The idea for this post was inspired by a McDonald’s commercial shown primarily during the 2016 Summer Olympics. The commercial depicted the differences between the childhood of a boy in the 1980s and the childhood of a girl today while a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time” played in the background (If you haven’t seen the commercial, you can watch it here).
At the end of the commercial, we come to found out that the two characters are actually father and daughter. I suppose the purpose of the commercial was to show that parents want to give their kids everything they didn’t have as children, but the first time I saw it, I didn’t quite see it that way.
Instead, what I saw were all of the things we as ’80s kids “missed out” on that our kids have today. So from the experience of this ’80s child, I compiled a list of eight ways ’80s kids “missed out,” time after time.
The List
1. Helmets
I’m going to start with the image that affected me the most from this commercial and pretty much gave me the idea to write this post. And that is the fact that we were not required to wear helmets while riding our bikes in the ’80s.
Nope, no helmet – just riding free and if you fall, oh well, you’ll be fine.
Thanks Mom and Dad for protecting my head from the concrete. Well, that explains a lot…
Speaking of which…
2. Seat Belts
So, we had seat belts, but we didn’t have to wear them, especially not in the back of the car. In fact, before front seat belt laws were passed in the early ’80s, kids could sit in the passenger seat with no belt, let alone a car seat.
Car what?
Sorry, I’m busy lying down across the back seat of the car. Or better yet, I’m sitting on my dad’s lap while he’s driving so I can learn stick shift. Oh, I mean I’m straddled on the hump on the floor in the back because there are five of us trying to fit in here. No wait, I’m riding in the bed of the pick up truck – STANDING UP!
Yup, we did all of these things in the ’80s and no one batted an eye. Thanks again Mom and Dad for looking out for my safety.
3. High Index Lenses
I think the pictures below say enough, but in case you need more convincing, just know that these monstrosities scarred me for life. Seriously, like I think there are indentations along my cheekbones…
Needless to say, I’ll never forget when my eye doctor gave me the green light to start wearing contacts.
Oh joyous day! 🙂
And even though I now have high index lenses, I only wear my glasses before bed…to get from the bathroom to my bed safely after taking out my contacts.
4. Costumes as Clothes
When I was a kid in the ’80s, the only time it was acceptable to dress up like a princess or superhero was for Halloween. These days, wearing costumes as clothes has become the norm.
Today, you can find Batman, Superman, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty gliding down the slide at the playground, rummaging through the cereal aisle at the grocery store or even sitting next to you at the movie theater.
Well kids, don’t be surprised when you spot me in the checkout line sporting my fairy wings and waving my magic wand…wait, what do you mean it’s not real and it WON’T really make the line shorter? Ugh! Moving on…
5. Mobile Phones
For obvious reasons, mobile phones have made both kids’ and parents’ lives much easier.
I remember waiting for my parents to come home and wondering (I mean worrying) where they were and thinking terrible things had happened to them.
Once, I even called my aunt and told her they were gone without a trace. She got in her car and came right over only to find they were at the neighbors’ house. She wasn’t too happy with me but if I only had a cell phone…
I wanted to have a T-shirt made for them that said, “It’s 10 pm. Do you know where my parents are?”
6. The Internet
Listen up there sonny. Wait, let me grab my cane…When I was in school, you know, way back in the ninth decade of the 20th century, we got our information from books.
There was no Google or TikTok or Alexa to tell us how to make pancake cereal or dalgona coffee.
Instead, we had to trek our little tushies down to the…gasp…PUBLIC LIBRARY!
Oh, the horror! The inhumanity!
But wait, some of us were lucky enough to have our own collection of overpriced mail order encyclopedias that were outdated by the time we received them and our parents are still paying for…
7. Music Streaming
These kids don’t know how hard we had it when we wanted to hear our favorite song. There were no music streaming services that allowed us to play any song our heart desired on a whim.
I mean, if we did have that option, the tale I’m about to tell you would have never taken place…
Picture this: An almost-teenager sitting in front of the radio and waiting…waiting for the countdown to play “I Want to Know What Love Is” by Foreigner so that she can record it…onto a cassette tape.
Finally, the song comes on and said youngster presses the record button and proceeds to exuberantly dance around the room…only to find that she accidentally pressed “pause” instead of “record.”
All that time she spent waiting by the radio instead of playing with her friends…FOR NOTHING!
Now, thanks to the magic of music streaming and this girl’s paid subscription to Spotify, she can listen to “I Want to Know What Love Is” whenever she wants and torture her children by subjecting them to her ’80s Explosion playlist.
There are over 200 ’80s tunes on this playlist…you can thank me later. 😉
8. YouTube
So, my kids (and perhaps yours too) are obsessed with these YouTube shows where kids (and adults) play with toys.
Guess what people…I INVENTED TOY SHOWS!
Yup, it’s true, and I can prove it. I have a plethora of cassette tapes (yes, I still have them) in which I recorded myself playing with toys in the ’80s.
Just listen to this “jem” of a masterpiece:
Here are some visuals for ‘ya…
Yikes! That corduroy couch of my parents’ is pretty scary!
Anyway, I’m telling you, if we only had YouTube, I could have been a star. But you know what they say, video did kill the radio star…Ugh! Bummer!
Back to the Future
Looking back, maybe ’80s kids didn’t have safe bike riding laws or access to information overload 24 hours a day, but there are things we DID have that we will never forget:
- Roller skating to freestyle music
- Handwriting notes to pass to our friends instead of texting
- Guessing our favorite song lyrics (mostly incorrectly) since we couldn’t look them up online
- Playing pinball at the arcade and not on an electronic gaming device
- And of course, just playing with our friends whenever we wanted without an appointment.
And now, a word from Mr. ’80s DJ:
Side note: Did you happen to catch that part at the beginning where he asks if the audience notices a difference since the song he just played was on CD?
So, do you want to “go back?” If you’re an ’80s kid, share your favorite ’80s memory in the comments below.
Please note this post originally appeared online on September 18, 2016; however, changes and updates have been made.