I have a tendency towards dwelling on things I cannot change. I often fear that the times we live in are overwhelmingly terrifying.
But I recently purchased two books (okay, who am I kidding, it was a book sale where you get a whole bag of books for $5, I got a ton of books, but for this post we will focus on two of them): The Obedient Child by Ken Wilson and May I Borrow Your Husband and Baby? by Cathy Guisewite.
The Obedient Child is a parenting book. I recommend it to those who choose to spank and advise you avoid it if you don't choose to spank. It was published in 1988.
May I Borrow Your Husband and Baby? is a comic book (Cathy from the newspaper comics). This one was also published in 1988.
In The Obedient Child the author writes about things I am worrying about 27 years later! To many bad influences on television is the one that stood out. He actually said "Many of us grew up on cartoons and consider them one of the "safe" programming options for our children. Many of the cartoons have changed since you were parked in front of the TV on Saturday morning in the 1950's and 1960's." He also laments the phenomenon of parents, and fathers in particular being portrayed as "buffoons" in the media. These are seriously things that I think about now.
May I Borrow Your Husband and Baby has one of Cathy's friends having a baby and being a new mom. She spends her time worrying about not doing enough to help her baby develop to its full potential. She wants to get non-toxic toys and organic food. When she leaves the house she sets up the computer to track her car and brings a cell phone. She whines about not getting a year of paid maternity leave like other countries. Its like nothing has changed (except at Cathy's high school reunion a pregnant lady is wearing a shirt that says "Class of 2005" with an arrow on it, which was a little surreal LOL) in the last few decades.
Although many, many things have changed in the last 30 years, so many others have stayed the same. I don't know if that is reassuring or sad, but I am leaning towards reassuring.
What do you think? Do you think things are better, worse, the same or different than they were in the past?
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