Childhood since the Nineteenth Century - Essay Example

?Review of the history of childhood since the nineteenth century: It was in the eighteenth century when it was largely felt, that in order for parents to love their children truly, they needed to cultivate romantic love between themselves first. This was actually practiced in the 1750s, when the trend to prearrange marriage declined because of many economic concerns. Because of that, parents adopted an increasingly careful attitude apropos their children. The upsurge of capitalism encouraged free choice in the selection of partner for marriage. The industrial revolution also played a significant role in dwelling romantic love as individuals moved out of their family businesses to find work in the developing towns and cities. Their shift from villages to cities made them financially independent and their verisimilitude of developing nuclear family increased manifolds. Their individualism supported such a family system that would have them and their children alone. Having such short families, parents were in a position to devote more time to their children as there was little influence of neighbors or relatives. According to Stone (1977), the family system experienced a considerable change from 1450 to 1800 in that it became more and more narrow and closed. Earlier families had three or more generations living together, while the modernistic families had a nuclear structure, with only the parents and immediate children living together. Thus parents became more responsible about their children as there were no grandparents to take care of the children in their absence. Stone (1977) asserted that the concept of developing nuclear family was accompanied with a rise in the trend of ‘affective individualism’ that encouraged individuals to choose marital partners for themselves. Thus, each member of the family was recognized as unique and naturally, the children gained full attention of the parents. Stone (1977) also was of the view that industrial revolution played a big role in the rise of nuclear family system. As parents became more and more careful about their children from 1450 to 1800, the child mortality rates ultimately began to decline in the 1800s. This caused the parents to be more careful about their children’s health and safety because in the earlier centuries when child mortality rates were quite high, death of a child was visualized as a solid reason why parents should not develop association with their children. Philippe Aries played a pivotal role in mapping the childhood history through his writing published in the Centuries of Childhood in 1962 (Roberts, 2008). That ‘terra incognita’ stirred up the emotions of many philosophers, writers, theorists and educationalists that led them to propose many a theories and concepts of modern childhood that shaped our perception of childhood as we know it today. An in-depth analysis of the childhood literature and conceptions from old centuries portrays a very sad image of childhood in those times. The commencement of childhood as a social construction can be dated back to the sixteenth century. Aries was of the view that the fundamental difference between the modern childhood and its conception in earlier centuries is that adults were far less careful about children in earlier centuries than they are now. Children were neither educated, nor were they treated differently from adults. Parents did not feel the need to attend the children, offer them their time and affection that the children required. The activities children indulged in the Middle Ages and also, the earlier modern era were not much different from those of the adults. A child was considered a child till the time he/she turned seven, though the child was thought of as miniature adult before that. After the age of seven, children were expected to and often forced into practically helping their parents with the farming or looking after their fields and live stock. Because of their huge involvement in practical activities, the intellect and cognitive level of a child significantly resembled that of an adult at the age of seven. It was in 1970s, when many researchers studied childhood from different aspects yet the conclusions they drew were not much different from the assertions of Aries. However, nearly all of them mutually consented upon the opinion that childhood was a new phenomenon. Researchers studied the old childhood conceptions by investigating such phenomena as child abandonment, romantic love between the two partners who make parents, and other economic, demographic and cultural factors. Extensive research led ‘Lloyd deMause’ to deduce in his book ‘History of Childhood’ published in 1974 that children were not loved in the antiquity (Roberts, 2008). This was evident from the widespread trend of child abandonment till the fourth century BC. Also, children were abused physically and verbally. The situation was not very acceptable until the very recent time of the modern era. In 1976, ‘Familles: Parente, maison, sexualite dans l'ancienne societe’ was written by ‘Jean Flandrin’. In that book, it was acknowledged that the nineteenth century brought with it the concept of nuclear family, particularly in France. The nuclear family consisted of both parents and the children. The work of Flandrin (1976) was based to much an extent, on the terminologies commonly found in encyclopedias and dictionaries. Birth control techniques, many of which surfaced in the later half of the eighteenth century inculcated an urge in the parents to take care of the children. With the growing notion of controlling child birth, parents started to feel that children could be looked after in a better way if they were fewer in number. Elisabeth Badinter was a French historian who revealed yet another way in which the industrial revolution not only promoted child care, but also facilitated the development of romantic love between parents. According to Badinter (1981), before the industrial revolution, husbands and their wives jointly worked in farms. Women were equally equipped with working skills and therefore, went out of their homes to help their husbands while the children were left unattended in the homes. When the industrial revolution occurred in the nineteenth century, it drove only the men out of their hometowns while their wives stayed back and nurtured their children as they were not quite used to or familiar with the modernistic trends of work. This brought the mothers near to their children. Mothers bathed their children, fed them, played with them and spent time with them. As a result of this, not only childhood, but also motherhood was recognized. “This idealized image of motherhood–and childhood–is often associated with the Romantic period, the 1830s and 1840s” (Roberts, 2008). The debate on childhood underwent a new turn in 1980s when the historians evaluated the subject with respect to new aspects and drew unique conclusions. Earlier assumptions and theories about childhood all became highly questionable when in 1983, Linda Pollock published “Forgotten Children: Parent-Child Relations from 1500 to 1900” followed by her publication of “A Lasting Relationship: Parents and Their Children over Three Centuries” in 1987 (Roberts, 2008). Pollock (1987) said that parental association with children was always the same as it was then in the 1980s. According to her, there was no difference between the emphasis that parents placed in the late middle ages and that in the nineteenth century. Pollock (1987) had based her assertions on the diaries and literature from earlier centuries. She believed that such factors as prearranged marriages or mortality rates never influenced parent-child relationship. She believed that much of the confusions and misconceptions that generally prevail in the society apropos the childhood in earlier centuries can be attributed to the fact that historians referred to the childhood issues of only a certain class in the society, yet there were many classes that fully acknowledged the importance of nurturing the children. Similarly, Macfalane (1986) challenged the opinions of Stone (1977) by saying that it took a period of five years for the childhood to gradually get recognized by the society as a separate age that had its own needs and requirements. Contradicting Stone who thought of individualism as a result of the industrial revolution, Macfalane (1986) emphasized that the industrial revolution was itself, a consequence of individualism which in turn, encouraged individuals to make their own selection of marital partners and develop a nuclear family. In 1995, the Canadian historian, ‘Edward Shorter’ identified certain traits of the modern childhood. Shorter (1995) recognized the nuclear family system, romantic love and the financial independence as the cardinal determinants of the modern conception of childhood. Many earlier historians of the nineteenth and twentieth century referred to the example of wet nurses to argue that parents in the past were careless about their children and dropped them in the hands of wet nurses. Replying them, Haas (1998) explained the reason why parents used to hire wet nurses for babysitting their children. According to Haas (1998), mothers conventionally hired wet nurses to feed their children when they found themselves incapable of that. Wet nurses were also hired to feed the babies because their milk was deemed more nutritious than the children’s own mothers since the former came from villages and the latter resided in cities subjected to pollution. Hence, they were always very careful about their children and hired wet nurses because they had a sound reason for that. Harry Hendrick, a British historian, has come up with a very important point in the study of childhood history (Roberts, 2008). Hendrick argued that the children’s voice is quite underrepresented in the literature from earlier centuries which contradicts the sociological demands of childhood. Children are as much social actors in the society as the adults are, yet they have not voiced their opinions in the past. One reason why this might have happened is that children maintain an oral culture and have little to no contribution in the written literature that survives and dwells with the passage of time. The same point was raised by Ludmilla Jordanova in 1989 who said that in the past literature, there exists no such thing as “an authentic voice of children” Roberts (2008). The whole literature is made up of the interpretation of childhood from the perspectives of adults. How childhood is perceived by adult members of the contemporary society: In the contemporary society, it is believed that childhood commences from the birth of an individual and continues up to the twelfth year, though in few of the teenage years, an individual is transiting from childhood to adulthood (Hagan, 2007). Today, children are considered members of social groups having their individualistic identity. They are known to have their own individualistic and collective needs. The laws are quite sensitive towards childhood. The importance of childhood is acknowledged and it is respected to the extent that many countries have quite lenient laws for juveniles as compared to the adults. Childhood is perceived as an age that requires immense care, affection and guidance from the adults. Adults assume a very important role in making an individual’s childhood constructive for the rest of his/her life because concepts made in the childhood make the basis of an individual’s mentality as an adult. Children are indeed, the most fundamental members of society because they make the foundations of the future nations. Modernistic attitude about childhood conceives it as “Romantic” (Stroup, 2004). “…children dressed in special costumes, children with pets, children as angelic or cupid-like, children with their mother, and children unconsciously prefiguring gendered adult roles” are the five traits of Romantic childhood identified by (Higonnet cited in xroads.virginia.edu, n.d.). Conclusion: Review of the literature from the nineteenth century and even earlier suggests that childhood was not at all recognized as an age that required care and nurturing. DeMause (1974) argued that the more back one goes in the past, the greater the child abuse becomes. In the seventeenth and many earlier centuries, children were killed, aborted, abused and frightened. Gradually, people began to feel that children required care, love and attention. Whether it was the result of industrial revolution, romantic love between parents and nuclear family system or not has been the subject of debate in the recent years. However, childhood is presently, recognized as Romantic. Childhood rights have been recognized and acknowledged worldwide (Tomas, n.d. p. 1). Laws, rules and social and cultural norms, values and trends have been formulated respecting the individuality of children in the contemporary society. References: Badinter, E, 1981, The Myth of Motherhood: An Historical View of the Maternal Instinct, Souvenir, London. DeMause, L, (ed.) 1974, The History of Childhood, Psychohistory Press, New York. Flandrin, JL, 1976, Familles: Parente, maison, sexualite dans l'ancienne societe, Hachette, Paris. Haas, L, 1998, The Renaissance Man and His Children: Childbirth and Early Childhood in Florence, 1300?1600, St. Martin's, New York. Hagan, MO, 2007, What is childhood and who created it? viewed 11 January, 2011, . Macfarlane, A, 1986, Marriage and Love in England. Modes of Reproduction 1300?1840, B. Blackwell, London. Pollock, L, 1987, A Lasting Relationship: Parents and their Children over Three Centuries, Fourth Estate, London. Roberts, BB 2008, History of Childhood, viewed 11 January, 2011, . Shorter, E, 1975, The Making of the Modern Family, Basic Books, New York. Stone, L, 1977, The Family, Sex, and Marriage in England 1500?1800, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London. Stroup, W, 2004, The Romantic Child, viewed 11 January, 2011, DOI: 10.1111/j.1741-4113.2004.00078.x Tomas, C, n.d., Childhood and Rights: Reflections on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, pp. 1-14, viewed 11 January, 2011, . xroads.virginia.edu, n.d., Age of lost innocence: Romantic portrayals, viewed 11 January, 2011, . Read More