Behavior expected of Colonial Children

In Colonial days children weren’t given as much freedom as they are today. In fact, at a very young age children were expected to act like grown-ups, with grown-up responsibilities and jobs. By the time a child was 3 years old, he dressed in the same style clothes as his/her parents, just a smaller size, Girls were expected to help out with their mother's chores around the house like cooking and cleaning and sewing and mending and caring for the younger siblings. Boys were expected to help out in the barns with their fathers, in the fields and, once they learned how to use a gun, to help out hunting.

While little children had adult responsibilities they didn’t always get adult privileges. At the dinner table, children were not allowed to sit on the few chairs in the house. They had to stand the whole meal. They weren’t permitted to talk during meals either. That was something only adults could do.

At school, if a child wasn’t concentrating, he or she could be punished and embarrassed. Sometimes teachers even hit children with a switch (a stick) if they weren’t listening or doing their work. If a teacher thought a child was being lazy or disrespectful, the child would often be put in a corner wearing a big cone shaped hat with the work “Dunce” on it. Sometimes, the child also had to wear a sign around the neck that said something about the child being bad or lazy.

Even though we've learned that in many basic ways the lives of children in Colonial Days weren't so different than the lives of children now, as far as discipline and decorum was concerned , the lives of children was very different then than it is now.

Ms. Felicity