To not understand this how to have a 90s summer trend.

[FiendsandFairies]

An article I was reading linked to all these TikTok videos of US and UK posters talking about the loss of and how to recreate a 90s summer.

It’s probably because I was a young adult in the 90s and my DCs are now late teens and more independent, but I was surprised at the huge distinction they were implying.

One guy, link below, described a 90s summer as a day of basically waking up hearing bird song, watching some TV after breakfast, then going on his bike to the park to meet friends, getting ice-cream, maybe having a hose fight if really hot, then ending up at a friends house playing a computer game and then home for food, more TV and bed.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNdBrkm5s/

I really thought this sort of stuff carried on nowadays, but obviously with TV likely replaced by a phone or device. Am I wrong?

Depends on the age of the kids at the time, but I was allowed to go off all day with friends into the fields near my house aged about 6/7 and used to get the bus into town age 10. I can't imagine letting my DS do either of those at that age.

I see teenagers about though and they are doing exactly what we used to do. Hanging about the shops!

Also - a lot more households have 2 working parents now so kids are in holiday clubs.

I agree with you OP. My 15 year old is talking about his summer and his plans basically involve meeting his friends, playing football and cricket, going on bike rides etc. Plus a 2-week family holiday in Europe. He'll spend time on a device obviously but he's not a massive gamer. Maybe he's unusual but his friends seem to be the same.

Although I do agree with @Jobsworth7 that it's different for younger kids and they have less freedom than we used to.

my ds1 does enjoy 90’s style days, but most of his friends seem to need to be doing activities that cost. Local shopping centre, lunch in the food hall, indoor skate parks. The outdoors stuff has been far and few between recently. One evening a few weeks ago he went to the park next to our house and was there all evening. There were 30/40 kids milling about playing football and generally hanging out. He came home like a different kid. He really enjoyed it. I wish I could push him to do more of that. Fingers crossed for the summer.
Youngest is a different creature altogether. Once every few weeks he will venture out to play out with friends outside and even then he has to be persuaded with a McDonalds!

I've seen these and feel it's very much a US based memory - the photos all seem to be kids on bikes in front of huge houses with lawns, no cars, wide streets. Like a stereotypical American 80s movie. I don't think that's most people's lived experience.

I grew up in a small town just north of London and I definitely wasn't allowed to cycle around with my mates under 10. It wouldn't have been safe at all. I spent most of my summer in the garden on my own, with occasional playdates and two weeks in Cornwall.

ETA - from about 12, yes we did cycle round each others' houses and hang out in the park. But that's normal for teenagers and I see kids doing that now in the park behind our house. They don't even seem to have the huge bottles of cider we started drinking from about 14 😂

@Dave57 and @LavenderBlue19 I think you’ve distilled it.

In the UK the change is probably due to consumer culture taking over. In the US it’s probably that most adults now will never be able to afford the big detached houses in cul de sacs that seem to be described in the videos.

Yes @LavenderBlue19 I keep seeing posts on social media about little kids in the 90s being allowed to go out on their own on bikes and I feel like I missed out because I was never allowed to do this until I was about 12 and even then I wasn’t allowed to disappear all day. I grew up near Liverpool and I remember my friends being allowed to go to the park, shops etc but definitely not spend all day out without parents knowing where we were until we were at least 14 or so. Then at 16 they let us go to a festival in another country (no phones obviously!) which I don’t think many teens would do now 😁

It's nostalgia.

And 90s nostalgia is the trend on social media these days. Probably because people who lived through it are now middle aged and middle age can be a difficult time, or in the modern age, at least a time where youth is very definitely over so people look back fondly.

Kids tv was still on in the morning during school holidays in the 90s so that bit tracks. But I think kids going off doing their own thing had greatly reduced by then, I volunteered at holiday clubs during the late 90s when home from uni and kids were driven in and had loads more structure than I had a couple of years before, when I would have walked myself to a playscheme a couple of days but mostly done my own thing.