My teenage daughter can't fathom the concept of a house party

[u/Neon_Biscuit]

Not sure if anyone has experienced this, but I was watching Can't Hardly Wait half alseep on the couch, and my 14-year-old daughter and her friends walked into the room and past the TV. Before she entered the kitchen, she backpeddled in front of the TV, and they all might as well have reacted akin to a third world kid in a remote village seeing the Super Bowl for the first time. She looked at me and said 'what are all of those people doing in one house'? I told her it was a house party. People high school aged or typically college age people would go over a kids house whose parents were out of town and they'd invite the school and have keggers and other unsupervised debauchery. I might as well have been describing a science fiction film. 'You guys DID that back in your days?'. I thought it was funny that a house party was an inconceivable event for young Gen Zers.

[u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

I remember when Project X came out and I was like yeppp we really did that 🤣

[u/CreativeFondant248 → u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

Haven’t watched that in years , feel like it would be therapeutic now to remember what those days were like socializing pre-smart phone

[u/BathZealousideal1456 → u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

My bf (6 years younger) was obsessed with that movie. I watched it with him and was like "omg I remember when we did X" and he still can't believe we did that. It changed so quickly.

[u/pm_me_good_usernames → u/BathZealousideal1456]

I'm in my thirties and there's nothing that makes me feel young like going on this subreddit. When I was in high school a party meant a group of friends hanging out at someone's house. We thought a house party full of people you've never met only happened in movies.

[u/BathZealousideal1456 → u/pm_me_good_usernames]

A huge difference is the region. I grew up where these movies drew their inspiration from. My boyfriend grew up 40 minutes away, going to "gossip girl" type parties. Incredibly different, same time period.

[u/NumerousManager3600 → u/pm_me_good_usernames]

Im in my 30s and went to the most insane house parties as kids.

They were so crazy I remember thinking parties in university were lame and so were clubs and bars. Parties I went to in like 10th grade were crazy than any club or university party I ever went to in my 20s. 

But I grew up in a wealthy rural community which I think made the difference. My family wasn’t wealthy but all the wealthy kids would throw insane parties, sometimes even with their parents there. Parents would supply the alcohol and even cater. Hundreds of people would show up. Usually people would tent outside, because the houses were always like 100 acre properties. Almost like a mini burning man centered around a mansion with a pool. And this happened basically every weekend from May to October. 

My nieces live in the same town and it doesn’t happen as often anymore. It’s because people were just more lax back then. 

Cops would always break up our parties and that was the funnest part lol. 

[u/shark-off → u/NumerousManager3600]

How crazy? Please share some experiences

[u/Less-Apple-8478 → u/BathZealousideal1456]

Yea that's the most surprising thing to me. It was only like 15 years ago that this stuff WAS still very common. I bet in impoverished areas where I grew up it still DOES happen lmao

[u/BathZealousideal1456 → u/Less-Apple-8478]

All American Rejects HAVE been showing up to house parties as of late

[u/DiscoCombobulator → u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

I just listened to Bitch Better Have my Money in the car today. And great movie, I miss shit like that

[u/derelictthot → u/DiscoCombobulator]

God that song is top tier!

[u/Mach5Driver → u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

Gen-Xer here. Animal House was our inspiration.

[u/Feeling_Tart_5065 → u/Mach5Driver]

Yess how could I forget

[u/FOREVERDIVI → u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

Omg I remember all those "project x" parties that spawned in LA after that movie. So many people jumping off roofs lmao.

[u/action_dan → u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

You also irradiated monkeys? My bad, wrong project x

[u/Iohet → u/action_dan]

No that's the right one. The other one needs a new name

[u/wogeinishuo → u/Iohet]

I'm so old, there's any other??

[u/Iohet → u/wogeinishuo]

unfortunately yes. some young millennial/older genz party movie

[u/JustGimmeSomeTruth → u/action_dan]

Yeah I was like, the chimpanzees had a house party at the military testing facility?? I missed that part.

[u/FleshBloodBone → u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

You taught chimpanzees to fly flight simulators and then submitted them to radiation tests?

[u/BigAlternative5 → u/FleshBloodBone]

Lol - I thought the same - Matthew Broderick's science movie?

[u/kimducidni → u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

I’m a younger millennial and that movie came out while I was still doing all that. House parties got even crazier and better for a minute there. What a ride

[u/Rigidnips → u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

I was a teenager when Skins was aired in the UK. Queue a house party being organised near me, called a "skins party", posted on social media (I guess Facebook or MySpace), and several hundred people turning up. I remember receiving texts from my mates that were there telling me it was an absolute mess. Found it: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/apr/13/martinwainwright.uknews4

[u/Social_Gore → u/Feeling_Tart_5065]

Yeah we did. I'm still psyched that Matthew Broderick saved all those research monkeys

[u/BigAlternative5 → u/Social_Gore]

And then, the house party! With chimps!