Sadly the infant mortality rate was sky high in the Middle Ages. Historians estimate that a quarter of all babies born wouldn't live to see their first birthday. Of course, infant mortality is still an issue for modern-day parents. In fact, the United States ranks 180 on the world's Infant Mortality list, with 5 out of every 1,000 births.

Breastfeeding was the only option for feeding babies in the middle ages and it was normal for children to be breastfed well beyond 2 years of age.

However, if children were born into nobility or if their mother was unable to nurse them, there was another option available: a wet nurse. A wet nurse is a nursing mother who breastfeeds children other than her own. While wet nurses aren't entirely unheard of today, they're rarely used and/or spoken about openly.

If you were a well-to-do lady in the Middle Ages, the thought of rocking your child to sleep may have been a bit too much like hard work. So, lazy ladies of the Middle Ages hired an official cradle rocker (no, really). I mean, I'm not entirely knocking it. That must have been nice (and arguably the most boring occupation in all of world history).

Mothers of the Middle Ages were encouraged to leave their babies unattended in their cribs and go shopping, as long as they were swaddled. People of that particular time period also seemed uninterested in baby proofing their homes (yeah, "baby proofing" wasn't a thing), either. Magistrates records shows accidental deaths of infants from falling out of their cribs or being strangled by hanging cords were quite common.

Anyone who has a toddler knows how messy they can get, and in such a short period of time. Wealthy parents in the Middle Ages hired a member of house staff known as a "Groomer" to follow toddlers around, steering them away from messy situations and helping to ensure their expensive clothes stayed clean and dry. That's the dream, my modern-day friends. That's the dream.

Parents today aren't really into giving their children any potentially dangerous items or strangulation hazards. In the Middle Ages, however, babies were routinely given amulets and necklaces to wear that supposedly kept them safe from "evil spirits."

This is as gross as it sounds. Mothers, or nurses if the mother was too posh to do it herself, would pre-chew food to ensure it was soft and mushy before feeding it to the child. Gross.

The old phrase being "tied to mothers apron strings" is from a real life Middle Age practice of tying rambunctious toddlers to their mother by way of a string from her apron. The idea was to keep them away from harm such as open fires and stairs.

In the Middle Ages childhood was thought to last only 7 years. Although children were not considered adults until they were quite a bit older, a protected childhood was over much sooner.

Once childhood was "officially" over, children were expected to start giving back to the family, either by learning a trade, helping with the family business, or running the household (if they could).

In the Middle Ages and right up until more modern times, girls access to education was severely restricted. Members of the upper class could have their daughter privately tutored, but most parents thought it appropriate to only teach daughters how to become wives and mothers.

It was totally normal to see small children playing in the nude in the Middle Ages. Even older children would strip down to absolutely nothing, without a second thought about potentially offending those around them. Privacy was an unknown concept.

Although boys didn't apparently mature until 21 years old, girls were considered ready for marriage (and children of their own) at only 14 years of age. Progress is a funny thing. It has certainly taken a long time for a daughter's worth to be considered as valuable as a son's, and in terms of gender equality and access to opportunity for girls we still have a long way to go.

Still, in more ways than I count, I am glad that I'm raising children in this century, and not the Middle Ages.