What Was Life Like As A Rich Victorian Child?

by | Last updated on January 24, 2024

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Rich Victorians

lived in large houses that were well heated and clean

. Children got a good education either by going away to or having a governess who taught them at home (this is usually how girls were educated). Wealthy people could also afford to buy beautiful clothes.

What was it like to be a rich child in the Victorian times?

Wealthy Victorian Children

Children were

mostly raised by a nanny who would teach the child what was proper and what was not

. Day to day living was nothing more than a lonely monotonous routine and very formal. Wealthy Victorian Children rarely communicated with their parents except for a specified time each day.

What was school like for rich Victorian children?

At the start of the Victorian era, very few children actually attended school. Children from rich families would be educated at home by a governess (a female teacher). At the age of ten, boys would go to public schools, such as

Eton or Harrow

, and girls would continue their education at home.

What was poor Victorian life like?

A poor Victorian family would have lived in

a very small house with only a couple of rooms on each floor

. The very poorest families had to make do with even less – some houses were home to two, three or even four families. … Open sewers ran along the streets in poor areas making them very smelly and unhealthy.

What was life like for a child in a Victorian factory?


Children were apprenticed at nine and were given lodgings, food and an hour of schooling a week

. Hours were long and the mills were noisy, hot, dusty and dangerous places to work. Medical records reveal that accidents and disease were common.

What were Victorian children's punishments?


Boys were usually caned on their backsides and girls were either beaten on their bare legs or across their hands

. A pupil could receive a caning for a whole range of different reasons, including: rudeness, leaving a room without permission, laziness, not telling the truth and playing truant ().

How much did poor Victorians get paid?

The pay was pitifully low. A woman might make one shirt in a long day, sewing by hand in poor light – she had to buy her own candles – and she would be lucky to earn

six shillings for a dozen

.

What was the worst punishment in Victorian schools?

When children at Victorian schools behaved badly, they were often punished by

being hit on the hands with the teacher's cane

. Many teachers were very strict and most schools kept a “Punishment Book” to record the names of the bad ones and the details of their offences.

Who invented school?


Horace Mann

invented school and what is today the United States' modern school system. Horace was born in 1796 in Massachusetts and became the Secretary of Education in Massachusettes where he championed an organized and set curriculum of core knowledge for each student.

What did rich Victorian children do at school?

Most children never went to school and struggled to read or write. Children from rich families were typically

taught at home by governess

until the age of 10 years old. Wealthy boys from the age of 10 would then go to Public schools such as Rugby. Girls on the other hand continued to be educated at home.

How did Victorians treat the poor?

Poor Victorians would

put children to work at an early age

, or even turn them out onto the streets to fend for themselves. … People working long hours in Victorian times had to live close to their employment and available housing became scarce and highly-priced.

What did rich Victorians do for fun?

Rich children had

train sets, toy soldiers, rocking horses, dolls and doll houses, tea-sets

, and toy shops with toy fruit.

What did poor Victorians sleep on?

But a fairly accurate description of how your mouth feels after a night drinking gin! Perhaps the creepiest of these peculiar Victorian sleeping arrangements, for those too poor to have a fixed place to sleep, were the

four or five penny coffins

.

How much did child chimney sweeps get paid?

From 1773, master chimney sweeps regularly kept anywhere from 2 to 20 children, depending on how many they could use for their business. For each child, the master sweep was paid

3-4 pounds

by the government when the apprenticeship agreement was signed.

Why did Victorian kids work?

Why did children go to work? Many

Victorian children were poor and worked to help their families

. … You had to work to receive money and people thought work was good for children. The industrial revolution created new jobs, in factories and mines.

What did poor Victorians eat?

For many poor people across Britain,

white bread made from bolted wheat flour

was the staple component of the diet. When they could afford it, people would supplement this with vegetables, fruit and animal-derived foods such as meat, fish, milk, cheese and eggs – a Mediterranean-style diet.

Carlos Perez
Author
Carlos Perez
Carlos Perez is an education expert and teacher with over 20 years of experience working with youth. He holds a degree in education and has taught in both public and private schools, as well as in community-based organizations. Carlos is passionate about empowering young people and helping them reach their full potential through education and mentorship.