Pokemon cards and POGS were the norm in the schoolyards, and at any given time you could hear some of the younger students fighting over whether Tinky-Winky was really gay.

We named our Barbies Topanga and scrunchies resided on almost every (fashionable) little girl’s pony-tail. High-kicks were a socially acceptable – nay, encouraged – dance move, usually in tear-away pants, and Furbies were all the rage. The only thing cooler than a Furby was a Tamogachi, a toy of which I had 7.

I have a theory that Gen Y is having trouble financially because the 90’s set us up to fail with money. Let’s take a look.

Polly Pockets

As a little girl in the 90’s, it was a birth right to have all the Polly Pockets, ever.

I had all of the ones that looked like compact mirrors, but I also had this gargantuan Polly Pocket mansion (by gargantuan I mean it was still alarmingly small, because – duh – it’s a Polly Pocket mansion). A car literally shot out of the garage when you pressed down on a plastic shrub, and you could open the roof for a nice, rooftop patio. I believe there was a pool involved and a greenhouse.

Plus, there were flags. So there’s that.

Obviously, I expected this to be the norm. I’d definitely have a mansion with flags atop the turretted roof. Rooftop patio? No problem! Technology that allows a car to shoot out of a garage with a flick of a shrub? Obviously.

Sabrina The Teenage Witch

Shame on you if you didn’t watch Sabrina struggle with her witchery in the 90’s.

Sabrina, when getting ready in the morning, would point at herself and be instantly dressed in brand new clothes and perfectly styled hair.

She never wore the same outfit twice, and any self respecting girl stood in front of her mirror pointing at herself repeatedly until she crawled away, defeated, dreams shattered, wearing the same clothes as last week.

If Sabrina could do it, why couldn’t we?

The girl could get anything she wanted by being a witch, as long as it wasn’t love. That’s the only thing that couldn’t be wished.

Sabrina tainted my view of style and clothing and heightened my expectations of the ability to point at oneself and get everything one wants.

Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego

Carmen was priveleged. She could jet-set all over the world, leaving us to try to find her.

She escaped the law by showing up all over the world.

I thought it would be awesome – my future job (criminal or not) would definitely fly me all over the world and travel around.

I’m actually pretty sure that Carmen was my idol. Plus, I liked her coat.

In the video game, there wasn’t a set amount of money you could spend before you had to crawl home, broke and frustrated. It just allowed you to look wherever you pleased.

The Magic School Bus

I don’t know about you, but I remember most field trips being relatively expensive. You usually had to pull out all the stops with fundraising before your class could go on a trip to the human body to the museum of Canadian art.

With the Magic School Bus, money wasn’t even a concern. It would shrink, grow, convert into a plane, a boat, you name it.

The scchool that they went to clearly had unlimited funds, and no kid was left behind due to failure to pay up. Perhaps they had generous donors?

In any case, the Magic School bus got my hopes up, that I’d get to go on great adventures without a care in the world.

(Also, I could never quite figure out what animal Liz was. Obviously she’s some sort of lizard, but what lizard has horns growing out of it’s head?)

How did your coming of age decade set you up to fail?

(obviously, most of this is tongue in cheek)

How The ’90s Set Us Up to Fail Financially is a post from: When Life Gives You Lemons. Did you like the post? Follow me on Twitter, like me on Facebook, or hop on over to my blog and leave me your feedback.