It is not a thing I ever read as expected in the Bible. I think it probably is a holdover from the farming culture. I know my great grandparents (ggps) raised sixteen children who all worked on the farm. But, my ggps worked with the fields with their children. I also know from my Gran's stories, that they never expected their young children to do an adult's level of work. The ggps employed local adults to work fields.

They gave them small jobs to the children (including the workers' children) to keep them busy while also helping the farming. For example, Gran said the young kids tied the tobacco bundles picked by my ggps and the adults. The teenagers hauled the carts full of bundles to the curing barns and hung them.

That was also only in the summer and at harvest. During the school year, the children's jobs were schoolwork first. They had what Gran called "light" chores after all their schoolwork was done. There was no school at harvest.

The women she said that to were unimpressed. My Gran was hopping mad when I told her about that too. I never had the sense that it was what other parents do.