50 Stories From People's Childhood That They Didn't Realize Were Messed Up At The Time

I spent 8 hours a day locked in a dark closet for ~9 months when I was 6. Assumed it was normal punishment.

(It wasn't my parents that did this, but the school they sent me to. My parents did not find out about this until years later).

When I was 11 (1971) a man snuck up behind me while I was playing pinball at my favorite arcade. He was standing real close and kept putting down dimes so I could play more games. He asked me multiple times if I could feel that. I didn't feel anything except that it was strange he was standing so close behind me watching me play. every once in awhile he would press closer and ask again if I could feel that. (No idea at that time what that was supposed to feel as I could not actually feel anything)

After some time I said It was my time to go home and he offered me a ride. As he dropped me off across the street from my house he asked if I wanted to go to disneyland tomorrow and to meet him at the arcade after school.

As a good kid should I told my mom (Single mom 4 kids) about this nice man I met. She showed concern and told me that if I ever see him again to run away and come straight home.

I was in my 30's when I thought about this one day and realized I was super close to being kidnapped by a stranger.

I do wonder why he didn't since he had me in his car but I am thankful that for whatever reason he chickened out.

I hope he never tried again.

I thought only rich people had clean houses. because our house was filthy.

Talking in chat rooms like club penguin or FarmVille on Facebook and realizing later I was clearly talking often to adult predators.

I used to have this creepy uncle who loved tickle fights so much he practically invented them. It was like a game show—“How long can you laugh before you start questioning your life choices?” He'd finish and somehow we would both end up n***d. I just thought he was being goofy. Now that I'm older, I realize.........

Watched the handlebars of a 4 wheeler go through the chest of a rider when it flipped on top of him. I rode my tricycle home and told my mom I saw someone die. She didn’t believe me till the helicopter showed up.

Went on holidays with my dad and fell and broke my arm in the first hour. Dad refused to take me to the hospital all day and only the next day took me to confirm. I had snapped my arm. At the time I thought it was my fault but looking back I realise it was abuse.

I had a doctor and a therapist both recommend that I start taking antidepressants and my mom talked me out of me, said that the idea of me taking them was 'scary.' I lived with pretty steady s******l ideation until I started taking anti depressants at age 34.

I also had a Dr diagnose me with ADHD and write a scrip for Adderall. After taking it for a bit, my dad pulled me aside once and said "you may have your mom fooled with this ADD nonsense but you aren't fooling me, we both know you just aren't applying yourself and trying hard enough in school." So I stopped taking the meds cold turkey without telling anyone.

Teacher showed me her breasts. Didn't really register it at the time. It's like my little kid mind just ignored it. Remembered it the other day, I don't know how I feel about it. But does explain some things.

In Junior High during gym I was going to get "pops" (corporal punishment) for "talking during gym class" (I was an easy quiet mark). The 2 coaches made me strip n***d and go in their office with huge plate glass window so every student could see. And beat me with a paddle with 3 hard wacks. This was around 1980 in Texas. Male student/2 Male Coaches. This is f****d up isn't it???

I was definitely being groomed by a teacher in high school, but I was so shy I avoided him. Not because I wasn’t interested, but because I was nervous I would embarrass myself and he wouldn’t like me anymore. Years later, at 42, he married a 22-year-old.

We used to keep lip gloss in the car for when we visited my dad in jail so that we could kiss the glass and he would kiss where the lip gloss mark was. We called it “jail lipgloss”😬.

I thought it normal to get heavily beat up for not achieving academic expectations set by my parent and that it was a form of discipline.

That my father brought me to the beach with a woman I didn’t know when I was 3. We were living in the middle of Illinois at the time. Turns out he kidnapped me and drove me nearly 2000 miles to his hometown. The woman turned out to be a 16 year old gf of his and he was married to my mom for over a decade at the time, he was 35. Him and mom are still together 24 years later and your guess is as good as mine as to why. My mom was telling me about this and told me the nickname the girl would call me and the whole thing flashed back into my memory.

When I was 12 I stayed the weekend with some salt-of-the-earth, live-off-the-land, friends of my aunt and uncle in eastern Oregon (if you know the region, then enough said). They had many animals and all the animals had a job. The dozen or so cats kept the rodent population under control. There was one cat that apparently wasn't earning its keep and the dad had plans to k**l it. We went out with a rifle and caught it but unsurprisingly the cat freaked out and started clawing and biting and scratching the dad and all that and I watched while he proceeded to beat this cat to death by swinging it by the tail against a tree. I buried it with the son. Seemed like Farm Life at the time but it has found a way of creeping up in my thoughts later in life.

I wasn't diagnosed with autism and adhd until last year, at the age of 53. There were times in my youth when I was yelled at and grounded for not doing homework or paying attention in class, poor performance, etc. Nowadays I'd have been diagnosed and treated by elementary school. I don't hold it against my parents because they couldn't have known, but a couple of my teachers were real d***s about it.

When I was in 2nd grade, I overheard a female classmate talking about having had s*x.

It may have been bullshitting for all I know but at that age people don’t make up s*x stories to look big like how a teenager would. I don’t remember thinking much of it at the time because I didn’t know the implications, but I look back on it now realizing that I heard a 7 year old talking about being molested.

Makes me sick and sad.

I have a sister who was constantly in and out of the hospital and jail. In and out of gangs. Constantly lying and stealing. Has bipolar disorder and would have manic episodes where my mom would tell us to lock ourselves in our rooms and call the police while my mom was working. Police would show up like, “alright where is she?” Because they knew us and visited frequently. One time my mom and sister were arguing in the kitchen and my sister threw a knife that almost hit me by a little bit. I thought this was normal until I got older and visited friends houses where it was constantly calm whenever I visited. Then I was just too embarrassed to bring it up to my childhood friends when I found out it wasn’t actually normal to have these experiences.

We lived overseas ( military). My parents ( mother and stepfather) were having major issues. We lived off base. My stepfather moved on base to barracks which sent my mother into a spiral. She threatened to k**l herself and ended up in the mental health part of the hospital. Which was also on base.
Let’s just say once their marriage fell apart my stepfather didn’t give a s**t about us.

My brother, sister and i lived alone for weeks. We were 16, 14 and 5( I’m the middle),
Nobody checked on us, nobody noticed. We would go to my stepfathers office to get money or have things signed. We visited my mother at the hospital. She told us not to tell anyone because she was afraid we would be taken away.

The only transportation we had was the school bus that took us from our house to our base school. So anything we needed on base had to happen during school hours, meaning skipping school.
Once we got dropped back off at home we could just walk to a local store if we needed something.

Once she got better she filed for divorce and we moved back to the states.

The deadbeat stepdad never once checked on us at the house. I’m SURE the only reason he gave us money is because when we showed up at his job he did not want anyone asking questions.

We used to go camping in far north Queensland every year and when mum and her boyfriend would go out in the boat they would chain me to a tree in camp so I wouldn’t run away while they were out….. area is known for large saltwater crocs and we always camped close to the water.