Category: childhood

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People Share the Weird Things That Creeped Them out When They Were Kids

When I was a young lad, I was always terrified of being shot in the back with an arrow as I ran up the stairs in our house. So I would sprint up that set of stairs as fast as I could like my life depended on it. Every single time.

Clearly, I was a normal child and have now transitioned into a well-adjusted adult.

Okay, maybe not.

AskReddit users went on the record and shared their frightful childhood memories.

1. Freaked out by the peach.

“James and the Giant peach. Not the insects, but the actual peach.”

2. Don’t like that sound at all.

“The sound of a balloon popping i dont know why but that used to absolutely terrify me.”

3. Haunted by ET.

“Fucking ET, the Extra-Terrestrial. Used to give me nightmares that he was trying to stab me with a long butcher knife.”

4. Still fired up about this one.

“China dolls, but it’s not ridiculous and I’m 40 next week and still scared of them.

Right, so they’re toys, yes? So why do their EYES FUCKING MOVE? They can fuck off.”

5. Even the tiny ones…

“Spiders, even the tiny ones. I really have a severe arachnophobia.”

6. Beware of the wolves.

“Imaginary wolves. I grew up in a house in the woods. Our nearest neighbors were a mile away. Whenever I went outside to get something from my moms car or the mailbox or whatever I always imagined that a pack of wolves was on the prowl and if I wasn’t as fast as I could possibly go, they would eat me.”

7. Urban legend.

“Bloody Mary. Where you go into the bathroom, turn the light off, turn a round three times while chanting “Bloody Mary” three times and then look in the mirror and she will appear and scratches will be left on your face.”

8. From beyond…

“I was convinced the martians from Mars Attacks would eventually show up and vaporize us all. You couldn’t convince me otherwise.

My dad would say, “aliens aren’t real.” And I would counter with my paranoid logic, “But how do you KNOW that? You can’t know for sure.””

9. Don’t run in these.

“Courdory pants. When I was 3 or 4, my sister told me that if I wore them and ran, my crotch would catch on fire. I am 31 and still have a strong aversion to courdory.”

10. We’re under attack!

“As a toddler I would watch those trashy ultraviolent action movies they’d play on TNT. It was one of the few times he was ever chill/not screaming or hitting me or my brother, so we were all in.

Then military operations against our house became a very real fear. What if they use paratroopers??!!”

11. Stranger danger.

“The stranger danger stuff. Still waiting to be offer drugs, lol Was offered alchohol when underage, declined because 1. beer is gross and 2. I was watching a sick baby.

Well now as an adult lots of people in my life are strangers.”

12. Scared in general.

“The talking toilet from Look Who’s Talking. Gave me my very first nightmare where I couldn’t talk or run, I could just stare helplessly at this talking toilet, which was giant in my nightmare. I was 3 or 4 I think. For a while I was just scared of toilets in general.

I also remember being afraid of the country being invaded for no particular reason. My mom tried to reason with me that anything can happen, so it’s not worth worrying about. She said a plane could crash into the house at any moment too, but it probably won’t. This reasoning backfired because for a while I was scared of a plane crashing into the house randomly.

Oh and also, when I was 5, I thought a tornado drill was a tornado that could drill through the ground and get you through the floor…….I was a pretty scared child in general.”

13. He’s heeeeeeeere.

“I always thought Big Foot would decide to show up outside of my back yard door late at night.”

14. That makes sense.

“Purple gloves. I knew that if a doctor put on purple gloves, they were about to get a needle or do something that would hurt. I had a lot of anxiety with doctors and doctors offices, probably because I was born premature and spent the first three months of my life in the NICU and dealt with medical problems the first three to four years of my life.”

15. I definitely thought about this as a kid.

“The never ending timeline of eternity in the afterlife (if it exists).”

That brought back a flood of memories from when I was a kid, that’s for sure.

Do you remember the things that freaked you out when you were a child?

Share them with us in the comments! Let’s compare notes on this one!

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People Share Ridiculous Things That Scared Them When They Were Children

For a lot of us, childhood is full of fear and uncertainty.

We think monsters are lurking around every corner and that the world is a very unsafe place…which is kind of true, but as kids we have a lot of irrational fears as well.

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane.

AskReddit users shared their interesting childhood stories.

1. That is pretty weird…

“I used to have this repeating dream that scared me to death. I was always in a skyscraper made of windows, and a giant toddler would walk through the street. If the toddler saw you, you died. Weird fucking dream, but I dreamt it repeatedly for years.”

2. My mom used to tell me this, too.

“Escalators. My mother told me that they will catch my shoestring or pants hem and pull me down and cut me into shreds. I still think if that every time I step on one.”

3. Stay away from drains.

“Drains. Showers and tubs and pools. Especially unfamiliar ones.”

4. Beware of gators.

“I thought an alligator would climb up the wall of our house like a lizard and come through my window and eat me in my sleep.

I lived in Mumbai. We dont have alligators anywhere. Also, they can’t do that.”

5. The stuff that nightmares are made of.

“Willy Wonka.”

6. Ghost dust.

“Dust.

Uncle told me it was left by ghosts.”

7. That’ll scare the hell out of you.

“The windows XP startup and shutdown noise.”

8. A lot of fears.

“Rats, snakes, roaches, etc climbing up the pipe to the toilet and biting my ass.

My grandma’s cocker spaniel jumping on me and knocking me over. He just wanted to lick me and was excited, it turns out.

Other people driving. This one is weird because I trusted absolutely nobody but my mom—if it was anyone else, ie her friends, babysitters, or even my dad, I was absolutely convinced I was going to die.”

9. Not as uncommon as you might think…

“Ceiling fans.

Bro, same. My sister convinced me they would detach and fly across the room. Didn’t help that the fans made weird noises at high speed.”

10. Clapping can be dangerous.

“If I clapped my hands above my head, the nightmares would start. If I clapped them up there again, they would stop. (This didn’t actually happen; it was what I was afraid of.)

Consequently, I had to make sure I only ever clapped my hands above my head an even number of times. If I accidentally clapped them, I had to clap them again.”

11. Scared of balls.

“Balls. Literally any round object was fucking terrifying to me apparently. According to my mom, if she wanted me in a room but didn’t want me to go anywhere, she’d put a ~hand sized red ball in the exit. I was apparently too scared to even go to that side of the room.”

12. The orange glow.

“On a trip to London as a ten-year-old, I woke in the small hours of the morning due to jet lag and was horrified to see an orange glow outside the windows.

I convinced myself that a nuclear explosion had occurred and somehow I had managed to sleep through it.

Nothing happened for an eternity of terror.

So I mustered the courage; I slid out of bed and crawled across the floor, to peep over the window sill and look out on the devastation, the city burning

The street lights were orange, for fog. They don’t have them where I’m from.”

13. Run for it!

“As a child, I used to be scared of the 20th Century Fox themesong. I would run out of the room screaming each time it would come on before or after a movie.”

14. That is kind of creepy…

“The live action Grinch scared my brother when he was a toddler. If he didn’t go to bed on time my parents would threaten him with the VCR tape of it & he would race to bed.”

15. Hyperactive child.

“I was a very hyperactive child, I use to eat and walk around the house and mess it all up, once my grandma told me that if I will keep eating while I’m standing all the food will go down to my legs and feet and they will become so fat I wouldn’t be able to wear shoes anymore.

I stop eating and walking until today.”

Those are pretty darn funny, if I do say so myself.

What were the things that scared you as a kid? Share your memories with us in the comments!

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15 People Share Their Inexplicable Memories from Childhood

I have some odd childhood memories that I’ve never been able to explain. I’ve also never been able to shake them from my mind for one reason or another, and they are weird.

Do you have odd memories like that? Ones you can’t seem to get rid of from your past?

AskReddit users shared their weird, unexplainable memories from childhood.

Share your own in the comments!

1. A repressed memory?

“Every year at our cabin I have a dream I fall into the lake. Was told later that I fell in when I was younger. I never have this dream at home. Idk if the repressed memory is trying to tell me not to go on the water or just don’t be stupid and fall face first.”

2. No one believes me.

“When I was 10 or 11, I woke up very early in the morning to someone driving down our long driveway. It was dark outside, but I just barely peeped out my window to watch a man look into all of our car windows, survey our flower beds, and finally peer into my bedroom window. I played asleep and when I looked out the window again, he was driving backwards out of our driveway.

In the morning, I mentioned what I saw to everyone, but no one acknowledged hearing or seeing anything, despite the man’s headlights being very bright, maybe even switched to brights, and he slammed his car doors very loudly. But I can remember how scary it was having his face pressed against the window above my head and praying he didn’t try the lock. No one believes me to this day. I swear it was not a dream.”

3. Who was this kid?

“When I was a kid I had a classmate over who claimed he was a vampire. I didn’t believe him. I told him if his eyes glow in the dark that would prove he was a vampire.

We went into the bathroom and I turned off the light. His eyes were glowing. It scared the crap out of me. I opened the door, ran outside, jumped on my bike and got as far away from my house as I thought I could.

When I eventually came back home the classmate was gone and my dad was pissed that I abandoned my friend.”

4. Sounds kinda fishy.

“Breathing underwater. Turns out a lot of people have memories of being able to do something similar. Still haven’t gotten an explanation.”

5. My jaw dropped…

“My family and I were driving out of Bellows, a campsite/beach for military families in Hawai’i. I lazily gaze out the window and something catches my eye. About 30 feet away in a clearing before a metal gate leading into the forest was a massive bird. Like 8 feet tall massive. It had a long neck, brown feathers, and very thick long legs.

My jaw dropped and I was still processing what I had seen when my dad said, “What the hell was that?” Turns out he had seen it too, and we both described it identically. No one else saw it, and by the time our brains had caught up with our eyes it was too late to turn around.

I will always regret not turning around. When we returned later in the day there was nothing there. When we asked a guard about it he laughed at us. I scoured the internet afterward, and it looked like nothing I could find. At least, nothing that isn’t extinct- it looked amazingly similar to one of the larger species of moa… but those lived in New Zealand thousands of miles away and died out hundreds of years ago.

This happened back in 2009 and to this day I wonder whether I saw a Lazarus species.”

6. The same dream.

“My sister and I apparently both had the same dream one night, a scary one. We were staying in this villa where we had to share a room and we both woke up suddenly. The window was open, when it hadn’t been before. I realised she was awake as well and told her I’d had a bad dream, and as I started to describe it, she started talking along with me, describing the same dream.

In it, this black creature that looked like a bull, only it had shiny, scaly, plastic looking skin, was standing in the open window with this weird mechanical device, and it somehow fired a projectile at the lamp in the room, which started rocking back and forth. Neither of us wanted to get up and close the window in case the thing was actually out there, so we called for our mum and she closed it, reassured us in typical mum fashion, etc. For months we would talk about that incident and we could never figure out how we both managed to have the same exact dream at the same time.”

7. “On the brink of extinction”

“My mother walked into my room, waking me up to tell me that most of the world’s population was dead. I spent the rest of the day as normal, eating breakfast, going shopping with her, going to a playground, then eating dinner (albeit, acting quite nervous throughout). The next day, she tried to make it clear that what started the previous morning wasn’t true. I asked her if she remembered, but she told me she didn’t.

I’m certain it wasn’t a dream, because I recalled the rest of what happened the previous day to her, only to be met by her confirmation that everything I remembered was correct, right down to how shaky I was and how upset I seemed. All except for the part that humanity was on the brink of extinction.”

8. Peter Pan to the rescue.

“I used to have nightmares. My dad put up a poster of Peter Pan in my room and told me that when I went to sleep, Peter would fly out of the poster and chase all of the monsters away. I never had another bad dream.”

9. Was it real?

“I was like 3-5 years old when this happened. I woke one night while camping in a cabin, and I saw a cat tail dangle from this lamp. It’d sink down, and then disappear back up into the lampshade. It also started calling for me, going like “whoo hoo!”. Unnerved the hell out of little me… I can’t remember if I just never checked to see if there was anything there, or that I did check and there was nothing there. I chalk it up to just being so tired I was hallucinating.”

10. It was so surreal.

“The whole neighborhood thought I was kidnapped. I don’t really know why and what the actual fuck is the thought process of how they think that happened but apparently the people are frantically searching me. What I remembered is that my elder cousin and her husband took me to an internet cafe to let me watch them pick their wedding outfits.

When we returned, everyone was shocked, my brother smiles because he knew I was in trouble, my mom was crying, and my dad slapped the shit out of me. It was so surreal.”

11. A lightning strike.

“I remember being at a playground with my family and seeing lightning strike right in front of me. Didn’t hear any thunder, no one else saw it, but I remember seeing it pretty vividly. Not sure if there’s something that can go on in your brain that would cause something like that to happen, but I remember pleading with my mom to believe that I had just seen a lightning bolt strike right in front of me, and she just ignored me.”

12. Good golly, Miss Molly.

“When I was six, I had a girlfriend named Molly. I moved away the next year and never saw her again. For the next 40 years, one of my earliest and most vivid memories was me watching a six year old redhead girl running away from me, up towards her house, yelling, “Mommy, mommy, Jonathan kissed me!”, and her mother’s voice coming back, “We’ll, that must mean he really likes you.”

A few years ago, I’d had a little sangria and decided to see if Molly was on Facebook (I know, I know). There she was! Right name, right age, right hometown, lovely red hair. I PM’ed her asking if she was the right red headed girl. She wrote back that she was definitely the right Molly (and was happy to hear from me) but she’d only started dyeing her hair red after college. Memory’s a trip, man.”

13. That shifty little bastard.

“I remember, very vividly, seeing a leprechaun in the hallway of my house. It freaked me out so bad that I woke my mom up yelling “someone’s in the house!” We walked from room to room with kitchen knives looking for the leprechaun, but never found that shifty little bastard.”

14. You just did that.

“When I was about four or five, I was in the foyer by my front door when I saw my father come in the house, put down his briefcase, and then walk to my mother to give her a kiss on the cheek. Then the front door opened again; it was my father (again). I looked next to me where I had seen him put his briefcase; it was gone.

I looked back at him, scared, and said, “you just did that.”

I have never hallucinated in the more than 25 years since this happened, and nothing like it has ever happened since.”

15. Is Mom lying?

“I’m like 95% sure I sort of got hit by a car when crossing the street with my mom. There was a red light and we didn’t cross at a crosswalk. A car inched forward and I remember falling onto the hood? But I was fine. I used to literally get flashbacks. For years. But my mom swears it never happened. I think she’s lying.”

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15 Things People Didn’t Understand Until They Became Adults

You get a major shock when you eventually become a grown up – like how not fun it is 90% of the time – until they hit a certain age and find themselves with more responsibilities than free time and more kids than money.

The 15 things below definitely make me nostalgic for the carefree days of my childhood.

#15. Lefts and rights.

The whole “my right vs. your right” thing confused the heck out of me as a preschooler. I knew my own lefts and rights but when my mom was facing me and used to say “my right isn’t the same as your right” I learned to just do the opposite of what she looked like. Problem is this led to me thinking that the difference was because of AGE, so kids’ lefts and rights were the opposite of adults’ lefts and rights.

So somehow I got the idea in my head that when you turned 21 your lefts and rights switched (I have no clue why I specifically thought 21, I had this image in my head of blowing out 21 candles and everyone saying congratulations and you get some kind of certificate to officially switch them). Well I’m 21 now and my lefts and rights never switched.

#14. A dog and children.

The stress of paying bills and budgeting. My parents tried to keep this hidden from me but I could tell how much they carefully budgeted. They also sacrificed for us kids. I didn’t get that until I had a dog first and then children.

#13. Just double the Christmas presents.

That my parents couldn’t just double the presents this Christmas if I tell them it’s okay to not do anything for next Christmas.

#12. Value.

The value of all the shit I trashed or broke.

#11. Some people are selfish jerks.

Not everyone is inclined to do the right thing. Some people are selfish jerks and it sucks, but you just have to accept it and do what you believe is right. There are a lot of awesome people out there too, and you can’t get too cynical about the world because of the shitty people in it

#10. Not a given.

Vacations and breaks aren’t a given. You don’t just get to stop working for a few weeks randomly throughout the year, and no one plans around your vacation – you must plan all of your own (and sometimes other people’s) work around your departures. Oh, and vacations are expensive. There’s probably a reason that Billy down the block’s family is able to take five people to Disneyworld: because they have money.

I’m a violin teacher now and blew this poor kid’s mind this past weekend when he asked me what I was doing for spring break. I sort of stared at him for a second, and then remembered that spring break is a thing that kids get…so I told him that I’m working because I don’t get a spring break and he was just completely aghast. Sorry buddy, the adult world isn’t as fun as being a kid.

#9. Such a pretty name.

I didn’t know what virginity was and my dad would say I would understand when I got older. In the meantime, I thought it would make such a pretty name for a girl.

#8. Bills to pay.

my dad wasn’t a workaholic, we just had bills to pay.

#7. I really thought I’d need the karate chop.

I used to think that living beyond 24 was crazy and impossible
I used to think you would grow up to be a particular person instead of a larger version of yourself. I genuinely thought I could become Prince.
I really thought I’d need the karate chop as a part of my adult life

#6. How to cherish the silence.

As a kid I thought if it was quiet it was boring and the worst possible thing. Now I work in a library and cherish the silence more than anything.

#5. How seldom they do.

You wouldn’t care what people thought of you if you knew how seldom they think of you.

#4. Because they weren’t cool.

The Alanis Morissette lyric “You’re my best friend / best friend with benefits” from “Head Over Feet.” I told my parents that my best friend was my best friend with benefits when I was like 8, and they laughed hysterically and I just assumed it’s because they weren’t cool and into Alanis’s music and didn’t understand that it clearly meant “super best friend.”

#3. Special phones with letters.

How to dial any phone number that was alphanumeric. 1-800-WAIT-WUT. I thought adults had access to special phones with letters.

#2. The value of afternoon naps.

How grown-ups fall asleep after Sunday lunch, Christmas dinner, etc. It was so boring as a kid but now I fully understand the value of afternoon naps in the sun after a roast dinner.

#1. New jokes every time.

Calvin and Hobbes jokes. Reread and there’s new jokes every time.

Youth is definitely wasted on the young.

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Artist Finds Her Childhood Bully Online and Shares the Results

Many of us get picked on at a young age in school by bullies and as we grow up, we never forget their name or their face.

For those who are bullied, many of the things people have said to us stay with us as we get older and torment us for years. It’s hard to completely let go of things that had such an emotional impact on you, especially as a kid. Canadian artist Meghan Lands was bullied and tormented for years–and she has constantly tried to forget her past.

Lands told Bored Panda:

“I think many of us have been either picked on or the pick-onner at some point in our lives. Growing up is tough to begin with, and in school we have to contend with this social pecking order that’s constantly reasserting or reorganizing itself.”

Lands decided to look up her bully on Facebook, all these years later, to see what she looked like now and what she was up to. Instead of sharing what she found, she decided to showcase it through a comic strip that has since gone viral on Tumblr.

Photo Credit: Meghan Lands

Many people online could relate to Lands’ comics on a deep level. Others shared some advice.

You can see more of Lands’ work on her website and social media profiles: meghanlands.com | Instagram | tumblr | Twitter

This article was originally published by our friends at Woke Sloth.

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15 People Reveal What Their Childhood Bullies Grew Up to Be

At some point in your life, you probably had a bully. Sadly, it’s just too common of a phenomenon. I remember in 2nd grade there was this kid who’d keep trying to beat me up in the playground and always made fun of the lunches my mom packed me.

Do you remember your childhood bully? Hopefully, it wasn’t you doing the bullying – though if you were, maybe reflect a little on that and apologize? I don’t know, don’t ask me.

AskReddit users shared their personal stories of what happened to their childhood bullies. Let us know if any resonate with you.

1. Acting out

“The bully was just a kid acting out. He’s parents were struggling financially and he had around 7 little siblings. He was probably being neglected and I noticed his younger sister who was about 12 at the time was always taking care of the little ones while their parents worked. I actually bumped into him and a mutual friend years ago and I felt really bad. He lost so much weight and looked like he was definitely taking drugs – I heard a lot of rumours and it looked like it was true.

He couldn’t look at me in the eyes I felt terrible for him. His friend and him disappeared from social media so I don’t know what happened to him now but I really hope he’s okay.”

2. What a story

“Her parents divorced, then her local celebrity dad went to prison, then her mom killed herself, then her grandparents died.

Her dad got out of prison and died when she was almost out of high school. The family money was gone on the divorce, dad’s legal defense and the 2008 housing crisis so she ended up working a shitty job.

She ended up dropping out of college two years in and joining a cult run by a dentist. Supposedly found Jesus, and is still in that cult.”

3. No longer a bully

“He got his sh*t straight, and he’s working as a carpenter. Good for him!”

4. Hasn’t changed

“I didn’t get along with most of my classmates until my junior year. We were from a tiny school and were together since kindergarten. Our junior year we kind of collectively thought, “Well, that was dumb,” and started getting along. All but one are lovely people.

The one that’s not a lovely person? I know because my mom arrested him post high-school. She was booking him and asked him if he had any money to post bond. He said, “I don’t need money. I got bitches.” Sure enough some woman, married to someone else, if I remember right, came and bailed him out.

So, yeah. He hasn’t changed.”

5. The bully speaks

“Well I’m ashamed to say that I was actually a bit of a bully in school, I used to pick on a guy who was taller than I was, I can’t even remember why. One day I finally made him crack and he had had enough and left right in the middle of class to go home.

I felt so terrible I called him that night to apologize for what I did to him. Turns out, we had a lot in common, we became friends, great friends actually, and I was the best man at his wedding. Still best friends to this day.”

6. Uh oh

“He became a TSA agent.”

7. Man…

“Crashed his car in Grade 12 and died.”

8. Hmmmmm

“Most of them are nurses or work in the healthcare field. It worries me.”

9. Classy

“She sells It Works! and describes herself on Facebook as a “business owner, mom, wino.”

10. Depressing

“There was an asshole in my high school who would mercilessly bully and torture a friend of mine who was a stereotypical nerd but a fantastic artist. In our final year nearing graduation the asshole bought a really fancy car and would show off by driving dangerously around the streets. He got into an accident by hitting a semi-truck on the highway. He’s forever bound in a wheel-chair, while my friend became an animator at Pixar.”

11. Catfished!

“She ended up being caught as a catfish on the T.V. show. My old school mates had a field day with that.”

12. Top 500

“My bully who convinced everyone that I’m a nerd and that I should be bullied because I played videogames is now like top 500 in overwatch or something while I’m stuck in diamond lol.”

13. Maybe trying to make up for her past?

“She became a school guidance counselor. ? “

14. OMG

“There were many, but probably the worst of bad seeds didn’t make it much past high school. He was dicking around with a pistol at a party and when called on it said “What?! It’s not even loaded!” before putting it to his temple and pulling the trigger. Needless to say, it was loaded.”

15. Sad story

“He hanged himself in jail.”

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15 Things About Being an Adult That We Never Understood as Kids

As a child, I remember wanting desperately to be an adult. Grown-ups got to do whatever they wanted – they could watch R-rated movies, use swear words, and stay up late.

I never realized until I grew up, however, that all of those perks don’t even BEGIN to offset all the annoying parts of being an adult. Things like bills, responsibilities, and spending 5/7ths of your life working for people who probably don’t give you what you deserve.

The 15 things below definitely make me nostalgic for the carefree days of my childhood.

#1. Bills to pay.

my dad wasn’t a workaholic, we just had bills to pay.

#2. I really thought I’d need the karate chop.

I used to think that living beyond 24 was crazy and impossible
I used to think you would grow up to be a particular person instead of a larger version of yourself. I genuinely thought I could become Prince.
I really thought I’d need the karate chop as a part of my adult life

#3. How to cherish the silence.

As a kid I thought if it was quiet it was boring and the worst possible thing. Now I work in a library and cherish the silence more than anything.

#4. Lefts and rights.

The whole “my right vs. your right” thing confused the heck out of me as a preschooler. I knew my own lefts and rights but when my mom was facing me and used to say “my right isn’t the same as your right” I learned to just do the opposite of what she looked like. Problem is this led to me thinking that the difference was because of AGE, so kids’ lefts and rights were the opposite of adults’ lefts and rights. So somehow I got the idea in my head that when you turned 21 your lefts and rights switched (I have no clue why I specifically thought 21, I had this image in my head of blowing out 21 candles and everyone saying congratulations and you get some kind of certificate to officially switch them). Well I’m 21 now and my lefts and rights never switched.

#5. Just double the Christmas presents.

That my parents couldn’t just double the presents this Christmas if I tell them it’s okay to not do anything for next Christmas.

#6. A dog and children.

The stress of paying bills and budgeting. My parents tried to keep this hidden from me but I could tell how much they carefully budgeted. They also sacrificed for us kids. I didn’t get that until I had a dog first and then children.

#7. Value.

The value of all the shit I trashed or broke.

#8. Some people are selfish jerks.

Not everyone is inclined to do the right thing. Some people are selfish jerks and it sucks, but you just have to accept it and do what you believe is right. There are a lot of awesome people out there too, and you can’t get too cynical about the world because of the shitty people in it

#9. Not a given.

Vacations and breaks aren’t a given. You don’t just get to stop working for a few weeks randomly throughout the year, and no one plans around your vacation – you must plan all of your own (and sometimes other people’s) work around your departures. Oh, and vacations are expensive. There’s probably a reason that Billy down the block’s family is able to take five people to Disneyworld: because they have money.

I’m a violin teacher now and blew this poor kid’s mind this past weekend when he asked me what I was doing for spring break. I sort of stared at him for a second, and then remembered that spring break is a thing that kids get…so I told him that I’m working because I don’t get a spring break and he was just completely aghast. Sorry buddy, the adult world isn’t as fun as being a kid.

#10. Because they weren’t cool.

The Alanis Morissette lyric “You’re my best friend / best friend with benefits” from “Head Over Feet.” I told my parents that my best friend was my best friend with benefits when I was like 8, and they laughed hysterically and I just assumed it’s because they weren’t cool and into Alanis’s music and didn’t understand that it clearly meant “super best friend.”

#11. Special phones with letters.

How to dial any phone number that was alphanumeric. 1-800-WAIT-WUT. I thought adults had access to special phones with letters.

#12. New jokes every time.

Calvin and Hobbes jokes. Reread and there’s new jokes every time.

#13. The value of afternoon naps.

How grown-ups fall asleep after Sunday lunch, Christmas dinner, etc. It was so boring as a kid but now I fully understand the value of afternoon naps in the sun after a roast dinner.

#14. Such a pretty name.

I didn’t know what virginity was and my dad would say I would understand when I got older. In the meantime, I thought it would make such a pretty name for a girl.

#15. How seldom they do.

You wouldn’t care what people thought of you if you knew how seldom they think of you.

Youth is definitely wasted on the young.

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15 People Share the “Childish” Things That They Still Love as an Adult

Being an adult means letting go of a lot of the things that you enjoyed as a kid. Playing with action figures is fine when you’re 3, but not so much when you’re 33.

There are so many fun things that adults are supposed to leave behind with their childhood, but these 15 people make great arguments for why we definitely shouldn’t.

You can (and should) bring the delightful things you enjoyed in your childhood with you (even if a little judgment might follow).

#1. Plain Band-aids are for sad people

“Scooby doo bandaids. Every bandaid in my house is scooby band aids.”

#2. English sweet shops

“Old fashioned English sweet shops. The kind with the big jars behind the counter were the assistant weighs stuff out for you like a deli. These places also tend to be the mecca of imported American candy!”

#3. Best thing ever

“Swings. They are the actual best thing ever.”

#4. Right in your pantry

“Sticking my hand in a bag of rice.”

#5. Cats ruin everything

“Made a blanket fort with a girlfriend once. The cats took that one down.”

#6. Nostalgia overload

“Enjoying the smell of the radiator turning on for the first time in fall/winter, nostalgia overload. I used to sit against it under a few blankets playing videogames.”

#7. Muppet everything

“Watching the Muppet Christmas special.”

#8. One of everything

“My wife and I went to a drive-in movie on our honeymoon.

When I was a kid, my parents refused to let us have candy at the movies, or maybe one tiny thing you ate in the first five minutes.

I told me wife this and she looked at me unblinking and then flatly stated, “We’re buying one of everything.”

Best stomachache ever.”

#9. Very often

“I guess the fact that I give/call everyone silly names, very often.

“Hi, my name’s Marco”

“Ayy Barko Wadup”

“It’s -M-arco”

“Whatever Garco”

“Eyy Skarko come here really quick”

I think people hate me.”

#10. Brother love

“Making my older brothers mad by repeating what they say. We’re in our 30s.”

#11. A good laugh

“When I’m driving past a bus stop and the people are waving at the bus coming up behind me I like to wave at them as though they were waving at me. Gives me a good laugh and they usually get an odd look on their face.”

#12. So I can play with cars

“I want to buy that carpet with roads, so I can play with cars. My parents never bought it for me and I still hate them for it.”

#13. Loud toys

“Not me but my dad. Whenever he sees a toy aisle he just has to go down it and turn on every single loud toy that he can find. Whenever someone walks over to see what’s going on, he looks around as if he’s looking for some kid that did it and ran off. Then he shrugs it off as if he was in the aisle to buy toys for his grandkids.”

#14. “Swords”

“Using sticks as ´swords´.”

#15. F*ck gender roles

“whn i was a little girl, all i wanted was a set of those large, metal, yellow tonka trucks. they’re so cool. my mother wouldn’t get them for me, wouldn’t even let me play with the little boy’s next door. (this was more than 60 years ago) because they weren’t toys for girls.

first thing i did 20 years later with my first pay check from my first real job was buy a set of them: a dump truck, one that lifted piles of stuff with a front loader, and one that had a crane. i still use the dump truck as a fruit bowl on my kitchen counter.

go buy your carpet. you won’t believe how damn happy it makes you.

also, fuck gender roles.”

Screw the haters, my friends, and you do you.

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13+ People Share the Moment That Forced Them to Grow Up Too Fast

Childhood is hard to fully appreciate until it’s over. There’s often a moment buried in our memory that we can look back on as the time we no longer felt like a child. Retrospectively, it can be easy to see how that watershed moment changed everything – which is exactly what these 15 people realized.

#15. A lot for a teenager to take in.

“Being diagnosed as a diabetic at 14. First I almost die from Diabetic Ketoacidosis (which i can assure you is extremely unpleasant) and then spend 5 days in the hospital getting a crash course on everything i need to do to keep myself alive from then on.

Counting carbs, checking blood sugar, how to determine the correct amount of insulin to give myself, how to treat loss, how to treat highs, what to do if I’m spilling ketones.

That’s a lot for a teenager to take in and process.”

#14. Both my parents

“When both my parents died in a car crash when I was 20.”

#13. A sophomore in college

“My bipolar started to fully manifest when I was a sophomore in college. I ended up making a lot of mistakes, ruining a lot of friendships, and dropping out of school. It’s taken 5 years for me to pick up the pieces of my fractured life. I’m stable, I have a well paying job, but man do I feel older than I should.”

#12. He wasn’t going to change

“When I found out that I may have leukemia. I took a hard look at my relationship with my fiance. He was not supportive of me at all. That’s what finally made me realize that he wasn’t going to change into the person I needed him to be. He had been prioritizing himself the whole time we were together and I finally had enough.”

#11. I had to step in big time

“Realizing in college how little money my parents really had and that I had to step in big time.. that matured me up really quick. Went from barely working and partying to handling 20-30 hour work weeks bartending and school.”

#10. He took everything

“In 2015 my dad kicked me out of my own house so he could live there with his new bitchy wife.

I had to file a report, get a lawyer and had him force removed from my house. Before that he emptied the place, took everything but my old bed. So there I was with no job a bunch of furniture to buy, bills to pay and a lawyer to finish paying. That moment was def a turn point in my life.”

#9. My dad’s third wedding

“The day of my dad’s third wedding.

I won’t go into too many details, but my dad married a chick he met on the internet and uprooted our entire lives, we immigrated to the states and everything. During the time they were dating, she seemed nice enough and I was pretty stoked to get a mom. Literally the second the ring was on her finger she started treating me poorly. She blamed me (an 11 year old kid) for leaving her purse at the venue when she’d never even mentioned I should look after it. It was still there when we got back but the damage was done. I knew she wasn’t gonna be my mommy but I still wanted her and my dad to be happy. Spoilers: they werent. It was a long 8 years of her treating me like crap and me trying to deal with it.

It worked out okay I suppose. I’m 26 now and while I always try to be kind to people, I don’t take their bullshit.”

#8. My mom’s death

“My mom’s death when I was 17.”

#7. Felt like I was taking care of him

“My father lost his job to due to his alcoholism, and then about a month later, my mother tried to take her own life by taking as many pills as possible. I was 14 at the time, and for a while felt like I was taking care of them, instead of me. I put my head down and told myself that I was going to do as best as I could in school, do whatever I could at home, and then get as far away as possible. The first two years were particularly difficult, but thankfully I had a set of friends that kept me happy and sane. I learned to silo my life which is still something I’m working on, but it made me realize a lot about adults and that parents don’t always have it together as they seem.”

#6. Makes you appreciate the little things

“Getting a gun held to my head whilst delivering pizzas. Makes you appreciate the little things.”

#5. She told me she was pregnant

“When my girlfriend told me she was pregnant.  I was in college and I went from planning where I was going to party the next weekend to graduating and getting a job in an instance.”

#4. I watched him bury our dog

“I realized my dad wasn’t unbreakable when I watched him bury our dog.

That day I watched the strongest man I had ever known collapse on his knees sobbing. And I realized that life is a lot tougher than I thought.

EDIT: I’m glad some of you have been able to share your stories. I hope it has been cathartic. Here’s to all the good doggos in our lives.”

#3. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for my kids

“Getting my fiance at the time pregnant with my son when we were 18. I was a total fuck up in school and after school, I was a drug addict, I didnt really have any drive. Then once I knew I had another human to take care of I figured my shit out fast. Took me a while to shake the drug habit fully but I’ve been fully clean now for almost a year. I’d be dead if it wasnt for my kids (I also had a daughter not long after I had my son).”

#2. I grew up that night

“I had a crush on an older guy since 6th grade. He invites me over to his place sophomore year. I go, we watch some movies and start making out. I’m a pretty straight forward type of gal and I am pretty confident. We start making out and all is fine, but he asks me to take my shirt off, and I didn’t want to. Slowly he keeps making me feel shitty about it, and he keeps pushing things further while I am adamant about not going any further. I keep saying no, but not leaving. I’m not enjoying this as it feels like I’m fighting to keep my innocence the entire time. He starts physically overpowering me and gets his hand in my pants and starts fingering me aggressively. I’ve had more than enough now and I’m not letting myself get overpowered more than I already have. I tell him that if he doesn’t quit right now, I will be telling his mother about this. She is a fantastic lady who I have known for a few years now. He stops but gets all defensive like he didn’t do anything wrong. I leave.

I grew up that night. I can’t quite describe just how I changed, but something inside me snapped, I was far more adult like with everything after that. I think my inner mother came out of her shell before she gave birth to any kids.”

#1. My first semester of college

“Miserable grades my first semester of college.

That never happened in high school, and I had to change habits quickly.”

Something to think about the next time you’re looking at your own precious little ones.

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12 Lessons Passed down from Child-To-Child Without Help from Adults

Which flavor popsicle tastes the best. Which swing on the playground goes the highest. Where to meet up after dark to go hunting for ghosts. There are certain things that you can only learn before the age of twelve – and certain things you can only learn from other kids while the adults remain adorably clueless.

#12. Break your mother’s back.

“Don’t step on the lines.”

#11. Jingle bells.

“Jingle bells Batman smells”

#10. When I was young.

“How to make one of those origami fortune teller things.

I’m not sure if kids still do it, but when I was young how to fold a single page note into an envelope to give to a friend.”

#9. Eeny meeny.

“Methods to decide who is “it”. Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish.

Eeny meany miney moe. Etc.”

#8. I died laughing.

“As an elementary school kid from 89-96 when talking about our boy parts we refferred to them as “Nards”. I am 14 years older than one of my brothers and when he was in the 3rd grade he was telling a story about how ball hit him in his “Nards”. I died laughing that day as I had totally forgot about calling them that.”

#7. Definitely go ask.

“That if one parent says no, definitely go ask the other parent to see if they’ll say yes.”

#6. Buy me a coke.

“That you yell “Jinx!” when you say something at the same time as someone. May also involve counting to ten and proclaiming that the other person owes you a coke.”

#5. Pea green soup.

“I always knew it as various prompts. You’d prompt someone to repeat the same phrase in response to you. So for example, pea green soup.

“What’d you have for breakfast.”

“Pea green soup”

“What’d you have for lunch?

“pea green soup”

What’d you have for dinner?”

“pea green soup”

“What’d you have for a snack?”

“Pea green soup”

“What’d you do all night?

“Pea green soup”

giggles”

#4. No one was told.

“That when you’re in the car and it’s raining, you watch raindrops run down the windows and pretend they’re racing each other. No one was told to do this. Yet somehow everyone did.”

#3. MASH.

“The MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House) game to predict our futures haha.”

#2. The right way.

“Waving pencils the right way makes them look rubbery.”

#1. That one thing.

“That thing where you wiggle your middle fingers upside down? Anybody know what I’m talking about? Where you put your hands together and it’s like some Egyptian seeming thing?”

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