Seemed Like A Good Idea, Until You Read Why...

"Having a cooler in the car."

"My parents always packed one, there were cokes and waters in it."

"The weird part was there was also always beer in it."

"Didn't matter if we were going 12 hours or 1 hour, they packed a cooler."

"Didn't realize how much my mom was drinking until years later when she become a non-functioning alcoholic."- IslandsOnTheCoast·

Dad Of The Year!

"When i was a kid I thought that all the Korean candy stores were free."

"Like you could go in, take what you wanted and leave."

"I would make friends with other Korean kids, take them to my favorite candy stores and tell them to help themselves. which they did."

"So apparently, whenever we'd visit my family in Korea, my dad would talk to all the candy shop owners in the neighborhood and tell them to put anything me or my friends took, on a tab."

"Maybe it was because i barely even spoke korean, but that whole situation just seemed perfectly f*ckin normal to my oblivious little self."- yaybunz

Boundaries Exist For A Reason

"In hind sight I realize that what I thought was 'freedom' was actually neglect."

"Kids aren't supposed to be left to themselves in such a degree that they end up raising themselves."

"From personal experience doing so leads to a lot of misunderstandings on how things are supposed to be."- Hattkake·

A Little Sensitivity Does Go A Long Way

"Being really sensitive to people's emotions because you never know if they could be in a bad mood."

"Turns out I learned that from my dad to make sure I don't make it worse."- UpstairsDifficult966

Think Carefully If You Have What It Takes To Be A Parent...

"Parents aren't supposed to make fun of their kids, complain about what they have to do for their children, and break down when they don't feel validated by their own child."- Doobledorf

"My mom never cooked, and there would be a lot of nights where I went without food because she didn't buy any."

"I thought it was normal for a mom to sleep the majority of the day."

"In reality she was always f*cked up on painkillers."

"Then, with my grandmother, she was controlling over whatever clothes, shoes, and how my hair looked."

"I always had to look like a good Christian boy."- Additional-Soup3853

Wait, what?

"I was in college before I learned that you don't have to get your mother a gift for your birthday because 'she's the one that did all the work that day'."- lylertila

Kind Of Sad To Think Self-Sufficiency Is So Rare...

"Being able to fix things myself."

"My dad is an engineer and throughout my childhood we'd come up with random creative projects to build stuff, he'd show me how to fix things and what safety precautions to look out for."

"Now if something happens at my flat I know how to fix it (or I call my dad and he'll guide me)."

"My boyfriend and friends have no idea how I know this stuff or how to do these things themselves, I always thank my Dad!"

"It's great because I get to save a lot of money, and I've saved money for my friends too!"

"Also, it means a lot to me because at the time and the town I was in girls weren't encouraged to do engineering, but my dad didn't care."

'I was little girl and thought it was essential for me to know how to do these things myself."

'I think he also hoped I'd one day become an engineer!"- imhere2913

Sadly, Not As Common As You Thiink...

"My parents were happily married and our home was happy and loving."- IllChampionship5

"Actually liking your parents/siblings/family."

"Almost everyone I know can't stand the people they grew up with, which I find strange."- ThatDukeGuy

Making A Custom Even More Meaningful

"Every Christmas my parents would buy me and my siblings one Christmas ornament to decorate the tree, which typically highlighted a special event or something important or a topic we were highly interested in that year."

"The tree started off rather bare at first, but after five kids and twenty-five years, that thing was filled from top to bottom, and shows a history of our lives."

"I thought it was how everyone decorated family home Christmas trees for awhile, but apparently it’s pretty unique to us."- RummelNation

Leading To A Massive Vocabulary No Doubt...

"Having a room full of dictionaries."

"I was baffled when I met kids in secondary school (as an adult doing a teacher training course at the time) who didn't even understand the basics of how to use one in their own language, let alone a two-language one."

"My dad was a translator so growing up it was just a normal thing, and I would sometimes just take one and look up random words in different languages for fun."- MrLuxarina

Unbelievable That This Isn't Normal

"Being taught to care about everybody, regardless of race, religion, or politics."

"We were lower middle-class farmers and we played with everyone."

"Everybody was welcome in my parents home."

"We had a ginormous garden and my parents gave our neighbors food out of it."

"My parents taught if you give out love, it’s returned 10 fold."

"Needless to say that bit us in the butt some times."

"But my parents died living and believing that."- SCGranny64

Not Exactly Normal, But Far too Commonplace

"When it would rain we would put pots and pans down to catch the drips."

'I would be sent to go have a slumber party with cousins whenever the electricity would get cut off due to nonpayment."

"I thought it was commonplace for people to go thru stuff like that."- RacksDiciprine

Ultimately, everyone's childhood is unique.

Many are grateful to learn just how unusual or special their childhood is.

For others, the discovery proves to be far too little too late.

Do you have something to add? Let us know in the comments.