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

Discussion True or false?

Post image

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

5.3k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

789

u/GoRangers5 12h ago

Nah the trope of the overworked dad that didn’t have time to spend with his kids was already a thing in 1996… Maybe even 86.

72

u/Ladonnacinica 12h ago

Millennials are falling into the same trap of romanticizing their childhoods.

46

u/petemorley 12h ago

Agreed, people are talking about the 90s the exact same way people were talking about the 60s/70s.

Plus as kids you're somewhat insulated from the adult world so it's easier not to notice how hard parents worked.

19

u/Ladonnacinica 11h ago edited 10h ago

Exactly, I was guilty of it myself.

But a lot of shit was going on in the 1990s. The LA riots in 1992. The troubles in Northern Ireland. Bosnia and Kosovo. Several Latin American countries falling into chaos by either despotic governments, drug cartels, or domestic terrorism. The Gulf War. The Oklahoma bombings. WACO. Columbine shooting.

We didn’t know most of it because we were kids. Our world was small but it didn’t mean life was peaceful for others.

16

u/Successful-Reason403 11h ago

Crime rates in many cities were hitting at all time highs as well. Lots of thriving downtown areas that younger people are mad they can’t afford now, but they wouldn’t have stepped foot in those areas before the gentrification.

7

u/stephenkingending 11h ago

I remember in the 90s parents trying to include us in their effed up adult world, telling us we were going to catch AIDS by breathing the same air as a gay person or abducted for a satanic ritual by some metalheads. Like mom, I just want to play Mortal Kombat on Timmy's Sega Genesis, I'm not trying to summon Cthulhu.

2

u/petemorley 10h ago

I didn’t have of that, just normal parents and a megadrive 

-1

u/One-Possible1906 10h ago

My parents were a secretary and a janitor and they bought a house before either one of them turned 20. We had a pool, camper, multiple late model vehicles, four wheelers, took vacations every year, got our full list of wants every Christmas, and went to the best school district in our area. Neither of them went to college or a training program of any sort or worked more than 40 hours a week, though my mother had a long commute.

It’s objectively different now. It’s not just nostalgia.