Government Meddling In Family Farms
Hunter Lewis writes at Against Crony Capitalism:

The Labor Department decided that children growing up on a family farm could only work there if wholly owned or operated by their parents ( no LLC's and family partnerships and the like). The Department has decided to reconsider this (see recent article in Washington Times weekly, 2/6/12, P 18), but clearly intends to narrow the "parental exemption." So even children doing farm chores is to be regulated by Washington. Based on how most of this is going, it wouldn't be surprising if you will be able to get an exemption by hiring a federally approved "consultant" to help you define the chores.

True confessions: I would have liked if somebody had passed a law when I was a kid that we weren't allowed to vacuum, dust, unload the dishwasher (what a rough life!), weed the garden or mow the lawn.

Andrea Billups writes in the Wash Times piece linked above about the Labor Department rules:

The change sparked outrage last fall, particularly across the Midwest, where such summer jobs as corn-detasseling, where teens hand-strip the tops off of stalks to help cross-pollinate future crops, has long been seen as a way for teens to make some spending money and to forge a strong work ethic.

...Mr. Schlegel said the backlash against the initial proposal was significant from farm families across the nation, many of whom were protecting a way of life.

"There was a great deal of anxiety and concern when these changes were first announced," he said. "The way they were narrowing their interpretation of the law to the point that ... there was a real question of whether any children could grow up working on the family farm. In a lot of ways, it was going to be a real challenge for people to handle the values they wanted to instill in their children."

The Labor Department said in a statement that revisions to the child labor laws will be published for public comment by early summer. It had said that it was updating its regulations based on studies that had shown youth were more likely to be killed doing agriculture jobs than work in all other industries combined.

Two Illinois girls, Hannah Kendall and Jade Garza, both 14, were detasseling corn last summer when they were electrocuted after they stepped into a puddle apparently charged from a nearby irrigation system, sparking safety concerns. A federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation into their deaths concluded last week without issuing citations to R&J Enterprises of Illinois Inc., which was a subcontractor for Monsanto.

The new rules would ban power-driven equipment use by children younger than 16 as well as keep those younger than 18 from work in stockyards, grain bins and feed lots.

More than 30 lawmakers from farm states had called on the department to rescind the rules, warning they would have a negative impact on rural employers and interfere with parents' ability to train the next generation of farmers.

Because there's an accident that happens (which probably could have happened to an adult working there) doesn't mean "there ought to be a law."