Family life as we know it, was here not existent. Parents could also send their daughters to nunneries for education if they wished for her to become a nun. There is evidence as early as the seventh century that monasteries took in boys for religious education these children would live, work, and worship with the monks in preparation for a religious life as a monk or priest. For lower class families, their views of family life and the world were created almost exclusively by the church, which was a major economic force during this period. And their influence on our lives. A major difference for children in the Middle Ages is that education during this period was not compulsory.

Now they are content with burning my books.” In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. The likelihood, then, that a child would grow up experiencing the deaths of parents or fellow siblings was high. It is estimated that 20% of women would die giving birth or in their immediate postpartum recovery. Women, on average, did not live as long because of routine complications during childbirth and from undiagnosed infections afterwards. Generally, life expectancy was fairly dismal by today’s standards as the average life expectancy was 43 for women and 48 for men. It is estimated that nearly one-fourth of children died in their first year of life, and about one-sixth did not live to see their fourth birthday. Death was omni-present in family life at the time.ĭuring the Middle Ages, a time of economic growth, warfare, and feudalism, childhood was much shorter and far more focused on work than it is today. Yet, on a deeper look, most children would have far more knowledge of death than current day children do. In the twenty-first century, children are the most treasured people in a household and beacons of hope for the future. The family life of a young child during the Middle Ages, would, on the surface, look similar to what a twenty-first century child would experience. While birth and childhood is a necessary part of growing up, our views of what childhood and family life should be, has changed throughout recorded history.

“We are certainly influenced by role models, and if we are surrounded by images of beautiful rich people, we will start to think that to be beautiful and rich is very important – just as in the Middle Ages, people were surrounded by images of religious piety.”

Feudalism in the middle ages for kids