Until the 1980s the central debate over childhood in the early modern period was between those who believed that parental relationships were cold and those who argued they were similar to modern emotional ties. It is now impossible to support the former argument, but it remains necessary to advance the debate over childhood in order to understand the nature of past relationships between adults and children in detail and in their own terms. This chapter focuses on the process of having children and their development up until the age of about seven, when relationships between parents and children began to change as children took on new responsibilities of formal education or work. It will then examine the ways in which the experience of childhood was formed through play and material culture.