Child-Rearing: Now Versus 100 Years Ago

Child-rearing has always been a challenging assignment that parents have. It has never been easy neither then nor now to raise a child and the matter until today has its difficulties although it has become somewhat easier. Much of the development that happens around us has influenced parents’ way to interact with their children in different contexts. Traditional methods used to raise children have changed accordingly, such as punishment, education, and most important of all women’s and men’s roles in this context. 

Social norms of what is acceptable and what’s not in raising children have changed over the past 100 years. Previously, it was more acceptable and to some extent perceived as beneficial to beat children. It was believed that whipping children had positive effects on them, mainly in their future. “I’m sure you make a great mistake in trying to bring up children without whipping them.” (Mansfield, 2018). However, nowadays, this is considered an unmodern way to raise children and it is against the law. That is, there is a legal aspect and a social aspect that make the matter of beating or whipping children unacceptable either legally or socially.

Accordingly, the punishment in this context changed and parents adopted new ways of punishment that are not centered around the physical punishment of the child but rather about how to show them how they did wrong and how to do the right thing. For example, it is common now that parents would prevent children from using their electronic devices such as mobiles to show them that they are exaggerating in the way that they are using the mobile.  

On the other hand, children’s demands and needs have changed as well over the past 100 years. Previously, children created their games and met physically to play while nowadays, children meet over the electronic space and play online, for example, which offers endless possibilities of amusement for children. Furthermore, even in the educational aspect of child-rearing, technical development has influenced how parents think about their children’s education. Instead of getting a tutor and forcing them to study a specific field in their further studies, nowadays, we see a more flexible perspective that parents have in educating their children. For example, information can be found over the Internet and higher studies are not as important as they were before. Parents in this way have an encouraging perspective for their children to pursue their dreams. 

Finally, it is hard to judge whether it was better before or if it is better now regarding child-rearing. However, like everything else, the matter has its pros and cons. Regardless of which approach we follow, the traditional one or the modern one, child-rearing is challenging for parents back then as it is now. It has never been easy to raise a child. 

References

IDCA. n.d. Children’s Lives: Comparing Long Ago to Today. [online] Available at: https://iowaculture.gov/history/education/educator-resources/primary-source-sets/childrens-lives-comparing-long-ago-to-today  

Mansfield, M. Sixpence. In Hedencrona, E., Smed-Gerdin, K., & Watcyn-Jones, P.(Eds), Solid Gold 2 (pp. 59-65). Studentlitteratur (2018).