This qualitative study is the first wave of what over the years would become the author’s longitudinal study of growing up (social biographies of young people) in the present-day Serbian society. Here childhood is understood as „practice of everyday life of the child“, and the theoretical framework is based on approaches of Anthony Giddens and Pierre Bourdieu, as well as contemporary theories of childhood as social product. Fieldwork was conducted in 1993 in the municipality of Rakovica on the outskirts of Belgrade (72 working-class families), with a control sample consisting of middle-class families living in a central Belgrade municipality of Vračar (21 families). The methods involved observation and interviews with parents, and in some cases with children as well.