Exam 5: Parenting Young Children: Decisions and Realities

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See: "The Historical and Cultural Development of Intensive Parenting"
- A dramatic shift in child-rearing advice to parents can be traced back to the mid-twentieth century after the end of the Second World War.
- The relative prosperity of the post-World War II economy, along with medical advancements in vaccines and disease control, also contributed to the shift in child-rearing advice literature that saw a greater focus on children's psychological and emotional well-being.
-In Spock's work and in other post-World War II advice literature, children were cast as more innocent and psychologically vulnerable and many of the practices promoted in previous advice were now described as harmful to children.
- Another notable change in the new advice was the way that mothers' and children's needs were increasingly seen as being opposed, rather than complimentary. Most mothers in the first half of the twentieth century whose labour was needed on farms and in factories, and who did not have access to electricity or modern appliances, did not have the time or the economic means to focus ample attention on their children.
-1990s brought even more child-centred ideologies to parenthood with intensive parenting and neoliberalism and risk culture shaping parenting norms and expectations.
-Intensive parenting sets high expectations, especially for women.