When I look back on my 1990s childhood, it’s hard not to feel nostalgic. We roamed for miles without supervision, riding our bikes, building dens and swimming in streams. After school, we did crafts or played board games and, though the internet existed, my parents would boot me off to use the landline. Media was tangible – tapes, CDs, VHS – and often consumed as a family. I still recall the thrill of going to the video shop to choose a film.
It’s normal to feel like this, especially once you have babies of your own, and the social media algorithms know it. In the three years since I had my son and started writing the Guardian’s Republic of Parenthood column, I’ve noticed a huge upswing of interest in “90s parenting” and, this year, the trend seems to have exploded. Former 90s kids are in the thick of it, trying to work out how to parent our own children. There’s a feeling that huge advances in technology have resulted in a commensurate loss. But what of? Is it possible to get it back? And was parenting really better back then?
