Parents reveal things they'd never let their kids do, but did frequently as kids themselves

Evan Porter
Wed, 17 Dec 2025 23:09:56 +0000
Parenting, Dads, Moms, Kids, Family, Gen x parents, Millennial parents, 80s, 90s, 80s nostalgia, 90s nostalgia, Askreddit, Anxious generation, Parents

Things have changed since we were kids. Whether you grew up in the '50s or the '90s, the modern world is dramatically different than the one we knew as children. That's one reason many parents aren't content to raise their kids today the same way they were brought up. There are new rules, new boundaries, and a long list of things kids today will never be allowed to do. Whether it's ultimately for better or worse is still up for debate.

Parents are sharing the things they used to do all the time as a kid that they would never let their own children do today.

In a series of threads on Reddit, parents are responding to the prompt: "What did you do as a child that you would never let your own children do?"

The responses are incredibly eye-opening:

1. Be outrageously unsafe in a vehicle

Seatbelts were barely a thing in the 70s and 80s Photo by Farzanah Rosli on Unsplash

Car safety has come a long way. Did you know seatbelts were not mandatory everywhere until the 1990s?

"Ride in the back of a pickup truck," a user wrote in one thread.

"Ride in a car without a car seat or a seatbelt"

"Stand on the center console with half their bodies sticking out the sun roof as I drive at 50mph down some twisty country roads," someone added in another thread.

"My dad used to load about six of us kids (me, my brother, and some neighborhood kids) up on the step bars on the side of his van. We would stand on either side of the van, then he would drive around the block and jerk the wheel to throw us off. We ... loved playing that game."

A lot of adults have fond memories of their own parents playing fast and loose with car safety, but the risks are too high for them to do the same with their own kids.

2. Have no regard for sunburn

Sunscreen was optional for Gen X and Millennial kids. Photo by Derek Owens on Unsplash

"Play at the beach or in the sun without sunscreen," someone wrote.

"My mom always said you just needed one good sunburn at the beginning of summer and after that you could tan no problem for the rest of the season. As an adult I do NOT live by that advice."

"My mom was born in the 50s and she talked about how they get a sun burn peel and go get another one. She’s got skin like tissue paper, my dad did too."

Sunscreen didn't become widely popularized until at least the 1970s, but even for several decades after that, people used it much less religiously than we do today. We know too much about skin cancer and other skin damage, now, and most parents wouldn't be caught dead letting their kids go to the beach without multiple applications.

3. Have sleepovers

Sleepovers with sleeping bags, video games, and cheap carry-out pizzas were a fundamental aspect of many childhoods in the '80s and '90s. Today, many parents are much more wary of them.

"I have a degree in social work and any time people ask me why [I don't recommend sleepovers] I say 'I know too much'" one user wrote.

"My son (12) has been invited to a few sleepovers. We compromised by letting him stay later than usual. Until 11PM or so. Then we picked him up and brought him back in the morning."

"My first sleepover was at the age of 9 for my friend's birthday. It was about 7 or 8 of us all from the same class. As soon as his parents went to bed, he flicked on the porn and we watched it all night. I have to admit, it was awesome. But it proves my point that unintended and inappropriate things can happen easily."

Not everyone agreed with this controversial point, though:

"Why? I had many and they were very productive (we played games, got to know each other, etc.)."

Sleepovers have become an incredibly divisive topic among Millennial parents, in particular.

Are sleepovers dying out? Photo by Andreea Pop on Unsplash

4. Have unfettered access to the Internet

Who remembers the early days of Internet chatting with no safety filters or parental controls? Gen X and Millennials do, and they're determined not to let their kids make the same mistakes.

"Use the internet unsupervised from the age of 10. I signed up to hundreds of websites, made about 30 different email addresses, posted cringey pictures of myself everywhere and even sent nudes... Seriously, watch what your kids are doing online. I wish I could take it all back."

"My parents never really regulated or monitored my internet usage, [but] there wasn't the same level of danger there is now, or even the opportunity for self-exposure. Plus if my folks wanted to boot me offline they just had to pick up the phone."

5. Roam the town freely

Kids coming home "when the dinner bell rings" and having free rein to explore without supervision was a lot more common and accepted a few decades ago. For example, in the '60s, almost half of kids walked to school, compared with closer to 10% today.

"Roam the streets from sunup to sundown," one person responded to the prompt.

"Roam around the neighborhood etc etc at a very young age. I was smart enough to know where i lived but there were really [no] boundaries or rules from my parents."

"Used to go so far in that I’d have trouble finding my way back. Only got severely lost once where I found my way back after dark because of lights I could see faintly in the distance from atop a tree. Got yelled at for missing dinner. Came across quiet a few bears, coyotes, and moose, but luckily they never paid much attention to me."

This generation of parents is a lot more safety-minded, for better or worse.

6. Be at home unsupervised

Similarly, a lot of parents today were raised as "latch-key" kids or "lock away" kids, meaning they came home from school to an empty house and were on their own for chores, homework, and dinner. Though it fostered independence, a lot of people today have concerns about the lack of attention and supervision.

"Being home in supervised. I was a 'lock away kid' cause my mom worked nights. I saw her for maybe two hours a day. She would get off work take me to school and sleep till I got home. So from 5pm to 7am I was by myself. A lot of shenanigans.'

"Stay home alone from age 6"

"I was actually a goodie-two-shoes about this. I always did my homework, microwaved myself some dinner, and then put myself to bed, partially because I liked being a good kid, but partially because I was scared enough of my parents to be afraid of what would happen if I did anything else."

7. Suppress and hide their emotions

"Make my kid scared to talk about their emotions to the point that they become depressed because nobody knows how they feel," someone wrote.

"My dad was a pro at shaming me for getting upset as a kid," another agreed.

Boomers, Gen Xers, and even Millennials to a degree weren't given a lot of space and empathy to share their emotions honestly. This generation of parents is determined to do things differently.

8. Eat junk all the time

Judging by what kids ate in the 90s, nutrition had yet to be invented.Mike Mozart/Flickr

"Eat junk food and fast food on a daily or weekly basis," someone wrote.

"Yeah I used to get fast food almost everyday after school. Now I would never let or do the same for my son," another person agreed.

It's hard to remember that the concern about food dyes and preservatives and the emphasis on whole foods is a relatively modern creation. Kids in the '80s and '90s ate tons of fast food and frozen TV dinners, but many want a more nutritious lifestyle for their own kids.

9. Have no rules or consequences

Before we go thinking that the current generation of kids doesn't get disciplined enough, a lot of '70s and '80s adults would like to remind us that being a latch-key kid also often meant no one was teaching and correcting you.

"Honestly, my mom was way too lax on me. I never had any real chores or consequences if I didn’t do the few I had occasionally. I find self discipline very hard and I feel it would probably be easier if I’d had that," someone shared.

"I never had any chores because my mother can't stand it when somebody messes with her household. When I do the dishes she thinks they are not clean enough and does them again. I had to teach myself to do chores after I moved out. Took a few years. It wasn't pretty."

Critics often point to Gen Z and Gen Alpha kids as being sheltered and anxious due to a lack of independence, but even the staunchest contrarian would have to admit that a lot of things parents got away with prior to the '90s were pretty unsafe. This generation of parents, for better or worse, is forging their own path.