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36 Things Kids Thought Were Super Fancy But Were Actually Not Really, According To Netizens
As we grow up, not only do we learn to master many new skills, become more and more independent, smarter and build our own character, but also see the world in a very different way. And it actually does change as we grow older - what used to look nice doesn't impress us anymore, something that we dreamed about looks meaningless and some friends who looked perfect with time turned out to be not so saintly.
But you know what also changes dramatically? Our understanding of wealth and money. As kids, we tend to look at things such as matching plates at our friends house or full shelves of snacks or desserts that were on display in some bakery and think that only super rich people can have that. However, it turns out that actually, they are not that fancy, and most of us can actually afford to have them without being multi-millionaires.
Well, it is still fun to remember them and look at these things now as we grow up. We just don’t feel as fancy anymore when, let’s say, drinking soda from a straw instead of the bottle. So speaking about that, recently one Reddit user started a thread asking folks what they used to think was fancy as kids that is actually not. And I believe that every one of us can relate to many of them.
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
My friends whose kitchens were filled with junk food like Captain Crunch, Twinkies and Ding Dongs, hot dogs and American cheese. I thought they were so fancy and I was so jealous.
My mom cooked from scratch every day, and we thought we were so neglected because she wouldn't buy that s**t for us to eat. We were so lucky. Thanks, Mom.
SofieTheMJFan 2 years ago
When I was younger, I would wonder why my friends would get sick so often, and get the flu yearly. I didn't realize until later, and also when I asked him, that it was because my dad refused to buy us junk food. We drank a lot of water, took vitamins and ate home-cooked food. He made sure we had sleep and plenty of outdoor activity. Only occasionally, like at a birthday, were we allowed to eat junk food, and we still weren't allowed to go wild. He made sure we were healthy, and we thought he was the worst 😅 I'm thankful to him for doing that, and also for letting us eat in social settings so as to not feel left out
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#2
Back in my day, kids who had crayola 120 colored pencils were considered the elites of society.
SofieTheMJFan 2 years ago
I was that kid 😂 I begged my abuelita to buy me some every time we went to Wal-Mart
Tempest 2 years ago
OMG I still have like 3 different sets of these (24 pencils sets) and still looove them even though they don’t really serve much purpose in my adult life. One set is something I was gifted as a kid and is probably over 15 years old now but still works like new!
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Randi (she/they/he) 2 years ago
Don’t forget the massive packs of crayons and those pens that had many different colors inside them
Lyone Fein 2 years ago
Anyone with more than the basic 8 colors, crayons or pencils, it was just ooo la la.
Moonchild Creations 2 years ago
Prismacolor pencils are mighty expensive but so worthy. X-rays the more te better. And they can be used when dyeing cotton cloth
Dynamite Samurai Koala 2 years ago
LETS GO (dn dn dn, dn dn dn dn dn dn dn) (wrr) (dn dn dn, dn dn dn dn dn dn dn) SAIKOU
Leslie Due 2 years ago
If you only knew ... crayola gets pencils from other countries and slaps their names on... oh the shock.
Dreaming Spirit 2 years ago
I'm not ashamed to admit I bought a case of 100 fancy crayons from my first paycheck. It was at a time when coloring books for adults were popular :) I still have them! I don't remember the brand, but they can turn into watercolors. I sometimes let my son draw with them and then turn it into a painting, he knows it's a special occasion when I grab this box :)
Jared Robinson 2 years ago
My school was awesome. We were taught to share, so that the four or five kids that had it shared with the four or five kids around them and then every body got to use yellow. Almost like sharing means caring.
Moosy Girl 2 years ago
I thought I was fancy because I had the Bruynzeel 70 pencil tin, but then I encountered the Caran d’Ache 120 and I realised we were poor. (we weren’t really)
#3
Viennetta ice cream cake was the peak of fancy for me.
Jackie Warner 2 years ago
Snap. We had it once for Christmas. The unattainable food for rich people turned out to be just cleverly marketed vanilla ice cream with chocolate.
#4
My grandparents had a laundry chute in their bathroom- the dirty clothes would land in a basket in their basement next to the washing machine. I thought this was amazing and the #1 thing I would look for in a house one day.
detective miller's hat 2 years ago
We had one of these in my old house. Nearly caused an international incident when my 5-year-old brother put himself down the laundry chute and got stuck.
#6
I thought that having a second, older fridge in your garage meant your family was rich.
Actually, hell, if you had a garage at all I thought you were rich.
#8
Cutting sandwiches diagonally.
#10
Shirley Temple/Roy Rogers drinks. I remember when my parents would take us to a "fancy" restaurant and we would be able to order these. I felt so adult! With the skinny straw and the maraschino cherry...
realenancy170 2 years ago
I still love me a Shirley Temple and order one for special occasions (non drinker).
#11
Double front doors on a house or having a 2- story house. A pool or ping pong table. Getting a store bought Halloween costume instead of one cobbled together from the "dress up" box. A Schwinn bike (mine was a Free Spirit from Sears.)
#12
When I was young I used to refer to brands like Adidas as “designer”. I was obviously wrong, but for a kid who was only bought knock-off brands, usually from the local market, it was very aspirational.
Bouche and Audi and Shyla, Oh My! 2 years ago
All Day I Dream About Sex. The kids in my neighborhood loved their Adidas.
#13
Desserts in the display cases (eclairs, bon bons, petifores, etc)
#14
Nothing was better then Pizza Hut when I was a kid.
InfiniteZeek 2 years ago
Cause they were actually a decent place at one point in time. Ahh the good ol days.
#15
Having funky grips for your pencils in first grade. Glitter glue, light up sneakers, having webkinz, having a bunk bed. I recall getting a webkinz and felt so rich 😹😹 any drink that was in a glass with a stem because I felt like an adult, and build a bear. i felt so cool rocking the little house box. When I turned 18 I got a job there and I apologized to my mom for asking for a build a bear every chance I got 😹 they’re so expensive.
TheGoodBoi 2 years ago
Those light up shoes! You were elite with those. As soon as my little one could fit in some, I got her some. Now they are one of the most annoying things...
#16
Vanity license plates and checks with custom backgrounds. I thought my parents were so lame for not having these and thought both were so fancy. Now as an adult I find the idea of paying for either to be a complete waste of money and tacky.
#17
The blue toilet cleaner in the water. I always thought we were getting out the hood with that one.
SofieTheMJFan 2 years ago
Ah, the blue toilet cleaner. That stuff smelled so good to me. I was scared I would pass out and die instantly if I smelled it too much tho, so...
#20
Restaurants with table cloths.
SofieTheMJFan 2 years ago
The quality of the table cloth is important, you'll pay more for better ones
#22
Shrimp. When my brother and I got good grades or if there was any reason to celebrate, our dad would take us to Red Lobster or Long John Silvers and we’d get shrimp. I thought it was the height of luxury
#23
Getting to eat McDonald's all the time...
TheGoodBoi 2 years ago
I feel this one. My father did all the home made cooking and like a previous poster said, I wasn't fed c**p like McDonalds all the time so I'm good with it.
#24
When mom sometimes bought the large box with handmade chocolates from the chocolaterie in Husum near Copenhagen.
Granted, they were more expensive than the factory-made ones, but not crazy expensive.
They did taste way better, though.
Maybe because they were freshly made. XD
Fancy was also going to the warehouse Magasin (upper middle class) or Illum (upper class) in Copenhagen, instead of going to the cheaper warehouse Daells Varehus, which were for workers. They had basically everything you might need; their clothes were maybe not the latest fashion, but they lasted well, and they were fairly sturdy.
Mom was very proud when she could apply for and get an account card for Magasin. :)
Fancy was also dad getting a brand new car for the first time ever, in the late 1970's, when he had been repairing on the old Opel station wagon with chicken wire and plastic padding, because the bottom of the car was rusted through.
He was tired of buying c**p used cars, so getting a brand new shiny Opel from the dealer was big stuff for us. :)
#25
Old cars from fancy brands. Kids are always like "whoa he drives a BMW" without realizing it's not impressive to drive a 1999 BMW in 2023.
#26
Lunchables.
#28
Movie theatres. I thought it cost hundreds of dollars (which was millions in kid speech). I actually felt bad that my family kept taking us so I said no thanks its to expensive and they all laughed at me and took me to the movies lol
#30
Commercial air travel
realenancy170 2 years ago
When I was a kid in the 60s we dressed up to fly. I always wore sunglasses so as I turned and waved while going up the stairs I would look like a glamorous Hollywood star.
#31
Name brand potato chips.
Mom would always buy the cheap store brand chips. Her flawed logic was that they lasted longer than the brand name chips, and thus were a better value. The reality was that the store brand chips sucked, and nobody liked to eat them. The name brand ones were great, and they disappeared quickly. We had the good stuff when Dad did the shopping.
#34
Cheesecake Factory
SofieTheMJFan 2 years ago
Why did we think this was the epitome of fancy, upperclassmen dining out?
What do you think ?
Lyone Fein 2 years ago
I don't know. All this stuff *is* fancy. We tend to take for granted so many of the luxuries many of us enjoy, like indoor plumbing and electricity, etc. Always having potable water available and extra food on hand is remarkable. Not only do we live better than 99 percent of the humans who came before us, but most of us live better than a pretty significant chunk of people in the world today. The accident of where we are born or who our parents are is the sorting hat that determines so much!
Sara Bardsley 2 years ago
Any girl who had lots of clothes for their Barbies, was something I was envious about!
Unpickled Pickle 2 years ago
Its funny how some things we thought were top class as children are perceived as disgusting and cheap now.
Awesome At Being Autistic 2 years ago
Okay this listicle made me realize that I was/am a lot more privileged than I thought I was. I'm just taking a moment to be thankful.
Graham Berry 2 years ago
Most of this stuff is fancy, in the since that they were luxury items for poor people like me. To middle class and Rich people they are probably mostly thought of as low end or normal because they could be gotten at any time for little cost to their bank account.
Moonchild Creations 2 years ago
Eating at Doral Windows on the Green. The lunch service was wonderful and the Champagne Chicken exquisite. sadly I can't afford that luxury anymore.
Miaow Minx 2 years ago
When I was a little kid, I thought rear-window wipers on cars were super-fancy.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 2 years ago (edited)
I have to add orange juice. When I was a kid, orange juice was served in little 4oz/120mL glasses and was expensive. It was that size because someone in WW2 decided that's how much you needed to avoid scurvy. The comedy Trading Places is about the stars cornering the orange juice market. It was during the mid 80s that they invented the process they use now where they break the orange down and then mix it back together so its storable.
Lyone Fein 2 years ago
I don't know. All this stuff *is* fancy. We tend to take for granted so many of the luxuries many of us enjoy, like indoor plumbing and electricity, etc. Always having potable water available and extra food on hand is remarkable. Not only do we live better than 99 percent of the humans who came before us, but most of us live better than a pretty significant chunk of people in the world today. The accident of where we are born or who our parents are is the sorting hat that determines so much!
Sara Bardsley 2 years ago
Any girl who had lots of clothes for their Barbies, was something I was envious about!
Unpickled Pickle 2 years ago
Its funny how some things we thought were top class as children are perceived as disgusting and cheap now.
Awesome At Being Autistic 2 years ago
Okay this listicle made me realize that I was/am a lot more privileged than I thought I was. I'm just taking a moment to be thankful.
Graham Berry 2 years ago
Most of this stuff is fancy, in the since that they were luxury items for poor people like me. To middle class and Rich people they are probably mostly thought of as low end or normal because they could be gotten at any time for little cost to their bank account.
Moonchild Creations 2 years ago
Eating at Doral Windows on the Green. The lunch service was wonderful and the Champagne Chicken exquisite. sadly I can't afford that luxury anymore.
Miaow Minx 2 years ago
When I was a little kid, I thought rear-window wipers on cars were super-fancy.
Two_rolling_black_eyes 2 years ago (edited)
I have to add orange juice. When I was a kid, orange juice was served in little 4oz/120mL glasses and was expensive. It was that size because someone in WW2 decided that's how much you needed to avoid scurvy. The comedy Trading Places is about the stars cornering the orange juice market. It was during the mid 80s that they invented the process they use now where they break the orange down and then mix it back together so its storable.
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