Want to feel like Marty McFly for a minute? Think back to your childhood. Before Instagram envy and Facebook FOMO, when you simply roamed the neighborhood on your bike without a helmet (or a helicopter parent), and watched MTV for hours while munching GMOs. We polled a dozen parents to ask what they did as kids that they would instantly outlaw for their own. Get ready to laugh your Z. Cavariccis off.
17 Things Our Parents Allowed That We Would Never (Ever) Let Our Kids Do
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Published Oct 10, 2017
Twenty20
1. “Trick or treat alone.”—H, Dad of 3
2. “Drink soda with dinner.”—L, Mom of 2
3. “Eat sugary cereal for breakfast. Remember Cookie Crisp? It was literally cookies for breakfast.”—E, Mom of 3
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4. “Prank call people’s houses as a primary after school activity. ” –J, Mom of 2
5. “Sell Girl Scout Cookies door to door by myself.”—L, Mom of 3
6. “Watch TV from the moment I got home from school until I went to bed.” –L, Mom of 2
7. “Ski, snowboard and ride snowmobiles without a helmet.” –R, Dad of 4
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8. “Ride in the back of a station wagon backward with no seatbelt. Were there even carseats back then?” —E, Mom of 2
9. “Sit on the trunk of my stepdad’s convertible with my legs dangling into the backseat…while it was moving.”—H, Dad of 3
10.“Attach a little note with my full name and address to any helium balloon, along with a request for a pen pal, and release it in the woods. What were the chances that another ten-year-old little girl was going to find it and not some murderer?” —J, Mom of 2
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11. “Walk to a creek that had alligators…by ourselves. Go Florida!!!”—E, Mom of 2
12. “Sit on the bar of my dad’s bike on a towel. No safety seats hooked to the back. I was 3.” –L, Mom of 3
13. “Baby oil > Sunblock.” —S, Mom of 2
14. “Vandalize with impunity on Halloween. My parents would watch us use pins and lighters to rig cans of Barbasol shaving cream to spray long distances, without saying a thing.”–J, Mom of 2
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15. “Watch Married With Children when we were, like, 8. I feel like that show raised me. I don’t know where my dad ends and Al Bundy begins.” —J, Mom of 2
16. “Two words: Fun Dip.”—M, Dad of 2
17. “Eat McDonald's five times a week. It was glorious.”—J, Mom of 2