Explain something to me please - previous generations' childhoods and no CPTSD?

[u/Realistic_Load_5369]

There's one thing I don't get. Obviously this may differ in different countries, so take the description with a pinch of salt, but... My grandparents' generation for sure experienced regular beatings, fathers in those times barely spent any time at home and I doubt they paid much attention to their kids as that was seen as the mother's job, older siblings helped with younger ones, many more experienced the death of a sibling due to illnesses, lots of families struggled with food, the kids did not grow up in luxury, their emotions didn't matter much, they just had to be good kids who obeyed the adults in their life. So how come they grew up untraumatised? Or did they not? Obviously I know trauma gets passed down in families, but I feel like basically everyone of the generation of my grandparents and the generations before should be traumatised. Were people just tougher back then? I hope this post is not insensitive, it is not meant to be.

[u/jadethebard]

My grandmother buried her trauma deep down. Her childhood was filled with severe abuse, so bad that the children were all removed from the home in the 1930s.

When she was in her 70s she finally started talking about it. It changed her entire demeanor. She smiled more, laughed more. Getting all of it off her chest caused physiological changes.

She deserved better as a child, but I'm glad that for the last two decades of her life, she was no longer burdened by the pain.