Gen-X Was Raised A Little Differently — 'It's 10 PM, Do You Know Where Your Children Are?'
Before cell phones and helicopter parenting, Gen-X kids roamed freely — and somehow survived.
Jacqui Leigh Meyerson | Unsplash Many folks believe Gen-X was raised a little differently — by wolves — as we ran feral through the woods.
Some think we could drive a car by age 6, and cook a five-course dinner by age 8. As a member of Gen-X, I was not raised by wolves. I could not drive a car when I was in second grade, although I did try to drive my grandpa’s Ford LTD when I was 13. It ended badly, but not as badly as the time I ran a boat up onto the shore and into a tree. Or flipped a golf cart because my cousin dared me to drive as fast as possible over a hill.
Gen-X was raised differently. We didn’t have bike helmets or elbow pads. If we fell, we hit the ground and bled. And we walked home with a flap of skin hanging from our knee.
Upon arrival, our parents would do three things: Wash the open wound with warm water and Dial soap, spray Bactine all over the knee, and slap some bandages on. Every Gen-X child heard “It stings because it’s working” while the Bactine was applied. We never knew if our tears were from the injury or the fire-like sensation of Bactine “working.”
We grew up with commercials that reminded our parents they had children. This is a real commercial.
Celebrities looked into a camera and asked our parents if they knew where their kids were. We probably would have been safer if wolves had raised us.
Lyudmila2509 / Shutterstock
I spent almost every summer with my grandparents in Missouri. I would fly, by myself, from San Diego to Los Angeles, and from Los Angeles to Kansas City starting when I was 7. I was fine. I had fun.
Summers in Missouri were admittedly pretty feral. I would leave the house after breakfast and not come back until dinner. I spent the entire day with my cousins.
We rode bikes, roller skated, went to the pool, fished, played in sprinklers, played tag, you name it.
There was always an adult around to feed us, and we would always eat outside. And yes, I drank from a garden hose.
Gen-X grew up in one of the most tumultuous periods of American history. We were born during the Vietnam War and started school during Watergate.
Gen-X had an interesting skincare regimen when we hit puberty. I look at teenagers now and laugh. They’re slathering their little faces with Glow Recipe serums, La Mer moisturizer, and Peter Roth eye patches. We did not do that.
We had a Buf Puf, Noxzema, Sea Breeze antispetic, and if we had zits, Clearasil. A Buf Puf was an SOS pad for your face. Remember a few years ago when skinfluencers began warning everyone about the St. Ives Apricot Skin Scrub? Pfft. That’s nothing compared to taking a tear-shaped steel wool pad and ripping your face open.
Noxzema was everything. It was a cleanser, a face mask, a moisturizer, and a sunburn remedy. We needed sunburn remedies because we didn’t use sunscreen. We poured baby oil mixed with iodine over our bodies so we could become the color of a mahogany coffee table.
Sea Breeze antiseptic stripped all the natural oils from our skin. We soaked a cotton ball with Sea Breeze and rubbed it vigorously around our faces after removing the top layer of skin with the Buf Puf and Noxzema. If we had zits, we used a textured Clearasil wipe, then we applied more Noxzema.
A lot of Gen-Xers look younger than we are. I don’t understand how. Between the lack of sunscreen and the horrible things we did to our faces, we should barely have skin. But here we are, trying to make up for it by using SPF 100 when it’s raining and wearing giant hats.
We were also the first generation to hear the term “dysfunctional family,” which might explain why so many of us ended up in therapy.
It turns out that being ignored by our parents and raising ourselves wasn’t healthy. We could have used a little more love, a little more care, and a sense of security.
Gen-X was raised differently. Not better, possibly worse, but differently. We grew up too fast, we learned to be independent too young, and we took those lessons into adulthood. Some of us recovered and became better parents than our parents. Some of us didn’t. I was one of the lucky ones.
Younger generations can make fun of Gen-X, and call us useless or stupid, that’s fine. We know how tough we are. We used our metal lunchboxes as weapons against bullies, we never got out of PE, and we never got participation trophies for anything. Television stations had to air commercials to remind our parents we existed.
Most of us turned out okay. We’ve got scars from falling out of trees and getting stabbed with pencils, and internal ones from the way we were raised, but we’re okay. And if some Gen-Z TikToker calls me useless, I promise not to smash your face in with a Wonder Woman lunchbox.
Erin Nanasi has been writing online for nearly 20 years, with pieces featured on MSNBC, Huffington Post, and Bill Maher. She is the co-founder of the original We Are Woman and a member of RAINN's Speaker Bureau.
