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2000 BCE
Child feeding: 2000 BCE
Children were not really taken well cared of when talking about their feeding habits. Childs would sometimes be fed on cow and goat milk, having to suck directly from the teat of the animal. A mix of bread, water and milk called pap was given to some kids at their earliest stage to replace nursing. Strange substances that would somehow were unhealthy for human body were also given to children with the purpose of stopping their crying, -
Period: 2000 BCE to 300
Infanticide: IV Century AD
Parents started to solve their anxiety of having to take care of a child by just killing them. Sometimes kids were sacrificed to the gods in some of the main civilizations of the time. One of the civilizations were infanticide occurred the most was Carthage, were historians claim that Carthaginians sacrificed children to their gods. Charred bones of hundreds of infants have been found in Carthaginian archaeological sites. -
500 BCE
Child abuse: Century V BCE
The child in ancient times lived his earliest years in an atmosphere of sexual abuse. This was lived mainly by children who grew up in Ancient Greece and Rome, and whose daily life often included being used sexually by older men. -
Period: 301 to Aug 28, 1299
Abandonment: IV-XIII Century
Kids were rejected by their families, being sent outside of them for another person to take care of their education or even sent to other homes as servants or slaves. Once parents accepted their child as having a soul, to escape the dangers of their own projections they had only one way: abandoning them to other person or organization or severe abandonment at home. Still today we see how some parents leave the education of their children in hands of others. -
374
Capital Offense: IV Century AD
In some periods of ancient Roman history it was usual for a newborn to be brought to the family patriarch, who would then decide whether the child was to be kept and raised, or left to die by exposure. A better conception of childhood was held later by the Roman Civilization since in 374 AD Infanticide became a crime worth of death penalty. -
Aug 27, 1100
Education: XII Century
Major cathedrals operated education programs for small numbers of teenage boys to become priests. First universities started to appear in Europe to train physicians, lawyers and government officials. Students entered as young as 13 years old. -
Period: Aug 27, 1400 to
Ambivalence XIV-XVII Century
Kids start to develop connections with their parents, being considered as persons who need to be molded on the principles each parent considers correct. An increase in children instruction manuals was seen which show that the importance of childhood was rising in society. Religious symbols such as Mary began to expand and therefore the image of the close mother started to infiltrate in society, image that we can see still as of today since children are usually very close to their mothers. -
Child growth: XVII Century
The average high born child spent his early years in the home of a nurse, returned home to the care of other servants, and was sent out to school by age seven. The amount of time parents of children actually spent raising their children was really low. Childhood wasn’t therefore seen as the important part of a person life it is, parental love wasn’t that relevant. -
Orbis Pictus: 1658
In 1658 the Czech pedagogue John Amos Comenius published the Orbis Pictus, the first illustrated book for children. The Orbis Pictus was somewhat like a children encyclopedia and contained subjects like: inanimate nature, botanic, zoology, religion and human activities. -
Period: to
Intrusion: XVIII Century
Parents began to get closer to their children and they tried to control them through their minds with the objective of controlling its inside or needs. Children were nursed by the mother and made to obey with threats or other methods of punishment. Pediatrics was born in this stage of history, reducing infant mortality and a lot of improvement in care by parents was seen. Some families of today still educate their children with threats and punishments. -
Pre-school: 1779
In 1779 Johann Friedrich Oberlin and Louise Scheppler founded in Strassbourg a place for caring and educating pre-school children whose parents were absent during the day. -
Period: to
Socialization: XIX – mid XX Century
Parents start to focus on teaching their children how to socialize in a way they could adapt effectively to society. Raising a child became less a process of conquering its will and started to become a process of training it, guiding it, teaching it and socializing it. The father starts to show more interest in the child sometimes even replacing the mother in child care, something that we see in some of today’s families. -
Advanced Infant Schools: 1816
In 1816 Robert Owen a philosopher and pedagogue opened the first global infant school in Scotland. Owen wanted children to be given a good moral education so that they could be fit to work. He was successful in producing obedient children with basic literacy and numeracy. -
Freud and Childhood: Early XX Century
Freud investigated on the parent to child and said that parents built the sexual and aggressive desires of their children through their caring or the lack of attention. -
Declaration of the Rights of the Child: 1924
An international document promoting child rights was drafted by Eglantyne Jebb and adopted by the League of Nations. The document was later adopted by the United Nations in 1946. The existence of this document meant that the world started to pay more attention in child care and their basic needs. -
Period: to
Helping: mid XX Century
Children starts to be considered as someone capable of knowing what its good and adequate to his life, in a way that the role of parents consists in supporting him and guiding him in order for him to develop at max the skills he has. In this stage there is no attempt at all to discipline of form habits. -
Child Corporal Punishment Ban: 1979
In 1979 Sweden became the first country to ban all corporal punishment of children. The law was accompanied by a public education campaign executed by the Swedish Ministry of Justice which distributed brochures to all households. Since Sweden ban, a lot of countries have enacted similar laws to punish the beating of children. -
Convention on the Rights of the Child: 1989
In 1989 the United Nation signed the Convention on the Rights of Child in which many countries participated. The human rights treaty sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. A child was defined as any human under the age of 18 and countries that ratified the Convention are required to report periodically on their progress of its implementation. -
Emile 1762
Jean Jacques Rousseau formulated the romantic attitude towards children in his famous novel Emile, a parenting guide on how an ideal citizen must be educated which also contains some specific advice on raising children.
