How were children treated in the Victorian era?

With no laws to protect children, this meant they had few rights and were badly treated. Seen as simply the property of their parents, many children were abandoned, abused and even bought and sold. Thought to be born evil, children needed to be corrected, punished and made to become good citizens.

What was life like for children in the Victorian era?

Conditions were very harsh and people would only go to workhouses as a last resort. Poor children often made their own toys such as rag balls or, if they were lucky, bought cheap penny toys. Wealthier children played with dolls with wax or china faces, toy soldiers and train sets.

How were children punished in the Victorian era?

A cane made of birch wood was the most common tool used for punishment. Boys were typically caned on their backsides whereas girls would be caned on their legs or hands. Though teachers would usually deliver the punishment themselves, they would sometimes select an older student to cane a younger one.

How were girls treated in the Victorian era?

Victorians believed that a woman's proper and only place was to be within a household environment. The women were expected to marry, have children, and keep a nice household. Those were the only acceptable roles for women during that era.

How were Victorian children raised?

Children were mostly raised by a nanny who would teach the child what was proper and what was not. Day to day living was nothing more than a lonely monotonous routine and very formal. Wealthy Victorian Children rarely communicated with their parents except for a specified time each day.

Victorian child labour: all work and no play

What did Victorian children call their parents?

The use of the terms "mum" and "dad" to refer to one's parents is a relatively recent development in the English language, dating back to the 19th century. Prior to this, it was more common to use formal titles such as "mother" and "father" or affectionate nicknames such as "mama" and "papa."

What was Victorian parenting like?

Discipline. Victorian parents didn't shy away from the word "no", and they taught their children the difference between right and wrong, true and false. Parents were encouraged not to spoil them or give in to them.

How did Victorians know they were pregnant?

Nineteenth Century

Scientists did not know enough about pregnancy to develop a reliable test. However, for sexually active women, the best method for diagnosing pregnancy remained careful observation of their own physical signs and symptoms (such as morning sickness).

What age did girls marry in Victorian times?

Boys could marry as young as fourteen with consent, but most couples were in their late teens or early twenties when they wed in this era. Upper-class women tended to marry older, generally between ages eighteen and twenty-five.

How were unmarried mothers treated in Victorian times?

In desolation and shame, young unmarried mothers placed their infants in workhouses where their survival was questionable, committed infanticide or turned to baby farmers who specialised in the premeditated and systematic murder of illegitimate infants. Illegitimacy had always been stigmatised in English Society.

How healthy were Victorian children?

Scarlet fever, tuberculosis, typhus and typhoid are now quite rare but were untreatable killers 150 years ago. Living in such terrible conditions meant that poor children were weak, malnourished and unable to fight off illness.

What was the worst punishment in Victorian times?

The penalty for the most serious crimes would be death by hanging, sometimes in public. However, during the Victorian period this became a less popular form of punishment, especially for smaller crimes, and more people were transported abroad (sometimes all the way to Australia!) or sent to prison instead.

What was the life expectancy of a poor Victorian child?

For example, in 1850 in England and Wales life expectancy at birth was 42, but over 25% of children died before the age of five. For those who survived, life expectancy rose to 57.

What was it like for poor Victorian children?

Starving, dirty, cold and weak, these 'gutter-waifs' had no-one to look after them and little hope of survival. With only filthy water to drink, dirty, smoke-filled air from nearby factories to breathe and scraps of bad food to eat, it was no surprise that many children fell ill and died.

What did rich Victorian children wear?

Both boys and girls wore long dresses. The richer you were, the longer the skirt! As the baby got older, his hem would be shortened to encourage crawling. Baby William also has several bonnets, a crocheted belly band, a crocheted bib, and two sets of booties.

What are 10 facts about the Victorian era?

Did Victorians kiss before marriage?

For six months to two years, the couple would prepare for the wedding and perhaps get to know one another a little better. They could take walks alone, hold hands, and indulge in the occasional — very chaste — kiss.

Did Victorians marry for love?

Indeed, love was the driving force behind the Victorian concept of companionate marriage, though finding a mate who was of at least equal status was a given. It was important to make marital choices informed by both the head and the heart.

Was it normal to marry your cousin in the 1800s?

Nonetheless, in both the US and Europe, the frequency of first-cousin marriage—a practice that had often been favored, especially by elites—sharply declined during the second half of the 19th century [3].

Did Victorians drink while pregnant?

Working-class women made and sometimes sold their own home-brewed alcohol. They drank to socialise or celebrate or sometimes for health during pregnancy and after childbirth.

What was taboo in the Victorian era?

There were many taboos back in the Victorian era. You couldn't reference bodily functions. You couldn't show affection in public. Divorce was taboo.

How did they keep from getting pregnant in the 1800s?

Early condoms were fashioned of linen, sheep gut, or fish bladder, and used with ointments and medicinal solutions. Learn more about this and other artifacts, from “female pills” to methods of douching.

What was the ideal Victorian child?

Children would have been well aware that they were expected to obey God, their parents, teachers, betters, elders, as well as being a loyal subject of Queen Victoria! Wealthy Victorians believed that good breeding and respectability separated those from 'polite society' from the awful, lawless poor.

What was the ideal Victorian family?

The idea of the nuclear family was increasingly exalted. Prior to the Victorian age, building relationships within the family was not deemed important by society, but with improvements in the economic structure, an opportunity for individuals within families to develop closer relationships with one another came.

Was the Victorian era good or bad?

Although the Victorian era was a period of extreme social inequality, industrialisation brought about rapid changes in everyday life that affected all classes. Family life, epitomised by the young Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their nine children, was enthusiastically idealised.