Things now, that 90's kid would have mocked?

[H202too]

This is light hearted. Working in a school it is interesting to see how trends change. Sure some of this is regional, but what things do kids do now that just wasn't the done thing in the nineties?
I have noticed

1. Double strappers. This was so uncool at the time. I am sure I still get shoulder pain now from carrying mountains of books on one shoulder. Single strap now is a bad thing. ( Good!)

2. The star spot patches. Some kids wear about 6. Not seen any adults do this yet.

3. Boys with massive brushes in their pockets which they whip out and swish their fringe. They even borrow each others and swish each others fringe. It is actually quite cute. My mind chuckles when I think of the 90s boys spiking their hair with pointy hair gel. But absolutely no to carrying a brush about.

4. Water bottles. I once got in trouble for taking a drink from my water in 1998 in a lecture. In 1991 it just wouldn't have been a thing to have a watsr bottle.

I am sure there is more. AIBU to think most new trends are probably better but to miss the 90s nostalgia.

Kids of today would rip us for backing our books in wrapping paper.

I lived with a girl from Gateshead at uni in 1996 and she used that word. This was before the word 'chav' (which I presume was originally a regional word too) made its way into today's parlance.

She always used it to describe girls from her old school with the scraped back hair with the loose bits, chunky heeled Kickers, 3 scrunchies in their ponytail etc. It was never a comment on their perceived social class, just their style of dress.

Ahh in the late 90’s we all wanted those blow up / inflatable chairs for Xmas and possibly a lava lamp

I do wonder what the effect is now of never exercising that particular brain function.

I read a really interesting study that showed how young people’s brains have changed since the internet. They don’t have any problem solving skills anymore because they don’t need them. It’s rare that they ever need to work something out. There’s a YouTube tutorial for any given predicament, or they can ask Google or AI. It’s fascinating really. They never need to retain information because it’s always there at their finger tips if and when they need it.

Another vote for sliders and socks; or indeed, sliders at all. I was watching a 90s TV show Incredible Games recently, and it's notable that the children wear Converse trainers just before going swimming; now, it would be sliders.

In some cases, socks with trainers in summer. Lots of us went sockless in our trainers at the first hint of warm weather!

Hoodies, as well. They hadn't yet become the way for teenagers to keep their faces hidden.

Wearing ankle flapper jeans/trousers

halfies 🤣

Being single, childfree or celibate. I was a teen in the 1990s, and even then there was still this assumption that you would marry and have kids, and that if you didn’t you were a loser, or failure, or ‘left on the shelf’ (as my dad used to put it). A single, childless woman over 30 was still pitied. I have noticed a big change in the last ten years. Young people seem far less interested in sex or romance or children and more focussed on career, money and travel. Good on them I say.

Also, not drinking alcohol. God, when I was at my sixth form in the mid-90s all anyone ever talked about was how drunk they’d got at the weekend. My cousin’s son (20) recently told me he has never drunk alcohol in his life. Back in the ‘90s he’d have been mocked. Again, good on him.

Can you give the name of your hoover ? Sounds like it would eat mine for breakfast.
My shark has a the suction power of a goldfish

I plucked my lovely bushy brows in the 90s thanks to peer pressure

Omg that's brought back a memory as I remember us saying that too in 90s Northern England. Also no idea what it meant or originated from.

Absolutely this!! I can’t, just can’t take a mullet seriously. 90s kids would have rather died rather than wear a mullet

The hair superglued down so tight with hairspray to girls scalps and pulled back so harsh it could almost be a face lift.

Not one I ever did myself but there were lots of them at my school!

And sitting on a park in the dark and cold to get that drunk on the cheapest largest bottle of cider or lambrini money could buy

So many!

My DD will go to school knowing there’s a ladder in her tights!

socks over tights
knee high socks
tying laces
socks with sandals
charity shops
being good with computers
being able to type
braces
hair in a bun
having your bra strap showing
clip on earrings
vpl
stray eyebrow hairs
being seen with sanitary products in your bag
eating a salad or sushi for lunch
beige clothes
wearing sunscreen
fake lashes
reading books for pleasure

High-waisted mom jeans were very literally what your mum wore in the 90s and it would have been social death if you'd worn a pair on non-uniform day. Double bullying points if they were made from very pale blue denim. Similarly, tucking your top into your trousers was absolutely Not Done.

Echoing the mention of facial hair and mullets, especially with shaved sides. I think it looks ludicrous, all these young men going around looking like 70s rednecks.

As others have said, one of the things I remember from school in the 90s is that being called gay was like being singled out for having the plague. Very much not a good thing!

And now, it's the polar opposite. I could not have imagined that back in the day.

Every time I see someone in a grey tracksuit I just think of prison.

High waisted jeans that showed ankle was a crime like no other in the late 90’s/early 2000’s. If the bottom of your jeans weren’t frayed from being stepped on and soaking from puddles then what even was the point in jeans?!?

Yes leggings full stop. I find it hard to believe how much society has changed now that it is apparently acceptable to wear leggings with a short top with no fear of being ridiculed for being too fat, too thin, non flat stomach so must be pregnant, visible crotch, visible underwear, groping by boys etc etc.

Anyone dressing like that in the 1990s would have suffered all that constantly.

Oh god yes I was bullied mercilessly because my jeans were usually an inch too short because they were much shorter then and 'only just long enough' was the best I could hope for.

It's taking a lot of getting used to that I don't even need long length jeans any more, regular is fine.

Haha, just the Red Henry which I was stupid enough to push under the armchair (too lazy to move it).

Double strappers, definitely.
Also the sock thing (even without leggings) just pulling them up in general. 90s we used trainer socks of lacking those, fold over your normal socks so you can’t see them.
we had a stint of never tying our trainers back in the 90s too, tuck the excess in and not be on show or just have a very little bit with the aglet dangling out.

Claw clips in girls' hair. They was for old women when I was at school.

Carrier bags for PE were ranked, coolest to would rather get detention for not having kit:

• Morgan
• Jane Norman
• River Island
• Topshop
• Next
• Bay Trading
• New Look
• Sainsbury's/Tesco
• Asda/Morrisons
• KwikSave/Aldi/Lidl

White sports socks pulled up, especially wearing them with a dress.

I’m a younger millennial and have worn them to the office (on a no meetings day) after coming up in terrible spots on an allergic reaction. It was look stupid but have my skin healed quicker or look like a small pox victim.

Looking back, I’m not sure people enjoyed it as much as they pretended to. Sex and alcohol were the twin peaks of life as a ‘90s teen. They were things you were expected to do again and again and really, really enjoy. If you didn’t, you were a sad loser.

When I look back over my life, sex and alcohol would be way down the list of things that have brought me happiness. Books, art, nature, dogs, travel, friendship, meditation, yoga, even bird watching have brought me much more joy than sex or relationships or alcohol ever did. Like so many teens, I pretended to enjoy going out far more than I really did. Truth is, I often hated it. The great thing about getting older is I no longer need to pretend. I can take my dogs for a walk in the woods, watch the spring arrive, read Dickens and P. G. Wodehouse, and no one cares. Bliss.