Okay but what does a crunchy childhood actually mean? Here’s how to know if you had one

Picture the scene: The year is 2006, you’ve just come back from a long walk your mum dragged you on around some National Trust woodland. You wore your coolest GAP jumper and brought some Fruit Flakes along to have as a snack, and now you’re going to spend the afternoon watching CBBC (you could only dream of being allowed to have Disney Channel) and playing with your extensive Sylvanian Families collection. Sound familiar? Then I’m sorry to break it to you (if TikTok hasn’t already done so), but you had a crunchy childhood.

It’s all over TikTok, but what actually is a crunchy childhood?

When people on TikTok talk about a crunchy childhood, or a granola childhood, they’re talking about their experiences of growing up in the UK countryside in the early 2000s. It’s a very specific type of countryside childhood, but it’s so relatable.

If you had a crunchy childhood, you spent more time on walks than doing anything else, your parents probably have a National Trust membership and they absolutely shop at Waitrose.

Here are 25 crunchy things you’ll only relate to if you had a granola childhood:

1. Your Sylvanian Families collection was your absolute most prized possession

2. Your parents flat-out REFUSED to let you have Sky

3. Which meant you missed out on all the best Disney Channel shows

4. And whenever you went to a mate’s house after school you’d just spend the whole time watching their TV

5. You were forced to go on roughly seven million family walks and bike rides

6. Often in the grounds of some National Trust house

7. And your parents absolutely had an annual National Trust membership

8. Your mum would never buy the good snacks, just raisins, rice cakes and those gross Strawberry Bear Fruit Yoyo things

9. And your parents’ cupboards are full of roughly 37 different types of tea

10. Every autumn you’d go blackberry picking and then have a whole freezer full of them to last the rest of the year for your crumbles

11. Speaking of crumble, you have one every single Sunday – after your weekly roast dinner, of course

12. You spent more time in wellies than any other shoes and were always covered in mud

13. But you defo also owned Crocs, and your school shoes were always from Clarks

14. A normal weekend activity was going to the local library to look at the kids’ section and get your two books out

15. When you weren’t in the library you were going to Mountain Warehouse or Decathlon, probably to look at the camping stuff

16. All your holidays would be in the UK, either to Cornwall or Wales

17. You were never allowed fizzy drinks, and probably didn’t try one until you went to secondary school and could sneak off with your pocket money to the corner shop

18. But sometimes for a treat you’d be allowed a Fruit Shoot, and feel like you’d won the lottery

19. The Boden catalogue came every month, and all your clothes were either from there or GAP

20. You always had multiple pets – at least two labradors, and either a rabbit or a guinea pig

21. The only books you read were Enid Blyton, the Rainbow Fairies series, and the Chronicles of Narnia

22. You did loads of after school clubs, and went to horse riding every weekend

23. And you still have all your badges from Rainbows, Brownies and Guides in your room somewhere

24. Your parents would never let you get takeaways, and if you so much as suggested getting a McDonald’s you may as well have murdered someone

25. Your mum was on the PTA and would always bake a cake for the raffle at the school fair

What are people saying on TikTok about crunchy childhood?

All the TikTok videos are of people showing pictures of things from their crunchy childhood, with the Puff the Magic Dragon song playing as the audio.

Here are some of the best crunchy childhood TikToks:

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