Howdy Bernie and room: "The Look"...oh how I remember "The Look"that etched into those unruly synapse-gaps of my four year old underdeveloped brain! Ah, yes...the wooden spoon oh yes!
Remembering our moms' need to discipline us as per Leave It To Beaver template becomes indicative of our society's need overall to control the unruly masses. Discipline is a good thing if you are a soldier and need to fight the enemy. When we are just back from WWII wouldn't have been more advantageous and natural to have relaxed the military machine thinking and raise children without referencing Hitler's youth movement tactics aka Boys from Brazil? Obvious to the Flower Power kids there was a nazi lurking in all disciplinarians. The gurus of the early 60's child development had discarded the gentle teachings of Piaget's Child Development Stages. Why? Thus the spawning of the 60's Revolution and the Generation Gap. Yet these same children became the "Flower Power Children" of that time frame ordination.
It did turn (or churn us) into responsible, God-fearing children. And when the rubber hit the road or the metal hits the pedal we were truly free citizens of a democatic country and I was proud to call myself Canadian no matter how many latent angst moments that experience would bring!
A responsibility to God and Country undoubtedly pursued by the need for "right standing" of the status quo community aka suburban sprawl we bought into during that time and space of the 60's It did polish apple to some aspect, we were less questioning then or just coming out of the discipline needed during WWII. And then we slacked off and became the love children generation of the 60s. I did notice that change of attitude from my folks. They did ease up a bit, thank God!
It was the nature/nuture aspect of child rearing yet itself in its infancy, As boomer kids (love ya mom) we probably fell victim to the extreme discipline of guru children rearing specialists such as Dr. Spock (God love him) and Bible readings.
Yes it was of another era, and yes, it was the Dr. Spock who told our mothers (and fathers) it was ok to spank your kids.
Remember "spare the rod, spoil the child"? Biblical teaching?Did you pay attention at Sunday school/cathecism? It could be
that today we have achieved a better understanding of child rearing and the necessary Unconditional Love we grant our children via the psychological doctrines of humanist teachings of Maslow and Abrams et al. Maybe the noveau approach to raising children today has made this generation of children spoiled rotten brats. However, atleast today's childrens' psyches are intact.
It is amazing how far our understanding of today's psychology (yes the magazine too)has come to discover the preciousness of the child's extreme senstivity versus extreme discipline practices!
Child rearing is not so brutal today, thank goodness as we viewed it at 2 feet high in the 50's and 60's as wee children! As devil's advocate to Dr. Spock we knew we had the love "underneath it all" after the discipline, after the wooden spoon coming out of the cutlery drawer. Yes, somewhere in that "state ordered discipline" we knew mommy and daddy truly loved us. A hug after all would have helped seal the deal. Although it was difficult to learn life's hard-learned lessons we came through we flying colours. Albiet, somewhat ouch on the rear end! haha!Jane Jones
Oh how we have grown figuratively and literally! chiccoreal repost Dec 02 08
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