Upbringing children or childrearing is never an easy task. Well, it has never been. Still, there are differences in raising children through different times. That is due to changes in our life, our society and in general children’s needs. Speaking about a duration of 100 years, society has changed dramatically. Thus, our needs, our perceptions about childrearing, and children’s needs as well have developed. We adapted to the change and consequently, our approach to how we interact with our children has gradually shown developments. However, whether those developments or changes are positive or negative is not the question here. It’s rather a question about how we approach the issue of raising our children.
The changes in our society included many changes such as the development of social norms and what’s acceptable or not. 100 years ago, it was acceptable to beat or spank children. Somewhat, it was perceived as beneficial for the child’s future. This can be reflected in literature written at that time. For example, in Sixpence by Mansfield “…. But I’m sure you make a great mistake in trying to bring up children without whipping them.” (Masnfield, 2018).
That is not acceptable behavior by parents nowadays. It is rather an issue of violent behavior that is considered criminal.
Not only our perceptions changed, but rather even the structure of our society. In other words, gender roles. Raising children was conceived as a women’s task while disciplining them was considered as more a male’s task. Nowadays, it is more socially acceptable that parents share the responsibility of raising children. That is, the obvious limit between what is male’s tasks and female’s tasks is vanishing gradually. Today, raising children is a shared responsibility that both parents have tasks in it with no limitations to men’s or women’s roles.
Considering children in that context, we see enormous changes in their behavior. Previously, children played outside, played together, and to some extent were more physically activated. After technical development throughout 100 years, their lifestyle has changed dramatically. There is no “drawing room” (Mansfield, 2018) anymore. That is, e-sports, for example, are growing amongst children. Social interaction is now associated with the internet. This imposes new ways of how children play, behave, meet, interact or even learn. However, changes in that context are as well due to the technical revolution and the possibilities that facilitated our communication.
Finally, changes in childrearing through 100 years are a natural development as many aspects of our life are in continuous development. Whether they are positive changes or negative ones is not the question. It’s rather that they are facts and we are adapting them.
References
Mansfield, M. Sixpence. In Hedencrona, E., Smed-Gerdin, K., & Watcyn-Jones, P.(Eds), Solid Gold 2 (pp. 59- 65). Studentlitteratur (2018).