Motherhood and child-rearing

1. Between the 17th and 20th centuries, the concept of motherhood was certainly transformed throughout time. In the 17th and 18th centuries throughout America there was no notion of childhood innocence (that existed in Europe at the time). Children continued to get flogged and were dressed in swaddling clothes. Obedience was instilled in children and was used as a means to overcome the inherent “sin nature” that was believe to be in each child. The Bible was widely used as a child rearing guide. For the American Catholics, they believed that the child’s will did not have to be broken through physical punishment or harm because the sins were believed to be forgiven through baptism. In the 18th and 19th centuries, a more modern concept of motherhood began to emerge. A mother’s role began to take on new importance and movements such as the “cult of domesticity,” the “cult of true womanhood,” and the “Domestic Code” began to give mothers a more valued sense. Mothers were becoming known as the keepers of morality and were beginning to be seen as pure and virtuous, and their children were their “angelic missionaries.” Instead of viewing the child as a demonic creature (as they were in during the Middle Ages), there was focus on bringing out the inner goodness from each child. Toward the end of the 19th century (the Progressive Era), child-rearing took a turn. The child lost the sense of innocence and instead was said to have dangerous impulses that needed to be kept in check through techniques such as precise scheduling, detached handling, and behavior modifications. Mothers were warned not to smother their children with love, but rather act as guides and role models for their children. Following the Progressive Era was the Permissive Era where the ideology of the permissive child dominates our current cultural model used by present day mothers. A new concept of the child-centered family emerged where home life is centered on the child and child rearing is guided by them as well. There has been a shift back to the preservation of a child’s innocence and purity. Today, motherhood heavily focuses on a mother’s love and her nurturing nature.

The Permissive Era also fully established the concept of intensive mothering. This model says that children are innocent and priceless, and that rearing should be carried out primarily by the mother and it should be centered on the child’s needs. The methods that are used should be derived by experts and will most likely be costly. Even though my mother stayed home with my siblings and I, I do not believed she used “intensive mothering” to guide us. I was definitely raised by both my mother and father. My mother was always there for us, but I do not believe she used costly techniques that were derived from experts in order to raise us.

2. I really enjoyed this article because it really gave a voice to all the mothers out there who truly care about raising their children. There are so many money-hungry Americans out there who care more about their careers than their own children. Our country has become centered on the notion that we all need to climb up the “corporate ladder” in order to achieve much success. But in what point in your life do you stop “climbing”? So many Americans are too focused on making more and more money (that a lot of parents claim is for their children), but what about spending priceless time with the child? It does not cost a penny to nurture and play with your child. Crittenden made so many good points in her article. She said that mothering today has become more of a handicap, even though it is the most important job in the world. It is clearly a job that you cannot add to your resume, so therefore, it can’t even be rewarded and is instead penalized. There are too many people out there that believe that the time spent with one’s child is time wasted and they should be out making money. Another important point is that mothers have smaller pensions than either men or childless women. In fact, women over the age of 65 are twice as likely to be poor as compared to men of the same age. This goes to show that the job of motherhood is barely recognized. Crittenden provided many anecdotes that illustrated her important points. One woman was fired for not working overtime because she wanted to spend time with her son. She had been hired to work between the hours of 8:15am and 5:30pm and did not believe it was necessary to work any longer than that. There needs to be much more credit given to the mothers who choose to stay at home and take care of their children. They are the future of our world, so it only makes sense to guide them and sculpt them into amazing human beings.

3. According to Collins, there are two types of mothering roles that Black women will demonstrate: bloodmothers and othermothers. A bloodmother, or biological mother, is expected to care for her own children. Othermothers take on a bit of a different role. They assist bloodmothers by sharing mothering responsibilities and sometimes provide care to the entire community. Some girls are groomed as early as ten years old to become othermothers. Many African-American communities have women-centered networks of community-based child care, which are heavily comprised of othermothers. This cooperation among Black mothers has given them much empowerment in which to serve a critical function in African-American communities. A large majority of Black women are the breadwinners in their families. Many women in Black communities take on very centralized roles where mostly everyone in the community knows their name. These role models are described as “strong Black women” and have demonstrated that motherhood can be viewed as a symbol of power. They have created maternal politics which refers to “political movements which are rooted in women’s defense of their roles as mothers and protectors of their children.” Black women use maternal politics as a way of being symbols of power.

4. In the article, “Unmarried with Children,” the life of Jen Burke, a 15 year old mother, was documented. She provided a very interesting perspective that having a child saved her (from her own life). Before she became pregnant, she was depressed and doing drugs and drinking. Her son, Colin, gave her a reason to straighten up and she started to take life more seriously. A lot of young mothers believe that having children at a young age keeps them off the streets and out of harm. The only problem is that they are usually poor to begin with and are not financially able to support a young child. Unfortunately delve deeper into a life of poverty and many are forced to be on welfare. I feel as if there is very little society can do to stop this cycle. As long as poor young girls keep having children, the need for welfare will not subside. Then again, if these girls stop having children, would they just end up on the streets? My only suggestion is to create more centers for poor girls who have children and do not have children and try to educate them more about marriage and family. Perhaps if we instill moral-based instruction into these young girls, they will become more cognizant of the consequences of being unmarried and becoming pregnant.