My twin daughters will turn ten in 2 weeks, and just recently, one of them sincerely asked if I watched Mr. Beast as a kid, and was incredibly surprised when I admitted that this guy is actually a whole generation younger than me. Yes, kids sometimes make us feel like dinosaurs - that is, incredibly ancient.
If you needed proof - here's this viral thread on X (former Twitter), where moms and dads share stories about how a normal conversation with their kid turned out to be another unnecessary reminder that we are all 'fossils.' However, if we put aside the slight sadness, then all these tweets just look really amusing.
More info: X

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)
This post may include affiliate links.
And this is why "when I was your age it was uphill both to and home to school!" now seams more likely.. 🙃
😂😂 my Dad used to add that it was snowing and they had no feet 🙄😂
Load More Replies...Until I was around 11, my mom wouldn’t let me use google if I had a question, she would make me check every single book we had on the subject, then try to find out myself if that failed. Then if I could not find anything she would look it up. I hated it but looking back I’m so glad she did that.
Hahahahahaha my grandma would spend ALL afternoon taking to her sister's in Arkansas and I wouldn't be able to use dial up. Remember ADSL? Remember when computers looked like giant plastic typewriters?
I lived near "The 2 Steves" when they invented Apple (PCs, etc)
Load More Replies...My daughter asked if it was black and white when I was a kid. I was born in '85.
How silly. Color started back in the late 60s.
Load More Replies...Arrghhhh....I remember any damn time I had a question re homework and my Dad would go look in encyclopedia 😂🙄
Omg he would tell me to go look...why is there no edit on here...lol
Load More Replies...I (a fourteen year old) as a child would sit down and read our encyclopedias and dictionary for fun. we had separate books in alphabetical order and I would read for hours. I don't know why I did it but I did and if I went back in time I would rip up the s book because that was how my sex ed started
Don't share your age online. Didn't you take an Internet safety Anything?
Load More Replies...*I* no longer know how to use a library - they got rid of the card catalog system!
Load More Replies...Coasters are nice. Get yourself some coasters, use them and feel proud of yourself. They're super cheap.
I'm not sure why, but this comment just really had me rolling. Delightful.
Load More Replies...That's funny till you realize a lot of the aviation industry in this modern era STILL USE FLOPPY DRIVES. Go look it up. It's a modern age horror story.
I worked at a large US university that was running an accounting and payroll DOS based system from the mid-80s until 1/1/2021.
Load More Replies...Wow. I paid a typist at a typing shop to type up my main dissertation! Very, very few people had personal computers. Because of my dad's job we had a BBC Micro, and I was able to type up and print out a smaller dissertation (that I wrote by hand first) to save myself some money.
The post is from 2018. Doesn't mean the thesis was done that same year.
Load More Replies...Robin Williams as Peter Pan: "Are you related to Mighty Mouse?" Random internet reviewer: "Who is Mighty Mouse?" Me [screaming internally]
My 13yo soul crumbled and died when the 4yo beside me in the theater asked this question...
Load More Replies...What's Indiana Jones? Isn't that like, a state? Or like a city in a state, Jones?
An Indiana jones is an addiction to the Hoosier state. It was the breaded pork tenderloin sandwiches that got me hooked.
Load More Replies...Even when you have nothing to say, you manage to make up some bs...
Load More Replies...If we abstract from the fact that we really are getting older with every single day, then the whole point is that children, whether ours or not, often tell us the truth - or what they consider to be the truth, to our face. Various social boundaries and restrictions haven't yet become entrenched in their minds - so we get funny dialogues and scenes like these when adults do realize their age.
I can top that. I was teaching preschoolers about dinosaurs, and a three year old asked me if I was there when the asteroid killed them all! I'll give her points for thinking I could somehow survive a mass extinction event.
My dad likes black and white westerns and all the pictures of him as a kid are black and white. When my daughter was about she looks at him asks Papa when did the world get color? I died my dad was shocked.
Load More Replies...When teaching them about the Cold War, one of my high school students asked me how I managed to dodge the draft. I was puzzled. He was asking about the Vietnam War... Dude, I am 40...
NO STOP! When I was little my little smart a*s self said "Hey mom, you were there, how were the pyramids built?" 😂👏
This reminds me of a story my Latin teacher told us. She had a student who thought she was alive during the American Revolution. 🤣
Or the movie going from the expensive to the more affordable category
Searching the returns cart to find the popular movie before it's put back on the shelf.
but i sorta wiII, because I borrow books from the Iibrary and it's a pain seeing it not in the sheIves
Here's a real thing though... I borrowed this book... pub. in the late 60's.. it was obviously a hand made book... silk clothe over the cover leafs... obvious local or one of a kind paper with all the marks. Everything is this is a hand made book... in this library in this city ... heres the thing that pushed me. No one... NOT ONE PERSON.. no one NO ONE have ever taken it out until me... it had languished there from the 60's for decades...no one had read it.. no one cared for it. so... I decided to keep it. anyone want to know the circumstances can .... make an inquiry... it's not for sale
Load More Replies...Late fees that could add up to more than the movie would cost to purchase.
I remember going to a video store maybe 10 years ago when we still did that and the kid behind the counter didn’t know who the late great John Candy was. I mean, you work in a video store so how do you not know some of the greatest classic 80’s comedies like Planes, Trains and Automobiles or Uncle Buck?
I liked in the boonies and my mom worked in the nearest town. On fridays she would rent a game for me and I'd general have to give her a list of 3 games in case one or 2 was already rented
Or the real pain of someone in line ahead of you destroying a movie by giving away the ending, and it's the movie you have in your hand.
I've heard several teens say they wish they were still taught cursive in school.
Load More Replies...In the new version of Dora, Dora has a phone and instead of having a map, she has a map app 😔
Just like the youtuber who said "you must be so old to have used a vacuums with bags" 🫠
woah thats only just mean!! there is no reason for that kind of attack!
“Many people say that the subjective perception of time differs between children and adults - and this is true,” says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for a comment here. “And it’s not just about some mental factors, often about ordinary arithmetic.”
“Just judge for yourself - if, let's say, for a 40 Y.O. person one year is 1/40 of their life, then for a 4 Y.O. kid, a year is a whole quarter of their life. Accordingly, everything that happened before - especially if it was long before their birth, is history. Ancient history. Even more ancient, the younger the child. Well, only then do various psychological factors come into play, such as differences between generations..." Irina summarizes.
I had a 19 yo coworker talk about a couch she had found at a thrift store. "It's, like, really old, like, from the 90s" 😳
Load More Replies...Heard a 20 year old coworker say “the late 1900s” I said you do realize the 1900s ended only 3 years before you were born right?
I asked my wife to hand me a newspaper, she called me silly because we only use tablets these days. That fly never knew what hit it.
Soon you'll be able to call them the paper dinosaurs bc they'll be extinct before long 🥲
Remind her when she is in labor with a grandchild . . . Should she decide to have kids.
Load More Replies...Crotch Goblins give sooo much back... after around 20 years
I want to know what you'd (supposedly) do if you were that 'cool young fun mom'. Maybe you would NOT do some stuff she needs that you do at the moment!
A six year old is that sophisticated he he he get her into a rocket science program dreamer/ liar
Well, in the end, you and I are really old, aren’t we? Chris Columbus, while filming Home Alone, tried to specifically “erase” any obvious “time markers” so that his creation would look “out of time,” relevant to any viewer (perhaps the only obvious marker there is the cardboard cutout of Michael Jordan at the McCallisters' house). But he also miscalculated.
For example, my friends’ child, having watched the movie for the very first time, was so surprised: “Why didn’t Kevin just text his parents that he’s okay?” And what can adults tell him, since any explanation will simply be a recognition of one’s own 'antiquity'? Well, somewhere between the dinosaurs and the pyramids of Egypt...
Poor child will never know the joy of checking the coin slot and actually finding money.
I remember when there was some urban legend scare tactic c**p about used needles being left in coin slots, so when you would reach in, you would get pierced. Scared a lot of people away from checking coin slots for a while, and 30+ years later, I'm here talking about it. 🤣
Load More Replies...When my daughter was young, we were visiting a friend and were in their garage. They had an old rotary-dial phone hanging on the wall and my daughter took the receiver and asked "What is this?". We laughed and I said "For goodness sake, it's a phone." She said "I know that, I mean...how does it work?".
I was so excited when I got my first push button phone! In those days, we couldn't own the telephone. They had to be rented from the phone company. And push button ones cost more. I had a rotary for years. The ugly green color because it was the cheapest the company rented. I miss my push button telephone! Also, it was heavy enough to double as a personal safety device.
Load More Replies...Valid question in Australia these days. The law says that there must be a public phone system. The operator (Telecom Australia) decided that the effort of collecting coins from the phones was not worth it, and now what were once pay phones are simply free phones. Use them at no charge.
Old school hack: Call collect when you need a ride, and avoid any charges at all. You used to record your voice for the person being asked to accept charges, and you would simply say "mom pick us up at the mall." She would decline charges and know exactly what to do. 🤣
When I commented to my 19 yr old daughter that in the olden days we had to call long distance to talk to our grandma. Her: What's "long distance" mean?
Remember when you had to call at weird times to get the cheaper long distance rates? Don't miss that! 😁
Load More Replies...Hahahahaah remember when grandma's house had this ancient thing in a wall with a horn you talked into, another one you listened from, and no rotary dial device unless they upgraded it cuz you had an OPERATOR.
There are three Bell pay phones in the mall across the street from me.
Will you eccept a toll call from Beep...ZZZZZ : "I'm alright mom". "Ma'am will you accept the call?
I'm so happy someone knew it's true name, I love this kind of trivia
Load More Replies...In the UK it was never used as a 'number sign' (we use 'No.') , # was rarely used at all, but when it was (usually when calling an automated switchboard) it was called a 'hash'.
As a UK person I was a bit confused, thank you for explaining.
Load More Replies...It was rarely (almost never) used as a 'number' symbol in English speaking countries outside of the United States (and maybe Canada). I've never seen it used as a 'pound' sign (in reference to weight) anywhere other than the US.
The US doesn't use # in reference to weight...like at all or ever.
Load More Replies...And most kids of our generations knew them was "Tic-Tac-Toe Boards" before we knew they were used for anything else...
Wasn’t MTV first song “video killed the radio star” or was that something else?
I watched the 1st video as it aired & it was - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8r-tXRLazs
Load More Replies...I produced an animated self-promo commercial for MTV in 1995. Sadly, I no longer have a copy of it because the files were on an external hard drive that failed. I looked on YouTube and other video sites hoping that someone had uploaded the commercial but didn't find it. So, remember to back up your files.
In any case, this is nothing more than philosophy, but now just take a break from reflecting and feel free to scroll this list to the very end - because it really deserves it! As they say, any similarities with real people are random - although, damn it, symptomatic. And well, maybe add your own stories in the comments if you have experienced something similar while talking with kids too.
If this were true, which is questionable, that's not an age problem...I'm sorry to tell you, that's a Your Child Is Stupid problem
I always tell people how smart phones today can surf the internet, control home devices, take and send pictures, play music and remind you of your appointments … oh, and they can also make calls …
Fun Fact: Tome Cruise was who Christian Bale based himself on for American Psycho. Lots of smiling, but nothing behind the eyes.😐
Load More Replies...When I was a kid I wanted Tom Cruise. I was obsessed with him after Top Gun
In the early 2000s, my mom said she'd always had a crush on Bruce Willis, aka, the bald old guy from Friends and The Sixth Sense.
Astro, I am literally half a century older than you are... 😳
Load More Replies...I love how kids today seem to just group the entire hundred years of the 1900s as one thing! It could be seen as a sad commentary on the state of education in our country.. that hundred years saw more drastic, radical change in every area of our lives than any other
My mom was 40 when she had my brother. She was sited in the school newsletter as having been part of PTA for 21 years. I always joked my parents were Vulcans. Every 7 years, they had a kid. 10/56, 1/64, 12/70.
I had my youngest when I was 40 too. First son was born when I was 20, second born at age 30, and 3rd born when I was 40. I don't recommend doing it that way. I'm ready to be done with all the little kids stuff and can't wait for my youngest to become more independent.
Load More Replies...So I was learning about the revolutionary war in 7th grade and I meant to say "You were born in 1976, right?" to my mom and since we were going over the dates to all the acts (sugar act, tea act, etc.) i accidentally said "You were born in 1776, right?" 😳
When my parents turned 40, I was 12. This is another thing that has changed in the world.
And that number was heavily skewed by infant mortality. Omit that data and it's more like late 40s to 60s. If one could survive childhood, all they had to worry about was war, hygiene and diet
Load More Replies...grumbles under breath "people just might start dying at your age right now, if you aren't careful."
... and yet, two entries ago you were going off on the danger Disney poses to child actors. Now you are promoting violence to youth of the same age. Yep, you have issues.
Load More Replies...Plenty of people lived past 70 pre-modern medicine. It was surviving childhood that was a gamble since their immune systems are not fully developed.
People still live as long now as they did hundreds or thousands of years ago. The maximum lifespan of humans has not changed.
Don’t forget to mention that many, many, many more people are living into their 70s, 80s and above these days compared to hundreds or thousands of years ago :)
Load More Replies...I think what you meant to say is “I am grateful to have modern medicine”.
I remember my midlife crisis. It was, like, a generation ago.. :-/
Load More Replies...My students asked me how old I am. When I said 51, one bright spark said, "Wow! My grandma's only 38!" 😱 (He wasn't joking, either.)
It could be worse. I remember my mum complaining when she hit 60, that it made her feel old. HER mum just turned round and said "If you feel old, just think what it is like to be the MOTHER of a 60 year old!"
When they hit 25 just remind them about saying that. Then ask them how it feels to be 1/4 century old *if they say you should know; remind them of your ancient ancientness & tell them you forgot 🤣🤣😉
I'd like to agree, but the real reason I didn't was cancer, half my life ago!
Load More Replies...my sweet and adorable baby girl turns 50 this month. I realized that last night, did NOT get a good nights sleep.
I think it takes being 50 to realize what you can/can't do and don't care.
The fact that this is right under the comment of someone asking what a VHS is is hilarious
I love when kids are like "This photo shows an old phone... but why is it plugged into itself??"
Hell's bells, I couldn't find anything CLOSE to cassettes, 8tracks OR vinyl (records, for you youngsters) in the emogis!!😲🥺👵
A while back, my niblings asked me what movies I used to watch on Netflix. I had to explain video stores. And VCRs. And then I pulled the "and Netflix used to come in the mail!" I also got into tangents about betamax and laserdisc before their eyes started to glaze over.....
Can't you just say, "The person that invented what we have now/what you're using, hadn't been born then."?
I was never really a fan of bouncy houses. The other kids would always bump into me, giving me anxiety and all the bouncing gave me a migraine.
Fear not, as an adult you bounce and the kids bounces off in every direction. 👍
Load More Replies...My friend used to run one of the big nightclubs in my city. When they had employee parties he'd rent a huge bouncy castle and have it inflated in the main dancefloor.
That sounds like so many risks and liabilities 😅 but also fun
Load More Replies...When I was like 3, I had a friend who had a birthday party with a bouncy house, and there were a bunch of like 2-3 year olds in there. My dad went in, and all the toddlers tackled him, sat all over him, one had his hair.... poor dad
That’s when you buy your own damn bouncy house and give them the bird!!
Never got to do a bouncy house, so I told myself, "When I'm an adult, I'll buy my own bouncy house to have all to myself!" I'm (technically) an adult now and couldn't even afford to rent a bouncy house, let alone buy one. Ah, life.
As adults, a friend and I found an unused bouncy house and had a ball!
🎶Do you have the time, to listen to me whine about nothing and everything all at once🎶
I am one of those, melodramatic fools. Neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it....
Load More Replies...If it helps, my 12 yr old is STOKED to see Green Day in concert this summer.
Off topic but today I had an American professor in my office. Guess which song came on radio. I think we both died a bit before I thought to hit mute. And btw, that station doesn't censor.
that's dumb. With the internet you can access music from any era, so its irrelevent what era or genre you pick.
Apparently Pog means cool now. I told my daughter every time she says it I want to throw a slammer at her
I work in school so I'm pretty well apprised of the new slang. Nothing makes me happier than using current slang in front of my own kids and watching the light leave their eyes.
My coworker is 22. All my kids are older than her, but she thinks I'm cool because I know what "cap" means.
Load More Replies...My nephew uses Bosch a lot No idea what it means But I keep thinking he’s talking about the power tool company
If you think that's funny, imagine being an artist and remembering the creative painter Bosch, and loving his stuff, but not being able to go on a tangent about him because then your conversational partner would REALLY be confused!!!
Load More Replies..."Bussin'" means the kid will pick up his dirty dishes and wipe down the table.
I don't know how it works with your own kids, but my little sister loves playing the N64 of my brother's that came out before she was born!
I played some of the old games my dad introduced me to. Older games have a simple charm to them cuz they don’t have checkpoints and complicated life systems, usually it’s just you die 3 times you lose (talking like Atari old). I think my favorite old arcade game is probably Galaga or Dig Dug (idk if I spelled those right). My mom introduced me to the newer old games, like on the supernintendo, and those games are fun too! They’re a bit more complex and can have really cool stories. But I don’t think I would pay too much attention to these as a little kid.
I was born in 2000 and started out on my Dad's Nintendo. Very sad when it died, but I made him happy when I found a modern day version of it.
I still have my Gameboy from 89 and Nintendo from the 80's with everything included as well.
I’m 62 and two of my adult kids are ALWAYS after me to play something with them on Steam or XBox. I stink at it now…
I LOVE old consoles and old games. Simply adore them. I'd actually love to play SA2 on a Dreamcast if I could find one.
It's not always that way. My daughter, who taught herself to use my old Kaypro computer (this was in the '90s), was absolutely thrilled when she found my old Underwood typewriter. She loved, particularly, its 'neat sound.'
Then they hit teens and they listening to a "new" song and you knows the words because it's a remix 😆 🤣.
I remember when this happened when the Fugees 1996 cover (we didn't know it was a cover) of "Killing Me Softly" came on the radio when my mom was driving me and some friends somewhere, and SHE STARTED SINGING TO IT and we were all shocked. How does this ancient crone know a cool song?? She explained it was originally written by Roberta Flack in the 70s. Our minds were all blown. LOL
I found myself singing along to the Humpty Dance, word for word. This was a hit song when I was a kid. 😂 Ice Ice baby too.
Hahahahaaaa - i feel you!!! Lets do the Kid n Play dance!
Load More Replies...Skills, because we also didn't have easy access to the actual lyrics
@MushroomHead22 Is your pisspoor excuse of a life SO HORRIBLE that you have to read articles so you can go to comments and act like a Karen/snowflake?? PLEASE, for all of society's sake, GET. A. LIFE!!!
"🎵 I wanna be Bobby's Girl!" *forgot the singer * "Girl Don't Tell Me You'll Write" & "In My Room ", both by the Beach Boys ... I could go on for days, & I'm *only* 54😂🥰
Load More Replies...I got into Avril Lavigne last year: was so happy to learn that my parents liked her music too
The dread you feel when the tape has gotten stuck! 😰
Load More Replies...Ah, sitting on the landing in your townhouse rewinding a broken double 8 track...
Load More Replies...Yikes. 😬 Show me on the doll where that post hurt you
Load More Replies...This one legitimately confusing me. Like actually. What's VHS and what's "tracking"?
IIRC, tracking was when you had staticky (sp?) lines on the top or bottom of the video. You had an adjustment on the VCR that you could use to "track" the actual tape up or down so the lines disappeared.
That reminded me of being in a store with one of my friends. We saw a copy of blade runner and he said, "that looks like a young Harrison Ford." And then looked to me for approval. I stood there for a second and then very slowly said his name and he went, "It is Harrison Ford isn't it?" "Yup." "I'm sorry... How old is that movie?" He and I are the same age, but he makes me feel ancient daily.
I've only had one model which supported auto tracking. The rest were manual and you adjusted by taking the cover off. Great opportunity to get out the isopropyl alcohol and cotton swabs too.
I was surprised to learn iPods were considered retro by one of my younger coworkers. I had just bought a refurbished one from the internet because my old nano from 2010 broke.
Load More Replies...Makes me think of the time my niece came over for the weekend and asked if I could help her with a class assignment. The assignment? "Interview someone who was alive during 9/11" she goes "so where were you when the first plane hit?" I said "I'm 23 honey. I was probably sitting in a high chair throwing Cheerios at my dad"
I'm pretty sure that Stone Age kids rolled their eyes at their parents for being old fogeys who hadn't even heard about fire or the wheel.
I remember my parents and their friends talking about this kind of stuff, especially the 'what was it like living with dinosaurs?' kind of thing, and that was back in the early '70s
Load More Replies...When my niece was 6 she asked if cars already existed when I was little. I'm 37
On the flipside, it's sometimes weird to realize that some s**t didn't exist for our parents. Backpacks. Like, the things parents obsess over getting for their kids every school year. Those didn't become common until the late 1960s, after the invention of nylon. I asked my mom what she did if she didn't have a backpack, and she was like, "That's what boyfriends were for."
Load More Replies...When I would put my daughters hair in a ponytail I would always get the hairbrush wet to help hold down her flyaways till I was done and put product on it. One day I was giving her a side ponytail in front of the sink like normal and I tell her I used wear my hair like that when I was a kid but I always had a hard time getting my hair to cooperate. She said “why? Cuz they didn’t have sinks back then? Hahahaha you had to bathe in the lake!”
When I was 6 in 1959, I asked my Dad if he fought the Indians when he was in the war. He was really annoyed. In my defense, there were a lot of Westerns on TV.
TBF, Laura Ingalls Wilder was still alive when you were born.
Load More Replies...I remember my mother crying one day when I was four because some boys called her an old lady. I thought, "But she is an old lady." She was 26.
My co-worker (23) likes to tease me about being old. I always respond that I'm their future.
Buddy of mine got a set of restored episodes of the first star trek TV series. When his kid watched, he said "Dad, these must be really old! They're all using flip phones!" Kid was talking about the communicators, that predated flip phones by about 20 years.
Makes me think of the time my niece came over for the weekend and asked if I could help her with a class assignment. The assignment? "Interview someone who was alive during 9/11" she goes "so where were you when the first plane hit?" I said "I'm 23 honey. I was probably sitting in a high chair throwing Cheerios at my dad"
I'm pretty sure that Stone Age kids rolled their eyes at their parents for being old fogeys who hadn't even heard about fire or the wheel.
I remember my parents and their friends talking about this kind of stuff, especially the 'what was it like living with dinosaurs?' kind of thing, and that was back in the early '70s
Load More Replies...When my niece was 6 she asked if cars already existed when I was little. I'm 37
On the flipside, it's sometimes weird to realize that some s**t didn't exist for our parents. Backpacks. Like, the things parents obsess over getting for their kids every school year. Those didn't become common until the late 1960s, after the invention of nylon. I asked my mom what she did if she didn't have a backpack, and she was like, "That's what boyfriends were for."
Load More Replies...When I would put my daughters hair in a ponytail I would always get the hairbrush wet to help hold down her flyaways till I was done and put product on it. One day I was giving her a side ponytail in front of the sink like normal and I tell her I used wear my hair like that when I was a kid but I always had a hard time getting my hair to cooperate. She said “why? Cuz they didn’t have sinks back then? Hahahaha you had to bathe in the lake!”
When I was 6 in 1959, I asked my Dad if he fought the Indians when he was in the war. He was really annoyed. In my defense, there were a lot of Westerns on TV.
TBF, Laura Ingalls Wilder was still alive when you were born.
Load More Replies...I remember my mother crying one day when I was four because some boys called her an old lady. I thought, "But she is an old lady." She was 26.
My co-worker (23) likes to tease me about being old. I always respond that I'm their future.
Buddy of mine got a set of restored episodes of the first star trek TV series. When his kid watched, he said "Dad, these must be really old! They're all using flip phones!" Kid was talking about the communicators, that predated flip phones by about 20 years.
