I grew up outside Boston in the early 1950’s and in the hot summer, running under the lawn sprinkler to cool off was prohibited by Mom as were trips to the amusement park.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That’s not at all like my neighborhood as a kid. The discussion would have gone something like this...
Neighbor No. 1... “I heard that the Smith’s boy/girl got measles/mumps.... “
Neighbor No. 2... “Oh good... let me send my kids over there so that they can catch it. So nice to get this thing out of the way when they are young so they will have immunity.”
Please note that CedarDave was talking with me about polio. Parents were terrified of the disease, and of course rightly so.
“That’s not at all like my neighborhood as a kid. The discussion would have gone something like this...”
_________________
You just described the childhood parenting style of millions of parents at the time.
It worked. Every child would get whatever was going around and then we’d be fine.
Not like today where it seems nothing ever truly gets resolved... i.e., illnesses.