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Child-Rearing in Western Europe

Child-Rearing in Western Europe. Daniel Son Per. 6. P rompt :. 2001 – Analyze how and why Western European attitudes toward children and child-rearing changed in the period from 1750 – 1900. T raditional Agrarian Europe. Women usually married late (30) but bore many children until death (45)

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Child-Rearing in Western Europe

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  1. Child-RearinginWestern Europe Daniel Son Per. 6

  2. Prompt: • 2001 – Analyze how and why Western European attitudes toward children and child-rearing changed in the period from 1750 – 1900.

  3. Traditional Agrarian Europe • Women usually married late (30) but bore many children until death (45) • About 50% had 6 or more children • 1 in 5 were likely to die young • 1 in 3 infants died in poorer areas • Fatal diseases usually afflicted the stomach and chest • Even the rich couldn’t save their children • Adults were often indifferent, neglectful and abusive towards their children

  4. Nursing • Lower class mothers saved lives by breast-feeding their young for a longer period than normal • Milk provided necessary nutrients and immunities • Upper-class mothers left wet-nurses to take care of their children • Wet-nurses were hired women who fed the babies of the upper-class at the expense of nursing their own children • Many wet-nurses were accused of passing down bad habits • Some nurses were alleged to have killed the babies of their clients in order to get more money from other clients

  5. Infanticide • Newborns, especially girls, were commonly left to die when families became too large • The Church denounced infanticide and sentenced violators to death • There were different methods of eliminating babies: killing nurses, overlaying (“accidental” suffocation), etc. • Abortion was illegal, dangerous, and rare

  6. Foundlings • Young mothers began to leave babies at church doorsteps when they could not care for them • Saint Vincent de Paul established a foundling home (orphanage) because of the number of abandoned babies • Foundling homes became popular across Europe and they became a favorite charity for the rich • Even at the best of the homes, infants suffered a 50% mortality rate

  7. Attitude Towards Children • Children of all socioeconomic classes were put “out of sight and out of mind” • Frequent child deaths greatly influenced the lack of emotional bonding with parents and their children • Doctors and clergymen encouraged emotional detachment, but this led to disciplinary abuse • “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” – Daniel Defoe • Jean-Jacques Rousseau called for more love and tenderness as well as more comfortable clothes • Parents delighted in loving their children which resulted in a greater optimism about human potential

  8. Analysis How? • Mothers began to breast-feed their children longer • Infanticide was penalized and foundling homes were established • Children became more loved and formed emotional bonds with their parents Why? • Less children were born and more of them survived • The Church did not approve of infanticide and took pity on the abandoned children • Critics called for the better treatment of children and this also caused a growth in optimism about human potential

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