Is childhood a period of innocence?

It is for many, absolutely. I watch my nieces and nephews discover the world, and look up into the sky, and see things for the first time, and it is amazing. They trust immediately, and give wholeheartedly. There is no sarcasm or bitterness there. We only learn those things as we become "mature." Children can become overjoyed by a simple game, or even approval from a parent. They work hard to solve simple tasks such as tying their shoes, and they know that they have done a lot. They believe in themselves, and haven't learned self-doubt or despair. A child would never write the paragraphs below, but would instead teach you a game that you can play in the dirt, wherever they are.

Adults should allow children their innocence... it is we who corrupt them, and destroy their hope. Not the other way around.

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Ideally it should be, and in days gone by, like in the 19th century and before, it was in the US. At least it was for a short period in a child's life. But soon enough, children then had to grow up quickly and assume some hard chores and tasks around the house and fields and had to care for siblings in large families. Some, at very early ages, also had to take factory jobs or other jobs outside the home to help support the family, but in terrible safety and health conditions. The innocence was rapidly exchanged for responsibility.

In the late 1940s and 1950s, in post-war "baby boom" years, mothers were back at home from war jobs in the factories. They could again concentrate on caring for the kids and were being encouraged by "Uncle Sam" to return to domesticity, to settle back into a dependent role, and to create and nurture families. Along with fathers, home from war with new industrial age jobs to support their wives and children, these newly strengthened family units allowed for a return to a period fostering childhood innocence. This lasted for almost two decades. Children were sheltered by parents who were determined to provide better for their children and protect them from the uglier side of life. Parents wanted to prolong the innocence of their children and make their lives happier and better than their own had been during the Great Depression and World War.

With the 1960s and Viet Nam era the grim realities of warfare were brought in living color into American homes and the innocence of childhood was again lost at an early age from this constant display of death and destruction. News reports were full of crimes, war, race tensions and riots, government corruption and assassinations. The presence of the Cold War with "bomb shelters" in backyards and nuclear blast drills held in schools, made the fears of the world again spread into the family homes. Children were becoming desensitized to the Horror displayed daily on the TV with broadcasts filmed directly inside the war zones. They heard of "POW" and "MIA" and saw the injured soldiers and the caskets of the killed soldiers from their towns and families returning from Viet Nam. They had to learn to shield themselves with a hard exterior from these images and stories to which they were more and more exposed. Innocence again lost.

In today's world that trend continues, terrorism, war, crime, child abuse, neglect, and molestation, and all sorts of societies' ills are continuously beamed in to the homes of children via TV news reported even more directly and live from the world-wide locations around the clock, 24/7. Younger children are subjected to this as they are "entertained" and baby sat by the TV while both parents work. If they are not turned calloused and emotionless by these constant negative images and forces, the parents are to be commended for controlling their access and preserving their innocence as much as they can. Still many of the very young today can become quite hardened and innocence is lost.

Worse, non-nurtured kids, perhaps in imitation, commit horrible delinquent acts that may also be a result of the dissociation and desensitization. Cruelty to animals is not unknown among juvenile delinquents. Younger and younger children use and abuse alcohol and drugs. And, most horribly today, there is the tragically grim reality of juvenile suicide in America. In most of all the rest of the world, childhood innocence is a luxury that is and has always been only available to the wealthy. Innocence is impossible to maintain on an empty stomach or in the middle of a war zone where there isn't even the benefit of its being removed through the lens of a camera. Childhood should be a time of innocence, wonder, joy, safety and security; in a perfect world it would be. But for the children who grow up in abusive homes, or with parents who are alcoholics or drug addicts, this robs them of the innocent childhood they should have had, and, in fact, deserve. Far too many parents neglect and/or abuse their children, resulting in some of these kids having serious addiction, legal and relationship problems, as well as some growing up believing this is "normal" parenting. The best way to ensure your child has a good, loving, nurturing and innocent childhood is to let them know they are loved; don't assume they know - tell them, and show them. Let your child know that you are there for them because you love them, not because you are "obligated" to be there.