Family Life During the Renaissance

Roles of men, women, and children in the European Renaissance

© Lorri Brown

Apr 29, 2007

A typical Renaissance family consisted of parents and their children. It is traditionally assumed that people of the Renaissance married early. This is because nobility did indeed marry early. However, most common folks married in their mid twenties. Since the average life expectancy was 40, few people made it to grandparent status.

Family Roles

Renaissance women, as expected, stayed home to care for the children and the home. The men in the family worked out of the house, tending the fields or in merchant shops. Older children, both boys and girls, often worked alongside their fathers, to help contribute to the family funds.

Renaissance Housing

Houses were small, some with no more than two rooms with low ceilings. It would not be considered unusual for a family of four to share a single bed. Fireplaces were used for cooking, causing the tiny house to quickly fill with smoke. In the hot summer months, houses in southern Europe would be unbearably hot, causing women to set up their looms outdoors, and serve family meals outdoors as well.

Household possessions were simple, to say the least. A typical Renaissance family owned two outfits and one pair of shoes per person, some kitchen utensils, the aforementioned bed, a chamber pot, a table and bench, a chest, and a few tools.

Childhood

Children during the Renaissance were thought to be miniature adults, and therefore, as soon as they were out of nappies they would be dressed like adults, and spoken to as adults. Despite this grown-up treatment, children still had childhood toys and games to keep them occupied until they were deemed old enough to work, at around age seven or eight.

Toddlers were often confined to a wooden walker, to prevent them from wandering off, or tied to something with a long rope. This was important because a typical Renaissance house was full of burning fires, pots of boiling liquid.

Boys stayed home with their mother until about the age of seven. Then they may go to a private school, or be tutored, if the family could afford it. If they came from a poor family boys would be sent to work as a servant in a wealthy household. At age fourteen boys could enter into an apprenticeship.

Girls stayed home with their mothers, learning the necessary skills to run a household. If their family was poor, than the girls may be put to work as domestic servants in wealthy households. A female was considered a “girl” until she married. If a woman never married, she was never considered fully grown. Wealthier girls received a limited education, focusing on history, Latin, and geography, and the skills needed to be a good wife. Few women received an education equal to that of males.

• More on Life in Renaissance Europe

Sources:

Sider, Sandra. Handbook to life in Renaissance Europe. New York: Facts on File, 2004.

Renaissance Daily Life http://library.thinkquest.org/C006522/life/children.php accessed on April 28, 2007

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