Ottoway examines the role of the family in caring for their elderly. She discusses that there were great affections between parents and children even through their older years. She finds through many different journals and diaries that most of the extensive, primary care that was done by the family was mainly during times of sickness or injury. Beyond the occasional extensive care for aged parents there was also an expectation of affection and assistance as well as for the elderly parents to continue caring about their adult children’s well being. Wills were a very prominent source to show of the care that elderly parents’ had for their children children even after death.
Another aspect Ottoway explored was co-habitation of aged parents with their adult children. Many of her statistics come from parish records from which she is able to find that most elderly parents did reside with their family, yet there was still a decent percentage that did not. Many of these were often the poor who needed the assistance the most, but did not have children that could support them in ways they needed, especially financially.
Further more, there was a great importance of grandchildren and even other extended family in the support and care of elderly family members. This care for elderly in some cases extended beyond family ties in certain cases. But overall the argument that Ottoway expresses is that family ranging from adult children, grandchildren, and other extended kin did play a very key role in the assistance of their aged family members. However, the extent depended on large regional variations as to the extent of assistance. This argument fits under the themes of age and family relationships because it discusses in depth the role of family relations of the elderly.
This argument is valid and supported through many forms of primary sources. Ottoway also involves other secondary sources that contradict her arguments in which she is able to successfully refute their claims. The point that is made of large variation is also an important side note to her claims, but also makes her claims more difficult to concretely display, which is common of most studies of family across large regional areas.
2 comments:
What I found interesting in Ottoway's article was the role reversal of adult children looking to their elderly parents for emotional support. Most of her article was devoted to elderly people's relationships with and dependencies on their children, yet she mentioned that even when the people were quite elderly their adult children still relied on their parents for support.
Another interesting point she made was how older people would develop close relationships with their grandchildren, occasionally to the exclusion of their own children. She mentioned that elderly people would sometimes be mistrustful of their children and instead look to grandchildren or cousins for support. I wonder if this means that many people in early modern England tried to use their parents for financial gain. I was intrigued that grandparents would be so interested in their grandchildren when it seems that most grandchildren had no obligation to support their grandparents.
One of the points not mentioned in the blog post was the facet of unmarried indivduals and who came to play a role in their lives. Although this wasn't one of the main arguments for the article I think it is an important aspect to consider when looking at old age. Ottoway says that because marriage was not "universal", many bachelors and spinsters looked toward their extended kin for aid. Extended kin then, played a wide role in a non-married persons life.
It is also interesting to note, that although there was indeed co-habitation for parents and children, Ottoway mentions that it was clear "that a child's decision to accept an aging parent into their household was voluntary" (153). It was ultimately the children who allowed parents to move into their homes and give them financial support.
In the conclusion, Ottoway states that during the eighteenth century the present culture "had expectations that aging parents would not isolate themselves from their family members" (171). Family networking, as can be seen throughout the article and in this statmene, was a distinct and vital facet to everday life in Early Modern times.
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