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People Describe Which Mistakes Their Well-Meaning Parents Made Raising Them

People Describe Which Mistakes Their Well-Meaning Parents Made Raising Them
macmao/Pixabay

Parenting is definitely not an easy task.

Parents are responsible for the wellbeing of a tiny human from the time they're born until they grow up and move out on their own.

They're bound to make a few mistakes along the way.

Some mistakes are definitely more hurtful than others, though.


Reddit user amklair asked:

"What are some of the worst parenting mistakes your 'well meaning parents' made while raising you?"

Profanity

"Getting mad at me for saying 'bad' words."

"Getting mad at me for swearing I can understand, but my dad once flipped out on me because he thought I said 'penis'."

"I said pianist."

"But even if I had said penis, getting angry with a child for using the correct anatomical term for the male reproductive organ is f**king ridiculous."- pmme_your_lbits

Perfection

"They were pushing me to be 'perfect'."

"By 'perfection' they meant the girl that:"

"Never raises her voice, always does as she is told to, is everyone's pushover."

"Has the best grades at school but never gets higher education or a job and goes straight to becoming a stay-at-home mom, is smart but not feminist."

"Doesn't wear make up, doesn't go out with friends, only women that don't care about their family do these."

"Spends all her life with her family as close as possible."

"Has social skills but only limited to relatives."- DirladaDiraladada

Praise

"My parents made a lot of mistakes but I think the one that really fits here is praising me for being really smart."

"As long as I could show that I was smart, I got praised."

"Working hard didn't matter."

"Barely working at all didn't matter."

"Once I got older and actually started to struggle with a few things, it was like someone took a hammer to a bottle inside me labeled 'self worth'."

"My identity was based around being smart and just instantly understanding everything."

"When that went wrong, I struggled."

"Working to understand something was an entirely foreign concept to me and just wasn't something I found myself capable of doing."

"If I couldn't instantly get or do something, I dropped it."

"I also felt like crud."

"I learned it was easier to just not try because trying and failing hurt a lot while not trying and failing didn't."

"I also managed to succeed in most things with barely any effort."

"I dunno."

"It's stupid and hard to explain."

"Sorry."- namenamesname

Forgetting

"On my 4-year birthday, my parents decided to baptize my brother."

"They had a big party with everyone from my family and stuff, and no one wished me a happy birthday."

"I know they didn't think about it at all, but it's something I remember very clearly, I cried myself to sleep that night."- ketchupisasmoothie

Sheltered

"Holy crap was I sheltered."

"I was super sheltered to the point where when I got to the 'real world', I had no idea what to do."

"Hell, I'm 28 & STILL don't know anything."

"I never got to hang with friends thus affecting my social skills, my mom would constantly degrade me if I couldn't figure out a problem even she couldn't do."

"For example, one of her favorite insults was "C'mon Chad, we're not re-inventing the wheel!'

" And yes, I am a Chad I might as well say."


"Everything that we would do, always had to revolve around what my mom liked."

"It makes me feel like my hobbies are garbage & aren't worth the light of day."

"She constantly interrupts me when speaking just to talk to someone else, which makes my words feel like they're worthless, like something that holds no value."

"It's made me feel......empty & to be honest."

"I hate talking about my feelings because I feel like I don't know how to describe them without sounding like an emo 16 year old."- TheNekoMatta

Clean Plates

"The clean plate rule and super strict diet."

"Now finish everything on my plate with compulsive relentlessness and have a really hard time moderating snacks."

"A neighbor once felt so sorry for me that she gave me a small bag of chips for my birthday."

"I hid under my bed and ate them."

"This does not lead to a healthy relationship with food."- streamstroller

No Explanation

"Never explaining their decisions and reasoning."

"'I'm the mom, that's why'."

"Never apologizing when they made mistakes."

:Showing love with material things."

"Teaching me to be so polite that I couldn't say no to anything or stand up for myself."-egirl25

"This."

"My mom's favorite was 'because I'm the parent and you're the child."

"I swear I heard it at least once a day."

"All it did was make me rebel more/ probably do more dangerous things than I normally would've because I thought she was saying no just to be mean instead of explaining that certain actions could hurt me."-kvrnbrch

Un-constructive Criticism

"Telling me I was a good writer, then when I asked her to read things I wrote, being told 'that has plot holes big enough to sail an aircraft carrier through'."

"No further detail, no help, no identification of what exactly the hole was."

"Fifth grade writing contest, I had been writing ongoing stories in a world I had created."

"Was gonna write up a new bit or recycle an old one in that world."

"Mom decided she'd write her own story in my world with my characters and make me turn that in."

"I didn't make it past the first round."

"Gave her a story I wrote later on for her to look over."

"She gave it back, having rewritten it."

"All my complex sentences were reduced to subject verb object."

"The flow was gone, the tone was gone, just choppy words left."

"I hate everything I write now, but everybody tells me to keep doing it because I'm 'good' at it."-DraconicArcher

Punishments

"My grandparents had the philosophy that if one kid misbehaved, all the kids got the same punishment."

"My mom has stories of coming home from some after school activity, having done absolutely nothing wrong, and getting spanked the minute she walked in the door, then sent to bed without dinner because her brother had done something that was completely unrelated to her."

"How screwed up is that?"

"At best, it pits your children against each other and causes them to act out toward one another to avoid being punished."

"Is that really what you want as a parent?"

"A seven year old beating on his five year old brother to avoid having his own ass beaten?"-830_L

Expectations

"Constantly upping the bar if I made B's then A's became the minimum."

"I watched my siblings once, oh then I got to watch them every week."

"Nothing was ever good enough."

"I workout oh well your doing it wrong, I hated running."

"I try to pray and be active in my faith, I'm 'too into it'." (

"Really wasn't they just didn't like anything that told them no."

"All of this was to supposedly push me to achieve more and be stronger and instead I just gave up on trying because what's the point if getting B's which was really hard with my ADD wasn't good enough why bother trying for A's.-gsp1991dog

"My internal monologue: 'why bother doing the best for a lot of effort, when I can do decently with a lot less effort, and get yelled at the exact same no matter the result?'- just_a_random_dood

Bottle It Up

"Sometimes a kid just needs to be upset and have a parent listen and sympathize/empathize instead of approaching feeling negative emotions like a problem that needs to be fixed."

"My brother and I were never allowed to be upset or angry or sad without being just hounded to death about needing to just let things go and think positively."- CamembertlyLegal

Superficial

"I was one of those 'model gorgeous' kids and my parents basically made my worth about my looks."

"I now have an eating disorder and really low self esteem because I was taught my accomplishments didn't matter as long as I looked pretty."- ThornyThong

Abuse

"Always my dad:

"Forced us to SWALLOW a bottle of liquid soap when I said bad words."

"I thought this was what it meant to have your mouth washed out with soap until I was eighteen."

"Made us eat off dirty dishes when they weren't completely washed."

"Made us sit at the table till our plates were empty when we wouldn't eat."

"Sometimes we were there till past midnight or one in the morning."

"Told me that being bullied in school was just teasing and kids messing around, and that if it was bullying I obviously did something to start it."

"Threatened to kick my brother and I out of the house."

'When I told him about books I was writing he would criticize them to the point that they were no longer mine."

"Ignored the fact that my sister had a learning disability and refused to allow my mother to get her the help she needed."

"Yelled at me when I nearly broke my leg and had to have and x-ray, told me if my leg wasn't broken I was grounded because x-rays are expensive."

"When I had to get an echo-cardiogram because of a potential heart problem he told me I'd better hope I had one because of the cost."

"I could have been dying!"

"Refused to take my sister to a doctor after the treadmill fell on her, because 'she wasn't hurt that bad'."

"Her collar bone was broken."

"That's not all of it, but that's all I care to share so yeah."

"Not as bad as others, but it was traumatizing for me as a kid."- amfdiat

:Anyone else had their own wooden spoon with their name on it?"

"I can tell you, my mom spent a lot of money on wooden spoons because she broke so many on my butt."

"Now I got a butt of steal."- Hammertime400

"Being shamed, them being selfish, manipulated by both parents, things like that."

I"'ve been abused for years and my mom didn't figure it out until me and my sister moved out and into my dads."- oil_in_oil

Standards

"Maybe not so bad, but apparently only four year olds cry and teenagers aren't allowed to cry if they are panicking."- BiroAceDragon

Lack of Discipline

"My parents were both brought up by very strict parents."

"They didn't want my sister and I to feel so sheltered or restricted, so they, pretty much, let us do and get away with anything."

"We never had any real chores or schedules, and so we missed out on learning some critical skills."

"Things like time management, impulse control, procrastination, laziness are things I still struggle with to this day and I am 30."

"I also have a terribly hard time making decisions, even about simple sh*t."

"I have a deep fear of conflict and confrontation."

"My parents are amazing and I love them so much, but I wish they had been more demanding of us as kids."

"I would be a more successful adult if they had been."

"I have been working my ass off to fix these problems of mine."

"Getting a little better every day."

"Also am trying to do that with my 2 sons."

"I want them to have good work ethic, and self motivation so they can be as successful as possible."- Night_Samurai

Staying Silent.

"OH boy am I late, but this is very relevant to me."

"My sister was never the smartest academic wise."

"If social smarts were graded she'd be all A*s."

"She also never tried that hard and I could see why, her school was really sh*t."

"We went to different secondary schools."

"However, this pissed my parents off to no end, mainly my dad."

"They tried motivating her, mainly via threats, and when that didn't work they just gave up on her."

"No positive encouragement in my house."

"Then comes me, pretty smart academically, in one of the best all girls schools in the country."

"However, at the time, I was horribly depressed and had little to no friends."

"My parents saw me as a model child, so to keep me from going astray my dad would always say 'you don't want to end up like your sister, do you?'."

"As my grades were the only thing going for me, I agreed."

"Cut to 2017-19, I start to see my sister as a person, not a dumpster."

"She's moved to my school and thriving."

"Although my dad did manipulate her into taking chem instead of history, which she later failed but that's another story."

"My social life picks up but my grades droop a bit."

"Dad ain't happy."


"Cut to now, after a series of happenings, including my dad going all out verbally abusive to her, my dad and sister hardly speak, one convo in the last 5 months I think."

"My dad only cares about my physics predicted grade, C/B, my worst predicted, and not my very good ones, such as an A*/A** in history."

"So now I feel like my dad doesn't care about my successes, apart from the ones he can compare to my sister, which he still does a lot."

"Now you may be wondering, where's the mistake?"

"Well reader the fault lies in my mother."

"During this time, she did nothing to stop my dad."

"Thinking standing up for me or my sister would make things worse."

"Even when she says she will talk to him, she never does."

"And that sit hurts man."

"It hurts even more when she tries to make it about her feelings being hurt, when her oldest daughter, 18 at the time, is literally being verbally assaulted by her husband for wanting to get away from him."

"She had the best intentions but ended up breaking mine and my sisters trust in her almost completely."

"Not to say my dad did nothing wrong, he's a manipulative c*nt and I'm pretty sure he's aware of that."- ohdear11829

As we grow older we tend to realize that parents we thought had all the answers were just figuring out as they went.

There are some things we can give a pass... but some we will have to discuss in therapy for years.

Maybe even group therapy.

People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.

The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.

Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.

Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:

"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"

Redditors didn't see these coming.

Shiver Me Timbers

"I’m always cold now!"

– Telrom_1

"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."

– r7ndom

"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."

– mr_remy

Drawing Concern

"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."

– dee-fondy

"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"

"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."

– LizardofDeath

Unleashing Insults

"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”

"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."

– alanamablamaspama

Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight

"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."

– KeltarCentauri

"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."

– KatMagic1977

"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."

– Jaew96

These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.

Shopping

"I can buy clothes in any store I want."

– WaySavvyD

"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."

– ganache98012

No More Symptoms

"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."

– colleennicole93

Expanding Capabilities

"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."

– Ramblonius

People Change Their Tune

"How much nicer people are to you."

"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"

– LiZZygsu

"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"

"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"

– awholedamngarden

It's gonna take some getting used to.

Bones Everywhere

"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."

– Princess-Pancake-97

"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."

– bekastrange

Knee Pillow

"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."

– snic2030

"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."

– Strongbad23

More Mobility

"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."

"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."

– dma1965

People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.

But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.

That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.