Introduction

Children's Home Life in the Past and Present

“…The historians Hamlett and Hoskins (2011), however, rightly criticized the concomitant and romantic idea of the home space as a separate economic sphere outside the forces of production and wage labor, as it ignores not only female domestic labor and crafts, but also the wage labor of domestic servants who were often teenage children. If, however, the domestication of both women and children both began early, its parallel, continuous, and progressive development is open for questioning.…”

“…The implication is that the gendered zoning of the material home environment set apart a living space for women and children from the male domain of the workshop (Hamlett and Hoskins 2011). Although in general historians are reluctant to use pictorial sources in their analysis, images might give additional information.…”

“…The spatial separation of the private and essentially female domain of the family home from the public and essentially male domain of the breadwinner's workplace was accelerated in the nineteenth century when urban upper-and middle-class families left the immoral city for the green and natural surroundings of the suburbs (Hamlett and Hoskins 2011). Although it meant a daily commute between home and workplace, the sacrifice was made for the benefit of families' offspring, offering them a safe home environment with a garden for playing.…”