Sorry, but you were born in '56 making you a something of a disco-boomer. Things had changed by then, and Dr. Spock was all the rage (hence the hippie problem, who were children of the 1st wave).
Dr. Spock is ultimately what made brats and screwed up this country.
My mother was a TEEN in the '50s born in '37, and she will tell you different. Things were more civil and behaved then, to her (as well as my dad, but they were in totally different environments - mom in Baltimore proper, dad in Maine).
Of course there are always brats, but the impression is they were definitely the exception the proved the rule.
Look at how people these days remark in public when a child is GOOD and MANNERED! In mom's day such would never have occurred to them to compliment on GOOD manners - indeed the opposite! People were good at staring down OBNOXIOUS children and their parents, if you ask her. Nowadays, we just ignore, and compliment the nice children.
You make an excellent point about remarks on good mannered children, as opposed to the norm of the past about the poor mannered ones. My husband and I are continually complimented on our child's behavior in public.......nowif she would just behave that way at home and school :)
I was born in 1960, and would have been in serious dire straits if I behaved in public the way I see some children behave now. Buton the other hand I have a close friend, who is only 24, and her children are just as well mannered and well behaved in public as my child is.
My dad who is 82 years old told me that when his mother lost her husband, she was lost, they lived in Kansas. She had 4 children, 1 boy who was 10 yrs. old and two were in their teens or older and my Dad who was heading off to World War II. She was despondent and lost she didn't know how she was going to get by her family helped her but she had an emotionally hard time. She told my Dad to have his wife have a career so that all is not lost if the husband dies monetarily and emotionally. She had been a teacher before she married. She died not to far after her husband. Surprising words considering if she would be well over 100 yrs. old today. By the way my Mom is 79 years old and raised 5 children and worked full time. She is and was a wonderful mother.