Parenting Then and Now

You know, it’s hard to keep up with all your personalities.  I’m just so many people at once!  Mom, wife, daughter, librarian, Alice here, Mary Alice on the Wonder Twins (she’s returned, check it out), Squirrel on facebook, and at least a quarter of the time, I’m a depressed pony.  Oh, and I almost forgot my subconscious and my inner goddess.  Whew.

But my most important role is blogger.  I mean, wait, mother.  My most important role is being the mommy of my Things.  In case you haven’t been reading long, I call my children Things.  Because

You betcha.

A little while back I wrote about how not to be a crappy parent, and it was pointed out to me that parents often get a bad rap and we should support each other.  Good point.  I mean, we all have our own styles, right?  But my, times have changed just a bit, haven’t they?

For instance, now they say it is best to breastfeed.  But back in the 1950s, they had other ideas of what constituted good baby food.  For instance

Nothing like a little carbonated formula.

Of course, now we have real formula and I don’t think anyone actually feeds their babies soda in their bottles.  I’m just going to keep thinking that because it makes me happy.

Anyhoo, there were also different opinions on TV.  Now we say it will rot our children’s brains.  Not true – it rots the brains of parents, as I clearly show in my reviews of children’s television.  (I’m planning to do more of these, so if you’ve got a show that makes you want to poke your own eyes out, let me know.  If I haven’t reviewed it, I will.)  But back in the 1950s, TV not only wasn’t bad, it was good!  And I’m sure the ad coming from a company producing television wouldn’t lie!

You just can’t get too much of that educational Howdy Doody.

So I guess what I’m saying is, if you feel like a lousy parent, all you have to do is look a few years back.  There are much worse things, and you can find many of these on The Wonder Twins (yes another LINK DROP!), my retro blog with Merbear, who also shows some funny stuff on her blog as well.  One example – clothes called “Chubbies” for plump little girls whose self esteem apparently wasn’t already low enough.

At least we know that now we are doing the best for our kids.  It’s not like parenting trends come and go, and come back again or anything.

Poster from the 1930s.  Good to know we’ve been judging moms for decades!

So in the 1930s, they’re saying breastfeed.  In the 1950s, you can feed ’em 7-up and carnation milk.  Later, we have actual regulated formula.  I was fed formula, and so were a lot of my peers who are now afraid to feed their kids formula, because they might have damaged brains.  Like, um, they do?  It’s confusing.  As you can see, views have flipped flopped over the years, and flopped again.  Sort of like sleeping positions for babies

They must sleep on their side!  I actually had one of these with Thing One. It didn’t work.

No, wait, keep the kid on her back. Our bad.  Be sure to squeeze her in really tight like a vice.

HEY, baby, you’re doing it wrong.

My mother was told to lay me on my stomach.  When Thing One was born, they told me to lay her on her side.  When Thing Two came around, she was supposed to lie on her back.  But Thing One rolled onto her back.  And Thing Two startled every five seconds on her back, and rolled to her tummy.  They are both still alive.  I’m sure in a few years, we’ll be back to the tummy sleeping.  Or perhaps we’ll be suspending them in midair.  Who knows.

I’m just glad my days of being a new mommy are over!  I wish luck to my readers with little bitties.  Just remember – you’re doing it wrong.  But so did everybody else.