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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What were things that were important to you as a teenager, that no longer are?

93 replies

TooManyAllergies · 07/05/2022 11:33

To me it was having a boyfriend and being thin.
Thought that if I’d had those, everything would be fine šŸ«£šŸ™„

Also artist, actors and bands: had to know everything about them.
Now I can just appreciate their talents, don’t need to know anything about their personal lives.

OP posts:
PeacockPartyTime · 07/05/2022 21:27

Having Kickers shoes.

limitedperiodonly · 07/05/2022 21:47

But when you're a teenager you are convinced everyone is looking at you. I can't have been the only 15-year-old who thought she looked great, tripped over in the street and was so embarrassed she didn't walk down the same way again for at least a week. But when you grow up you realise no one gives a shit.

NewGardenProject · 07/05/2022 21:50

I have boyfriend, and I am thin. But these were definitely also important to me as a teen.

I remember thinking it was important to have an expensive engagement ring/flashy wedding otherwise what was the point whereas now I think the money is better spent elsewhere and the most important thing is loving and committing to each other.

theviscountess · 07/05/2022 21:50

I wrote in a diary as a teenager that the only worthwhile pursuit was being an intellectual.

I still love to know things but I’m not as pretentious anymore, thank god.

NewGardenProject · 07/05/2022 21:51

Oh and designer brands!

I thought buying jimmy choos at 16 made me cool. I wore them once šŸ˜‚

GooglyEyeballs · 07/05/2022 21:52

Having my hair straightened or curled within an inch of its life every day šŸ˜‚
Looking cool
Desperately wanting everyone to really like and accept me
Failed at much of the above šŸ˜‚

Facelikeanormer · 07/05/2022 21:52

What people thought of me. Embarrassingly at one point I had a fictional social life more complex than your average box set, just to avoid saying that I had spent the evening watching TV with my Gran. Now, I would give anything to spend an evening with her again ā¤

CatLadyDrinksGin · 07/05/2022 21:57

genericusername789 · 07/05/2022 12:09

That none of my friends saw my mum shopping in Aldi and/or being sent to school with no brand crisps šŸ˜‚ now I don't shop anywhere else

Dd doesn’t give a shit about aldi crisps in her lunchbox. Would have been social death for me (low income primary).

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 07/05/2022 21:58

Fear of falling down the stairs (specifically the massive concrete flight at the school entrance), and trying to be more popular than I was.

WahWahWahs · 07/05/2022 22:00

LaurieFairyCake · 07/05/2022 16:31

Getting 'fingered' HmmHmmHmm

I literally stopped 'getting fingered' at about 16

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT

šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚

Lovinglife45 · 07/05/2022 22:13

Being popular or liked by the boys - never was

Wanting to be visible - never was unless of course I was the butt of the jokes

Owning Kickers, Bemetton, Naf Naf, Oilily, Nike Air Herachi's - never did and hated own clothes day where the popular pupils would scrutinise your outfits

Age 11 to 16 were the longest and worst five years of my life.

Webbedlife · 07/05/2022 22:20

I wanted to be in a band, so badly. I played bass and guitar, not very well during the post-punk era. I was in a couple of short lived bands. At some point in my early 20s I thought that's it, I'll never be any good/make it and completely stopped playing. Then in my 50s I took up learning to play again, but a different genre and instruments. Suddenly it 'clicked'. Now I've been going a few years and still absolutely love it, play with others and get so much satisfaction and a good social life out of music. So sometimes a teenage passion can come back in a different form.

But all the crushes and other aspects of being a teen? I don't miss that at all.

randomchap · 07/05/2022 22:31

Football

Used to play every day, whether a kick about with mates or a full 11 a side on a Sunday.

Passionately go to my teams matches most weekends, knew all the players etc.

Now, I just follow the results online and the only games I go to are DDs. I feel far more passion for her team than I did supporting my professional league team.

I can't remember the last time I kicked a ball in a match.

Imissmoominmama · 07/05/2022 22:33

A tan and having new clothes every time I went out.

I care about neither now!

JaffaCake70 · 26/02/2023 18:58

Friends.

As a teenager friends were my be all and end all and I had an abundance of them. Now I don't have any and it doesn't bother me at all.

I do have a Husband, two Sons, a dog, a job and a busy life though!

JudgeRinderonTinder · 26/02/2023 19:04

Branded clothes, not designer but decent sports brands etc. Couldn’t care less now, although I always have decent shoes.

Plumbear2 · 26/02/2023 19:34

Having hair looks likes Charlene from neighbours.wanting to go out with the boy who looked like Marti Pellow.

MrsHughesPinny · 26/02/2023 19:38

Being embarrassed about being seen with supermarket own brand food in my lunch box and having shoes from Primark. I was so consumed with shame about those I ate lunch in secret on my way home from school—I was always starving!

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