Do you let your small children run around naked? "The sexual component of nudity — and a fear of pedophiles — is what makes some adults object entirely to letting children be naked. Jenny Louie said her husband is so uncomfortable when their 4-year-old daughter, Rebecca, is naked that, even if she is alone in her bedroom, in Los Angeles, he will immediately close her shutters."
posted by Xurando on Jul 16, 2009 - 190 comments

"... [M]any of us who were raised in the 1950s, '60s and '70s are survivors. We were tiny daredevils: sun-blasted, pocket-knife-carrying, bottom-spanked, cow eaters. We ran the streets armed with BB guns, boxing gloves and bottle rockets, wholly unprotected by bike helmets, sunscreen or Amber Alerts. Our houses were filled with the blue cigarette smoke of our cocktail-drinking parents and we believed it wasn’t supper without a mountain of red meat." [more inside]
posted by ericb on Jul 6, 2009 - 157 comments

Kinda sutra - a charmingly animated short in which people talk about childhood misconceptions about sex and childbirth. More on childhood sex misconceptions from Dan Savage 1, 2, 3. (pretty tame clip, but possibly NSFW) [more inside]
posted by madamjujujive on Apr 13, 2009 - 55 comments

There is something indescribable about the Growing Up Star Wars (1977 - 1985) Flickr pool. I think it's the fact that the nostalgia for a commercial product actually is pretty moving. Okay, some are creepy, but in general I'm happy this exists. It's strange to see your childhood and realize how old it looks.
posted by one_bean on Jan 9, 2009 - 34 comments

Oliver Postgate has died. The voice of millions of British childhoods, creator of Bagpuss, The Clangers and Noggin the Nog passed away yesterday after a long illness. I always kind of hoped that God spoke in that voice.
posted by Grangousier on Dec 9, 2008 - 48 comments

Lynda Barry update Magazine Book Gorgon New Website [more inside]
posted by hortense on Oct 24, 2008 - 18 comments

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. [more inside]
posted by Lord_Pall on Sep 26, 2008 - 7 comments

8 Forgotten Kids Shows Sure to Give You Nightmares [more inside]
posted by miss lynnster on Jul 13, 2008 - 51 comments

Kindertrauma is about the movies, books, and toys that scared you when you were a kid. It’s also about kids in scary movies, both as heroes and villains. And everything else that’s traumatic to a tyke! [more inside]
posted by stinkycheese on Jun 12, 2008 - 64 comments

Why I Let My 9-Year-Old Ride the Subway Alone (via). More From America's Worst Mom: 9-Year-Old On The Subway, Continued. [more inside]
posted by blasdelf on Apr 11, 2008 - 201 comments

Where has all the pubic hair gone? After sweating through the [eight-year-old girl's] eyebrow wax, Engle [...] was directed to give her pint-size client a … bikini wax. “But … there’s nothing there, right?” I ask Engle. “I mean, at eight? Am I forgetting something?” “Nope,” she says. “There’s not. Doesn’t matter. That’s when the mothers are starting them these days.”
posted by desjardins on Apr 4, 2008 - 207 comments

PBS Frontline explores Growing Up Online. Here's what they learned.
posted by miss lynnster on Jan 31, 2008 - 43 comments

Can I Sit With You? The stormy social seas of the schoolyard
posted by konolia on Dec 7, 2007 - 13 comments

Before there were videogames, growing up in England in the late 1960s though the 70's we had Action Transfers. The Letraset company branched off its division of hand set rub-on transfer fonts into full blown action scenes, with Cowboys & Indians, famous historical battles, Vikings, natural disasters & more. This collector has dozens of sets, scanned in high resolution & never used.
posted by jonson on Sep 30, 2007 - 50 comments

"How I Became A Programmer" veers between linear biography and brain dump. The piece meanders through its theme, stopping along the way to flirt with word origins, family politics, the senior prom, Japan, airlines and military recruitment. Reading it, I felt trapped inside inside an extremely quirky -- yet recognizable (in a too-close-for-comfort way) -- mind. About half the time I yearned to tell him that he needs an editor; the other half, I was grateful that he didn't have one. Mostly, I'm amazed he HAD a date to the senior prom!
posted by grumblebee on Aug 18, 2007 - 52 comments

A parent advocacy group is upset that Transformer toys are being marketed to children. Group also rumored to dislike the fact that water is wet and that the Pope wears a big hat.
posted by Stynxno on Jul 2, 2007 - 70 comments

Even if you're not a baby boomer, you might remember a little something called the kiddie matinée that apparently went all the way up to the mid 80s. I remember them because in the 70s they were still popular enough that the 1959 Mexican Christmas flick Santa Claus continued making the rounds and I saw it in the theater. Imagine my surprise 20 years later when my favorite man in space and his robot pals are subjected to one of own childhood traumas of Santa Claus vs Satan for the soul of a small Mexican child. One man was responsible for my trauma: K. Gordon Murray. Importer of not only fine children's classics like Little Red Riding Hood Vs The Monsters but also other great MST3K experiments like The Robot vs The Aztec Mummy and Samson vs The Vampire Women. It wasn't all X vs Y. Sometimes it was about peaceful things.
posted by smallerdemon on May 12, 2007 - 12 comments

What was in YOUR childhood toybox? Mr. Potato Head? Colorforms? Viewmaster? Magic 8 Ball? Weebles? G.I. Joe? Betsy Wetsy? Polly Pocket? No matter what generation you're from, The Vintage Toy Encyclopedia and The Big Red Toybox have facts and history on (almost) all of your playthings.
posted by amyms on Apr 5, 2007 - 54 comments

Virtual Space Mountain! Wheeeee! (Click on the second video where you sit in front. What are you, a wuss?) Real video just can't do Space Mountain justice, but it does a pretty good job of capturing some other rides. Feel like revisiting some original Magic Kingdom rides without leaving home? Well here you go... Pirates, Mr. Toad, Small World, Haunted Mansion, Tiki Room, Thunder Mountain, Star Tours, Indiana Jones, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Cruise, Matterhorn, Roger Rabbit, the late Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and a bunch of people covered in lightbulbs dancing to the world's most excruciatingly annoying synthesized music. During your virtual day at the park, please just remember to watch out for Goofy. That dude is nothing but a messed up troublemaker. And don't forget... the parking trams do not go to aisles B as in Bambi & C as in Cinderella.
posted by miss lynnster on Mar 26, 2007 - 23 comments

Breakfast of the Gods: The Last Good Morning. A serialized webcomic featuring the sugary, crunchy stars of your childhood - destroying your childhood dreams one after another. Via Monkeyfilter.
posted by loquacious on Feb 11, 2007 - 33 comments

Graduates of the "school of hard knocks" flunk real life. A study from the University of Leicester says that, contrary to popular expectation, unpleasant and traumatic life experiences don't make people suspicious and shrewd -- quite the opposite. Many people who've had a tough life actually turn out more gullible and easily swayed:

"This is because the person may have learned to distrust their actions, judgments and decisions due to the fact that the majority of the time their actions have been perceived to invite negative consequences"

The counter-intuitiveness of this finding fascinates me. Wait. Maybe I shouldn't be taking it at face value...
posted by AmbroseChapel on May 27, 2006 - 50 comments

The Parade of the Red Army and other scans of Soviet Children's Books from the '20's and '30's. [via DaddyTypes]
posted by anastasiav on Mar 27, 2006 - 14 comments

Yet another part of childhood gone. Stan Berenstain passed away today. [MI]
posted by bluedaniel on Nov 28, 2005 - 66 comments

Before they were famous - six pages of childhood photos of celebrities.
posted by jonson on Aug 7, 2005 - 57 comments

“Because if Mr. Snuffleupagus is real, anything is possible.”
25 Favorite Sesame Street Memories
posted by anastasiav on Apr 11, 2005 - 64 comments

Mr. Men and Little Miss, the official site of childhood classics, where you can even make your own. For those who can't get enough, there's always the unofficial site.
posted by drezdn on Feb 24, 2005 - 8 comments

The Ultimate Guide to Rubber Band Warfare
posted by anastasiav on Apr 12, 2004 - 9 comments

Avocado Memories. It's more than a photo collection and group of essays about his parents' failures with interior decoration; it's a nostalgic website brought about by Wes Clark's impulse to let his children know what it was like growing up during a more innocent age.
posted by debralee on Jun 17, 2003 - 9 comments

Let's talk about childhood toys. A wander down memory lane, past care-bears and etch-a-sketches and barrel-o-monkeys. Warning: this site resulted in the bidding up of auctions for Weebles "Tree House" action sets. I'd forgotten how marvelously upright they remained until I whipped their little egg-like bodies out of a second-story window onto concrete. What was your favorite childhood toy? Do you still have it, or do you have the sudden need to re-acquire it?
posted by answergrape on Mar 21, 2003 - 47 comments

Nyaah nyah nyaaah nyah! The Rules of Childhood. While searching for the origin of "Jinx! Pinch! Poke!" I came across Greasy Kid Stuff. Nostalgics rejoice! Regress into terminology like the "cootie shot" and proven methods of gaining elementary school fame. Also check out the radio program. Anything missing from this list?
posted by Stan Chin on Oct 16, 2002 - 75 comments

I used to believe is a collection of ideas that adults thought were true when they were children. via fark
posted by Stan Chin on Oct 12, 2002 - 61 comments

the thoughts of childhood summed up in four panels
posted by drezdn on Feb 26, 2002 - 5 comments

Children's lives insufficiently documented. Video-shunning parent ostracized, jailed. I agree with this parent. Constantly taping your child, it does sometimes feel as if you're sacrificing actually being in the moment to capturing the moment, and this during some of the best "moments" of your child's life. If my understanding of old age is correct, however, memories are all you have. So I'm trying to nail me some shit down, for rocking chair days.
posted by luser on Feb 13, 2002 - 23 comments

I Don't Wanna Grow Up... When did you first consider yourself to be a full-fledged adult? How many more years later was it when you realized what a child you were when you first thought that? :-) The Washington Post had this conversation-starting story this morning about stretching the boundaries of what we consider adolescence. Some social scientists now argue that our (e.g. American) society has allowed the maturing process to take longer and longer, and that many people are still adolescent in their emotional and intellectual development into their mid-30s. Needless to say, there's a lot of disagreement.
posted by briank on Jan 2, 2002 - 56 comments

Does high school haunt you? Elinor Burkett spent a year in a suburban high school to get everybody's opinion on how this "typical" school was doing. How were your high school days?
posted by jacobw on Dec 8, 2001 - 29 comments

Fandabidozi. The Krankies are a comforting childhood memory of mine. Anyone else got some fond TV memories?
posted by hector on Oct 10, 2001 - 21 comments

Speaking of childhood stars, did you know the death of Dana Plato involved lesbianism, satanism, aliens, and heavy drug use? Ok, maybe not the 'alien' thing, but we won't know until someone actually ORDERS the book. (btw, you can find this site atthis url as well.)
posted by jcterminal on Aug 24, 2001 - 8 comments

"Every school has its story, every room its ghost."

Ian Dugay writes about the terrors of elementary school; his experience might be rather particular (if you read it, you'll understand that I don't mean that in a Columbine kind of way), but he can't be the only one with unpleasant memories -- how do you remember grade school?
posted by lia on Jan 21, 2001 - 17 comments

Will they come for you next? Warning to all parents:, THEY are watching you....
posted by brent on Aug 29, 2000 - 9 comments

While everyone else was busy compiling SXSW photo albums, I was compiling My Perfect Storybook Childhood - Uncensored. Beware of really white kid.
posted by premiumpolar on Mar 14, 2000 - 1 comment