ABSTRACT
All societies throughout human history, and most families, have dealt extensively with childhood and children. There are many standard features, regardless of time or place. Always and everywhere, children must be given some training to prepare for adulthood. They must learn to deal with certain emotions, such as anger or fear, in ways that are socially acceptable. Always and everywhere, given the long period of helplessness of the human species in infancy, young children require arrangements for feeding and physical care. Childhood diseases, or trying to prevent them, as well as possible accidents are preoccupations of parents from the earliest times to the present. Some kind of socialization for gender roles seems an inescapable part of the process of dealing with childhood, even in the most egalitarian contemporary settings. The list of common basic features is a long one.
