What was difficult about childhood in a medieval town?

Answer 1

50% of all children born - irrespective of their parents' wealth or status - did not make it beyond age 12. Half of the ones that didn't, already died in infancy.

Although medieval parents loved their children as much as parents do today, any punishment they got was usually much harsher than in today's Western countries. Also, children much more than today 'had to know their place' . Travellers to Holland for instance were universally astonished by the fact that Dutch children could talk back to their parent and could butt in on adults' conversations.

Although children of poorer families were expected to help out on the farm or in cottage industries, the excesses of child labour are a thing of the 19th century.

Answer 2

They usually received harsher punishments.