Children

Quanafi:

(note, genders are irrelevant because Quanafi are serial hermaphrodites...and lack noticeable gender differences outside of intercourse, pregnancy, and breast feeding (though should the mother of the child die, the father can breastfeed within a day so long as he avoids pregnant or lactating females)

Villages are made up of your clan members, basically your really extended family. Unless you live in a Vatsi (2 clan) or Quatsi (one of the huge clans that sit on the council area you tend not to marry within your village. You can marry into any clan so long as it isn't too low (or too high) or across the Feud.

Upper Class:

Raised largely by nannies. In adolescence instead of having nannies they have servants and tutors, and often go away to boarding schools with the children of all the other upper class people. They go nowhere alone, even as adults. Unless they marry someone of higher station they tend to stay in their same village, but not generally the same house. They are adult when they have undergone a special test of maturity at around age 55.

Lower class:

Raised by the parents, taught from an early age the basic things lie hunting, defending, cooking, cleaning, sewing, and the family trade. The poorest of the poor rarely go to school, and if they are literate it is because they have literate parents or literate relatives who taught them. After about age 10 (equiv. human age about 3-5) they are often found playing around the neighborhood "alone" with the extended family caring for them as needed. The upper lower class also uses the test of maturity at around age 35 (adolescence), for the very poor you are an adult when you have kids of your own, at about age 50 (young adulthood). You probably never leave your village except to marry and you work from about age 25 on in some capacity.

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Yäwurenyi-common:

Clans and villages are mostly unrelated, but most people never leave their hometown. It used to be that those considered unteachable (such as the mentally handicapped, the blind and the deaf) may never attain adulthood, but after the Blood-Adopted Princess Rivershadow (Nicknamed "Princess Whisper") was declared adult at her father-brother's coronation, that was totally blown out of the water.

Pretty universally your father and mother have to "recognize" you as their child for you to be considered legally their child (though you can refer to yourself as someone's blood child or blood sibling if you are related, for anti-incest purposes). Orphans and legal orphans are generally either live with relatives (or their blood parents as a pretty well treated "kertakul" [no rights, never really become adult, can't inherit, have to earn your keep, but no real responsibilities or punishments {discipline makes good adults, if you aren't going to be adult, why discipline you?}]) or they are sent to live at the temple where the brightest become clergy and the rest help out around the place until the temple can marry them off. An orphan who marries, whether or not they become clergy, is expected to adopt an orphan. If you are down on your luck, even as an adult, you can be taken in by relatives (even very very distant ones) as the aforementioned kertakul status. It is somewhat demeaning (as it means you couldn't handle adulthood) but to take relatives in if you can or provide for them what you can is the duty of kin.

Example...Princess Whisper, also mentioned was born a princess, but is deaf, so the king refused to recognize her as his daughter, but since his wife wanted to she was kept around the house as kertakul status, until the descubralians wanted yawu and quanafi at their school for the deaf and blind, and to get the annoying quanafi out of his office he agreed to send Whisper there. Her blood brother, the crown prince, secretly learned TNSL and adopted her when he was coroneted (and therefore had authority over his father rather than the other way around) and made her an adult. Since she is an adopted child of the king she cannot be first heir, but can be blood regent or a secondary heir and she can bear the title and circlet of a princess. Also, to make things more complicated, he is her father-brother, she is his sister-daughter, his wife is her mother, and blood mother is her (get this:) grandmother-aunt. Her children are her adoptive mother's grandchildren, her adoptive siblings' nieces and nephews, her brother-father's grandchildren-nieces/nephews, her blood mother's greatgrandchildren-cousins, and totally unrelated to her blood father. She didn't have to go through the test of maturity because her adoptive mother enumerated what she had done that fit the metaphorical actions in the test.

If the mother of an infant dies or is physically unable to care for them, the nearest aunt of the infant is obligated to take the child as her own (not even adopted, unless she has no children) if she is married, or come and care for the child in the father's house until the child is weaned if she is single. Marrying the widower father is completely optional. If the husband dies his nearest brother takes her and her children into his home, and the children bear their father's name but are raised as his own. If the brother cannot sustain two families, a near relative or the child's grandparents will do as stated.

Upper Class: You have to go through the test of maturity AND be a "servant" in a poor household or do substantial community service for a set time to be considered an adult. Life experiences can take the place of the test, but that is not too common among the very upper classes.

>Male:

Raised to be educated and strong, to lead, and to treat women properly (like pretty little china dolls). Always literate.

>Female:

Raised to boss around servants and manage a house, and look and act beautiful. Rarely literate (but all know knotscript) unless they are priestesses (who write in a special script).

Lower class:

>Male:

Trained to protect the village and the women and to do his father's trade. Generally literate, unless they are kertakul.

>Female:

Trained by mother to tend the house and children and to look pretty enough to land a husband. Like all women, literate at her father's dispensation, however more often low class fathers let their daughters be literate so they can handle family business if something happens to the men. Female kertakul are nearly always literate because dispensation is given by the lady of the house (who wants someone other than her husband to handle her private correspondence). Again, they know knotscript.

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Yäwurenyi-Alpine:

The women and elderly of the village raise children. Males are taught to hunt and defend the village, strong women also are trained to defend the village and less often hunt (but are very often on the ski patrol), most other women are trained to keep house. Literacy is rare.

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Kelvia:

Really there is little difference between the genders, schooling is paramount, most teachers are female. Generally while you do have a family who teaches you right from wrong and life skills, you can really spend the night at anyone's house, and often do. Inviting your kid's friend over is a way of helping out the family if they are having trouble making ends meet without offending them.

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Prætiridifin:

Upper Class:

>Male: Raised by mother and father, become adult once they have shown maturity and have some sort of occupation or position.

>Female: Raised by female nanny, married young, become adult when married.

Lower class:

>Male: Raised by parents, taught father's trade. Adult when he passes apprenticeship.

>Female: Raised by mother. Married really young, preferably to wealthier man. Who cares when she is an adult, she has about as many rights then as now anyhow.

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Descubralía:

Adulthood is at age 20. Really most of these are similar to our society.

Upper Class:

Parents and hired help and educators work together to raise children "properly."

Middle Class: Raised by parents, school is expected to do its part.

Lower class: Raised by parents, or by relatives or are wards of the state if the parents can't care for them.

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Ze: Expectations of them as adults really depends on the person not on gender. The culture is matrilineal and matriarchal. Roze are basically the opposite with it being patrilineal and patriarchal; the rest here still applies. More stuff-- http://www.angelfire.com/empire/lepidopteranisles/culture.htm#culture

>Male:

Raised by parents. Mostly mother until age 5, mostly father afterwards.

>Female:

Raised mostly by mother, somewhat by father.

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Myuri:

>Male:

Raised to be top cat, if he becomes anything but top cat he is then lower class. Through early kittenhood raised by mother, as he matures he is taught to fight and hunt by the other tomcats.

>Female: Raised to be alpha female, if not, eh whatever. If she isn't alpha female now, she or her kittens will be in the alpha or beta pair some time if they are normal enough. Raised by mother though kittenhood, taught how to raise kittens and hunt by her mother. Will raise kittens.