Raising Kids in the Old Days

[bohemianbanshee]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3775106/Don-t-tell-social-services-new-book-proves-yesteryear-s-little-darlings-real-toughies.html

Wow. Ideas about safety were certainly different back then.

Comments

[bronzino]

Well, none of that really seems that unsafe?

Apart from the smoking, I guess. I remember how my mother would give me wine when I was seven years old. I thought it was weird even then and didn't really like the taste.

[bohemianbanshee]

I think the baby in the window, the babies being hung on the washing line, and the kids swimming with ropes around them seem like something I wouldn't be comfortable doing with my kid....the last one less than the first two. I can see how they would be okay if nothing went wrong, but the potential for something going wrong seems huge to me.

[bronzino]

Yeah, it does look weird and as someone who knows how to swim, I think that rope thing is a dumb way of teaching, you should teach them that air in the lungs means that you can float, more like. And I don't like the hanging babies thing at all. But it's not unsafe per se, necessarily (you can drown without a rope, and I assume they know that the cage and the line are sturdy).

[bronzino]

I think it just looks alien - for example, people have those harness straps that carry a baby on them, is that just as unsafe? Assuming you know that the straps are sturdy.