Reviving the Nostalgic Essentials: Bringing Back the Must-Haves from Our Childhood for Today’s Kids

You know, there are some Reddit feeds out there that really show you the difference between the generations. We’ve all heard the stories from our parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents about walking a mile to school in the snow both ways or having to support their families at the age of 10 by working two jobs…blah, blah, blah.

But one of the most recent threads we came across really shows the difference! One redditor asked the question: What did your generation have that kids need more of today? 

Here are 8 things kids need more of today! 

Privacy

One Redditor said: “Privacy..from the moment they’re all born their pics, good, bad and embarrassing moments are put on socials – it’s insane to me.”

Less Influence

Several Redditors agreed that YouTubers had more involvement in my childhood emotional growth than my own parents.

Snow Days

Another Reddit answered: “With the weather, snow days. Yes, online classes are now a thing but something about nostalgia and waking up finding out school is cancelled because of snow day. Go out sledding with friends, building snow forts and snow balls, and watching a movie with hot chocolate.”

Independence and Freedom

Many Redditors: I’d say freedom and independence. Freedom to get hurt, make a dumb decision, learn from it, problem solve on your own, make plans with your buddies. My childhood memories are like adventures. From sunrise to street lights the world felt like it was ours. Just completely disconnected and unplugged from the world.

Unstructured Playtime

 
What Redditors are saying: “Yes! This was my favorite part of being a kid. There were 10-12 kids within a 6 year age range on my street and we’d all be out playing between multiple blocks, houses, forests. Our parents would just yell or whistle from the porch at dinner time, and sometimes we’d go back out again after!” 

Another added, “Beyond playing and having fun, being unsupervised and big kids amongst little kids provides so much mental enrichment that kids dont get sitting in front of a screen being constantly tended. Problem solving, imagination, cooperation, taking care of each other, sharing, working things out, navigation, self-awareness… on and on

Being Bored

Several Redditors agreed: I feel like kids have no tolerance for “boredom”. I try to tell the youngins to let their minds wander and allow thoughts to flow, but they feel compelled to stuff every moment with games or videos. They’re not even enjoying music anymore. It’s all, “Can I play this song? It’s from a meme.” And they change the song before it’s over because there’s less appreciation for composition anymore.

Outdoor Activities 

On Redditor said: “They don’t know how to roller blade, scooter, barely ride a bike. All the do is look down and lack vitamin D.”

Accountability 

What Redditors are saying:
“Accountability! Especially in schools. In my district they think it’s unfair to the children and can hurt a child’s self esteem if they’re held back in school. So, even if they never do a single assignment, flunk every class, and learn nothing they advance to the next grade. Because of this I have 6th graders who don’t know how to spell anything, don’t know punctuation, have no idea what to do with commas, and have no clue that they need to capitalize the first letter of a sentence.” 

“They don’t know how to write a paragraph. They are disrespectful to teachers and just don’t care because it doesn’t matter if they flunk. It is just sad.”

Do you feel like your kids need any of these 8 things a little bit more? 

Image credit: Depositphotos – juice_team

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