Hello everyone!  Welcome to my assignment blog!  This blog site is dedicated to child and youth studies and will be focused on children, youth and society.   

Due to poverty, families in various parts of the world are desperate for money.  To survive, these families sometimes need to make the tough choice of selling their children to a person with wealth in order to sustain the rest of the family.  Not only does this typically gives the sold child better living conditions, but it also helps support the rest of the family by the child’s income or initial purchase rate.  Although a necessity for some, this is an issue that has been around for years.  The unfortunate truth is that this form of trade also takes something very important away from the child; A proper childhood.  Yet, some children don’t know the difference.  The term childhood is not contingent on time space and place, meaning that any place can have a different view of childhood. As mentioned by my professor, there is  no universal term for childhood, and therefore, this idea of a “universal child” cannot always be obtained. 

For those of you who are unaware, the show M*A*S*H was very popular show from 1972-1983.  In season 1, episode 5, an episode arose called “The Moose”.  In this episode, a young girl by the name of Young-Hi was bought from her family to serve as a “Moose” (or servant) by a man called Baker.  Outraged, the character Hawkeye goes to enormous lengths to free her from servitude.  Once freed, or in the case bought off of Baker, the original ‘owner’.  Young-Hi did not understand that she was free to return to her family.  Because she was so young (Age not known) when she entered this work force, she did not understand that Hawkeye’s buying her from Baker meant she was free.  In the end, when Hawkeye and friends tried to reunite Young-Hi with her family, all they wanted to do was sell her to the next buyer.

This is a very good example of Child Work as it also connects to the idea of street children.  These children are forced to grow up much faster than they should since they have no other choice.  In young-Hi’s case, she has adjusted to life as a Moose.  Children on the streets spend a significant amount of time meeting economic needs.  For Young-Hi, she must work and follow her master’s every wish since he owns her.  In order to meet those economic needs, Young-Hi must do what baker says since she is his property.  Furthermore, Catherine Panter-Brick’s study on Nepali boys, showed that homeless children fared marginally better than village children.  Since Young-hi was owned by Baker, she was guaranteed a shelter, food and clothing.  This yet another form of economic means since she was given these luxuries which the rest of her family may not have.  Although not homeless by definition, she was taken away from her home to serve a stranger.  This has the capacity to develop a similar sense of homelessness and as a result, a need for survival via obedience.