By Armchair Mayor

Are we too easy, or too tough on our young?

May 26, 2018 | 5:00 AM

“AT THE AGE OF NINE I had to do the work of a teenager, working with four horses hitched to a set of harrows walking behind barefooted. Boots couldn’t be worn because they would fill up with dirt, the result would be very sore feet. Of course during the summer we walked barefoot even to school. However, I don’t recall this unpleasant or a hardship. I cried many a tear at that age trying to control and direct the horses in the right direction. However, with time and patience, I learned to get the job done.”

— Ben Rothenburger

My Dad wrote those words not long before he died in 1992. The time he wrote about, the summer when he was nine, was 99 years ago.

I think often of my father, especially when I see stories about how tough our young people have it these days, or when I hear a debate about whether or not we should give them more responsibility.

I’d like to see an average Canadian kid today walking barefoot behind a four-horse team breaking up clods to plant a crop.

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There’s talk of giving 16-year-olds the vote, and I think they’d handle it fine, but if we give them one adult responsibility, what about the rest of it?

A couple of stories from down south in crazy land brought this to my attention, and maybe yours, this week.

We’ve all heard tales, probably from each other, about 20- and 30-year-olds still living with their parents but usually it’s consensual.

Thirty-year-old Michael Rotondo has been ordered by a New York judge to move out of his parents’ house. His parents weren’t asking him to plow the back 40 in his bare feet, just to go get a job and take his broken-down Volkswagen with him. They even offered him money, but no dice until the judge came into the picture.

Rotondo, who’s been living in his parents’ house rent-free for eight years, reportedly intends to appeal the ruling.

Then there’s the 15-year-old who started a huge wildfire in Oregon. He was ordered Monday to pay $36.6 million to cover damages.

The kid admitted to starting the wildfire that consumed more than 48,000 acres.

His attorney calls the fine “cruel and unusual punishment” but the judge says it matches the offence, as it covers losses to various properties, a railroad, insurance, a state park and firefighting costs.

If he can’t pay the fine in a lump sum, he’ll be allowed to do it in installments.

I’m betting we haven’t heard the last of that one.

In Canada, the Youth Criminal Justice Act takes age into account when punishment is meted out for breaking the law. Before 2003 it was called the Young Offenders Act and before that the Juvenile Delinquents Act, which goes back to 1908.

Over the years, we’ve wrestled with what to do with kids who do bad things. The current law is supposed to protect the public but also consider the age of the accused — that is, kids shouldn’t be treated the same as adults because they aren’t mature and therefore can’t be as accountable.

It provides for all kinds of “extrajudicial measures” like warnings, cautions, reprimands and referrals.

That’s not to say kids can get away with murder. In those cases, a 16- or 17-year-old is usually bumped up to adult court, where he or she is subject to adult punishment.

Partly because of social enlightenment, partly because of economic and educational advancements, our expectations of young people are different now than when my father was working on the family farm.

But do we expect too much, or too little? Or, like Goldilocks, have we got it just right? Do we under-estimate them, or over-estimate them?

Did you see the story last week about the Australian child “expert” who thinks parents should ask permission from their babies before changing a diaper? Fortunately, the idea hasn’t taken hold.

No question, young people are under a lot of pressure. School, social media, struggling with hormones and popularity, the expectations of parents.

Michael Rotondo, though, doesn’t have it tough. Neither did I. My father had it tough.

My answer to my own question is, no, we haven’t figured it out yet. But my dad’s experience suggests kids are capable of “getting the job done” when necessary.