It is obviously easier to care for a child that is not toilet trained if the child is in a skirted garment. In the days before modern sanitation toddlers, like their parents, would relieve themselves wherever the need took them in the gutter in a darkish corner of the yard etc. Perhaps an example of necessity becoming custom. Child raising practices Many upper class English mothers didn't have a clue on how to raise children, especially boys. They were raised by nannies.
Many children recall much closer contacts with their nannies than their mothers.
The nannies virtually ruled the nurseries where the children were raised. They often never experienced close emotional contact with their mothers. Their parents visits to the nursery were often more like formal events than spontaneous familiar contact. Victorian and Edwardian parents often did not eat with the younger children who took their meals in the nursery. Childhood experiences After those childhood experiences, women were expected to have babies, but not necessarily function as mothers.