I kinda sorta miss the 90s.

Granted I was in kindergarten when the 2000's came rolling around--but most 90s trends continued into the early 2000s. I remember N'Sync, the Backstreet Boys, and Britney Spears. I remember Airheads, Gushers, Fruit Roll-ups and the commercials for them all. I remember Lisa Frank and overalls. But what I most remember, the thing about the 90's that truly has a stake in my childhood, is the cartoons.

Man, those cartoons. My brother and I were those kids who woke up early every Saturday morning to catch some. From SpongeBob, Rugrats, the Fairly OddParents and Rocket Power on Nickelodeon to Looney Tunes, The Powerpuff Girls, and Dexter's Laboratory on Cartoon Network to Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire on Disney Channel...I can go on. So many good cartoons! My mom kept on having to limit our TV time because we watched them too much.

Of course, this was our childhood, and it's natural to miss the childhood days. But something happened to our childhood stations too. Disney Channel led the way--little by little it phased out all the cartoons in favor of real-time shows, and Nickelodeon eventually started following this trend too. Not to mention, all the shows got less funny. I still find my childhood cartoons much funnier than anything on Disney Channel right now, and it's safe to say I'm not a kid anymore.

But something else has happened that sort of worries me a little bit. These shows made for kids are all set in high school, and the characters have crushes and go to high school parties and do other high school stuff. Granted, nothing actually ridiculous has happened yet, but I don't know...I don't think kids should be thinking about dating when they barely know what a good load of schoolwork is yet. When I was a kid, I thought about riding a bike and drawing and playing laser tag, not going to the cool kids' parties. Maybe I'm just too nostalgic, but I feel that kids are being taught that doing grown-up stuff and acting like grown-ups is cool, when it's better for them to be kids. A kid's life is less complex than an adult's for a reason. Can the TV shows please just let kids be kids?