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What part of your childhood do you wish your kids could experience, but they won’t? (1 Viewer)

Gary Coal Man

Gary Coal Man

Footballguy
What part of your childhood do you wish your kids could experience, but they won’t because times have changed?

I was listening to a podcast (The Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast), and the hosts were fondly recalling their youthful days of going to the video store to rent the pro wrestling pay-per-view they had been pining for months to see. The anticipation and excitement on their way to the store only to be, more often than not, absolutely crushed to find that almighty pay-per-view was already out.  A virtual kick to the balls!

But then, one trip to the rental store, there it is! Can it be?  Is it a mirage?  Are my eyes fooling me?  I have finally reached the Promised Land!

That sheer joy of finally being able to rent a crappy pay-per-view was a feeling that can’t be matched in adulthood, and sadly can’t be matched in kids today since nearly all media is On Demand and can be viewed whenever kids want.  That feelings swing of utter disappointment if the video is not available vs. near orgasmic excitement if the video is available is now forever gone.

So what are some other aspects of your youth — whether big or small — that you wish your kids could experience, but they won’t because times have changed?

 
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Sounds silly but Saturday morning cartoons.

I mean i had cartoons before and after school but something about waking up Saturday and having no school responsibilities and knowing i could sit aroybd from 7-11 watching cartoons.

And evening cartoons was a wierd but good treat.

Now kids can just stream whatever they feel like whenever they want

 
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comfortably numb said:
Sounds silly but Saturday morning cartoons.

I mean i had cartoons before and after school but something about waking up Saturday and having no school responsibilities and knowing i could sit aroybd from 7-11 watching cartoons.

And evening cartoons was a wierd but good treat.

Now kids can just stream whatever they feel like whenever they want
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I was going to specifically say the Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck hour, but yeah, 7-11 on Saturday mornings were about as good as it got for cartoons. Once the Fat Albert show ended on Saturday morning, I knew it was time to go outside.

 
I loved the roller skate rink back in elementary school. Don't see too many of those nowadays.

I am glad there are still some mega arcades around. And I mean video game boxes, not ticket prize arcades.

 
🇮🇹 huge family dinners every other Sunday (and all the holidays) at my granma's 🇮🇹

i'm talkin' all the aunts & uncles & cousins - a feast, i tell ya ... and had to be 25 strong when all present and accounted for.

nowdays the family is spread out too far ... we see each other mostly for wakes/funerals - we might get a dinner in once a year, but, still ... the numbers just aren't the same as back'naday. 

 
hagmania said:
I loved the roller skate rink back in elementary school. Don't see too many of those nowadays.
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As a kid I got a concussion at a roller skating rink.  An obese lady who was losing her balance tried to use my puny seventy pound frame for support.  Next thing you know it looked like that Looney Tunes shot where a safe falls on someone and you can only see their arms and legs sticking out from underneath.  My forehead was piledriven into that hard skating floor and massive bump instantly popped up (also Looney Tunes style).

Even with that I fondly recall my childhood skating rink days.  Great times.

 
eoMMan said:
When only a pic of a clothed female could get you going.

Now they need a full on internet video of multiple naked females and robots or whatever else the kids are into now. 
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Playing in the woods and finding an abandoned Playboy some perv was likely beating it too among the trees was like Christmas morning.

Most of the time we’d just have to settle for the bra and panty section of the Sears catalogue, but even that was heaven.

 
Yeah I think the excitement of going to the library to get new books or the movie rental place to get movies/VHS tapes is a good one.  Of course, that'll be replaced by the excite of newly released stuff on the internet so it's probably a wash. 

Can't really think of anything else. I don't buy the whole, "kids can't run around the neighborhood until dark anymore" claim. 

 
We lived for three months in a brown paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six o'clock in the morning, clean the bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down mill for fourteen hours a day week in-week out.  When we got home, our Dad would thrash us to sleep with his belt.

 
Alex P Keaton said:
Watching my next door neighbor, 16 years old (while I was 13), run her own personal bikini car wash service.
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You wish your kids could experience perving on a girl in a bikini?  

Is that not possible now?

Or were you talking specifically about your neighbor who is now at least 40?

 
mr roboto said:
We grew up in a smaller town. Kids would just ride their bikes anywhere. Ball field, park, pool, gas station to buy candy etc. We also rode around looking for other kids to play with. You just had to be home before dinner/dark. 
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The Kansas Comet said:
Pickup baseball/football/basketball games with the rest of the kids in the neighborhood.  
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This. 

One of the reasons my son just wants to play video games because it is the only place he can do something with someone besides his younger sister.  He can shoot baskets by himself, shoot his BB gun at some trees or ride his bike within a 1/2 mile radius, but he doesn't get the fun group play that I had.

Summers were non-stop pool to bike ride to basketball to wiffle ball days.  The only time I was shut in with TV was when it was raining.  Now, my son has to either entertain himself or lock into a screen.

 
Zow said:
Yeah I think the excitement of going to the library to get new books or the movie rental place to get movies/VHS tapes is a good one.  Of course, that'll be replaced by the excite of newly released stuff on the internet so it's probably a wash. 

Can't really think of anything else. I don't buy the whole, "kids can't run around the neighborhood until dark anymore" claim. 
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Why not because it's true?  It's not that they can't they just don't.  Kids have way too many distractions now a days.  Not only with the internet but there are 10x more organized sports leagues/camps than when I was a kid in the late 70's and early 80's.  Even in the summer kids have a fairly full schedule with various camps and summer/travel ball practices and tournaments.  Back in the day (yeah get off my lawn) once Little League was done which was about a week or so after school was out we really had nothing going on all summer and without internet and other activities we spent all summer biking from friends houses to parks to the lake for entertainment.  Pickup baseball and basketball games, fishing, bike racing....all sorts of stuff that kept us entertained and out of the house all day.

 
OrtonToOlsen said:
You wish your kids could experience perving on a girl in a bikini?  

Is that not possible now?

Or were you talking specifically about your neighbor who is now at least 40?
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LOL.   I don't really wish that my kids would grow up with anything different than what they experience right now.  But I do enjoy the question and hearing the replies of others.

 
Andy Dufresne said:
Video game arcade

The ones today with their swipe cards and such don't count. Put your quarter in and play.

You can have a pinball machine but it has to be in the corner.
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Another good one.  I lived in a city of about 50K with a university and our neighborhood was about a mile or so from campus.  If we were desperate for money we walk through the allies behind the student housing and gather up all the aluminum cans we could find.  We cash those in at a golden goat (automated recycling machine) which was in a parking lot of gas station nearby.  Then we'd bike to the arcade.  Good times.

 
Pipes said:
Why not because it's true?  It's not that they can't they just don't. 
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Can't speak for every parent everywhere, and I know this kind of thing varies a ton from town to town and region to region. But:

My wife is convinced that kids out playing just get snatched up all the time. She is convinced that the odds of any one kids getting kidnapped if not supervised by an adult is something like one in three. Accordingly, my kids never got the experience of walking around to other kids houses and playing. Playing out in the street with neighbor kids. None of that.

Pretty much every kid we know and every other set of parents we know feel the same way. Yeah, they could go out and play ... but, you know, they'd get kidnapped. Every time, practically.

Play dates used to be for toddlers too young to walk or bike to friends' houses. These days, play dates or supervised hangouts pretty much go on into high school.

It's sad to me. And that kind of independence is something kids really need -- and I dare say that the true odds of abduction (1 in a zillion) are pretty much worth it. My wife and I don't like our kids retreating to their screens and chats and social media and online games and all ... but what choice were they left with? They're reaching out for some peer-to-peer contact anyway they can get it. We grew up taking that for granted, and then denied it to our own children.

 
Doug B said:
Can't speak for every parent everywhere, and I know this kind of thing varies a ton from town to town and region to region. But:

My wife is convinced that kids out playing just get snatched up all the time. She is convinced that the odds of any one kids getting kidnapped if not supervised by an adult is something like one in three. Accordingly, my kids never got the experience of walking around to other kids houses and playing. Playing out in the street with neighbor kids. None of that.

Pretty much every kid we know and every other set of parents we know feel the same way. Yeah, they could go out and play ... but, you know, they'd get kidnapped. Every time, practically.

Play dates used to be for toddlers too young to walk or bike to friends' houses. These days, play dates or supervised hangouts pretty much go on into high school.

It's sad to me. And that kind of independence is something kids really need -- and I dare say that the true odds of abduction (1 in a zillion) are pretty much worth it. My wife and I don't like our kids retreating to their screens and chats and social media and online games and all ... but what choice were they left with? They're reaching out for some peer-to-peer contact anyway they can get it. We grew up taking that for granted, and then denied it to our own children.
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Agreed most if not all of this is our fault.  Just one of many examples of this I grew up about 6 blocks from my elementary school and used to walk to school by myself (until I'd run into other kids) even when I was in kindergarten.  When my kids were in kindergarten either my wife or I would stand with them at the bus stop, which was 2 houses down (easily visible from our house) until they got on the bus.  Such a different world we live in nowadays. 

 
Doug B said:
Can't speak for every parent everywhere, and I know this kind of thing varies a ton from town to town and region to region. But:

My wife is convinced that kids out playing just get snatched up all the time. She is convinced that the odds of any one kids getting kidnapped if not supervised by an adult is something like one in three. Accordingly, my kids never got the experience of walking around to other kids houses and playing. Playing out in the street with neighbor kids. None of that.

Pretty much every kid we know and every other set of parents we know feel the same way. Yeah, they could go out and play ... but, you know, they'd get kidnapped. Every time, practically.

Play dates used to be for toddlers too young to walk or bike to friends' houses. These days, play dates or supervised hangouts pretty much go on into high school.

It's sad to me. And that kind of independence is something kids really need -- and I dare say that the true odds of abduction (1 in a zillion) are pretty much worth it. My wife and I don't like our kids retreating to their screens and chats and social media and online games and all ... but what choice were they left with? They're reaching out for some peer-to-peer contact anyway they can get it. We grew up taking that for granted, and then denied it to our own children.
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My wife is the same.  It’s sad that our kids will have a lesser childhood experience because women are paranoid.

 
There used to be nothing quite as exhilarating as listening to the radio for hours just to hear that great new song.  Then if you were on the ball you could hit record on your tape deck and voila! free music. 

Also "gun fights" with toy guns that looked ridiculously real. My 10 year old friends and I would have gotten shot by police today.

And what @mr robotosaid, as we actually grew up in the same small town, a few years apart. Unfortunately for him, he was probably too young to go sliding down the dam at the lake that's no longer there and get yelled at by his parents for wrecking yet another pair of perfectly good jeans.

 
Being able to play in the neighborhood, and creative play are the two big ones for me.

Some of my fondest memories growing up was just playing outside with kids in the neighborhood.  Going to the park and playing some version of baseball you can play with five or six kids.  Two on two football.  Flashlight tag, roaming through the entire block of backyards, hiding in old campers, generally where ever we could in to.  My kids are too old for this now, but I would have been freaked out if I knew they were doing anything similar.

 
Hot Diggity Dog said:
I think the block full of kids age 13 down to 7 or 8 playing games every summer night.   10 plus kids you had to play with and include.   I'm sure it happens somewhere in America but most kids aren't sent to play outside any more.  
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My 10-year old daughter and her friends are like this every day in the summer.  She barely shows up at home for meals.

 
I dunno, guys.

A lot of this stuff is nostalgic but wasn’t that great.

Us: When we were kids didn’t just play vidiya games we made things with Legos!

Our parents: Legos?  We had splintery wooden blocks and we liked it.

Our grandparents:  Splintery? Our blocks were made of asbestos and covered in lead paint!

Our great-grandparents: Play? We worked in the mills and the mines and the only toys we had were polio crutches and small pox scabs!

 
gianmarco said:
Honestly, just getting out on their own, playing for hours, and coming home by sundown.

Unfortunately, that isn't possible anymore in many places.
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Sundown?  Pfft.  What kind of snowflake, helicopter parent neighborhood did you grow up in?  After sundown we would just transition to kick the can games for a more hours, then a good part of the time we would "sleep out".  The year before 7th grade my buddy and I pretty much lived in a pup tent in my back yard.  If that happened today the parents would be hauled in by CPS.  Good times.  

 
Doug B said:
Agreed ... but how does society unwind that clock?
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I saw an analysis of crime rates somewhere that mentioned that it is not any more dangerous for kids to play outside now, it is entirely parents being more paranoid. Mainly an increase in news distribution making it so everyone hears about everything nationwide. In the 70's it would just be like "eh, they probably ran away, not going to waste any police effort", while now someone missing will be blasted on facebook and CNN and other news organizations with a wide reach. 

For other things:

Having a giant cabinet of VHS tapes with titles on tape with Janes 3rd birthday crossed out and Jaws and Brave Heart written over it.

Not having so much entertainment at your fingertips, both video games becoming more complex as well as an unlimited supply of movies and shows. You used to have to find stuff to do, I recall being bored waiting for 10am to start calling friends to find something to do, which could be anything from homerun derby at the baseball field to blowing up roadkill with M80s. Now by far the easiest option is to just turn on netflix or an xbox. 

 
Herb said:
Also "gun fights" with toy guns that looked ridiculously real. My 10 year old friends and I would have gotten shot by police today.
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When I was about 10 years old my brother and I were over at a neighbor’s house.  The neighbor had a huge bin of toy guns, realistic looking toy guns.  As I sat on the bed doodling on an Etch-a-Sketch my brother would pick up a toy gun, point it at my chest, and pretend to shoot.  He did this gun after gun.  

Then my brother picked up a gun, pumped it like ten times, and once again blasted away at my chest.  Only this time the realistic looking toy gun was’t a toy at all .  It was a BB gun.  My chest looked like I had a nuclear mosquito bite with the world’s largest and reddest areola surrounding it.

To this day my brother swears he thought it was another toy gun and not a BB gun, but I remain skeptical.

 
mr roboto said:
We grew up in a smaller town. Kids would just ride their bikes anywhere. Ball field, park, pool, gas station to buy candy etc. We also rode around looking for other kids to play with. You just had to be home before dinner/dark. 
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this but my area now is no where near a small town and its almost not feasible to even try to get around

 
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I recently went a few rounds with my wife over letting my 12 year old son walk 2 blocks from the Jr. High where he was lifting weights to the school he was still attending that my wife teaches at.

Literally 2 blocks at 7:30 am in suburbia.  Her primary argument was that he was the only one in the building that had to do it and the other kids' parents all picked them up and drove them.  Out of 5 possible days, he only ended up walking twice.  The other 3 times either she came to get him or her mother did.

It still pisses me off a bit that she was so hysterical about it.

 
parrot said:
Sundown?  Pfft.  What kind of snowflake, helicopter parent neighborhood did you grow up in?  After sundown we would just transition to kick the can games for a more hours, then a good part of the time we would "sleep out".  The year before 7th grade my buddy and I pretty much lived in a pup tent in my back yard.  If that happened today the parents would be hauled in by CPS.  Good times.  
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That was only on weekends.  Sundown on weekdays generally meant dinner and homework.

 
Jayrod said:
I recently went a few rounds with my wife over letting my 12 year old son walk 2 blocks from the Jr. High where he was lifting weights to the school he was still attending that my wife teaches at.

Literally 2 blocks at 7:30 am in suburbia.  Her primary argument was that he was the only one in the building that had to do it and the other kids' parents all picked them up and drove them.  Out of 5 possible days, he only ended up walking twice.  The other 3 times either she came to get him or her mother did.

It still pisses me off a bit that she was so hysterical about it.
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Start hiding kids.

 
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