Reading Classes: On Culture and Classism in America

by Barbara Jensen

Here the emphasis was on the role of blood kin. When mothers went back to work, they left their babies with relatives, or close friends, and sometimes in a church preschool, rather than with professional child-care centers. Family connections were “carefully drawn and much talked about.” Relatives and family friends made special efforts to interact with babies, especially to touch, hold, and cuddle them, in direct contrast to the middle class families of Laurenceville, who frowned on too much handling of their babies. Cousins were encouraged to interact with babies and include them early on in their sense of “us.” Parents in Roadville told cousins, “You will be like brothers and sisters.” Children were introduced to others by their position in the family, for example, “This is your Uncle Donnie,” “your cousin Debbie,” and so on.