Growing up in the 90s

[u/gravityVT]

[u/Constant_Cultural]

And it was the real freedom

[u/mynameishere → u/Constant_Cultural]

I remember being kicked out of the house, and not really allowed back until mealtimes. Didn't feel like freedom.

[u/TornWill → u/mynameishere]

Yeah, there were times my friends weren't home either, so we couldn't play. I'd just sit around on the swings all day when that happened.

[u/pat_spiegel → u/TornWill]

Practice you b.ball shots to surprise the fellas

[u/Kiremino → u/mynameishere]

This. Born and raised in Florida. It's hot some evenings! Like, muggy and sweltering with mosquitos biting at you everywhere. Can't go to your house, can't go to your friends house...just sit outside, too hot to move or play, slapping yourself silly trying to kill the no-see-ups and skeeters eating you alive...

[u/Keyboardpaladin → u/Constant_Cultural]

I asked my mom to let me out all the time with friends in this fashion as I was the only kid I knew in my class whose mom wouldn't let them just generally hang out with friends without a lot of strings attached. I felt like it stunted me a bit socially cause it was hard to hang out with anyone in any non-embarrassing way. Anyways only after I went off to college did she finally say she regretted having such a tight leash on me. Better late than never I guess

[u/UniversalMinister]

This was one of the best parts of being a kid in the 90's!

[u/MyPasswordIs222222]

and 70s and 80s

[u/DrierYoungus → u/MyPasswordIs222222]

source?!

/s

[u/thecw]

This is every generation in human history up to late millennials

[u/laidbacklanny → u/thecw]

💯

[u/Hillraiser]

My neighbor used to just lean out of the window and whistle for her kids.

[u/0wnzorPwnz0r → u/Hillraiser]

My mom would open the door and scream my name at the top of her lungs

[u/ChizzleFug → u/0wnzorPwnz0r]

“Holy shit was that my mom already?”

[u/Reasonable_Box_2998 → u/0wnzorPwnz0r]

And if I didn’t hear her and came back after the street lights “where were you?! I’ve been screaming your name! Get your ass inside!” 🤣

[u/rach1874 → u/0wnzorPwnz0r]

Yes! I just commented asking if we had already forgotten the opening of the screen door and shouting our names that it was dinner time lol. No communication my butt. Hmph. Then the inevitable “awww mommmmmmmmm” before we begrudgingly shuffled home.

[u/AlaWyrm → u/Hillraiser]

My aunt had a huge bell on her deck that she'd ring to call in her 7 boys for meal times. I loved staying over at their house in what seemed like the middle of no where to me. And they had TONS of vitamin D milk. My parents only bought skim.

[u/Evypoo → u/AlaWyrm]

This made me lol. Just picturing a young kid like “F- mom can’t we get the vitamin D milk and not this trash!”

[u/AlaWyrm → u/Evypoo]

Thats pretty much how I was once I experienced the joy of actual milk as a tall skinny kid. I still wonder how I would have grown up if my parents weren't all into the no fat craze of the 90's. My brain probably suffered since it thrives on fat.

[u/Evypoo → u/AlaWyrm]

I NEED THE D

[u/rach1874 → u/AlaWyrm]

You could have come to our house. We only had full fat milk. Ya know. The good stuff with that D!

[u/Mickeymcirishman]

You come home for supper, stay to do the dishes then leave again and only come back when the street lights turn on.

[u/three-sense]

And no mega corporations tracking my analytical data and selling it to the highest bidder. Fun times

[u/Armon_Tamzarian]

Anyone else use pay phone to leave quick (don’t accept the charges) messages to let their parent know they aren’t coming home or are gunna be late?

[u/Bugaloon → u/Armon_Tamzarian]

Would you like to accept a collect call from *beep* momimstayingatmattsplacecyatomorrow.

[u/DJS302 → u/Armon_Tamzarian]

ahh, I think this is the hack you were referring to

[u/SMTII231 → u/Armon_Tamzarian]

1-800-COLLECT

[u/Star_BurstPS4]

My kids do this now 🤣 as a millennial I felt it was my duty to let my kids live like one too

[u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_4435]

No way to communicate? They had the whole front door to yell out of. Didn't matter if you were miles away; you heard it. You just pretended not to.

[u/rach1874 → u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_4435]

This! I just commented about this and I could always hear my parents voices. Moms was… a little bit louder in all fairness. But if I didn’t respond or come back immediately and she had to get dad to yell the second time… I was in trouble lol

[u/supermr34]

it was the best.

[u/sofluffy22]

Usually one parent would yell for their kids to come in for dinner and that was the sign it was time for all of us to go home.

[u/likebutta222]

Stolen voice from aljokes

OG Source:  https://youtube.com/shorts/YAr5kFQJk6Q

[u/I-Am-The-Warlus → u/likebutta222]

I would wondering why I recognised the voice

[u/bomber_mulayim2]

I remember leaving home at 1 pm in the summer and returning home at 9 pm.

[u/rach1874 → u/bomber_mulayim2]

Yup. And for some reason, not 100% sure why, we hated shoes in the summer. I lived in rural NC and would only wear flip flops all summer, or try to be barefoot, so would the other kids in the neighborhood. Climbing trees? Flip flops or bare feet. Fishing? I might put my rubber boots on so I didn’t get a foot hooked. But definitely preferred my flip flops.

[u/Northern_Lights_2]

Sounds about right.

[u/0scrambles0]

Hearing "be home before sunset" was so liberating

[u/Calaigah]

This was my life. Always went where we wanted and never told anyone. Yet somehow our parents would still find out everything we were up to! They had spies everywhere. 😂

[u/UnitedSloth]

My mom has a giant bell attached to our deck that she would ring when it was time to come home for dinner, that thing was LOUD. You could hear it through practically our whole neighborhood haha. There was hell to pay if we didn't get back fast enough and dinner got cold. I have no doubt if I heard that bell today, I would have a visceral reaction to it lmao

[u/rach1874 → u/UnitedSloth]

That’s actually really clever! But I hear you. There are certain sounds that make my veins chill even as an adult. If my mother calls me by my first and middle name shudder… at 35 it still gets me. My husband saw this a few years ago at dinner and my mother just quietly said my first and last name and I shut up and looked at my hands in my lap and apologized.

He was like “what was that?!” lol

[u/Lopsided-Meet8247]

My dad is able to whistle and it be audible for a mile or two. That was our get back to the house alert

[u/rach1874 → u/Lopsided-Meet8247]

Yeah mom shouted and dad did the two finger whistle for us to come home.

[u/Zxar]

I lived a block away from my elementary school. My friends and I would often by playing at the school into the evening in the summer. Had to wait for it to be somewhat dark for ghost in the graveyard.

My mom had a bell outside the back door. She'd ring it so I knew to either come home, or to come get a message from one of my friends parents, usually telling them to get home.

Early 90s childhood was fun.

[u/Sparkmovement]

This guy was a fucking creep in my DM'S

[u/foxmag86 → u/Sparkmovement]

Uhh what’s the story?

[u/Sparkmovement → u/foxmag86]

he was a creep... in my dm's.

lol. that is the story. I blocked him after less than 10 messages.

[u/lynivvinyl]

When I would leave for school on Friday morning that was the last time my mom would see me until I stumbled in sometime Sunday afternoon each week. She even painted my car bright blue to make it easier to find me but she still couldn't.

[u/customersmakemepuke]

Is that Beans?

[u/LibrarianKooky344]

We always used the street lights.

[u/rach1874 → u/LibrarianKooky344]

Our rural neighborhood had one street light. And if that came on we knew we needed to head home. But normally we were deep in the woods in the forts we had built as a neighborhood set of kids and couldn’t see it. So we had to wait for the first parent to shout off their front porch to know we HAD to come in.

[u/Chirrrpy]

Sounds nice. I had a helicopter mom in the 90s, so I didn't get that kind of freedom until college

[u/Taptrick]

The ironic part about this is that the people who brag about roaming free as a kid are now the parents that don’t let their kids do it… It’s a weird flex, yet it gets posted on this sub all. the. time.

[u/AlaWatchuu]

Weird. He cut out the abduction part from the original video the audio is stolen from.

[u/Mezcal_Madness]

I had to come home when the smoke detector went off. Grandma was not great at cooking.

[u/rach1874]

No communication? Have we forgotten about our parents opening the screen door and showing “first name of oldest child first name of youngest child, dinner time!!! Time to come home!” At the top of their lungs?

Good times. Good times.

[u/david8601]

Be home when the streetlights come on. My boundaries were the main roads around the town. If anyone asks about dad, i don't know anything.

[u/TopHost7146]

Everyone did this in the 70's ans 80's as well. most certainly earlier than that.