Parenting Today

Watching the Children play together this past half term has made me think about how I would cope as a Stay at Home Mum in previous decades. How would I cope if I had been bringing up my Children in the 90's? The 80's? The 70's? The 60's?

I'm sure that I would have been a much more different person to the one I am now. The slight and subtle cultural changes that mould us all in ways we can't possibly imagine, would have made me a different me. I don't think I would swear as much as I do, I doubt I would be as overweight  I wouldn't have as many friends from different cultures as I do and I wouldn't class men as some of my best and closest friends. Would I have a different religion? Would I have friends who were different religions? Would any of my friends not go to Church?

I guess that these are questions that I will never really know the answer to.

My Mum was always there, but I'm not sure what she did exactly. I mean I know she did the household chores and cooked the meals, but did she turn off between 9am and 3pm whilst I was at School? Did she sit and watch daytime TV? Did she have friends that she would go and see? Did she go back to bed or was there something else other than me that filled her days?

My childhood was so different to my own Children's.

I was allowed to play on the back field without my Mum watching my every move. I was allowed to ride my bike around the alleyways of the estate on a Sunday morning before my parents woke up. I was allowed to walk to the local park alone, even though it meant crossing a road.

It wasn't that my parents didn't care, just the norm back then was for Children to have more freedom than they do now. I was taught stranger danger of course, but not as fanatically as I teach my own children now.

I don't think my parents had to worry about how much time I spent watching cartoons on TV, as back then Children's TV wasn't on all day every day. They didn't have to worry about me using electronic devices, as those that I did have weren't like the ones of today.

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