Where Did Many of These New Families Live During the 1950s?
The 1950s Family: Structure, Values and Everyday Life
By
Patricia Lantz C.Ht.
Patricia'southward work in hypnotherapy and behavior modification have provided her unique insights into family. She uses this experience in her articles for LoveToKnow Family unit.
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Certified Hypnotherapist
In the aftermath of WWII'southward significant instability came the 1950s, bourgeoisie, and the dream of a "picture-perfect" family. The 1950s were boomer years. The economy boomed, and everywhere individuals were feeling the need for family and security after arduous years of the war. So, in 1950s family life, there was also a matrimony smash, birth rate boom, and housing blast.
The 1950s Family
During the 50s, there was a deeply ingrained social stigma confronting divorce, and the divorce charge per unit dropped. And then, the stereotypical nuclear family of the 1950s consisted of an economically stable family made up of a male parent, mother, and two or three children. Children were precious assets and the eye of the family unit. Very few wives worked, and fifty-fifty if they had to work, it was combined with their function as housewives and mothers. Few husbands spent "quality" time with their children or helped effectually the house. Dad'due south role was to be the breadwinner, communication giver, and family disciplinarian.
What 1950s Parents Wanted for Their Kids
Parents wanted their children to have amend lives than they had had and did everything possible to make life "good" for their kids and grow them into successful adults. Children were taught manners and taken to Sun school or church. By and large, parents were permissive and wanted their kids to have a more fun and comfortable childhood than they'd had during the war effort of WWII.
Raising Girls in the 50s
Piddling girls were expected to be "nice." They helped around the house, wore dresses and skirts, and were taught to exist deferential. Even every bit children, girls felt family and societal pressure to focus their aspirations on home, husband, and children instead of higher education. It wasn't uncommon for a girl to marry and begin having children before long subsequently high schoolhouse graduation. Girls were not clean-cut or encouraged to attend college, and if their parents did provide them with higher education, information technology was with the expectation that they'd run across a suitable husband and have a career they could autumn back on.
Raising Boys in the 50s
Male children were expected to be strong, responsible, and assertive, but also mischievous. Boys were encouraged to overstate themselves, explore, and merits extra territory. Parents tried to build their son's ego. They wanted him to be a winner. They encouraged their sons to excel in school, in athletics, and to attend college. Parents gave their boys more mobility, authority, and respect, but in the end, parents also expected their boys to settle downwards and have a family unit.
Permissive Parenting
Many mothers read Dr. Benjamin Spock's 1946 book Babe and Kid Care and followed his advice to hug, buss, and encourage their children to limited their individuality. His controversial advice was that parents need not worry nigh spoiling their children. They should tell their children they were special, feed them when they were hungry, put them to bed when they were tired, and subject area them with words rather than corporal penalisation. Many say Dr. Spock'due south advice led to overly permissive child rearing, which led to the independence and rebellious nature of 1950s teenagers.
The Stereotypical Boomer Family
Due to the booming economy, the stereotypical boomer family had more money. With the institution of the Federal Housing Dominance (FDA) and the Veterans Administration (VA) abode loan programs, many white middle-class American parents found it easy to infringe money from a bank and move out of cities and minor towns into newly built homes in the suburbs. Sadly, due to legal bigotry, this was not yet possible for people of color who were restricted to less desirable neighborhoods fifty-fifty when they had the where-with-all to relocate to better surroundings.
Life in the Suburbs
Life was different in the suburbs. Suburbs were free, social, friendly, and family-oriented. Many families lived shut together, and in that location were all sorts of group social activities. There were picayune league teams, boy and daughter scouts, and the Parent and Teacher Association (PTA) at schools. Kids walked to school together and had next door all-time friends. When the weather was nice, neighbors gathered in one back yard or another to cook, swallow, and chat. Doors were seldom locked, and suburban parents unofficially watched after each other's children. However, the suburbs also reflected socioeconomic and racial homogeneity.
Growing Upwardly in the 1950s
During the 1950s, kids played together. They talked on the family phone for hours, kept diaries, rode their bikes, played games, watched Tv set, had sleepovers and trip the light fantastic parties. In that location were no cell phones, texting, or internet, and so youngsters interacted face to face up or wrote letters in cursive on stationary without spellcheck.
The Cold State of war Fear and Paranoia
Due to what's called the "Common cold War," children of the 50s also lived in an temper of fright. There were flop and fallout shelters, and weekly "Duck-and-Encompass" drills that required students to duck under their desks and cover their heads in preparation for what seemed to them an inevitable diminutive assail. Some schools even issued dog tags to students and then that families could identify their kid'southward torso in the outcome of an attack. In that location was besides the crippling Polio virus. Many parents were so fearful of Polio that they volunteered their children to be experimented on every bit "Polio Pioneers."
Teenagers in the 1950s
Teenagers came into their own during the 1950s, assisted by increased spending power, the ubiquity of the automobile, and loftier school'south pinnacle to a world with its own oral communication patterns, style of clothes, beliefs, pastimes, music, and social mores. Clean-cut boys and girls living life in the suburbs, seemingly without a worry in the world, became teenagers who were independent, interactive, pleasance bound, and rebellious.
Shockingly Innocent
Although 1950s parents saw their teenagers deport in ways that shocked them, such as listening to rock-and-roll music, new risque dance moves, and their overall self-determining and defiant mindset, compared to 21st Century teens, these teens were extraordinarily innocent. There were no drugs to muddle their minds, and because alcohol was difficult for them to get, there was no binge drinking either. Equally far as sex activity goes, virtually 1950s teenagers were shy virgins.
Teenage Jobs
While heart-course white families took care of a teen's needs and oftentimes gave them an allowance, nigh teens still worked. For a 1950s teen, having an afterward-schoolhouse or summer job meant independence and money of their ain. Teenagers with their ain income, coupled with an allowance, were complimentary to buy pretty much what they wanted, and a serious escalation of ad aimed at teenagers began.
Cars and Teenagers
Teenagers with cars were common due to the prosperity of their parents and incomes of their own. Cars provided a teenager with independence and a teen couple with a identify to spend time alone abroad from parents' prying eyes. Though nearly 1950s teens were virgins who had been taught marriage before sex, cars began irresolute their sexual behavior.
Stone-and-Gyre
The term "stone-and-gyre" caught on when information technology was coined in 1952. This new class of music gave teens an outlet for their rebellious energy. During the 1950s, most parents tried, unsuccessfully, to make their children stop listening to Stone-and-Curlicue considering they believed it acquired juvenile delinquency and knew information technology challenged social and racial barriers. However, with a swelling teenage consumer market, jukebox operators, radio stations, and deejays played to their teen listeners' tastes, and record stores stocked up on 45 RPM recordings of Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, and more. Rock-and-Roll became a mainstay due to 1950s teens.
Teen Movies of the 1950s
Because of the privacy they offered, 1950s teenagers loved and frequented movie theaters and drive-in movies. This led to Hollywood focusing more and more on this younger teenage market. They produced films such every bit Loftier School confidential, Blackboard Jungle, Teen Rebel, The Wild One, Insubordinate Without a Cause, and more than, which fed 1950s teens' rebellious spirit. Withal, Hollywood besides produced films like Them!, which was a 1954 cautionary tale near giant irradiated ants that fed into teenage fears most the Soviet menace and nuclear war.
Peaceful Conformity
The 1950s are ofttimes considered a period of conformity when men and women conformed to their assigned gender roles and pursued the "American Dream." Subsequently the Dandy Low and WWII devastation, it was a fourth dimension when people sought to create a peaceful and prosperous society. Just the 1950s were not equally peaceful or conformist every bit you might think. Simmering beneath the image of the "perfect family unit" was discontent with the status quo that led to the tumultuous family life of 1960s.
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Source: https://family.lovetoknow.com/about-family-values/1950s-family-structure-values-everyday-life
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