Are historical questions about parenting on-topic?

Question

Would historical questions about parenting in times past be acceptable here? For example, suppose I want to ask about the typical weaning age in 1850's Russia, what kind of chores were typical for a 12-year-old in rural Ireland in 1930, or whether there were any widely-recognized guidelines for corporal punishment of children in Ancient Rome around the second century CE. Are such questions acceptable here? To be clear, many would be on-topic on History Stack Exchange, but being on-topic elsewhere has never been a specific closure reason on the Stack Exchange network.

An example question might be:

I'm writing a historical novel and want to make sure that my child protagonist's life is portrayed reasonably accurately. Would the typical daily chores of an 10-12 year old girl in rural western Ireland around 1930 be mostly domestic in nature (sewing, mopping, washing, etc.) or did little girls regularly work in the field alongside their brothers?

Answer 1

I don't think these would generally be on topic here, partly because many will not be about good parenting - they will be about what people used to do, and in many cases those behaviours were not optimal.

Corporal punishment is also off topic here - it is overwhelmingly agreed it is a Bad Thing, so questions about it are of zero value.

Asking about typical chores in 1930, again, is historical value, but not useful here.

I'd suggest History Stack Exchange is going to be your best bet for most, if not all questions in this vein.

For more info about what is on topic here, check out our Help pages.