8 chores every boomer teen had to do that modern kids wouldn’t survive five minutes of

Let’s be honest, our parents’ generation grew up in a completely different universe.

Back then, the phrase “child labor” could’ve easily described a Saturday morning. While we were busy perfecting our Spotify playlists and dodging group chats, boomer teens were out there doing chores that would have today’s kids crying for Wi-Fi.

And look, this isn’t about glorifying struggle or pretending the “good old days” were all sunshine and discipline. It’s just wild to realize how much the definition of “tough” has changed.

So, let’s take a nostalgic (and slightly horrifying) trip through eight chores every boomer teen had to do, and that modern kids wouldn’t last five minutes trying to survive.

1) Mowing the lawn… with a push mower

Picture this: it’s 90 degrees out, there’s no Bluetooth speaker, no noise-canceling headphones, and the “mower” is basically a medieval torture device with spinning blades that jam every five seconds.

That was the weekend reality for a lot of boomer teens. No self-propelled motors, no battery packs, just pure human suffering powered by teenage angst.

My dad still brags about how he “mowed the whole yard before breakfast.” Meanwhile, I’ve seen modern kids complain that their Roomba didn’t clean evenly.

The difference? Boomer teens didn’t have a choice. You pushed that mower till your arms felt like spaghetti. And if you didn’t, you heard the words that still haunt many: “You don’t eat till it’s done.”

2) Hanging laundry outside (even in winter)

Imagine explaining to a Gen Alpha kid that you used to “hang clothes” instead of tossing them in a dryer and tapping “refresh cycle.”

Back then, laundry day was a full production. Boomer teens had to lug soaking-wet clothes outside, clip them onto a line, and pray the wind didn’t send someone’s underwear into the neighbor’s yard.

And heaven forbid it rained, because that meant doing it all over again.

There’s something poetic about fresh air-dried sheets, sure. But I can promise you, romanticism fades real fast when your fingers are freezing off in January.

Honestly, if I told some of my friends they’d need to manually wring out jeans and hang them up, they’d assume it was an aesthetic challenge on TikTok, not an actual chore.

3) Washing dishes by hand, three times a day

Dishwashers? Luxury item.

Boomer teens didn’t just wash dishes, they scrubbed them, sometimes after cooking the very meal they were cleaning up. And if you were unlucky enough to be the youngest in the family, you were automatically on “drying and stacking” duty too.

One wrong move and your mom would appear out of thin air: “Don’t you dare put that pan away wet.”

There was no Spotify playlist to make it better, no group call with friends to distract you. Just your thoughts, a soapy sponge, and the faint sound of your siblings pretending not to hear you begging for help.

It built character, apparently. Personally, I think it built trust issues.

4) Ironing school clothes (and sometimes everyone else’s too)

Before wrinkle-release sprays and “low-maintenance fabrics,” ironing was a rite of passage.

And not the cute kind where you “learn adulting.” The kind where you accidentally melted your favorite shirt and got grounded for it.

Boomer parents had this obsession with “crisp” clothes. A single wrinkle in your school uniform was basically social suicide, and if your mom caught it, she’d side-eye you like you’d just confessed to a felony.

Some teens even ironed their parents’ clothes before work. The idea of giving a teenager a steaming-hot iron and trusting them to not destroy half the house? Braver times.

Nowadays, half of us just toss our wrinkled clothes in the dryer with an ice cube and call it a “life hack.” Boomer teens walked so we could… not iron. Ever again.

5) Babysitting younger siblings (aka unpaid full-time childcare)

Forget babysitting apps or hourly rates.

If you were a boomer teen with younger siblings, congratulations, you were the family’s built-in nanny. Parents didn’t ask, they assigned.

Dinner? You made it. Bedtime? You handled it. Someone cried? You fixed it.

And the payment? Maybe a “thanks” or the occasional extra $5 at the movies if you were lucky.

The wild part? They didn’t have smartphones, tablets, or Netflix to keep the kids occupied. It was pure chaos, screaming, toys everywhere, and the faint smell of mac and cheese hanging in the air.

Modern kids can barely handle a 30-minute babysitting gig without texting “when are you coming home???” Boomer teens were holding down the fort like seasoned professionals.

6) Helping with actual farm work

Not everyone grew up on a farm, but if you did, your childhood was basically an unpaid internship in agriculture.

Milking cows before sunrise, collecting eggs, feeding animals, pulling weeds, hauling hay, it was a full-time job. And somehow, you still had to make it to school on time.

I once tried to carry two grocery bags and nearly dislocated my shoulder. Meanwhile, boomer teens were hauling buckets of water heavier than a modern gym dumbbell.

There’s a reason older generations look at our “gym routines” and laugh. They didn’t need squats, they were living them.

7) Raking leaves (with no leaf blower in sight)

If you think raking leaves sounds relaxing, you’ve clearly never done it for six hours straight while your dad “supervised” with a coffee in hand.

Every fall, boomer teens would spend entire afternoons turning yards into perfect leaf-free zones. And of course, there was always that one gust of wind that would undo all your progress.

You’d start again. Because quitting wasn’t an option, it was “character building.”

Today, leaf blowers and landscaping services exist. But back then, your rake, your blistered hands, and your playlist of internal screams were the tools of the trade.

And yes, you were probably allergic to half the stuff you were touching. Didn’t matter. You raked anyway.

8) Cleaning the family car by hand

Not “drive through the car wash” clean, hand wash with a bucket and a rag clean.

Boomer teens were the unofficial car detailers of the family. Soap, rinse, dry, vacuum, polish, the full service. And God forbid you left a single streak on the windshield.

It wasn’t even about the car looking nice, it was about pride. Your dad would walk around inspecting it like he was judging a military parade.

“Missed a spot,” he’d say, pointing at a single speck of dust.

You’d sigh, grab the rag, and start over.

Modern kids? Most would rather Venmo someone to do it or claim the water pressure hose is “too confusing.”

But hey, there’s something kind of grounding about the idea of caring for what’s yours, soap suds and all.

The hidden psychology behind it all

Underneath all the exhaustion, there’s something fascinating about those chores.

They weren’t just tasks, they were training. Every scraped knee, every grass stain, every blister built a kind of resilience that came from doing hard things without instant rewards.

Boomer teens grew up understanding effort in a way that feels rare now. Because everything, from washing dishes to mowing lawns, demanded patience, focus, and sometimes, a little suffering.

Meanwhile, modern life runs on shortcuts. We automate, delegate, and optimize to avoid discomfort. Which, don’t get me wrong, is progress. But maybe it also means we’re losing some of that gritty satisfaction that comes from doing things the hard way.

There’s a kind of peace in slow work, the kind that doesn’t buzz, ping, or need Wi-Fi.

Maybe that’s why so many of us find cleaning, gardening, or even cooking weirdly therapeutic now. It’s not nostalgia, it’s our nervous systems remembering what simple effort feels like.

Final thoughts

Every generation has its own version of “hard.”

Boomer teens might’ve had manual labor, we’ve got mental overload, notifications, burnout, and constant comparison.

But it’s still fun (and a little humbling) to look back and imagine trying to survive a single Saturday in their shoes, or rather, their grass-stained sneakers.

Would I trade my iPhone for a push mower and a clothesline? Absolutely not. But maybe, just maybe, there’s something to learn from how they showed up.

No shortcuts. No excuses. Just grit, sweat, and the satisfaction of a job done right.

And if you ask me, a little bit of that spirit wouldn’t hurt any of us today.