Leave it to Beaver

My husband Scott is a big fan of the show Leave it to Beaver so we've been watching old episodes on Netflix lately.  It's brought up some interesting discussions on how society has changed since the filming of this movie in approximately the 1950's.
One of the biggest culture shocks we've discussed is the fact that the family has a nice home and doesn't seem to struggle financially and only the father works.  The mom stays home and takes care of the house.  Granted they only have 2 children, but they don't seem to spoil them or buy them lavish things and they do teach them the value of money.

Almost every time you see Mrs. Cleaver she's in the kitchen making or preparing dinner.  You see her slicing carrots for dinner (I'll admit even though I do a lot of cooking from scratch I still buy frozen sliced carrots)  It occurred to me that women now have inventions such as the microwave and common ingredients are semi-prepared when you buy them in the store making it so that we don't have to spend the entire day in the kitchen...... But I don't seem to have a lot of extra time on my  hands do you?

So we have modern conveniences in exchange for women working to help provide for our families.  And that providing doesn't afford us nearly the lifestyle you'll see in the show with only one parent working.  In fact I would LOVE to live in a house/neighborhood that nice!  I know lots of families that work multiple jobs SO they can scrape by.

Then there's the lessons taught in the show- common sense.  Honesty, Integrity, the value of friendships, money and time.  These lessons may be found in current TV shows but they are not the focus or priority.  Plus it is my opinion that so many shows have added in other agenda's political or otherwise that it takes away from the focus of the "moral of the story".

If you're looking for a show that will teach your children good values, expose them to modestly dressed actors, and where the kids aren't always right while the parents are wrong or look dumb, I recommend watching some of the old classics.  They may be in black and white, but so were the standards back then :)