Somebody somewhere is overlooking siblings watching younger siblings, and kids being watched by neighbors and relatives who have kids. With a predominantly male workplace, nobody needed sitters because they worked.

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♲ 🎅 Santa Plays Favorites 🎁 - 2024-12-22 23:52:43 GMT

TIL that the Baby Boom after World War II led to a major shortage of teenage babysitters in the United States.For example, in the late 1940s Madison NJ had only 50 babysitters for its population of 8,000.
In 1950 it was reported that a married couple going to the movies would spend $7 for the night: $5 for the sitter + $2 for tickets and refreshments.

Back then, as now, child care work was almost entirely done by women and adolescent girls. They got quite an economic boost for a while there!

Countries across the world had Baby Booms after the war, but the babysitter shortage was mainly an American problem. This may have been due to nuclear family households (rather than multigenerational households) being more common here, as well as more disposable income for "date nights."

bookshop.org/p/books/babysitte…

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-20th…

#ushistory #demographics #culturalhistory #babyboomer #boomers #1950s #TIL #todayilearned #books #nonfiction