Neither of these really describes what childhood is for. Both of them are inventions of the modern WEIRD society. I’d suggest you read “Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattels, Changelings” for a wider view on the subject… it’s pretty bleak though. The very idea that there is such a thing as an optimal childhood parents ought to strive to provide their children… is also a modern, Western, extremely unusual idea, and throughout most of history, in most cultures, they were just… little creatures that would eventually be adults and till then either got in the way or were used for something.
The norm appears to be “benevolent neglect”, at best—that is, children are not (outside of our Western bubble of reality, as well as East Asia which independently invented some of the same norms) actively taught or guided towards anything; mostly they are ignored and they teach themselves everything they need to know by mimicking adults. People spend time with their children, but it’s rarely a goal explicitly striven for (the way it is for Western parents); it’s just a side effect of their existing at all.
Neither of these really describes what childhood is for. Both of them are inventions of the modern WEIRD society. I’d suggest you read “Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattels, Changelings” for a wider view on the subject… it’s pretty bleak though. The very idea that there is such a thing as an optimal childhood parents ought to strive to provide their children… is also a modern, Western, extremely unusual idea, and throughout most of history, in most cultures, they were just… little creatures that would eventually be adults and till then either got in the way or were used for something.
The norm appears to be “benevolent neglect”, at best—that is, children are not (outside of our Western bubble of reality, as well as East Asia which independently invented some of the same norms) actively taught or guided towards anything; mostly they are ignored and they teach themselves everything they need to know by mimicking adults. People spend time with their children, but it’s rarely a goal explicitly striven for (the way it is for Western parents); it’s just a side effect of their existing at all.