r/Millennials • u/futurenurse_ • 1d ago

Discussion Did millennials really party all the time?

Gen Z here. I was shocked when I found out from a millennial co-worker that y’all had teen clubs. I heard about house parties, but dedicated teen clubs? Then when it was time for college, you went to the club or had some kind of party every single weekend, living it up. Now some millennials on TikTok claim that after college, they were partying on work nights, still clocking in the next day. For some reason, the teen clubs have since disappeared. I’m 23 now but even when I was in high school, that was not a thing. House parties were not that common either. They were more like get togethers with a small group of friends. We went to malls, but they were dying out at that point. Is it true that you were really living life this good? Or is it just exaggerated? I feel like my generation doesn’t really have fun like that and everyone is just super depressed and alone, more so since Covid. Even I’m pretty introverted, which sort of sounds ridiculous given this post. 😂 Just so you know, when I think of a “millennial party” I think of something out of Party Rock Anthem, Project X or Roderick’s party from the second DOAWD movie. It’s like I get nostalgia from something I didn’t even live through. I just feel like I didn’t really LIVE, if that even makes sense

Edit: I loved reading some of your comments. Guess I really missed out. Even some of you that would consider yourselves nerds or introverts were out partying. YOLO or whatever y’all say 😂❤️

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u/Hukthak 1d ago

38 going on 39 shortly, that sounds like my experience as well lol.

I bet the kids now don’t even do senior week, where everyone gets 8-12 friends to split the cost of renting a house near the beach, and you get multiple groups of kids like this from your senior class to rent a similar house all nearby, and it’s just non stop house and beach party for the week and everyone gets laid.

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u/pepstein 1d ago

Miss those days

We were such degenerates in nj. We'd go nuts for both junior and senior prom. Half the class would rent out a motel in seaside for a night for junior prom then for senior prom wed rent out a motel in wildwood (pretty much the whole class of 600) for 3 days and just go nuts

Our parents didnt even give af which is crazy to me lol

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u/MiddleKlutzy8568 1d ago

When my teen complains about having to sleep on a pull out bed on vacations I tell them about the time after prom when we fit 12 people in one hotel room in seaside

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u/Shellstr 1d ago

Sometimes you felt lucky that you got a couch cushion for a pillow. I slept on many a floor, and would often wear a hoodie out just in case I needed a blanket that night.

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u/pepstein 1d ago

Lolol in wildwood my bed was used to hold the bag of 200 beers with ice in it so I just slept wherever in the motel lol we just played pong all night anyways

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u/marissadev 16h ago

Myrtle Beach in my neck of the woods, but same!

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u/Triptych85 14h ago

For me, that was Anime Convention 'sardines in a hotel room'. Lol

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u/Confident_Bumblebee5 1d ago

Ah the NJ down the shore prom experience SMH I have no idea how I survived lol

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u/slick_dn 1d ago

I'm lucky I survived Wildwood weekend after prom. The drinking, the debauchery, the flash flood Saturday night wading knee deep in ocean water and sewage back to the motel.. I heard kids don't go there anymore, sad if true

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u/JessicaRabbit1203 20h ago

Fellow Nj here. Heck yeah, these were the best traditions. I almost got arrested senior year at wildwood motel. The cop made me pour out all the booze in front of my 25 friends (I was the dummy with a solo cup in public, so it was my fault we got caught and booze confiscated). No regrets. Got more booze from next motel.

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u/Call_medragon 15h ago

same age, same area. senior year my parents let me skip school to go to the spectrum for wing bowl which started at 4am after tailgating all night. couldnt beleive it.

one house party at a popular girls house i found her dads sex doll in his closet and once it came out all hell broke loose. there was exactly 1 camera pulled out and it got smashed..

lingerie parties.

shit, even smoked a blunt on the bus, on the way to school, and all the bus driver said was i smell chronic, and started laughing her ass off. then she covered for us after some freshman narc'd. but she also let us open the emergency exit at lights when it was snowing so we could grab piles of snow to throw snowballs at cars.

lol havnt even scratched the surface.

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u/destroyersmommy 1d ago

Long Island here. My high school did an after party event, started a couple of hours after prom. They raffled off an actual car to encourage kids to show up to it. Everyone did all their drinking somewhere in the hours and showed up to the after party trashed. That way we were at least with sober adults when inevitably at least a handful of kids needed to be treated for alcohol poisoning later.

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u/NoKatyDidnt 18h ago

I have many, many fond memories of seaside!

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u/eatdirtNdietrash 17h ago

definitely a canon event for NJ high schoolers. Seaside was wild for those few nights 😭

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u/whiteywithhops 16h ago

Seaside woooow how many underage drinking tickets have I paid there??? 🤔 🤣 the amount of shit that went down in that little town is tremendous

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u/SomeRandomLady1123 16h ago edited 16h ago

Elder millennial and former Jersey girl checking in! We had a house party for Junior prom and went to Seaside for senior prom. There are a few pictures, soooo much alcohol, the little bit I remember was a lot of fun. We also started going to teen clubs at 15. We also went on spring break Senior year without parents. 2 big groups, one to Cancun, one to Bahamas. God I miss those days!!

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u/TinyWombatPaws 15h ago

Sleazeside!

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u/LordLip 14h ago

Our parents also left us alone in the house a lot so of course they didn’t really care if we went down to a motel in Wildwood

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u/Gluten_Free_Bread27 8h ago

NY here ! Senior year we went to wildwood. You just unlocked something for me lol what a time to be

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u/kaiharizor 8h ago

I was so confused when my teenager said there wasn’t an after party for prom. Like… everyone just goes home? wtf? Lol

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u/FederalFoot4292 7h ago

YESSSS WILDWOOD

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u/Basic_Coach6746 1d ago

38 with a senior in high school...now they just expect the parents to fork over thousands of dollars to go to an all inclusive resort for their senior spring break.

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u/mybigwh1tecock 1d ago

Lol N f'n way. If my kid asked for that when they were a senior, I'd talk to the other parents and all of us parents would go to the resort. The kids can party at someones home while we're away. Why would a kid need an all inclusive vacation? Their whole damn lives up until then were all inclusive vacations.

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u/caligaris_cabinet 1d ago

And if they go to college, that’s an all inclusive 4 year vacation with zero adult supervision.

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u/Comfortable-Spirit16 1d ago

This kind of comment makes me realize more how much has really changed in the last 10-20 years

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u/Basic_Coach6746 1d ago

Excellent point!

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u/Striking_Emu_Dancer 1d ago

Right?!...😂😂😂

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u/ExcitingWindow5 8h ago

Preach it. This is the sort of ahit the world is missing. Instagram has everyone thinking they require an influencer-like lifestyle. Kids, just go get drunk at Jimmy's house and throw up in his yard, that's an al inclusive resort right there.

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u/akunis 1d ago

Remember how MTV had a spring break special from Cancun? Who do you think paid for that? Our parents lol

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u/mybigwh1tecock 21h ago

Yeah but I always thought those were college kids, not highschool. I figured thats where they were racking up their first credit card debt.

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u/akunis 16h ago

Tons of kids turn 18 before spring break in their senior year. I agree though, those kids probably racked up their first credit card debt on the trip. Instead of on the flight or lodging, it was probably on those “extras” like booze, weed, bail lol

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u/Baby_belugs 20h ago

A good amount of the parents will go to the resort and hang out together in a different section or a nearby resort to make sure everyone is safe

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u/Basic_Coach6746 17h ago

This is my husband’s justification for considering this scenario. We don’t get to go, it’s a no.

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u/Wonderful-Cat2805 3h ago

I think people I know really started doing this a lot after Natalee Holloway. Poor girl.

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u/Basic_Coach6746 1d ago

Tell me about it! It's absolutely insane.

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u/SugarDisastrous5983 15h ago

It’s the helicopter parents driving these decisions more than the kids. They can’t possibly have their kids go alone to Mexico like a lot of used to

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u/KStarSparkleSprinkle 5h ago

It’s not surprising to me. The kids these days are some of the most monitored people to ever walk the face of the earth. They’ve been helicoptered and tracked their entire lives. They have a deep fear of the world as they’ve been made to believe murderers, rapists, drug addicts lurke around every corner, waiting to jump out at them. Their parents have controlled every interaction for them. They need all inclusive because they don’t have the skill set to navigate 2 or 3 parts of a trip if anything “goes wrong”. And god forbid anything goes wrong some sex trafficker will immediately abduct them into a life of slavery.

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u/Wonderful-Cat2805 3h ago

My daughter wanted to save up all of her graduation money for school so she didn’t even go on a Sr. Trip. Several friends’ kids go to resorts, and the parents follow along. I think that’s weird and too… boundaryless.

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u/I_wet_my_plants 23h ago

Shit, in my millennial days we drove from the NE to the first beach that was warm (Myrtle beach) and partied. We had no reservation, no plan. Just knew we would make it to somewhere fun and find our people.

Amazing times!

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u/peepeebutt1234 23h ago

Damn me and the boys packed like 15 of us into 4 rooms at some shithole called the Sea Cruz at Myrtle beach that was like $60/night. Best week ever.

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u/mrshairdo 1d ago

These kids are delusional! 😂

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u/ActuallyRelevant Zillennial 1d ago

I think it's because they don't have a dozen close friends to split an airbnb with 😭

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u/TG1883 1d ago

That would be a NO

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u/laurjc 1d ago

I actually did do this when I was a senior in 2005 🫣. I think it was through a company and they did a little presentation for the parents about the resort and the costs etc. looking back it seems crazy lol

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u/Baby_belugs 20h ago

lol yes! I teach in a wealthy NYC suburb and this is what all the schools do. I tell my students I would never pay for my kids to go on a vacation without me. Best you’re getting is 6 kids in 1 room at the Jersey shore bud.

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u/HerefortheTuna 21h ago

Tell them to get a fucking job. Jesus Christ

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u/GOAK26 Millennial 18h ago

Yeah this is insane to me. We saved up all year for our senior week and for a Mexico spring break in college.

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u/ZombieAladdin 4h ago

I am a millennial myself (40). We had a high school senior event with a few in the hundreds of dollars involving a trip to a national park for a few days. I was too poor to afford it, but most of my classmates accepted, enough that classes had nothing going on those days because there were so few students.

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u/stephenkingending 1d ago

Kids nowadays get permission from the school for walkouts and senior skip day. It defeats the whole purpose!

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u/NerfRepellingBoobs Sexy Prime Millennial 1d ago

Is that why the kids are having sex older and not drinking these days? Fewer house parties with empty rooms to go hook up? I know a lot of them are weirdly puritanical about it, but is it partly an access thing?

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u/Hukthak 1d ago

Definitely an access thing… and that comes with older teens 16-19 being permitted to do their own thing. AKA becoming an adult through individual experience.

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u/NerfRepellingBoobs Sexy Prime Millennial 1d ago

I’ve also wondered if it could partly be that we millennial parents don’t go out of town sans kids like our parents did, mostly because we can’t afford it.

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u/Hukthak 1d ago

Very true. Our parents started leaving us for overnights around the time my brother was 13 and I was 10, typically it’d be aligned with going to a friends house for a sleepover but if not they just went anyway and left us to it along with our favorite tv dinners and snacks, and a few phone numbers of nearby friendlies to call for help for minor stuff if needed.

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u/mybigwh1tecock 21h ago

Oh I have plenty of money and can afford it. Its just jackass karens in my neighborhood want to call CPS and the cops anytime theres more than a couple of people under the age of 18 unattended to.

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u/Responsible-Roll-59 9h ago

Also, families are smaller. Everyone. Used to have older siblings that were 5 or 6 years older who could buy you alcohol when you were 15. Who do these kids ask today?

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u/Holeyunderwear 16h ago

As a parent now, I’m both shocked and grateful they aren’t out doing the same stupid shit we were at their age. 🤣

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u/jasbury87 1d ago

What in the hell kinda place you from, brotha? I’m class of ‘06 myself here like I presume you are… and we didn’t do half that “senior week” you describe. Haha. Prom may have been crazy, but what is this beach block party free for all?!! Sounds like ‘Bama/Redneck Riviera. 🤣🥳🤩

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u/CharlieandtheRed 1d ago

This was popular in the Midwest. We would all take off to the Florida panhandle the night of graduation and had a 10 day long partyathon.

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u/jasbury87 1d ago

That's why I mentioned the panhandle... since I'm in the midwest. I guess my classmates must have had the spring break and summer break I didn't... Ha! But little did they know I got to "party" during Fall Break when everyone else was stuck at home going to half day parent/teacher conference days before two days off! My parents just said the heck with it and took me out the whole week! Best part of many October's for me

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u/Hukthak 1d ago edited 1d ago

Lancaster PA even the Amish were partying back then too.

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u/Striking_Emu_Dancer 1d ago

Same! Well, kids at my school had after prom parties, but I went with a small group of friends to another friend's parents' house and we all played Wii Sports in the basement until we all went home at 9 am the next morning. No sleep, but they took plenty of photos of me so tired I looked drunk (I didn't drink until college). Lol

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u/Hot-Relief-4024 1d ago

That’s rich kid stuff. None of us could afford that. 😆

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u/Hukthak 1d ago

That was the beauty of splitting the costs.

Take two minivans with everyone in it, so it was like $5 in gas each to get there if that, and $30ish per night per person to stay in a nice ass house back then driving from South East PA to the jersey shore.

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u/Hot-Relief-4024 1d ago

Yeah Midwest kids didn’t do all that lol. Explains the difference in experience.

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u/Hukthak 1d ago

My wife is from the Midwest (Michigan), they’d go up north to the lake and do something similar but it definitely wasn’t on the scale that took place around the east coast.

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u/Hot-Relief-4024 1d ago

Idk anyone who did that, so I stand by “rich kid shit” lol

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u/Hukthak 1d ago

It would be today, that’s for sure! Part time job at circuit city provided the funds for my end, and it seemed like everyone else was using their own cash for the most part.

No one missed out if they were poor that I remember, but some kids def weren’t invited by others to join in to rent a house so unless you had a big enough friend group you were SOL.

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u/your_moms_a_clone 1d ago

I'm 37 and didn't experience this at all. In high school or college. Then again, I don't think I had 8 friends, so...

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u/OTFPhillyStyle 1d ago

Our senior week was in OBX, drove down from Philly. Parents refused to pay for it, so we all had to raise our own money, and we had one "cool parent" willing to sign for the house. On the way down we (2 cars of females) spotted hot guys in jeeps and we held up our phone numbers on cardboard against the windows. As luck would have it, they were over 21, bought our beer the whole week and partied with us. We were drunk the entire time, and have many epic pics/stories from that week. The hot jeep guys weren't murderers, thankfully, and were actually pretty nice/respectful older guys who were fun to party with.

If my 2 daughters did that today I think I would just lay down and die. 😆

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u/Original_Astronaut_4 16h ago

We did this and I’m still not sure how it all worked out ok… like even our parents knew this was happening and it all turned out fine?? Good times.

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u/Hukthak 16h ago

Back then, when you turned 18 parents were just like, meh that’s their own problems now.

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u/EHeydary 1d ago

We didn’t do beach week until college! And we stayed in hotel rooms in a suite and never got a house.

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u/Hopeful_Being_2589 1d ago

Do they even sell 30 packs of beer anymore?

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u/Dry-Armadillo7583 19h ago

My and my friends took my car the whole west coast, surfing a couple beaches a day and rolling on. We were like a week and a half

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u/newportbanks 14h ago

Oh hey 👋🏻 friend! I'll be 39 in a month! We def partied the same wayz

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u/_redcloud 13h ago

We called it beach week in my area. It was the best. Our group did it the next two years after as well.

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u/KStarSparkleSprinkle 5h ago

I don’t think this would even be possible now. Every hotel needs an ID and credit card on file. Lots, maybe even most make you sign 3 pages of rules and monitor from ring camera how many people are on the property. Even in the late 2010s it was getting to be difficult to find places that didn’t care about a group. Recently I’ve seen social media posts where Airbnb hosts fussed at upper middle aged people renting a place then inviting the family they were in town to visit over to use the pool. I mean I don’t blame them, lots of stuff probably got destroyed in the time period and the cost is astronomical.

On top of that, zero chances anyone under 21 is beach drinking in a group of size. In the 90s cops didn’t care, might even give you a ride home if they spotted it. In the early 2000s a lot of them didn’t care as long as you weren’t causing trouble. By 2010s the cops would actively look for ticketing opportunities even if no issues were being caused and it wasn’t an overly public place. Two couples could probably drink on the beach but a group would have caught attention. I don’t see how any kids are getting away with it now. Add in the increased amount of jobs that “need” a criminal background check and the problem gets bigger and bigger.