At some point in adulthood, between groaning when you get up and staying in on a Friday night, a bizarre realization will dawn. "My parents were right!" First, it won't sit well with you. How could you possibly sympathise with the people who should now be footing your therapy bill? But when you let it linger a little bit, you will start to come to terms.
People online have confessed all these realisations, and all we can say is, "same!" All the bizarre punishments, weird habits, quirky sayings- they all ended up having a purpose. And heaven forbid, people are now applying them to their own children with varying degrees of success. Bored Panda has collected some of the biggest "a-ha" moments so that maybe we can all learn a little something together.
#61
My grandpa told us a snake had escaped and it was behind the oven. None of us ever got burnt on that over.
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1point
#62
The first thing that comes to mind: “No sleepovers”! As an adult, I have heard so many stories of friends just because of the proximity with someone else, that I really appreciate the no sleepover concept.
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0points
#63
This may sound entirely lame to the younger generations. So be it. My father once told me (when I was about 14 and had asked to call a boy in my class) “Never chase a boy. You have to let them chase you until you catch them.” Say what? I remember being very puzzled over that. Finally, when I turned 18 and began really dating it dawned on me what he was trying to say. If you chase a boy they will want you, but maybe not enough to want to chase you. They will take it because it is “easy pickings”. But if they want to chase you then let them— until you decide if you really want them. It was genius!
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-1point
#64
For me it was their constant monitoring of what I was reading.
Right from when I can remember, my parents were extra careful of the books and any kind of printed matter I had access to. They chose what books they let me read. Even the little picture books I had used to be read through first by my father before he even bought it.
By the time I was 5, I was reading full fledged books (not the picture books) and that is when the restrictions became more strict. I was given books like Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales or 1001 Arabian Nights or even Grimm's Fairy Tales while my friends were reading Enid Blyton and Archie comics.
I did not have a single Enid Blyton book in my home bookshelf. Comics were out of the question. I used to plead with them to let me but comics and every time I would be refused. Their justification was that the language used in them would be detrimental to my growing vocabulary.
Oh how cross I used to get! 😄
While all my classmates would discuss Archie and Veronica, I'd try to regale them with stories of the Swan Princess or Thumbelina. And they'd get bored 😴
During high school, my best friend who knew about my predicament used to bring her comics and story books to class and I used to read during school hours. I couldn't take the books home as there was always the risk of my nosey kid sister finding them and she used to often randomly rummage my schoolbag for a pencil or eraser when she couldn't find hers. So I used to read the books at an extremely high speed. A book a day was my usual speed.
Thanks to this, my reading speed is really good even today.
Although I was annoyed at my parents for their interference back then, I realised later that they were only pushing me to have a better vocabulary than my peers and to develop a taste for good literature. Even today, I find myself unable to go beneath a certain level when reading something. I do not like excessive verbal vulgarity or usage of sleaze just for the sake of it. Thanks to all that ‘training’, today my standards while choosing a book to read are set high and not based on any yardstick but my own. I do not choose books based on their popularity with the masses. And just because the literary world is raving about it, I wouldn't read something I am not inclined to read. And academically, my command over the English language is something my English teachers were proud of. The fact that I have become so popular on Quora is also due to my ability to express myself with clarity.
I have only my parents to thank for all this and more. Had they not been so careful about what they were exposing me to at such a young age, I would never have been what I am today. Today, I am free to choose what I read. But I know how to differentiate between trash and treasure. I still show my father the latest book I'm reading. He would just read the synopsis and maybe give a grunt of approval. He doesn't say anything else. He knows he doesn't need to anymore 🙂
Right from when I can remember, my parents were extra careful of the books and any kind of printed matter I had access to. They chose what books they let me read. Even the little picture books I had used to be read through first by my father before he even bought it.
By the time I was 5, I was reading full fledged books (not the picture books) and that is when the restrictions became more strict. I was given books like Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales or 1001 Arabian Nights or even Grimm's Fairy Tales while my friends were reading Enid Blyton and Archie comics.
I did not have a single Enid Blyton book in my home bookshelf. Comics were out of the question. I used to plead with them to let me but comics and every time I would be refused. Their justification was that the language used in them would be detrimental to my growing vocabulary.
Oh how cross I used to get! 😄
While all my classmates would discuss Archie and Veronica, I'd try to regale them with stories of the Swan Princess or Thumbelina. And they'd get bored 😴
During high school, my best friend who knew about my predicament used to bring her comics and story books to class and I used to read during school hours. I couldn't take the books home as there was always the risk of my nosey kid sister finding them and she used to often randomly rummage my schoolbag for a pencil or eraser when she couldn't find hers. So I used to read the books at an extremely high speed. A book a day was my usual speed.
Thanks to this, my reading speed is really good even today.
Although I was annoyed at my parents for their interference back then, I realised later that they were only pushing me to have a better vocabulary than my peers and to develop a taste for good literature. Even today, I find myself unable to go beneath a certain level when reading something. I do not like excessive verbal vulgarity or usage of sleaze just for the sake of it. Thanks to all that ‘training’, today my standards while choosing a book to read are set high and not based on any yardstick but my own. I do not choose books based on their popularity with the masses. And just because the literary world is raving about it, I wouldn't read something I am not inclined to read. And academically, my command over the English language is something my English teachers were proud of. The fact that I have become so popular on Quora is also due to my ability to express myself with clarity.
I have only my parents to thank for all this and more. Had they not been so careful about what they were exposing me to at such a young age, I would never have been what I am today. Today, I am free to choose what I read. But I know how to differentiate between trash and treasure. I still show my father the latest book I'm reading. He would just read the synopsis and maybe give a grunt of approval. He doesn't say anything else. He knows he doesn't need to anymore 🙂
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-4points
