“They Have No Clue!” — Dad Shocked After Daughter Calls Movies With Ads “Vacation TV”

TikToker couple Cole and Shannon (@thatgirl_shannon_) documented the exact moment when the generational gap between them and their children dawned on Cole.

It's when they referred to watching a movie with advertisements as "vacation TV." Cole was completely flummoxed that his kids were so fortunate to never have to know what a commercial was.

"So the girls wanted to watch a movie," Dad says while he's standing at the foot of the bed, narrating the video. "You could watch it for free but with ads."

He said that they were confused by the fact that the film had commercials interrupting the action every so often. Going on, he delineated their puzzled response to seeing the advertisements.

"They're like what is this? Can you skip it? And I'm like no, it's an ad, it's only like 60 seconds you have to watch it ... a commercial. Those girls look at each other and then," he says before pantomiming their shocked faces.

Dad then said that one of the girls looked at him and said, "Like, vacation TV? I was like," he then leans forward over the bed with his mouth agape as the person recording the video can be heard chuckling in the background.

"What do you mean? And I said, our kids have no idea what a real commercial is. They have no clue. And then, as soon as she said that her friend goes, yeah, that, vacation TV! They have no idea what a commercial is! Literally like," Cole continues. At this point in the video, he puts his hands to his head in order to intone just how gobsmacked he is by this generational gap.

"It just hit me it's like how many kids out there do that? Like ... or think that? And you know what she said after? She was like, yeah and you can't pause it, rewind it, or anything."

This really gets him going as he slams his hands against the bed: "What is that?"

He likens it to another recent phenomenon he's noticed among kids today, and it's the way they pretend to talk into a phone with their hands. Since most younger kids have grown up with flat slab touch screen phones, they hold their hands flat up to their faces as if they're speaking into their palm.

If you grew up with old-school landline phones, or even flip cell "dumbphones" then you'll probably hold it up to your face like you're a surfer sporting a "hang 10" gesture. "You know that the cell phone thing ... kids do this instead of this. That is one of those moments. That hit harder than anything," he said.

"TV ... vacation TV?! Because we go to these hotels that don't have these and they just have basic cable. What is that? These kids got it made!" he says, laughing into the camera before the video ultimately closes out.

Dad's reaction to seeing just how flabbergasted his kids were to see advertisements in the middle of a movie is probably relatable to most. However, it's easy to overlook that this same generational response was probably had by our parents when we grew up not knowing how to drive a stick shift.

There's also the glee some parents must've gotten after watching their kids' faces when, while visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house, they learned there wasn't a remote control around to navigate the channels on the giant wooden box in the middle of the living room.

They had to get up and turn the dial whenever they wanted to change the channel.

Other TikTokers began sharing some of their favorite generational gap discoveries. One person pointed out that the concept of "binge-watching" is new. You used to have to wait until a season of a show was finished and there was a DVD release.

Someone else highlighted the struggle of having two of your favorite shows air at the same exact time. So you hoped that their commercial times didn't sync up with one another as you mashed the return button on your remote.

And then there was this parent who shared a humorous anecdote about her daughter's discovery of a dial tone: "I’ll never forget the moment my daughter discovered a dial tone on a hotel phone she kept saying, 'Mom listen.'"

It appears that others, too, have kids who are completely oblivious to what commercials are: "My son was listening to music one time and goes, 'My iPad is broken. Something just keeps talking to me in between songs.'"