Scientific Parenting and the Rise of the Parenting Manual

Since the early 1800s, the level of anxiety parents feel has

increased even as children have become steadily safer

Republican Motherhood

A CASE OF CONVICTIONFAMILY EDUCATION

Looking at primary sources

Horace Bushnell, Christian Nurture (1847)

Why the rise in child rearing manuals? Why the increased

focus on parenting?

Extensive v. Intensive Parenting

Scientific Parenting (1920s-1930s)

• Behaviorism (John Watson)• “Habit training”• Personality development• Fear of spoiling infants

Mother’s Study Clubs

WWII and “Momism”

Modern Parenting Debates

• Authoritarian v. Permissive v. Authoritative• The place of corporal punishment• Organic/GMOs/Anti-vaxxing• Helicopter parenting v. Free range children

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me9yrREXOj4

Does Race Matter?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRlmCf1Kj2o

• “The lash of the plantation overseer fell heavily on children to whip them into fear of white authority. Terror in the field often gave way to parents beating black children in the shack, or at times in the presence of the slave owner in forced cooperation to break a rebellious child’s spirit. Black parents beat their children to keep them from misbehaving in the eyes of whites who had the power to send black youth to their deaths for the slightest offense. Today, many black parents fear that a loose tongue or flash of temper could get their child killed by a trigger-happy cop. They would rather beat their offspring than bury them.”

~ Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us70DN2XSfM