Childhood & the Costs of Pandering Affirmation

The social norms that coalesce around the concepts of childhood and adulthood have changed over time. For much of recorded history, children had comparatively little value in the eyes of adults. In preindustrial eras when families were much bigger than they are today, it was much harder for a family to procure sufficient resources to satisfy their needs. High rates of child mortality ensured that sometimes the sacrifices a family made on behalf of a particular child came to nothing. Everyone needed to contribute, and as soon as children were old enough to do so, they were put to labor in ways that would make people recoil today. Right up until the early twentieth century, it was not uncommon for boys in early adolescence to leave the family home to strike out on their own, nor was it unusual for their female counterparts to be married off to men who were many years their senior. We should not seek a return to the way that older cultures viewed children. But with this past in view, it is clear that the contemporary American view of children is a historical anomaly. Read Full Article »