The two Instagrams are very popular, with 238k and 156k followers respectively. They’re basically like a big online album where people can submit pictures of their oldschool vintage parents and discuss each other’s parents and childhoods.

Those of us who look back on our childhoods fondly are lucky, but even if we enjoyed loving parents, there are lots of things that have improved in parenting culture as a whole over time. For all the flack that modern generations get for over-protectiveness and abuse of technology (and some of that criticism is deserved), there are a lot of things that modern parents get right.

Though influential in the field of child psychology, John B. Watson also had some controversial theories that may have damaged the parents who implemented them and their children. In particular, Watson held the belief that parental affection should be kept to a minimum because it would give children an unrealistic view of the world. However, studies have shown that affection has a significant positive effect on children’s mental wellbeing and emotional balance well into adulthood.

Another once-common parental practice that has fortunately all but disappeared in the West is corporal punishment. Whether or not you think “you turned out fine” after being hit by your parents, the science on this is clear. According to the WHO, “Corporal punishment triggers harmful psychological and physiological responses. Children not only experience pain, sadness, fear, anger, shame and guilt, but feeling threatened also leads to physiological stress and the activation of neural pathways that support dealing with danger. Children who have been physically punished tend to exhibit high hormonal reactivity to stress, overloaded biological systems, including the nervous, cardiovascular and nutritional systems, and changes in brain structure and function.”

Though parents obsessed with posture may not fall within the scope of this article and the two Instagram accounts it covers, this was also an odd parenting trend that didn’t age well. At one point, a child’s posture was thought to reflect and influence their moral character. Children were evaluated based on their posture and special furniture or classes were provided to correct poor posture.

Bedwetting, while hygienically undesirable, is a more or less normal problem that many children face for a variety of reasons. However, some parents once believed that bedwetting was the sign of a growing psychopath! This was thanks to the outdated theories of Sigmund Freud, who for some reason considered bedwetting to be an act of repressed sexual frustration. Bedwetting can be caused by stress or other issues, but it can also be the result of simple physiological or neurological imbalances. Could you imagine the stress a bedwetting child must have endured if they caught on to the fact that the adults in their lives believed the child would grow up to be a psychopath?

There are a ton of benefits to letting kids play outside and there always have been, but some older generations like to dismiss modern safety regulations as excessive and overprotective. A healthy and appropriate exposure to risk does help children develop risk management skills, but some risks can be excessive. Things like bicycle helmets, hazardous chemical labeling, and seatbelts have saved countless lives and prevented many more from experiencing life-altering physical traumas.

Let’s learn to appreciate both modern and oldschool parenting. If you’re a parent today, look to the past to take what works and look to modern science to see where we can improve on how we were raised as children!