50 Kids Who Found Out Their Parents Were Cooler Than They'll Ever Be (2024)

FAQs

What were parents like in the 50s? ›

An ideal 50s family was led by a strong, masculine breadwinner, someone who worked a 9-5 and had few household and child-rearing responsibilities. Everyone deferred to his better judgment, and his rule was law. Though he could be caring and supportive, he wasn't allowed to show weakness or emotional vulnerability.

All of the different combinations of these genes come together to determine how you look. Even though we get all our DNA from our parents, each of us has a unique combination of genes. Sometimes that means we don't look like them at all. There are tons of genes that shape our appearance.

Each child receives a unique combination of genes because, during gamete formation, genes from the grandparents are mixed randomly in the parents' chromosomes.

When the parents' DNA combines, we only get one set of genes for a particular physical trait from either the mother or father. We have a fifty-fifty chance of receiving one or the other so it is completely random. We may also receive mostly our father's genes and look exactly like him.

1950s: Crying Is Exercise

Do nothing. One handout from the time period told new mothers that a "lusty cry" was great exercise for one's baby.

As a child of the 1950s and 60s, I remember the most fun times occurred outside: building snowmen, playing in the creek, hiking through the woods, riding my bicycle, galloping through the fields on my pony, swinging on grandpa's rope swing and playing tag or red rover with my cousins.

Y-chromosomes have fewer genes than X-chromosomes and some of them are responsible for the development of male genitals. This is why a boy is more likely to look like his mother. When it comes to girls, they receive X-chromosomes from both parents, so it's impossible to predict what they will look like.

You receive 50% of your genes from each of your parents, but the percentages of DNA you received from ancestors at the grandparent level and further back are not necessarily neatly divided in two with each generation.

You may not think your child looks like you. While physical features directly result from DNA, not every child resembles their father.

It seems that most first-born children look like their dads at birth – and throughout that first year of life.

Do first born babies look like dad? ›

A 1999 study found that pictures of babies were matched equally with biological mothers and fathers. A 2004 experiment produced the same results. A couple of other studies concluded that babies looked more like the mothers than the fathers.

Beginning in early childhood, a very strong bond is established in which the mother becomes the little boy's object of tremendous feelings of love and affection. She is the light of his life, so to speak. Later on, she becomes the model by which the young man chooses a girlfriend and eventually a wife.

"Surprisingly, we also show that our mother's mitochondrial DNA seems to influence our own aging," said Larsson. "If we inherit mDNA with mutations from our mother, we age more quickly." Normal and damaged DNA is passed down between generations.

Males inherit one X chromosome from their mother and one Y chromosome from their father, making them XY. Females, on the other hand, inherit an X chromosome from both parents, making them XX. This inheritance means that all of the genetic material inside a male's X chromosome is maternally derived.

Babies inherit multiple pairs of genes from each parent that play a role in appearance. These genes determine hair color as well as eye color and complexion.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, sitcom dads tended to be serious, calm and wise, if a bit detached. In a shift that media scholars have documented, only in later decades did fathers start to become foolish and incompetent. And yet the real-world roles and expectations of fathers have changed in recent years.

The Idyllic '50s

The standard structure of the family in postwar America consisted of a breadwinner male, his wife who did household chores and looked after the children, and the children themselves. Families ate meals and went on outings together, and lived in sociable neighborhoods.

Television shows of the 1950s and early 1960s used "mom" and "dad" as terms of address and as descriptors. "Mama" and "Papa" came to be seen as old-fashioned, with an immigrant or rustic flavor.

Parents also are frequently reminded by the media that child-rearing issues faced in the 1950s—such as children chewing gum in class, talking out of turn, and not clean- ing their rooms—have been replaced with more serious issues such as drug addiction, suicide, violence, and teen pregnancy.