"My boomer mother thought it was hilarious to mock anything I liked mercilessly, no matter how harmless, not just to me but to anybody around. She embarrassed me out of liking so many things until I finally developed a screw you; I won't let you spoil this for me attitude about it. And no, she wasn't doing me any favors. To this day, I'm reticent about telling people about things I like because I'm half-expecting to be mocked."
"When I was five (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. It's arguably one of the most psychologically disturbing movies of its time, and he was cool with it. I watched 90% of it, peeking from behind his lazy boy. Then, knowing how badly it scared me, my father thought it would be funny for a few days after to stand at the foot of my bed with dead eyes, waking me up and asking if I wanted to 'come to play with him...forever'."
"We stayed at my mom's house last month, and she put out a pack-and-play for our girl. She didn't think the mattress would be comfortable enough, so she put a dog bed under the sheet so it would be softer. I immediately made her remove it and explained why it was a bad idea. I also told her she sleeps on a firm mattress at home, so she's fine to do that at their house, too."
Boomer parenting practices often included mocking children's interests, which produced long-term embarrassment and reluctance to share personal likes. Some parents entrusted minors with adult tasks, such as sending children to buy cigarettes with handwritten permission notes that clerks accepted. Very young children were sometimes exposed to intense horror films and then frightened further as a joke. Caregivers also made unsafe sleep choices, like placing dog beds under infant sheets or putting infants to sleep on their stomachs. These behaviors combined permissiveness, insensitivity, and misunderstanding of child safety, creating emotional and physical risks for children.
Read at BuzzFeed
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