Baby Cages And Changing Attitudes To Children And Dogs

[barry1010]

I am simply musing. I was reminded recently that within living memory cages were suspended from the windows of upper floor flats so that babies and older children could enjoy fresh air.  

https://ibb.co/2KjGttW

I know this happened in London, I'm not aware of it anywhere else in the UK.

It set me thinking.  I was left alone at home before I could sit up.  Babies and children had to fit in with family life, do as they were told and eat what they were given.  Family life did not revolve around the child.  

Same with dogs.  Many dogs slept outside all year round, had to fit in with the family and do what they were told. 

Fast forward a short 80 years and parents and dog owners are slaves to their little darlings.  In some families it is clear the children make all the demands and are in charge.

When did doggy day care become a thing?  Doggy parks? Where have all these professional dog walkers sprung from? I grew up with dogs, had dogs most of my adult life but have only recently become aware that dogs must be 'socialised'.  

Was it the war that changed our attitudes?  The 60s revolution?   My wife and I brought our children up in much the same way as we were brought up although I don't recall us leaving them home alone when they were young and our children did go to playgroups which neither of us did.

We did allow our dogs to lie on the sofa and they always had their own bed in their own particular space.

When children are behaving badly today we say 'blame the parents'.  Really, should we be blaming the parents' parents?

What social changes puzzle you?

[naomi24]

I'm a Londoner and I've never heard of putting babies in cages and hanging them from windows but here's a link.   The picture you've provided is on there but the article doesn't say where it was taken.

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/history-baby-cage-1934-1948/

London in those days was generally very poor so I can't imagine many had the money to buy a cage but it seems some did - and it happened in the US too.

[rockyracoon]

That picture fills me with anxiety.

[nicebloke1]

The only cage i can remember hanging outside was the one with the budgie in. Tweet Tweet.

[Barsel]

I've never seen anything like that before.

Why would you put a baby in a cage?

Was that during the war years as well?

Thank goodness times have changed.

 

[Abstract1]

This dog walker 'sprang' from a desire to help the elderly and infirm a make a very modest top-up to my pension.

[newmodarmy]

This, which I found in the link from naomi24. is even more shocking to me.

https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/mailing-babies-postal-service/

I hope the US Post Service handled the packages with more care than some delivery drivers do nowadays!

[Barsel]

newmodarmy how can that be more shocking, it's only like todays baby carriers.

 

[Barsel]

Sorry I didn't read the article, I thought is was just Dad taking the baby to work with him.

[naomi24]

Barsel, //newmodarmy how can that be more shocking, it's only like todays baby carriers.//

 

Those children were being sent elsewhere by post!  

[Barsel]

Crossed posts Naomi.

[barry1010]

Some London parents were given baby cages by Chelsea council through the Chelsea Baby Club and some flats were built with them.  Maybe other councils had similar schemes.  They weren't in use very long, from the late 1920s to the mid '40s.

[barry1010]

I thought it was storks that delivered babies, I'm disappointed that they come mail order

[barry1010]

Abstract, how many dogs do you walk at a time?  I've seen some dog walkers with six or more

[ToraToraTora]

When I was a saucepan it was quite common to park babies in prams outside shops:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/73/9d/31/739d31a28e9adf43445e9faa39753d09.jpg

Can you imagine that now?

[ToraToraTora]

"What social changes puzzle you?" - taking kids to school. My mum took me once when I was 4 in the first day. That was it, now the little darlings are in Chelsea tractors clogging up the highway during rush hour.

[barry1010]

The prams were to big to go in the shops.  I think my mother went home and left me, forgotten outside the Co-op more than once.

I don't know how I learned to walk, I spent most of my early years in my pram at the bottom of the garden summer and winter, brought in for meals and nappy changes. Under the laburnum tree.  

[Ken4155]

I believe the idea of the baby cages in high-rise flats was to give the child some time in the open air while mum did the housework undisturbed.

Apparently, no less a person than eleanor Roosevelt bought herself a chicken-wire cage after the birth of her daughter. She then hung said cage outside her New York City apartment and put Anna in there for her naps - until a concerned neighbour threatened to report her to the authorities.

[barry1010]

Yep, same as that.  My brother took me to school on my first day, I was on my own after that.  My children walked on their own from around the age of 8.

[barry1010]

Yes, Ken, fresh air was very fashionable back then.  We even had open air hospital wards or beds were wheeled outside. 

[ladybirder]

Can I butt in here please.  I think the government is thinking of bringing in a law to cap the number of a dogs a DW can take out at any one time.  Whether this is on or off leads I don't remember.  My DW sends photographs back from her walks and I have noticed at least one where she has 7 dogs all off lead on the South Downs.  She is a professional.  Knows what to do in an emergency if a dog is ill etc.  I know she took some courses.  She's young, strong and level headed.  But I've seen plenty of stupid people who shouldn't be allowed to have even one dog!