Socially unacceptable

[Jazzy]

What was a social norm when you were a kid that's now socially unacceptable?

 

[DirtRider]

Showing respect

 

[Nebulous]

We used to get candy cigarettes from the ice cream man. I don't think anyone is selling those to kids these days.

 

[cali]

Showing respect is unacceptable? That's news to me.




Spanking kids for "unacceptable" behavior

 

[Jazzy]

Latchkey kids. Many kids let themselves into their houses after school and hung out there alone, or looking after siblings, until their parents got home. That could be for just a couple of hours, or it could be until their parents finished work late at night.

Nowadays, even if a kid does do this, they would never say so out loud, for fear of Child Protective Services showing up at their door. But it used to be common for middle school kids to spend evenings alone in their homes, or roaming around the neighborhood, after school, with no parents at home.

 

[Savona]

If any of you watched MAD Men ... that was my era, the age of their daughter. When she sat in the car and at 13 her mother gave her a cig to smoke. Same as in my day, when you turned 13 you could smoke.

They also allowed smoking in restaurants, grocery stores ashtray at the end of each isle, even in clothing stores you could smoke.

 

[Raven]

Common sense.

 

[Smiley]

Spanking kids for "unacceptable" behavior

This. My parents used to brutally beat me with either bare hands or with some solid object that came in handy each time I "misbehaved", although they changed their interpretation of "misbehavior" at their whim, so I often got smacked around simply because I was doing what was acceptable 5 minutes ago, but suddenly became unacceptable without any prior notice. It was nothing but a blatant abuse of parental authority and perfectly socially acceptable.

Today, the law protects kids from their parents, granting them the right to report their parents to the proper authorities if they so much as spank them, much less go beyond that level of physical punishment. I watch my neighbors here dealing with their teenage son who has no problem talking back at his parents when either of them says something that displeases him. I once overheard his father saying how he wouldn't mind beating him to teach him a lesson, but the law is holding him back.

 

[Nebulous]

Latchkey kids. Many kids let themselves into their houses after school and hung out there alone, or looking after siblings, until their parents got home. That could be for just a couple of hours, or it could be until their parents finished work late at night.

Nowadays, even if a kid does do this, they would never say so out loud, for fear of Child Protective Services showing up at their door. But it used to be common for middle school kids to spend evenings alone in their homes, or roaming around the neighborhood, after school, with no parents at home.

Thats how my childhood was.

 

[seasidemike]

any kind of joke that would now fall under the category of 'Politically Incorrect'

giving someone a Christmas card that actually had the word 'Christmas' in it.

the car full of kids and the parents lighting up the cigarettes while driving.

 

[~KAGE-008]

Spanking kids for "unacceptable" behavior

Spanking is even more unacceptable these days. I agree, that 'punishment' should be stuck in the past. Last time I got spanked was in 2005 and it sucked if you ask me.

 

[MrDawn]

Disciplining a child in public is a big no no these days. Not unless you want to risk someone reporting you to DFS.