DO YOU KNOW WHAT A 10-YEAR-OLD GIRL LIVING IN A VILLAGE A CENTURY AGO COULD DO? Can you imagine that today even half of the listed tasks would be performed by any modern child?
– to babysit younger brothers and sisters (feed them, give them drink, swaddle, entertain – from morning till evening);
– bring firewood, clean the stove, stoke it;
– fetch water from the well;
– cook porridges, bake pancakes, prepare vegetables, make pies and other baked goods, cook fruit soups;
– churn butter;
– set the table, wash the dishes;
– sweep the floor, wash and clean benches and the floor;
– beat and clean the floor mats;
– spin, weave, embroider, knit;
– wash and rinse laundry in the river, hang it out;
– make the bed (including beating it);
– replace the wick, candles, clean the kerosene lamp;
– feed and give water to all domestic animals and their young;
– collect chicken eggs;
- plant, weed and water the garden;
– milk the cow; collect berries, mushrooms, herbs and dry branches in the forest;
– harvest the garden and the field;
– herd the cow, goat, geese, ducks;
– transport haystacks on a horse during the haymaking;
– fish….
And that's not all! Some children's duties are hard to describe because we never did them and have never even seen them.
For example, a 10‑year‑old girl helped adults make kizyaki – a special fuel for the stove. Or she flailed linen. She “snovala” – specially prepared threads that were later woven. More than half a hundred tasks! No wonder the folk saying goes: “A ten‑year‑old daughter – the mother has no work.” It’s like in Pavel Bazhov’s tale “The Silver Hoof” – Grandfather Kokovanja took a girl named Daryonka. And she “kept the house tidy, cooked soup and porridge”. Yet she was “in her sixth year” – that is, only five years old! When the grandfather and Daryonka went to the forest, she “tied a knot for herself. She took a few scraps to sew a doll’s dress, a skein of thread, a needle and also a rope”. And she wasn’t afraid to live alone in the hut for several days.