By Melissa Voelker 
When we look back on our childhoods, most of us say, “It was a simpler time back then,” or we reference “the good old days,” meaning whichever years we grew up in. Mine happened to be the ’90s and early 2000s. The days of flannel shirts and flared jeans; platform shoes and velour sweatsuits (thank you JLo); boy bands and the best R&B and hip-hop music ever created; Saved by the Bell mornings and TGIF nights.
I didn’t have the best childhood. Making friends didn’t come easily for me. Neither did doing well in school or playing sports. There were tons of kids who were more carefree than I was. Even as a young girl, I seemed to take on the weight of the world. Despite having only a few core memories, I look back on the nostalgia of the time and still remember it fondly. “The good old days.”
Were times really better than they are now? Were Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt for Nintendo really better than PlayStation, Roblox, and VR, or is that just what my memory believes? Was it really better before cell phones when parents couldn’t track their kids’ every move and we weren’t so accessible, or is that just me looking through rose-colored glasses?
Were times simpler because they were simpler, or because we were kids who had no idea the stress our parents were under? The money worries, raising babies, toddlers, preschoolers, teenagers, young adults. Was it because we didn’t realize just how hard it could be to work 40-50 hours a week, keep a tidy home, have dinner on the table each and every night, and keep us safe, all with the weight of making sure we grew into mostly well-adjusted adults? Was therapy not really a thing back then, or was it just that no one talked about it? Was anxiety not as prevalent, or was it just something only discussed behind closed doors?
I hope my children look back on these days and the years to come and think, “Man, those were the best times of my life. Things were simpler then.” I hope I am able to shield them from seeing the stress my husband and I encounter as we navigate our way through raising them. I hope our mistakes and missteps and their heartbreaks and hard times are overshadowed by the memories of bike rides and family puzzles, movie nights, playing in the snow, and jumping in muddy puddles.
As they get older, I know they’ll get wrapped up in the world of technology, but I hope they remember the days of swimming in our pool, spotting frogs and fish in our backyard pond, helping their dad with yard work, and trips to Grandma’s.
As life gets more fast-paced and packed with more sports, homework, and nights with friends, I hope they can still remember the little things that were actually big things. As they grow older and experience their own adult lives filled with work, money, homes, and maybe even their own parenting journeys, I hope they look back on their childhood as carefree and wonderful, with parents who, although not perfect, tried their best to create memories of “simpler times and the good old days.”
by Rochelle Deans 
