did toddlers have tantrums 50 years ago?

[ClaraBowWasSoLovely]

Apologies - I bunged this in 'somewhere' yesterday due to computer illiteracy.
My children are in their forties and I don't remember any tantrums, no screaming, flailing, writhing on the floor (my marbles are intact).
I was 18 with my first, so was making it up as I went along.
Perhaps the world was quieter, calmer. We left our children outside shops!
No long distance travel.
Apparently (thanks, Google) other cultures don't experience toddler meltdowns. A writer asserted that the 'terrible twos' doesn't exist.
I'm ancient now, so no little ones of my own.
What do you older parents/grandparents think?

somewhat that makes me feel better. My ds is 18 months and already has terrible tantrums. Just worried they're going to get a lot worse! Yesterday he tantrummed for 5 minutes because I wouldn't give him a third bowel of weetabix (at lunchtime, not breakfast!)

, child orientated products like character themed yoghurts, it's bright, there's music, it's bustling with strangers and. Trolleys at face level That's a lot of triggers for a young child!

We don't live in close communities where we can place them in the care ofof older children, so we drive them off toto toddler group where they hve to

My children don't have tantrums now and never have. Never broken anything, don't scream. Play nicely with one another. Are calm, like to read. Little interest in screens, celebrities or money.

I don't know if it's me or just the way they are. But not everyone has the tantrum/screams/difficulty/meltdown model of parenting going on.

I don't remember my siblings or I having tantrums (all in our 50s now) but we were out with all the other kids in the street all day long and I mean all day long and only went in for tea. Even my mother admits that was true.

We probably slept all night long then exhausted.

Also you didnt dare kick up a fuss over anything or you were given a clip and sent to bed with no tea.

My phone is having an epic tantrum...
in short...
The modern world is very stimulating. There's lots of manners expected in public, and less private freedom to be childisha away from grown-ups. The past wasn't idyllic and people have short memories and pride, but we may trigger or view more of this, behaviour than in the past.

Puts phone on naughty step...

The first thing that popped into my head when I saw this was the little girl in the Just William stories - "I'll scream and scream til I'm sick!"

Written in the 1920s...

My experience of 40 years ago was that children

1. Spent less time with their parents. We were expected to entertain ourselves with siblings, friends and other kids from the village, and just come home at tea time.

2. Naughty behaviour got a smack. Often with a wooden spoon.

3. Much more concern with keeping up appearances. So absolutely best behaviour in public, or not allowed out in public. DM was quite proud that the local cafe would let us in as we were well behaved, where as other children were banned. This was because of the threat of 2)

4. Less communication of different parenting styles. So people did what their parents did e.g. Smacking, because they didn't know any other way. And no one knew how others were coping because no one talked about it.

I asked my Mum and she said yes, as I was coming up to 2, 50 years ago. I did have the odd tantrum.

I'm in my 40s and was a epic tantrum thrower by all accounts. But DSis never did. Luck of the draw really. DS1 only had one tantrum - DS2 has been having tantrums for the past 4 months and he's only 19 months old
I suppose 50 years ago a hard wallop sorted it out more quickly - I'd prefer to deal with a tantrum than whacking my children though.

user I used to shut (not lock) DS 27 in his room from 1.5 - 3 when he tantrummed so that he didn't destroy the rest of the house.

Im really sorry to burst your bubble but yes they did tantrum. I bet your kids tantrummed and so did you!
In fact I was saying to a friend earlier in that it is funny that the older generation seem to forget the hard days when your child just wants to scream at you whilst sitting on the bus because you didn't let her get the ticket! I find these people who forget can make you feel like the worst mum in the world when you are trying your best to calm dc and they give their 'judging looks'
I am not saying you are like this in any way OP. I am saying you get tough days and then you get those easy happy days! It has been since forever! A toddler who does not tantrum is either an angel/mother is lying/or just too scared to step out of line!
Oh and the happy days you get dirty looks because your children are giggling and cheering!

This seems like an attack. It really isn't op. Ive just had a bad morning with an almost 2 year old who is currently having a tantrum because i peeled her banana into 4 strips of peel instead of 3!

Actually, what I used to get was people accusing me of shouting at or hitting my DC, because that was of course why they were screaming and crying.

I don't recall any of me and my siblings having awful tantrums (but then again I wouldn't I suppose). I do though recall many a young child getting a smacked bottom back 'in the day', even in public. I am in no way saying that was right, it wasn't, but I do know that the threat of 'if you don't stop that behaviour I'll smack your bottom' was enough to curtail any really bad behaviour. Actually my mum rarely smacked us, I'm 53 now. She only had to do 'the look'.

I used to throw spectacular tantrums and I'm 47 now. My two, not so much?..

I've lived in north India, and in Italy, and I can tell you fit certain that children in those cultures definitely tantrum.

My mother relates a tale of me throwing myself on the floor in woolies and screaming (I am 61) so 59 years ago must have grown out of it as I worked there in the cash office after leaving school!

I was a child in the '50s. I remember having the most God awful tantrums - totally out of my and anyone elses control. Now I know it was (a) I had gone very deaf following measles and no one realised for months - so frustration, and (b) my well meaning parents were trying to get me started on writing - would only let me hold the pencil in right hand - I am very left handed. All I can say if you have a child with tantrums is - stay calm yourself and have a think - you may find some trigger. I was weak and shaken for hours after one - it felt like being ill so sympathy and quiet are needed - not anger.

Tantrummers generally got a smacked bottom, often on the bare bottom ( out of nappies much younger) and in public if that is where you happened to be.
Some persisted but most children were put off after a couple of attempts.

My mum had seven kids, so my eldest sister is now 57. Yes she had tantrums. My mother used to give her a smack (not pc today!) and my brother who is two years younger also had paddy’s. By the time I came along I used to get a whack for my tantrums but I’m 39 with an older parents!

My mum claims that my sister and I never had tantrums and were on the whole really good.

I can bloody remember having epic meltdowns!! It's definitely a case of time passing that helps you forget I think!

I am 52 years old and many older members of my family still joke about how I was known as the screamer and what an unpleasant toddler I was.

Apparently I would stand with arms crossed in front of our (at the time very new)TV screening and refuse to budge.

My mother remembers I threw myself on the floor in Woolworths once screaming that I wanted a toy and just wouldn't budge until she forcibly picked me up and dragged me out.

My final story is that I got a job as a Saturday assistant in a small local shop when 16 where the owners has known me as a toddler as my mother had shopped there. One Saturday we have a horrendously behaved toddler in the shop. When he left I commented on the behaviour.

My boss said he had stopped thinking terrible toddlers would grow up spoilt etc since he had met me as a 16 year old. He said I was a very nice person but when he knew me as a toddler, he was convinced I would probably end up in prison as my behaviour was so extreme!!!

My uncle had an epic tantrum when my mum was born 60 plus years ago in India (not just a UK thing).

They gave him my mum's teddy to shut him up .

you either got lucky or have forgotten! My grandma is 90 and often recalls tantrum stories from when she was bringing up her siblings and own children. no different to nowadays, except there was no social media to compare or ask forums of strangers for parenting 'advice'

Queen Victoria's journals have accounts of children throwing tantrums as toddlers. Her own, and her grandchildren.

One grandson threw his sporran across a church when he was a pageboy at three, and when his uncle (also a child, due to large family size) tried to get him to calm down, the toddler sank his teeth into his uncle's leg.

Toddlers have always been the same. In fact a lot less changes through the generations than people claim, if you read memoirs etc.

DD1 is nearly 4 and has never had a tantrum. DD2 is 2.3 and could tantrum for England.
My mum says I never tantrummed but my brother did (35 years ago).
Of course children tantrummed 50 years ago.