Cunningham, H (2005) Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited

Cunningham discusses the changes over the years, beginning in America where children were being made to look like science projects and parents were advised not to have an intimate or loving contact with their children. But rather John Watson suggested that parents should treat their children “as though they were young adults.” (183-184) This then changed after the Second World War as many stated that this treatment of children would play a large role in their attitudes later on in life. “Parents were (now) being advised to enjoy parenting rather than to look on it as an intimidating scientific task.” (84)

N.B Personally I do not agree with treating infants like young adults they are entitled to enjoy their childhood and be able to experience love and fun. Reading the part of this text caused me to become quite angry and upset about the way children used to be seen as guinea pigs and ruled in a fascist way.

Cunningham continues to say that the child has changed from being a “productive role within the economy” to “ a new role as consumers.” (185) He goes onto claim that this therefore altered the opinion of the parent and as a result, parents decided to have less children as they were not being valued as a contribution to the family economy. Instead, they valued more individually and for “emotional reasons”. This therefore created a rise in a child’s confidence when they were older and were able to contribute to the family’s economy. (85)