Giving your kids a 90s childhood

[Curlewwoohoo]

This concept has caught my eye. The algorithm has noticed so of course now keeps showing me idyllic reels along these lines! They commonly feature lots of fresh air, playing out, low screen time. From infants school age I used to play out in the street on bikes, just kids no adults. Junior school age we'd go down the fields or cycle to the library. I really feel my 9yo Dd in particular would be really suited to this lifestyle. But where we live the only kids who play out are the trouble makers! I know it's not all roses, there were lots of times I was very bored! Just wondered if anyone here raises their kids like it's the 90s and how!

My Ds (then 11) did a week in the 80s for charity a couple of years ago. As far as was reasonably possible we recreated my 80s lifestyle for one week - no computers, ipads etc. Landline phone. Library to find out about things. Live TV and no forwarding the ads. Bottle of squash at the park rather than expensive cafe drinks. He was glad to get back to now but he also enjoyed it. I was surprised at just how much the dynamics changed in the house. Everyone was a lot calmer and more creative. Seriously. It's worth trying but i think it could be very difficult to sustain even with some modifications such as having the internet because you can't really do what you need to do without it now (homework etc).

That's a very cool thing to do!

Such a good idea. Think I might try this. I haven’t been able to give my DD a 90s childhood. When she is allowed out, she has to come straight home and the last time she was out a few local boys attacked her friend. It’s such a shame. Growing up you would play out on your own and have a group of cool friends by the evening.

She is allowed at friends houses and that helps with the social side of things.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s and never played out. Lots of time in parks and woods but always with a grown up until secondary school. And had more screen time than my kids do now- we had unlimited access to TV/videos and a SNES console. My kids are both primary school age but so far are having a similar childhood to me.

So you don't mean parenting teens with a bottle of white lightening and a tenner to see them through the weekend? 😁

By 90s I trust you mean 1990s as opposed to 1890s, as that would involve cholera and probably bouts of dysentery? 😩

We have this to an extent although it’s not been a purposeful move to recreate the 90s.
We live on a very quiet cul de sac of 6 houses with a green in the middle and meadows and woods behind. The younger ones play on the green where they can be seen from all the houses and it’s very safe. We often sit on there to have lunch and it’s nice for all the neighbours to sit and chat in the evening sometimes with a glass of wine.
The older ones including our eldest (10) and her mates go onto the meadow and in the woods, in and out of each others gardens and I do think it’s a very idyllic childhood. They have freedom to be outdoors most days and they spend their free time outside with friends either building dens, making and using tyre/rope swings and paddling in the stream. There’s regularly a group of mates in our house / garden and likewise for the friends parents.
Much better than what I had in the 90s as we lived on a huge estate with busy roads.

We moved here a few years ago and it’s been the best thing we’ve ever done.

Luke warm White Lightening from the Spar shop. The maximum units of alcohol you could buy for £1.49.

I’ve seen various things lately about how not allowing kids independence and freedom is contributing to the mental health crisis we are seeing in children and teenagers. They don’t build resilience and self esteem etc.

I don’t know how I’m going to do it (DS isn’t quite three) but I’m going to try my hardest to give him these opportunities when he’s a bit older.

Any suggestions welcome!

I grew up in the 90’s and loved it. Was always out on my bike with friends going to the park, woods, picnics etc, I’m sure from a much younger age than would be acceptable now (though can’t remember what age it was, maybe it just feels like I was young when I was able to do that).
The 90’s were great!

Much more cars on the road now though, definitely not faesible with speed around here to let the kids Judy go off on the bikes unfortunately! Saying that our kids don’t have too different a life to us, I drop one into town with his friends to wander around a bit, we have games nights, the kids write with chalk outside, have bubbles etc. I think life now is just about keeping them away from screens as much as possible really!!( so easy, not!!)

try and get him into a balance bike / scooter, planting flowers, climbing trees with help. I found the more you encourage them to enjoy being outside, the more it becomes their default. My kids usually come down and go onto the garden instead of onto the sofa for the tv. Obviously it doesn’t always happen but try not to encourage them to have favourite characters and things like that. The amount of babies I’ve seen who “love” coco melon or peppa pig at 1 is huge.
they can’t miss what they don’t know!

I was 10-20 in the 90s
My.memories are very different to the idyllic version put forth.

Video games, videos from blockbuster, etc. screen time was more than now.
In the middle 90s, dial up was a thing. The internet blew our minds and we thought we were all hackers like in that 1995 movie about Hackers that I can't remember the name of...
Then y2k came around, sat online at midnight smoking Lambert and Butler and drinking 20/20 waiting to see if the world went wrong. I was in an Yahoo chat room, chatting to people from all over the world, nothing happened.

I think looking back on just one version of the 90s is ignoring millions of people who didn't have that same experience.

Binge drinking and hangovers
Ladette culture
One hit wonders of plastic pop

It wasn't the utopia some remember it as...

But I'd still go back if I could. 🤪🤣

My kids had a nice outdoorsy childhood. We live in the countryside and our house has a lot of land which made it easier. Lots of bike riding, den building, playing in streams, etc. My kids were were age appropriately supervised though as opposed to being feral, kicked out at 9 am and told not to come home til it’s dark, which which was my 80s/90s childhood. That was the age of neglectful parenting ime.

My kids had screen time too.

@TribeofFfive yep he’s got a bike and a scooter. I follow an insta account called #1000hoursoutside and we try to get him out as much as possible - playing football and with his sandpit in the garden, he does a lot of gardening with my mum, that sort of thing. Go to forest school sessions when we can and go camping. Camping is great as we go with friends whose kids are older and they take him off with them a little bit (not far and within reason, but it gives him that bit of independence). It’s all much easier now the weathers better and he’s that little bit older!

I’d love to move somewhere like a PP described where kids can play out so will have to make that a consideration if we move house!

The 90s weren't any better, with the exception of no smartphones.

There were so many issues with unsupervised playing out, I think you're looking back with rose tinted glasses.

Low screen time? I was basically raised by Cartoon Network 😂

I do play Crash Bandicoot with my daughter, does that count as replicating a 90s childhood?

My nieces were 90's kids and I always thought their upbringing seemed so restricted compared to my 70's childhood. My kids were born in 2005 and 2008 and the saddest thing for me to see is how much more stressful and pressured school life is compared to when I was at school.

I make sure that my children are surrounded by a permanent miasma of cigarette smoke, regularly eat junk food and microwaved frozen meals, are exposed to casual racism, sexism and homophobia, particularly from their teachers, sports coaches etcl, turn a blind eye when family friends sexually harass my daughter and tell them not to snitch if they are being bullied because it will only make things worse. I also always bring them with me to weddings.

🤣🤣🤣

Oh, you could leave them in the car when you do the big shop each Saturday, only cracking the window a bit if you remember.

erm I had a 90’s childhood. Nobody played outside and wandered off to play,

I think the best part was the freedoms of the times pre the advent of the mainstream internet and the online world. There absolutely is a correlation between the explosion of MH issues and social media. The fact that weird algorithms keep you sucked in and glued to a screen for hours every day. How we live now is just not healthy for body or mind.

And guess what they were saying in the 90s? 'Why can't we go back to only three channels and no daytime TV (other than racing) and kids playing out till supper time and mums at home and living well on one salary...