26 Things That Will Give 2000s Kids Childhood Nostalgia

In times as tumultuous as these, I think it’s time we put on our rose-colored glasses and take a trip down memory lane back to our childhood. If you were born in the early 2000s you’re on the verge of discovering just how depressing adult life really is.

You’re also probably regretting how much you ignored your parents and older siblings who told you to relish in being a child with no responsibilities, when all you wanted to do was be a grown up. So, let’s look back at an age long ago, before ChatGPT and AI Tiktok videos that confuse your parents.

Get in loser, we’re going back to the early 2000s.

1. Pokemon cards

Remember trading these during recess? Good times. I once got a Pokemon card confiscated from me by a teacher in second grade and I have never gotten over it. Mark my words, I will have vengeance.

2. Playing on your Nintendo DS when you’re supposed to be sleeping

We’ve all done this. Mom just doesn’t understand the grind of trying to find that one Pokemon of your dreams. I hope my Nintendog is okay. 

3. DVDs

Remember begging your parents to take you to the DVD store as a kid? I still remember getting jumpscared by the Harry Potter menu screen or rocking out to the sing-alongs for classics, like Shrek 2 and Mamma Mia.

When family movie night meant flipping through the dvd wallet/binder, thinking you were about to introduce your family to the best movie they would ever watch (Lemonade Mouth). Now family movie night just means endlessly scrolling through Netflix and eventually giving up. Netflix ruined everything.

4. Silly Bandz

This was a third grader’s tennis bracelet. The swag was unparalleled. Thousands of friendship bracelets were made from these, or you just stacked your entire collection on your wrist. 

5. The smell of opening a fresh can of Play-Doh

I can smell this picture and I still wanna eat it. This was the OG slime. Play-Doh walked so slime could run, and I would die on that hill.

6. Begging your parents to let your cousins sleepover

Now we only see them at the occasional family function. I miss the High School Musical performances we did for our parents, and the rows of mattresses our parents laid out on the floor for us that we used to play “the floor is lava” instead of sleeping. 

7. Cool Math Games/Friv

The go-to games for when your IT teacher had a hangover. I may have never learned how to use Excel but the Papa’s Freezeria customers were always satisfied.

8. Club Penguin/Moshi Monsters/Poptropica

I need these games to make a come-back immediately. Who’s feeding my puffle!

9. Facebook Games

In an age long forgotten, when Facebook was cool, Farmville reigned supreme.

10. Cereal box toys

This is what gave six-year-old me a reason to wake up in the morning. Capitalism used to give people some joy. Cereal boxes gave you puzzles, toys and even cereal bowls. Now all the mascots are ugly and you get nothing.

11. Cereal Straws

I get that we want to save the turtles and everything, but we all need to be honest with ourselves. Paper straws were invented by the devil to make every iced coffee a miserable experience. I propose we replace all paper straws with edible and delicious cereal straws. The world rejoices and the turtles are saved.

12. The streets we all grew up on

Either you had this or your friends did, either way it was a childhood staple.

13. The magic of the Beirut Arab International Book Fair

Be honest, you got the book with the toy included and then proceeded to never read that book. Book fairs were a canon event in everyone’s childhood. The spy books with the invisible ink sparked deep rooted desires in every child to become a hardened detective with a drink they just can’t quit (Bonjus).

14. The golden age of cartoons

Everyone always says that the cartoons they had during their childhood were the best but the early 2000s really was the best era for kids cartoons. Samurai Jack, the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Ben 10, Courage, the Cowardly Dog, Codename: Kids Next Door, Ed, Edd, and Eddy, Cow and Chicken, Dexter’s Laboratory…the list goes on.

Although there are a few episodes of Courage, the Cowardly Dog and the Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack that still haunt my dreams, but that’s normal. I miss the days when you actually owned an entire season of a show you loved that Netflix couldn’t rip away from you at any moment. 

15. The music 

With the music that came out in the early 2000s I would have killed to get the chance to experience clubbing at the time. Face it, even now, when DJ’s play songs from the early 2000s it’s guaranteed that the entire club will be jumpin’ jumpin’.

This was the age when Rihanna was still making music, and the Black Eyed Peas were coming out with banger after banger. I may not have known what the lyrics to the songs I was singing meant or what Kesha was brushing her teeth with but I knew good music when I heard it. 

16. Chatterboxes

This is where all the tarot readers got their start. These things predicted when you would get married, how many kids you would have and served as the catalyst for all the dumbest decisions you could make at during your childhood.

17. Ra7a w Baskot

The chokehold these biscuits had on everyone was insane.

18. Custard cups

I take your ra7a baskot and I raise you with this absolute masterpiece. This snack was the reigning champion among all others. Especially when teta made them for you during summer break.

19. The “Atari” game console you and your siblings shared that was definitely not an Atari

It was 100% an NES, a PlayStation, or a Wii, but your parents always just referred to it as the Atari. 

20. The concept of an “Internet Cafe”

Back when Friday night plans meant going to an internet cafe with your friends just to use a computer.

21. Heelys

Every shoe should be a Heely. Guaranteed to be the flyest mode of transportation.

22. Beyblades

The world would be a better place if world leaders waged war with beyblades.

23. Crocs

Unlike Heelys, these should have never been invented and should stay in the early 2000s. A deep distant long forgotten aspect of our collective childhood. If you liked crocs as a kid and said they were comfortable, you’re a liar and you have no taste. 

24. Temporary tattoos

The kids who were obsessed with these now have some not-so-temporary tattoos. Mom and dad should have seen this one coming.

25. Littlest Pet Shop

Dare I say these were the blueprint for Labubu’s. No one ever just had ONE. If you were into the Littlest Pet Shop toys, you had a drawer overflowing with these adorable little critters.

26. Those robot dogs

We all had one of these, and we all thought that it was that it was the future of technology.

Still feeling nostalgic? Check out our #Nostalgia section.