Life In A Puritan Family

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Rachel Brockmeyer History 120 Mr. Thye November 16, 2011 Life in a Puritan Family I chose this book on Husbands and Wives, Parents and Children in Puritan Society because I wanted to observe and compare the differences of home life today to how it was back then. Puritan families were like a pyramid with the husband being at the top and the church being his final authority, to the wife, then the children being the base of the pyramid along with the servants. This structure would definitely not work in today’s society and I imagine it probably didn't always work back then either. Breaking down this pyramid into each section you will see the different roles and importance of each family member, and how this structure worked in their…show more content…
Most women were expected to deliver at least six children. Not only is that quite a few kids but they also were expected to have very short breaks from being pregnant. Normally every twenty to thirty months a woman was expected to conceive. The sixth child normally would not be born until after the age of forty. I don't know about you but being angry, moody and sick for fifty four months of my life does not sound fun, nor would I want to be fat for that long. Having deaths during childbirth were very common back then and it put fear in many woman. One in almost thirty deliveries resulted in the the death of the mother. Looking at a guys point of view, I think this would be very hard. What does the husband do with kids and the household when this…show more content…
If only parents did something of this sort now with their children, and then maybe it wouldn't be as hard to find jobs and have to get degrees for any good paying job. Teenage girls had a quite different training than of the boys. Girls were taught what a housewife should know when she gets married such as spinning, carding, sewing, and knitting. Girls mainly helped their mothers or mistress around the house with the chores they did. Did a woman have to know how to do all these things before she got married? I know for sure I definitely wouldn't pass the test, and would be a single woman for a while. In conclusion, I am very thankful that I did not live back in the Puritan days. Woman had so many rules and chores that had to be done, and men had to work their butts off to support the wife and children. I love children so much, and I definitely could never give up my child to another family, especially for disciplining them. I am glad in today's society that the pyramid is altered and woman can actually run their own life with their own rights. I hope our country continues to grow with new ideas and views , and that we never go back to the Puritan
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