Wait till you all read this!!!!!!....jk
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Kaitlyn Farley
Fri, November 28, 2025 at 11:56 AM EST
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Nostalgia Meets Neuroscience
The popular image of the 1960s and 70s childhood is one of free-range freedom: wood-paneled station wagons, bicycles without helmets, and a general air of unsupervised liberty. Parents of that era—our grandparents and parents—were doing the very best they could with the information and cultural norms available to them.
However, today’s neuroscience, child psychology, and developmental research reveal that some once-normal, widely accepted parenting practices inadvertently caused stress, suppressed crucial emotional development, or exposed kids to unnecessary safety and health risks.
This article explores a dozen once-standard practices and uses modern research to explain why they were tough on a child’s developing brain, emotional health, and long-term well-being.
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Practice 1: “Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard”
This adage normalized emotional suppression and the idea that children’s thoughts and feelings were secondary to adult convenience.
Modern Understanding: We now know that the ability to articulate and process emotions (emotional regulation) is a key function of the prefrontal cortex, which is still developing in children. When children’s distress, sadness, or anger is consistently brushed off or punished, it hinders the development of these neural pathways. Listening to a child’s feelings—even when you can’t solve their problem—validates their experience, lowers their stress response, and is crucial for cognitive and social growth.
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Practice 2: No-Seatbelt, Free-Range Car Riding
It was completely normal to see kids standing on the transmission hump, jumping in the back, or lying unrestrained in the rear window of station wagons.
Impact: In an accident, an unrestrained child becomes a projectile. While adults’ brains are cushioned by a developed skull, a developing brain is highly susceptible to severe, permanent damage from the kind of abrupt force caused by a collision. The evolution of child safety seats, rear-facing requirements, and mandatory seatbelts has been one of the most significant public safety triumphs for children.
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Practice 3: Using Fear-Based Discipline
Corporal punishment (spanking) and threats (shame-based discipline) were common tools to enforce obedience.
Modern Research: Repeated exposure to fear and shame activates the body’s stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline). Chronic activation of this stress response can alter neural pathways, potentially shrinking areas of the brain responsible for executive function and emotional processing. The shift today is toward gentle boundaries and emotional coaching, which focuses on teaching a child why a behavior is wrong, rather than simply punishing the outcome.
Image Credit: SeventyFour/Istockphoto.
Practice 4: Smoking Around Children Constantly
In the 60s and 70s, cigarettes were ubiquitous—in kitchens, cars, living rooms, and restaurants.
Impact: The awareness simply didn’t exist that secondhand smoke contains thousands of toxic chemicals. For a developing body, this constant exposure negatively affects the respiratory system and has been linked to compromised brain development and cognitive deficits. The widespread shift to smoke-free indoor environments is a huge win for pediatric public health.
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Practice 5: Letting Kids Roam Unsupervised All Day
The “be home by sundown” culture gave children massive autonomy.
Benefits: This freedom undeniably fostered independence and creative problem-solving. Risk: However, it also exposed some children to the neurological risks of chronic stress due to unsafe or high-risk situations (abductions, injuries, exposure). Today’s balance seeks to offer freedom with intentional safety awareness, allowing exploration while still providing a secure, reliable base that keeps the nervous system regulated.
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Practice 6: Ignoring Kids’ Emotional Struggles
Anxiety, grief, sadness, and trauma were often brushed off as “phases,” a character flaw, or simply something to “get over.”
What We Now Know: We recognize that early mental health struggles can profoundly affect neural resilience and shape the way the brain wires for coping and relationships. When a child’s emotions are validated, it strengthens the connections in their brain that allow them to process complex feelings in the future.
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Practice 7: Minimal Involvement in School or Academics
It was often assumed that kids should “figure it out” academically; parental involvement was limited to signing report cards.
Impact: We now understand that a child’s cognitive development is significantly boosted by parental support and engagement. This doesn’t mean doing homework for them, but being involved helps identify learning styles and developmental needs early on. Modern education emphasizes scaffolding, where support is built up and then gradually removed to foster true understanding.
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Practice 8: Feeding Kids Ultra-Processed Convenience Foods
The explosion of convenience foods—TV dinners, sugary cereals, canned everything—dominated the post-war diet.
Impact: We now have extensive research on the impact of excessive sugar, processed ingredients, and chemical additives on the developing brain. High-sugar diets can negatively affect attention span, mood regulation, and memory function. Nutrition science has transformed our understanding, emphasizing whole foods and brain-healthy fats for optimal neural development.
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Practice 9: Zero Focus on Sleep Hygiene
Late-night TV, inconsistent bedtimes, and a lack of awareness about sleep’s importance were common.
Impact: Sleep is not just rest; it’s when the brain consolidates memory, regulates emotion, and performs crucial neural cleanup. Inadequate or inconsistent sleep profoundly affects a child’s emotional regulation and ability to learn. Today’s push for consistent routines, quiet wind-downs, and screens-off habits is directly based on neuroscientific findings about its vital role.
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Practice 10: Strict Gender Roles Limiting Activities
Boys were often discouraged from emotional expression; girls were subtly pushed away from high-level science, competitive sports, or aggressive play.
The Cost: This meant a significant loss of diverse experiences, which are necessary to strengthen cognitive flexibility and different neural circuits. Encouraging diversity in activities—from nurturing play to complex problem-solving—ensures a child’s brain develops a wider range of skills.
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Practice 11: No Sunscreen, Hats, or Real Outdoor Safety
Kids routinely spent hours baking in the sun without protection.
Impact: While sun exposure is a modern concern, the immediate risk of heat exhaustion and severe sunburn was underestimated. These events put unnecessary stress on a developing body’s regulatory systems. Today’s awareness emphasizes protection for both the skin and overall internal health, including hydration and thermal regulation.
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Practice 12: Expecting Kids to “Tough It Out”
Emotional hurt, minor illnesses, or injuries were often minimized or met with the expectation to “tough it out” and not complain.
Impact: This minimization can teach a child to ignore their body’s signals and their own distress, contributing to chronic stress that negatively affects brain wiring. Modern health culture emphasizes support and communication, teaching kids that asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.
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Why These Practices Persisted
These norms persisted because of three primary factors:
Lack of Scientific Research: The detailed studies linking stress hormones, cognitive function, and emotional development simply didn’t exist.
Cultural Norms: A high value was placed on toughness, obedience, and independence, often at the expense of sensitivity.
Limited Information: Parenting manuals, advice columns, and even doctors lacked the robust understanding available today.
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Compassion and Progress
It’s crucial to remember that parents of the ’60s and ’70s were driven by love and did the absolute best they could with the limited knowledge available. They deserve our compassion and respect.
Today, we celebrate how far our understanding of child development has come. By applying neuroscience, we have healthier parenting tools that lead to more emotionally secure and resilient brains. We can offer our children the best of both worlds: the modern safety of science, combined with a healthy dose of that nostalgic freedom.
