Lloyd de Mause
argued until recently childhood had ben life of pain & misery due to adults failing to emphasise with children & see the world as they did ~ he alleged children were ill-treated by parents & argued they were often beaten or even killed or abused ~ he felt it was not until mid 20th century that parents began to engage with their children on their own terms ~ adopting a more helpful child rearing practice where children were treated much better ~ others dispute this yet it does highlight the treatment of children in the past