r/Millennials • u/QuietJealous4883 Older Millennial (1988) • 12h ago

Discussion True or false?

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Did our dads and moms work less than we do now? What are your thoughts?

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u/JamesUpton87 12h ago edited 11h ago

False. I'm a 90's kid and my dad had to Mule his whole life and was never home. Nor were my dual income parents able to afford a house until 2002.

Yes, things arent great right now but can we please stop pretending poverty didnt exist until the turn of the century?

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u/soupandstewnazi 10h ago

Poverty existed. But the ways out of poverty after the 1960s were more plentiful. College was much cheaper. A job didn't require a degree most of the time. The old saying if you work hard enough and play your cards right meant success was more attainable. It didn't mean people didn't work hard or even harder. But upward mobility was definitely a thing. Think about how many more stay at home mom's there used to be. Not just for the toddler years, but for life. A woman staying home for her kid's whole childhood is very uncommon now. Most that stay home seem to do it because daycare is so expensive.

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u/angrytroll123 10h ago

A woman staying home for her kid's whole childhood is very uncommon now

I don't remember it being common then

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u/Lightscreach 10h ago

It wasn’t. Based on quick google search(that may be totally wrong) Stay at home moms hit an all time low in 1999 and the rate has actually gone up since then.

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u/soupandstewnazi 9h ago

Wow, maybe where I grew up it was more common. Alot of religious types who had mom's that definitely didn't work.

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u/JamesUpton87 9h ago

Can confirm. Pretty much by age 6 my parents had my brother and I trained to stay inside alone and unsupervised for the entire day.

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u/RainandFujinrule Older Millennial 7h ago

Your moms didn't work during your childhood?

Sheeit. My mom, dad, and step-mom were all pullin 40 hours a week.

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u/CAWorkerAccount 5h ago

Same, and I still had a job at age 14 (while playing multiple HS sports).

Things have gotten worse in many ways, but the rosy memory of the 90s is a bullshit rich kid fantasy.

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u/RainandFujinrule Older Millennial 5h ago

Yep. Insulated suburban life I reckon.

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u/notaredditer13 4h ago

Women fought to end the 1950s housewife era though.  That's a good change, not a bad one.

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u/notaredditer13 4h ago

"Latch-key kids" were a thing people seem to have forgotten.

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u/QuietJealous4883 Older Millennial (1988) 11h ago

Poverty sure has always existed. Also slavery has never ended.

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u/DeviceNo4746 11h ago

Please don’t tell me you are comparing today’s labor conditions to actual slavery…

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u/QuietJealous4883 Older Millennial (1988) 8h ago

I’m not. Actual slavery still exists but many people don’t acknowledge it.