A dad shamed his 'stroppy' kids who whinged about washing up into doing the household chore - by sticking up a child labour poster highlighting the kids' harrowing plight. James Richards was sick of cleaning up after his two eldest kids, Ryan Richards, eight, and 10-year-old Isabella Richards, and dealing with their complaints when asked to help.
So when the dad-of-three spotted a snap on Facebook of glum-looking oyster shuckers who regularly worked 12 hours each day, inspiration struck. The haunting picture, part of sociologist Lewis Hine's investigation into the living conditions of children for the US's National Child Labor Committee, shows three bleary-eyed children with dirty overalls and messy hair staring sadly into the camera.
The kids were just three of thousands of children sent out to work from a young age wielding sharp knives to shuck, or open, oyster shells from around 3.30am until 5pm six days a week. The 43-year-old printed the harrowing image off and stuck it to his kitchen wall along with a hand-written note explaining how child labourers used to 'get up at 4am, six days per week' to work.
