Parenthood In The Gilded Age Essay

Parenthood has never been a simple task to undertake, as it comes with hefty responsibilities and burdens. Even so, the parents of today possess many more advantages than the parents of the Gilded Age. Today, parents have regular access to hospitals and doctors, unlimited access to information on how to raise a child, child support, and much more. However, raising a child in the Gilded Age was arduous work, as many families were extremely poor. Many families could not afford to keep their babies, so they were left out on the streets. During this time, numerous babies were abandoned by their parents who either didn't want to keep it or couldn't afford to keep it. In the Gilded Age of America in New York City, mothers were either kind or cruel in the methods they used to get rid of their babies. In Jacob Riis's Waifs of New York City's Slums, the author has mixed feelings about the abandoning of babies. Riis relays a tone of understanding behind the reasoning of abandoning a baby due to his word choice while documenting his findings. However, he is also disgusted by some of the ways the mothers got rid of their babies.

The most common way for mothers to be rid of their

Over a few years, twenty-five thousand babies would be left out on the streets by their mothers(c). Jacob Riis described the mothers who would abandon their child on the street to die as "wretched(c).” Mothers, who are too afflicted with misery and poverty to make sure their child is taken care of. Murder is what he calls the women's action, as most babies picked up on the street later die in hospitals(c). He documented many other acts of cruelty against children. On one occasion, he reported that a policeman found someone trying to bury a live baby. Some mothers take to leaving their babies in front of rich people's houses, hoping that the occupants will take it in as their own. However, none do, and in the morning the baby is taken to the Infants' Hospital on Randall's