Nowadays, kids are all about the latest TikTok trend or playing virtual reality games—which is a far cry from the entertainment that most millennials had to make do with. But if you show them an iconic toy from the ’90s, will they know what to do with it? Probably not is the answer.
A mom has gone viral after sharing the hilarious moment her 11-year-old son uncovered a “skip it” toy in the store, but he had absolutely no idea what it could possibly be. Raechelle van der Velde, 38, got a blast from the past when her son, Hunter, plucked the item which she recalls playing with during her own childhood, off the shelf and asked her what it was.
The millennial mom hadn’t seen one for over 20 years, as she told Newsweek that it was “a nostalgic moment” to see her son holding it. To think of the joy she used to get from this toy back in the day, and now she got to challenge Hunter to see if he could give it a try.
But before doing that, first he had to work out what it even was. It took him a moment to figure out how the strange contraption worked, but eventually he got it nailed and was acting like a true millennial in no time.
Van der Velde, from Wellington, New Zealand, said: “Seeing him try to use it, I thought it was the best moment ever. These days, kids are all about playing online and on devices, but to me, the true fun is in toys like these—even though if you missed a skip, the pain of it hitting your ankle was the worst.
@rachvdv / TikTok
“I wasn’t surprised when he looked at me holding the toy like it was something alien. He instantly gave it a go, and when he didn’t get it straight away, I had a little laugh to myself and thought I would video it.”
While van der Velde was only planning on sharing the video with her family, she couldn’t resist posting it on TikTok (@rachvdv) to amuse her followers. Since the video was posted on March 7, it has already been viewed more than 12.6 million times and gained over 553,100 likes.
Layered over the clip of Hunter, the caption jokes: “Kids these days will never understand the fun us millennials used to have.”
As a mom, van der Velde loved “revisiting those cherished memories” from her childhood, and after seeing the clip go viral, she’s realized just how many others feel exactly the same way. Plenty of TikTok users were astounded to see such a millennial childhood icon and loved seeing someone from Generation Z attempt to master it.
“I wasn’t expecting the video to gain such widespread attention, but it’s heartwarming to see others have also resonated with the same sense of joy that I did,” she told Newsweek.
Among the 4,500 comments on the TikTok post, many people were quick to comment about how much they loved this particular toy growing up. One comment reads: “This just triggered a memory I forgot about haha.”
Another person wrote: “Ah yes. The Ankle Destroyer 1000.”
But it seems not all younger generations were perplexed by it, as one TikToker commented: “I’m gen z and I always had that thing around my ankle.”
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Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.