People Raised In The 60s, 70s & 80s Experienced 9 ‘Normal’ Things That Younger Generations Call Traumatic Today
Galinafoto / Shutterstock People in younger generations tend to get a bad rap for somehow being weaker than the people who came before them. That’s a pretty unfair generalization to make, but there definitely are some things that older people raised in the 60s, 70s, and 80s were used to that younger people wouldn’t be able to handle.
As expectations of what life is supposed to be like have changed over time, so have our thoughts about what we consider traumatic.
Younger generations think these things are traumatic even though people raised in the 60s, 70s, and 80s felt like they were normal
1. Coming home from school to an empty house
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Few things would sound as traumatizing to young people today as the thought of being a latchkey kid. When Gen X was young, coming home from school to an empty house and having to take care of themselves until their parents got home from work hours later was perfectly normal, but now it might be enough to make someone call Child Protective Services.
Modern kids who are used to constant supervision wouldn’t know what to do if they were left to fend for themselves like that, which is even more interesting when you think about how many of them were raised by parents who used to be latchkey kids themselves.
2. Not worrying about putting on seat belts
Younger generations have heard stories about their parents or grandparents squeezing as many people into a car as they could, only to feel totally confused by the potential safety risks that meant they took. But they really had no idea anything was wrong at the time.
According to the CDC, the federal government didn’t require cars to be made with seat belts until 1968. By 1996, each state had its own seat belt laws except for New Hampshire. This put an end to fitting more people into a car than what was intended, and to kids moving around in the back like it was no big deal.
3. Facing physical punishment
Spanking was considered an acceptable form of punishment for children for most of history. In fact, the United States Supreme Court upheld spanking as punishment in schools as constitutional as recently as 1977, so for kids raised in the 1960s-1980s, being spanked was fairly common.
While spanking children at home is still legal in all 50 states, and corporal punishment of children in schools is still legal in 17 of them, the practice began to grow out of favor among parents in the 1990s, when research emerged showing that physical punishments were more likely to result in negative outcomes than positive ones. By 2014, fewer than half of American parents said they spanked their children, and by now only 20% of Gen Z and millennial parents say they do the same, as most now consider the practice highly traumatizing.
4. Babysitting when they were still kids themselves
The official recommendation from the Red Cross is that no one should babysit before age 11, although a child's individual maturity level and babysitting readiness must be taken into account. This wasn’t as much of a concern for people who grew up in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, though.
Even if they didn’t start babysitting for money until they were a bit older, helping out with younger siblings was almost like a normal household chore for them. Obviously kids still babysit now, but the average Gen Alpha 11-year-old probably wouldn’t want to be responsible for a baby without any help for several hours.
5. Going places without a phone
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Younger people can barely stand being far from their phones when they’re just sitting around at home these days, so the thought of actually going places without one on a regular basis would be hard for them to understand. That was just reality for older people when they were kids, though.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that most people actually started carrying around their own cell phones, and they were so different from today's smartphones that some kids would have trouble identifying them if they had to.
Before that, when someone was out with their friends and wanted to check in with their parents, they had to find a payphone, and if they didn't have change on them, they'd have to call collect. You could argue that the near-universal use of phones nowadays adds a layer of security, but kids managed just fine without them. Still, kids of today find that thought terrifying.
6. Getting a job as soon as they could
In the 60s through the 80s, getting a summer job was like a rite of passage. Everyone knew the age that teenagers could start working in their state, and they included it in their plans almost automatically. Plenty of teens held part-time jobs during the school year, too. This allowed them to pay for gas for their cars, their own phones at home if they had them, snacks at school, and going out with their friends.
There aren’t as many teens working now, partly because there aren’t as many opportunities available to them. This has made the concept of having serious responsibilities outside of school feel strange and overwhelming to young people now. They can’t imagine having to start working so young, especially when there is so much stress on them to perform well in school and extracurriculars.
7. Having rules enforced at home and at school
It would be wrong to say that today’s kids don’t have to follow any rules at all, but there does seem to be a difference. Back in the day, both parents and educators seemed stricter. Talking your way out of being tardy or missing curfew wasn’t an option.
Family therapist Susan Parspolo, LMFT, said that it’s very common to see Gen Xers who grew up with authoritative parents want to go easier on their own kids, to the point where many of them have overcorrected. Sometimes rules feel more like guidelines these days, which isn’t always healthy.
8. Cooking their own food
Most people from younger generations grew up with cooking skills that don’t extend far beyond the microwave, and they probably started using food delivery apps when they were pretty young. But it was a different world for their parents, who couldn’t have food other than pizza delivered as easily when they were growing up. They usually learned to start cooking pretty early, which was basically a necessity when they were spending so much time alone.
This would sound like a nightmare to kids now, but there does seem to be wisdom behind the idea. A 2020 study found that kids actually eat more when they help prepare the food. This could set them up for a more well-rounded diet and get them ready to be independent sooner.
9. Writing without spell check
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When they’re writing something for school or work, young people almost always do so on a computer or phone, where they can use spell check and copy and paste direct quotes. This makes research much easier as well, whether they’re doing it manually or using AI.
Unfortunately for older people, word processors didn’t become a common feature on computers until the 1980s and 1990s. Before that, they had to write everything by hand or use a typewriter. That meant they were responsible for getting spelling and grammar right on their own, which also explains why most homes had a physical dictionary.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
