Life+of+a+child+in+New+England

Today, the realms of work and childhood are sharply separated. But in early rural New England, work was still seen as virtually continuous with life itself. Children's work was needed in a rural economy with few labor-saving devices, and virtually all parents believed that idleness was a source of moral evil.
 * **Title** || **All Work and a Little Play: Children in Rural New England** ||   ||
 * **Author** |||| **Jack Larkin** ||

Today, the reality work and childhood are very different. In the 19th century of New England, the work they had was endless like their life. The work the children did was needed because it was too hard for the parents to get everythinig they needed done by them selfs. All parents belived that having the children work was needed, and not working was was very bad for the children. In their economy the work thewy had and their family life were tide, so the families didn't talk about their work life. Ther was so much work to be done and many tasks to be complete, that small less exparienced children could of done then an older more mature grown-up. At the age of 6 or 7 the children had to start working, because they had to. The children started doing small chores but as they hot older they had more responsibilities as well as work. The girls worked with their mothers and older sisters learning how to sew,cook and worl with their diary.The boysworker with their father and brothers in the field as well as the barn. Poor families had more pressure so their children had to work more, their children would often have to work for other people.For a few cents boys would pick stones out of fields or cllect firewood,girls did work in the house and cared for the kids.Susan Blunt of Merrimac,new hampshire,rememberd keeping house for her neighbor,only at the age of 10. Dhe would "work like a spider" only for 15 cents. But eve wealthy families worked hard. But even w elther kids,whose fathers were ministers, lawyers, printers, or storekeepers, didnt have to work sl hard as the other kids, but they still had a lot o work to keep them very busy. **Some social commentators in the 1830s were concerned that as rural society changed, New England children might actually have less work to do than was good for them. But reminiscences of growing up during this period tell us that these alarmists had little to fear; the era of childhood leisure was still far in the future**. People in the 1830's were concerned about the rurel society and thought it woud change, and tha New England kids might have less work. But getting the idea of growing up they feared, but children working was not thet big of a deal until futher in the future. In the 19ht centery the children have a similar society with kids today, many kids played just like today. Over time kids have passed games as part of a tradition that allowed them regional, local, and neighborhood character.Throught the years then games of lag and mables have some what changed. In the early 19th center kids played make believe games, told scary stories, hiked, skated, sledded, and jumped rope just like today.Baseball today was called "townball" ro "rounder" back then. The items of a child toys, and other possesions are alot to what we have today. The toys they had were very simlehomemade contrivances;stor-bought, ther were not many shop-made toys ther were very rare. The toys an average kid has today would har amazed even the richest girl or boy in the 1830s. 
 * In the countryside, the work of the farm and the life of the family were so intertwined as to be indistinguishable. There was such a range of necessary tasks to be done that small and unskilled hands could have just as much to do as older and more knowledgeable ones. From the ages of six or seven on, farm girls and boys were indispensable members of the family labor force. Children began with simple chores like shelling corn or weeding the garden, and took on increasingly difficult tasks as they grew up. Young girls worked along-side their mothers and older sisters learning how to sew, cook, wash, and tend to the dairy. Boys labored with their fathers and brothers in the fields and around the ba**rn.
 * The pressure of work on children was greatest among poorer families, who often "hired out" their offspring to neighbors. Working for a few cents a day, boys picked stones out of fields or hauled firewood, while girls did housework and cared for children. Susan Blunt of Merrimac, New Hampshire, remembered spending a week keeping house for a neighbor when she was ten years old. She worked "like a little spider" and got 15 cents. But even among better-off families, the discipline of work was almost never absent. Center village children, whose fathers were ministers, lawyers, printers, or storekeepers, did not have a full range of farm tasks to do, but they too recalled that their parents kept them bus**y.
 * The work experiences of early nineteenth-century children have few counterparts in today's middle-class society; but play provides a link across the decades. Over a long span of time, one generation of children has passed its games on to the next through oral traditions that have allowed plenty of room for regional, local, and neighborhood variation but have also preserved many things intact. The rules of marbles and the game of tag, for example, have changed little. Like their counterparts today, early nineteenth-century New England children played fantasy games, told scary stories, hiked, skated, sledded, and jumped rope. Some once-popular pastimes like rolling hoops or playing "The Graces" have faded from memory. Others have been dramatically reshaped over time; the New England game called "townball" or "rounders" is the ancestor of the present game of baseball**.
 * The material world of childhood, toys and other possessions, is immensely more abundant today. Toys in the early New England countryside were few and were simple, homemade contrivances; store-bought, shop-made ones were rare. An average American child's possessions today would have astonished even the wealthiest girl or boy of the 183**0s.
 * Time for children was different as well. Nowadays play is what children are expected to do; it fills the hours not spent in school or on homework. In early rural New England play was an afterthought, taking a very distant second place in adult minds to work routines and responsibilities. Children of the New England past may have enjoyed play all the more, of course, for that very reason**.

Time for kids was also different.Now n day the kids are expected to play, they spent hours playing at school, after school.Bake then was very tough and the kids had more responsibility.That is why children in the 1830's hade more fun playing then we do, because we get more time to play so we get bored of it.