Not sure id like to be a kid growing up now with everything around social media but there’s more opportunities now than in the 70s
Happy with the 90s/2000s personally
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Not sure id like to be a kid growing up now with everything around social media but there’s more opportunities now than in the 70s
Happy with the 90s/2000s personally
Most people will nominate the years they grew up in.
I'm happy with the 60s/70s.
There didn't seem to be a shortage of opportunities for me.
Yeah I agree with Bob but 90s for me.
One thing I swear I wouldn’t / won’t do is moan to my kids that things were “better in my day”.
See people moaning on social media about todays youngsters filming and documenting everything - football, gigs, nightclubs.etc so fecking what.
We’ve had our time, let them have theirs.
I grew up in the sixties which wasn’t bad and the nineties and noughties didn’t seem bad in terms of being in your early teens
All decades to grow up in during peace time would be fine in the modern civilised era.
If you find yourself saying the same disparaging things to your children that you were told by your parents perhaps it's time to take stock.Quote:
Originally Posted by J R Hartley
I remember my father saying that this country is going to the dogs fifty years ago.....
Bet you still enjoyed growing up at that time!Quote:
Originally Posted by Taunton Blue Genie
Partly. My father was a violent drunk.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stanmore Bluebird
I enjoyed my childhood (80s and 90s), but I think my kids have a better one in so many ways.
Toys-
Incomparible, they have so many toys and games that would have blown my mind at the same age. A while back I found one of my old toys - I'm sure many of you had one. You filled it with water and pressed a rubber button which made a jet of water push some rings around in the water to try to get them onto a little pole.
It was unbelievably shit.
My kids played with it for about 2 minutes before reaching the correct conclusion that it is completely crap, whereas in my youth I probably played with this thing for hours because there wasn't anything else to do.
Similarly I had one of those electronic games that you held up to your eyes like a pair of binoculars - you wouldn't get away with making a game with gameplay so frustrating and repetitive these days as there are just so many other choices everywhere . Whereas in my childhood I remember being so bored that I ate an entire page of A4 lined paper just to have something to do.
TV-
When I grew up there was about 2 hours of kids tv per weekday from 3-5 and some more on saturday mornings.
that was to cater for all ages, so the first 30 minutes was for very young children - I'd probably still watch it as a much older child because there was no other choice.
Yes there were some classic shows, but there are still some shows today with the same quality, and you can watch them whenever you like 24 hours a day
Food-
My parents weren't (and still aren't) brilliant chefs by any stretch of the imagination, but even in the 80s the food in this country was much more limited than these days - I dread to think the decades prior to that.
Traditional british food is not great let's be honest. There's a reason that you can find chinese, thai or indian restaurants in many countries around the world, but there is no great demand to go for a "British" anywhere.
Probably the meal most often provided to me by my parents was fairly bland beef mince, with boiled potatoes and peas.
My kids eat curries, thai food, mexican, chinese, italian etc at home and eating out the food is so much better these days.
Places to go-
they've grown out of them now, but softplay centres are bloody brilliant for kids, the closest thing we had was the random ball pit in allied carpets on newport road
School-
My impression from what I've observed from my kids schooling is that the kids as a whole seem more engaged with learning, better behaved, and far more aware of social issues etc
Grew up in the 70s/80s. Much better for kids now. Much more things to do.
Rainy Sundays, when nobody went outside to play were shocking as a kid looking back. Only kids program on was Sesame Street, followed by church programs, then followed by the Test Card till mid afternoon. Pub was shut on a Sunday afternoon and my Dad would come home and play his records, which I hated at the time. Much better these days.
Easy. The 1960's. Great music, Cardiff was a venue toured by most of the big bands at cheap prices; the supposed birth of the permissive society etc. The so called baby boomer generation had access to reasonably cheap houses, well paid white collar jobs were aplenty even for those with a mediocre grammar school education as only 2% of the school population qualified for a place in University; those who qualified were actually paid to go to University coupled with countless other advantages that later generations didn't have. It's a no brainer.
all the shops were shut, and didn't they even padlock the swings in the park to stop people from playing on them on sundaysQuote:
Originally Posted by Mario Miethig
True. But it forced kids to play things like football - far healthier than the current Playstation/social media generation where kids spend hours glued to their screens shut in their bedrooms with hardly any exercise.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rjk
Locking up the swings in the playground forced kids to play outside how exactly?Quote:
Originally Posted by Vindec
I'm not sure you've thought that through.
p.s. my kids are all mad on football and are outside just as much as I was at the same age.
there ARE more cars around these days so playing on the street isn't as easy
Because kids had to use their initiative and find other things to do. When I was growing up places like Heath Park, Pontcanna and countless other outside locations were populated massively by football teams on a Saturday afternoon. Now there are hardly any teams as kids prefer to stay in their rooms playing computer games and such like.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rjk
I can only speak from personal experience but at a young age I was out of the house from 10am until at least 5pm. Now kids can't go anywhere without parental supervision. That's not a criticism by the way but a reflection of current society.
Considering millennials own about 4% of wealth compared to 21% for baby boomers at the same age, the 60s was probably the best to grow up in..
I grew up 70’s/80’s and I tend to agree with last few posts, no tv channels really, Batman on a Saturday am and if you missed it you were f*cked! No chance to see it again…..me and all my mates spent so much time out on our bikes ( choppers, grifters or bmx) and a game of football was almost mandatory after school whatever the weather. Lived in the local woods more than home. Weird how my memory messes with me thinking it was always sunny…..I was barely ever in as a 10 yr old….very different to my 10 year old now but very different times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mario Miethig
When the street lights came on red it was a sign to head home for dinnerQuote:
Originally Posted by Vindec
You went home early, dinner time was midday when I was a kid, dinner ladies were just that not lunch ladies. Main meal in our house was our tea.Quote:
Originally Posted by goats
While I think kids have it tough in different ways from other generations, I like the fact that things like casual racism, homophobia etc has virtually disappeared from young people. The current young are the most tolerant generation in history and will hopefully lead to a world free of prejudice, where people can be who they want to be and we can all live together in greater harmony.
I grew up in the 80's/90's and am happy with that, wouldn't fancy being a teenager much now with social media/total access to everybody 24/7 to be honest, although for them I'm sure that the thought of anything different is nightmarish because that's all the've known.
I read somewhere that we're the generation which knew what it was like growing up without the internet but also were young enough in its advent to naturally incorporate it into our lives so kind of straddled the great technological leap of the 20th Century (Our house got internet when I was 15 and I think I got my first mobile at 17). Something like that anyway, although I'm sure it was explained better
Was chatting to a colleague yesterday about covid (we’re into another lockdown in Canada) and he asked what I thought it’s impact might have been if it had happened 40 years ago.. vaccines would’ve probably taken longer, unemployment would probably have rocketed, no wifi so home entertainment probably affected…. On the whole I don’t think there’s a best decade… everything balances out. My kids love doing things and having experiences I can’t even begin to understand and I’ve done things that they’ll obviously never experience. In my opinion the best experiences are the shared ones
I suppose most likely I'd go for what I know. Late 90s into the 00's.
Some decent technology about and opportunities off the back of it but I've also been able to avoid so much of social media by choice, as a kid now you must seem well weird if you aren't on any of it.
Earlier decades also seem too hard. I remember when younger not having Google but I don't know who answered all my questions.
Now that’s being pedantic :hehe:Quote:
Originally Posted by splott parker
Very similar to my childhood. Was always out when it wasn’t raining and even when it was, if my mates were out, I’d go out. I had a second hand Tomahawk, then a Grifter. Our street was blocked off at one end, so we always played football in the street. When a car drove down the street, the roaming dogs would always chase it lol. That’s one thing you definitely don’t see anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by goats
The street I grew up in in Canton was always full of kids, whenever I drive past there now, you hardly see a single child. Times have definitely changed!
50’s, scrumping apples, riding/making your bogie and using it on the main road, able to go anywhere on your own. Oh for the innocence of childhood again. Many other things.
Cardiff was rough during the 70's
It's always been rough. Teddy Boys in the 50's, Mods and Rockers in the 60's and gangs in later decades. I found the late 1950's particularly violent. I recall once being in the Regal snooker Hall in Gabalfa where a massive fight broke out with lads throwing snooker balls at each other with some serious injuries I would guess given the amount of blood involved. I scarpered quickly so am assuming ambulances must have been involved. But there were many no go areas in Cardiff at the time. The 70's was far tamer.Quote:
Originally Posted by ToTaL ITK
Funny how you mentioned bogie. I was driving in Whitchurch yesterday and i seen a dumped pushchair. I past the same spot today and it was still there. Back in the 60's and early 70's it would be gone in seconds to make our bogies, or if you live up the valleys i think you call them gambos. Times have certainly changed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cleve van Leef
I'm in my mid-thirties now, and would say that if anything, I'd probably have preferred to have been born slightly earlier, maybe only by 5-10 years. Social media came along when I was in my late teens and I think if I'd been a little bit older, I may not have been caught up in it and wasted so much time on it in the years since. Outside of that though I think the late nineties/early 00's were as good a time as any to grow up in.
Having spent the last ten years teaching teenagers I have to disagree with some who have highlighted the positives of having more to do and more technology in recent decades. More TV certainly isn't a good thing and I see first hand how addiction to consoles and mobile phones has a negative zombie-like effect on some (and I stress it is only some) teenagers. I think that boredom can often spark creativity and help develop the use of initiative. Boredom sometimes actually allows us to think a little more deeply instead of flitting from one stimulus to the next. I think the current generation of teenagers have it a lot harder than ever before in many ways; greater social expectations/pressures which destroy confidence and self-esteem, a more tolerant society yes, but a less diverse and very dull range of sub-cultures and fashions to choose from and too much constant stimulation that helps to breed anxiety and other mental health issues.
It’s right though, it’s breakfast, dinner & tea. That’s what it was in the 60s when I was a kid and still is in our house to this day. My old man would have looked at my mam (not mum) daft if she told him not to hang about in the pub on Sunday lunch time as Sunday lunch would already be cooked and his would be in the oven. We always, and still do, have Sunday dinner in our house.Quote:
Originally Posted by goats
What ab excellent post, it rings true with me as i have three kids between the ages of 15-24Quote:
Originally Posted by Raymond Holt
You are so right about boredom, I met a child psychologist a few years ago and she gave me some great advice when my kids were very young. Don’t give them too much stimulation, let them get bored and see if any magic happens. She was so right, might not work for all but endless fussing over kids to keep them entertained isn’t good at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Raymond Holt
Being a kid in the 70s was great. Freedom to play, little peer pressure and contentment in what you had, without too many aspirations of having the latest gadgets. You made do with what you had.
Doesn't hide the fact though it was possibly one of the harder decades to be a parent, with high inflation, strikes, power cuts, fuel shortages and the winter of discontent. Can't have been easy.
I’ll go 60s/70s as well. Everything was more innocent & naive and pleasures came from much simpler things in live. We were rarely indoors.
so everyone is just going to go for the decade that they grew up in?
The question was about being children/teenagers, I'm not best placed to judge and I say this while noting worsening child poverty figures, but I'd say if it wasn't for Covid, this would be a good time to be young, far from the best to be a young adult though. There were plenty of problems in the late seventies when I entered that stage of my life, but I think I had it easy compared to someone in their early twenties now.
Like wot I sed in post #2Quote:
Originally Posted by Rjk
Based on my observations of my own family across 8 decades, then I’ll stick with my answer, so yes. My reasoning is yes, primarily because of the practicality of those times, if something needed doing you had to learn how to do it. Today you have a pay society, when everything is geared to pay someone else to do it, the reliance on others is a damaging direction in my opinion.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rjk
I'm just glad I grew up in a time before social media and smart phones.