This study had as an objective to describe childrearing concepts during the XX century in Brasil, through the content analyses of some magazines, chosen by their subjects and publication regularity. It was selected as material the magazine "Família Cristã", covering the period of 1935 until 1988; their articles were submited to qualitative analyses; the results showed that the evolution in education ideas, through the six decades, designs a picture that moves: a) from a moral (30 to 50 decades) to a psychological approach (70/80) that considers education as emotional maturity and equilibrium; b) from an emphasis in behavior control (30 to 50 decades) to subjectivity control (80 decade); from folk wisdom (30 and 40 decades) to the specialist speech (50 decade until nowadays).
childrearing; ideas; folk wisdom; subjectivity control