ABSTRACT
Many of the class differences which we have found in the way children are handled can only be interpreted in terms of more general differences in the styles of life associated with the various occupational groups. To an extent, of course, this is true of all areas of child upbringing, and indeed of behaviour in general: we tend to live surrounded by members of our own social class, so that pressures are exerted upon us to conform in our behaviour to the nol1llS of that class; class differences thus become defined and are perpetuated. Depending both upon the type of neighbourhood in which we dwell and upon the kind of activity involved, we retain certain degrees of choice in what we do and the attitudes we express. In some streets of a town it will be easy, in others difficult, for a mother to pop a dummy in her baby's mouth or to slap or shout at her four-year-old in public; on the other hand, whether she leaves her new-born baby to cry for half-an-hour at a time is far more a matter of her own personal choice. There are some areas of behaviour, however, in which the class differences that are shown are very clearly linked with the whole manner of living of the occupational group, and this in its turn may be largely determined by the conditions of work which are considered normal for that group. Adequacy of pay, degree of physical exhaustion entailed, regularity of work, stability of income and working-place-all these are likely to show significant variation between classes, and to have some influence upon, for instance, what women expect of a 'normal' marriage relationship, whether they are satisfied or dissatisfied with their maternal role, what standards of living they aspire to, how they prefer to spend their leisure time (and whether they expect to have any), and so on.
