“They Never Specified Which Century” — Mom Shares How Daughter Dressed up for '80s Day

If you grew up playing Twisted Metal 2, then you're probably very well-acquainted with the "Monkey's Paw"-style endings in the game. The combatants, after asking Calypso to grant them their wishes with the esoteric powers he possessed, usually found out the hard way that they needed to be very specific in the way they phrased their wishes.

But taking advantage of vague phrasing doesn't always have to have such macabre implications. Sometimes, getting to say the phrase "But you didn't say..." can have some downright adorable and hilarious consequences — something this mom's kid demonstrated when they went to school on '80s Day fully decked out in their period-appropriate costume.

Here's the thing, though: the kid's school never specific which century of the '80s that they meant, and X user Dr. Frizzle's (@swilua) kid took advantage of the lack of this distinction. Which the mom showed off in a throwback picture she posted to the social media platform, where it promptly went viral.

Her post contained two photos of her daughter decked out in an outfit that looked like it'd be more at home in Downtown Abbey than Miami Vice (and we're talking about the original TV show and not the weird Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx re-release).

She went all out: we're talking a bunch of lace, including frilly gloves, a parasol, floral patterns, layers — she was certainly Jane Austen-ing it up.

In a follow-up post, the mother stated that while other kids in the school didn't really seem to appreciate her daughter's sense of humor, or style, faculty members thought it was fantastic.

"My child, reflecting on the experience: all the kids thought I was weird, but my teachers LOVED it," she penned.

There was another person who replied to her post who said that she wasn't that far off when it came to '80s designs in clothing, noting that there were a lot of get-ups during the raddest decade of all time that utilized lace accents.

Judging from the replies other users gave in response to Dr. Frizzle's post, it seemed others decided to go against the grain when it came to themed costume days at their respective schools. Like this person who wrote: "We had 'Country Day' at the school where I teach. Most kids wore cowboy boots and baseball caps. One kid was France."

Another kid decided to abide by the color requirements for another day of festivities by technically abiding by it, while still getting to dress up as a superhero: "For the queen's last jubilee, the kids at my daughter's school were meant to come dressed in red, white, and blue. One kid wore a Spider-man costume."

And as it turns out, there were other people who had the same idea as Dr. Frizzle's kid, like this user who simply wrote "same" and included a photo of two high school students who were repping outfits from the 1980s and then an entirely different century.

And there was another person who said that due to all of the different types of outfits folks were rocking in the 1980s, the student more than likely would have fit right in during that decade: "The 1980s were such a wildly non-homogenous decade fashion-wise, I'm sure there were people dressing like that anyway. Prince would have fit right in."

One user on the application pointed out that the post looked very familiar to a popular Parks & Rec character's own interpretation of a '90s day when she dressed up like a pilgrim.

So what do you think? Is this "understanding the assignment," like so many people have said? Or should she have just stuck to '80s-ing out, because this would be like calling people from Phoenix "Phoenicians"?