From childcare to swimming lessons and from children’s parties to sports clubs, many mothers will agree: it is a matter of running and flying to raise your children. That has not always been the case. In the past, mothers received much more help from people in the area. And that is better for mother and child.
The brains of toddlers and preschoolers may be developed in such a way that they thrive on personal attention and care, but this does not necessarily have to come from the mother herself, write Cambridge anthropologists in a new study to the care of children in the time of hunters and gatherers. At that time, small children received personal care and physical contact from up to fifteen different caregivers for about nine hours a day, it said.
Used to be a lot more support
For most of human history, mothers received much more support than in contemporary Western society, says researcher Nikhil Chaudhary. “We lived as hunter-gatherers for more than 95 percent of our evolutionary history. Therefore, the societies of that time can teach us whether there are certain parenting methods to which children and their mothers have psychologically adapted.”
At least ten caregivers
To find out to what extent this is the case, Chaudhary and a colleague went to the Mbendjele BaYaka, a people who live as hunter-gatherers in Congo. Their first conclusion is that children are “evolutionarily programmed” to expect exceptional physical contact and personal attention from multiple caregivers in addition to their biological parents. In hunter-gatherer times, children had at least ten caregivers and sometimes even twenty or more. These were not only adults, but also older children in the family, who could gain valuable experience when they became parents themselves.
To make it clear how important the role is of all these caregivers: more than half of the times they responded to a baby’s cry instead of the father or mother. “Support from the mother also has many benefits for children. This reduces the risk of a child being neglected or abused. It generally protects against difficulties within the family and it improves the well-being of the mother, allowing her to take better care of her child,” says co-researcher Annie Swanepoel.
Better childcare
But how do you apply that in today’s society? After all, it is difficult to ring all your neighbors’ doorbells and ask them if they would like to help raise your offspring. The researchers therefore argue that the solution must lie in improved and affordable childcare. It is important that there are not too many children per supervisor and that the supervisors in the shelter remain the same people for several years. This somewhat mimics the situation that used to exist among hunter-gatherers.
A Mbendjele camp in the rainforest in Congo. Photo: Dr. Nikhil Chaudhary
In addition, childcare currently mainly serves to ensure that parents can go to work, but it should also give fathers and mothers a break from caring. Never in human history have parents been under as much pressure as they are now when it comes to a lack of support, the researchers say. “The family system in the west is miles away from the communal life of hunter-gatherers like the Mbendjele,” says Chaudhary.
More personal attention
Although the children in those communities have dozens of people looking after them, there are only a handful of ‘core caregivers’ within this large network. In this way, Mbendjele children benefit from the care of many people, but they also have access to personal attention and consistent care from a small group. That is best for their psychological well-being, the researchers conclude.
It is in line with previous research showing a link between caregiver instability and children’s emotional and cognitive development, says Chaudhary, who is concerned about the state of childcare in many Western countries. There are also major staff shortages in the Netherlands in childcare, which means that it cannot even become free.
Flexible
But more needs to be done, the researcher believes. “As a society, from policymakers to employers and health care providers, we must work together to ensure mothers and children receive the support and care they need to thrive.” And that really doesn’t have to be done by taking care of children like the hunter-gatherers did. “Many aspects of our psychology have evolved to be flexible rather than just suited to one specific way of life. The extent to which this applies to the upbringing of children is still a subject of debate,” it concludes.
2023-11-13 18:02:09
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