The Demise of Common Sense?

[GGT]

And people used to ride holding their babies instead of putting them in carseats, and there was no such thing as babyproofing the house.

Both of my children wore clothing with buttons. They managed to survive.

The only baby gates they ever experienced were at my mother's house in the dining room, and that had more to do with the fact that her china cost more than my car than from a desire to protect them. We did have latches on the cabinets with the chemicals, which kept them out for oh 2 minutes after my daughter decided she wanted to see what was in there.

No nannies, no babysitters, no daycare (but yes to half-day preschool).

And I'm not sure what fantasy world you're living in where people didn't leave their infants in the crib to go take care of things when they were sleeping.

I do think piercing a kids ears is stupid, though.

We "managed to survive" because we were in our home environment with our mothers or their designated watchers. We even had cribs with wide slats, cars with no seat belts (let alone infant carriers), bottles made of glass. But we had constant supervision. Mothers used to keep baby in their room, in a basinette...in order to breast feed.

I'm not living in a fantasy world. Mothers would dress babies with buttons, but not put them to sleep that way. For a reason (choking). Even diaper pins had a clever anti-baby groove.

And lolli, aren't you the one who said your kids had never had a non-family member baby-sit?

[littlelolligagged]

Yep. Don't have them if you aren't going to watch them.

[GGT]

Yep. Don't have them if you aren't going to watch them.

Or protect them when you're not there. That's part of my point (at least in parenting). Instead of using common sense handed down generation after generation, millions of people are substituting their common sense with popular culture. Or gadgets, as long as they come with a warning label.

Stuffing cribs with plush toys, bumper pads, blankets and pillows (omg), propping bottles, using neck wedges, turning on the baby monitor and feeling confident. Then they go watch tv (or leave the premises to dine at a restaurant). Then they can't figure out why baby smothered or strangled, maybe on the window blind cord, or was kidnapped from that open window.