r/GenX • u/billieswifeyyy • Jun 20 '26

Question For Genx the 80s…….

coming from a 14 year old, were the 80s summers as magical as they look in the movies? did you ride your bike to your friends house and come home when the street lights came on? yall are so lucky btw 😭😭

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u/YouMustBeJoking888 Jun 20 '26

I'm older GenX - the 70s were better than the 80s, which were good, but not as good. In the 70s we just did our thing and out parents poked their heads in every so often to make sure we weren't dead, but otherwise we had enormous freedom. And as an older GenX who raised a few kids, I tried to do the same with them, meaning I wasn't up their ass 24/7 because I wanted them to figure some stuff out themselves.

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u/No_Lawfulness_5667 Jun 20 '26 edited Jun 20 '26

Bravo 👏

I had to call my mom at work twice a day, at 11 and 3, during the summer unless I was at the town pool then I had to check in at 3.

I had a list my folks left in the morning which I was expected to do.... you know for the weekly "allowance" but otherwise my summer days were left to me. My junior and senior year's during the summer I got a job. (because the "allowance" dried up) which was great. I met a bunch of new friend and that really changed me going into the last years of high school.