Minding the Children: Childcare in America from Colonial Times to the Present

by Geraldine Youcha

An overview of the ways children have been raised in America since Colonial times shows that the concept of the full-time mother did not realistically meet the needs in the past anymore that it does today. 15,000 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Frrobins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough look at how children were cared for since Colonial America, starting with apprenticeships and looking at how children were cared for on southern plantations, moving towards solutions that were tried to alleviate concerns about children being cared for poorly such as the Orphan Train and the establishment of orphanages, and studying the history of foster care and daycare. The book exams the strengths and weaknesses of various methods and comes the the conclusion that each had both.

I think the conclusion I came away with was that there isn't going to be a perfect system and that there's not a formula that produces a "perfect child" and what we need to focus on is are the children being well cared for and their physical and emotional needs met.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The present in this case is 1995, but that is really not that different than today. With the exception of apprenticing children at ages 7 or 8 all different types of child care have been tried before. Today many children are scheduled out the wazoo with various activities from sports to music to extra academic programs. They have too little time to be real children. The author informs the reader that child care in the work place has been used before, working at home occurred in the past as it does now. Foster care has existed for centuries and boarding schools have been around for the rich and sometimes the poor. This book is an interesting history of childcare in America and comes to the conclusion that various forms of childcare have been good for some children at different times in our history. It really depends on the caregiver.

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fascinating look at the various childcare systems we've tried, discarded, resurrected, praised, lambasted, and settled for in the United States. We really do need to spend some more time looking backward before we can speak so confidently about the future.

[Becky J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting.