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Every generation raises its kids differently. And naturally, with hindsight, people realize that they can improve upon past parenting methods or do a complete 180 in how future generations are raised. For example, this baby in London, in the 1930s, is being hung from a cage outside an apartment window so they can sunbathe and get fresh air — because it's healthy. So yeah, placing your child in a cage, several stories up, while letting them just sit in the sun is NOT something we would do today.
And it was with that in mind that redditor u/The_Brolander asked Gen X'ers on Reddit this question: "What’s something your boomer parents did with you that was laughably bad parenting?"
Well, Gen X'ers took a step back in time and shared some of the things they experienced growing up in the '70s and '80s because of their boomer parents. Here are some of the top and best comments — including one from the OP, who starts off the list:
1. "When I was 5 (in 1980), The Shining came out and was on HBO for its cable premiere. Wanting to spend time with my dad, I asked him if I could watch it with him. Arguably one of the most psychologically disturbing movies of its time, and he was totally cool with it. Ended up watching 90% of it, peeking from behind his recliner. The kicker is, knowing how badly it scared me, my father — for a few days after — thought it would be funny to stand at the foot of my bed, with dead eyes, and wake me up asking if I wanted to 'come play with [him]…forever.' That combo of my father and that movie scared me so bad that I slept with my Fozzie Bear doll until I was about 11 or 12."
2. "My mom would send me to the nearby 7-Eleven with a handwritten note giving me permission to buy cigarettes for her...and the clerk would accept it!"
3. "According to my dad, I have Pepsi in my baby bottles in pics because they thought keeping me caffeinated all day meant I'd sleep better at night. A lot more questionable decisions followed."
4. "Remember how there used to be half-size cans of beer? My dad would give me a mini Budweiser to 'settle [me] down.' This was age 3 or 4. I tell people I quit drinking when I started kindergarten and didn't begin again till college."
5. "My boomer mother thought it was hilarious to mercilessly mock anything I liked, no matter how harmless — not just to me but to anybody around. She basically embarrassed me out of liking so many things until I finally developed a 'F*** you, I won't let you spoil this for me' attitude about it."
6. "My parents had really terrible ideas about safety. We'd take big family vacations in the station wagon, and I'd have to sit on the flat part in the back wedged by the suitcases. I'd spend most of the trip throwing up because there was no cushioning or seating, so I'd feel every vibration and bump in the road. No seatbelt. Nothing. Just me, wedged next to a suitcase."
7. "When I was really little, Mom would send us out the front door of our trailer to play in the yard. It didn’t have a fence. So I was 3 and playing in the street while she was watching General Hospital."
"When she would send us off to Dad’s for two weeks at the beginning of summer and two weeks at the end of summer, my dad and stepmom just continued to go to work every day as if they didn’t have a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old at home — along with HER two kids, who were about the same age. Of course, the older kids eventually got into the liquor. And we sneaked next door to go swimming at the neighbor's house while nobody was home. We had no adult supervision for 90% of our childhood."
8. "I had an aunt who would stop by the Alton’s Restaurant and have me run in and buy her a pack out of the cigarette vending machine — I still can’t believe they ever had those!"
9. "At bedtime, my father would come into my brother's and my bedroom and make patterns in the dark with a lit cigarette. Oh, happy memories."
10. "OMG, I remember my dad occasionally taking me and my brother to smoky pool halls on Saturdays so he could play a few games and have a couple of beers before he did the errands he was running for my mom. I guess she never questioned why we all smelled like smoke when we came home hours later, because my dad smoked with us in the truck anyway."
11. "Drove three kids around in a car with a hole in the floor large enough for us to fall through."
12. "I was born in '76 and saw Poltergeist at the movies (1982). Who the fuck lets that happen?"
13. "After breakfast, Mom would send me outside and tell me not to come home until the streetlights came on."
14. "My parents would buy this hideous-smelling flea poison at the vet for our rottweiler. It had to be diluted with water, I guess. My mother whipped up a gallon of this concoction in an old milk gallon. It was a white liquid. She put it in the refrigerator, in the milk gallon. She did not mark the container in any way in order to differentiate it from an ordinary gallon of milk. Now, I ate cereal every morning for breakfast. I am guessing you can easily figure out what happened next, but unbelievably, my mother did not foresee that I would pour this flea poison on my cereal and eat it. I was told that I was pretty silly, because it has a smell!"
"Didn’t I notice the smell? Boy, what a dumb kid! She sent me off to day camp with a box of Tic Tacs to help mellow the terrible aftertaste in my mouth. I think of this often. It always seemed very fucked up, even more so now that I am a parent. Luckily, I only took one bite! I can still taste it."
15. "My mom was actually the previous generation (Silent), but my dad was a boomer. Both of them smoked in the house and the car and made me sit in smoking sections. I have always HATED smoking, so it was extra shitty."
16. "My stepdad thought he was being an awesome dad when he gave me a fat bag of weed when I was 14. I didn’t smoke weed then. When I asked what I should do with it, he said I could sell it or trade it. I have two boys of my own now, and my upbringing was just so damn different. What was normal for us, in retrospect, was NOT remotely normal or appropriate."
17. "We had to be 7 years old to get our own lighter to light off fireworks unsupervised during the weeks leading up to the 4th of July. (If you were younger, you only got a punk.)"
18. "My dad used to pull my sled with a rope behind the car. That same car was diesel, so my dad would drive ahead of me, with about 5–10 feet of clearance, while helping me train for cross-country. Yep, my dad was rolling coal on me from high school to college. Thanks, 1983 Datsun 810 wagon."
19. "My mom loved to tell the story of how, when I was an infant, they stuck me and my car seat between their golf clubs in the back of the golf cart. My car seat and I popped out on the fairway, and they didn’t notice until the next hole. If I remember correctly, this story was an extension of her account about what a good baby I was. I guess I was just lucky to have a car seat that they actually buckled me into."
20. "I still remember a six-hour drive to see family, where my brother and I were in the bed of a pickup with the luggage and two black Labs. We had couch cushions to lie on, at least, and there was a topper on the bed. Oh, it was summer, too — high 90s. They did let us crack the side window for some air."
21. And last: "My high school had a smoking area, open to students grades 9–12."
You can read the full thread of responses on r/GenX.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.