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Awkward home videos from the 80s and 90s show just how far parenting has come

"It's a miracle any of us survived."

@nostalgicallyrachel/TikTok, @mrvaughntrainor/TikTok

It was a simpler, more life-threatening time.

Parenting has changed. A lot. So many things our parents did that were considered normal in our childhood—that is, for all us millennials and Gen Xers—would simply never fly today.

This is thanks in large part to the digital age, and the countless ways to access information. Radio, magazines, television, books, online blogs, Facebook parent groups, informational podcasts, public studies…thousands of voices helping shape family dynamics and warn of potential dangers.

If there’s ever any doubt into how far we’ve come, let technology once again remind you. A trip down memory lane via TikTok might be, as the kids say, a bit cringe, but boy can it help instill a little gratitude.

On a mission to share her childhood “one home video at a time,” a woman named Rachel has an entire TikTok account dedicated to short glimpses of her younger years.

Her content is an instant nostalgic hit for those of us who grew up in the 80s or 90s. We’re talking Rainbow Brite, roller skates, Sesame Street, backpack purses when they were cool for the first time. All the feel good stuff.

And also—maybe some of the not-so-feel-good stuff. Recently, Rachel shared a video of herself as a newborn with her mom…when viewers noticed something strange in her bottle.

@nostalgicallyrachel Replying to @B Indeed, it is. 💦 #wildtimes #wesurvived #taboo #homemovie #homevideo #nostalgia #nostalgic #80s #90s #1990s #1980s #memories #family #throwback #80sbaby #90sbaby #childhood #childhoodmemories #wholesome #oklahoma #takemeback #vlog #mylife #history #vintage #retro #90skid #80skid #80saesthetic #90saesthetic #vhs #smalltown #aesthetic #growingupinthe90s #millennial #millennialtok #1986 #response #react #water #indeed #newborn #baby #mom #breastfed ♬ Roslyn - Bon Iver & St. Vincent

“I’m sorry — IS THAT WATER,” one concerned viewer asked.

Rachel followed up with , “Indeed, it is”, writing “Sugar Water for Newborns circa 1986” in the video caption.

Once upon a time, sugar water was used as a bit of a cure-all for infants, helping fight off common colds, ease bellyaches, and everything in between.

And while some studies do show that sugar water can help ease pain, and certain hospitals do use it during painful procedures, professionals still suggest against administering it at home.

For one thing, babies don’t need water until they’re six months old. They get all the hydration they need from breastmilk or formula, according to WebMd.

Second, the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee says that any foods or beverages with added sugar should be avoided “during the first two years of life,” as it is likely to replace more nourishing foods and cause nutrient deficiency, and is “linked with increased risk of overweight or obesity.”

But for many parents today, this is not new news. Which made Rachel’s video so horrifying.

“As a new mom this genuinely is making me want to cry 😭 There was so much misinformation back then. Those poor babies,” one person wrote.

Of course, it could be worse. As one person shared, “My mom gave me Mountain Dew in my bottle 😳.” Yikes.

In another video, this one captioned “parenting before the internet” and shared by dad and TikTokker Vaughn Trainor, we see another bane of modern parenting—rice cereal.

Specifically, rice cereal being fed to newborns. Experts say that solid foods should not be introduced into a baby’s diet until at least four months old, when they can hold their head and sit upright on their own, start grabbing at things and show interest in food when the parents begin eating.

In this video, however, Trainor is one month old, laid back (also a big no no!) and being spoon fed by his mom, who is heard quoting the parenting magazine that suggested heavier things be eaten this way.

@mrvaughntrainor Parenting before the internet 🤣 i turned out alright 🤣🤣 #parenting #parentinghumor #90sparenting #babiesoftiktok #viral #funnyvideos ♬ original sound - Mrvaughntrainor

Over 5,000 people commented on this one, many of whom noted how this type of diet might influence common digestive issues many adults face.

And while there could be several factors contributing to this that go beyond what we were fed as babies, it is true that millennials seem to suffer the worst when it comes to gut health.

But it’s not just problematic food choices. Rachel shared yet another home video, this one titled “Nursery Tour circa 1986,” that showed her baby self lying in a crib surrounded by pillows, stuffed animals, and, for some reason, a mirror.

@nostalgicallyrachel Nursery Tour circa 1986 👶🏻 #nursery #baby #babytok #nurserytour #home #hometour #homemovie #homevideo #nostalgia #nostalgic #80s #90s #1990s #1980s #memories #family #throwback #80sbaby #90sbaby #childhood #childhoodmemories #wholesome #oklahoma #takemeback #vlog #mylife #history #vintage #retro #90skid #80skid #80saesthetic #90saesthetic #vhs #smalltown #aesthetic #growingupinthe90s #millennial #crib #cribsafety ♬ A Gentle Sunlight - James Quinn

But it’s not just problematic food choices. Rachel shared yet another home video, this one titled “Nursery Tour circa 1986,” that showed her baby self lying in a crib surrounded by pillows, stuffed animals, and, for some reason, a mirror.

…All of which can be life threatening and lead to Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID), if you ask the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Which is why this comment pretty much sums up everyone’s collective feeling:

“It’s a miracle any of us survived.”

And while we can obviously make the case for “I’m still here, so it couldn't’ have been that bad,” when you look at infant mortality statistics, which is the lowest it’s ever been worldwide, it’s hard to deny that maybe, just maybe, being more savvy about childcare could have something to do with that.

So, yes, many parents today might lean towards being more anxious by comparison. But it’s only because death is literally lurking at every corner! Yay vindication!

And as mortifying as some of these parenting behaviors might seem to us now, what doesn’t seem to change is parents wanting to raise a healthy kid, to the very best of their ability. We might have gentler, more science-backed ways to go about it, but the love remains the same.


This article originally appeared on 9.27.23

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Pop Culture

Mom has her Gen Z daughter rate 90s teenage heartthrobs and the reviews are so hilarious

We still love you, Zach Morris.

@caitlin.the.realtor/TikTok, used with permission

Wait, so 90's fashion is in, but 90's hair is out?

Every era has its own version of what’s attractive. And very rarely does that aesthetic hold power with the following generation. In fact, it often becomes the opposite of cool.

Just think of Elvis. He might have been a universal sex symbol for a time, but it also wasn’t long before his pompadour became passé. Same goes for Paul Newman’s rugged manliness, David Cassidy’s babyface, Tom Selleck’s mustache. Indeed, for everything a season.

Which brings us to the 90s. The age of beach blonde surfer boys (real surfing skills not required, but a plus). Of flannel, lots of flannel, and super chiseled bodies. Let’s not forget this was the dawning of the term “metrosexual,” and also the time period that brought us that Calvin Klein ad with Mark Wahlburg.

How exactly would these guys measure up with the Gen Z kids today?

That was the question Caitlin Baudhuin aimed to answer when she decided to have her Gen Z daughter rate teenage heartthrobs of the 90’s and 00s on a scale of 1-10.

Let’s just say…none of them made the cut. Which saddened many a millennial and Gen Xer.

First up: Zachery Ty Bryan, who played eldest brother Brad Taylor on “Home Improvement.”

Baudhuin’s daughter graciously gave Bryan a 3. That’s the numerical version of “meh.”

Next: James Van Der Beek from “Dawson’s Creek.”

Appalled, her daughter says “It's so bad. It's like, I don't even know.”

At this point, you must be thinking, “well, she must be a Joshua Jackson kind of gal.” As Baudhuin explains, you were either Team Dawson, played by Vanderbeek, or Team Pacey, played by Jackson.

But after being shown a picture of Jackson, Baudhuin’s daughter makes a face like she’s just had bad shrimp, and says, “That's two. The last one was a four, that one's so bad. He's so ugly.” Ouch.

Finally, Baudhuin’s Hail Mary is “Saved By The Bell”’s Mark-Paul Gosselaar, aka Zack Morris.
@caitlin.the.realtor Episode 1 of my daughter rating my teen hollywood heartthrobs of the 90’s. 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣 #greenscreen #90skids #90steenheartthrobs #dawsonscreek #teampacey ♬ original sound - Caitlin - Memphis, TN Realtor

Before ranking Gosselaar at a measly 2.5, her daughter says, “Why is his smile like, it looks like he's not even happy. It looks like he's fake smiling. And then like his hair, like why is that a sleek back?”

This last one seemed to hurt folks the most. “The disrespect for Zach Morris!” one person wrote. Meanwhile, another said that ranking him that low was “criminal.”

But wait, there’s more. Baudhuin did a round two, many heartthrobs inspired by viewer suggestions. See the victims below:

-Shane West from “A Walk To Remember” got a 3, primarily due to his spiky hair. Baudhuin’s daughter is clearly not a fan of 90’s hairstyles. To which her mother asks, “have you seen boy’s hair these days?” Fair point!

-Freddie Prince Jr. from “She’s all That.” Another 3.

-Joseph Gordon Levitt, as seen in his role for “10 Things I Hate About You.” Levitt got a whopping 4 or 5! Progress!

-Erik von Detten from “The Princess Diaries.” This time Baudhuin asked her daughter to “ignore the greasy hair.” Which must have worked, cause he got a 5.5, thus winning this unofficial beauty contest. Still brutal though.

@caitlin.the.realtor Part 2 of my daughter rating 90’s/early 2000’s heartthrobs. We have a sort of winner! 🎉 #greenscreen #90s #early2000s #heartthrobs #awalktoremember #princessdiariesmovie #shesallthat #10thingsihateabout ♬ original sound - Caitlin - Memphis, TN Realtor

So there you have it. Beauty trends indeed come and go for men too. And on the bright side, even if our childhood icons don’t have the Timothée Chalamet Effect, it’s nice to know that by and large the definition of heartthrob has become way more diverse and inclusive. Thanks for that Gen Z, even though your candidness is savage sometimes.

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Gen Xers are sharing the 15 things that people under 25 will 'never understand'

"Hello, and welcome to Moviefone!"

via Adria Berrocal Forcada/ Unsplash, Daniel Schludi/Unsplash and Sam Dan Truong/Unsplash

Casette tapes, film cameras and landlines were a big part of the pre-2000 world.

There have been a few momentous changes since the dawn of the new millennium, creating an invisible line between those born before and after. The big events that forever changed culture are the creation of the smartphone, dawn of social media and terror attacks on 9/11.

People who were born in 1999 or later have, for the most part, lived in a world where they were either too young to know what life was like before these events or weren’t born yet.

That’s not to say that one era is better or worse. But, when an entire generation has no idea what it is like to go through a day without being connected to the internet, we’re bound to eventually lose any understanding of living IRL 24/7.

Those of us who haven’t lived in a world without intense security while traveling will be less inclined to return to a time when it was easier to move through the world without fear. People who live in a time where everything is available on demand have no idea how much they should appreciate the convenience. Back in the day, if you missed a show, you may not ever have a chance to see it again in your entire life.

A Reddit user named Haunting_Ad_1224 posed a question to the AskReddit forum that got a lot of Gen Xers and older generations, nostalgic for the days before Y2K. They asked the forum, “What's something that people under 25 will never understand?” and received nearly 2,000 responses. The commenters talked a lot about the benefits of being able to disconnect while also sharing their nostalgia for the days of landlines and cassette tapes.

Here are 15 things that people under 25 will never understand.

1. Taping songs off the radio

"Waiting for a song to come on the radio so you can tape it but completely forgetting until it comes on then making a mad dash to the radio." — Collieman 1123

"Or having the dj talk over the intro." — HorselRockit

2. The Time Lady

"Calling from a landline to get the current time." — Surround726

3. Calling for movie times

"Calling your local theater for show times." — Andushan

"Moviefone and a notepad and pencil." — PerpetualGazebo

"Or checking the newspaper for show times." — ieatboys999

4. Talking to parents

"Calling your friend’s house on the landline and making small talk with their parents when they were the ones who answered until your friend got to the phone." — McVinney512

"Calling a girl you have a crush on but her mom answers and you have a 20-minute conversation because she sounds just like said girl until you say something embarrassing and she realizes she is not talking to her brother." — GlyohedArchitect

5. Life before the internet

"I'm as addicted to my phone as the typical teenager, but I'm old enough to remember when I'd get off work at the end of the day and there was no expectation that I was reachable until I came back to work the following day. Good times, didn't appreciate it enough back then." — Moshethemean

"The idea that being asleep, having dinner, or watching a show was a perfectly good reason why no one answered the phone." — Reavenas

6. Privacy

"Privacy is rapidly going away. But the root cause is people not valuing it. If you told people in the '70s that people 50 years later would be happy to have open mics to multiple corporate headquarters in their living rooms they would freak out. There's no way you could convince someone from the '70s that people would actually want that and not value their privacy in any substantive manner. I can barely understand it myself." — Dcnblues

7. Boredom

"Went to use the bathroom the other day while my phone was charging, resorted back to the old days, and read the stuff on shampoo bottles." — Hairyemmie

8. Dial-up internet tone

"Trying to sneak online with dial-up when you're supposed to be asleep. There was no muting those dial-up tones." — XxVerdantFlamesX

9. Film cameras

"Taking pictures, then waiting for them to be developed to see if they turned out okay. YEAH, I am really old lol." — Ranjoko

"… resulting in a few dozen cherished memories you will keep as treasures in a box or on a wall. Not thousands of no-effort shots in the cloud no-one will ever look at except perhaps AI image scanners." — Moose2342

10. Life before 9/11

"You ever see movies where family or a friend is at the gate waiting for someone to get off the plane to hug them? Yeah that. ... People could often even accompany you on the airplane to see you off, and then they'd leave the plane before departure." — -DementedAvenger-

11. Being a free kid

"Being kicked out of the house for the day during the summer and riding your bicycles around town and buying candy with the 50 cents you have to your name. No phones, no tablets, just finding your friends at the or whatever. Having that become the best day ever." — CapricornMonk

12. Commercial breaks

"The mad dash to go to the bathroom or heat up food before the commercials ended and your show came back on." — Leokina114

"Alternatively, painstakingly programming the clock on your vcr, and setting it up to record the show on a blank tape." — Griffin Flash

13. The power of channel 3

"Using channel 3 as the source to play video games or use the VCR." — Substantial-Cream-93

"Also, when the reception went out, we had to go up to the attic to fiddle with the antenna. TV static is also different - went from fuzzy white noise to digital blips. We watched so many shows through static but when the pixels blip it's gone. Also now it seems we lose service way more often than when TV wasn't all digital." — Shewholaughslasts

14. Aging

"How quickly they will become 50." — Icy_Newspaper3739

"This is no joke. There’s a saying that the days are long but the years are short. Perhaps the most accurate phrases ever uttered." — Junior-Gorg

15. Disappearing

"Being able to just 'disappear' for a while. Before cell phones, there was a time when people couldn’t get ahold of you at all times for any reason." — Yikester

"This is something I love about flying, there's no way to contact me since I've never paid for WiFi. No calls, emails, Whatsapp, can't mindlessly scroll Reddit or watch YouTube, just completely disconnected." — Dr-Kipper


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Joy

Comedian's song about life in the 90s has Gen X giggling with nostalgia

Ah, the good old days, when you had to choose between the phone or the internet.

ABC TV + iview/Facebook

Sammy J took us on a trip down memory lane.

Those of us who remember life before the internet love nothing more than to share "back in my day" stories with today's youngsters who've never had to try to get somewhere without GPS. When we tell our kids about dial-up internet, they look at us the same bewildered way we looked at our parents when they talked about party lines. So much fun.

Nothing splits the generations like what was considered advanced technology during our formative years, and one comedian has encapsulated that divide in an ode to the 1990s.

Sammy J sang "You'll Never Know What It's Like" at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and had the audience giggling along with recollections of life in the 90s. Driving around in the car with a big book of maps? Check. Making a collect call to tell your mom to pick you up but avoiding the collect call charges by telling her where you were instead of saying your name? Check. Agonizing over whether to take a photo because you only have 24 shots in your disposable camera? Check.

Younger generations will never know what it was like to live so primitively, it's true. But Gen X does, and this song is like taking a cold plunge into a pool of nostalgia.

Enjoy:

People loved the musical trip to the past.

"Thank you for taking me down memory lane! It was a blast 😀" wrote one commenter.

But some couldn't agree on whether young people have it better today or had it better in the 90s.

"All true! If only our teenagers knew who good they have it!" wrote one person.

"Life was so so good in the 90’s I feel lucky it didn’t have to grow up in this era 😕," shared another.

"God I miss the 90s!" wrote another. "Both my daughters always say they wish they grew up in the 90s bc it seemed so much fun and it was!!"

Kids today really will never know what those days were like, but that's okay. They'll be singing their own "back in my day" songs someday and marvel at how much has changed since they were young.

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