13 Parenting Practices from the ’50s and ’60s That Wouldn’t Fly Today
Raising kids today is far different than it was in previous generations. So many things about parenting have changed over the years.
In some respects, parenting is easier. At the same time, being a parent has become more challenging.
Parenting practices today aren’t like they were in the 1950s and 1960s. The things that were acceptable back then are considered taboo, dangerous, or even against the law today. Which outdated parenting practices have you noticed?
1. No Seatbelts? No Problem!
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Back in the day, seatbelts weren’t legally required to be worn, so it wasn’t unusual to see one or more kids sitting in the backseat of the car, unbelted. Car seats and booster seats for kids weren’t mandated, either. It was a blast for kids but it wasn’t exactly safe for them.
It also was common to see young children sitting in the front seat of the car since vehicles weren’t equipped with airbags. Anyone who sat in the open bed of a pickup truck while being driven and thought it was fun gets double points because that’s not even happening today.
2. Tobacco Trips
Kids were frequently sent to the store to buy their parents their preferred brand of tobacco products. Storekeepers had no problem selling them to kids because there wasn’t a minimum age requirement to buy tobacco-related items. Children didn’t even need a note from their parents giving them consent to make the purchase.
For years, buyers had to be at least 18 years old to purchase tobacco products, but as of 2019, the minimum legal age was increased to age 21, the same as the legal age to drink. Any parent sending their underage kid to buy them a pack of smokes is bound to get a visit from Child Protective Services.
3. Leaving Kids in the Car
Anyone who’s gone shopping with young children understands how a simple trip to the store can go sideways if they have a meltdown or demand you buy them everything that catches their eye. Shopping with little ones can be difficult, to say the least. They don’t have the temperament to deal with hearing the word “no” in a store.
To solve this problem without the added expense of hiring a babysitter, parents would simply leave their little ones in the car while they shopped, even in the summer or the dead of winter! That’s possibly an arrestable offense in many jurisdictions today, not to mention a dangerous situation for children.
4. Playing Outside Unsupervised
Neighborhoods back then were considered safe because everyone knew each other and looked out for one another. Parents were fine with letting their kids play outside unsupervised until the street lights turned on. Once the lights were on, kids knew that was their signal to head home before Mom or Dad came looking for them.
Neighbors don’t socialize with each other like they used to, which makes it much harder to get to know each other. Plus, the world today feels less safe with all of the bad news that seems to never end. It’s understandable why parents don’t feel comfortable allowing their children to play outside without adult supervision.
5. Brandy, Anyone?
When babies are teething, it’s a painful experience for them. It’s also unpleasant for the parents who have to see and hear their little ones suffering. It can be downright excruciating, especially if their babies are crying in the middle of the night and are disrupting an otherwise good night of sleep.
To soothe a baby’s sore gums, parents would rub them with brandy. Whether it was effective or not is debatable, but I would think the health risks of giving alcohol to a baby outweigh any potential benefits. It may have been an acceptable practice then, but giving alcohol to a baby today is a huge no-no.
6. Corporal Punishment
More than a few children who grew up in the 50s and 60s can remember being on the receiving end of corporal punishment at home by their parents, at school by their teachers or principal, or even at both places. Getting hit repeatedly as a form of punishment is a painful memory no one wants to have.
Corporal punishment at home or school may have been the norm in those decades, and in some schools it still is. It’s also legal in all 50 states. The decision to use corporal punishment today is a controversial one. Some parents believe in using it, and others refuse to because they believe it’s a form of child abuse.
7. Washing A Child’s Mouth With Soap
Parents used to threaten to wash their kids’ mouths with a bar of soap when they said something wildly inappropriate. Quite a few of them followed through on that threat and made their children chew on a bar of soap. Yes, it’s as horrifying as it sounds. If you want to torture someone, giving them a mouthful of soap would do the trick.
The practice certainly taught kids a lesson they won’t soon forget since soap tastes horrible and they wouldn’t want to repeat that experience. With all of the additives and chemicals that soap is made from, it could be hazardous to children. Hopefully, this form of punishment goes the way of the dinosaur.
8. Sleeping in the Car
When going out with kids in the car, they’d sometimes fall asleep. This happened a lot on long trips home. When Mom and Dad arrived, if it was still daylight, they’d let the kids sleep in the car while they went inside. They would leave the car door unlocked so the kids could let themselves out.
Looking back, that was a high-risk practice that could have ended badly. The kids could have been abducted, or they could have been seriously harmed if the car overheated or became too cold. What if they decided they were going to play at driving and accidentally released the parking brake or somehow put the car in gear?
9. Letting Kids Play Without Protective Gear
In the 1950s and 1960s, if a kid wanted to ride their skateboards or bikes, or go roller skating or ice skating, all the kids needed was a skateboard, bicycle, roller skates, or ice skates. Nothing else was needed except the clothes on their backs. It was a fun, carefree time. If they got hurt, they’d put a bandage on the wound and keep going.
Those days are over. Kids today aren’t even allowed to ride a tricycle unless they’re fully equipped with helmets, elbow and knee pads, chin guards, mouth guards, and shin guards. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little but you get the idea. Parents are super-protective when it comes to their children’s safety, and they’re taking no chances.
10. Allowing Them to Use the Stove
I don’t if parents of that era were busy, overwhelmed, or otherwise distracted, but they didn’t have a problem with their elementary school-aged children using the stovetop and oven to make themselves something to eat. This is a shocker because very young kids and hot surfaces that could burn them are a bad combination.
Parents today are much more cautious. They don’t want their young ones to use anything more sophisticated than a play kitchen with toy appliances or an Easy Bake oven. It’s the common sense choice that’ll save children a painful trip to a hospital’s emergency department, or having firefighters answering an emergency call to the house.
11. Sending Homemade Baked Goods to School
When a child was celebrating a special occasion with their classmates, like a birthday or holiday, or the parents wanted to make something for a bake sale, they would send their kids to school with a container of homemade goodies. They would bake foods like cookies, cakes, pies, cupcakes, and brownies to share with their friends and teachers.
That’s almost unheard of today. Schools have to be mindful of children with food sensitivities and allergies that could be potentially dangerous or even life-threatening for them. This has led to the implementation of policies specifically prohibiting homemade foods from being brought to school. If baked products are allowed, they have to be store-bought and they can’t have additives like nuts and peanut butter.
12. Sell Door to Door
Many schools have fundraisers where students can participate. The items for sale run the gamut from pizza kits to cookies and gift wrapping to candy bars. Students who chose to sell items for the fundraiser often went door-to-door in their neighborhoods, politely asking them to buy something. For safety reasons, kids today fundraise in different ways.
Going door-to-door to houses where their parents don’t know the people isn’t going to cut it with parents today. They’ll take the fundraiser to the jobs to garner sales, or they’ll have their kids set up a pop-up sales shop near the entrance of a mall, grocery, or a big box store. It’s a much safer way to conduct direct sales.
13. Go Trick or Treating
Parents used to be able to dress their kids up in Halloween costumes and send them on their merry way to knock on as many doors as they could to get as much candy as possible. It was a harmless, fun, and relatively safe ritual kids looked forward to every year. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance for free candy?
In the same vein of selling fundraising items door-to-door, parents have also soured on allowing their kids to trick-or-trick, at least not on their own. General safety concerns, the threat of candy tampering, and stranger danger have parents seeking alternatives to traditional candy hunts. They go to malls, shopping districts, or just to the houses of friends and relatives.
