the innumerable (and violent) games illustrated in Brueghel's "Childhood Games". Then, as until
recently, "being boys" involved getting hold of the most dangerous things available - knives, arrows, fire etc. and playing with them, but unlike today, this was seen as a natural way for them to develop into men. Fighting too was common
and not always discouraged even by the godly, for who wanted their son to grow up a milksop?
Nappies were not used once babies could toddle. They wore skirts split conveniently at the back and the resulting messes had to be cleaned up, like those of the dogs, by an unfortunate maid. Boys were dressed in aprons and skirts like
their sisters, (but can usually be identified in pictures by their shorter hair and play swords) until they were breeched, at about six or seven. This was a cause for family celebration as it symbolised their entry into the favoured
world of men. Henceforth they would be encouraged to spend more time in men's pursuits away from their mothers.
Once out of baby clothes children were dressed as small versions of adults not, as today, because they looked so cute, but because their parents wished them to identify with the adult world. (The care of these often expensive clothes
must have been a continual source of trouble for both boys and girls - remember Polly Flinders and her Nice New Clothes?) Mothers put quite young girls - four and five - into simple corsets "to set the waist" and as fashionable waists
grew longer over the century so these grew more restrictive. One of John Evelyn's little daughters died when her tight corset broke one of her soft ribs and drove it into a lung.
Children of poorer families, about whom we know very little, presumably wore cut down adult clothes and handed them on to younger children.
Respect for one's parents was reinforced by formal behaviour which could be found explained in the many books on manners available for the guidance of the young.
The old tradition of kneeling to greet one's parents in the morning was dying out by the middle of the century, but they still expected to be treated with great deference. Letters home were addressed to "Honoured Sir" or "Honoured Madam"
and the quaint Southern American habit of calling one's parents "Sir" and "Ma'am" is, like so many other American oddities, a direct relic of the 17th century.
If given permission to sit in their parents' presence, children sat on stools to emphasise their lowly place, and at table they were expected to stand and wait silently and patiently until offered food.
Parents seem not to have felt any guilt in preferring sons over daughters - an almost universal preference - or, indeed, having favourites. It appeared natural to prefer the nicest or cleverest or most beautiful of your children: parents
did not hesitate to criticise to their face those who lacked these qualities, and exhort them to emulate their siblings. Attitudes to disability left a lot to be desired, and a disabled child of wealthy parents was probably destined to
miserable concealment and the care of servants.
By contrast, disabled children of the poor could earn money by begging, and could be quite an asset to a family if the disability was sufficiently horrific. Indeed it was widely believed that some parents disfigured their own children to
increase their value.
It would be some years before childhood would be seen as anything other than an inconvenient period to be endured before becoming an adult.
© 2011 Ingrid Barton