Were the children of the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s better off than today's pampered children?

Question

I think we oldies have done well to survive so long.

I'll give some examples of what I mean...

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then, after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitch-hiking.As children we rode in cars without seat belts or air bags.Riding in the back of a van...loose... was always exciting and great fun.

We drank water from the garden hose or a tap...NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from ONE bottle or can...no-one died from this.

We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank cordial with sugar in it but we weren't overweight because...

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING.

We would leave the house in the morning and play all-day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.No-one was able to reach us all day and we were OK.

We would spend hours building our go-karts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find we'd forgotten the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, nintendos...no video games at all. No 100 channels, no mobiles, no texting, no PCs, no internet or internet chat rooms. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them.

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits for these accidents.

We played with worms and mud pies, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we didn't poke anyone's eye out.

Local teams had try-outs and not everyone made the team.Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment..Imagine that!

The idea of parents bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law.

We were taught to be polite to and smile at strangers.

Today kids are taught to scream and run away if a stranger so much as looks at them and smiles.

Nowadays making daisy-chains, playing conkers, climbing trees, even running around have either been banned or have a government health warning.

Which group of children were really the ones that were looked after the best?

Answer 1

I was born in the 60's and my daughter was born in the late 90's and her life as a child is one h**l of a lot better than mine was.  

Answer 2

'60s - Kids were just kids.Imagination being better than computers,fighting and still being friends after.Who cared what we wore,not wanting to go inside after 12 hours outdoors! I could on for hours...!  

Answer 3

I have blissful memories of playing in bombed out buildings (they existed for an embarrassingly long time after the war), of running wild in an environment of freedom where we picked wild flowers and bulrushes, gathered cockles, kept insects and tadpoles in jam jars, gathered conkers and invented all kinds of games and pastimes. The world was full of friends -- actual and potential -- and displays of affection were perfectly in order, as was smacking when merited. The books we read may not always have been politically correct in today's terms, but carried strong moral messages. People were free to express their opinions, but for some mysterious reason were able to do so without stooping to obscene or offensive language. We too were encouraged to form views. We learned to be resourceful and inventive and to learn from the world around us, limited as it might seem to some (not all) of  today's children. Our text books in school were often ancient, but so were many of the ideas passed on to us. They had stood the test of time. We did not need to be protected from e-additives or prescribed drugs, which were unknown in our world. We never saw ads telling us that "we deserved it", as we grew up believing that we had to earn what we aspired to, as had previous generations.

Answer 4

Fifty or sixty years ago the worst problem in the public schools was chewing gum in class.  Need I go into the kinds of things that are happening in schools today?  

When I was in school there were no drugs, no pregnant girls walking around, no rapes on the staircases, no assaults on the teachers.  If there were two or three obese kids in the school it was a lot.  

My granddaughter came home from her middle school and told me that "School is h**l."  Often.  

If you think that I would trade my youth for the one that today's kids have you would be crazy.  

Today's kids have parents that work all day and allow them to come home to an empty house where they are completely unsupervised.  They have every "thing" that money can buy.  However, they are empty shells without morals, integrity, self control, or the capacity to ever become real adults.  

Oh yeah!  I'd definitely like to become one of them.

I realize that not every kid is like this, but enough are so that the character of this nation is changing--and not for the better.

Answer 5

My parents grew up in the 70's and agree with everything you mentioned.  

Answer 6

Ah, the good old days.  

Answer 7

It's a different world now, isn't it?

In our day what cars there were could accelerate from nought to sixty in about five minutes so it was safe to play in the road.

While there was violence, it was much more kept between those who enjoyed it.

The countryside was much closer than it is now, and much more accessible.

Hey ho.

Actually, modern kids are less healthy than we were - less fit and with much weaker immune systems. It's very doubtful that most will live longer than their parents.

I'd not swap our childhood with theirs.  

Answer 8

Yeah but i'll still live to be older :)

Answer 9

Great post and SO true - I feel sorry for kids now, as well as having much less fun they also have loads of added pressures that we didn't have - I had my school uniform and 'play' clothes - which were actually cast offs of my younger brother who was bigger than me! There was no pressure to wear designer labels or have the latest mobile phone.

The smoking mothers thing made me laugh. My brother was born at home in 1966. The midwife held a cigarette to my mother's mouth inbetween contractions! He weighed 8lbs and is strong, fit and healthy!  

Answer 10

I think alot of people are looking at those times through rose colored glasses.  Today, it is more gender, racial, and labor equality.  Most of us don't know what is like to be really poor like it was decades ago.  

Answer 11

None, it's the same all the time.  No generation is better than any other generation.  It's just the cultural zeitgeist changes and people always say things like "back in my day..."

Answer 12

What makes you think that todays children are pampered?

People think that the older folk of today have much more manners and so forth than the younger people, but thats totally rubbish. Depends on who and where. Dont tar everyone with the same brush because you will sound like an idiot.

Answer 13

No,not really.Kid's of today play an abundance of sports,and get alot more support from parents than they did when I was younger.If it rained you were house bound demented by boredom.

Kid's ARE taught to be polite and appreciate things,if they don't,they've got this behaviour from parents of yester years.

Kid's didn't have rights yrs ago,an lots of stuff was swept under the carpet.The sheer thought of any child being abused.....no no no it didn't happen then did it! Teachers could beat the sh.it out of you,when thinking back,it could be just for talking in class.

Years ago knife crime was actually worse than it is now,it just didn't get the media coverage it does now.

Young mothers didn't exist in earlier yrs,no the baby just dissappeared.

Children of today are more knowlegable and have better opportunities.

I do understand what you are saying,as I am one of the kid's you are talking about,but when we get older doesn't thinking of the past(especially as kid's),seem great.

It is true,my daughter has just finished an A level in media,and this was in the subject, I couldn't believe it either.

I am 45,yesterday actually,pooh!

Answer 14

You gets a star

When I was young we played footy until dark over the road in a footy field then after dinner we played hide and seek in the same park using the tennis court lights to help.We were never bored.Never sick of adventure.Fancy games were back yard cricket,not nintendo ds.We got balls and trucks and bats and kites for Chrissy ,total cost equivalent to one nintendo game.

Kids now have to much to play with,hence play with nothing.

ON THE FLIP SIDE

Sexual predators were not heard of.

Pot was the most harmful drug about.

Internet perverts were not an issue

We were allowed more freedom cause of these things

I used to ride my pushi ao the local shopping centre when I was 8yrs old,my little girl is 7 and I don't let her over the road to the same footy field I grew up in, without an adult.

OH YEA THE ORIGINAL QUESTION......YES WE WERE

Answer 15

ok well i was born in 1989 and i was raised just like u said for all the 40-70's years and with the lil kids today is cuz people have changed from back in the day and everyone is scared to do anything about it  

Answer 16

In some ways you are right but once we got a bit older it was forbidden to talk to boys anymore, we were harried if we were a few minutes late home from the cinema or fairground (that's if we had been allowed to go) we had to go out to work as soon as we left school and hand our pay packets over at the end of the week. To young to vote but not old enough to go to an adult film, and in the 70's the kids were no longer allowed to buy cigarettes, and all the way through, we were not supposed to drink alcohol etc., (except at parties given by grown ups where we were watched all the time and only with family or well known friends etc.,)

We spent many rainy hours sitting miserable and if we had had a computer, or x box or whatever would have thought it heaven. We read a lot (or at least those who were ill definitely did) to try to escape the boredom. Mixed blessings eh, and one mans meat is another mans poison etc., it is a case of freedom etc., being relative really.