The Romanian communist leaders believed that, after centuries of ignorance and raising children according to customs and habits, “family upbringing is in need of additional guidance”. According to Stearns “children had to be remade1” and the state pretended that it knew more about children’s needs that their own parents! More than in any other historical period the state substituted itself for the parents, through the school, children’s organizations and by indoctrinating the parents, using various guides and advice books written by the ideologists of the party, fully complying with communist ideals but less so with parenthood. The child is the object of state upbringing since “parents were not fully reliable for the task of raising their own children and they needed additional guidance”. The aim of this study is to reveal the massive intrusion of the state into family life, the taking-over of some roles specific to parents and grandparents – often by socialising children at very young ages – and the control that was reinforced in order to accomplish the requirements of the party. More than belonging to their parents, children were rather seen as belonging to the state and this brought half of a century of dualism between the old habits that the parents were used to and the new rules reinforced by the state. We shall stress the connexions between the proclamation of gender equality, mass schooling, family support measures for mothers and children and the characteristics of upbringing in the communist period.