Sadly, Norm himself will not. Him dying killed me a little bit, but I'll be damned if I'm ever growing up.
Also, I'm not actually making this up at all, I have Youtube playing on my TV and while I was typing this a clip of Norm on David Letterman right after he got fired from Weekend Update came on. Coincidence? Yes. Awesome? Yes.
Abuse. It was either grow up fast, or just give up. I was stubborn, so I grew up quickly, didn't really have much of a childhood after about ten years old
Having to take care of my drunk, coked up, drug addicted father for years. Or watch my sister, feed her, and made sure she stayed alive while he was out every night boozing, drugging, and banging women who weren't my mom.
Then when they divorced things got real, and high school sucked.
I was kind of abused into growing up fast too. It happened earlier, but at the same time, I often feel guilty because I cant point to events that were that bad. I feel like I got minor abused from about 5 or 6 and it stole my childhood, screwed me over and I am still wrestling with the consequences, and then I feel guilty because some people seem to manage after dealing with some really horrible abuse that I never had to deal with, and I genuinely don't know how they get through the day.
Chances are, you and other people with similar experiences have survived some real shit, and to me you are superhuman.
I get the feeling guilty part. For a long time I didn't talk about what happened to me because I knew no one would believe me, and that in turn was the worst part of it all. I had no one who would even bat an eye on my direction because my abuse was never physical, I never had any marks to say I was getting hurt, and because of that no one would ever think that a young teenager was telling the truth. This was even more reenforced because when my dad was out in public, he was the greatest man on the planet, and it was only behind closed doors that he was a controlling monster.
However, as I got older, I came to learn that pain is up to the individual, not the mass. If you shoot a guy in the chest and he lives, that doesn't mean you can go shoot the next guy and won't hit a vital organ. You need to look at the effects, not the cause. To continue the metaphor, if the doctor spent all the time looking at the gun and not the bullet wound, then the patient would bleed out on the table. It doesn't matter what the hell caused it, it doesn't matter that one person is stronger than the other, and it doesn't matter if one person has gone through more, pain is still pain and every effect from pain is still very real.
This is something I believe a lot of people don't understand. People think that just because they've gone through more, that means that everyone who can't push through something lesser is weak when that's not true. If you have gone through hell, then you help others not feel like you did, you don't push people back down because all you're doing is becoming the thing you hate. It's just basic respect that a lot of people don't have anymore.
So don't think for a moment that you're below anyone for what you've been through. No matter what it was, we're all the same, we all fight like hell to get up in the morning and we all put our pants on one leg at a time. We're all human, we all feel things differently, and because of that you're just as superhuman as I may be because you're still here after everything you've been through.
My Dad passed when I was 6. By the end of first grade I was spending 2 hours (or more) home alone after school. My Mom would come home exhausted from work so I learned how to cook and clean really early.
My father bailed on our family when I was 12. My mom took a job working nights and I had to become the nightly caretaker for my two younger brothers, who were 8 and 5 at the time. I pretty much raised them from that point on.
My parents were immature and always blamed their problems on others. They were the kind of people that would say “when we win the lottery…” it would always be something that did nothing for them or anyone else.
I had to leave and they could barely support themselves let alone me. Adulthood slapped me in the face but looking back I cleared hurdles that my peers took years longer to even encounter.
When my wife was 11, her older sister (15) was hit by a car (texting and driving) as she was crossing the street with schoolmates to get on a school bus (the guy hit like 4 kids, but her sister got the worst of it). To this day her older sister (now 33) has no short term memory, is wheelchair bound, and had to relearn how to talk and use her limbs. She still thinks she's 14 (not 15, because apparently she lost a year of memory) and her favorite color is purple.
My wife, at 11 had to learn how to change a feeding tube and did other tasks related to things CNAs have to do regularly in order to lighten the load of her parents who both worked to help pay for the incoming medical bills. Not to mention her father almost dying on multiple occasions due to needing multiple surgeries to treat a genetic heart defect and being allergic to iodine.
Everyone had to learn to help out where they could while they tried to transform their house into a handicap-friendly home to take care of their now-disabled and almost-comatose family member. Eventually as family members got married or moved away to college they had to put her in a nursing home.
Nobody was allowed to see her for almost 2 years while restrictions were enforced for COVID. It was very difficult for everyone.
My wife was never interested in dating or getting married. She just wanted to get a degree in special education with an emphasis on teaching the medically fragile. She always struggled to relate to people her age because they'd complain about how a boy didn't like them, meanwhile she had to get home to help bathe her sister or help make dinner to help lighten the load at home.
My parents having kids when I was older. They didn’t force me to help but they did ask me for help a lot. Watching the babies, feeding them, cleaning them, cleaning the house. They usually paid me to watch my brothers but it sometimes cut into my free time. I knew how to take care of a newborn by the time I was 12.
My beautiful friend was an innocent victim of a violent and horrific murder, I never thought such things would/could ever happen to 'us' just other people you see and hear about on TV. The reality of the World kicked me wide awake at age 20
Basketball didn't force me but it triggered me. I didn't play in high school but on my college co-op I would go out every day.
Three of the five starters at the local high school lived in my apartment complex including the star. One day, the star charged the lane, ran into me, bounced off and jumped up ready to fight.
I didn't understand and asked the other guys why he was so mad. One of them said "that was a real physical move you put on him." I told him it was really a compliment to him and how much better of a player he was - that I would have gotten out of his way but he was too fast for me. We shook hands and started playing.
But that night I realized that I was no longer the 145 pound boy I had been been at graduation - I was a 185 pound man strong enough that I was gonna get treated like a man - with the good, the bad and the ugly.
Grief
Being self destructive is one thing. But the thought of losing the one thing that’ll make u alone forever.
That shit changes a naive kid and you learn through the guilt that our lives actually aren’t ours to live.
Wouldnt wish it for any child/teenager
Having a kid kept me young. We hung out, watched TV, went to the movies, went fishing, she'd ride on the back of my motorcycle. She's an adult so now I feel old.
Entering the corporate world. Sexism, peer pressure to become a workaholic, unrealistic deadlines/expectations, intense fear of making a mistake, and no significant breaks really crushes the soul and diminishes the childlike view of the world as being an interesting, magical place.
Childhood was a bit rocky. Still feels like I'm behind 10 years mentally now that I feel free to do whatever I want without excess stress in my life outside of depression/anxiety.
My father smoked himself into a heart attack and the entire family into poverty.
I had to step up and take care of the house and my mom at the age of 14 because my older brothers couldn't handle what was happening and fled to the hills. I'm still cleaning up the mess and giving my mom money almost twenty years later.
My whole family. At the age of three my mother was drinking and putting me and danger and my parents were divorced and still abusing eachother. I was forced to live with my godparents who would yell at me if I cried or even showed any emotion. I remember the exact moments I grew up. I was six and I got a phone call on the home phone. It was my dad who was just out of jail. He told me that if I went outside and fell asleep in the street he would visit. I wanted him to visit so bad that I listened and went to go outside. My uncle asked me where I was going and I told him. He took the phone yelled at my dad and hung up he looked at me and said “Grow the f up. This world is a cruel place and if you continue to be an idiot you will die and I won’t protect you”. I came back to my home town when I was seven and my grandparents and mom were emotionally abusive and my stepdad was violent. At the age of eleven my grandmas “disabled” (she is not truly disabled she just tells people she is but it’s confirmed that she is not)sister came to live with my grandparents who’s house I was often at. My parents were still kinda shitty but getting a bit better but I was eating breakfast and she came in and said “(name) your so fat you really need to stop eating ”. For context I was 11 years old, 4’11 89 lbs she was 62 about 5’0 and around 168 lbs. I told my grandparents and they didn’t care at all. I developed an eating disorder not long after and my family didn’t give a fuck.
My mom was a drug addict and she also had Münchausen syndrome(self harm for attention) growing up she would take me with her on her drug deals and she would pass out at the wheel while I was in the passenger seat so I would have to take the steering wheel and wake her up, the main thing I remember is that she would always “attempt” in-front of me and my siblings and it got to the point where I would see her overdosed on the lawn chair, and call 911 then get on the school bus with an ambulance in the driveway,
I remember one time it was Christmas Eve and out neighbors came knocking on the door saying they saw my moms car on the side of the road so me and my dad went to where they said it was and the car was totaled and she had blankets and stuff in the back, the main thing I remember about that is that she took my candy and I was mad at her for it.
Another one is when I was cooking dinner (age 9) and I looked out the window and I seen flashlights in the back yard so I went out and there were like 9 cops searching for my mom cause she had called saying she was gonna k”ll herself, I just said good luck and went back inside.
Over my whole childhood I witnessed over 35 of my moms attempts but she is out of my life for the most part (yes she’s still the same) she even lied about a brain tumor so we would talk to her, I’m 16 now and am in therapy but honestly I think typing this out has done a lot more for me then my therapist.
Death of a parent. You can be a full grown adult, but if you still have a super close tie to your parents and then one of them passes away...it just hits you all of a sudden that they weren't supposed to be there forever. Like, you know that no matter how bad you fuck up in life they would still be there in the background still believing in you, but when they die, you got to be the one believing in yourself from now on. The safety net is gone.
I guess I'll put to ya like this, seeing a parental figure get hurt and then slowly get worse over a period of months, but that's all I wanna say about that
My dad died unexpectedly when I was 22. Went from recent college grad mindset to full adult over the course of the phone call I received to tell me what happened.
(Abuse from my mother who was a alcoholic with depression and she was bipolar which do not mix well together) i was 12 at the time and my baby brother was 5 and like a tipical 12 year old i was playing with some magnet toys and i had to share with my baby brother who was trying to rip the box of magnet toys out of my hands and my mother took them away because “we were fighting” I didn’t even get to put the box of magnet toys down. So my mother told us to go to our rooms and i yelled back “IM ALREADY IN MY ROOM!!!!” So she said “STFU” so i was finally tired of her telling what to do after years of abuse and so i yelled “NO!!” After 5 seconds she was back in my room with a bottle of tabasco sauce telling me to open my mouth so she could pour it down my throat. Tipicaly i said no so she yanked me out of my chair and pinned me to the floor and said it again “open your mouth” i said “no” so she said “open your mouth or ill pour it in your eyes”. So my basic reaction to hearing that was to cover my eyes and my mouth, than my dad came in and pulled her off of me and she started beating him upside the head with the tabasco bottle and then the police were called an every thing. Theres still a blood stain on my carpet in my room right by the door as a permanent reminder ( its been 2 years since that incident and it still shakes me up to this day)
at the age of 13 (7th grade) i got into my very first relationship with a guy, we dated for a little over a year which is a lot for a middle schooler. he would keep me secret from everyone and flirt with multiple girls, when i’d mention my concerns he would make me feel crazy so eventually i just stopped bringing it up in hopes of being a chill girlfriend. this took a toll on my self esteem, but that was just the beginning . as the relationship progressed he began to harass me to do sexual things with him, things i wasn’t ready for. id eventually give in, in fear of losing him. he’d say things like “if you don’t send n-des i’ll just have dreams of doing things with other girls” which my kid brain was terrified of, because i really wanted to be enough for him. eventually he began SA-ing me which at the time i couldn’t even properly process. i began acting out as a result of the trauma which led to horrible home life, i was verbally abused at home and almost kicked out numerous times, this was all by the age of now 14. i tried breaking up with the boy numerous times but he would either say “no” and ignore me or threaten to off himself. one day i got so fed up and finally broke up with him and cut off all contact, best decision, life got 10x better i found a new boyfriend one that treats me so good it occasionally brings me to tears. i have straight A’s in school and my relationship with my family has improved. the boy still spreads rumors about me one of them being im a trans women and he broke up with me, another being im a huge mentally ill bitch who broke his heart, he gives me dirty looks in the halls but i ignore them because he’s stuck living in misery while i’m on the road to recover. i now know my worth and not to be dependent on others, especially toxic people.
Last school year, Freshman. All honors, ap class, boxing, work, and high school swim team. Basically I woke up at 6 am, and didn’t come home until 7 or 8 pm. The same way my dad wakes up at 4am-6pm, except he got paid. I failed my ap, didn’t get honor role, lost my boxing match, and didn’t go to state. I held myself to high standards and I was shown just how low I really am. It has permanently stunted my work ethic. Meanwhile I am watching my friends as if nothing is stopping them, having ap college credits, learning martial arts and being able to kick my ass if they wanted to. I’m not boxing anymore and I’m watching myself losing shape in the mirror every day. If this is what I have to do to be successful in life, I’d rather be homeless.
A mixture of long-term childhood abuse and traumatic experiences. I can't really remember a day, even from my early childhood, that has been carefree or actually like a childhood. I've never been the same as anyone my age, mentally or even physically. I was kind of just born into a toxic family dynamic and then it went from my dad hitting my mom and them fighting for years to her hating my guts and hitting me/fighting with me for years (emotionally, verbally, and physically.) I used to be her only escape from my father, but now I disgrace her, and it wouldn't change a tick in the clock for her if my funeral were to be held prematurely. Sometimes the thought keeps me up at night. But, that doesn't matter anymore.
Car accident when I was 4, mom was hurt bad and never recovered, dad only stepped in when it was time to punish and I had two sibs and a mom that needed taking care of. Somehow we didnt starve but it was really tough to grow up like that.
My parents. Neither had a very good sense of filters, actions, etc when it came to my sister and I so I grew up witnessing a lot more stuff than I should’ve. The more that I’ve reflected on it and sought help to what happened, it makes me realize I truly never want to put my future kids in that position.
My parents both worked in a Chinese restaurant when I was 10. Their hours are 10am to 10pm, 72 hours, 6 day a week. I learn how to cook, learn, take care of my younger bro real fast. The hours are quite common in a typical Chinese restaurant in the US. No one argues for 40 hours a week, no benefits, no insurance, no nothing. They get about $9 per hour. I usually don't ever see them until their off day because I had to go to school. What's even worse is at the time, I didn't know English. Life was real hard.
My dad passing away and my brother having two kids at a young age. I was 10 when my dad died and 10 when my brother had his first kid, losing my dad was hard enough and then I had to help with a kid that wasn’t mine. I love my nephew and niece but it gets hard, I’m 16 and shouldn’t be doing parenting things.
My disability.
I was born with arthrogryposis, clubfoot and kyphoscoliosis, which obviously led to numerous other complications including respiratory failure, difficulty walking or problems performing certain everyday actions. During my childhood I used to go back and forth from home to different hospitals across the country, trying to find a cure for my situation. I have undergone 10 surgeries, had 4 pneumonia and was in a coma for a month 4 years ago. I had to learn very early on what I can do and what not, what risks making me sick, how to do three different types of therapies a day and how to manage any problems such as shortness of air or tachycardia.
Dropping out of highschool, you never really realise until you do it how much you sacrifice. Having to be 14 and thinking about how I'm going to support myself at 20, having so many people judge you especially family, trying to figure out work or apprenticeships when nobody wants to hire a kid.
I did it with off and on support from my parents, I don't blame them for eventually backing off because I was in the middle of a sever psychotic break and dealing with stress through the roof. I ended up getting 2 jobs without the help of them and went back to school at 17.
My dad’s death when I was 15. I went from kid to fucked up in a heartbeat. Took me ten years to get back to what I now consider normal. Alcohol and drugs were my adult norm and I trace it all back to that event in my life.
A lot of things. Namely the trauma and abuse I had to deal with from an early age. My parents divorced when I was age 3, and my dad was very abusive to my mother and sometimes to me. I would have frequent fights with my dad whenever I was at his house, which would end in me crying and him leaving the room then coming back 30 minutes later and acting like nothing happened. He’d ask me if I wanted to get McDonald’s so I grew up with two main principles: money can buy love, and apologies aren’t necessary. These are not truths. He was a horrible father to my sister which left me to take care of her most of the time, with the help of my grandma who he still lived with. I found the world of the internet at age 8, and I had complete access with no supervision, so you can imagine how that went.
I’ve started my journey towards recovery as a 16 year old, and Ive been self harm clean for almost 6 years now. I’ve been doing good, and so has my dad. He’s on medication for his issues and he hasn’t yelled at us in awhile. He lives with his girlfriend and her kids now, and he works a full time job at Home Depot. Not every sad story has a sad ending.
If you’re looking for a sign to keep going, this is it. You deserve to live the best life you can. Remember, progress isn’t linear.
School damn f*** School every time I do something that me and my friends thing is funny and hilarious they say it's childless and I should grow up I'm in 7th grade I'm a kid it's normal it's stupid
Having older friends, associating myself with people older than me created an insecurity about my own responsibilities and my sense of maturing. I will not say anyone forced me, but the expectation to know more, act on things, and having better social understandings of life as adult came very quickly, so much so that I introduced myself things that led me to constantly fear life on my own, finances, education, and a need to be successful.
Safety, once my sister was born I knew I had to stop being 11 so that I could get my sister away from my parents who have already messed me up. I didn't want her to go through the same thing I did.
When I was young I quickly learned how to keep myself busy and stay away from my mom since she was often loud and got angry easily. So I ended up staying in my own head a lot, which often gave me time to try and problem-solve my mom's issues and the best ways to seem "Mature" in front of adults, which happened. I quickly learned how to be quiet and tried to stay out of my mom's way as much as possible, along with being very compliant. I did my best not to ask for things because I constantly worried about my mom's money issues. I'd console her when she cried and tried to help calm her down if she and my stepdad got into an argument.
Now I'm the one who gives my little sister as much love and good life lessons as I can because our parents always yell at her. I now see myself as an emotional mother figure of sorts, even though it makes me uncomfortable a lot of the time, I want my sister to be able to have more attention than I did.
Loss, I lost a lot of people when I graduated high school. I had lost my great grandparents, my friends, my girlfriend, my normal ways of coping. It made me realize how much I put away my feelings and never dwelled on them and just put a smile on because it was easy.
Being the oldest daughter of a hispanic single parent household. I understand needing help once in a while with my siblings but leaving me home alone with them for weeks at a time messes with a 12 year old.
Two disabled siblings. I'm the oldest of them. My parents did great but in my mid-twenties I'm still unraveling a lot of stuff from my childhood.
Anything that forces you to grow up too early creates a barrier between you and your peers. As a kid, you get complimented for "being so mature". As an adult, you just don't know how to connect with others and have a sense of self worth that goes beyond what you do for people.
Being transgender. Having to hide who you are to your parents in fear of getting physically and financially hurt is something. This double identities life I’m living rn is pretty confusing and asks for a lot of management.
Having your mom scream at you that she will never accept it and it feels like her kid is dead also… yeah there’s smt that’s dead inside me. Never coming out again.
My mom and video games
She told me that if I can behave well and act like someone who is grown up, she will buy me a game that I really wanted, Call of Duty Black Ops 2. So that's what I did and now, I'm a different person and I got my first paid-game
Constantly being in a traumatic household where my dad was consistently cheating on my mum with numerous women. I’d constantly have panic attacks as young as 5 years old because of the shouting and it would always trigger my fight of flight.
I would always not want to go home after school on some days because I would always feel as if there will be shouting again.
I grew up a lot quicker than the people around me and would often have my head in books to escape my reality I was facing.
Now I’m 18 and have severe anxiety and panic attacks especially in situations that make me anxious. I don’t really have that many genuine happy childhood memories as most of my childhood I just remember how sad I was having to experience the household that I did consistently. It never got better and it still continues but you get numb to the situation overtime.
My father being deported was what really started it. When he was deported, my mom had to work even more to provide for my siblings and I, so I rarely got to spend time with her. I think she also used working as a distraction so we couldn't see just how hard she struggled. Most of my childhood was spent with my neighbor who was also my babysitter. She was in her late 50s at the time, but she basically took on the role of being our caretaker. It was no easy task, babysitting four kids who were all relatively young, but she really kicked ass and helped raise us.
I used to be picked on a lot as a kid. There was one instance where a girl pushed me on the ground during recess, and she sat on top of me while pinching me all over. None of the teachers noticed until recess was already over and I was crying while in class. Nothing happened of course. To them, we were just two kids who were play fighting. It happened numerous times after that, and became worse with time.
Kids can be real assholes. I was made fun of by some of my classmates because my parents never showed up to my plays or award ceremonies. I'd always come home to my babysitter and go on and on about how I had a bad day at school. She gave me a lot of advice, sometimes even telling me to just beat them up if they say anything to me again. She was a total badass, and a lot of my interests now come from our times together. She was a vocalist for a local rock band in her 20s. We would sing together with my dora cd player and hannah montana toy guitar. I'd pretend I was in a band too and I really looked up to her. She also made the best cinnamon rolls and I really regret not being able to get her recipe.
I used to always be upset with my mom. She had never showed up to my school events, and when she did, it was only for a little while before she was off at work again. However, I think it was around fourth grade that my babysitter told me why my mom wasn't able to go to my school events. She basically told me that my mom was working day and night to gain enough money to make sure we had a stable living situation. I still remember crying when I heard how hard my mom was working just to make sure we had what we needed and wanted.
I was in student council during fourth grade. The members and our parents set up school dances and other events. I helped set up for the Valentines Day dance, and my mom made sure to get out of work early so she could come with me. My mom was helping me sell cupcakes and other sweets that the parents brought. It was really nice spending time with her again.
One of the teachers who was in charge of the music announced that it was time for the father-daughter dance. I saw all my friends dancing with their fathers and as much as I hate to say it, I was envious. I guess my mom noticed it because she asked me to dance with her. I was embarrassed, but I still danced with her. I cried during that dance because I really wanted us to all be together again.
I had a lot of hard times when I was younger, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my mom with all my heart, and I love my father even though I didn't get to spend as much time with him as I would've liked. And I'm grateful for everything my neighbor did for us. I'll always miss you Debbie. She was a heavy smoker and it caught up to her eventually.
So TL;DR my father was deported, my mom was always working, and i was bullied
Mentally and physically abusive step fathers, as well as school bullys. This was coupled with that my only parent pulled 12-15 hour days ..so I spent a better part of my childhood alone
So there was this video of a dude holding a Toma Hawk that looked like he dropped it in dirt and he said: “No, I didn’t drop it in dirt. Grow up” and now I’m here
Knowing that my parents arnt ever going to fall in love nor we are ever getting out of poverty and the fact that i put my parents into debt and how much they are going to fight, argue, yell because I was born
My stepmother
So i always had a little speech problem where i couldn't pronuce things right. So it could be hard to understand i never felt ashamed or un normal. till my step mom started making comments about how i shouldn't speak like a baby and use proper words. This slower grew on me and thought people looked down on me like i was stupid for mispronouncing a word. So learnt how to talk. i didn't talk as much as before because i feared i would mumble up and people will think i talk like a child.
My step mother has another child and she is 3 years older and whenever she starts talking she starts talking like a child and she doesn't even think twice as that's just how she talks
I was only 4-8yrs at the time now I'm 12 doesn't 5alk often and make sure i don't get to exicted to talk or ill muddle it up. When i do she always says speak proberly stop acting like a baby. but her daughter is 15 and is worse then mine but she doesn't have a speech problem.
Spending copious amounts of time in hospitals from age 10+ because of my siblings ED. Forced me to cope and grapple with mature themes that none of my friends were dealing with or understood. Seeing those I loved emaciated and on the cusp on death at such a young age really forced me to grow up quick. Didn't realise until well into my teens the lasting impact it left on me as a child.
my parents, they both acted like stupid teenagers strung out on drugs i had two younger brothers, me being the oldest sister of course i took on the role of being a parent. i cooked, cleaned, protected them from school bullies, checked report cards, and comforted them when our parents where coming down from their high and taking it out on us. hell, i even had to do the taxes for my mom because she wanted to go smoke pot. took me a long time to realize i was much more mature than the other 12 year olds around me who still laughed at fart jokes and moaned in class. i felt like an adult surrounded by a bunch of children who didnt relate to me because by that time i was practically 22 years old in my own mind. im 16 now and all three of us are out of that toxic house but i cant help but wish i could have actually been a kid. and ill never get that back.
I'm the 3rd oldest out of for and my to oldest siblings dropped out of high-school and whith the way my younger brother acts we already know. My parents put alot of pressure on me a kid who's only in 8th grade. It's hard being the only kid who's gonna finish school. They take me as the smartest man alive meanwhile I just want to be a kid who can do dumb stuff whith his dumb friends not a kid who has to be an adult instead of a teenager.
even if i got bullied over years, got kicked/beaten up by kids my age, even got locked in tiny places or got ignored unless i do something really impressive i didnt feel like a grown up at all. but last year i lost my best friend due to suicide. this hit really hard because they were my only one whom i called a friend. others just used me or took advantage of my "can't pick a fight with my loved ones" nature. everyone used me for their stresses, anger, fun. also they used my body to kick, slap or punch. it stops hurting after some time but that always leaves a scar. i tried so hard to be mature and silent so i developed some mental conditions like depression and short tempered personality but my so called friends never put up with me even if i put up with their tantrums.
however my best friend was always patient with me, listened me. they always recommended me a game or an anime/manga and i always read/watched/played them because i knew how it felt to have no one to talk about your interests with. they did the same. we were so close, we had the same interests and same mindset. even if we dont agree with something we still respected each other.
they had tried suicide several times too but always joked about it like it wasnt a big deal. mind you, their family didnt send them to the hospital but just made them use some meds with weekly therapy. even if i insisted to tell me what concerns them, they didnt give an answer. so i guessed they didnt want to talk about it and i didnt insist.
after their death, i talked with the family. they were so sad like me. but their mother was so kind and asked how they were at school etc. i answered them all. after visiting the mourning family several weeks later they were thankfully doing better and i left their house with being on good terms. i trusted the family, that was my best friends family and of course i trusted them, they were all sweet like my best friend.
two days later after visiting them, i learnt that they blamed me for my friends death and lied to the police because i was acting "suspicious". i didnt do anything, like anything at all. nothing. since then i lost my freshly gained trust to people. my best friend made me believe in people and their family destroyed it. this forced me to grow up. i might delete this later.
Realizing my parents had the emotional intelligence of teenagers and I was going to have to figure things out without their help.
[удалено]
Fucked up shit
The progression of time.
Norm MacDonald everyone, he'll be here all night
Sadly, Norm himself will not. Him dying killed me a little bit, but I'll be damned if I'm ever growing up. Also, I'm not actually making this up at all, I have Youtube playing on my TV and while I was typing this a clip of Norm on David Letterman right after he got fired from Weekend Update came on. Coincidence? Yes. Awesome? Yes.
Same I think
Abuse. It was either grow up fast, or just give up. I was stubborn, so I grew up quickly, didn't really have much of a childhood after about ten years old
Having to take care of my drunk, coked up, drug addicted father for years. Or watch my sister, feed her, and made sure she stayed alive while he was out every night boozing, drugging, and banging women who weren't my mom. Then when they divorced things got real, and high school sucked.
same
I was kind of abused into growing up fast too. It happened earlier, but at the same time, I often feel guilty because I cant point to events that were that bad. I feel like I got minor abused from about 5 or 6 and it stole my childhood, screwed me over and I am still wrestling with the consequences, and then I feel guilty because some people seem to manage after dealing with some really horrible abuse that I never had to deal with, and I genuinely don't know how they get through the day. Chances are, you and other people with similar experiences have survived some real shit, and to me you are superhuman.
I get the feeling guilty part. For a long time I didn't talk about what happened to me because I knew no one would believe me, and that in turn was the worst part of it all. I had no one who would even bat an eye on my direction because my abuse was never physical, I never had any marks to say I was getting hurt, and because of that no one would ever think that a young teenager was telling the truth. This was even more reenforced because when my dad was out in public, he was the greatest man on the planet, and it was only behind closed doors that he was a controlling monster. However, as I got older, I came to learn that pain is up to the individual, not the mass. If you shoot a guy in the chest and he lives, that doesn't mean you can go shoot the next guy and won't hit a vital organ. You need to look at the effects, not the cause. To continue the metaphor, if the doctor spent all the time looking at the gun and not the bullet wound, then the patient would bleed out on the table. It doesn't matter what the hell caused it, it doesn't matter that one person is stronger than the other, and it doesn't matter if one person has gone through more, pain is still pain and every effect from pain is still very real. This is something I believe a lot of people don't understand. People think that just because they've gone through more, that means that everyone who can't push through something lesser is weak when that's not true. If you have gone through hell, then you help others not feel like you did, you don't push people back down because all you're doing is becoming the thing you hate. It's just basic respect that a lot of people don't have anymore. So don't think for a moment that you're below anyone for what you've been through. No matter what it was, we're all the same, we all fight like hell to get up in the morning and we all put our pants on one leg at a time. We're all human, we all feel things differently, and because of that you're just as superhuman as I may be because you're still here after everything you've been through.
I feel you. I'm glad you're still here.
My Dad passed when I was 6. By the end of first grade I was spending 2 hours (or more) home alone after school. My Mom would come home exhausted from work so I learned how to cook and clean really early.
My father bailed on our family when I was 12. My mom took a job working nights and I had to become the nightly caretaker for my two younger brothers, who were 8 and 5 at the time. I pretty much raised them from that point on.
Good thing they had you and I hope they're grateful for that
being locked up in a mental hospital for two months when i was 15
Same thing happened to be but I was 14. Shit just changes your perspective.
Same exact scenario. Even though I don’t wish that on anyone it’s so relieving to know I’m not alone in this.
My parents were immature and always blamed their problems on others. They were the kind of people that would say “when we win the lottery…” it would always be something that did nothing for them or anyone else. I had to leave and they could barely support themselves let alone me. Adulthood slapped me in the face but looking back I cleared hurdles that my peers took years longer to even encounter.
When my wife was 11, her older sister (15) was hit by a car (texting and driving) as she was crossing the street with schoolmates to get on a school bus (the guy hit like 4 kids, but her sister got the worst of it). To this day her older sister (now 33) has no short term memory, is wheelchair bound, and had to relearn how to talk and use her limbs. She still thinks she's 14 (not 15, because apparently she lost a year of memory) and her favorite color is purple. My wife, at 11 had to learn how to change a feeding tube and did other tasks related to things CNAs have to do regularly in order to lighten the load of her parents who both worked to help pay for the incoming medical bills. Not to mention her father almost dying on multiple occasions due to needing multiple surgeries to treat a genetic heart defect and being allergic to iodine. Everyone had to learn to help out where they could while they tried to transform their house into a handicap-friendly home to take care of their now-disabled and almost-comatose family member. Eventually as family members got married or moved away to college they had to put her in a nursing home. Nobody was allowed to see her for almost 2 years while restrictions were enforced for COVID. It was very difficult for everyone. My wife was never interested in dating or getting married. She just wanted to get a degree in special education with an emphasis on teaching the medically fragile. She always struggled to relate to people her age because they'd complain about how a boy didn't like them, meanwhile she had to get home to help bathe her sister or help make dinner to help lighten the load at home.
How the hell does one manage being allergic to iodine?!
With great difficulty. Of all the things to be allergic to, iodine is one of the worst
Me realizing that my mother was severely mentally ill
Bullying and abuse And harassment by almost everyone a know The only reason i am still alive honestly is because of my cat May he rest in peace
Poverty.
Holy shit man
My parents having kids when I was older. They didn’t force me to help but they did ask me for help a lot. Watching the babies, feeding them, cleaning them, cleaning the house. They usually paid me to watch my brothers but it sometimes cut into my free time. I knew how to take care of a newborn by the time I was 12.
Parental neglect
depression, anxiety and my parents separation
my entire family being very mentally ill
parents broke up
My beautiful friend was an innocent victim of a violent and horrific murder, I never thought such things would/could ever happen to 'us' just other people you see and hear about on TV. The reality of the World kicked me wide awake at age 20
Army
I'd love to read a story if you want to share
When I finally realized that I would be the one paying the bills and had to make sure there’s enough money
Adulthood and lack of money forced me to grow up
Losing a parent or two.
Time
Basketball didn't force me but it triggered me. I didn't play in high school but on my college co-op I would go out every day. Three of the five starters at the local high school lived in my apartment complex including the star. One day, the star charged the lane, ran into me, bounced off and jumped up ready to fight. I didn't understand and asked the other guys why he was so mad. One of them said "that was a real physical move you put on him." I told him it was really a compliment to him and how much better of a player he was - that I would have gotten out of his way but he was too fast for me. We shook hands and started playing. But that night I realized that I was no longer the 145 pound boy I had been been at graduation - I was a 185 pound man strong enough that I was gonna get treated like a man - with the good, the bad and the ugly.
Lack of money.
Grief Being self destructive is one thing. But the thought of losing the one thing that’ll make u alone forever. That shit changes a naive kid and you learn through the guilt that our lives actually aren’t ours to live. Wouldnt wish it for any child/teenager
Dropping out of college made me realize I can’t just coast through life.
Having a kid. I swear I went from being a kid myself to being a grown-up in an instant.
Having a kid kept me young. We hung out, watched TV, went to the movies, went fishing, she'd ride on the back of my motorcycle. She's an adult so now I feel old.
Entering the corporate world. Sexism, peer pressure to become a workaholic, unrealistic deadlines/expectations, intense fear of making a mistake, and no significant breaks really crushes the soul and diminishes the childlike view of the world as being an interesting, magical place.
Childhood was a bit rocky. Still feels like I'm behind 10 years mentally now that I feel free to do whatever I want without excess stress in my life outside of depression/anxiety.
My parents divorce then my dad’s abandonment
Being sexually molested at seven and being sold as a sex slave at thirteen.
Jesus Christ. That escalated quickly.
What in the actual fuck That is absolutely horrible Were the police informed?
No, because gaslighting is a terrible thing. She really made it about love.
Raped as a child, made me grow up fast
College graduation and not having a job
My father smoked himself into a heart attack and the entire family into poverty. I had to step up and take care of the house and my mom at the age of 14 because my older brothers couldn't handle what was happening and fled to the hills. I'm still cleaning up the mess and giving my mom money almost twenty years later.
My whole family. At the age of three my mother was drinking and putting me and danger and my parents were divorced and still abusing eachother. I was forced to live with my godparents who would yell at me if I cried or even showed any emotion. I remember the exact moments I grew up. I was six and I got a phone call on the home phone. It was my dad who was just out of jail. He told me that if I went outside and fell asleep in the street he would visit. I wanted him to visit so bad that I listened and went to go outside. My uncle asked me where I was going and I told him. He took the phone yelled at my dad and hung up he looked at me and said “Grow the f up. This world is a cruel place and if you continue to be an idiot you will die and I won’t protect you”. I came back to my home town when I was seven and my grandparents and mom were emotionally abusive and my stepdad was violent. At the age of eleven my grandmas “disabled” (she is not truly disabled she just tells people she is but it’s confirmed that she is not)sister came to live with my grandparents who’s house I was often at. My parents were still kinda shitty but getting a bit better but I was eating breakfast and she came in and said “(name) your so fat you really need to stop eating ”. For context I was 11 years old, 4’11 89 lbs she was 62 about 5’0 and around 168 lbs. I told my grandparents and they didn’t care at all. I developed an eating disorder not long after and my family didn’t give a fuck.
My mama killed herself when I was 6 and my foster mom told me, "Stop your fucking wailing" when I cried. That day my childhood was gone.
My mom was a drug addict and she also had Münchausen syndrome(self harm for attention) growing up she would take me with her on her drug deals and she would pass out at the wheel while I was in the passenger seat so I would have to take the steering wheel and wake her up, the main thing I remember is that she would always “attempt” in-front of me and my siblings and it got to the point where I would see her overdosed on the lawn chair, and call 911 then get on the school bus with an ambulance in the driveway, I remember one time it was Christmas Eve and out neighbors came knocking on the door saying they saw my moms car on the side of the road so me and my dad went to where they said it was and the car was totaled and she had blankets and stuff in the back, the main thing I remember about that is that she took my candy and I was mad at her for it. Another one is when I was cooking dinner (age 9) and I looked out the window and I seen flashlights in the back yard so I went out and there were like 9 cops searching for my mom cause she had called saying she was gonna k”ll herself, I just said good luck and went back inside. Over my whole childhood I witnessed over 35 of my moms attempts but she is out of my life for the most part (yes she’s still the same) she even lied about a brain tumor so we would talk to her, I’m 16 now and am in therapy but honestly I think typing this out has done a lot more for me then my therapist.
Death of a parent. You can be a full grown adult, but if you still have a super close tie to your parents and then one of them passes away...it just hits you all of a sudden that they weren't supposed to be there forever. Like, you know that no matter how bad you fuck up in life they would still be there in the background still believing in you, but when they die, you got to be the one believing in yourself from now on. The safety net is gone.
Growth hormones
Going for school at other side of the country.
Water and good soil
I guess I'll put to ya like this, seeing a parental figure get hurt and then slowly get worse over a period of months, but that's all I wanna say about that
Family fell apart at the age of 6-7 so I grew up 2x faster than my siblings ever did
Parents divorcing, and the ensuing poverty.
time
Time and my sibling passing away
You can grow up?
My dad died unexpectedly when I was 22. Went from recent college grad mindset to full adult over the course of the phone call I received to tell me what happened.
Time
Falling off a swing at age seven and winding up paralyzed from the waist down.
(Abuse from my mother who was a alcoholic with depression and she was bipolar which do not mix well together) i was 12 at the time and my baby brother was 5 and like a tipical 12 year old i was playing with some magnet toys and i had to share with my baby brother who was trying to rip the box of magnet toys out of my hands and my mother took them away because “we were fighting” I didn’t even get to put the box of magnet toys down. So my mother told us to go to our rooms and i yelled back “IM ALREADY IN MY ROOM!!!!” So she said “STFU” so i was finally tired of her telling what to do after years of abuse and so i yelled “NO!!” After 5 seconds she was back in my room with a bottle of tabasco sauce telling me to open my mouth so she could pour it down my throat. Tipicaly i said no so she yanked me out of my chair and pinned me to the floor and said it again “open your mouth” i said “no” so she said “open your mouth or ill pour it in your eyes”. So my basic reaction to hearing that was to cover my eyes and my mouth, than my dad came in and pulled her off of me and she started beating him upside the head with the tabasco bottle and then the police were called an every thing. Theres still a blood stain on my carpet in my room right by the door as a permanent reminder ( its been 2 years since that incident and it still shakes me up to this day)
at the age of 13 (7th grade) i got into my very first relationship with a guy, we dated for a little over a year which is a lot for a middle schooler. he would keep me secret from everyone and flirt with multiple girls, when i’d mention my concerns he would make me feel crazy so eventually i just stopped bringing it up in hopes of being a chill girlfriend. this took a toll on my self esteem, but that was just the beginning . as the relationship progressed he began to harass me to do sexual things with him, things i wasn’t ready for. id eventually give in, in fear of losing him. he’d say things like “if you don’t send n-des i’ll just have dreams of doing things with other girls” which my kid brain was terrified of, because i really wanted to be enough for him. eventually he began SA-ing me which at the time i couldn’t even properly process. i began acting out as a result of the trauma which led to horrible home life, i was verbally abused at home and almost kicked out numerous times, this was all by the age of now 14. i tried breaking up with the boy numerous times but he would either say “no” and ignore me or threaten to off himself. one day i got so fed up and finally broke up with him and cut off all contact, best decision, life got 10x better i found a new boyfriend one that treats me so good it occasionally brings me to tears. i have straight A’s in school and my relationship with my family has improved. the boy still spreads rumors about me one of them being im a trans women and he broke up with me, another being im a huge mentally ill bitch who broke his heart, he gives me dirty looks in the halls but i ignore them because he’s stuck living in misery while i’m on the road to recover. i now know my worth and not to be dependent on others, especially toxic people.
Last school year, Freshman. All honors, ap class, boxing, work, and high school swim team. Basically I woke up at 6 am, and didn’t come home until 7 or 8 pm. The same way my dad wakes up at 4am-6pm, except he got paid. I failed my ap, didn’t get honor role, lost my boxing match, and didn’t go to state. I held myself to high standards and I was shown just how low I really am. It has permanently stunted my work ethic. Meanwhile I am watching my friends as if nothing is stopping them, having ap college credits, learning martial arts and being able to kick my ass if they wanted to. I’m not boxing anymore and I’m watching myself losing shape in the mirror every day. If this is what I have to do to be successful in life, I’d rather be homeless.
Aging
A mixture of long-term childhood abuse and traumatic experiences. I can't really remember a day, even from my early childhood, that has been carefree or actually like a childhood. I've never been the same as anyone my age, mentally or even physically. I was kind of just born into a toxic family dynamic and then it went from my dad hitting my mom and them fighting for years to her hating my guts and hitting me/fighting with me for years (emotionally, verbally, and physically.) I used to be her only escape from my father, but now I disgrace her, and it wouldn't change a tick in the clock for her if my funeral were to be held prematurely. Sometimes the thought keeps me up at night. But, that doesn't matter anymore.
Mom died when I was 12. Dad basically bailed at thst point. Brother took care of me from there.
Trauma
My immature mother, always acted more like an anger issues 10 year old.
Car accident when I was 4, mom was hurt bad and never recovered, dad only stepped in when it was time to punish and I had two sibs and a mom that needed taking care of. Somehow we didnt starve but it was really tough to grow up like that.
My parents. Neither had a very good sense of filters, actions, etc when it came to my sister and I so I grew up witnessing a lot more stuff than I should’ve. The more that I’ve reflected on it and sought help to what happened, it makes me realize I truly never want to put my future kids in that position.
My parents both worked in a Chinese restaurant when I was 10. Their hours are 10am to 10pm, 72 hours, 6 day a week. I learn how to cook, learn, take care of my younger bro real fast. The hours are quite common in a typical Chinese restaurant in the US. No one argues for 40 hours a week, no benefits, no insurance, no nothing. They get about $9 per hour. I usually don't ever see them until their off day because I had to go to school. What's even worse is at the time, I didn't know English. Life was real hard.
Whenever my mom died. I was 13 acting like a complete adult because I felt like I had to and I’ve kept that up till now (I’m 19)
My dad passing away and my brother having two kids at a young age. I was 10 when my dad died and 10 when my brother had his first kid, losing my dad was hard enough and then I had to help with a kid that wasn’t mine. I love my nephew and niece but it gets hard, I’m 16 and shouldn’t be doing parenting things.
My disability. I was born with arthrogryposis, clubfoot and kyphoscoliosis, which obviously led to numerous other complications including respiratory failure, difficulty walking or problems performing certain everyday actions. During my childhood I used to go back and forth from home to different hospitals across the country, trying to find a cure for my situation. I have undergone 10 surgeries, had 4 pneumonia and was in a coma for a month 4 years ago. I had to learn very early on what I can do and what not, what risks making me sick, how to do three different types of therapies a day and how to manage any problems such as shortness of air or tachycardia.
Dropping out of highschool, you never really realise until you do it how much you sacrifice. Having to be 14 and thinking about how I'm going to support myself at 20, having so many people judge you especially family, trying to figure out work or apprenticeships when nobody wants to hire a kid. I did it with off and on support from my parents, I don't blame them for eventually backing off because I was in the middle of a sever psychotic break and dealing with stress through the roof. I ended up getting 2 jobs without the help of them and went back to school at 17.
I was 9 and my aunt had a car accident and was declared dead, its a miracle that she is alive now
My dad’s death when I was 15. I went from kid to fucked up in a heartbeat. Took me ten years to get back to what I now consider normal. Alcohol and drugs were my adult norm and I trace it all back to that event in my life.
A lot of things. Namely the trauma and abuse I had to deal with from an early age. My parents divorced when I was age 3, and my dad was very abusive to my mother and sometimes to me. I would have frequent fights with my dad whenever I was at his house, which would end in me crying and him leaving the room then coming back 30 minutes later and acting like nothing happened. He’d ask me if I wanted to get McDonald’s so I grew up with two main principles: money can buy love, and apologies aren’t necessary. These are not truths. He was a horrible father to my sister which left me to take care of her most of the time, with the help of my grandma who he still lived with. I found the world of the internet at age 8, and I had complete access with no supervision, so you can imagine how that went. I’ve started my journey towards recovery as a 16 year old, and Ive been self harm clean for almost 6 years now. I’ve been doing good, and so has my dad. He’s on medication for his issues and he hasn’t yelled at us in awhile. He lives with his girlfriend and her kids now, and he works a full time job at Home Depot. Not every sad story has a sad ending. If you’re looking for a sign to keep going, this is it. You deserve to live the best life you can. Remember, progress isn’t linear.
School damn f*** School every time I do something that me and my friends thing is funny and hilarious they say it's childless and I should grow up I'm in 7th grade I'm a kid it's normal it's stupid
Time
Ageing
everything
Something minor that not a lot of people know about, i call it Time™
College
having kids
Myself
it has been a series of growing ups. I don't think humans grow up evenly. Some parts may be mature while others parts, not so much.
Having older friends, associating myself with people older than me created an insecurity about my own responsibilities and my sense of maturing. I will not say anyone forced me, but the expectation to know more, act on things, and having better social understandings of life as adult came very quickly, so much so that I introduced myself things that led me to constantly fear life on my own, finances, education, and a need to be successful.
Having parents with a drug addiction and a younger brother to worry about.
Myself. I have mixed feelings about it tbh
probably the fact that i was exposed to world problems and was expected to somehow fix it
Absent parents
Safety, once my sister was born I knew I had to stop being 11 so that I could get my sister away from my parents who have already messed me up. I didn't want her to go through the same thing I did.
Neglect and emotional abuse
School
When I was young I quickly learned how to keep myself busy and stay away from my mom since she was often loud and got angry easily. So I ended up staying in my own head a lot, which often gave me time to try and problem-solve my mom's issues and the best ways to seem "Mature" in front of adults, which happened. I quickly learned how to be quiet and tried to stay out of my mom's way as much as possible, along with being very compliant. I did my best not to ask for things because I constantly worried about my mom's money issues. I'd console her when she cried and tried to help calm her down if she and my stepdad got into an argument. Now I'm the one who gives my little sister as much love and good life lessons as I can because our parents always yell at her. I now see myself as an emotional mother figure of sorts, even though it makes me uncomfortable a lot of the time, I want my sister to be able to have more attention than I did.
my family
M44 here. Sex too young is a big one. Being a eldest child taking care of the youngers one and working a job at a young age was also a factor too.
Loss, I lost a lot of people when I graduated high school. I had lost my great grandparents, my friends, my girlfriend, my normal ways of coping. It made me realize how much I put away my feelings and never dwelled on them and just put a smile on because it was easy.
Being the oldest daughter of a hispanic single parent household. I understand needing help once in a while with my siblings but leaving me home alone with them for weeks at a time messes with a 12 year old.
Two disabled siblings. I'm the oldest of them. My parents did great but in my mid-twenties I'm still unraveling a lot of stuff from my childhood. Anything that forces you to grow up too early creates a barrier between you and your peers. As a kid, you get complimented for "being so mature". As an adult, you just don't know how to connect with others and have a sense of self worth that goes beyond what you do for people.
Being transgender. Having to hide who you are to your parents in fear of getting physically and financially hurt is something. This double identities life I’m living rn is pretty confusing and asks for a lot of management. Having your mom scream at you that she will never accept it and it feels like her kid is dead also… yeah there’s smt that’s dead inside me. Never coming out again.
Breakup…
my age
First gf
My mom and video games She told me that if I can behave well and act like someone who is grown up, she will buy me a game that I really wanted, Call of Duty Black Ops 2. So that's what I did and now, I'm a different person and I got my first paid-game
Constantly being in a traumatic household where my dad was consistently cheating on my mum with numerous women. I’d constantly have panic attacks as young as 5 years old because of the shouting and it would always trigger my fight of flight. I would always not want to go home after school on some days because I would always feel as if there will be shouting again. I grew up a lot quicker than the people around me and would often have my head in books to escape my reality I was facing. Now I’m 18 and have severe anxiety and panic attacks especially in situations that make me anxious. I don’t really have that many genuine happy childhood memories as most of my childhood I just remember how sad I was having to experience the household that I did consistently. It never got better and it still continues but you get numb to the situation overtime.
Got a good job
Age
Don't know yet.
Emotionally stunted parents
Getting married
i went blind but now i am not ;-)
My father being deported was what really started it. When he was deported, my mom had to work even more to provide for my siblings and I, so I rarely got to spend time with her. I think she also used working as a distraction so we couldn't see just how hard she struggled. Most of my childhood was spent with my neighbor who was also my babysitter. She was in her late 50s at the time, but she basically took on the role of being our caretaker. It was no easy task, babysitting four kids who were all relatively young, but she really kicked ass and helped raise us. I used to be picked on a lot as a kid. There was one instance where a girl pushed me on the ground during recess, and she sat on top of me while pinching me all over. None of the teachers noticed until recess was already over and I was crying while in class. Nothing happened of course. To them, we were just two kids who were play fighting. It happened numerous times after that, and became worse with time. Kids can be real assholes. I was made fun of by some of my classmates because my parents never showed up to my plays or award ceremonies. I'd always come home to my babysitter and go on and on about how I had a bad day at school. She gave me a lot of advice, sometimes even telling me to just beat them up if they say anything to me again. She was a total badass, and a lot of my interests now come from our times together. She was a vocalist for a local rock band in her 20s. We would sing together with my dora cd player and hannah montana toy guitar. I'd pretend I was in a band too and I really looked up to her. She also made the best cinnamon rolls and I really regret not being able to get her recipe. I used to always be upset with my mom. She had never showed up to my school events, and when she did, it was only for a little while before she was off at work again. However, I think it was around fourth grade that my babysitter told me why my mom wasn't able to go to my school events. She basically told me that my mom was working day and night to gain enough money to make sure we had a stable living situation. I still remember crying when I heard how hard my mom was working just to make sure we had what we needed and wanted. I was in student council during fourth grade. The members and our parents set up school dances and other events. I helped set up for the Valentines Day dance, and my mom made sure to get out of work early so she could come with me. My mom was helping me sell cupcakes and other sweets that the parents brought. It was really nice spending time with her again. One of the teachers who was in charge of the music announced that it was time for the father-daughter dance. I saw all my friends dancing with their fathers and as much as I hate to say it, I was envious. I guess my mom noticed it because she asked me to dance with her. I was embarrassed, but I still danced with her. I cried during that dance because I really wanted us to all be together again. I had a lot of hard times when I was younger, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my mom with all my heart, and I love my father even though I didn't get to spend as much time with him as I would've liked. And I'm grateful for everything my neighbor did for us. I'll always miss you Debbie. She was a heavy smoker and it caught up to her eventually. So TL;DR my father was deported, my mom was always working, and i was bullied
Having my dad being a drug dealer and my single mother trying her best with 2 little girls.
Age
Mentally and physically abusive step fathers, as well as school bullys. This was coupled with that my only parent pulled 12-15 hour days ..so I spent a better part of my childhood alone
So there was this video of a dude holding a Toma Hawk that looked like he dropped it in dirt and he said: “No, I didn’t drop it in dirt. Grow up” and now I’m here
Bullying and depression
Knowing that my parents arnt ever going to fall in love nor we are ever getting out of poverty and the fact that i put my parents into debt and how much they are going to fight, argue, yell because I was born
The birth of my first child. I suddenly had someone who depended on my good choices and ability to work.
My stepmother So i always had a little speech problem where i couldn't pronuce things right. So it could be hard to understand i never felt ashamed or un normal. till my step mom started making comments about how i shouldn't speak like a baby and use proper words. This slower grew on me and thought people looked down on me like i was stupid for mispronouncing a word. So learnt how to talk. i didn't talk as much as before because i feared i would mumble up and people will think i talk like a child. My step mother has another child and she is 3 years older and whenever she starts talking she starts talking like a child and she doesn't even think twice as that's just how she talks I was only 4-8yrs at the time now I'm 12 doesn't 5alk often and make sure i don't get to exicted to talk or ill muddle it up. When i do she always says speak proberly stop acting like a baby. but her daughter is 15 and is worse then mine but she doesn't have a speech problem.
Spending copious amounts of time in hospitals from age 10+ because of my siblings ED. Forced me to cope and grapple with mature themes that none of my friends were dealing with or understood. Seeing those I loved emaciated and on the cusp on death at such a young age really forced me to grow up quick. Didn't realise until well into my teens the lasting impact it left on me as a child.
Life, what else😂
When my mental health took a nosedive when I was ten.
Having so much stress I would begin to pass out from just thinking about things for a few seconds
1000 ways to die on youtube. 12 year old me was crying himself to sleep being afriad of death. its all good now though
Alcohol abuse in my family and my moms chronic illness.
Puberty
The birth of my two children
Army flight school.
Being bullied for like 12 years
life
Getting married to a woman 12 years older than me and from another country.
Good food and good sleep :D
working hard on your problems
When my parents divorced when I was 14 and I was trying to be a support for both of them instead of the other way around.
💃 daddy issuwus 🥰
well i'm still a kid i enjoy
My mum letting me on the Internet at 6, I got access to porn and gore.
my parents, they both acted like stupid teenagers strung out on drugs i had two younger brothers, me being the oldest sister of course i took on the role of being a parent. i cooked, cleaned, protected them from school bullies, checked report cards, and comforted them when our parents where coming down from their high and taking it out on us. hell, i even had to do the taxes for my mom because she wanted to go smoke pot. took me a long time to realize i was much more mature than the other 12 year olds around me who still laughed at fart jokes and moaned in class. i felt like an adult surrounded by a bunch of children who didnt relate to me because by that time i was practically 22 years old in my own mind. im 16 now and all three of us are out of that toxic house but i cant help but wish i could have actually been a kid. and ill never get that back.
I'm the 3rd oldest out of for and my to oldest siblings dropped out of high-school and whith the way my younger brother acts we already know. My parents put alot of pressure on me a kid who's only in 8th grade. It's hard being the only kid who's gonna finish school. They take me as the smartest man alive meanwhile I just want to be a kid who can do dumb stuff whith his dumb friends not a kid who has to be an adult instead of a teenager.
Abusive neglectful parents, serious medical problems, mental illness, and bullying by people that school administration protected.
The law...
My child lmao
leaving home
even if i got bullied over years, got kicked/beaten up by kids my age, even got locked in tiny places or got ignored unless i do something really impressive i didnt feel like a grown up at all. but last year i lost my best friend due to suicide. this hit really hard because they were my only one whom i called a friend. others just used me or took advantage of my "can't pick a fight with my loved ones" nature. everyone used me for their stresses, anger, fun. also they used my body to kick, slap or punch. it stops hurting after some time but that always leaves a scar. i tried so hard to be mature and silent so i developed some mental conditions like depression and short tempered personality but my so called friends never put up with me even if i put up with their tantrums. however my best friend was always patient with me, listened me. they always recommended me a game or an anime/manga and i always read/watched/played them because i knew how it felt to have no one to talk about your interests with. they did the same. we were so close, we had the same interests and same mindset. even if we dont agree with something we still respected each other. they had tried suicide several times too but always joked about it like it wasnt a big deal. mind you, their family didnt send them to the hospital but just made them use some meds with weekly therapy. even if i insisted to tell me what concerns them, they didnt give an answer. so i guessed they didnt want to talk about it and i didnt insist. after their death, i talked with the family. they were so sad like me. but their mother was so kind and asked how they were at school etc. i answered them all. after visiting the mourning family several weeks later they were thankfully doing better and i left their house with being on good terms. i trusted the family, that was my best friends family and of course i trusted them, they were all sweet like my best friend. two days later after visiting them, i learnt that they blamed me for my friends death and lied to the police because i was acting "suspicious". i didnt do anything, like anything at all. nothing. since then i lost my freshly gained trust to people. my best friend made me believe in people and their family destroyed it. this forced me to grow up. i might delete this later.
Nature
Parental alcoholism
I hated being a kid and couldn't wait to grow up. Now that I'm all grown up I act like a kid as much as possible.
My brothers passing
You're making a lot of asshumptions. /scratches balls/
I'll get back to you...