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Parents Break Down Their 'Damn, My Kid Isn't A Kid Anymore' Experiences

Parents Break Down Their 'Damn, My Kid Isn't A Kid Anymore' Experiences
Photo by Julien L on Unsplash

Young children are powerless little monsters. They depend entirely on their parents or guardians for food, warmth, hygiene, and emotional well-being.

Yes, that can be a total hassle. But there is something so endearing, so fulfilling about providing for such a vulnerable person. When that vulnerability has left and gone, that crash-down-to-earth feeling of a parent is palpable.


The means that prove the great shift are varied.

Sometimes it’s a look in eyes. It can be behavior observed from far away.

Or maybe it’s a subtlety of speech: a sly new absence of permission- seeking can hammer it home too.

cyclone1865 asked, "Parents of Reddit, when was your 'Damn, my kid isn't a kid anymore' moment?"

When “Legal” is More Important than “Allowed”

"I was on vacation in the Bahamas. Atlantis resort. I was in the casino at a video poker machine, and my daughter sat down at the machine next to me...drink in one hand and a cigarette in the other."

"For about a nanosecond I wanted to scold her, but then remembered that she was 20."

-- gogojack

Wind Out of the Sails

"When I was starting to get after my son about cleaning his room, and suddenly realized I was looking up at him." -- Sixthman27

"I'm 5'2. I'll be looking up at my toddler in no time." -- Zer_0

A Profound Absence of Question Marks

"When my oldest just recently said, 'Mom, Dad, I'm moving. Here are my plans, this is who I'm moving in with, and here is how I'll handle my part of the bills.'"

"Hit me like a ton of bricks."

-- tarnin

Handing Over the Reins 

"Running through the Toronto airport trying to catch our flight that was leaving in 5 minutes. I hear 'Dad! Not that way, this way!'"

"She basically took charge from that moment on because she had a cooler head in that moment than I did."

"We made it to the plane with seconds to spare."

-- imk

He’s Who’s Driving the Bus

"When he hugged me as I buckled into my airline seat -- then walked forward and entered the cockpit." -- pullin2

"Can't wait to do that. Give my mother a great big hug as a thanks for all the stress and hardship my piloting career is gonna give her when I start soon." -- tHaTwAsChEeSy

Outdoing the Master

"My boy who is 3 and a half years old fell in love with Mario kart when I play on the switch. On his 4th day of playing, he drifted." -- JT_the_Irie

"I spent my entire childhood not knowing you could drift, so he's like 15 years ahead of me."-- Sharpman76

Didn’t Even Feel the Need to Share About it

"A local news channel interviewed my 16 year old son about how he was feeling about the schools in our area closing for a month due to the pandemic. Most of the interview clips they showed in the segment were from my son, but he didn't mention it to me."

"A relative sent me a link to the story that evening and I watched it three or four times, with tears in my eyes. His answers were so articulate and mature, and he looked so grown up and comfortable in front of the camera."

"It was kind of like seeing him through someone else's eyes and realizing all of the sudden that he's a young man, not really a kid anymore."

-- VanswobbleTheRobber

Proof is in the Plate

"When I started plating four same sized plates of food for dinner." -- ncconch

"My daughter's nearly 2 and we're far from this stage at the moment. The other night however, we were eating a pasta bake. This girl would just not stop eating, demolished 2 portions then went on to start picking from my plate." -- Flopper2k19

Conveyed through Materials

"I was separating laundry and I couldn't tell my wife's and my daughter's underwear apart." -- theworldisaniceplace

"My daughter is 8 and my wife wears sensible, comfortable britches. This is me everytime the laundry is done and the first time it happened it was just weird emotionally for me." -- flperson

No Questions Asked

"Besides the fact that he's made me a grandmother (with help from my lovely daughter in law, obviously), there was a recent family tragedy, and they really stepped up and took charge when it was needed."

-- lost40s

Apparently Mario Kart Milestones are Common

"When she was 5, my daughter kicked my ass in Mario Kart. Tbh, I was rusty and she had been playing for months and had gotten quite good."

"I could see in her eyes that she lost a bit of respect for me that day."

-- TheNameIsPippen

To Be Fair, She Sounds Like She Moves Fast

"When she looked at me with disdain & said "take your money back" after the tooth fairy visited. She's 7." -- Pointer_Brother

"Mine was when my twin boys about the same age tried to scam the tooth fairy. They tried to kick each others teeth out. Luckily they told me they had lost a tooth when they got the first one out." -- Ak_Lonewolf

"See, my brother and I just lied about believing in the tooth fairy as long as we could to con my parents. She just gave up a goldmine." -- CultOfWawa

A Wake Up Call that Comes with an Image

"The day I found my Unscented Lubriderm chilling on his nightstand.

"Oh. So that's now a thing." -- LittleMissWu

"I would die a little inside. My son is that age. I'm wondering when or where I will find the evidence." -- HotDem70

The Need for a Entirely New Logic 

"I don't remember exactly when or what had happened, but I was talking to my wife about something the oldest did and suddenly realized that I had to start punishing him differently."

"All of the kid things (taking away toys, go to your room, etc) wouldn't phase him anymore as he was no longer caring much about those things."

-- CrustyBatchOfNature

You're Both Just Employees Now

"Unfortunately, that moment when my kid had to go to work during a pandemic and I got to laze at home." -- billyblue22

"Yeah, my lazy butt is home (job is closed) and my daughter, a nurse, is at work." -- Mysid

Disney Movies: Less Appropriate with Age

"When I was watching an animated Disney movie (no, I don't remember which). There was an adult joke hidden within the normal dialog. I thought it was funny, but was keeping my mouth shut."

"My daughter busted out laughing.....that was when I knew that she was no longer a baby."

-- daddyeart

Socratic Dingbats

"They (similar age) started fighting, but instead of the usual shit flinging or throwing punches, they started throwing actual arguments at each other."

"Like, actually making sense. And they were even replying to each other's arguments with more arguments!"

"It took like 20 seconds before they went back to sh*t flinging, but for a moment I could see the future."

-- Nomapos

Mothering an Adult

"I asked my mom this and she said it was when she had to go to the bus stop to drag my drunk ass home after I had already missed it once. Not my proudest moment."

-- MarketLibertarian

Historical Events So Ridiculous They Sound Made Up

A Redditor asked: 'What’s an event in history that is so ridiculous it sounds fake?'

historical reenactors
Sigmund on Unsplash

We've probably all heard some variation of the saying "Truth is stranger than fiction."

Real life isn't just strange, it can also be downright ridiculous.

History is riddled with moments of absurdity.

So ridiculous that people have a hard time believing real life is, well, really real.

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person holding photo of three girls near chainlink fence
Anita Jankovic on Unsplash

Life is all about learning new things, including learning new things about the people in your life. Sometimes, the things you learn are shocking, disgusting, or even scary.

I was the new kid in town when I was in fifth grade and my first friend was this quiet (and cute) boy in my class. He and I remained friends through middle school, and even though we drifted apart in high school, our interactions when we ran into each other in the halls or the cafeteria were really nice.

All throughout school and even beyond, he remained quiet, polite, and reserved. Just a few years ago, I read a news article written about him. He had apparently fatally wounded his father after an argument.

I had to reread the article several times to make sure it was really about my old friend. I think about it a lot, and still can't believe it!

I'm not the only one that has a shocking story like that. A lot of Redditors learned shocking or scary things about people from their childhood, and are ready to share.

It all started when Redditor ValuableHovercraft90 asked:

"What's the scariest thing you have found out about someone from your childhood (old friends, teachers, etc)?"

So Creepy

"That the boy who lived across the street and moved when I was 6 is still obsessed with me and my sister 30+ years later and posts ramblings on Facebook with our names and that he's going to be with us. Pretty terrifying honestly."

– mrscrawfish

The Worst List

"A neighbour died when he was 30. Police searched a trailer he owned and found weapons, bombs and a list of people he wanted to kill. My uncle was on that list."

– Flashy_Somewhere_648

"I'm glad this ended the way it did."

– CreepyCandidate4449

Terrifying

"One of my best friends (and locker partner) from high school was kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq. After a nightmare of 6+ months, all went silent. We buried an empty casket in his memory 10 years later."

– francois_du_nord

"This is horrifying. How incredibly sad for family to never get any closure. Very sad to read this. :("

– fizzycherryseltzer

"About 15 years ago my dad received a very good offer for work in Iraq, as a construction specialist. He was considering going, since at the same time the financial crisis started in Europe, but then one of his friends, a civil engineer, was kidnapped. Never returned back either."

– 19lgkrn70

"Same thing for my dad old coworker told him how great the money was. Dude got sniped working on a radio tower or something. My dad luckily was like, "I got a wife and family that would kill me for doing something so dangerous.""

– tristanjones

End Of The Friendship

"One of my dad's good friends, and my "uncle", just stopped coming around one day. I was told he was always busy with work, away, etc."

"Turns out, he killed 3 people in a drug deal gone bad and got life in prison."

"What's scary, is that we were over at his house for a weekend BBQ with a bunch of people earlier in the day of the night he did it, and it happened at his house."

– pnwking509

School Friends

"Don't know if it was scary, but I grew up with a kid whose birthday was the day before mine so we almost always shared birthdays in elementary school. We were friends, even spent the night at his house growing up. Later on in our teens, he started getting into some really dark stuff. I recognize that now as his being a sociopath, but like most everybody else at the time, figured it was just him going through some kind of emo phase. Over the years, we lost touch but I would occasionally run into him around town and our meetings were cordial, if not friendly."

"Last year, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for killing a man back in 1993, roughly 3 years after we got out of High School. Apparently he, his sister and another man lured this guy out to the boonies and killed him to steal money he had gotten in an insurance settlement."

"The only reason they were caught is the other guy got religion, felt remorse and went on the local TV station and aired a confession before turning himself in (He got 25 to life)."

– 530_Oldschoolgeek

"A girl I went to school with did the same thing. She was the nicest girl, got good grades & was kind of a dork. Mixed with the wrong people after graduation. She and two others lured an old man into an abandoned building, stabbed him and robbed him. He later died from his wounds."

– HereF0rTheSnacks

The Worst Afternoon

"I had a friend in grade school who was being raised by her single dad. She had a unique name and pretty face. She never talked about her mom, and she was super outgoing, so all us kids just made friends with her quickly. It was weird her dad never brought her to our birthday parties, even though she was always invited, but we didn’t think much of it. A couple times, she was allowed to ride the bus home with me after school, and we played and had fun until her dad came to pick her up. Later in the school year, she invited me to ride the bus to her house, and my mom agreed. I was 10. It was the scariest afternoon of my young life. I cannot articulate the extreme tension in her home. We weren’t allowed to make any noise, and we mostly stayed outside, me desperate for my mom to arrive."

"Her dad screamed at us for opening the door, and I was too nervous to go into the house to use the restroom. I knew she was embarrassed that there were no snacks or comforting interactions, like at my house. I didn’t really tell anyone how uncomfortable the experience was. After that day, I didn’t hang out with her a lot. We were in different classes, drifted apart, and decades later, when my own daughter asked to go to a friend’s house, I thought about that girl."

"As an adult, I figured out her dad probably worked a night shift and tried to sleep during the day…or he was an alcoholic who was really angry. Maybe both? I looked her up on social media, and thanks to her unique name and face, I recognized her immediately. She’s a perfectly well-adjusted woman with a beautiful family. She even had pictures of her kids with her dad and tributes to him as the greatest father and grandpa. Her whole page made me wonder what the hell I experienced that afternoon in the 4th grade?"

– OlderAndTired

School Is Supposed To Be Safe!

"In our school, we had something called "de halte." In English, it means "the halt" literally translated. Basically time out. BIf you had a meltdown in class or you were just a little sh*thead, you were sent there for 15 minutes or so to cool off.

The de hatle teacher got fired and jailed for breaking 4 different wrists of 4 different students by bending them the wrong way..."

– Ok_Win7358

*Skin Crawling*

​"There was this classmate a grade below me but all grades shared the same drama class. She was weird and kind of "off." I tried to befriend her at one point and was rebuffed. It later came out that she was actually an almost 30-year-old woman who would show up in a new area claiming to be a 15-year-old runaway. Kind of freaked me out."

jackfaire

It turns out it was a good thing that the friendship didn't work out!