These 20 household rules that 1970s kids followed without explanation, from outdoor curfews and empty plates to latchkey afternoons, and why child development experts still argue about what those rules actually built.
Boomers were warned about the wildest everyday things, and some of those rules never made any sense.
The 1960s had a punishment playbook so strange and severe that even the adults using it could not explain why.
The 1970s parenting rulebook was a wild mix of total neglect and random strictness that makes no sense now.
The 1950s parenting rulebook banned some things so bizarre that even experts cannot explain the logic today.
The 1950s had a code of childhood conduct so rigid and bizarre that modern kids would not believe it was real.