40 days and 40 years. The confinement of childhood lasts already forty years

Abstract

The confinement of children as a result of the pandemic has sparked debates and reflections on what their role is in society and in the public space. Through a magazine aimed at women, the spaces that Spanish children have occupied and vacate in recent decades have been studied. Thus, the article shows the enormous disconnection that exists today between childhood and the street; how boys and girls have been gradually tamed, as the home has become the quintessential place for parenting, constantly under the supervision of an adult. In addition, how little by little, and unnoticed, the streets have been emptying of children playing at ease to become simply a transit space, being transported from one place to another by their parents. Finally, how the loss of the street has brought with it the need to create special spaces for children, far from any risk and danger. It could be said that this confinement is the extreme expression of something that started forty years ago.