ABSTRACT

Four-year-old children can seldom tell the time by the clock; but if they live in a modern urban environment their day will usually be ordered to a clock-bound schedule determined by the regular comings and goings of other members of the family. Ritualistic and habitual comfort behaviour is of so much importance and this chapter discusses it. The chapter illustrates the main findings of class differences in parents' attitudes on bedtime and strictness at bedtime, as analysed by social class. To ensure that the child goes to bed with a good grace and of his own volition, parents do their best to exercise tact and patience at bedtime and are usually prepared to turn the routine into a game in order to make it acceptable to the child. Where a relaxation of routine involves books or other verbalization, their usual separate position of greater strictness is relinquished or at least modified, and class differences smoothed out.