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Nobody wants to relive this.

When adults compare themselves to “kids today,” two somewhat opposing views tend to happen at once. There's both rose-colored nostalgia (“the '90s were a simpler time!” “let’s go back to before we had screens!”) and a sense of superiority when it comes to facing challenges (“kids today are soft!” “I had to walk to school uphill in the snow both ways!").

Regarding the latter, perhaps a lot of that can be attributed to a cultural shift that’s more child-centered. This has led to a quantifiable increase in the number of “sheltered” kids, according to a new Harris Poll. Kids who never walked along in a grocery aisle, talked with a neighbor without their parents, walked/biked somewhere (without a chaperone…certainly nothing like the childhood many of us '70s/'80s/'90s kids grew up in.

This sparked a conversation among Gen Xers and Millennials on TikTok when someone asked, “What’s something we survived as kids that would absolutely emotionally destroy today’s kids?” Woo boy, did folks deliver. Dodgeballs flying at their face, handwriting words in cursive for hours on end, waiting weeks to get back terrible pictures…no one today could handle that. And those are just some of the examples. Keep reading for more.

1. "Going all day at school without a water bottle. We might get a small drink of water from the water fountain at recess, that’s it. Take away a younger person’s water bottle today for five minutes, and they act like they’ve been in the desert for three days without a drop of water and will die of dehydration."

2. "Having to talk to people to get your questions answered. For everything." — meanwhile, I've seen today's kids have full-blown panic attacks simply about having to ask a waiter, "May I please get a cheeseburger?"

3. "No binge mode. If you wanted to watch The X-Files, you had to be in the house every Friday night while everyone partied. For four years."

"If you missed your episode, you might never see it."

3. "Having to encounter everything 'by chance.' Favorite song on the radio, favorite movie on TV… made it so much more rewarding, but we’ll never experience that emotion again. Like running into a friend out in the wild."

4. "Munching on snacks at 1 am watching Faces of Death."

For those unfamiliar, Faces of Death is a 1978 American horror film that shows scenes of gruesome deaths from around the world, both real and re-enacted. Fun, right?

gen x, millennials, gen z, gen alpha, boomers generational humor, tiktok, generational differences This movie earned 45% on Rotten Tomatoes. Amazon.com

5. "Dodgeball. I just played gaga ball with a bunch of Generation Alphas and omg, these kids are not gonna be okay."

What is gaga ball, you ask? A variation that's gentler, faster-paced, and more accessible. It’s Dodgeball Lite, essentially. And honestly, it's a legitimate improvement from the needlessly savage original.

- YouTube www.youtube.com

6. "Having to write everything in cursive from third grade on in pen. Writing by hand the rough draft, then the 2nd rough draft, then the final draft."

Man, lots of thoughts about handwriting, actually…

"Having to write a research paper while properly citing sources in the required format using only books, newspapers or microfiche from the library. And having to find all that by using the Dewey Decimal System. Also, no spell or grammar check to find our mistakes for us."

"Having to write a rough draft, having a classmate mark it up with errors, re-write it for the teacher to review with more mark-ups, and then having to write the final draft in pen, sometimes in cursive lol."

"That bump on the side of your middle finger from handwriting everything."

7. "Being bored. Kids today don’t know what real boredom is."

More specifically…

8. "Driving with your parent with NO FORM of entertainment. Just look out the window."

Even worse…

9. "Being trapped in the car with your smoker parents… with windows up. And of course, zero functioning seat belts."

10. "Babysitting infants and other small children when you yourself were only 12."

11. "Not being able to see the photographs before they get developed when using disposable cameras/rolls of film in the little black tubes."

12. "Dial-up internet and how it disconnected when someone else made a phone call."

13. "Driving without using GPS."

"Or when MapQuest was a thing and we had to print out directions to follow! I drove cross country with twenty pages of directions hahahaha."

14. "Trying to follow makeup tutorials that were just blocks of text in Cosmo magazine. No visuals. 🤣"

15. "Forgetting your key and having to wait from 3:45 pm until 6:00 pm when your mom finally gets home. No snacks, no water."

16. "Eating whatever is served, regardless of whether you like it or hate it. There was no asking what we wanted to eat for dinner or what sounded good to us. Nasty pot pie with peas? Eat it. Liver and onions that smell like absolute death? Eat it. And you ain't getting down from the table until your plate is clean — and they meant it. It could be all the way until bedtime. You not getting down. Period. My sister fell asleep face-first into her plate once."

17. "Having to find a library book through the card catalog to know its location."

18. "Calling your friend’s house and talking to their parents first when they pick up the phone. Small talk and communication skills in general have taken a huge hit."

19. "Pooping without a phone."

20. "The TV used to cut to nothing at night. literally the TV would just show the flag 'til the next day… Good night, America."

21. "You only got three lives in a video game, and when you died, you had to start from the very beginning!!"

22. "Blowing and smacking Nintendo games to make them work or not glitch."

23. "Having homework from all classes due the next day! 😂"

24. "Having to rewind a cassette tape with a pencil after being unraveled inside the cassette player, hoping it doesn’t twist while rewinding."

- YouTube www.youtube.com

25. “Those metal pedals on our bikes, hitting your shin cause you missed the pedal or riding with no shoes on."

26. "Having to cover all textbooks with paper bags from the local grocery store. The paper bags had outlines on how to cover your textbooks. Hated this for years. It eventually stopped in high school, possibly 11th grade."

27. "Actually going to a potential employer to ask if they’re hiring and for an application."

28. "The loud ticking of the massive analog clock on the wall during a test. The whole room silent. But the ticking of clock as loud as a rock concert. Every second click click click. I can still hear it in my nightmares. You know y’all younginz can’t tell time unless it’s digital."

29. "When I was in elementary school, lunch was still paid for with cash UNLESS you were a poor kid with free lunch. Then, they gave you a bright yellow laminated card and everyone in your class knew you were poor. 😏"

30. "Blackouts. They will NEVER survive blackouts the way we did back then."

31. "Chickenpox!"

32. "Not knowing if The Blair Witch Project was real or not."

33. "Roman candle fights."

Ah yes, pointing fireworks at each other. What could possibly go wrong?

- YouTube www.youtube.com

34. “Climbing and falling off six-foot monkey bars onto plain concrete."

35. "The merry-go-round...pure steel in the summer."

36. "The threat of pulling 20 to life for my LimeWire bootlegs. The media had me feeling like young Capone."

37. "Thinking the world will end when Y2K comes."

38. "Computer crashing while just putting the finishing touches on your school report and you didn’t hit save."

39. "Having to manually change the channel on the TV and if the knob broke looking frantically for pliers!!! Don’t get me started on the aluminum foil on the TV antennas!"

40. "I was home alone in the morning and got myself fed, dressed and walked myself to afternoon Kindergarten."

41. "Non-stop bullying was normal. 😩"


42. "Riding in the back of a pickup truck down the highway."

43. "A dentist that doesn’t numb your gums before jabbing you with a needle."

44. "Having that ONE copy of the video you and your friends made, greatest memories ever, and then your dad tapes over it for a 90-second Tyson fight."

…and lastly…

45. "The Challenger Explosion, and no trauma counseling after. We were expected to just move on to the next class and go about our day."

That said, we can probably all agree that in reality, kids today endure plenty—we didn't exactly have to contend with active shooter drills, cyberbullying, etc.—and are incredibly resilient in their own way. This was more lighthearted than anything else. Or, at the very least, a fun and traumatic romp down memory lane for us olds.

Joy

Gen Zer tries to dub Gen X 'the worst generation.' Then a millennial steps in.

Her tongue-in-cheek warning reminds us all why you don't mess with the latchkey kids.

Gen X (left) Gen Z (Right)

There's something to be said about the now well documented sibling dynamic between Millennials and Gen Z. But before that bond existed, many Millennials grew up with Gen X siblings, learning early on not to disturb the sleeping bear.

Unfortunately, some folks in the younger generation, i.e Gen Z, didn't get this memo. One brave...or naive Gen Zer decided to declare that Gen X is "the worst generation" seemingly unprompted.

Young Padawan, Gen X minds their business grumbling through life unless someone summons them. We don't summon them.

gen x, millennials, gen z, gen z vs gen x, gen z vs millennials, millennials vs gen x, generational humor Yoda is not happy about this. media2.giphy.com

In a stitched video, millennial Laura High gave a succinct cliff's notes version of why it's best to not speak negative thoughts on Gen X aloud.

"I love Gen X. We all love Gen X...we all love Gen X," she said before bringing the camera close enough to whisper.

"Ok here's the thing, you do not seem to understand who Gen X is, okay? Gen X is Boomers if they knew how to turn a document into a PDF, okay. They do not Karen out. They get quiet and they get revenge," she warned.

The millennial then shared the secret kept by her generation: "we do not summon the latchkey kids unless it's our literal only last resort." She advised the unknowing Gen Zer to go to the edge of the woods to leave offerings to appease any Gen Xers that would likely be offended by the video. Commenters agreed with her sentiment.

@laurahigh5

Do you also like pissing off beelzebub for funzies? #genx #millennial #genz #generations #lol #joke #80s #vhs #movie #foryou #foryoupage #fyp #fypシ゚viral #fypage

"There is a reason millennials leave Gen X alone, and they learned it the hard way. My fellow Gen Z’s will learn soon… very soon," one commenter said..

"Elder Gen Z raised by two Gen X parents. I do NOT back the younger half of Gen Z on this. I’m running into the woods on their behalf and leaving Ferris Bueller for my dad and a DQ blizzard for my mom," another echoed.

"Last thing she will hear from the woods, Red Rover Red Rover, we call Karen Hashtag over," said a third.

If you've never played Red Rover with Gen Xers, just know you were lucky to have your head still attached to your shoulders after the game was over. There were no tears allowed and no telling your parents, they were gone anyway. In shot: Gne Xers are ruthless, and it's best not to cross them. Seriously.

Thankfully, Gen Xers are also open to peace offerings. Here are a few of their suggestions:

"I will accept ding dongs (in original foil) and a VHS of “the last star fighter” I will also except a mix tape if it include at mix of metal, new wave, and Yaz,"

"We will also accept any of the original Star Wars trilogy, Star Trek 2, Raiders, or Die Hard…though John Hughes films will likely will be the safest choice."

Moral of the story: tread lightly Gen Z. Tread very lightly. If you hear someone clinking together empty glass Coke bottles outside your door, do not come out and play. It's a trap.

gen x, millennials, gen z, gen z vs gen x, gen z vs millennials, millennials vs gen x, generational humor If looks could kill…media3.giphy.com

This article originally appeared last year.

A group of Memphis grandmas save toddlers and hold man until police come.

This summer in South Memphis, a group of grandmothers witnessed something horrific. Instead of looking the other way, however, the women worked together to become heroes in their community. The incident happened outside of a local gas station across the street from an apartment complex. One of the women heard screaming before seeing a man attempting to drag two small children into his car. The children were just one and two years old.

No one knows how they'll react when they notice someone in need of help. Most people hope they and others will have the wherewithal to spring into action when they see someone in need, but until a possibly risky situation arises, the average person can only hope they'll act heroically.

memphis; memphis grandmothers; grandmas save toddlers; community saves toddlers; memphis grandmas save kids Suspect in handcuffs as officer observes the scene.Photo credit: Canva

In this situation, the kids and the group of grandmothers had no connection to one another; they were complete strangers. However, the elderly women thought the kids appeared to be in extreme danger and were willing to risk their lives to save them. One of the women involved was Shirley Anderson. Anderson told WREG News Channel 3 that the man the children were with claimed that both children somehow fell off of the bathroom sink when he was first confronted. They didn't buy his story.

"He said they fell off of that sink in the bathroom. We don't think so because of all their bruises, the neck swelling on both of those babies," Anderson explains to the station.

memphis; memphis grandmothers; grandmas save toddlers; community saves toddlers; memphis grandmas save kids Police activity behind caution tape on a city street.Photo credit: Canva

Anderson wasn't at the scene for the initial confrontation. She heard women yelling for help while driving down the road and witnessed one of the women pulling the kids out of the arms of the man accused of abusing them. "She managed to get the babies out of his arms, passed them back to the grannies. We locked the babies in this washer [laundromat] back here," Anderson says.

Once the children were safe inside the laundromat, the grandmothers comforted them while awaiting help. The man reportedly attempted to flee the scene, but the grandmothers remaining outside were not going to let him get away. They ran after the man, tracking him to a nearby apartment complex. Outside of the complex, a few younger men witnessed the women chasing down and attempting to restrain the man. Immediately, those men sprang into action as well.

"We apprehended him down the street at the apartments until the police came, and a little street justice," Anderson said before adding, "Usually, people will keep on going. This lot right here was full of grandmamas yesterday, you hear me? Grandmothers. They showed up and they showed out. We had a few kings that did what they supposed to do. They apprehended him, and held him down, and a little street justice until the police came. So as a community, I'm proud of Memphis right now."

The children were taken to the hospital, where they were declared to be in critical condition. There is currently no information on whether the man, 21-year-old Kae'Ren Pullen, is related to the children in any way, but, according to reports, the situation stemmed from some sort of domestic disturbance. Pullen is currently charged with two counts of child abuse and two counts of child neglect. At this time, there isn't an update on the health status of the children involved.

Joy

Pizzeria owner spots people eating from his dumpster, and has an entirely unexpected response

“I don't even know how to start this but here goes..Please do not eat out of our dumpster."

Heights Pizza Man/Facebook

A photo of the pizza left out for anyone who needed it along with a thank-you letter

After Chris Kolstad, owner of Heights Pizza Man in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, noticed more and more people fishing out pizzas from his dumpster, he decided it was time to take action. Not out of spite, but out of kindness.

On a Facebook post, Kolstad wrote:

“I don't even know how to start this post but here goes..Recently, we've noticed a rapidly increasing volume of evidence of people eating out of our dumpster. Please do not eat out of our dumpster. Nobody deserves that.

heights pizza man, pizza, pizza delivery, pizza near me, kindness, free pizza Kolstad's first Facebook postHeights Pizza Man/Facebook

If you are that desperate for food, please come ask. If you are too embarrassed to ask, find a way to call us and ask if there is a way to leave a small cheese pizza outside the back door or something. You don't even have to see us. If you are the ones doing so, leave me a note and we will find a way to leave any extras or mistakes out back so you have something to eat without going through the trash.

If you see this, I will be leaving a cheese pizza outside the back door in the spot you've been leaving boxes.”

Sure enough, Kolstad showed a picture of the cheese pizza left in the back, free to whoever needed it.

heights pizza man, pizza, pizza delivery, pizza near me, kindness, free pizza A photo of the cheese pizza left out by Kolstad.Heights Pizza Man/Facebook

But that’s not where the story ends. In fact, it was only the beginning. Pretty soon, other businesses began offering help as well. And when Kolstad put up a Venmo donation link that would go to fund local organizations that support people in need, individuals chipped in too, to the tune of $4,000.

One of the organizations being helped is Southern Anoka Community Assistance (SACA), a nonprofit food shelf that serves 55,000 individuals each year, giving out over 950,000 pounds of food annually, according to this website.

Kolstad would later post a handwritten thank-you letter he received from one of the anonymous families he fed, which commended him for helping those who are “struggling.”

heights pizza man, pizza, pizza delivery, pizza near me, kindness, free pizza A thank you note written by one of the families Pizza Man helped. Heights Pizza Man/Facebook

“What you guys are doing is amazing…this act of kindness from you to our family is so appreciated.”

“This is why we do what we do,” Kolstad wrote in the caption.

Needless to say, people who saw this story were more than a little uplifted.

“One small act of kindness can change the entire community. Here is the proof. Thank you for what you are doing, it’s so inspiring and I hope other businesses follow your lead.”

“One of the best things in the world is people helping people, thank you Pizza Man!”

“That is so awesome of you to acknowledge what’s happening and offer to help people without putting them in a situation that might make someone feel uncomfortable and offer alternatives. When I was in high school I worked at a pizza place and they always kept all of the mistake pizzas & leftover pizzas from the buffet, and set them aside for a local food shelf & homeless shelter. You guys are the best!”

Here’s to the business owners just like Kolstad, who never forget to put compassion first.