10 Photographic Reasons Why ’70s and ’80s Kids are Tougher Than Kids Today

July 4, 2023 By the80sruled Leave a Comment

When I think back to my childhood and teen years in the late ’70s and early ’80s, it truly is a miracle that I escaped with a few broken bones, a lot of bruises, and more strawberry knee scrapes than I care to remember. However, I wouldn’t trade being a kid in the ’70s and ’80s for anything. Today, almost every picture below would be frowned upon by today’s parents, but for us back then, it was just a whole lot of fun!

Enjoy this look back at 10 photographic reasons why ’70s and ’80s kids are tougher than kids today!

Kids today will never know the skill it takes to hold on for dear life when your uncle Roy decides he wants to see who he can throw off the merry go round first by spinning it as hard as he can!

It was common in the ’70s and ’80s to see kids climbing to the top of wrought iron monkey bars without a care in the world. Our parents didn’t mind. Heck, they encouraged it! “Go on little Billy, stop being a wimp and climb up to the top with the other big boys and girls!”

We made ramps out of anything, and of course, we had to jump over something, and that something was always one of our buddies. Safety equipment? What? Not a chance!

No seatbelt… Facing backwards… Kids will never know the joy of seeing an approaching 18-wheeler barreling down the highway towards you when you’re sitting in the back of a station wagon facing backwards.

When we were kids, not only did we drink water out of the hose, our parents encouraged it! “Thirsty? Turn on the hose and get some water. We’re not going inside any time soon, so you’d better drink up.”

If a pool didn’t have a diving board, there was no reason to get in it, and the higher the board, the better!

It’s a miracle we didn’t kill ourselves building and hanging out in our tree houses and tree “forts”, but it’s hard to explain how satisfying it was to sit “on top of the world” in our homemade fort in the trees!

Kids today will never know the thrill of riding one of these bad boys down a steep hill in the neighborhood with no helmet, no pads, and no parents around. We were one crash away from the most painful knee and elbow strawberries you’ve ever seen.

Not only was it common in the ’70s and ’80s, but our parents encouraged/made us ride in the bed of the truck.

Yep! We did this as well. I can still remember how quickly you could do a wheelie on a 3-wheeler.

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