I grew up in the 90s. I still remember the buttery yellow glow coming through my tiny bedroom window. On warm summer days, we left the window open while the wind carried the smell of fresh laundry drying outside. Even when we lived in a three-story apartment building, everyone still hung their clothes outdoors.
During heat waves, we slept with just a thin bedsheet instead of a blanket. It always smelled clean and sun-warmed, like summer evenings and fresh air.
I remember my mom making dinner in our tiny apartment kitchen. Usually it was some kind of cozy soup or a golden brown casserole I ate until I was completely stuffed. Sometimes she baked simple sheet cakes or made spoon desserts for the whole family.
And when I got bored, I skipped across the road to my grandma’s house.
I loved it there.
She always had time for me. Time to tell stories, time to sit at the kitchen table, time to feed me something warm and hearty before I went back home.
Back then, nobody called it “low cortisol parenting” or “soft living.” It was just normal life. Quiet kitchens. Open windows. Warm food. Slower evenings.
Now, decades later, millennials on the internet have a name for the feeling many of us miss:
the 90s Butter Mom.
