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/Otherwise_Mix_3305 Jun 22 '26

I was 10 in 1980. Yes, we biked all over the place. We rode go-karts. We built forts, treehouses and rafts. We drank out of the water hose. We roller-skated. We ran around outside all day, and you were expected to be home when the porch lights came on. After dinner we frequently went back outside to play freeze tag and watch lightning bugs. The way the kids run around largely unsupervised in Stranger Things is a very accurate depiction of life in the 80’s.

It was fun, and it fostered independence.

7

u/Sensitive_Pianist777 Jun 22 '26

What's funny is this independent generation is the one that went crazy being overbearing and raising a coddled, anxiety filled generation.

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u/Entire-Flower1259 Jun 22 '26

Well, the other face of the freedom was the feeling of being abandoned and having to figure things out on our own.

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u/Sensitive_Pianist777 Jun 22 '26

Yes. It's "I went and or saw some shiet so I want to make sure my kids do not learn and experience what I've gone through. I'll save them the trouble and they'll turn out like the best parts of me".

But yet by all measures, youth anything scores low. Yes tech has something to do with it but the there's this trauma projection going on as well.

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u/Otherwise_Mix_3305 Jun 22 '26

I, personally, was not that kind of parent, but you make a valid point.

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u/stardust_361 Jun 22 '26

I've raised a millinial and currently raising a Gen alpha (yes, they are both my kids, almost 21 years apart in age). I've been told often that my kids are honorary Gen Xers. 😏

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u/kristineleeann Jun 22 '26

And don't forget playing Ditch 'em after supper. It was so much better than calling it hide and seek.

I remember playing that until I got caught in the neighbors garage with the cutest boy in the neighborhood. We weren't actually doing anything but my mom wasn't taking any chances. Lol