What was a 2000s childhood like?

[Moresleeppleaaase]

Was talking with my dh the other day about childhood throughout the decades and I was thinking that childhoods in the 70s, 80s, 90s etc are looked upon quite nostalgically and I've seen quite a lot of threads on here with people having similar childhood experiences of those times and remembering all the things they liked to do when they were kids. It got me thinking that I don't really know anything about childhood in the 2000s. I was born in 1979 so was in my 20s in the 2000s and didn't really spend any time with kids as I didn't have much family or any friends who had kids then. My dcs were born in 2015 and 2017 so it was a while after the 2000s had ended. Was just interested if either you were a kid in the 00's or your dc were kids then, what was it like to be a kid and what was popular (like foods, toys and what were popular things to do etc) and was it a good time to be growing up.

I was born in the early 90's and definitely went to soft play a lot when i was a young child. (I don't remember but there's photos of me having fun at soft play)

So not a new concept really.

My eldest was born in 2005.
I didn't have a smart phone and we didn't have any on demand or streaming TV when he was very little so his baby photos were all taken on a digital camera and he watched Milkshake on C4 or 5? and CBeebies.
His favourites were In the Night Garden, Peppa Pig and a cooking programme with someone called Katie...can't remember the name.
He also didn't have an iPad or anything like that, but we got a family one when he was about 7 and he was obsessed with it. His first console was a Wii and we all played Wii sports together.
Other than the availability of on-demand tech and entertainment, I don't think much else was very different from now in terms of what we did with our time, what he played with etc.

I was 14 in the year 2000, it was great! Lots of wandering around Camden market and much easier to get into pubs then and generally get people to buy you alcohol!

My hair was the bane of my existence, I had these straightening irons by Braun and they contained an actual gas canister I think! As soon as I left the house my hair was ruined 😅

Turned 14 in the year 2000. Some random memories - tammy girl, groovy chick, going in the train to gigs at Brixton academy and London Astoria wearing baggy jeans and band hoodies. Going to Camden market on the train to buy said band hoodies, hair mascara, yea to PP about getting into clubs more easily - remember going to a club in town and drinking watermelon flavour Bacardi breezes - but seeing some ‘cool girls’ from my class in there and being blanked by them 🙈. MSN messenger being the only form of ‘social media’ and everyone having long lyrics from emo songs as their user names…big brother…and there must be loads more I’ve forgotten. Trainers with colourful laces!

Dick and dom in da bungalow!
Bloody high school musical and singing that around school.

My kids were born between 1999 and 2005. Agree with others not much different to kids today. My played out with kids in the street. Lots of great kids TV like Postman Pat and thomas the tank engine and Bob the builder. My boys were obsessed with a wooden Thomas the tank engine track and all the engines and stations, it took up the whole living room. Weekends were sometimes spent at a local huge play area with mini rides. We'd take a picnic to keep costs down, we'd do activities on a local steam train line, holidays at Haven sites as they were cheap or Butlins. I would say similar to a lot of the things kids today do.

2007 for my eldest, and the biggest difference between then and his youngest sibling is the smart phone.
I read a lot when feeding the oldest as a baby. Littlest, I was scrolling on a phone.

ETA that's more about my experience than theirs as children though obviously!

Well I was a child in the 80s and 90s. Some of this sounds like my childhood.

Maybe we've all been much if a muchness in a relatively peaceful and prosperous time. I think technology has increased its stranglehold but its not like boys being into computers didn't exist in 1992.

Softplay wasn't invented in 2000. Its grown in popularity as has parents having ever more money to spend on their dc.

Social media has grown in influence. Think about adults getting into Facebook and chat rooms since 2000. This trickled down to kids a bit later.

I'd say the 2000s were a perfect time to grow up. Just enough technology to have fun, not enough that it is all consuming stopping kids from being kids.

The 80s and the 90s were pretty amazing too. I don't know if the teens and 20s are worse per se.

Kids born in 04 and 06.
You had to wait till 6 in the morning for kids Tv to start.

you were either a Gina Ford supernanny type of parent or a baby wearer. Nothing in between.

i had a clam shell flip phone which was just calls and messages. I had a camera with film initially and then went onto a digital. I would get prints done in an hour while I did the Tesco shopping- no deliveries then.

I looked at houses in the newspaper.

did the same sort of activities as I did 10 years later with my youngest though!

Yep, no soft play or anything when I was little. The ‘fun’ revolves around some cobbled together activity while the adults were drinking, as far as I remember

Having turkey twizzlers for school dinners until Jamie Oliver banned them. 🤣

DD born 2006 and DS born 2009 and I feel they had very different childhoods (obv covid played a part).

I feel like DD was the last group of kids who played in the street and hung out safely in the park until dusk. She still barely fills her time with social media and goes to lots of clubs/activities instead.

DS is very much a screen generation, doing his socialising through online gaming and chats. He'll get home late from school, hanging out or playing football on the way but once he's in that's it.

In terms of family stuff, we did things like castles, NT, farms perhaps monthly and ate out quite a lot. All those things seem too expensive now.

Toys here were Fifi and the flowertots, Ben and Holly, Bob the Builder, Lego. Both still quite into marvel now as well.

Early 00s there was just a few hours of kids TV till the CBeebies channel was launched.
I suppose with soft play it became more child focused, so there were Wacky Warehouses attached to pubs before, but the soft play centres were all about the play.

There were parenting forums but less sophisticated.

Thank you all for your replies- they're really interesting to read! It seems a bit like there's quite a few common features between 90s and 2000s childhoods- suppose with technology just developing and being fun but not quite at a point where it took over kids lives!

My whole childhood in the early 00s was sleepovers almost every weekend

Bowling, roller disco or cinema on Saturdays

Being traipsed around DFS/Curry's/PC World/Macro on Sundays

Street water fights every day in summer

And knocking on every kids front door after tea on weekdays to ask if they were playing out, with the group gradually getting bigger at each door

I was born in early 1989. I got Spice Girls tickets for my 12th birthday and we went in my dad's Rover with a weird blue thing at the top of the windscreen. Was it to block out the sun or something?

We used to play out in our cul de sac for hours and watch loads of TV - mostly cartoons like Scooby Doo and also Round the Twist and The Queen's Nose. Findus Crispy Pancakes were a staple. There was a weird phase of Iceland doing foods that tasted like other foods eg chocolate carrots and the Heinz did blue ketchup for a bit.

My "boyfriend" and I bought each other the exact same Bang on the Door Valentine's card. We used to go to the cinema sometimes from aged 10/11ish.

My mum used to shop in Etam and BHS and once we tried "par-baked petit pains" with Heinz tomato soup after my brothers played football and it felt very exotic.

I had MSN messenger and got my first phone at the start of Year 7. O2 started doing their offer when if you topped up £10 a month you got 300 free texts. My best friend wasn't allowed to have a bath when she was on her period.

All in all a very happy childhood but a weird mix of old-fashioned and modern.

And "Days out" To DFS (mum got a free.glass of Cava) or SCS / Oak Furniture land (had a facepainter)

My dd was a millenium baby I remember

Balamory
Tweenies
Teletubbies
Hannah Montana
High school musical
The colour fairy books
Girls aloud
The Saturdays
Johnny bravo
Phineus and ferb
Furbys

My children born in mid 90s and youngest 2000. Two oldest definitely glad that they just about missed SM as teenagers ,apart from Beebo and MSN .
They had freedom that kids don’t seem to have these days. Out with friends as teenagers and I was never worried about them.
Poor MaddyMcCann disappearing , think changed how many people parented.
Yes people did leave their children in bed with listening service or regular checks . A child being snatched was not on anyone’s radar inc us.
My youngest is now 24 and he still had a lot more freedom than his friends because he had seen that his siblings freedom had been appreciated. He did have mobile phone when out and about.
Luckily all three of mine were sensible,particularly the youngest.
Groovy chick,S Club ,Claire’s Accessories,Scooters,NewComputer with sims games ,No baby monitor,baby / toddlers all slept in own beds ,MacDonalds parties etc.Very different from how it is now. Some good and some not so good!

I was a child in the 2000’s. I was born in 1995 turning 29 this year. I remember it fondly but it seemed to flip after 2012.

Pre 2012, I remember girl talk magazine, playing habbo hotel, watching Disney channel a lot and I used to download ringtones from the back of my magazines. I had a little pink Motorola flip phone. We had a dial up internet and used to download music illegally (cheeky) on Limewire. I had posters of the Jonas Brothers, and Twilight. I also remember snow days (midlands) and waiting by the radio to hear if my school was closed

After 2012, social media definitely became more of a thing and there was a lot of Blackberry phones and messaging. People started to grow up earlier

Born in 1996.
Turkey twizzlers, Tracey beaker, Hannah Montana, bratz dolls, groovy chick is what first comes to my mind.

My childhood memories are like a summer haze, playing out, knocking on for my friend across the road and playing round at each others houses. Water flights, paddling pools, Wendy houses, swings and slides. We'd polish the slide with furniture polish to make it more slidey.

Then over winter we'd spend more time inside, more telly, I had a PS1, which hooked up to a dance mat, and later a Nintendo Wii. I loved my Nintendo DS as a tween, I'd play nintendogs and animal crossing.

My parents weren't really activity people, but I'd go to wacky warehouse and bowling parties of weekends. My clothes were bought from next, matalan and tammy girl. I remember my mum making me get up in the dark to queue up for the next sale.

I was early teens in 2000 and it was great! Sleepovers watching Big Brother and brilliant chick flicks. Saturdays spent 'going into town' which meant cheap Mcds lunch with a bus ticket offer then wandering round Boots trying make up testers! Best clothes shops were New Look, MK one and C&A. Got my first Nokia phone and spent many happy hours playing snake!

Daring each other to buy cigarettes as age was 16 then. Ten Richmond superkings for £1.99! It was a very innocent time but watching 9/11 events on the news at the time was sobering and shocking. It was the first time I was aware of 'breaking news' and all channels showing the same thing

I'm trying to think as my DC were born in 2000s.
Cbeebies on a 4 hour loop- whenever we came home it always was showing the same program! Tweenies and teletubbies , bob the builder, maisy mouse were big early 00s but time youngest was born it was Peppa pig and Ben and Holly.
Puppy in my pocket, secret diaries, spy sets, furbies, ipods, go go hamsters, fur real pets, metal TP swingsets and climbing frames with tents in blue and red.
Sleepovers and lots of birthday parties in village halls with children's entertainers.
Dressed head to foot in mini boden.
Holidays in self catering cottages or eurocamp.
In car dvd players either screen strapped to front headrests.
Never ending after school activities like Swimming lessons, horse riding, gym club.

Oh and Clarks shoes with toys under the sole!