1960s Childhood

1960s children grew up in a more permissive and commercial age. They enjoyed a childhood in a welfare state with ever improving health care. New vaccines for children gave them protection from life threatening diseases. The contraceptive pill, and later the 1967 Abortion Act, meant children could be brought up in smaller family groups.There was an educational sea-change as a controversial programme of comprehensive education began to be rolled out. By the close of the decade, primary schools had become less rigid and more centred on the needs of the child.Rising prosperity and rapid technological advances meant more children lived in homes with refrigerators, washing machines and science inspired toys. Parents had more leisure time to spend with their children and television became the norm in most homes. Sixties children routinely travelled in cars and went on family holidays, increasingly abroad. Sweets and toys were plentiful in this first full decade without rationing. Nonetheless,