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"Back in my day, we used to walk 5 miles to school in sub-zero temperatures without batting an eyelid. Not like you spoiled little brats these days!" We all have an older relative who says things like this about raising kids. They are despairing the coddled youth with their smartphones, crappy music, and parents that seemingly can't say no to their every demand.
And you know what? They might actually have a point on the parenting styles of today. Although the world might seem like a more dangerous place now with higher safety standards required, kids of previous generations had to make their own entertainment. They had to learn to look after themselves from a younger age and take far more risks while doing so. Parents didn't have things like Mumsnet to help them with parenting tips, alternatively, guilt and stress them out for letting kids go out of the safe environments and learn from their own mistakes.
To celebrate the eccentric approaches of old-school parenting and child safety, we here at Bored Panda have put together a list of parents and their kids doing things that would horrify the mommy and daddy bloggers and Instagrammers of today. What's your opinion on the evolution of parenting over the years? Scroll down below to check out the vintage photos for yourself, and let us know what you think in the comments!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Me Back In 1991 Just Your Typical Aussie Kid Drinking Xxxxlight Beer(I Wasn't Aloud Heavies Back Then) And Holding A Baby Crocodile
RELATED:
#2
My Mother And Grandmother Demonstrating Safety Standards In The 1960s
#3
If Your Mum Didn't Lay On The Ground Making Herself Into A Ramp For Your New BMX, Did She Even Love You? 1980's
#4
California Marijuana Initiative Rally 1972. That’s Me In The Box And My Parents In The Picture
#5
My Dad And His Veterinarian Mother, With Their Pet Lion Which They Raised For Two Years, 1959
#6
Princess Yvonne And Prince Alexander In Germany, 1955
#7
A Couple Ice Skating With Their Baby, 1937
#8
Infant Me, My Mother & Father At A Bar Because That's How Parents Rolled In The Early '80s
#9
The Pinnacle Of Parenting: 1930s Swimming Lesson
Bobby's Girl 6 years ago
My father threw me into Tampa Bay. I was about 3 years old. I learned to swim in a hurry, because there were scary things swimming around in that water! Google "Horseshoe Crab" and you'll understand.
Zori the degu 6 years ago (edited)
I think they are actually cute. But I guess they would be scary if one didn't know or expect them. :) In fact, I feel a little jealous, horseshoe crabs are on my favourite animals list! It's a lot cooler way to learn how to swim than lasting 2 hours a week with other kindergarten kids(the only reason I applied was that mid afternoon naps were even worse), who are plain dumb and annoying. But that's my personal opinion, of course! Just ignore me, I'm that insane person on Bored Panda, who adores all kinds of "nasty" beasts, especially invertebrates, and owns some type of bug along with all the other pets 99% of the time. ;)
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Alicia Rogers 6 years ago
That’s older than 1930s according to the clothes. Looks like early 1900s. (Men didn’t wear stand up collars like that in the ‘30s, they wore folded collars. Plus you can make out the outfits in the background.)
Nia Loves Art 6 years ago
I agree about the background people, but I don’t think a collar like that was completely out of the norm for an older man in the 1930’s.
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Nomadus Aureus 6 years ago
I mean... that's literally how I've been taught during a professional school in Kindy in the 90's...
Ingrid 6 years ago
Or be thrown in to the water like my father done to me - then there is no other choice just to learn how to swim real fast
Just JoLynn 6 years ago
Yep! My brother, who's only a year older than me, threw me in the pool and said "don't worry, if it looks like you're drowning I'll save you" needless to say I learned to swim.
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Jodi Moreno 6 years ago
I was 6 months old when my mother threw me in a lake. The adults were around in case I didn't surface within a reasonable time, but babies just KNOW how to swim, so I survived. Been a fish in the water, ever since.
Maria Ines Molina 6 years ago
My dad taught me to swim at the beach when I was 4 years old. Later, when I became a good swimmer, we swam together out on the open sea.
Kimberly Puchniarz 6 years ago
Or just throw us in with a broken lifesaver. When we hit the water and the it broke in two, we swam or sunk!!
Alexa Sciarratta 6 years ago
I think at one point or another some relative threw us in to the water to actually "teach" you how to swim. I learned, not sure if anybody else learned
Eleanor Orser 6 years ago
When we swam at a lake as little our dad would tie a rope around our waist.
Pamela Scott 6 years ago
Mom sent me to lessons at the local pool. She didn't come to any of them till the last one. I was turning 3 later that week. Not sure if that hit her as she got out of the car just in time to see me jump off the high drive or just the idea of me in the water was enough but as I came out of the water they were sitting her up where she had hit the ground when she passed out. She never came to the pool again till she and a friend were picking us up the year I finished high school. As I came up from jumping off the same high dive my friend tells me I think there's something wrong with your Mom. I knew before I even looked, she passed out again.
Pamela Scott 6 years ago
That's not how they taught them in Apalachian in the 30's. My Mom and my Aunt would both complain about how they tossed them way out into the lake and told them learn!
Kim Lorton 6 years ago
Oh my goodness! That’s awful! I had a swimming instructor toss me in, and. I managed to do a 180 ,and make it back to the side in midair! Scared me to death. Told my mom, and she let him have it good, and I watched! She was a good defender if you scared, hurt or threatened us, but if she caught you...well, it wasn’t fun! When she thought my sister had been smoking, she slapped first, and got the facts later! She didn’t smoke, but her friends’ mom did!
Louise Brigance 6 years ago
Yeah...There must have been a lot of that going around! I got thrown in the pool at the YMCA by some dummy thinking I needed "encouragement" to face the challenge. Jeez-I think I was 3-4. Didn't need to face any challenge, and never did learn to swim!
Mary Rose Kent 6 years ago
My grandmother never learned to swim because her oldest brother drowned while trying to get his Boy Scout merit badge in swimming.
Jane Alexander 6 years ago
I was very little during WW2 and the horseshoe crabs on the beach looked like half-buried helmets to me.
Trash Panda 6 years ago
My dad threw me and my older brother (ages 3 and 6) into the Choctawhatchee Bay and said, "You got this." We were swimming like fish in no time.
Anja Schmidt 6 years ago
without the audience ... but the adults could have worn bathing clothes, too ...
Russian Otaku 6 years ago
Nothing wrong here just the epitome of proper parenting. Stupid s**t like floaties is one of the many very recent things ruining humanity
ChickyChicky 6 years ago
By the looks of the fashions this is much earlier than the 1930s, more like teens/early 20s.
Rosemary Moreland 6 years ago
My Mum learnt to swim by being tossed off the boat about 5 meters from shore. It was sink or swim.
Paul O'Connor 6 years ago
They look like they're on a noose. Hanged and drowned for good measure.
tuzdayschild 6 years ago
This really isn't all that bad...oh wait a minute...are those things strapped around their necks!?!
Bored Fox 6 years ago
No. Those were around waists. When I learned to swim in early 1990's the swimming school teacher used similar thing if someone was too scared to swim in the deeper pool.
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John Arild Berge 6 years ago
It's not fake. That's a rope tied around the waist attached to a pole. I learned to swim that way in school in the early 80's
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#10
Car Seat Safety In 1958. Not Strapped In To Anything, These Seats Relied On The Mother To Put Her Arm Out And Stop The Baby From Falling Forward
#11
My Hilarious Father (With The Magazine) And My Grandfather, Grandmother, And Uncle At His Bar Mitzvah In 1972
#12
My Mother-In-Law Riding A Bear At 2 Years Old
#13
Harley With A Baby Seat, 1962
Monika Soffronow 6 years ago
Safety first! Remember to properly attach the baby seat with the convenient succion cups to the gas tank before putting your baby in it.
#14
A Photo Of Me Dressed Up As My Dad, With My Dad (1982)
#15
My Dad Showing Off His Parenting Skills 1985
karen snyder 6 years ago
And his Awesome fashion choices. Cut off tummy top, micro running shorts and Sears Roebuck velcro kicks was my go to in '85 too! but he tops it off with that cherry Tom Selleck stash. Your dad is a legend.
#16
My Mom In The Hospital After Giving Birth To My Sister. Canada 1978. Smokes And Roasted Chicken
#17
Back In The Day. 1950s To Be Exact. Checkout That Car Seat
Adele Maestranzi 6 years ago
We had one when we were kids. There was the button in the middle for the horn.
#18
My Mom Showing Off Her Parenting Skills 1978
#19
Me, 1958, Relaxing After My Bath With Toby, I Was Never Again This Cool
#20
13 Y/O Dad Having A Taste While The Grownups Are Busy Playing Cards; Upstate New York, August 1954
CrunChewy McSandybutt 6 years ago
Meh, we did this all the time when I was a kid and I turned out just fi– wait...
#21
My Father And His Pet Lion Priscilla, California 1970's
#22
My Adorable (4 Year Old) Mother At A Zoo In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 1970
#23
Just A Photo Of Yours Truly (At 11 Years) Petting A Full Grown Tiger. My Mom Calls It Her "Bad Parenting Moment"
Monika Soffronow 6 years ago
From the infamous Thai temple tiger farm. https://www.traffic.org/news/thai-seizure-of-a-dozen-captive-tigers-resurrects-farming-threat/
Add New Image
What do you think ?
Elizabeth 6 years ago
There's something to be said for letting your children live freely, yes it's a much more dangerous way to grow up but it has it's benefits for those who survive. I'm not saying we should roll all of our safety norms back, but the super insulated lives some kids have today is too restrictive. Personal opinion from someone who grew up getting kicked out of the house until the street lights came back on.
QueenOlive 6 years ago
Totally agree. I'm almost 15 and some of my friends aren't allowed/are too scared to spend the night at a friends house. I told my friend's mom I get dropped off at the mall and SixFlags alone/with a friend and she gave me the most shocked look.
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Hans 6 years ago
This is a somewhat curious, yet weird series. On the one hand, this seems like the ideal to counter helicopter parenting and the over-caring we witness today. On the other hand, we must be thankful fot better safety (improper restraints must have killed thousanda of children in car accidents) and carelessness (for example regarding smoke).
Uwe Theiss 6 years ago
It is not only carelessness. They just didn't know. Like with radioactive material. At some point people used it as medicine until they realized it will kill them.
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Monika Soffronow 6 years ago
We will leave the same impression. Diesel vehicles still permitted on the roads anyone? Single use plastic used absolutely everywhere? The non-safety issues from the 1950ies could have terrible consequences for that one person but we have scaled the game up so much that we are now risking our whole species.
Uwe Theiss 6 years ago
Why should a Diesel engine be restricted and petrol ones not? They have different emmissions but both are equaly dangerous.
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Tamerah Long 6 years ago
I was a 1969 Australian baby. I believe the 70's and 80's were the best decades to grow up in. Yeah things were a little unsafe but that just made us more aware of our surroundings. We learnt to be independent at an early age. My siblings and I got our bikes for our 8th birthdays. Once we had that we were allow to take off in the morning, after chores, with a packed sandwich and we'd come home when mum rang the cow bell, which is odd cause we didn't live on a farm :). I wouldn't want to be a kid these days. The fear taught by their parents, the pressures at school, the bullying, the cost of living in the future and the environmental issues. Poor little blighters.
John Montgomery 6 years ago
To be fair, on all the drinking ones my dad let me try beer when I was really young. I was probably seven or younger. He called it "Colorado Kool ade". We were vacationing in Colorado at the time. It's probably the reason I don't like beer to this day and I'll be 38 in June.
Little Wonder 6 years ago
I was allowed a rum and coke in a pub in the Northern Territory when I was 7, because as the barman said "Why the **** not?". Unlike a lot of my friends, I never got black out drunk on weekends because i never had to sneak booze. My parents made some very bad choices in some things they did, but I think they got that absolutely right. I've never been a big drinker.
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STress the Terrible 6 years ago
Not only we went 5 miles on foot sub-zero, but we also went uphill in BOTH directions!!!
Isabelle 6 years ago
Well, it seems we have a very different appreciation of danger... It's so disturbing to see how confident they all look.
Full Name 6 years ago
You must be under 35 then. Us older folks don't get nervous in any way when looking at any of these. Don't ask again why call you all a bunch of coddled pussies, haha. ;-P
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A J 6 years ago
Maybe these photos show why parents were much less stressed out back at that time and having children did not mean one had to change his or her whole lifestyle. Children were just part of life, like having a job or a place to live. And because children were not treated as a holy cow, they were also much more independent and chill. Just saying
Full Name 6 years ago
javascript:void(0);Bingo. They were part of life, they weren't life itself. I've seen too many people I know cease to exist after the kids were born. They became sustenance givers and nothing more.
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David Redman 6 years ago
At 78, I survived somehow. No helmets either riding bicycles. So much more not told in these pics.
Stina Kolling 6 years ago
The people who died aren't posting. It's called 'survivor bias'.
Load More Replies... Bill 6 years ago
Why no pictures of the 80s playground full of steel deathtraps. Steel Merry go round with crushed rock at the base and the see saws
Just JoLynn 6 years ago
Chalk it up to perspective, personally I mis those playgrounds. I also don't think the plastic ones are any safer. On a side note, the last time BP posted one of these articles there was a picture of an older teen/young adult that was using his rear motorcycle wheel to power the merry-go-rounds spin, and that looked pretty dangerous.
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B 6 years ago
Not really sure how the human race evolved with all this sort of crazy around. Maybe our ancestors made duvets and just sat wrapped in them instead of hunting for food.
Coco 6 years ago
I don't know how kids of today will survive with zero survival skills, mind.
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Happiness is Hippo 6 years ago
When I was 6 or 7 I was allowed to sit on the nose of a speedboat while zooming around on the local canal system - with no life jacket or restraints. Totally irresponsible and it could so easily have been a disaster, but it's still one of my favourite memories!
YaYaBooBoo 6 years ago
My daughter can't even be told to wash the dishes without a nervous breakdown. Sometimes I just wanna give her a beer.
Robert Pacl 6 years ago
I'm from before the vintages shown here, back to the Great Depression when we used to see hobos every day riding the rails to Chicago, looking for work. I worked in factories. I cleaned electrotypes with a solvent that made my predecessor pass out. I biked everywhere and only got hit by a car once. Walking to school in deep snow in the winter, a given, Only 1 1/4 mile though. When Churchill was asked what the ideal family size was, 4. 2 to replace the parents, 1 to add to the world and the 4th would die early. A much different world. When I think of some of my dangerous experiences, I realize I'm here because I was lucky, even though I recognized a lot of the dangers.
Tiny Dancer 6 years ago
We didn't have pet lions (what was that all about, eh?), and didn't take pictures, but I spent many blissful childhood years in the '70s rolling around the back of our station wagon totally unrestrained. Long road trips spent flat on my back, head on a pillow, reading book in hand., no seat belts in sight I survived as will today's kids survive all the rules and regs we're drowning them in.
William Teach 6 years ago
There was a time we would sit on dad's lap when really young and pretend to drive. We'd hang in the trunk area of the family station wagon. We'd ride off into the woods on our bikes and be gone for hours, parents would have no idea where we were. And it was mostly zero problem.
Whawhawhatsis 6 years ago
When I was 11, my friend's parents let us sit on the open tailgate of their station wagon, dangling our feet, while driving down the freeway. I think that was probably their finest parenting moment. (But damn, it was fun!)
Bored Moogle 6 years ago
My parents let me and my brother drink at 11. My stepdad also tried to get me to smoke marijuana at around that age but I had a bad asthma attack when I tried and I decided I was never going to do any smoking. First time an asthma attack was ever good for something.
Nia Loves Art 6 years ago
Hate to break it to you but giving your 11 year old kid weed is just bad parenting in any decade.
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Ben Smith 6 years ago
And that’s why those kids are stronger and better equipped for the world than today’s generation will ever be.
An Honest Merchant 6 years ago
Its also why the life expectancy is 20 years higher
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Gracie Mae 6 years ago
i think a lot of our resilience and the ability to enjoy/appreciate certain freedoms comes from being born pre-80s-90s. Seems like so much changed, and not necessarily for the best as far as parenting attitudes. Helicopter parenting took away so many freedoms & learning to deal with life. I realize that crime has a lot to do with it & you can't leave your kids to run the neighborhood until the streetlights came on (like we did) because of kidnappings, drive-byes, and such--I just find it so sad...
Uwe Theiss 6 years ago
I don't think so. I live in Germany and things like drive-byes or kidnappings are non-existing here. Still we have helicopter parents too. There is no need for real danger for some parents to be freaks.
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Paul Hutton 6 years ago (edited)
I still remember when I was around 7, so 1994, and my sisters car seat moving forward against the front seat where I was when my mom braked. She told me to get out and buckle your sister in as she pulled onto the highway. lol, good times.
sharron lynn parsons 6 years ago
I have thought, and said aloud , that I would like to turn the clock back for many reasons, my main point being little ,or no family time, modern technology in many aspects are negative, a few positives but not enough, the children in day care, or sitters,no time for parents, to be parents, at least in part as the teens of today are not happy, they have no direction in their life. !!!
Lakasha Latoia 6 years ago
I honestly don't see anything wrong with these photos...none of them makes me question parenting choices. I feel badly for the animals in captivity. I think people in general are waaay too concerned with what other people do with their lives nowadays.
Susie 6 years ago (edited)
While there are those parents who go overboard in a helicopter parent sense, a lot of today's rules are there precisely because of what happened in the past. Namely rampant child abduction and unnecessary injury and death. Sure, you made it and turned out just fine, but A LOT of kids weren't as lucky. Generations after you learned from mistakes of the past. It's how humanity grows and evolves.
Terry Jensen 6 years ago
this is GREAT...think of all the people that LIVED thru these horrible times...wait they are still a live!!! Just shocking!!!!
Kathleen Barlow 6 years ago
My favourite photo of my mother is from 1975. Tight top, high shoes, mini skirt, my big brother (9 months at the time) in one arm...and cigarette in the other. haha. She insists that smoking wasn't bad for you in the 70's.
Lyone Fein 6 years ago
I think folks are too freaked out about all this stuff. None of this stuff was dangerous. Stop being such worry warts. Go outside to play once in a while.
Jenny Gordon 6 years ago
If I could, I would share the photo of 2 year old me with a tobacco pipe in my mouth and a can of beer in my pudgy little baby hands!! I LOVE that pic of me, it makes me laugh way too much!!
Nia Loves Art 6 years ago
Were you actually drinking though, or was it a joke picture?
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Trash Panda 6 years ago
I grew up on the beach. I remember coming home from school and immediately heading out into the Gulf. My mom and/or dad would come get us when they got home from work or it started getting dark.
Mascha Claessens 6 years ago (edited)
- When I was 4 y/o, my dad and I used to watched the 8 O'clock news together. He drank an espresso with a touch of grappa (strong Italian spirit), and I always got to drink 7 spoons of that from his saucer. - My best friend and I used to make 'witch potions' around that same age, 4/5/6/7/8/... years old. It usually contained all sorts of cleaning products we could find. And we found them. Always. Used the stuff to kill mosquito larvae in buckets filled with still water. It worked. We may or may not have cause some small scale environmental disasters in our parents' gardens. - That same friend and I used to roam the streets in the middle of the night, whenever we had sleepovers. And we had those often. Our parents never notices. This went on from around the age of 6 to... well... basically when we left highschool. - etc. XD (I must add that I'm 28 now, so this all happened in the mid to late 90s... not that long ago)
Isa 6 years ago
While ago I was checking some old pics from my parents...we had an car accident , the car turned out like 7 times , in the middle of the desert at night(we were in Africa), no seat belts, and we all survived... I am amazed that we(ppl my age) could survived without any safety or warness in about everything....
Elizabeth 6 years ago
There's something to be said for letting your children live freely, yes it's a much more dangerous way to grow up but it has it's benefits for those who survive. I'm not saying we should roll all of our safety norms back, but the super insulated lives some kids have today is too restrictive. Personal opinion from someone who grew up getting kicked out of the house until the street lights came back on.
QueenOlive 6 years ago
Totally agree. I'm almost 15 and some of my friends aren't allowed/are too scared to spend the night at a friends house. I told my friend's mom I get dropped off at the mall and SixFlags alone/with a friend and she gave me the most shocked look.
Load More Replies... Hans 6 years ago
This is a somewhat curious, yet weird series. On the one hand, this seems like the ideal to counter helicopter parenting and the over-caring we witness today. On the other hand, we must be thankful fot better safety (improper restraints must have killed thousanda of children in car accidents) and carelessness (for example regarding smoke).
Uwe Theiss 6 years ago
It is not only carelessness. They just didn't know. Like with radioactive material. At some point people used it as medicine until they realized it will kill them.
Load More Replies... Monika Soffronow 6 years ago
We will leave the same impression. Diesel vehicles still permitted on the roads anyone? Single use plastic used absolutely everywhere? The non-safety issues from the 1950ies could have terrible consequences for that one person but we have scaled the game up so much that we are now risking our whole species.
Uwe Theiss 6 years ago
Why should a Diesel engine be restricted and petrol ones not? They have different emmissions but both are equaly dangerous.
Load More Replies... Tamerah Long 6 years ago
I was a 1969 Australian baby. I believe the 70's and 80's were the best decades to grow up in. Yeah things were a little unsafe but that just made us more aware of our surroundings. We learnt to be independent at an early age. My siblings and I got our bikes for our 8th birthdays. Once we had that we were allow to take off in the morning, after chores, with a packed sandwich and we'd come home when mum rang the cow bell, which is odd cause we didn't live on a farm :). I wouldn't want to be a kid these days. The fear taught by their parents, the pressures at school, the bullying, the cost of living in the future and the environmental issues. Poor little blighters.
John Montgomery 6 years ago
To be fair, on all the drinking ones my dad let me try beer when I was really young. I was probably seven or younger. He called it "Colorado Kool ade". We were vacationing in Colorado at the time. It's probably the reason I don't like beer to this day and I'll be 38 in June.
Little Wonder 6 years ago
I was allowed a rum and coke in a pub in the Northern Territory when I was 7, because as the barman said "Why the **** not?". Unlike a lot of my friends, I never got black out drunk on weekends because i never had to sneak booze. My parents made some very bad choices in some things they did, but I think they got that absolutely right. I've never been a big drinker.
Load More Replies... STress the Terrible 6 years ago
Not only we went 5 miles on foot sub-zero, but we also went uphill in BOTH directions!!!
Isabelle 6 years ago
Well, it seems we have a very different appreciation of danger... It's so disturbing to see how confident they all look.
Full Name 6 years ago
You must be under 35 then. Us older folks don't get nervous in any way when looking at any of these. Don't ask again why call you all a bunch of coddled pussies, haha. ;-P
Load More Replies... A J 6 years ago
Maybe these photos show why parents were much less stressed out back at that time and having children did not mean one had to change his or her whole lifestyle. Children were just part of life, like having a job or a place to live. And because children were not treated as a holy cow, they were also much more independent and chill. Just saying
Full Name 6 years ago
javascript:void(0);Bingo. They were part of life, they weren't life itself. I've seen too many people I know cease to exist after the kids were born. They became sustenance givers and nothing more.
Load More Replies... David Redman 6 years ago
At 78, I survived somehow. No helmets either riding bicycles. So much more not told in these pics.
Stina Kolling 6 years ago
The people who died aren't posting. It's called 'survivor bias'.
Load More Replies... Bill 6 years ago
Why no pictures of the 80s playground full of steel deathtraps. Steel Merry go round with crushed rock at the base and the see saws
Just JoLynn 6 years ago
Chalk it up to perspective, personally I mis those playgrounds. I also don't think the plastic ones are any safer. On a side note, the last time BP posted one of these articles there was a picture of an older teen/young adult that was using his rear motorcycle wheel to power the merry-go-rounds spin, and that looked pretty dangerous.
Load More Replies... B 6 years ago
Not really sure how the human race evolved with all this sort of crazy around. Maybe our ancestors made duvets and just sat wrapped in them instead of hunting for food.
Coco 6 years ago
I don't know how kids of today will survive with zero survival skills, mind.
Load More Replies... Happiness is Hippo 6 years ago
When I was 6 or 7 I was allowed to sit on the nose of a speedboat while zooming around on the local canal system - with no life jacket or restraints. Totally irresponsible and it could so easily have been a disaster, but it's still one of my favourite memories!
YaYaBooBoo 6 years ago
My daughter can't even be told to wash the dishes without a nervous breakdown. Sometimes I just wanna give her a beer.
Robert Pacl 6 years ago
I'm from before the vintages shown here, back to the Great Depression when we used to see hobos every day riding the rails to Chicago, looking for work. I worked in factories. I cleaned electrotypes with a solvent that made my predecessor pass out. I biked everywhere and only got hit by a car once. Walking to school in deep snow in the winter, a given, Only 1 1/4 mile though. When Churchill was asked what the ideal family size was, 4. 2 to replace the parents, 1 to add to the world and the 4th would die early. A much different world. When I think of some of my dangerous experiences, I realize I'm here because I was lucky, even though I recognized a lot of the dangers.
Tiny Dancer 6 years ago
We didn't have pet lions (what was that all about, eh?), and didn't take pictures, but I spent many blissful childhood years in the '70s rolling around the back of our station wagon totally unrestrained. Long road trips spent flat on my back, head on a pillow, reading book in hand., no seat belts in sight I survived as will today's kids survive all the rules and regs we're drowning them in.
William Teach 6 years ago
There was a time we would sit on dad's lap when really young and pretend to drive. We'd hang in the trunk area of the family station wagon. We'd ride off into the woods on our bikes and be gone for hours, parents would have no idea where we were. And it was mostly zero problem.
Whawhawhatsis 6 years ago
When I was 11, my friend's parents let us sit on the open tailgate of their station wagon, dangling our feet, while driving down the freeway. I think that was probably their finest parenting moment. (But damn, it was fun!)
Bored Moogle 6 years ago
My parents let me and my brother drink at 11. My stepdad also tried to get me to smoke marijuana at around that age but I had a bad asthma attack when I tried and I decided I was never going to do any smoking. First time an asthma attack was ever good for something.
Nia Loves Art 6 years ago
Hate to break it to you but giving your 11 year old kid weed is just bad parenting in any decade.
Load More Replies... Ben Smith 6 years ago
And that’s why those kids are stronger and better equipped for the world than today’s generation will ever be.
An Honest Merchant 6 years ago
Its also why the life expectancy is 20 years higher
Load More Replies... Gracie Mae 6 years ago
i think a lot of our resilience and the ability to enjoy/appreciate certain freedoms comes from being born pre-80s-90s. Seems like so much changed, and not necessarily for the best as far as parenting attitudes. Helicopter parenting took away so many freedoms & learning to deal with life. I realize that crime has a lot to do with it & you can't leave your kids to run the neighborhood until the streetlights came on (like we did) because of kidnappings, drive-byes, and such--I just find it so sad...
Uwe Theiss 6 years ago
I don't think so. I live in Germany and things like drive-byes or kidnappings are non-existing here. Still we have helicopter parents too. There is no need for real danger for some parents to be freaks.
Load More Replies... Paul Hutton 6 years ago (edited)
I still remember when I was around 7, so 1994, and my sisters car seat moving forward against the front seat where I was when my mom braked. She told me to get out and buckle your sister in as she pulled onto the highway. lol, good times.
sharron lynn parsons 6 years ago
I have thought, and said aloud , that I would like to turn the clock back for many reasons, my main point being little ,or no family time, modern technology in many aspects are negative, a few positives but not enough, the children in day care, or sitters,no time for parents, to be parents, at least in part as the teens of today are not happy, they have no direction in their life. !!!
Lakasha Latoia 6 years ago
I honestly don't see anything wrong with these photos...none of them makes me question parenting choices. I feel badly for the animals in captivity. I think people in general are waaay too concerned with what other people do with their lives nowadays.
Susie 6 years ago (edited)
While there are those parents who go overboard in a helicopter parent sense, a lot of today's rules are there precisely because of what happened in the past. Namely rampant child abduction and unnecessary injury and death. Sure, you made it and turned out just fine, but A LOT of kids weren't as lucky. Generations after you learned from mistakes of the past. It's how humanity grows and evolves.
Terry Jensen 6 years ago
this is GREAT...think of all the people that LIVED thru these horrible times...wait they are still a live!!! Just shocking!!!!
Kathleen Barlow 6 years ago
My favourite photo of my mother is from 1975. Tight top, high shoes, mini skirt, my big brother (9 months at the time) in one arm...and cigarette in the other. haha. She insists that smoking wasn't bad for you in the 70's.
Lyone Fein 6 years ago
I think folks are too freaked out about all this stuff. None of this stuff was dangerous. Stop being such worry warts. Go outside to play once in a while.
Jenny Gordon 6 years ago
If I could, I would share the photo of 2 year old me with a tobacco pipe in my mouth and a can of beer in my pudgy little baby hands!! I LOVE that pic of me, it makes me laugh way too much!!
Nia Loves Art 6 years ago
Were you actually drinking though, or was it a joke picture?
Load More Replies... Trash Panda 6 years ago
I grew up on the beach. I remember coming home from school and immediately heading out into the Gulf. My mom and/or dad would come get us when they got home from work or it started getting dark.
Mascha Claessens 6 years ago (edited)
- When I was 4 y/o, my dad and I used to watched the 8 O'clock news together. He drank an espresso with a touch of grappa (strong Italian spirit), and I always got to drink 7 spoons of that from his saucer. - My best friend and I used to make 'witch potions' around that same age, 4/5/6/7/8/... years old. It usually contained all sorts of cleaning products we could find. And we found them. Always. Used the stuff to kill mosquito larvae in buckets filled with still water. It worked. We may or may not have cause some small scale environmental disasters in our parents' gardens. - That same friend and I used to roam the streets in the middle of the night, whenever we had sleepovers. And we had those often. Our parents never notices. This went on from around the age of 6 to... well... basically when we left highschool. - etc. XD (I must add that I'm 28 now, so this all happened in the mid to late 90s... not that long ago)
Isa 6 years ago
While ago I was checking some old pics from my parents...we had an car accident , the car turned out like 7 times , in the middle of the desert at night(we were in Africa), no seat belts, and we all survived... I am amazed that we(ppl my age) could survived without any safety or warness in about everything....
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