Gen X Reveals 35 Childhood Norms That's Hard to Believe Was Actually a Thing: 'Not knowing where your kids are for 12 hours'

Isabella Penn

Aug 15, 2024 6:00 AM EDT

Life for kids today is so different than it was for the previous generations. Especially speaking of Gen X, where rules were few and far between, and you could go days without seeing your families - with the expectation of meals, of course. Gen X kids roamed free range in packs around the town, with no helmets on site, and hydrated with hose water. Could you imagine if Gen Alpha kids did that today? First of all, they probably have a phone at their disposal, and they don't have to bike to the nearest buddy's house to use their home phone to check it. Plus, kids today probably don't even have to check in, as their parents are most likely already tracking them on their phones anyway. Not to mention, do kids today even go outside? With all of the entertainment today you can do inside (we're talkin' video games, iPads, streaming), I'm not sure the Gen X kids would have gone outside either. But there are a lot of other things that were childhood norms to Gen X kids that are almost unbelievable today. See 35 of them below.