30 Parents Who Were Cooler Than Their Kids

Whether we like it or not, the majority of us will become our parents one way or another - either from something as small as the way they laugh or perhaps something as profound as the same career path. Many of us crumble at the notion that we could share similarities with our less hip parents - but for the children of the parents in these photographs, the levels of cool exuding from their older generation are a thing they can only hope to aspire to.

Here is a photo list of times children came across old pictures of their parents only to find out their parents were cooler than them. So scroll down to check out some photo album treasures and upvote your favs. It might inspire you to ask your parents to show you what they were like when they were young!

Generational differences - sometimes it's challenging to get an explanation of what the previous generations were thinking other than "It was a different time." Progress is good but what are some things older people may miss about their youth? First, we have the style. There's a reason we love shopping at vintage stores - as compared with the some of the looks of today our parents had some pretty cool looks. Yet, when did Americans decide to trade in their tailored slacks for leggings? Casual fashion went through several milestones to reach where it is today yet in 1966 James Laver, a renowned historian of dress, told a group of fashion industry executives, “Clothes of the sexes are beginning to overlap and coincide.”

Millennials might think they're the most connected generation with all of the various media platforms, but that's caused less trust and isolation among those young people. According to a survey, 56 percent of those aged 22 to 37 would trust an ordinary person in the street, to tell the truth, compared to 77 percent of baby boomers." Levels of social trust have been argued to be a strong predictor of national economic growth, levels of life satisfaction and suicide rates," it says.

We all have our vices - but perhaps the younger generation has healthier ones. With anti-smoking campaigns like 'truth' smoking is not as widely accepted and not depicted in the 50's Mad Men style way. However, our parents grew up in a different time; for instance, it wasn't until the 1990s that smoking on airplanes was entirely banned.

Hipsters might think that they're a step ahead of the rest with their beards and man buns - yet just as it is with their vintage fashion sense, they have to pay their respects to the pioneers of long hair fashion. Long locks on both men and women became a trendy look in the '60s and '70s, Before that you would've been side-eyed for your unruly mane.

My Favorite Picture Of My Mom. She Was The Only Girl In Her Welding Class In 1984. Byrd High School, Shreveport, Louisiana

lizzyhaze

My Mom Flew Helicopters For The Army In The 80s

completedesaster

My Mother Doing A Handstand On Two Skateboards (Circa 1980's)

Nirokie

My Dad (Front) In Vietnam In 1971. He Didn’t Know This Photo Existed Until I Came Across It Randomly On The Internet. He Cried When He Saw It

strawberrygnome

My Dad At His First Job At Nasa!

sonokoroxs

Chuck Norris Pinned By My Dad

LanaDelRayquaza

My Dad And His Veterinarian Mother, With Their Pet Lion Which They Raised For Two Years, 1959

ryanb99

My Dad Diving Off The Starboard Fin Of A Submarine And Into The Pacific Ocean In The Summer Of 1983

MightyCornDog

My Mom Holding Myself Whilst Writing Her Master Thesis On The Macintosh Classic II (1991)

FrenchFriesGate

My Friends Parents Are Celebrating Their 47th Anniversary This Week. Here's Them Being Badasses In The 70's

DoubleM515

My Mom Was A Homicide Detective In The 80s

gymbez

My Mom, Age 15, Smoking At An Allman Brothers Concert With A Broken Arm. Watkins Glen '73

TheCKBandit

My Parents In 1972 In Front Of Their Store In Paris

RobinThomass

1969 Vietnam: My Father’s Version Of A Selfie Before Selfies Were A Thing

mastiffmum

My Dad A Zoo Keeper In 1992

8_Bit_Zombies

My Father Who Shipped His Bike Over To England And Rode All Over Europe On It - 1973

lionhearted828

My Mom In The Police Academy, 1984

hellooooo3

My Mom As A Red Cross Volunteer In WWII. She Had Her Own Radio Show In The Pacific Theater To Counteract Tokyo Rose. 1944

Saved_by_punctuation

My Dad's Graduation Photo. Circa 1970's

Mr_Goldfish0

My Pregnant Mom At Gunpoint Trying To Get Home - May 1969 Berkeley

Leo_nardo

Mom Spinning Records At Kwkh, Shreveport - 1977

JonSmith12345

Pretty Rad Picture Of My Dad When He Was 22, In Texas, Taken In 1987. That Ghettoblaster Is Epic

peter_nincompoop33

My Mom Fled Saigon In 1975. By The 90s, She Had Joined The US Air Force

cryptolingo

One Of My Favorite Photos Of My Parents In The Late 70s

manderly808

My Hilarious Father (With The Magazine) And My Grandfather, Grandmother, And Uncle At His Bar Mitzvah In 1972

JasonPlatz

My Father Halfway Through Motorcycling Across Africa - 1980s

civil55

My Dad Taking A Smoking Break While Fighting Saddam Husseins Army In The 80s

iAmReginaPhalange

My Mom Said She Gave This Up When She Had Me. I'm Pretty Sure She Stopped When I Was Old Enough To Want Some (1970's)

kingngrfgt

My Dad Fishing... On A Nuclear Submarine 1966

vbisbest

My Mom In The Hospital After Giving Birth To My Sister. Canada 1978. Smokes And Roasted Chicken

rookdanger