It sucks when a priceless possession gets tossed without any warning, because some memories and items can't be replaced. Sure, sentimentality is relative, but even us minimalists have things we like to hold onto.
Transportation_Fan_1 asked scorned Redditors: What was a cherished item from your childhood, that your parents accidentally threw away?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
10. What a pal.
When I was a kid I had this amazing Aliens Powerloader toy with Ripley figure. I was playing with it outside of our house during a yard sale and went inside to get something to drink, when I came back out it was nowhere to be found. My parents later told me they sold it because they figured I'd brought it outside to be part of the yard sale. I was gutted.
I told this story to a friend who is a fellow Alien fan a few years ago and for my birthday he got me the Powerloader and Ripley action figure brand new in their original packaging. I was completely overwhelmed by it and he could tell I was having a minor internal struggle while I was overlooking the box. I said "I almost feel like I shouldn't open it." and he said "F*CK THAT, I didn't buy it for you so we couldn't get it out and play with it!" It now sits on top of a bookshelf overlooking my living room.
9. Step-parent fail.
Did an easter egg hunt with my mom when I was 4 and won this big stuffed rabbit. She passed away when I was 5. Kept that rabbit all through middle school. Got into a big fight with my step mom in high school and came home later that day to find out she had cleaned out my room and threw away a bunch of my old stuff, including my rabbit which still held a prominent position in my bed. I lost my sh*t. My dad lost his sh*t. Step mom never apologized and said she wanted to rid the room of dust mites (I had recently had an allergy test) and must have "accidentally" thrown it away. I'm in my mid 30's and still think about how needlessly malicious that was.
Edit: Dad and step mom are still together. Their relationship is everything I don't want mine to be. They're both alcoholics with little hope of recovery.
8. A good deed in a weary world.
My mom gave away my Super Nintendo to our gardener. At the time I was very sad but as I got older I realized she only did it because he didn't have much to bring back to his kids and she wanted to change that.
Edit: For anyone feeling ill will towards my mom or who thought I suffered anything I was sad but still a healthy little kid with a good life and lots of love and also still had my N64. Also the gardener was more as a favor to him because he wasn't too well off.
I love how you are so far the only one with a generous spirit about this. Your mom sounds nice -- I hope she made it up to you one way or another!
7. All that work, gone.
A huge box full of my old schoolwork. Most of it I wouldn't have cared about, but we did a project when I was around 12 based on a book called 'The Granny Project'. I spent a whole weekend with my Grandmother, she told me her whole life in detail, from her childhood, through joining the Land Army in the second world war, through meeting my Grandad and having my Dad and Aunt. She passed away recently, and I knew which box it was in - when I went to look, the whole box was gone. Apparently, it went when I left home to go to university. Devastated.
That's seriously f*cked up man. Those are memories you can't get rid of. At least you got to experience that with her.
6. Mom doesn't want to share memories.
I'm pissed that my mom was always too self absorbed that she never kept anything sentimental unless it was something she bought for herself.
Pictures and home movies, she just left behind when ever we moved because she didn't feel like packing them. Including baby pictures of my brother and I, and multiple home movies of my brother and me when we were kids. Even his 3rd birthday party which was a two hour long tape.
When my grandmother died, my mom went to her house and just took her jewelry. Which were just cheap, Avon Jewelry, and left ALL of the photo albums. When I went, I madev sure to grab every photo album and photo I could find.
I'm a mom, and I make sure to always keep track and back up all of photos of my kids and videos.
I f*cking hate that I can't show my kids home movies of me when I was a kid because my mom saw no value in them.
My father at 54 got 3 large boxes showing his child hood and his family. His first time ever seeing them in his life. I grabbed a few to create high quality digital scans to help setup how I was going to scan them all to preserve them all.
My mother and sister destroyed the photos, videos reels, audio reels (included my grandfather's voice... it was the last physical recording of his voice).
They did so to hurt my father because my father took control of the money in the house again because my mom was going out spending all the money with my sister on clothing and junk. My father had a 100k income and frequently had only a few thousand in his bank because of my mother.
I hate my mother for it because I don't have family, her side of the family didn't want anything to do with me and most are narcissists, most on my father's side nearby are deceased. I just wanted to create a digital family tree and see where I came from. (Some photos included older photos take back in the early 1900s in Oklahoma showing our family connection with Cherokee Indians and had photos during the great depression of my grandmother and grandfather. Had photos during ww2 of our family. :/
5. Is this adulting?
My Xbox 360. I didn't want to show my hurt so I set it up for the family she gave it to.
You are a man with much honor.
4. Quality step-parenting.
I'm kind of a step parent. I was cleaning out my fiancee's garage. I made a pile of things destined for the dump; left over ceramic tile, perforated buckets, empty boxes, old sneakers, etc. Understand, my fiancee is ready to pitch anything seen as useless. Her daughter, who's a little reticent, said "kind of makes me sad" when looking at her doomed sneakers. I was like "What?"
She says "I don't know... old times" The sneakers were high top Chuck Taylors. She was sort of resigned but said no more about it.
Later that afternoon I nailed up one of their old license plates from their long gone minivan with the dealer's frame still on it. I put two long screws in the wall flanking it and hung a pair of her old sneakers on either side.
It's so easy to show a little respect for the ephemeral legacy of youth. Remember this as you assume the role of the elder.
You're a good step parent. Never mind that whole kinda bullsh*t. You did a great job showing that respect to her.
3. Some gifts can't be replaced.
My abuela gave me this giant cuddly pink stuffed monkey (or maybe it was a bear...it was a very long time ago, and honestly it was a little unintelligible looking) with a pouch on the tummy. The pouch had a rainbow on it.
When we moved houses, my mom misplaced one of the bags with a bunch of stuffed animals in it, and it was lost for years.
I recently found out that years ago, it was found, sitting underneath her porch, rotted and moldy, and it got thrown out. Everything in the bag was all ruined. The worst part of it all was that I'm pretty sure my abuela made it herself.
I'm sorry that you lost your monkey, but if I'm reading your post right it got thrown out for a valid reason at least.
Thanks. I mean, valid in that it got moldy and was ruined so yeah, it needed to be thrown away, but my mom has been a hoarder her whole life, and I'm kinda really mad that my stuff was put underneath the porch with all her crap she doesn't care enough about to keep in the house. Add to the fact that I've been out of the house for 12 years, it's been missing for 15, according to my dad who told me a couple months ago, this was thrown away a few years ago. So this has been known for years, and no one ever told me.
I'm not one to hold grudges, so I'm not gonna hang onto this forever or anything, but I mean it's one thing to let her own shit rot under the house, it's another thing to let someone else's, and then not tell them about it.
2. War is coming.
Not quite the same but my brother hid all of the good nerf guns up in the unfinished ceiling. One day we came home from school and the ceiling was finished. 20 years later they are still up there.
1. Oh ffs.
My entire set of edition 1st D&D books, dice that I made from aluminum, and several three ring binders will full world and campaign designs. I spent weeks on those designs, dammit.
One of the books was signed by Gygax.
My hyper religious sister decided it was Satan worship stuff and convinced Mom to toss them.
She also tossed my epic Boy Scout red beret. I loved that beret.
