What Children Were Able To Do At 10 Years Old In Russia

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

What a peasant girl could do in Russia upon reaching 10 years

Modern upbringing of children is aimed at getting them a quality education and the development of creative abilities. In many families, girls have never touched a vacuum cleaner and have no idea how to light a gas stove. But a little over a century ago, daughters in village families by the age of 10 were already full-fledged housewives.

How children were raised

The head of the family in the days of peasant Russia was the father, all household members obeyed him. It never entered anyone's head to contradict him. Batiushka taught his daughters the simplest truths, which were centuries-old foundations passed from generation to generation.

The girls had to:

• honor senior family members;
• be obedient, hard-working and devout;
• observe chastity;
• treat bread with reverence as the result of hard work;
• help the elderly and pity the poor and the holy fools.

The father, in addition to hard work in the field, distributed daily work, including among the youngest children. Already from the age of 3, girls were given small household tasks, which basically boiled down to the function of "bring and serve."

Assistant at the age of 5

From the age of 5-6, the duties of the daughters expanded, they were entrusted with looking after younger children (even babies), because the mother was busy from dawn to dawn in the field, in the garden or household chores. In order to calm the little ones, they chewed bread crumb or baked potatoes and gave them instead of a nipple. The kid spent most of the time in a homemade wooden cradle, which was suspended from the ceiling of the hut.

If it was required to pass lunch to the elders, the children happily fulfilled the assignment, bringing water, bread, porridge or simple stew into the field. Also during these years, they were allowed to run to the shops for small purchases, for example, for tobacco.

They nibbled grass for poultry and cattle for complementary foods, helped the mother and older sisters manage the garden.

At this age, the girls began to cook food with their mother, bake bread, and wash the dishes after the meal. Little hostesses were entrusted to mend shirts, caftans, leaky pants.

Household chores

At the age of 7, girls became full-fledged participants in all daily work. If earlier they wore one short shirt, then, having matured, they wore a long dress, and they still wore shoes only in the cold season. From simple sewing on patches, girls moved on to creating homespun clothing.

The first thing they learned was spinning. Usually, the father made his own spinning machine for his daughter. After that, it was undesirable to use other people's spinning wheels, and it was not worth trusting your own, otherwise they could break.

Then they taught how to weave a cloth, from which not only clothes were made, but also tablecloths, towels, curtains. In some provinces, in addition to spinning and weaving, they also taught how to card the wool of domestic animals.

The old responsibilities did not disappear anywhere: the girls continued to work a lot in the garden, watering and harvesting, weeding weeds. They cleaned the house by sweeping and washing benches, tables and the floor. They could independently heat the stove, and with good skill, they were allowed to heat the bathhouse. The girls went to the river with their mother and sisters to wash their clothes and then hung them up to dry.

Babysitting for younger children

By the age of 10, each girl could boast of a hand-sewn dowry for a future wedding. Growing up, girls learned not only to make fabric, but also to beautifully embroider and spin the finest lace.

If a young lady showed herself as a competent nanny, who knew how to entertain kids with games and songs and keep track of the biggest restless people, then she could be sent to a rich house for service. Around these years, they went to work in the fields, knitted sheaves or collected spikelets. Every day they milked the cows, cleaned the livestock, removed the manure, cleaned the house and cooked. In addition to all this, the girls looked after the elderly family members, treating them with deep respect and love.

What did you do in your free time

The children were not all the time busy only with work or household chores. Although there were hard times in the old days, children remained children. They loved to play, walk and communicate with their peers. The children also had dolls sewn from scraps of rags and straw. They often went to the river to swim and fish, to the forest to pick mushrooms, berries and nuts.