In 1922, Emma Read invented the baby cage. This handy device simplified the lives of urban apartment dwellers by providing them a way to stash their infants in pens hanging in the fresh air outside the window while freeing up valuable floor space. This was at a time when outside air was considered a panacea for all sorts of diseases and an alternative to miasma.
A parent could also put a child in one of these cages for "time out" punishment, where it literally would be a suspended sentence.
Eleanor Roosevelt acquired one of these pens in 1923 to imprison her daughter, Anna. Mrs. Roosevelt was gobsmacked when she was threatened with child abuse charges if she were to actually employ the enclosure.
The cage was popular in some English cities but lost its appeal when the air became filled first with German bombs and then later by killer smog.
The cage was popular in some English cities but lost its appeal when the air became filled first with German bombs and then later by killer smog.
The cage was just what every mother needed--a device to teach her toddler to climb out of a window.
2 comments:
This would be frowned upon today.
True. However, presuming that the air is not full of smog and the cage is securely fastened, is it any worse than a mother on ground level putting an infant in a playpen in the backyard if she is closely watching it?
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