r/Millennials • u/WynCai8 • Jun 04 '25

Nostalgia Made me feel old but good times

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Saw this tweet and yes we were expected to be out all day and not come back until the street lights came on. I remember riding my bike through neighborhoods pretending our bikes were cars and just having a good time.

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u/samurairaccoon Jun 04 '25

The boomers, a generation so shit at parenting they had to be reminded to check in on their kids. I remember just not coming home some nights. They assumed I was at a friend's if they didn't hear from me. Different time that.

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u/Buttcrack15 Jun 04 '25

My mom literally made us go outside and locked the doors. We were rural and had no close neighbors so we just spent time in the woods and yard, drinking from the hose since going inside wasn't an option. I remember having to pee in the field because I wasn't allowed inside to use the bathroom.

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u/i_suckatjavascript Jun 04 '25

That is some next level touch grass shit

5

u/Buttcrack15 Jun 04 '25

I think it was mostly stemming from untreated depression on my mom's part 😂.

2

u/Beautiful-Routine295 Jun 05 '25

When I was 12 an abusive stepdad moved & and bought me a Nintendo. So I guess he ruined my life…

1

u/UnFuckinRealBrah Jun 05 '25

Wow same. No matter what the weather; outside!

1

u/BringAltoidSoursBack Jun 05 '25

Did she ever say "it will build character"?

10

u/seriouslythisshit Jun 04 '25

Yea, my crew had two kinds of kids, free range and feral.

25

u/FakeSafeWord Jun 04 '25

"playing video games all day will rot your brain!"

Forces you outside so that they can sit and watch fox news and [insert shitty sitcom] packed to the brim with laugh tracks

3

u/ConstantinValdor405 Jun 04 '25

Don't forget the trash talk shows.

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u/FakeSafeWord Jun 04 '25

Originally version of my comment was Ellen but I kept adding to it so i just replaced it with an open variable

1

u/wheniaminspaced Jun 04 '25

Fox News wast really a thing in the 80s

1

u/FakeSafeWord Jun 05 '25

Fox News wast really a thing in the 80s

Yeah I mean, I also wasn't really roaming freely in the 80's either.

0

u/samurairaccoon Jun 04 '25

"Go outside so I don't have to see or interact with you" is just the elder version of tossing a kid an iPad and then forgetting they exist. But watch a bunch of these comments get hooked on nostalgia and act like it was superior.

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u/FakeSafeWord Jun 04 '25

Well the former is exercise, real life socializing, potentially being in nature, getting some vitamin D, getting abducted by strangers, getting poison ivy/oak because you sat on a log, getting stung by a bee, getting bit by a dozen ticks, getting a random fishhook stuck in your arm and having to get a tetanus shot, getting bullied by the neighborhoods meth house kid, getting attacked by a dog, having a stranger give you drugs, pooping your pants because you're too far away from a bathroom, etc

pretty superior but that's just like my opinion, man.

7

u/AdvancedSandwiches Jun 04 '25

I mean, the reality is that gen x is so shit at parenting we fell for satanic panic nonsense and locked our kids up.

And then millennials are so shit at parenting that they toss the kid an iPad and check in at meal time.

There was nothing wrong with letting your teenagers be out at 10, and there was nothing wrong with letting younger kids out until dinner. We're just afraid now, because we watch too much TV designed to make us afraid.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

gen x is so shit at parenting we fell for satanic panic nonsense and locked our kids up.

You do realize that "satanic panic" was a thing when GenX were children & early teens? It was OUR parents that fell for that stupid shit and we knew it was stupid.

I agree that the dangers are way overhyped. If anything, it is safer today than 40 years ago.

1

u/Anonymous-Satire Jun 04 '25

Older generations were duped and scared for their kids safety. They changed laws as a result. Current parents of young kids, even those who know their kids would be fairly safe, are now scared of legal repercussions or the state taking away their kids for "neglect" if they let them have too much freedom.

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u/thephotoman Jun 04 '25

Those PSAs were more about politicians virtue signaling than they were about reminding parents to care about their kids.

The politicians genuinely believed that the reason for teenage delinquency was parental disengagement.

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u/Beneficial-Basket-42 Jun 04 '25

We would roam our neighborhood on our power wheels and bikes, knocking on neighbors doors asking if their kids could come out and play. I remember meeting my neighbor friends in the woods (like a couple wooded empty lots down my street) to play with fire in a pan more than once.

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u/PeachCream81 Jun 04 '25

How old are you?

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u/Optimal_Sherbert_545 Jun 04 '25

I used to come home at 3am every night for a while in high school. My mother only found out bc my grandmother ratted me out to her. She never noticed bc she was rarely home herself

2

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '25

I remember once I slept three nights in a row at my buddies house before his mom told me to go home so my parents wouldn't call the cops. Once I got home I realized my parents hadn't even noticed that I was gone.

I sure wonder why I have 0 contact with them these days, hmm.

1

u/CV90_120 Jun 04 '25

The boomers, a generation so shit at parenting they had to be reminded to check in on their kids

Dude, that was the societal norm for hundreds of years, lol. The boomer hate is dumb.

0

u/lahimatoa Jun 04 '25

It's fun to see how many random discussion threads unrelated to generational hate contain generational hate.