It was a time of prosperity, fear of destruction, and the typical American family. There was a set way for everything to be, and to vary from that way meant that you weren’t a true American. This type of thinking set the stage for the rebellious ideas of the sixties. This paper will discuss the fifties mindset and how the children raised in this time period were ultimately really messed up. The family structure of the time was one of the major influences in how the sixties ended up. Everyone had a set role in the family. Uncomfortable situations were avoided at all costs. Dinners were especially important. They were meant to be a pleasant and relaxing experience for the whole family. However, they ended up being stifling to the family. No one could speak of anything unpleasant, and everything was made to please father. Even the women of the family made it a point to try to please the men. The men frequently complimented the women so that they would continue to try pleasing them. The children of this time were spoiled little brats. Their parents had lived through the depression and World War II, so they wanted their kids to have life better than they did. This meant that the kids did what they wanted to do, as long as the parents didn’t find out about it. You see, misbehaving was a disease to the parents of the time. They thought that there was nothing involved in parenting, it just happened. This meant that they didn’t do anything special to raise their kids. They had perfect kids automatically. So if their kids were misbehaving, there was obviously something horribly wrong with the children. The family unit everyone tried to achieve was the one that they saw on television. Everyone was happy and never argued. If some discrepancy did occur, it was easily resolved and some valuable lesson was learned. That lesson was usually one that had already been drilled into them at school. If your family life wasn’t exact...
