"People Today Would Find This Deeply Problematic": 19 Things Kids Used To Do That You'd Never Do Now (2025)

Recently, redditor @clumsypandaaaa asked, "What's something people did for fun that would totally confuse younger generations today?" The responses are a fascinating look at how technology, health and safety rules, and culture have altered how kids spend their free time. Here are 19 responses that stood out:

Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

1. "My friend's dad used to take them to the airport to give their mother a break once a month. They'd go into departures and look at planes taking off and landing. This was way before security went super tight and flying was a luxury most people couldn't afford."

Shanina / Getty Images/iStockphoto

—PaddyCow

2. "Playing with mercury. My parents did this at school and at home. I played with asbestos..."

—Laylahlay

3. "Lay outside with lemon juice in my hair, Tropicana oil smeared all over my body, and a book. My neighbor also surrounded herself with a foil reflector."

4. "Grabbing your remote, going to the neighbors, looking through their window, and changing the channel on them was PRICELESS!!"

—Slainlion

5. "You had to organize a trip to a certain location with a group of friends. Like driving to a concert with five friends, let's say. None of you has a cellphone. Somehow, it all comes together, and everybody shows up at the right time at the right place. It often involved sitting around waiting for a phone call or someone to just show up. I think many young people today would find this deeply problematic."

6. "Prank calling people. I don't imagine too many kids wanting to pick up the phone to call a stranger and put themselves in an awkward situation. They're too awkward these days, and they would rather go online to annoy people."

—Adriano-Capitano

7. "I was just watching Mallrats this weekend and remembered how great and fun hanging at the mall was. Especially when you could run into your different friend groups without planning ahead of time."

8. "My dad would throw coins into the backyard and tell us to go look for them to keep us busy. We'd be out there searching for the coins and feeling rich when we found them. Then we'd walk up to the gas station to buy candy with what we found. I tried this game with my niece and nephew, but they just weren't motivated by coins. Maybe it should have been a Roblox or Amazon gift card."

—Inevitable_Tone3021

9. "Playing on an 8-bit computer and waiting 10 minutes for a cassette tape with a game on it to load."

10. "We would watch home movies and show slides from a slide projector. Almost all American homes had a portable screen, a slide projector, and an 8-millimeter projector. People would come over to see your home movies and slides."

—PedalSteelBill

11. "Going to see Rocky Horror every Friday night and running around the theater."

12. "Sunday drives. Dad would just load us kids and drive around. He would say, 'Which way should we turn? I wonder where we will end up.'"

—Marciamallowfluff

13. "Arrange your entire day around a TV show that was on at a specific time and would probably never be shown again."

14. "Driving up and down the main drag of town. You and your friends would all hop in the car, just drive up and down the street, and stop when you see someone you knew. You'd hang out for a bit and maybe go get something to eat. And then you'd just keep driving around."

—erinn1986

15. "Having a paper route before school or after. One summer, I did both. My morning route was three miles from home. I rode my bike there in the dark, collected my papers from the drop off, delivered, and then rode home. On Sunday, I had over 100 papers. I was 13 that year."

16. "Putting on shows for the neighbors. We would do variety shows and plays. One time we did a circus."

—JoyfulNoise1964

17. "Building treehouses and forts in the woods. We would get scraps from nearby construction areas and scrounge for things all the time to build them. My first kiss was way up in a high treehouse we built."

18. "My dad would put us in the end of a sleeping bag, spin us around for momentum, and throw us into a leaf pile. Good times."

—lilabethlee

19. Finally, "We (all the neighbor kids) played 'guns'. Lots of kids had toy guns, and we'd chase each other all over the neighborhood pretending to shoot each other, sometimes cutting through yards and hopping fences. Some kids who didn't have toy guns (my family) used pieces of wood. I had a 2x4 piece of wood that was roughly rifle-shaped. No idea who thought of it. It was pretty much tag but yelling at each other, 'You're dead', and 'No, you're dead!' In retrospect, this was a pretty grim game."

Have another example of a childhood activity that kids today could never understand? Let us know in the comments or anonymous form below!