How did our mothers survive without toilet locks?

There was this commercial running awhile back (I can't even tell you what it was for) but in it, a man is chasing around three toddlers trying to change them when one runs into the bathroom with a watch and stands by the toilet. The next thing you hear is the toilet flushing and a child's voice saying, "Oh, No!". My husband turned to me after this commercial and said, a bit indignantly, "Well, that is just stupid. He should have had a toilet lock." I had to laugh at him. Before we had Lilith, he would have had a totally different response to that commercial. I doubt he even knew what a toilet lock was before Lilith. Now, as I navigate the obstacle course that is our ever evolving child proofed home, I have to wonder.. How did our mothers do it before all of these child proofing gadgets became so readily available?
Everyday it seems like we are reevaluating the level of "childproofedness" of our home. Today for example we decided that we need to buy some safety straps for a small bookcase in Lilith's room as she has decided she can knock all of the books off and climb it. We have a gate that opens with one hand and a simple push of a button (if it wasn't such a long and heavy gate, this locking mechanism would have been Lilith defeated long ago), 2 gates that require you to pull up on a lever and push a button at the same time to open (Lilith will probably master this soon while we still can't get them to open half the time), doorknob covers that have two little buttons on either side that you have to push in order to be able to turn the knob to open the door (there are days my neighbors can hear me sobbing because I can't get into my closet), there is even a gate that blocks our bathroom doorway that doesn't open at all (this gate is building me biceps of steel as I lift Lilith over it a hundred times a day now with potty training, needless to say, I hate this gate and I thank goodness I am tall enough to step over it fairly easily), and a dozen different cabinet and drawer locks (just in case Lilith actually makes it past one of the gates into a forbidden zone like the kitchen). How did early generations survive with out all of this? There are even Child Proof Services that will come and evaluate your home and gladly sell you the products you need and install them for you, for a small fee! My mother told me once that they use to "sit the table leg" on the back of her younger sisters skirt to keep her from wandering the ranch house when she was a toddler. I use to think she was kidding, not anymore. Have you ever seen the old movie, "Please, Don't eat the Daisies" with Doris Day? In it the upper middle class family has a little boy and this toddler spends most of his time in a cage. I kid you not. It is not a play pen, it has a roof!
Child safety seats didn't become mandatory till the 1980's (While seatbelts were first made available in U.S.-built passenger vehicles in the mid-1950s, their installation did not become mandatory until 1964 a requirement for shoulder belts was added in 1968 with the three-point restraint mandated in 1973). Even though the belts were required in the vehicles, there were at that time no laws requiring their use. As a result, seatbelt use in most areas languished at 10 percent or less. Usage did not increase significantly until the introduction of mandatory seatbelt use laws in the 1980s.
Laws mandating the use of child safety seats followed a similar pattern. The devices were little known until the 1970s and were not widely used until laws mandating their use came into effect just ahead of seatbelt use laws. All states soon passed laws requiring the use of child safety seats)
Heck we had walkers, in houses with STAIRS and NO! Gates!!!!! No baby saucers in those days! We had STREET SKATES. I never remember once being told to put on a helmet to ride my bike or roller skate. I did however have a baby harness. I actually remember it. It was a red leather dog harness looking thingy (not at all like the cute one Lilith has that she calls her bear and actually begs to wear). My cousins made fun of me for having to wear it but it saved my life. One rainy evening when I was 2 years old, my mother and I were crossing the street (on the cross walk) when a little old lady ran the red light. My mother dropped the bags of groceries she was caring and jerked the leash to my harness hard enough to send me up into the air. The car hit my mother but not me as it would have. The little old lady drove off and two young college guys stopped and picked my mother off the pavement and drove us to the nearest hospital. I always knew if I had children, they would have a harness. Today, it isn't unusual to see children with them like it was back then. There are websites devoted to childproofing your home, vacation home, hotel room, and even the playground. There are regular articles in the parenting magazines about childproofing. There are even knee pads for crawling babies and a "Bumper Bonnet" to protect you toddlers noggin if they happen to find a sharp corner somewhere that you have carelessly overlooked covering with foam. (Won't those photos embarrass that kid someday!)
So how did our mothers keep us from falling down the stairs, drinking the draino, or playing in the toilet? When did they have time to go to the bathroom without having to worry we were killing ourselves by sticking the end of our slinky into an outlet?
I need to ask my mother these questions the next time we talk, wait on second thought, I'd really rather not know if I ever played in the toilet.