Astoundingly Bad Parenting Advice From Yesteryear

Just how did we survive? Some of these make me cringe! Here's a selection I found across the net...just for a laugh...please don't try these at home

1. Smoking whilst pregnant is fine reported a 1966 publication
2. Start your baby on Coca Cola. WTF??

3. In 1928 parents were advised to never kiss or hug their children except once at bedtime. Any other time would be spoiling the child
4. Wash your baby in lard or fat at least once a week for the first few weeks......erm just why or what benefit this little gem is it doesn't say!
5. In 1870 new mothers were told that nervousness and anxiety poisoned breast milk and they should employ wet nurses if they felt stressed
6. "Do not think about ugly people or deformities whilst pregnant or you will have a deformed baby" states one 1800 publication
7. Give your baby infant cordial heroin to help them sleep.....ooookkkayyy!
8. Germs apparently can pick out weak children...so don't be a wuss!

9. Don't drink cold water when pregnant...apparently in medieval times people thought cold water would harm the baby
10. Make sure your daughter can prepare a meal by the time she is 13....from the early 1800's....well actually this is probably a good tip!
11. Tight swaddling makes your baby grow up straight...a medieval myth
12. Invite your husband to help out with the baby occasionally.....from the 1970's...luckily we seem to have managed to divide responsibility in this regard quite well
13. Never visit your children in hospital when sick it will spoil them and make them more ill
14. Use puppies to get rid of excess breast milk whilst your baby is with the wet nurse....advice to rich Victorian women.....well obviously!

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport


These are nuts! I am especially appalled by the "don't show affection or it will spoil the child" rules. There is a difference between healthy affection and nurturance and molly-coddling.

Can you provide a source please?

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

what are we doing today that in 100 years they will think wtf? haha, interesting little read you have here.

originally posted by: ware2010
a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

what are we doing today that in 100 years they will think wtf? haha, interesting little read you have here.

First thing that comes to mind is giving 3 year-olds their own iphone or ipad as a babysitter. All my contemporaries do this and their kids don't seem to know how to socialize when they get out of the toddler years. I have countless 2nd cousins and I've never heard a good lot of them talk once! They just stare blankly at whoever is trying to engage them.

Lol!!! I did a thread a couple of weeks ago on Victorian Era Medicine (Victorian era Medicine - How the heck did we survive!!! lol!!!) I this same forum!!!
Its always funny to see what was once bad, is now good, and Vice Versa.

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

yes indeed, i have seen that too, got a 7 year old cousin that cant live without his pad... the kid is even terrified of a bicycle... way to many wimpy kids out there too.

And there's more.....according to Victorian Dr William Cadogan....child rearing and parenting was not suitable for women whose brains were too small to logically bring up a child and it should be left to the father to produce "rational" children!
He stated "this Business [of childrearing] has been too long fatally left to the Management of Women, who cannot be supposed to have a proper Knowledge to fit them for such a Task" bless him.....mind you looking at some mothers I tend to agree!

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

It left out whiskey on the pacifier....

Puppies to get rid of breast milk 😳
Ouch

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha

originally posted by: ware2010
a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

what are we doing today that in 100 years they will think wtf? haha, interesting little read you have here.

First thing that comes to mind is giving 3 year-olds their own iphone or ipad as a babysitter. All my contemporaries do this and their kids don't seem to know how to socialize when they get out of the toddler years. I have countless 2nd cousins and I've never heard a good lot of them talk once! They just stare blankly at whoever is trying to engage them.

The excuse for this is that they want them to grow up understanding tech, but that's crap. Ours only gets to see a smartphone or tablet either on very long car trips or occasioanlly when we are waiting for our food at a restaurant. The rest of the time he doesn't have one at all. Somehow, he knows exactly how to open apps and start videos ... even turn on the camera and take pics without being told how.

a reply to: snowspirit

bah my mother used to give me that.....i hate whisky to this day!

a reply to: ketsuko

Being able to use tech is important.

Being able to conjure up a few words in response to a good-old fashioned "What's up?" is even more important.

I'm tellin' ya..deer-in-headlight reactions are not normal!


It's a good thing I'm not a parent. My kids would be riddled with these quirky, arcane little personality traits called MANNERS!

Did you know that in England the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was created 67yrs before the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children? Nice to see where our priorities lay

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

It is, but they cvan easily learn all about it without being babysat by it.

Heck, ours thinks he's an expert at any video game we let him try within 30secs of getting started.

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
Did you know that in England the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was created 67yrs before the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children? Nice to see where our priorities lay

I would still like to see where you're pulling these facts from..

Sorry to be a hall monitor, but providing sources is kind of good form around here.

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

Its only the chit chat forum but here's one for you....there's tons all over the net
Victorian Children

here's another
Heroin for Babies

a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport

Still waiting for the bad advice.

I saw all the good ideas.

a reply to: DBCowboy

hahaha I'd pay good money to see YOU breastfeed a pile of puppies!

originally posted by: PhyllidaDavenport
a reply to: DBCowboy

hahaha I'd pay good money to see YOU breastfeed a pile of puppies!

Most people do.

I can remember as a child, born in '65, so probably maybe 5 -7 years later, one of my earliest childhood memories. Having a fever and my mom washing me down with like rubbing alcohol. I remember the stainless steel bowl vividly.

I wonder if washing your kid in alcohol is still considered good parenting?

Wife and I were reading some good wife tips from the 50's? the other night. Was pretty funny. The gist of all of them was wifey should clean herself up, fix him a drink and give him some quite time when he gets home...maybe those weren't the funny ones

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
a reply to: PhyllidaDavenport


These are nuts! I am especially appalled by the "don't show affection or it will spoil the child" rules. There is a difference between healthy affection and nurturance and molly-coddling.

Can you provide a source please?

I can't source it because it was read decades ago, but apparently the view was that too much attention spoiled a child. So things like letting them cry alone in the crib were encouraged.