This article includes links I have been paid to include but all opinions are my own of what kids today wouldn’t understand.
There are so many things that children like my Ben will never completely understand! Or other things they wont understand until they are older. I hope you all have a good giggle reading through these and reminiscing.
Some things kids today just don’t understand
Cassette tapes and recording the charts but stopping it before the DJ spoke.
Videotapes and having to rewind before you can watch it.
Playing outside and having to be home when the streetlights came on.
Payphones and having to ring home if you are going to be late.
The excitement when a new fifth TV channel (Channel 5) was launched.
Having to turn the hot water on before you wanted a bath.
Cars without central locking where you had to reach and unlock each door, no seatbelts in the back and winding the windows down yourself without a button.
Computer games that needed big cassettes to load and you were lucky to have a joystick.
Sweets for 1p and going to the shop with 30p and getting a bag full of sweets.
Typewriters – enough said!
Being able to get money back if you returned glass bottles to the shop.
Recording TV on videos if you are going to miss something and then having to find a video with a gap of the right length to record something.
Smoking areas in pubs and restaurants.
Ringing the speaking clock to find out the correct time.
Taking photos and then having to wait a week to discover that half have a finger over the lens and the others have stickers on saying “poor quality”.
Buying “a quarter” of sweets or paying 10p for a Freddo bar.
A few more to make you laugh
Having to use the house phone to phone friends which were attached to the wall in the hall and then sit in the hall talking to them in code whenever your mum walked past!
The tiredness of having been up all night with a baby – kids will never understand this until they are parents themselves.
The test card was shown on TV channels before programmes started in the morning.
Having to know people’s phone numbers or look through a phone directory for them.
Being able to buy a drink and chocolate bar with a pound coin not having to choose one or the other!
Hair falling out and wondering if that means you are old!
Not being able to contact friends instantly to share gossip – we had to write notes to each other in class or chat during or before/after school. If we didn’t chat at that time we had to arrange to meet or call from the house phone. No text messages, no social media, no snap chat etc.
Screens that were just black and green and there were no touch screens.
When a cassette got unravelled and you had to use a pencil to sort it out.
Renting videos from a video shop and then getting fined if you didn’t rewind them before you returned them.
And finally
No kids TV during the day when you were off school ill.
Only being able to see music videos once a week on Top of the Pops and looking forward to the Christmas day edition.
The toys that they think are new but we know were around when we were kids. Kids today think they have just been released!
Reversing the charges from a call box when you had no money so you could tell your parents you had missed the bus.
The TV trolley at school, or even before that having to go to the TV room and watch a tiny TV for a BBC 2 schools programme
Sports day that involved lots of races and no health and safety concerns.
Dial-up internet where you had to wait for ages listening to horrible screeching for it to get a connection so you could do anything on the internet. Then having to stop so your mum could use the phone as you couldn’t do them both at the same time!
Oh the joys! Thanks for that Jen, brought back a lot of memories and made me chuckle!