ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about children and childhood in the Caribbean and Britain. Attitudes toward children vary historically and culturally, and how a society treats its children may be seen as a barometer of social progress. Exploring families from the perspective of the child and childhood may be a fruitful way of exploring these social values. The rose-tinted accounts of childhood can, therefore, be seen as part of a particular genre of childhood, and one that has an almost universal appeal. Despite variation in the composition of childhood homes and in the relationship of the adult(s) primarily responsible for the care of children, most informants who grew up in the Caribbean emphasized the communitarian basis for childcare. From a child's perspective, growing up in a family characterized by migration would mean witnessing individual choice and activity, but learning also that individualism did not equate with autonomy, nor that migration signalled the end of active family membership.
