Parenting advice from the past...
- Thread starter cybele
- Start date
I think it would be more interesting if each piece of advice was given its historical context. I get the appeal of "shock factor," which you get by making everything look random and ridiculous, but it leaves the article lacking. There must have been some social or enviromental circumstances, or at least case clusters, that inspired some of this advice. So what were they?
For example, there is a lot of legitimate literature about early potty-training, and it's practiced all over the world. Of course, an nonambulant child cannot complete the whole task independently, but there are "stages" to it that Western societies tend to skip, which younger kids can master. Full-scale potty-training is typically achieved by 18 months in China, for example, while American parents often wait until 2-3 years of age (or older) to begin teaching it. So some context is definitely needed.
For example, there is a lot of legitimate literature about early potty-training, and it's practiced all over the world. Of course, an nonambulant child cannot complete the whole task independently, but there are "stages" to it that Western societies tend to skip, which younger kids can master. Full-scale potty-training is typically achieved by 18 months in China, for example, while American parents often wait until 2-3 years of age (or older) to begin teaching it. So some context is definitely needed.
I once heard a comment, that eastern european babies are potty-trained earlier because their mothers can't afford to buy disposable nappies. :biggrin:cybele said:
I think its funny. I was bashed once on here for pointing out that to raise your child based on the "newest set of rules" was a waste of time... cause if you wait a second they'll be a new list coming out. 
I wonder what people will think in 50 years when they read our advice?
I wonder what people will think in 50 years when they read our advice? Hope I'm alive to see it, that's all I can say.
Meanwhile, I can't wait for my kids to start having kids, "NO MUM YOU CAN'T PUT PANTS ON A BABY! IT'S TOO HARD FOR THEIR DELICATE SKIN AND THEY WILL END UP WITH A MYRIAD OF SKIN CONDITIONS THAT COULD CAUSE THEIR DEATH!" "But you wore pants" "AND I DON'T KNOW HOW I SURVIVED! LOOK AT THIS ITCHY PATCH HERE!" "That's a mosquito bite" "NOT IT ISN'T, IT'S A CHILDHOOD PANTS INJURY!"
Meanwhile, I can't wait for my kids to start having kids, "NO MUM YOU CAN'T PUT PANTS ON A BABY! IT'S TOO HARD FOR THEIR DELICATE SKIN AND THEY WILL END UP WITH A MYRIAD OF SKIN CONDITIONS THAT COULD CAUSE THEIR DEATH!" "But you wore pants" "AND I DON'T KNOW HOW I SURVIVED! LOOK AT THIS ITCHY PATCH HERE!" "That's a mosquito bite" "NOT IT ISN'T, IT'S A CHILDHOOD PANTS INJURY!"
I moved pstc's reply to its own thread. I think the reply was an appropriate reply. I was only afraid if I responded we would completely derail the thread. I think the OP's intention was just a fun look back in time. Not a deep dive into parenting.
So please check out the reply here: http://www.parentingforums.org/showthread.php?t=14053
I may be wrong about this.
So please check out the reply here: http://www.parentingforums.org/showthread.php?t=14053
I may be wrong about this.
We use to get a teaspoon of honey with a drop of wisky in it. Kinda worked like nightqill. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I loved the vic vapor rubs mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
And mom picked out all my clothes until is was 35 oops I mean 16.
No seatbelts. The seatbelt as I know it was a swift right arm to the chest.
Both parents smoked in the house, car, plane, train, Doctors office, ect ect...
And we would not be caught dead with a bicycle helmet
Not really sure what would get me in more trouble. Starting a fight. Or backing down from one.
I loved the vic vapor rubs mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
And mom picked out all my clothes until is was 35 oops I mean 16.
No seatbelts. The seatbelt as I know it was a swift right arm to the chest.
Both parents smoked in the house, car, plane, train, Doctors office, ect ect...
And we would not be caught dead with a bicycle helmet
Not really sure what would get me in more trouble. Starting a fight. Or backing down from one.
I suspect that does play a role. Another reason is that their culture allows young children to have more practice at potty-training than ours does. For example, when I trained my kids, it was at home. They continued to wear diapers in public until they were 100% trained. So all that time driving, shopping, or playing at the park... they were not working on keeping themselves dry. I mean, I still gave them regular and frequent bathroom breaks, but it's not like they actually wet themselves and had to immediately change. That whole process of getting instantly soaked and having to deal with it immediately (versus in a few minutes when Mom checks my diaper) is what really facilitates potty-training. And you can't do that in public because our culture does not tolerate kids peeing in the store, or squatting in the grass outside. Apparently, some cultures do. I read a book called "How eskimoes keep their babies warm," which described young children wearing pants with a slit down the center, so babies can just "squat and go" with minimal effect on their clothes. Apparently it's acceptable to hold a baby over a trash can in a public building, or use a neighbor's lawn as a toilet. Also, carpets are pretty uncommon, so accidents aren't quite as big of a deal. As you can see, these are cultural factors that we cannot change (without dirty looks, anyway). With a culture that is less tolerant of kids' potty needs and accidents, we can't deal with them as early. (And I'm not sure I'd want to trade that standard of hygiene either!)
I hear that American babies usually potty-train when they are 2 or 3, and I've known quite a few parents who were still using pull-up diapers on their 4-year-olds. I cloth diapered my children, and both my older ones were completely potty-trained before their second birthday. (My youngest is 1 1/2 and working on it.) Is the prospect of not having to wash diapers a good incentive? I don't know... I think the prospect of not having to buy diapers or take out loads of smelly trash would be just as good an incentive (and it was my incentive for cloth diapering, in fact). So I don't know. I tend to think the Eastern European phenomenon has more to do with cultural expectations about potty-training in public.
Oh yeah, some of those were crazy in that article, but also so are some of the newer things that I notice.
My oldest son's baby had this little rash under her neck where the drool and milk got and he asked me what to do. I put corn starch on her right there and the mother went ballistic. Screamed at me to not put crazy things on her baby because powder is horrible and it gets in their lungs, etc.
Every generation has their own things that they freak out about that the previous generation thinks is nuts, at least that's what I think. I remember babyproofing everything after my first baby was born, and thinking how wrong my mother was not not have done that for me. Of course I wasn't actually thinking about the fact that I was taught not to mess with those things in the first place.
But, back to the stuff from the past ideas. I remember as a child having an earrache, my grandfather would blow smoke in my ear. When I had a stomach ache or they just wanted me to be quiet and go to sleep, I would get paragoric. I remember school paddlings, playgrounds that were nothing more than 3000 degree sheet metal baking in the sun that sat on hard, hot asphalt and we played on it in shorts and barefoot. Everyone's parents had a gun and it was usually kept in plain sight, you never touched it though. Ever. Everybody smoked, everywhere, all the time. It was rude to complain about it. When a baby was teething, you rubbed whiskey on it's gums to numb it. You had to give a newborn catnip tea to make it "hive" and "get all the poison out". A suntan was a sign of health and a suburn just meant you hadn't gotten used to the sun yet that year.
One day our grandkids and great grandkids will look back at us and say how reckless we all were for not doing <whatever new thing they come up with>
Time marches on, we can't stop it.
My oldest son's baby had this little rash under her neck where the drool and milk got and he asked me what to do. I put corn starch on her right there and the mother went ballistic. Screamed at me to not put crazy things on her baby because powder is horrible and it gets in their lungs, etc.
Every generation has their own things that they freak out about that the previous generation thinks is nuts, at least that's what I think. I remember babyproofing everything after my first baby was born, and thinking how wrong my mother was not not have done that for me. Of course I wasn't actually thinking about the fact that I was taught not to mess with those things in the first place.
But, back to the stuff from the past ideas. I remember as a child having an earrache, my grandfather would blow smoke in my ear. When I had a stomach ache or they just wanted me to be quiet and go to sleep, I would get paragoric. I remember school paddlings, playgrounds that were nothing more than 3000 degree sheet metal baking in the sun that sat on hard, hot asphalt and we played on it in shorts and barefoot. Everyone's parents had a gun and it was usually kept in plain sight, you never touched it though. Ever. Everybody smoked, everywhere, all the time. It was rude to complain about it. When a baby was teething, you rubbed whiskey on it's gums to numb it. You had to give a newborn catnip tea to make it "hive" and "get all the poison out". A suntan was a sign of health and a suburn just meant you hadn't gotten used to the sun yet that year.
One day our grandkids and great grandkids will look back at us and say how reckless we all were for not doing <whatever new thing they come up with>
Time marches on, we can't stop it.