Medieval and Renaissance Parenting

THE RENAISSANCE CHILDREN The changing attitudes of the Renaissance also began to send ripples in the attitudes of parents towards children. As the church's influence waned so did the ultimate authority of the patriarch or father. Children became individuals and the "tabula rasa" philosophy of John Locke took hold. Children now became something which could be molded. As the Renaissance came to a close, women were moving towards breast feeding their own children, educating their children within the home and abandoning the practice of swaddling. Of course the Renaissance was stretched over two centuries and the changes were anything but immediate. Still as the European world stretched its wings and people began to see themselves as individuals they also began to see their children as individuals with rights. Literature and artwork began to feature children more regularly and family portraits show families interacting with each other affectionately.

In my next article I will deal with the age of permissiveness in child rearing that took place from 1600s to the early 1800's.

Bibliography Tuchman, Barbara W., A Distant Mirror, The Calamitous 14th Century. New York, 1979.

Stone, Lawrence, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800, ab ed. New York, 1979.

Gies, Frances and Gies, Joseph, Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages, New York, 1987.

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