Were the 80s the best decade to be a child?

decides2dream

whatEVER decade *you* were a child....was the BEST decade to BE a child. it's far too subjective to choose a BEST really...especially since you're only a child once, and your pespective vastly changes with age....and thus, you have no idea what it's like to be a child and experience all that at any other time period than your own.


all i do know about the 80s was that it was a great time for me to be a teen. good times!

BlackCorduroy

Not saying it was the best, but I quite enjoyed the 90s actually. It was JUST before video games and computers took over.
I would probably pick the 70s though, I would have loved playing outside and biking everywhere with no fear of kidnapping.

Or the 50s, cause that would make me a teen in the 60s:D

acoustic guy

dissidentman wrote:

I challenge you to find any pair of pants from any generation cooler than parachute pants...

http://parachutepants.stores.yahoo.net/

'nuff said.

HOLY SHIT! Swear to GOD!! I had those exact pants! They black with the gray zippers! Those exact ones!!! I was in like fifth grade or something.
Funny as hell

myhook

BlackCorduroy wrote:

Not saying it was the best, but I quite enjoyed the 90s actually.

I graduated high school in 1995 so I had a good 5 years of "youth" in the 90's. And even in high school we still did things outside. The only way we got around was by skateboard or bike. We played home run derby, football, street hockey or go in someones pool. I mean we had video games and loved them but we still did a good amount of outside things. But when I was in HS there was no such thing as "the internet". We had to go to the library and take out books and know the dewy decimal system. Plus we had word processors and type writers (god I sound old). No one had email, texting, instant messages or cell phones....we all had pagers. And the funny thing is we had to talk to each other and look a person in the face when we spoke to them. I work in a high school so I see it all the time, the kids of today are so used to texting and chatting that when you try to have a conversation with them it is hard for them. I know that sounds crazy but I see it every day. Kids don't respect their teachers, they don't say good morning or hello when you walk past them. I don't know when this all started but it is totally different from when I grew up in the 80's - early 90's.

he still stands

Yes

GreenTeaDisease

South of Seattle wrote:

Plus we didn't have to wear helmets to bike to our neighbors yard.

hahahaha we also didn't have to wear sun screen to go to the mailbox or ride in carseats until the age of 9.

acoustic guy

myhook wrote:

I graduated high school in 1995 so I had a good 5 years of "youth" in the 90's. And even in high school we still did things outside. The only way we got around was by skateboard or bike. We played home run derby, football, street hockey or go in someones pool. I mean we had video games and loved them but we still did a good amount of outside things. But when I was in HS there was no such thing as "the internet". We had to go to the library and take out books and know the dewy decimal system. Plus we had word processors and type writers (god I sound old). No one had email, texting, instant messages or cell phones....we all had pagers. And the funny thing is we had to talk to each other and look a person in the face when we spoke to them. I work in a high school so I see it all the time, the kids of today are so used to texting and chatting that when you try to have a conversation with them it is hard for them. I know that sounds crazy but I see it every day. Kids don't respect their teachers, they don't say good morning or hello when you walk past them. I don't know when this all started but it is totally different from when I grew up in the 80's - early 90's.

100% agree. I graduated in 93'.
Kids are way different now. Before I started my business I used to be a Food and Beverage Director at a Golf Club. We had a sweet 16 party and the kids were so rude. The one kid was way out of line so I tried talking to him and he told me to go fuck myself! Now I am in pretty good shape and I can be very intimidating when I want to be and this kid could give to shits about respect for me or the Club.
Early 90's were great too......Pearl Jam!!
I was into the Doors the Dead and such back then though.

Get_Right

I dunno, 70s might have been better

Something tells me college before AIDS and raising the drinking age to 21 must have been some kinda fun

And think about the concerts in the 70s!

acoustic guy

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

hahahaha we also didn't have to wear sun screen to go to the mailbox or ride in carseats until the age of 9.

LOL yea.

GreenTeaDisease

Get_Right wrote:

I dunno, 70s might have been better

Something tells me college before AIDS and raising the drinking age to 21 must have been some kinda fun

And think about the concerts in the 70s!

I think the post was more about *kids* like elementary school/preteen.

acoustic guy

Oh man remember Pudding Pops!
I used to love them. The icy slab on the side of it and you would scrape it off with your teeth.
Good Times;)

myhook

acoustic guy wrote:

100% agree. I graduated in 93'.
Kids are way different now. Before I started my business I used to be a Food and Beverage Director at a Golf Club. We had a sweet 16 party and the kids were so rude. The one kid was way out of line so I tried talking to him and he told me to go fuck myself! Now I am in pretty good shape and I can be very intimidating when I want to be and this kid could give to shits about respect for me or the Club.
Early 90's were great too......Pearl Jam!!
I was into the Doors the Dead and such back then though.

WOW, that kids got some balls. But I hear ya. The crazy thing is, and I have seen it 100 times, a kid will curse off a teacher and the principal will call the parents in and the parents are just as rude if not worse than the kid. It is disturbing.

I have a crazy feeling though that things will start to go back to "normal" soon though. I don't have any kids yet but my generation of friends that are parents are all sick of the way things are going and we all would like to think that we won't raise our kids to be like that.

acoustic guy

myhook wrote:

WOW, that kids got some balls. But I hear ya. The crazy thing is, and I have seen it 100 times, a kid will curse off a teacher and the principal will call the parents in and the parents are just as rude if not worse than the kid. It is disturbing.

I have a crazy feeling though that things will start to go back to "normal" soon though. I don't have any kids yet but my generation of friends that are parents are all sick of the way things are going and we all would like to think that we won't raise our kids to be like that.

Totally agree, my friends and I have talked about it aswell and we all have kids and want them to live the way we did.

Ha, what about this new shit where everyone wins in the game, there are no winners or loosers. WTF? How is a child going to learn about competition?

myhook

acoustic guy wrote:

Ha, what about this new shit where everyone wins in the game, there are no winners or loosers. WTF? How is a child going to learn about competition?

Oh man that drives me nuts. How will these kids learn that life is not fair? The Yankees don't win every game, the president doesn't win every election. No one wins everything.

Quick story:
I was at my 6 year old cousins baseball game and they won 7-3. But they didn't keep score (I did). So after the game we are all walking home and my cousin says, I think we won that game and a father of some other boy said "Now Alex, both teams played very hard and both teams tried their best and both teams won the game". And my cousin came back with such a great answer. He said "but didn't our team touch home plate more than them?"

acoustic guy

myhook wrote:

Oh man that drives me nuts. How will these kids learn that life is not fair? The Yankees don't win every game, the president doesn't win every election. No one wins everything.

Quick story:
I was at my 6 year old cousins baseball game and they won 7-3. But they didn't keep score (I did). So after the game we are all walking home and my cousin says, I think we won that game and a father of some other boy said "Now Alex, both teams played very hard and both teams tried their best and both teams won the game". And my cousin came back with such a great answer. He said "but didn't our team touch home plate more than them?"

Beautiful answer kid!
How can the father raise his children like that? I just don't get it. When they are older the will go looking for jobs or careers and they will expect it to be handed to them. Its awfull.

GreenTeaDisease

myhook wrote:

Oh man that drives me nuts. How will these kids learn that life is not fair? The Yankees don't win every game, the president doesn't win every election. No one wins everything.

Quick story:
I was at my 6 year old cousins baseball game and they won 7-3. But they didn't keep score (I did). So after the game we are all walking home and my cousin says, I think we won that game and a father of some other boy said "Now Alex, both teams played very hard and both teams tried their best and both teams won the game". And my cousin came back with such a great answer. He said "but didn't our team touch home plate more than them?"

when I here about stuff like this I have to wonder what the incentive is for the kids to play hard. Like why do they think they are out there? like this whole thing is trying to tell kids to try their best, but what's the incentive for them to do so?

GreenTeaDisease

myhook wrote:

WOW, that kids got some balls. But I hear ya. The crazy thing is, and I have seen it 100 times, a kid will curse off a teacher and the principal will call the parents in and the parents are just as rude if not worse than the kid. It is disturbing.

yeah I have friends who are elementary school teachers and the stories they tells are unbelievable. they say the parents always take the kid's side. the kid does poorly in school or gets into trouble, it's the teacher's fault. I don't know if it was universal, but whenever I went home and used "the teacher hates me" as an excuse, my parents wouldn't stand for it. they'd go in and talk to the teacher if there was a problem, sure, but they usually took the adult's word over the kid's. Alsoa lot of parents are apparently proud of their kids if they're making out with their girlfriend/boyfriend at age 9 or they're proud if the kid is known as the bully. I mean what is up with all this?

AllNiteThing

decides2dream wrote:

whatEVER decade *you* were a child....was the BEST decade to BE a child. it's far too subjective to choose a BEST really...especially since you're only a child once, and your pespective vastly changes with age....and thus, you have no idea what it's like to be a child and experience all that at any other time period than your own.

So how were the 40's anyways?

Jeremy1012

Despite being born in 88, a lot of the 80s carried over into the childhood I remember for me. I had the atari, then the NES, SNES and so on, I grew up with the Karate Kid, Back to the Future etc. I remember playing the Nes in about 1991. One of my earliest memories.

Brain of J.Lo

GreenTeaDisease wrote:

yeah I have friends who are elementary school teachers and the stories they tells are unbelievable. they say the parents always take the kid's side.

My dad worked in education from the early 60s until 1997 and this was the biggest change he saw over the span of his career. When he started, parents were supportive of teachers/administrators where grades and discipline were concerned, but by the time he retired, the parent would take the kids side more often than not. Personally, I think that is one of the biggest reasons our education system is failing.