8 Things Gen-X Kids Grew Up Thinking Were Normal That Would Trigger Parents Today Almost Immediately
melissamn | Shutterstock Gen-X kids made it to adulthood mostly in one piece ... mostly. Yet when Millennial and Gen-Z parents hear some of the wild things their Gen-X predecessors did while they were growing up — things that were considered totally normal at the time, btw — they tend to be somewhat horrified.
Gen-X kids grew up thinking these were normal that would horrify parents today:
1. Playing outside unsupervised
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Today’s childhood experience stands in stark contrast to Gen X’s unsupervised outdoor playtime. Responsive and present parenting has become the norm. Some parents have a more extreme take on supervision, tending toward a slightly overbearing helicopter parenting style. In those cases, the pendulum swung as far from Gen-X parenting as it could go, moving from absentee parenting to overprotective parenting.
Social worker Cheryl Gerson posed a question highlighting the pitfalls of being an overprotective parent, asking, “Have we gone too far in protecting our children from any feeling that causes them frustration, worry, or anxiety? Have we started protecting them to the point that we're undermining their emotional resilience? Kids need to realize getting what you want doesn't always come easily. That's the best way to raise an emotionally resilient child."
2. Riding in cars without seatbelts and carseats
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Another common Gen-X childhood experience that would horrify parents today is our lack of car seats and seatbelts. The rules and regulations around safety were literally of a different era, in that they barely existed at all. Gen-X kids rode in the front seat at such a young age, their feet didn’t touch the floor. It was totally normal to ride in the bed of a pickup truck or sit in those collapsible seats in the trunk of a car, facing backward, so they could make faces at the drivers behind them.
In 1984, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration required that all new cars be built with seatbelts. The first child passenger safety laws were passed in 1985, which meant kids under a certain age had to use a car seat. Airbags were introduced by the late ‘80s, and by the ‘90s, seatbelt use across the U.S. was at 80%. Research has shown that properly installed child restraints, like car seats and booster seats, can reduce mortality rates among child passengers by 70 to 80%. Parents today pay way more attention to their kids’ physical security than Gen-X kids experienced, and advances in technology have made transit safer than ever.
3. Breathing in second-hand smoke
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Seeing adults smoking everywhere was a common Gen-X childhood experience that parents today would have a justifiable meltdown over. Smoking was allowed in restaurants and bars, and it was a fairly normal occurrence for parents to smoke inside their homes. There were non-smoking sections in public places, but they didn’t offer much in the way of protection from secondhand smoke.
Congress prohibited smoking on domestic flights with a duration of under two hours in 1987, a regulation that took effect a year later. By 1989, they passed a bill that banned smoking on all domestic airlines. By 1998, California became the first state to ban smoking in bars. Anti-smoking campaigns and lobbying efforts helped to influence public opinion and get legislation in place to limit smoking in public places across the U.S. Gen-X’s smoke-filled childhood is truly a thing of the past, something parents today would breathe a huge sigh of relief about.
4. Drinking from the garden hose
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In the 70s, 80s, and even early 90s, chugging water from a hose was a perfectly adequate way to stay hydrated. There were no Owalas to hold 40 ounces of water and declare your popularity for the whole middle school to see. Gen-X kids drank straight from the source: the backyard hose.
Gen-X kids didn’t have time to run inside for water. They couldn’t risk missing the next epic round of Capture-The-Flag just because they were thirsty. So, they did what every rational, free-range Gen-X kid would do. They unraveled the rubber hose and glugged that warm, metallic-tasting water until they’d had their fill — delicious.
5. Riding bikes without helmets
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Learning to ride a bike is a childhood rite of passage, but learning to do it safely is an element of modern-day parenting. Wearing a helmet wasn’t a requirement for riding a bike, roller-blading, sledding, or any other high-impact activity kids wear helmets for now. The first states began putting helmet laws into place in 1987, yet there's still no federal law regarding kids and helmet use in existence. Today’s kids don’t even climb on a balance bike or get their hands on one of those tiny scooters without a helmet on, let alone tie a skateboard to a shopping cart so they can ride down a hill with the wind in their unhelmeted hair.
6. Walking to school alone
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Another common Gen-X experience that parents today don't think is normal is letting kids walk to school alone, no matter how mature they were. Kindergartners walked to school with their 5th-grade neighbors as their chaperones. Sure, there were crossing guards and stop signs. Sure, the concept of “Stranger Danger” was drilled into every Gen-X kid’s mind to a fault, but parents still had a fairly laissez-faire approach to allowing their kids to go out in public on their own, which parents today couldn't even imagine.
7. Eating a snack-food-only diet
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Gen-X kids mainlined pitchers of Hawaiian Punch and neon-colored Kool-Aid. They ate Twinkies and fruit roll-ups with zero fruit properties and finished off their feast with a roll of Bubble Tape gum. Today’s parents are more conscientious and cautious about the food their kids eat, in part, due to the rise of food-related allergies. It’s more common for kids to eat a macrobiotic diet or go gluten-free than it is for them to eat SpaghettiO’s in between slices of Wonder Bread. While subsisting on processed junk food was a common Gen-X childhood experience, today’s parents have put the kibosh on that.
8. Being virtually unreachable
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If Gen-X kids needed to call their parents, they found a dime wedged in the corner of their Trapper-Keeper and used a pay phone. Writing letters, by hand, using actual paper, was how kids kept in touch from summer camp. Texting wasn’t even a concept. If Gen-X kids didn’t want their parents to know where they were, there was no finding them. For Gen-X kids, the sense of freedom and independence was intoxicating, but parents today put trackers in their kids' sneakers. It's a different world, man.
Alexandra Blogier, MFA, is a staff writer who covers psychology, social issues, relationships, self-help topics, and human interest stories.
