Are your parenting skills better then your parent’s? Children throughout the ages have been surviving. Your children can too.
Parenting Post WWII
I was born in the 50’s; 1953 to be exact. Now I have grand kids and it leads me to wonder how I, or any of my siblings, survived to adulthood. I remember when my mother brought my little brother home from the hospital. She laid him down – on his stomach. At 5 years old I was allowed to hold him. I tried as hard as I could to keep his head from lolling from side to side but I didn’t always manage to keep his head still. But it was OK. I guess my mother knew, after 10 kids, that he wouldn’t break.
My brothers and sisters and I were allowed (probably encouraged to get out of her hair) to play down at the river. Just a block from our house was a dike that kept the river water from the neighborhood. The river wasn’t deep in that spot but it was swift. We were told to be careful and go play. No adult had to go with us.
We rode our bikes, or walked to almost everywhere we had to go. School was two miles away but that didn’t mean that we had to get a ride to school. We rode our bikes or walked almost every day. On really cold or snowy days we might get a ride but I have to admit that the games we made up while walking to school was more fun then the ride we may get home.
If we joined a sports team or took music or dance lessons it was up to us to make sure that we were in attendance. My father worked every day and my mother was busy just keeping up with laundry so they never even suggested that they would take us or pick us up. Yet, we all were involved in many outside activities.
There were no seat belts in cars, let alone baby seats. We all just got in the car and drove away. Although, with 10 kids, we were probably wedged in tight enough that we couldn’t have moved no matter what.
If we lied we were spanked. Not only spanked but sent outside to get the switch that we were to be spanked with. Getting that switch was worse then the spanking itself.
If we talked back to our parents we were slapped. I only spoke back to my mother once.
We were expected to do our best in school. We weren’t offered money or toys for good grades, we were just expected to do our best or else.
If we made a mistake we were to admit to the mistake and correct it. We were not allowed to blame others for our mistakes. They were our mistakes and we were expected to learn from those mistakes and not make them again.
We had chores to do and we did them. We never thought what might happen if we didn’t do them, we just got them done so we could go play.
TV was allowed only after dinner and Sunday afternoons. There were no computers or electronic games.
To children growing up today that upbringing may sound like child abuse. But it was far from it. We, all of my siblings, had a great childhood. Of course, not all days were carefree days but it was a wonderful childhood. We learned the art of survival when we were alone, we learned to respect others and we learned to take responsibilities for our actions.
And we all survived. It was a miracle.
Parenting Post Hippie Days
In the 70’s when my children were born I was still laying them on their tummys as soon as they came home from the hospital. How could they be comfortable on their backs?
For the most part, they were bottle fed.
Baby food came out of a jar not from fresh fruit out of a blender.
There were still no baby seats or many seat belts in cars.
Once they started school they were “latch-key kids.” They would walk home from school and stay alone until I got home from work.
We live in a subdivision on the outskirts of a dessert and they were allowed to ride their bikes and play in the dessert. We didn’t worry about strangers taking them or their getting lost.
If they lied they got spanked.
If they made a mistake – now here is where we start to differs from our parents – I wondered what I had done or not done to allow this mistake to happen.
If they wanted to join a sports team or take music or dance lessons we, as parents, took them to their practices and often, volunteered as a coach or official. We went to as many games as possible.
