Remember when summer break felt endless? The next school year was an incomprehensibly distant prospect as hot, sunny days spent idling in the yard seemed to last forever. With no smartphones, no YouTube, and nothing but a landline to call your friends, you were left to your own devices — which mostly meant flipping through books, rearranging your Beanie Babies, or fighting with your siblings over who got the last Freeze Pop.
Now, nostalgia-seeking parents are looking back on those long, lazy, uneventful days with surprising fondness — and trying to recreate that same unplugged boredom for their own kids. Ironically, some influencers are using social media platforms like Instagram to promote the idea of a screen-free, “‘90s summer.” Shannele, known on Instagram as @reelmomstuff, has been sharing tips for raising “‘90s kids” for over a year. In a video she posted in June, she explains her no-screens-in-the-car rule and emphasizes the importance of outdoor play. In another, she shared that her home has only one television and a landline phone for her kids to use, all part of her mission to bring back the pre-digital childhood.
Others, like TikTokers @motheringmoon and Erin Monroe (@erin.monroe_), have shared their approaches to a “‘90s summer,” like outdoor family dinners, drinking pitchers of Kool-Aid, and playing in the sprinkler.
Samantha Weber, who has an 11-year-old stepdaughter and a three-year-old daughter, is attempting to surround her kids with tactile games and activities to keep them off their screens. Her daughters are embracing it, putting on fashion shows in the living room. Her husband is an art teacher, “so we always have coloring and paints out,” she told The Independent. “We’re big board game people,” she said, adding proudly that she just taught her stepdaughter how to play the card game Spit. “We also have a pool, so that’s an escape,” Weber said.
Her daughters both have devices, but Weber and her husband recently discussed how to manage screen time over the summer, whether that means creating a schedule or limiting it to evenings only. “Sometimes they need ‘cool down’ time from each other so we separate and say okay you can relax and watch or play a game,” she said. “The games they play are also creative or learning-focused,” she added, like certain modes on Minecraft, or math or spelling games. “I’m not saying we don’t watch movies,” Weber said, “but if we do, we make popcorn and do it together.”
Family movie nights can be a great way of using screens without some of the bigger worries that come with solo screen time. A recent study from the American Psychological Association found that excessive or unsupervised screen use can contribute to emotional issues in kids — who may then rely on their devices as a coping mechanism, creating a harmful cycle.
“We are currently in a ‘device detox’ time, so that means they don’t have them at all for a few days,” performer and mom-of-three Clare Cannizzaro shared with The Independent. Her trio of sons, ranging in age from 10 to 18, can check emails and messages for “a short time, twice a day, or if we need them to carry a phone for means of calling us, but then it comes back to us the rest of the time.” For Cannizzaro, an “old-school summer” means “lots of outside time, more family game nights and less individual screen time.”
To carry out her vision, Cannizzaro intends to have her kids engage more in tending the family’s garden, caring for their ducks and chickens, building campfires, and catching fireflies. As a theatrical family, she’s planning for the summer to be spent making films and putting on musical theater performances, with all the kids attending acting workshops.
However, Cannizzaro admits there’s a balance to be struck in the 21st century. “Our kiddos were born into this age of technology and we do feel that it’s imperative that they have the skills and knowledge surrounding that. They likely will need technology in any career or life path they choose,” she said. “And if there is a good dose of real life as well — playing in the dirt and riding bikes — we have always felt that was a good balance. But sometimes more real-life experiences are needed so they can relate to that instead of what’s on YouTube or Instagram.”
For new mom Gabrielle Rabinowitz, those real-life experiences are part of her daily life as a daycare owner. In addition to her 13-month-old son, she constantly has her eye on four toddlers. So, water time with the hose and toys, nature observation, and playing with bubbles and chalk are all in a day’s work.
“I’ve made it my mission to make our daycare days feel less like a typical ‘school setting’ and more nature-based and child-centered, which lends itself perfectly to an ‘old-school summer’ feel for all of us,” she told The Independent. “The hours go by so much faster when we spend them outside.”
Rabinowitz, too, keeps screen time to a minimum, even for the children she watches daily — and she’s intent on keeping it that way. “I have seen firsthand how offering an ‘old-school summer’ to young children can decrease those unwanted difficult behaviors, while simultaneously boosting their moods, allowing them to release energy in a positive manner, and connect with nature and loved ones in a very wholesome and grounding way.”
There’s no one way to have a ‘90s summer (and no singular name for it either: 80s summer, old school summer, kid rotting, call it what you please), but that’s kind of the point. It’s messy, meandering, and often made up on the spot. And in a world that rarely slows down, that kind of summer might just be exactly what kids — and their parents — need. Time to kick back like it’s 1995.
