Parenting the '50s Way. At last - a real supernanny from the 1950s. Elizabeth Longford proves the truth of the old saying, 'Mother knows best'. She cites from her own experience as mother of a large family, and quotes from letters which she received from other parents. They are all faced with the same situations - childish fantasies, the problem of good manners and how to enforce them, whether one should punish a child, and how to deal with the 'spoilt' youngest child, or the family squabbles.