How does Charles Dickens present ideas about childhood in staves 1 and 2?

In staves one and two of A Christmas Carol, we find very opposing representations of childhood. Early in stave one, for instance, we find references to children wandering the streets, avoiding men like Scrooge. In stave two, we see a painful image of Scrooge's own childhood. Though his background is a privileged one (his family are wealthy enough to send him away to school), he is generally a very lonely child who spends little time with the people he loves. As Scrooge comments, he was "a solitary child, neglected by his friends."

So, while these views of childhood are very different, they are universally sad. This is perhaps, because they are inspired by Dickens' own childhood. In 1824, for example, when Dickens was 12 years old, his father was imprisoned for debt. Being separated from his father was extremely distressing for the young Dickens but was made even worse by the family's financial situation. As such, Dickens had to leave school and take a job in a factory where he pasted labels onto pots of shoe blacking. This was a financial necessity, to support the family, but scarred Dickens for the rest of his life. For him, then, childhood was a scary and uncertain time which resonates in many parts of A Christmas Carol.