When the COVID-19 lockdown hit, parents became teachers, teachers became YouTubers and for kids, screen time became a whole lot more acceptable.
But what's that done to their learning? Can they catch up after all that time at home and what did these chaotic years look like through their eyes?
On-again off-again lockdown life certainly had its ups and downs for our tamariki.
At first, the novelty value was all about skipping school - that novelty didn't take long to wear off.
Child health researcher and anthropologist Julie Spray asked Kiwi kids to express their COVID-19 lives through comics.
"I spoke to a lot of very sad, lonely children," Dr Spray told Newshub Investigates. "I think we can often underestimate the importance of children's friendships.
They depicted themselves doing school work online, getting COVID-19 tests and being bored watching the 1pm Covid news conferences on TV.
But some drew themselves in tears, with speech bubbles asking why they were alone or couldn’t go back to school.
One comic showed a child behind bars and the word: "HHHHHHEEEEELLLLLPPPPP!!!!"
"They live in very different worlds to adults - they're very small worlds and children don't have a lot of power or control over the worlds. So lockdowns, for example, made children's worlds even smaller," said Dr Spray.
Auckland's Waterview Primary deputy principal Andrea Thomas said she's incredibly proud of how their pupils stepped up during COVID-19.
"I think the kids who are regularly back are responding really well. I think it's the kids who took a while to get back - those are the ones that have struggled," Thomas said.
"We had a big divide and that's what we noticed.
"Some homes you've got four or five kids. So the high school kids got the devices that were in the home - so sometimes the little ones, they weren't the number one priority."
A newfound respect for teachers blossomed as overwhelmed parents tried to balance the supervision of online learning with their own working from home demands.
As the pandemic set in, the Growing Up in New Zealand research team went to their cohort of families - conducting one of the largest COVID-19 surveys of children in the world.
The survey revealed our tamariki dug deep to show incredible resilience, adaptability and strength in that first year of the pandemic.
It also confirmed the age-old adage that the more really is the merrier, much to the surprise of head researcher Sarah Jaine Paine - a mum of three young children herself.
Children were telling us that they felt quite good during that lockdown and the impact of a bubble seemed to be protective or seem to protect kids against feelings of anxiety and depression," Dr Paine said.
But that larger protective bubble is proving hard to burst.
"Those were sometimes some of the hardest to get back to school because they really enjoyed being at home or they enjoyed aspects of being at home," Thomas noted.
The Naidu family is part of the Growing Up study. Arya Naidu was in her last year of primary school as COVID-19 hit.
"It was pretty scary," she said. "I didn't think I would ever live through something like that."
Her mother Archana Kumar, a pharmacist, was an essential worker.
"I would isolate myself. I would not hug my kids and my husband," Archana said.
Lockdown parenting: Good, bad and iPad
Screen time for our children jumped from two hours a day to almost five during COVID-19 lockdowns.
But parents, if you're wracked with guilt - don't be.
"I think we have to remember what the children were trying to achieve through their screen use and sometimes it was for pleasure but, actually, a lot of the time it was making sure that we were able to help our kids stay connected to their friends, to their sports teams, to their whānau, to their teachers," Dr Paine said.
But there may have been a cost. International research points to a spike in myopia - or nearsightedness - in children during the pandemic.
Arya is among those whose vision has suffered.
"By the end of lockdown, I could not see," she said. "I cannot see like two metres, three metres in front of me. It was really bad."
Senior lecturer of optometry at the Univesity of Auckland Jo Black said more time spent indoors may be linked to an increase in myopia.
There are, however, multiple reasons increased screen time can have a negative impact on eye health in children.
"Eye strain can be caused by blurred vision due to uncorrected refractive errors and prolonged focussing on the screen at a close distance," Black said.
"Dry eyes can result from abnormal blinking patterns that develop during screen use."
What's next for our resilient, resolute little rug-rats?
"There will be a lasting impact," Dr Spray said. "But what that impact is, I wouldn't necessarily say it's going to be good or bad. It's just going to be different.
"One thing that we've all learned about this pandemic is that it's amplified pre-existing inequalities."
It's very clear the focus now must be to support our kids with the challenges of this seemingly endless pandemic, with a particular focus on their mental wellbeing.
"I think the impacts are different at every age," Dr Paine said. "I don't know if any of us are lucky. I think that, again, we are just all trying to do the best we can."
Watch Newshub Investigates: Generation COVID in full on ThreeNow.
