What horrible thing happened to you as a kid and you didn’t realise the severity of it until you got older?

What my mum meant when she planned to drive us to heaven. She was talking about wanting to drive us into a lake.

Mom took me along when she was buying drugs. Took me 30 years to realize waiting at a gas station at 6 am on a Saturday wasn’t a thing, and neither was driving WAY into the ghetto and having her friend drive around the block with us. Turns out not everyone sleeps on their laundry and goes right to bed when they get home EVERY DAY either.

Our babysitter died while she was watching us when my twin and I were 3. We had no concept of death, and tried to wake her up.

She had spilled water when she fell, and I still remember getting a dish towel to wipe it up, thinking she would be proud of how responsible I was being.

I remember going to get our little toy pots and pans to bang together to make noise to wake her up, we had no idea what a heart attack was.

It took me almost 25 years to realise that alcoholic parents aren’t normal and other people have it different.

Having a ‘cluttered house’ and needing to spend a few hours carrying everything from the living room into my bedroom to make the living room appropriate for guests. I would sob and beg for it not to go into my room because I knew it would never leave, and the living room would get filled again with TJmaxx bags and garbage we don’t need. Turned out a hoarded house isn’t normal and it made me a pretty awful roommate to my friends in my teen years.

My mom used to whoop my ass really bad whenever i did the slightest thing wrong. I was genuinely afraid of doing literally anything.

As a kid i didn’t like taking baths because my mom wouldn’t stop telling me everytime that i stank and that i was a pig, that i was reeking of cunt and that i was completely gross and unhygienic, and also because the shower was too loud for me. I thought i would drown: the sound was too overwhelming in my ears when i had to wash my hair, so i was crying really bad, telling my mom that she was going to drown me. She slapped my mouth so i could shut up and stop moving, but she slapped me so hard that my mouth was bleeding. I couldn’t do anything more besides bowing down my head, crying in silence as i was internally panicking because of the sound of water, while seeing my blood flowing through the shower drain.

It was so normal for me to be beaten up and also the typical “wait till we get home and you’ll see” and getting beat the shit out of me for talking when i shouldn’t, that it was really weird for me when i’d go to friend’s houses and seeing their moms talking to them with respect and not slapping them.

“Huh? Her mom doesn’t… slap her or scream at her? Why? Is it because i’m here? My mom also slaps me in secret so if If i’m not here she will definitely slap her, yeah”

My father was more gentle but they were divorced and would visit us once every couple of weeks. I would call him and he was soo gentle and caring at washing my hair, like he was afraid of hurting me if he used more force, on contrary of my mom.

The teacher not letting me use the toilets in elementary school and peeing my pants under the desk, than getting yelled at by same teacher

About a year after my father was murdered, my cousin and I were sexually molested by an older relative every time she babysat us. There’s pictures and videos of me and her still being circulated by pedophiles over 30 years later.

I didn’t realize how badly it fucked me up until I was in my 20s. It seemed so stupid to even be concerned about it after watching my dad die. I was 4 or almost 5 when she got arrested, and to me it was just another shitty week.

Edit – For everyone asking how I know the pictures are still out there, I got subpoenaed to identify myself once in my early 20s. They had old physical photos and digital copies on a hard drive and in a private email server, and as anyone knows once it’s on the internet, it’s out there forever. I signed some paperwork and wrote a short statement so anytime photos of me show up again, I wouldn’t have to testify.

Adopted, step dad punished me by forcing me to watch them shoot my dog. I was told he was going to do it about 10 hours beforehand and he made me dig a hole out in our pasture. Evening comes and he drags her out there, absolutely oblivious as to what is going to happen. He threatened to shoot me when I refused to go out there with him, so what could I do. He I tried looking away but he told me I’d have to watch or I’d get it too. So he held his rifle up to her head and pulled the trigger once, then a second time after she hit the ground. I then spent the next hour pulling her body into the hole I had dug and buried her. She was a great dane, just over a year old. I was 11. Parents got the dog but then passed the responsibility of her onto me because they were “too busy” to take care of her. I’m 17 now but that shit still fucks me up. I got outta there a few years ago and was shocked that nobody else could relate to what I went through.

Edit: This all occured about 6 years ago. I appreciate the kind comments I have recieved. I always thought it was my fault and that I should have done differently. I do not live with them, or near them, anymore. I live with my grandparents who are disgusted by how I was treated.

My father urinated on my head once. I was outside and he was on the porch 2 stories up. It was dismissed as “he thought it was my mother.” Like that would have somehow made it okay.

Living in an environment with addicts. Having your head on a swivel and things going from zero to 100 in .5 seconds is not normal. As a teenager I turned to alcohol to cope and that was the only tool in my toolbox for most of my adulthood – did not realize the severity of how bad I had got until I was in my 30’s.

I was 4 years old and my night time routine was always telling my mom and dad how much I loved them. One night, I couldn’t find my mom to tell her goodnight. I searched everywhere in the house, backyard, etc.

Finally, 4 year old me goes out the front door, looks around and sees a person standing in the middle of a crowded street with cars zooming by and swerving around them. I started walking down the sidewalk to get a better look because I thought it was the weirdest thing. Turns out it was my mom, but what was weird is she wasn’t answering to my calls. I started getting really scared because my mom was blind (and had only gone blind in the past several months). I ran back to the house and got dad because I was too afraid to go in the street to get her.

Wasn’t until many years later that I realized I had witnessed my mom attempting suicide via getting hit by a car. She was severely depressed due to having gone blind at the age of 34 with two small kids.

Makes me sad to think about sometimes. She’s better now, but still unfortunately blind.

I lived in the countryside in a farming town. Alongside the road my family lived on was a small concrete ditch. It was visible for about half the road and then went underground the rest of the road until it flowed out into a large canal at the end.

I was a really thin and small kid. When I was about 9 or so my sister and I and some of her friends were playing in the small ditch to cool off. My sister thought it would be interesting to see if I could fit into the pipe that led underground. So my 12 year old sister and her friends held me by my arms and lowered me into the pipe until my hips were in. I could feel the rushing water pulling me in. I yelled at them to bring me back out. They did and then we left.

I didn’t tell anyone about it for years and when I finally did they looked horrified. So yeah if my sister had lost her grip, I would have gone underground and likely gotten stuck and drowned.

An assistant football coach used to bully me a lot during practice (6th grade). One day, I looked right at him and told him to “shut up.” He was so offended that a child said that to him that he just decked me, full force. I lost consciousness and came-to on my back staring up at the sun. I never told anyone about it and now, in my 30s, I replay this event very frequently…it causes me great anxiety.

Not to me, but there was a family of kids that were being severely abused by their mother and nobody did anything. As children we obviously saw adults do nothing and thought it wasn’t serious. One of them ended up drinking caustic soda when he was 12 in an attempt to kill himself. Looking back I see that nobody protected those kids. Every adult failed them.

Getting almost no guidance. It felt like freedom when I was a kid, but once I left home I realized it left me very unprepared to face the real world.

My mum divorced her my step dad when i was around 7 and 6 weeks later she was moving into her new partners house ( up the street from our house ) we had a dog that i’ve had since i was tiny, and her new partner had a dog, they didn’t get on.
so my mum left the dog in the now abandoned house alone.

i remember using my pocket money and stealing money to get dog food, steal the keys and feed her. i vividly remember the smell of the house. and how much weight and fur she’d lost.
this was for about 2 weeks and i was the only one who tried to help her aged 7.

my dad visited and i told him and he was horrified and we took her to a rescue that day.

now when i see anything to do with a stray or abused animal i’ll have a full breakdown

How much my mother used to F me up, physically and verbally. She can’t physically anymore today, but boy oh boy does she still have that sword of a tongue… And will never, ever, ever admit to it. Ever. Crazy.

In 4th grade a bunch of 6th graders, after torturing it, threw a cat from high up and it landed right in front of me and died. I was never quite the same since then and it took until early adulthood to realize certain aspects about myself are because of that event.

As a little kid learning how to swim in YMCA, didn’t know it was wrong for old naked men touching/stroking their dicks, smiling and gesturing at me while showering before and after getting into the pool. My Mom would be waiting outside for me and never thought much of it until later after I learned about different types of sexual abuse.