I never much inquired into an official stance anyone else had on these things.
My thoughts are this:
Childhood is training for adulthood, period, end of story. Simon and Andrew, James and John, were likely all young men, peers of the Lord in terms of age, and certainly in terms of demographics and geography. These guys pulled seine nets that weighed hundreds of pounds when empty, possibly upwards of a ton, when full of fished, and they did so, through water.
These guys could have started their own rugby team and been the hardest hitting of any team to take the field, if the sport had existed back then.
But instead, they were all of them following in their father's footsteps, learning to sail and fish and repair nets and cast them from shore and from boat, and how to filet and barter, and judge weather, and defend themselves against bandits, and who knows what else.
And they were likely doing this from the time they were 10 or 12. They had no time for frivolity. They were learning to become adults, that time in life in which you spend the vast majority of your time in life.
I want my kids to have fun and enjoy life and learn certain skills and themes. But most of all, I want them to be successful, God-fearing, Christ obeying adults. And that takes a lot of work, and my wife and I don't have a lot of time to invest in doing much else but making sure we raise them right, so my daughter will be ready to marry when she decides to do so. And when I say ready, I don't mean head over heels in love ready to consummate that love. I mean, she knows how to cook, clean, do the laundry, sew, host guests, keep the home, mind children, change diapers, balance a checkbook, teach the Word by teaching her siblings, so she is prepared when she has her own children.
The same for our sons. They need to know how to work. They need to know how to build, and persevere and deal with harsh conditions and fix things around the house, how to go about spending money in a wise and Godly way, how to lead and have confidence and know true north so they can lead others to Jesus, how to love and be honest and be best friends, and lay down their lives for the Lord and for their families. How to study the Word and receive revelation and know the voice of their Master for themselves.
To quote unpopular Paul Washer:
If your dad is still paying your car insurance, you're a boy, not a man. If you're saving up for an XBOX instead of for a down payment on a house, you're still a child, not an adult.
I might add to that and say, "If you're out learning how to play football instead of learning how to write a resume, you're but a boy, not a man...and you're never going to become a man, no matter how old you are, until you learn to put away childish things."
I recommend everyone read
Do Hard Things: A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations by Alex and Brett Harris.
https://www.amazon.com/Do-Hard-Thing.../dp/1601428294
Find a way to better understand what the Lord wants from us as parents during the transitional phase between childhood and adulthood.
The word teenager didn't exist 200 years ago, brothers and sisters.
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