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Learning the Story
In this story line we would like to recommend two exercises which make
use of a scholarly journal called the Journal of Social History. The first
article is about family life in 1900s, but is offered to suggest a contrast
between the Perry family and dual income earners in the early 20th Century.
The article, titled "The
Childhood We Have Lost: When Siblings Were Caregivers, 1900-1970"
was published Fall 2002 and explores life for children who became care
givers when they themselves were children. The full citation and abstract
is below.
Pollack, Eunice G.
The
Childhood We Have Lost: When Siblings Were Caregivers, 1900-1970
Journal of Social History - Volume 36, Number 1, Fall 2002, pp. 31-61
Abstract
In large numbers of working- and lower-middle-class households, for much
of the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, children were generally
cared for, not by a doting mother, but a sibling. Indeed, many children
in these homes spent much of their youth caring for siblings or being
attended by them. The demise of the system of sibling care represented
a seismic shift in family arrangements. This essay examines the historical
experiences and relationship of the sibling-caregiver and the charge,
and traces the short- and long-term effects--often, the psychological
scars--of each role. It considers why many of the young had highly ambivalent
relations with their mothers in these years and perceived their mothers
as unavailable to them. The study also explores why many mothers resisted
any change in this family system. It compares the experience and effects
of sibling care in the past with contemporary child care arrangements.
This article is available online via Project MUSE institutional subscriptions
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