Sharing your love of vintage with the children?

[Lena_Horne]

I discovered this site a few days ago and have really enjoyed lurking around and getting a feeling for the place.

Anyhoo, I've been wondering for some time now if other enthusiasts share their love with their children or just assume that it's something they'd rather save for later. I'm wondering because even though I'm young I have some ideas about how I would love to run my household when the time comes. I would also like to know if anyone else has already dealt with this. This is a pretty broad one for me as my curiosity stretches from the amount (and content) of television allowed in the home to even the toys that are bought.

Thoughts?

L_H

 

[Mycroft]

Ok, as a young adult, I will tell you what worked for me. First, let them watch old movies with you and see if they like them. Second, take them to museums and vintage shopping trips. Third, see if you can make a connections to their modern intrests to similar ones in the past, like baseball. Once, they find this connection it might take off. Also, let them spend time a lot listing to stories etc. from their grandparents etc. Finally, don't push it.

 

[Renderking Fisk]

If you "Live The Vintage Experience," then getting your kids hooked on the era is easy.

 

[Lena_Horne]

That's what I was hoping, but I also wonder about outside influences (which I know are unavoidable, at least if I don't want to raise scarred children). I'm not particularly keen to the direction my generation (1980s born) is headed in, but then who is? The fashion is ech, and we're terribly lacking in day to day class and charm. That said, I thought it would be best to aim for a good old fashioned upbringing for my own and hope they don't rebel too much when they hit their adolescence...

L_H

 

[Mimi Thomas]

My children are 8 and 13 and they have lived in a timewarp since they were born. This is just how we do it. Like a total immersion language class, we live like it's the Forties (sometimes the Fifties). But it's a delicate balance, to be sure...we all use computers, obviously, but the outside/modern influences are controlled and limited. Going to public schools gives them plenty of exposure to what's current, but when they come home, they want to watch vintage Tom & Jerry and listen to the old 78s.

The important thing is to establish YOUR values now, as a young person, and then live by them. When the time comes, you'll know what to do. Learn how to set a proper table, read a lot of etiquette books from the era you love and that will be a tremendous help. But the biggest thing is, to decide what's important to you. Those will be the things you pass on and that is what will matter most.

 

[Renderking Fisk]

Lena Horne: The best advice I can give you is to delete most of the channels on your tuner, besides the ones that count.

Keep an eye and ear open to what they're bringing home and be active with your children. Go fishing with them now, or you'll go fishing for them later.

 

[Deleted member 259]

Ha, I just taught my 9 year old sister how to Charleston!
My best advice is to make kids go outside! The biggest contributor to almost any negative behavior in kids is the TV and video games.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy both more than I should, but until the age of 10, all my free time was spent outdoors - which forced me to be active and use my imagination, which is something that today's youth seems to be lacking.

 

[Mycroft]

Ha, I just taught my 9 year old sister how to Charleston!
My best advice is to make kids go outside! The biggest contributor to almost any negative behavior in kids is the TV and video games.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy both more than I should, but until the age of 10, all my free time was spent outdoors - which forced me to be active and use my imagination, which is something that today's youth seems to be lacking.

I agree with that, I was not allowed true television time until I was around 11ish. I think that playing outside(for boys at least) builds character, skills, cooperation, and how to have fun.

 

[Deleted member 259]

I think that playing outside(for boys at least) builds character, skills, cooperation, and how to have fun.

Not just for boys. I know that my time spent building forts and wrestling with the neighbor kids turned me into the person I am today - specifically, a girl who isn't afraid of bugs or a little dirt.

 

[16_sparrows]

The biggest contributor to almost any negative behavior in kids is the TV and video games.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy both more than I should, but until the age of 10, all my free time was spent outdoors - which forced me to be active and use my imagination, which is something that today's youth seems to be lacking.

I agree with the no television rule. I don't have any children of my own, but most of my relatives raise their children in a tv-free home. Their children are very imaginative and extremely smart, going into AP classes in their schools. For getting their news, they listen to NPR and read newspapers (they began by reading articles to them before bed when they were young).

The other day, there was a post in a blog that really moved me. The woman raises her kids in a TV free home, you need to see just how creative they are:
http://littlebirds.typepad.com/little_birds/2005/11/10_ways_to_brin.html

 

[Mycroft]

Not just for boys. I know that my time spent building forts and wrestling with the neighbor kids turned me into the person I am today - specifically, a girl who isn't afraid of bugs or a little dirt.

I wasn't sure.

 

[Renderking Fisk]

My biggest pet-peeve is when family members drive over and first thing they "have to do" is turn the TV on for the kids. When we didn't have cable or DirectTV, I was "busted" for having too many "Old" movies.

... Which isn't exactly true. At the time I had the newly released "Casablanca" two disk DVD set.

TV is like any other tool, it' how you use it or abuse it.

 

[Deleted member 259]

I don't necessicarily agree with No TV at all.
I mean, what sort of kid grows up not knowing Sesame St., Batman, or Starwars? Not to mention movies, like Disney Classics, Westerns, or The Princess Bride.

Oftentimes my little sister (9years old) would wake up obscenely early in the morning, and I just can't get up, so she knows how to use the DVDplayer and which movies she's allowed to watch until I haul myself out of bed.

But If it's nice outside, kick them out to the yard.
The difference is in the details. I'm in college now, and I rarely ever turn the TV on because the majority of mindnumbing media doesn't appeal to me, and I have better things to do with my time.

But If I didn't know the names of the Ninja Turtles in grade school - I would have been even more of an outcast, it was bad enough that I didn't have Cable or Video Games. (I know that seems rough, but thats the way a lot of grade-schoolers are.)
You just have to sort the mostly good from the really bad.

 

[Warden]

Although Mrs W and I have a love for the period, we took the decision that it is our hobby and not our childrens, so nothing is forced on them.

When it was time to decorate our daughters bedroom she wanted a pink fairy palace, thats what she has got.

Our children only dress 'vintage' at period dances and special events. Mind you our 5 month son does have terry nappies and sleeps in an Edwardian cot, so you could say he is a regular little chap of the golden age.

The picture below shows me 'drilling' visitors at the Needles old Battery on the Isle of Wight. The little girl in the vintage red dress is my daughter helping her daddy out.

Tinkery tonk

Harry

 

[Elaina]

While I don't watch television all that much, my son does. And he watches all the stupid catroon network junk. He also goes outside and plays more then he watches tv over here. My toys are low tech (like my treadle and sourdough hobby), but we don't restrict him from anything.

That said, we tend to live like we're in the 50's over here. Dressing in my house is a unique and individual experience. I may not dress vintage all the time, but I have a closet full of clothes from varying eras. My son likes the 50's Hawaiian shirts, and we spend many hours searching for the right fabric for the perfect Hawaiian shirt. Sometimes he even wants authentic pants. (He claims the shirts from the store don't fit right. Which is probably true since he's almost too skinny and not very tall, but broad shouldered.) He also is a bit of a dapper vain boy, and the polos he has to wear to school aren't up to his "cute" standards of dress. We don't force him into anything, and he is given many choices about what he'd like to dress/be involved in.

In all fairness, our lifestyle is based on a religious choice of male head of household, the vintage is just something we like to do. Now I'm going to run away from that topic, quick like.

 

[Harry Pierpont]

Although Mrs W and I have a love for the period, we took the decision that it is our hobby and not our childrens, so nothing is forced on them.

Tinkery tonk

Harry

When we did our "Dillinger" living history event a few years back my wife, son(then 18) and I went to the little town nearby for supper and to make reservations for all the following night. We had one couple quiz us as to why we were dressed this way and asked my son if he was "forced" to dress that way, he of course said no.[huh]

 

[Paisley]

My biggest pet-peeve is when family members drive over and first thing they "have to do" is turn the TV on for the kids.

I couldn't agree more! Assuming you are not having a Super Bowl party, why don't they just stay home?

 

[Shearer]

I was singing Cole Porter to my almost-two-year-old nephew the other day. He told me he liked it

Anyway, I read this article on Fark the other day and thought it was interesting. Some parents threw their boy a Band of Brothers themed party where they dressed up as members of Easy Co. and invited the kids to go talk to a veteran who'd jumped into Normandy and fought in the Bulge.

I only wish my parents had been so cool!

 

[LizzieMaine]

This would be a good place to recommend a very interesting book I ran across today -- "The Best Old Movies For Families," by Boston Globe film critic Ty Burr. I was flipping thru this at B&N, and thought he did an excellent job in outlining vintage-era films most likely to appeal to kids today, and suggesting ways to present them that will hold the kids' attention. He's got two teen/preteen daughters himself, so the films and the techniques are tried-and-true!

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Old-Movies-Families-Watching/dp/1400096863