This TikTok Brilliantly Captures What Parenting Looked Like in Every Decade
We've come a long way since the '50s.
A dad on TikTok has gone viral for capturing the differences between parenting in every decade starting in the ’50s, and the video is too real.
Kevin Laferriere, one half of the hilarious duo The Dumb Dads, shared a video on TikTok highlighting the different ways parents, and in particular dads, in each decade handled parenting. There’s no question that, particularly for dads, dad’s role has shifted over the past 5 decades, and Kevin nails it to hilarious precision.
The video, beginning in the ’50s, is in black and white giving off Mad Men vibes. “Help you with your homework?” the dad asks while holding a drink. “Now, you cut the grass. I’m no teacher; I make over 4 grand a year,” he continues before ending with, “now which one are you again?”
Next, the dad tackles parenting in the ’80s; again, the filter changes to make it look like it’s being recorded on VHS with an old camcorder. This time, dad’s watching sports on the TV, holding a drink in a cozy holder. Unfortunately, the picture on the TV isn’t clear, so he yells to Mikey, his son. “Mikey, you’re a big five-year-old now. Go on the roof and move the antenna a bunch.”
From there, he jumped into the ’90s and was basically in an episode of Saved by the Bell. In this decade, parents were way more relaxed about supervision. And that’s what the dad plays on. “Hey, I got that thing tonight,” dad says as he rushes into the house. “But there’s leftovers in the fridge, OK? I’ll see you tomorrow.” As he runs right back out the door, he reminds his kids to “do your homework.”
The final clip is parenting today. Dad is sitting in the house talking to his kids about consequences versus punishment. “Well, if you don’t do it, I have to give you a consequence. Not a punishment, but a consequence,” he says. “I don’t know what the difference is. Maybe it’s the same thing. It’s supposed to teach you something I don’t know what…. Can you please just pick up your toys?”
The video really resonated with the fans who follow the funny dads. It has over 130,000 views already and hundreds of comments of parents talking about how different parenting is now than it was for their parents.
“The bar was so low for parents before us,” one person writes.
“90s parent – your 10-year-old sister is in charge! (of 4 other kids…),” another shares.
“Dude, I was walking home from school alone at 6 years old to an empty house because my parents were working,” someone else writes. “I don’t know how I’m still alive.”
“I have never related to a TikTok more,” another parent said. “My parents were so hands off with me and I am constantly second guessing my parenting.”
Does anyone want to guess what the future of parenting will look like?
