If I could turn BACK TIME...

Missing her 80s childhood, Julie Cook decided to take her kids on a trip down memory lane

- JULIE COOK

My children are always going on about how ‘cool’ the 90s must have been. They seem to love the fashion, the music and how the hip-hop dance scene took off.

But although I was a teen and then a young adult in the 90s, the 80s truly has my heart. I was born in 1977 and my childhood was in the 1980s. I have happy memories of roller boots, A-ha, Smash Hits magazine, recording the top 40 on a cassette tape and the excitement of microwave-ready meals – a brand new phenomenon back then. ‘Think the 90s was cool?’ I told my kids, Alex, 14, and Adriana, nine. ‘You should have seen the 80s!’ And with that, I waved my magic wand and decided to take them back there – for five days.

Bye, bye phones!

The look on their faces, as I took their phones away, was comical.

‘No phones? For five days?’ they chorused as one.

‘Yep – in the 80s we had no mobiles.’ ‘What did you do?’ Alex asked me, looking horrified. ‘We played board games!’ I smiled. I dusted off my ancient Ghost Castle game. I’d got it for Christmas in 1987 when I was 10. I put it together, wistfully nostalgic as my kids gaped in horror.

I explained the rules and we had a go. At first they pulled faces. But after a game, they were laughing. I was surprised when Adriana said, ‘Can we play again?’

They liked it so much we played it for the next three evenings after school. I then dug out Connect Four, which was a big hit too. We actually talked to each other, too, which was a bonus.

Microwave meltdown