What's something from your childhood that you thought was normal, but isn't actually normal at all?

[k.c.]

And that is why the concept of age-appropriate conversations is so important. As kids grow older it becomes increasingly important to have these hard conversations with them so that they don't believe something unhealthy is normal.

[angrychicago]

man i need more of these weird childhood stories that are just lighthearted and funny. like the one where the villain in all of the kid’s bedtime stories was the president of the homeowner’s association
edit: since this comment got so popular i'll share a couple of my own. my dad drinks sparkling water a lot so when i was really little (like, under 6 years old) everyone in my family would call it "dad water". he also read to me before i fell asleep until i was in 7th grade because i always had a hard time falling asleep and i only realized it was considered weird when i was like 10 (before he stopped doing it). we got through harry potter, lord of the rings, 100 nancy drew books, and a couple other series

[MadisonHarvill]

Removing yourself from a stressful situation to get right mentally is normal. However, it isn’t really normal to not tell anybody; just in case of an emergency.

[HagathaHexMe]

I thought I had a normal childhood until I started speaking about it in college. Suddenly it became clear to me that it’s not normal to live as quietly as possible to avoid setting someone off. It’s not normal to assume you’re stupid and ugly and no one wants to speak to you. I still struggle with the idea that my voice has worth, and people might actually see me in a positive light.

[nicolab]

My dad brought me a cup of tea in bed every morning, with biscuits.

I now know not every kid had that.

[SylentStar]

Every time I see stories like this, I pray the stuff I went through due to a bad med reaction when my oldest was young, never resurface and mess with her. I am so grateful my mom and her dad protected her like this girls mom did. No child should have to deal with broken parents, especially without a support system. She saw scares but didn't know it was self-harm and me trying to leave because I couldn't take it anymore while my brain was healing. I'm fine now, but it was scary for a while. I wish she could forget most of it like I did once I healed. I pray no parent ever loses sight of the fact your children need you, and with them, you always have someone to live for.

[sashapatrick]

I thought it was normal to be shoved away when I had tantrums, but turns out, children are allowed to talk about why their having tantrums. Now I'm just a self isolating adult when I get stressed or annoyed and I don't talk to anyone, because I still don't have anyone to talk to during those times.

[beteljuice]

I thought it was normal for every single thing I did to be critiqued. At this point I have a hard time doing anything because I assume someone's going to rip it apart and tell me how it could have been better. And that's down to something as simple as washing dishes. Mine were never clean enough😅 or if I clean them well they weren't dry enough if they were dried I didn't stack them right. On and on and on and on and on. I am broken by this now but it wasn't until I was in college that I realized not everyone felt like they had to think about every single thing they did 12 times over to make sure they did it as perfectly as possible. It was until I had a college advisor praise me that I realized I shouldn't feel fear or the expectation of being hurt after I spoke.

[jevo_]

Did that man just casually suck up a dollar bill?

[Night-]

I thought every kid was scared of speaking to their parents and had panic attacks over average and good grades

[threecheeseburrito]

I used to blame myself for everything as a child. Maybe it was a way to cope, or maybe it was a way to make everyone stop fighting so we could go back to normal. If it was my fault, then they wouldn't have to fight and I could have my family back, yk? I don't know what logic I had back then, but up until recently, I've always thought that I'm the cause of misery for my family members. I'm autistic and I know I wasn't easy to take care of. It just gets a little more difficult as time passes, since my needs increase but availability to actually provide those needs is low after the death of my parents and the growing up of other kids in the family. But a major example of the self-blaming up until recently is something I didn't stop blaming myself for until recently.

I'm almost 25 and working as a PCT. I did 5 weeks of schooling with an accredited program, and one of the lessons was about end-of-life care. My mom passed away when I was 21. It wasn't until that lesson this year in November that I realized that I _didn't_ cause my mother's death when I had to stay by myself with her and put her oxygen mask back on her face every time she'd take it off. I didn't kill her, she was literally exhibiting end-of-life symptoms and it was just her time. It wasn't my fault. It was never my fault. She was just ready to go be with my dad (he died 2 years and 3 days prior to her in the same hospital where I did my skills training this year). I lived with that guilt for 3 years because I just genuinely didn't know and I had no one else to help me at the time until the morning. And I didn't even tell my family about that guilt bc I thought they would hate me.

[Cody-]

Mind you just packing up life and going camping does sound like a good stress relief plan tbh maybe just tell someone though.

[cryfasytighega]

It was normal when i was growing up for the whole household to not speak to each other for about a week straight. There would be notes. But sometimes verbal communication just didn't happen. My parents really enjoy texting each other.

[onlyhope]

That wasn't what I was expecting but damn that was sad

[irisairsoul]

I think when your kids are a certain age (like teens) it's very important to have the hand convos with them. Something like this is very serious. I know it's easier to keep it "normal" but you have to let them in when they're old enough to handle it.

[lotsaspaghetticodejr.]

My dad use to beat me, and the older I got the more violent he became.

I remember as a child I use to look at other classmates and have internal monologues, questioning and wondering how they could always be so happy? Because surely... they were being beaten at home, too?

😓

[mratay]

Wow… I do this all the time because everyone calls me my grandpa’s doppelgänger! He’d just go off wandering and come back with stories of his adventures and now I do the same. I don’t think anyone worries about me because I usually show up every few months like a stray cat. I think I just got called out by a YouTube short 😂 I also refuse to turn on my location and it used to drive my mom nuts, but I hate letting people know where I am it feels like an invasion of privacy. Her and my girl are gone now so it’s not really an issue anymore.

[shitokumei]

One thing that messed me up was the TV I watched. My mom didn't really care what I watched as a kid so I watched CSI (and similar shows/movies) in elementary school
So I learned all the different kinds of messed up things that could happen and had happened. It kinda messed me up

[jordancambridge]

My great great grandfather was 113 when he died but he use to smash iron bricks as if they were glass with his fists to keep his strength training up. When I got adopted my grandfather use to unscrew welded bolts off engine blocks. My birth great grandmother pimp slapped 3 guys who were sexually harassing her and and with 1 back hand she sent them all the tim buck 3. So I grew up thinking all old people had Superman levels of strength. I have a lot of that strength myself. I got horrified when I realized most people are not anywhere fucking near the strength my family was. I had an extremely unhealthy thought that when you get olde you have to hold back your strength to not destroy the earth. I have to hold my true strength back because if I really let my body grant me my full strength people would get hurt just from the shock waves of my movements.

[Montoni-syuz]

I thought that everyone sat down and had a nice home cooked meal with their whole family every night. I’m pretty lucky, I guess. ❤️ u mom and dad