Did those born in the 50's, 60's and 70's have a better childhood?

[Alexander's Horse]

I found that hard to read - thanks

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by notyoueither
You know you're old as soon as you start noticing the differences between yourself and 'the kids nowadays'.

true - but when you have kids yourself you begin to wonder why you are raising them like pampered little poodles.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
true - but when you have kids yourself you begin to wonder why you are raising them like pampered little poodles.

Funny thing is, I treat my kids pretty much the same as my parents treated me and the siblings, and I feel like I'm abusing them.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
true - but when you have kids yourself you begin to wonder why you are raising them like pampered little poodles.

That's a point.

[Ben Kenobi]

3. Your friends are getting married/already married.

That's one.

[st_swithin]

Lawn darts.
Motorcycles and scooters before the helmet law.
Whippits (not the dog, the nitrous from whipped cream).
'Ludes (gorilla biscuits)
Hitchhiking.
Unfiltered cigarettes.

[Alexander's Horse]

Originally posted by Stuie


Funny thing is, I treat my kids pretty much the same as my parents treated me and the siblings, and I feel like I'm abusing them.

Tell me about it - I sent one to school with a huge bruise on his face - the result of a fall - and the school nearly launched a child abuse investigation.

Another time we were riding bikes and one of them got off and refused point blank to go on during a hill climb, tears, the works. I stood there until he got up and pushed his bike to the top of the hill under his own steam. I suspect the modern parent would have carried him. He was so happy when he got to the top by himself.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
One day we caught him out when he said he had chewing gum. We asked how he could afford chewing gum if he was so poor?

He said oh - he picked a used piece up off the ground

My mom grew up during the depression. Her story was that they were soooo pooor that instead of chewing gum, they would chew the rubber tar used for paving roads.

[MRT144]

the fact that we didnt grow up in the time doesnt mean we werent aware of what happened during the time. its not like every time a child is born a new universe is created...

i was born in 1983 and...

this is all crap. i am totally aware of all of this and more.
to me every time some elder brings up these threads it always seems to me they are trying to pat themselves on the back and make themselves feel good about growing up in a world different than now.

[Alexander's Horse]

don't take it so personally

[Drake Tungsten]

Kids these days sure are cry-babies, aren't they?

[DaShi]

Damn, this thread made me feel old, and I just caught the tale end of it.

[Alexander's Horse]

I dunno, my childhood didn't always seem like such fun when I was in it.

[Joseph]

These old tale are somewhat true. However we never had a lock on our door. I live in the country. We did not have a TV until Dec 1958, I was 14. Did not have a lot of toys. Little money. Just my mother and I. No dad. only saw him about 4 times for a few days each time. He was taken away by the cops when I was 9. Never saw him again. He died a month before I turned 13. My Mother milk cows for a living. I had to help until I when to High School. I still clean the barns each day (7 day a week) until day I left to join the Navy.

[Sikander]

Re: Did those born in the 50's, 60's and 70's have a better childhood?

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse

I can really relate to that - when I was a kid Mum would kick us out after breakfast and we'd spend all day playing outside with the neighbourhood kids until the sun went down. We played a lot of sport - just scratch games in the street or yards - but full contact. We had a lot of fights, fist fights, wrestling, fruit fights, stone throwing, name calling but resolved it amongst ourselves.

You'd actually get into trouble from your Mum for telling on someone. Obesity was very rare, almost unheard of.

We were sunburnt, free and independent. We made up our own games and got into lots of trouble.

One thing I never see kids do today is run away. That was a big part of our life - we'd do something dangerous or annoying or stupid and run for it. We got chased a lot - either by rival kids or angry adults. We always had dogs around. We started fires and tried to work out how to derail the local trains. We smoked from about the age of 7.

I caught a bus to school by myself from the age of 5. To get to the bus I had to cross a busy railway line and a couple of roads in all kinds of weather - it was a dangerous journey and would never happen today.

Is childhood better now?

Yep, I agree with every word you wrote here. My childhood was very similar. No wonder I so often think younger people are pussies, many of them are through little or no fault of their own.