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I was born in 1946, the first year of baby boomers after WWII, and raised in Solvang, a small Danish town north of Santa Barbara, California. My dad was born in 1898 and sailed to America on a boat from Sweden at the age of three. My mother was born to Dutch Mennonites in Russia and fled to America with her family during the Bolshevik Revolution. Since both parents had a different background from the typical "American" one of post WWII, and Dad was from a previous era, I was raised with a very different slant on life from my peers.
Like Amish mothers, my mother was often busy digging in her garden, or making some craft item, often in the hope that we children would catch her passion, which we quickly did. By the age of three, I sewed a sock doll, complete with embroidered face, made a monogrammed hanky for my dad, hemmed a skirt by hand for myself and made various other items. I also started playing the piano by ear by then, and eventually took piano lessons, later to become an accomplished classical pianist. Later I started developing as an improv pianist.
As a child, my twin brother (Gil), sister (Karen) and I started developing our skills as visual artists by following along with children's art and cartoon-teaching TV shows. I continued along with my art education through classes in high school and afterward, and personal study through books.
As a result of a childhood focused on developing my talents, I find pleasure in my own company, not needing to be entertained by others. Instead of boredom, I always have a project at the ready. This has helped me become resourceful and creative not only in home skills, but in all walks of life. And, of course, it has saved me a great deal of money since I often make what I need, myself, instead of shelling out hard-earned cash for it.
When I was young, Mom changed our diet drastically to a healthier one and became a fanatic about raising us on the best food possible. She created an unholy concoction (called "glop") that consisted of brewers yeast, dessicated liver, cod liver oil, wheat germ oil, and blackstrap molasses.
Glop could gag a maggot, but we choked it down each morning, followed by a chaser of Hawaiian Punch in milk.
In addition, she raised a huge organic garden, planted an orchard of 30 varieties of fruit trees, and fed us whole raw milk from a friend's cow.
During the summer, she threw us out of the house daily so that we would get physical exercise, fresh air and sunshine. We developed into quite the athletes with all the running, hiking, biking, swimming, hand stands and other athletic pursuits we did.
We weren't allowed to turn on the TV ourselves. If we wanted to watch something during the day, we could do it while stemming a gallon of raisins (from Aunt Marie's farm), or ironing the family clothes. Yes, Mom worked us hard, but we played hard, too, and had amazingly-fit bodies--she saw to that!
Although Dad had a sizeable inheritance (which we children didn't know about at the time) and our parents made good incomes (Dad was a carpenter, and Mom a teacher-principal of a small country school), we certainly weren't spoiled. If we wanted more or better clothing, we either had to make them or get a job and earn them.
Because my rearing was from a different era, my view-point is also different. I believe a return to this way of living and child rearing could help out much in these difficult times. Instead of pampering our children, they need to learn to step up to the plate and contribute to the welfare of their families.
If illegal drugs were a problem during my childhood, they wouldn't have become a threat in our home, since we were kept much too busy to find time for such pursuits--"idle hands" and all that!