I watched a show on youtube on growing up in past time periods vs today....

When I was going to grade school we were graded on Deportment. Most kids today will have no idea what that means.

You bring up a good point. Discipline was not only taught, but was demanded in school. Today it's a big free for all. Teachers are afraid to discipline kids. They'll end up losing their job. There is zero punishment for misbehaviour.

Kids run wild. If they complain to their parents, the parents get a lawyer and sue the school. Back then if the teachers complained to the parents, you got you butt kicked twice. Once by the teacher, and again by the old man when he found out you were a disrespectful little snot.
 
I was brought up with a military dad...was not all it was cracked up to be...I still have marks on my back and im 62...

Born in 60' I did not appreciate the miniskirt era...wish it would make a comeback soon...

Otherwise it is what it is...I do miss Mr. Rogers neighborhood.
 
Born in '78 so a child of the '80s to mid-90s. I grew up in Putnam county NY in a very blue-collar working-class town. Both my parents worked +60 hours per week so I was a latch-key kid which means my parents were not around and I was raised by a pack of wolves - my siblings when they were around. Most of my friends were latch-key kids too with parents in trades and construction. We played a lot of sports. We rode a lot of ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, and boats/watercraft. We spent a lot of time in the woods.

In high school, we partied A LOT, we smoked a lot of dope and drank a lot of 40s. If you didn't work you had no money, no auto insurance, and no car. Those with a father in a trade went to work early with their father. My first job was at 13 working for a friend's father who was a paver (OSHA and child labor laws - what are those?) I've had a job with no more than 2-weeks unemployed since I was 13. I thought everyone had HIV (it was drummed into our heads) yet we all had A LOT of unprotected sex. I have memories that remind me of Caligula. None of us took school all that seriously but we all did well enough and most of us went to college in the SUNY system. I put myself through college living at home delivering pizzas - I think my tuition was $3500 per year? We didn't have cell phones and once we could drive most of us spent most of our time out and about occasionally checking in at home. Parents never waited up on weekends. In spite of the partying, drugs, drinking, and sex just about every one of my friends and I got serious in college and we are now professionals - Doctors, dentists, a lot of engineers, a couple of people in finance, and A LOT of teachers.

Was it better? I don't know. I think most of us didn't have a meaningful relationship with our parents who were just busy getting by in life. We had A LOT MORE FREEDOM which in retrospect I enjoyed immensely but my friends and I could've gone "the other way". The only thing I can say definitively is our music was F'in awesome!
 
Born in '78 so a child of the '80s to mid-90s. I grew up in Putnam county NY in a very blue-collar working-class town. Both my parents worked +60 hours per week so I was a latch-key kid which means my parents were not around and I was raised by a pack of wolves - my siblings when they were around. Most of my friends were latch-key kids too with parents in trades and construction. We played a lot of sports. We rode a lot of ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, and boats/watercraft. We spent a lot of time in the woods.

In high school, we partied A LOT, we smoked a lot of dope and drank a lot of 40s. If you didn't work you had no money, no auto insurance, and no car. Those with a father in a trade went to work early with their father. My first job was at 13 working for a friend's father who was a paver (OSHA and child labor laws - what are those?) I've had a job with no more than 2-weeks unemployed since I was 13. I thought everyone had HIV (it was drummed into our heads) yet we all had A LOT of unprotected sex. I have memories that remind me of Caligula. None of us took school all that seriously but we all did well enough and most of us went to college in the SUNY system. I put myself through college living at home delivering pizzas - I think my tuition was $3500 per year? We didn't have cell phones and once we could drive most of us spent most of our time out and about occasionally checking in at home. Parents never waited up on weekends. In spite of the partying, drugs, drinking, and sex just about every one of my friends and I got serious in college and we are now professionals - Doctors, dentists, a lot of engineers, a couple of people in finance, and A LOT of teachers.

Was it better? I don't know. I think most of us didn't have a meaningful relationship with our parents who were just busy getting by in life. We had A LOT MORE FREEDOM which in retrospect I enjoyed immensely but my friends and I could've gone "the other way". The only thing I can say definitively is our music was F'in awesome!
Wow...except for some details...could be my life story...although I'm almost 20 years younger..and my mom could stay home and not work.
 
You bring up a good point. Discipline was not only taught, but was demanded in school. Today it's a big free for all. Teachers are afraid to discipline kids. They'll end up losing their job. There is zero punishment for misbehaviour.

Kids run wild. If they complain to their parents, the parents get a lawyer and sue the school. Back then if the teachers complained to the parents, you got you butt kicked twice. Once by the teacher, and again by the old man when he found out you were a disrespectful little snot.
I can't count the number of times I got marched to the principal's office in the sixth grade to get the red paddle. It eventually set in though. That is what kids need today.
 
Talking about what we did almost always starts generation conversation which Im trying to avoid, but we had freedoms few will ever have that came after us.

As a kid during that time.

We were surrounded by guns but not one ever went into a school
We learned and played with both computer and video games- but we did that at night.
During weekend days we often had to do adult work- mowing, snow clearing, cleaning large spaces.
When on the grandparents farm you helped and kept their schedule - 5-6 and lights out at night after the evening news.
When we were old enough we rode and raced dirt bikes, and if you were lucky snowmobiled in the winter.
At 7 I got a folding board so i could help with laundry.

At 11 I got my first 22 rifle for my birthday and already had 4 years experience with lesser weapons.

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So you assume I watch that channel which I don’t by the way.
His post is typical, but it brings up yet another point as to what has happened to our society. I remember when I first got cable television. It was 1980, and CNN had first started broadcasting around the clock news.

It was really good and convenient. It came out about the same time as The Weather Channel and MTV. No matter what time of the day or night, you could get a complete news broadcast at the top, and the bottom of every hour. Same with the weather. All with up to the minute accuracy. Events unfolded as you watched.

The Reagan assassination attempt. The first Space Shuttle Launch. The Challenger explosion. The concept was good, and the content and presentation was even better. Because it was all delivered with no bias. It was much the same with the 3 network news broadcasts. Stories were presented in a fair and accurate manner.

Today, both cable and network news has been drowned out in a sea of bias. It has literally become worse than TASS or Pravda in the old Soviet Union. Every news show on television today is saturated with bias. One way or the other. It has gotten to the point you can't even watch it seriously any longer.

It's no longer informative. It's nothing but cheap sensationalism, and it's divisive. All of it. But many people who watch it believe what they're being told. Unconditionally, and without questioning any of it.

At least they did. Now the ratings at CNN are so bad, they're cleaning house over there, in an attempt to salvage something. What I have no idea. Today's news programming is an unmitigated disaster. They attach politics to any and all of it. His post just told you that, if anything.
 
I can't count the number of times I got marched to the principal's office in the sixth grade to get the red paddle. It eventually set in though. That is what kids need today.

I stayed out of trouble in school at least during paddling age.

I got the belt once as a kid - thats all it took.

I mouthed off to my mom - once- and got smacked in mouth once.
I deserved it and am still ashamed I was a little douchebag that time.
 
The Reagan assassination attempt.
The first Space Shuttle Launch. The Challenger explosion.

Reagan came over loudspeaker in 7nth or 8th grade
Dont recall the first launch being watched in realtime.
Learned about the challenger on the way to work- basically called in sick after my first destination I was a maintenance guy at a apartment complex cleand the building hit the pay phone and went home and mourned with the whole country that day.
 
I stayed out of trouble in school at least during paddling age.

I got the belt once as a kid - thats all it took.

I mouthed off to my mom - once- and got smacked in mouth once.
I deserved it and am still ashamed I was a little douchebag that time.
Ehhh...I got into a bit of trouble in junior high and high school. The usual stuff of skipping school or mouthing off. There was no corporal punishment then and by the end of 8th grade I was 6'5" and 220lbs with an "aggressive streak". I was always polite, even when getting caught, and I never lied. If the principal asked if I left school yesterday I'd tell the truth and accept my punishment. I never had a teacher or administrator even enter my personal space not to mention hit me. My mom could throw down if pushed but my father was a happy-go-lucky drunk who while an embarrassment, didn't have a mean bone in his body. He was also 5'10" and 165lbs (got my size from my mom's side) so there was little he could do anyway.
 
Just dropped one of my very well-behaved children off and my wife and I were discussing this post in the car. Here's what we came up with at least where I grew up:

My parents' generations (Boomers) were just trying to make ends meet and that meant a lot of work and not a lot of parenting. My parents were gone when I woke and didn't come home until after 7PM 5-6 days per week. Didn't feel like going to school? That's easy - just don't leave the house. Want to have friends over to smoke pot and have sex? That's easy, school is out at 2PM and no one will be home until 7-7:30PM. We did a lot of dumb things unsupervised.

My generation grows up and realizes parenting sucked for us, we are all lucky to be alive, and we vow to do better with our kids by being present and involved. The problem is we got too involved and this was the genesis of the lawnmower parents who infantilize their children into early adulthood and mow down all obstacles so they never have to feel hurt, rejected, or embarrassed.

This leads to the current generation who have little to no coping skills and as someone who works with them daily - THEY ARE A MESS. Babied, no work ethic, everyone has anxiety/depression, and everyone is medicated I believe because my generation won't let them grow up and feel the bitter sting that every human being must feel in life. Life is difficult and sucks at times. It can be a grind and it's not easy but there is value in that grind and difficulty that we are sheltering our children from and it shows.
 
His post is typical, but it brings up yet another point as to what has happened to our society. I remember when I first got cable television. It was 1980, and CNN had first started broadcasting around the clock news.

It was really good and convenient. It came out about the same time as The Weather Channel and MTV. No matter what time of the day or night, you could get a complete news broadcast at the top, and the bottom of every hour. Same with the weather. All with up to the minute accuracy. Events unfolded as you watched.

The Reagan assassination attempt. The first Space Shuttle Launch. The Challenger explosion. The concept was good, and the content and presentation was even better. Because it was all delivered with no bias. It was much the same with the 3 network news broadcasts. Stories were presented in a fair and accurate manner.

Today, both cable and network news has been drowned out in a sea of bias. It has literally become worse than TASS or Pravda in the old Soviet Union. Every news show on television today is saturated with bias. One way or the other. It has gotten to the point you can't even watch it seriously any longer.

It's no longer informative. It's nothing but cheap sensationalism, and it's divisive. All of it. But many people who watch it believe what they're being told. Unconditionally, and without questioning any of it.

At least they did. Now the ratings at CNN are so bad, they're cleaning house over there, in an attempt to salvage something. What I have no idea. Today's news programming is an unmitigated disaster. They attach politics to any and all of it. His post just told you that, if anything.
Getting rid of personalities isn't enough. They need a complete overhaul and new ownership.
 
Sorry to do this in installments but this post has me thinking...

I think growing up in the 80s we were constantly told we were never going to be good enough and even worse we were going to be the generation to lose America's dominance in the world. We were constantly being told Japanese school kids went to school 3x longer and they outscored us on every exam and one day they'd rule the world. I remember thinking that sucks but I don't want to go to school 3x longer - I wanted to go play football.

In the 90s we were told we were the generation of apathy. Our parents worked non-stop and we didn't want to do that and we thought college was our way out of being a workaholic (Not true necessarily but if you were paid more maybe you'd have to work less was the idea). Playing sports we were constantly compared to previous generations and told we didn't work as hard even though we had similar success.

This led right to us becoming the solipsistic generation. Previous generations really focused on working towards "the greater good" and we said I'm probably never going to measure up anyway, I don't want my parents' lives either because that kind of sucks too, so I'm just going to focus on me and what I want out of life even if it's only good for me and not the greater good at least I'll be "happy". This was the time you started hearing that life is all about happiness and if you're not happy leave your job or move or get divorced or whatever. Your happiness means more than anything and this has been amplified greatly in the current generation. If every day isn't like Disney land you're wasting your life and you need to find your happiness - of course, every day can not be like Disney Land but that doesn't stop people from trying.
 
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