Consider this an instruction manual on exactly what not to do. Worried about whether you're doing this parenting thing right or not? You might feel a lot better once you read about the standards parents were once subjected to below. Rest assured, if you're not locking your baby in a cage or depriving your child of hugs, you're probably doing quite all right. EMOTIONS If new mums didn’t have enough to worry about already, they were once warned of a grave risk to their baby’s health and wellbeing: their own internal thoughts. Advice books from 1916 suggested breastfeeding while angry would give the child colic. Meanwhile, in order to have a good-looking bub, mums-to-be were to refrain from “thinking ugly things”. In the 1950s, there were rules for treating post-partum depression, too: apparently, the best way to get over the baby blues and “solve emotional problems” was to spend some time stripping furniture.