good job baby, shhhhh I'm watching tv."

I was the laziest babysitter for my 2 years old sister at the time.

She would grab scissors, medicine bottles or forks, then calls me to look at her, she'll be like:"hey you! Look here! I'm grabbing something dangerous!" And I would go:"good job baby, shhhhh I'm watching tv."

Then she will return the item with a disappointing look on her face, and continues playing with her legos.

Now she's 5, she makes herself green tea every day and drinks it while sitting on the bed and staring at the window... sorry mom. Tirquaz

Love that kid!

Today I was bummed that my leaf blower quit working. I went to put it in the trash can. My 11 yr old heard me talking about it, went and got it, took it apart, fixed it, and brought it back to me. He's never fixed anything like that before. Love that kid! taco_the_turtle

Babies... Hard....

So my daughter was five when I had my son. I can't remember exactly what she was asking me to do but I had forgotten or couldn't get to it or something. Mostly I remember her saying "it's ok mom. I know babies are hard" and she just melted my heart in that moment. EmotionalOven4

The baby was me.

My little nephew and niece were having a serious discussion about what should be done about "the baby," this morning. My nephew wanted my niece to put the baby in her bed so that it could continue sleeping there. My niece argued instead that the baby was better off on the couch where both "parents" could keep an eye on it.

The baby was me. I crashed on the couch and they came downstairs very early in the morning and I guess they started playing pretend that I was their baby. They then tried to cram ice cream down my throat as I pretended to sleep, because I'd been a "good baby." Friendly5GLizardJew

The Burn.

My 4 yo caught me absent mindedly scratching at my sunburn today and lectured me saying I'd made it sore and to leave it alone. VioletDawn9

When you're 8 year old daughter.....

I was in my local corner shop buying some snacks. 2 middle aged women walk in with a young child, probably 8 years old. The 2 women are in a full on argument, screaming at each other in the middle of this small shop. I just ignored them and went about my business. After a minute or two the young girl says "mum, be quiet! You're embarrassing yourself!"

When you're 8 year old daughter has more comment sense and better manners than you, you know you've gone very wrong somewhere in your life. AvidCoco

Being Third....

One time at Target, I overheard a mother and her son speaking. She was asking if they could buy something, and this kid says "no mom, we just cleaned the car, we don't need any more junk laying around." Mom says "pleeeeeaaaase?" in a whiny voice, and he says no again.

I was pretty shocked by their conversation, I remember there was more but clearly she was the child in that relationship and that kid (couldn't have been older than 10) was parenting her. At one point I saw her speedwalk out of an aisle with something in her hands and a mischievous grin.

To this day, I think about that kid and wonder how he's doing. They were clearly experiencing hard times and it breaks my heart that he had to be such a grown up. venti-depresso

They said no. 

My son went to the store with my parents and saw a few toys he wanted. They said no. He was ok with that and the next day he asked them if he could do work to earn money and they said yes. For a week my son did work for my parents all day to earn money to buy a toy he wanted.

He saved his money and when he went with them to the store he brought his money and even tho he wanted this big LEGO set he saw a smaller one that it'd be over his budget to buy both so he ended up buying two small LEGO sets he really wanted and saved the rest till he could work off the difference so he can get the big one. He's only 6 and understands the concept of money and that nothing comes for free and that you have to work if you want something. TrystenConn

Last Rites. 

My 14 year old brother was involved in providing fire to my father's pyre in the last rites. The sincerity with which he maintained himself throughout the whole thing and other long rituals, made my heart break in all sorts of ways. queerf37

15 and in Charge....

I don't know if he counts, he was 15 and was left in charge of her sister while their mother was working, the girl was riding her bike but some how her foot got stuck in the chain and she was wearing strappy sandals, he reacted quickly and grab her and brought her to the clinic i was working, I've seen people in their 30 and 40 freeze in this situations but he didn't. JessVakarian

Beware the Burn.

I work as a waitress near the beach, and i always get sunburn at the start of the season when i forget my sunscreen or something like it in the chaos of the shifts. This little girl comes up to me to tell me "miss, you are burning and you need to put on sunscreen" and handed me her 50spf kids sunscreen. I don't know if her parents maybe said something to each other about me or she was just really bright and caring. Your-goldfish

Not so Motherly. 

To put it simply, my niece's mom is an absolute piece of crap. my niece is 8 and her mom has been in and out the entire time. my niece hasn't seen her in over a year. she constantly looks forward to next time she will see her even though her mom disappoints her every single time.

So this past mother's day instead of being depressed about not seeing her mom, she and her friend (who i think also has mom issues) decided that each month they would pick a woman in their life to look up to. my niece has a ton of women in her life and it was just really amazing to see her begin to accept that she will never have a genuine relationship with her mother. she's always been way too darn intelligent for her age. ma1645300

I saw a kid, maybe 5....

I saw a kid, maybe 5, walk into the grocery store saying in total seriousness, "ok, so the deal is we're just going to grab what we need and leave, right? Because I don't want to be here longer than I have to." His parents replied, "yes that's right." And he was like, "ok good, because I didn't want to come shopping in the first place." That child had the soul of a grumpy old man and I loved it. Hereatrandom

The Translator. 

It's not uncommon to have kids perform as translator when with parents, who don't speak much English, come into our clinic. One young boy stuck out, though, because he was so earnest. He was about 6 or 7, translating medical information as best he could.

He was learning as he went, asking very good questions so he could understand and relay the information well to his mother. I was so impressed with his politeness and patience, as well as his intelligence. After they left, he ran back in just to say "I forgot to say thank you for your help!" That is a kid I would hire in a heartbeat down the road. squishistheword

I started going into anaphylactic shock....

When I was 4 years old, I started going into anaphylactic shock from eating something I was allergic to. We were walking outside, but I was drooling and spitting and slowing down. My dad was with us at the time, but he's never taken my allergies seriously and continued walking - didn't even notice I was lagging behind.

My brother, 8 years old at the time, was the one who noticed. He convinced my dad (yes, he had to convince him) to get us back to grab the epipen (which my dad purposefully left behind to prove a point to my mom). An eight year old kid looked out for me better than a full grown adult could. claidai

All the World.

Come home from school, grab a pop from the fridge, and sit down in a recliner and sigh like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. Trip_The_3rd

The Kitchen Table. 

When my mom was dying. I was rushing around packing a bag to be at the hospital with her. My daughter caught on to my frantic energy and calmly helped me remember everything I needed. Then when I was going to pick her up from my FIL's house, I got a call from the hospital that they were putting my mom on a vent. I got to my FIL's house and just sobbed and screamed at their kitchen table.

She sat across from me (she was 9 at the time, 16 now) and calmly told me she loved me and that I would be okay. She hugged me. I was told that after I got myself together and left, she let herself have her own breakdown.

I often tell myself that I don't deserve my daughter. I must have done some great in a past life to be blessed with a kid like her. m_rowland

Be Better. 

I have friends that are married with 2 kids. They both smoke. By the age their son (oldest) was 4 he knew it was bad to smoke. He would find their cigarettes and throw them away. As he got older, he realized that they could just take them out of the garbage.

So he started breaking them and running them underwater before throwing them away. They would get annoyed but never mad at him. He would say, "I love you and I don't want you to die!" So they just tried to hide their cigarettes better. Wolf_of_Seattle

I know Dad. 

My son Ethan. My wife's mom passed when he was only a year old, but in the span of about 4 years, (ages 6-10), he lost the rest of his remaining grandparents.

After my mom passed away, (his last remaining grandparent), I waited a few hours before I told my children. I'm sure that they knew because I was home and had not been home in three days, but I waited anyway.

A few hours later I was walking by his room and could hear him crying so I went in there to talk to him. I made sure that he understood that she wasn't in pain anymore, and that she wouldn't suffer from cancer ever again.

I'll never forget the look on his face when he said "I know that, dad. It still hurts. It just feels like every time someone dies, a part of me is ripped away".

There's nothing you can say to that. Reddit

The Cleaner.

My son, he spilled something, sighed deeply with his brows furrowed and said "this is some bullcrap. But I'm gonna clean it up anyways." TinyTinasRabidOtter