts have been removed.  If the trolling continues, suspensions will be issued.

[NonthaburiBear]

14 hours ago, LennyW said:

Child exploitation alive and well!!

Some people think thats cute, i think it's vile!!!

No, dont paint all people with same brushes.Most parents in Asia teach their child to survive in this world. Most Thai women when they grow up do several jobs to fill their needs..what do you expect , a born child with silver spoon in a 3rd world country ?

[jimreindeer]

Thais often take care of children better than Westerners. And kids from their parents. This is not a Western culture. You have to understand it.

[Mace648]

20 hours ago, OmarZaid said:

hmmmm ... I began work as a paper boy at age 7 .... been working ever since .... even in retirement never once felt exploited ...

I began working at about age 8 weeding gardens, mowing lawns, selling flower seeds and magazine subscriptions and I never felt exploited either, in fact, I feel very fortunate that I learned the meaning of work and the value of money by doing this on my own as a child and that work ethic served me well during my working years.

[OmarZaid]

3 hours ago, Mace648 said:

I began working at about age 8 weeding gardens, mowing lawns, selling flower seeds and magazine subscriptions and I never felt exploited either, in fact, I feel very fortunate that I learned the meaning of work and the value of money by doing this on my own as a child and that work ethic served me well during my working years.

Amen !

[shillhater]

On 8/16/2018 at 8:35 AM, secondfusilier said:

 

Obviously you are not from the UK or USA, as their child labour laws do not permit children to be exploited at such an early age.

PMSL..in the 60s and 70s lots of kids in the UK had weekend work or a early morning daily paper round during the week...after the mid 70s i can not say by then i had left school and went to sea..i was 16.

[user564545]

11 minutes ago, shillhater said:

PMSL..in the 60s and 70s lots of kids in the UK had weekend work or a early morning daily paper round during the week...after the mid 70s i can not say by then i had left school and went to sea..i was 16.

Yes I understand this, in my teens I had a paper round but it was not allowed for a child as young as 7 years old.

[NonthaburiBear]

theres nothing wrong working while you were  young.. Ray Kroc avoid schools and start become salesman, Warren Buffet do the same thing. If you didnt do that either youre lazy or a spoiled brat..5555

as you're green ,you're growing  ..as soon you start to ripe you start to rot.. theres a term in Thai called Su Su  สู้สู้ which mean keep on fighting

[Happy Grumpy]

Holy cr@p that's really amazing! 

 

Almost unbelievable.

 

 

On 8/15/2018 at 8:28 PM, snoop1130 said:

providing the correct change

 

On second thoughts, I simply don't believe it. 

 

 

[Just Weird]

On ‎8‎/‎16‎/‎2018 at 7:06 AM, ToddinChonburi said:

She should be in school now. What a BS  story.

If you want to talk about BS, you should read the link first. 

[dddave]

I also had a paper route when I was 10 to 14, this was in the late 50s.

Sometime in the 70's, a nationwide study was done by some muckraker that showed how many kids on paper routes were injured or killed in accidents while on their routes.  The number was surprisingly high.  You didn't read about it in most newspapers because they didn't want it to get out that they had been lobbying for years to exempt themselves from child labor laws.  TV news stations were only too happy to run the story because they were competing for advertising dollars.  Political pressure came to bear and soon states were passing restrictive laws and paper routes went from kids on bikes to guys with station wagons and vans.

Probably for the better.  In this day, druggies would probably be regularly mugging the kids for their route money.

[WonnabeBiker]

Am always trying to respond open & friendly to children who want to communicate. This morning though, a boy in a gifted P5 Science class, only spoke Thai. What a shame. Us teachers can do better.

 

Have some P1 or Kindergarten kids who speak amazing English in their quiet voices. There is hope. and parents do recognize the need for early learning...