Normally, children are considered to be those individuals who go through the first instance of life known as childhood and which is prior to puberty. Children are usually understood as such until the age of twelve to fourteen in general terms, although such a period of life is in some respects confusing as regards the passing of stages.
Although babies are considered by some professionals as children, others maintain that this stage is prior to childhood, therefore the possibilities are varied and not entirely defined. One of the aspects that can be used to understand what a child is is the fact that they are not considered adults and therefore must be protected and cared for by those of legal age.
The children's World
Although children coexist with adults, it is possible to speak of the children's world as an independent reality. This idea manifests itself in very different senses:
1) from the moment of birth the child has a much higher dependence on the adult than most baby animals,
2) physiologically and psychologically children have a series of stages in their development and
3) socially children give meaning to the family institution.
The world of children is similar to that of adults but is adapted to their own needs and circumstances. Thus, there are doctors for the little ones, a specific meal for them, laws that protect them, literature and children's entertainment and a series of rituals associated with them (baptism, the first communion, their first steps, the first day school ...).
When considering what ingredients the world of children has, the most significant are innocence, fantasy, vitality and tenderness.
The concept of childhood has varied throughout history, as well as in different socio-cultural spaces
Not only has the age limits by which a subject is considered a "child" changed, but the rights and needs of such individuals have also changed, as well as the responsibilities of society as a whole towards them.
According to the definitions established by the United Nations, through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, children should be understood as all individuals under the age of sixteen, an age that may also vary with the legislation of each country. International legislation establishes at the same time that children are subjects who must have the protection and care of adults in all aspects of their daily lives. On the other hand, they must have essential rights such as the right to family, education, housing, food and health, being the responsibility of adults to ensure that these rights are fulfilled.
Today there are numerous international, regional and local organizations that are concerned with ensuring a future for children from different parts of the world as well as good living conditions in the short and long term. Among them we find UNICEF (dependent on the UN), Save the Children or Missing Children. These organizations are dedicated to fighting especially against scourges such as child abuse, pedophilia, child labor, abandonment, illiteracy and child prostitution among others.
The two faces of childhood
The vast majority of all civilizations have protected children. The protective attitude towards them allows us to remember that adults are especially sensitive in everything related to childhood, among other things because adults have also been children.
We could affirm that childhood presents two opposite faces, one friendly and the other tragic. On its friendly side, childhood is associated with the discovery of life, the maternal feeling and, ultimately, a kind of magic that surrounds the world of children. The tragic part also exists in various circumstances: labor exploitation, child abuse, school bullying, pedophilia and other circumstances in which children are not respected by adults.
The word child in everyday language
The word child goes beyond a vital stage of the human being or of the infantile world itself. In fact, in everyday language we use the word child in many ways. If an adult is too naive, we will tell him to "not be a child."
If something is not important, we say that it is childish. In relation to climate change, there is El Niño, a phenomenon that negatively affects the cycles of nature and that receives this name because it appeared for the first time at Christmas, the time of the arrival of the Child Jesus.
Photos 2-3: iStock - fotostorm / princigalli
