"Pussification of babies.." what?!

[slackerinabox]

As a new dad I'm hearing a lot of my older relatives and in laws (especially from the south/Mid-west) say things like "carseats?! in my day, we just strapped a baby onto the armrest!" or other flippant views of current medical knowledge and parenting... My reply is usually "in your day, a lot more babies died." I know some of it's silly but, if a certain practice is leading to infants getting harmed en masse, what's so wrong about our society learning from our mistakes? What I find interesting is the anger attached to the statements about how much better things were back then, but weren't we just collectively ignorant?

 

[JulesMaximus]

These are the same mindless buffoons who vote for people like Sarah Palin and Rick Perry.

You'd have to be an idiot not to put a baby in a car seat.

 

[ConwayJim]

I love it when people dish out their 2 cents on parenting...and then tell you everything you're doing wrong!

 

[Wanescotting]

Ah, you are refering to "good ole' days" syndrome

 

[drebo]

There's a difference between requiring car seats for babies/toddlers that are clearly too small for a standard seatbelt to be effective and requiring car seats for all children until they're 12 and backwards car seats until they're 5, which is what some people want to do.

Reasonable vs. unreasonable. It's common sense, yo.

 

[zinfamous]

In my day, we treated syphilis with a spoonful of mercury!

pussies.

 

[slackerinabox]

These are the same mindless buffoons who vote for people like Sarah Palin and Rick Perry.

Ha, they tend to vote more on that side for sure... What's striking to me is that many of this generation lost siblings growing up (to disease, avoidable accidents, etc.) and yet they all proclaim that their way was better.

 

[FoBoT]

....but weren't we just collectively ignorant?

 

[zinfamous]

Ha, they tend to vote more on that side for sure... What's striking to me is that many of this generation lost siblings growing up (to disease, avoidable accidents, etc.) and yet they all proclaim that their way was better.

what's truly sad is when the current generation of retirees and elderly pass on, there will be no one around that actually remembers life before vaccination.

Of course, the damage is already happening, but you'll more and more people with zero reference, simply assuming that vaccines don't do dick, and preposterously: far more harm than good.

it would be hilarious if it weren't so fucking asinine.

 

[JS80]

These are the same mindless buffoons who vote for people like Sarah Palin and Rick Perry.

You'd have to be an idiot not to put a baby in a car seat.

You're a fucking idiot

 

[JTsyo]

You're a fucking idiot

He didn't say all that vote for them hold this view.

 

[slackerinabox]

Ha, I'm not elitist but know many... In fact, I respect the elderly more than most people - the truly wise ones continue to grow intellectually and I think that's awesome. I think my wife's grandfather, a Missouri based country fellow, is just so bad ass because he can actually build things - houses, engines, it doesn't matter! He's particularly bad ass because he's inquisitive about new trends and advancements and doesn't mock them, even if he speaks with a country twang. Forgot what my point was..

 

[shortylickens]

As a new dad I'm hearing a lot of my older relatives and in laws (especially from the south/Mid-west) say things like "carseats?! in my day, we just strapped a baby onto the armrest!" or other flippant views of current medical knowledge and parenting... My reply is usually "in your day, a lot more babies died." I know some of it's silly but, if a certain practice is leading to infants getting harmed en masse, what's so wrong about our society learning from our mistakes? What I find interesting is the anger attached to the statements about how much better things were back then, but weren't we just collectively ignorant?

But the ones that lived were much stronger.
Now we have a whole country full of, well, you!

 

[JulesMaximus]

Ha, I'm not elitist but know many... In fact, I respect the elderly more than most people - the truly wise ones continue to grow intellectually and I think that's awesome. I think my wife's grandfather, a Missouri based country fellow, is just so bad ass because he can actually build things - houses, engines, it doesn't matter! He's particularly bad ass because he's inquisitive about new trends and advancements and doesn't mock them, even if he speaks with a country twang. Forgot what my point was..

My Grandmother is like that. She just turned 90 but she's still sharp as a tack. She's on Facebook and sends me e-mails...we couldn't even get her oldest son, my Dad, on a computer.

 

[JulesMaximus]

You're a fucking idiot

Aw, did I hit you a wittle close to home? :biggrin:

 

[TwiceOver]

They're pretty friggin durable when they are young. My son is 15 months old and so far I have stuck his head in a running ceiling fan, he fell off our king size bed, fell down our entire flight of stairs, then this past weekend fell down 2 steps to a concrete patio, and put his hand onto a hot disc brake on the car.

As soon as they can stand and walk, they get into all sorts of trouble.

 

[Drako]

Back when I was a boy, seat belts weren't a requirement in cars. There, does that make me flippant?

 

[slackerinabox]

But the ones that lived were much stronger.
Now we have a whole country full of, well, you!

Ha, my parents never used a car seat (and this was in the 80s, not 1920s!)... I've also fallen down the stairs many times because they never thought of installing a gate.. Maybe that explains a lot about my mental health but, yeah, I should have worn a helmet back then and wasn't one of the 'pussified' my daughter, however, has the safest (not the most expensive) car seat and strollers possible!

 

[blackdogdeek]

it's cyclical. when we're old we'll say the same things to the new generation about our generation.

you need more confidence in your parenting. i'm sure you know the right thing to do, you just have to not let the naysayers get to you. one time my father had just come in from working in the garage and had gasoline all over his hands and clothes and wanted to hold our newborn and we asked him to wash up first. he scoffed at us saying that the baby needed to be exposed to germs but we weren't having any of it.

 

[dank69]

As a new dad I'm hearing a lot of my older relatives and in laws (especially from the south/Mid-west) say things like "carseats?! in my day, we just strapped a baby onto the armrest!" or other flippant views of current medical knowledge and parenting... My reply is usually "in your day, a lot more babies died." I know some of it's silly but, if a certain practice is leading to infants getting harmed en masse, what's so wrong about our society learning from our mistakes? What I find interesting is the anger attached to the statements about how much better things were back then, but weren't we just collectively ignorant?

Back then you could drive a car into a brick wall and someone in the back seat without a seatbelt wouldn't even have a scratch. And the wall would have more damage to it than the car!

 

[blackdogdeek]

They're pretty friggin durable when they are young. My son is 15 months old and so far I have stuck his head in a running ceiling fan, he fell off our king size bed, fell down our entire flight of stairs, then this past weekend fell down 2 steps to a concrete patio, and put his hand onto a hot disc brake on the car.

As soon as they can stand and walk, they get into all sorts of trouble.

holy sh!t your kid is going to grow up into the toughest man alive.

 

[slackerinabox]

My Grandmother is like that. She just turned 90 but she's still sharp as a tack. She's on Facebook and sends me e-mails...we couldn't even get her oldest son, my Dad, on a computer.

Yep, speaking of facebook - my wife explained it all to him once and I respected his question/comment and wonder the same thing myself sometimes - "Why would you want to do that?" Of course his wife uses her new iPad constantly and posts to facebook herself, but I find a bit of old-time reasoning and cynicism charming sometimes, but not when talking about child safety.

 

[TwiceOver]

holy sh!t your kid is going to grow up into the toughest man alive.

He punched me in the nuts with his sippy cup the other day too. Thus taking the throne as man of the house.

 

[slackerinabox]

it's cyclical. when we're old we'll say the same things to the new generation about our generation.

you need more confidence in your parenting. i'm sure you know the right thing to do, you just have to not let the naysayers get to you. one time my father had just come in from working in the garage and had gasoline all over his hands and clothes and wanted to hold our newborn and we asked him to wash up first. he scoffed at us saying that the baby needed to be exposed to germs but we weren't having any of it.

You're absolutely right, I give/take too much so I get a lot of unwanted advice. I think it comes from me viewing my older sister (had her first 8 years ago) as absolutely mean spirited about her parenting - she was very "my way or the highway" about the way people interacted with her child and would go as far as writing detailed instructions and schedules on how she wanted things done (from feeding to diaper changing). It always rubbed me the wrong way (especially since free child care is a gift!) so I always aim to be inclusive and laid back, but it's causing a lot of annoying battles. In retrospect my sister may have had it right... My mom baby sat for the first time yesterday and called me after she locked herself out of my apartment, with our crying baby stuck in the living room alone.. sigh..

 

[LumbergTech]

My gf's mother said something similar. She isn't against carseats but she has this idiotic logic in her mind that if they made it back then without them..then it must not be that big of a deal.