Netizens Cringe Remembering They Did These 30 Things As They Didn’t Know They Were Inappropriate

Kids usually say and do all sorts of things without really understanding them. After all, when we are born, we’re essentially a nearly white sheet of paper, so we learn about the world and everything in it by experiencing it.

However, according to Carrie Shrier of the Michigan State University Extension, since we don’t start off knowing exactly what we should do, we imitate what we see around us. Usually, that involves people closest to us, like our family and peers, as well as things we see in our surroundings. 

We grow up watching the world around us, and that is exactly how we learn all the essential skills, like brushing our teeth and picking up things, as well as speaking, social skills, and independence.

But while parents may be more able to control what they teach their children, it becomes a bit more difficult when it comes to things like TV, and, as research quoted by Carrie Shrier shows, an average child spends roughly 3 hours a day watching it. 

The same study showed that the majority of children aged 1-2 strongly imitated the behavior seen on television. For example, when the researchers split these kids into groups and showed one of them a video of a stranger taking a toy apart, almost all the kids watching it attempted to do the same, while most of those who saw a stranger simply playing didn’t. 

The story is more or less the same when it comes to saying rather than doing things. But, as per RaisingChildren.net.au, it is only at around 5-6 years old that children start to grasp what context is and that the same word can have several different meanings, as well as what a figure of speech is and how to use it.

A great example of this is the OP’s, u/Logical_Sweet_6624, story that they replied with to their own thread. When they were a kid in kindergarten, their mom was very concerned with her child making friends, so she would often ask if they played with anyone, to which they replied, “Sometimes I just like to play with myself.”

Bored Panda reached out to the OP, who was very surprised by the amount of attention that their question received online and was glad to share some additional commentary with us. According to them, the way their answer sounded most likely didn’t catch their mother’s attention or was ignored since she was a lot more focused on her kid not playing with anyone. 

Yet, saying something like that could really raise some eyebrows and attract some side-looks since, the way we interpret it, it’s definitely not the most appropriate thing to randomly say out loud. However, to a child who still takes everything quite literally, it is pretty difficult to grasp what is wrong with it. 

But in the end, almost every grown person also understands that children don’t do or say these things intentionally. We were all kids once, and it’s more than likely that we all have some stories of this kind. That is a natural part of growing up, and only by doing something can we learn to do it properly. 

What did you think about these stories? Did you have any experiences like these yourself? Share it all in the comments below!