Look, when you let kids go off on their own to hide with the sole purpose of staying hidden, no matter what, things...happen.
Like these things.
Reddit user, u/reddwings, wanted to hear:
When did a game of hide and seek go horribly wrong?
Let's Start Big!
We had just recently moved into our neighborhood and my sister (5 at the time) was playing hide and seek with a neighbor kid. Long story short, kid couldn't find her, all the adults started going around the neighborhood shouting for her, it was getting dark, after awhile my parents called the police....
Someone eventually found her and she said she did hear everyone looking for her but she was playing hide and seek so duh she wasn't coming out until someone found her! Parents called the police back and told them not to come. That's how we met most of our neighbors.
This Is Why You Have The Buddy System At The Beach
That one time I played hide and seek with my elementary school class at the beach.
I thought they never found me because I hid so well, Turns out they actually left me where I was while they played other games without me for the rest of the day.
When I finally asked what happened it was time to leave and no parent believed me when I said they abandoned me.
This Is Why You Don't Watch Ice Age
I know I'm late to this, but still remembered this. Me and my parents went to a family friends house out in the country side. There were about 10 or 15 other kids there, and I was the youngest (maybe about 7).
We decided to play hide and seek. I was found the first 2 rounds, but then up in the games room in the attic I realized the cupboards weren't locked (low down, ground level). I was able to fit in one full of workout stuff (dumbbells, etc). I couldn't close the door fully, so I thought I was gonna be caught quick.
I'd say about... an hour passed? An hour and a half? I had heard ppl moving around the game room looking for hiders. Eventually I hadn't heard anything for a while. I crept out and went downstairs to the kitchen for a drink.
And I found everyone else. Watching Ice Age. They had straight up forgotten about me. If I hadn't gotten out for a drink, god knows when they would have realized I was still missing..
This Is Why You Don't Play In The Dark
It was summer time, and I would've been about 12 or 13. All of the neighborhood kids got together to play hide & seek/ tag in the dark, with one of the swing sets being the safe zone.
Now mind you, it was one of those big a-- wooden swing sets. I was hauling ass to the safe zone, and did not see the big wooden beam in front. I ran into it, full speed. Got my first nose bleed and a minor concussion that night.
10/10 recommend.
This Is Why You Don't Mess With The Babysitter
I was 5 or so and I hid in a laundry basket in a closet and put down towels on top of me. My babysitter couldn't find me and I went all-in and didn't say a thing. I was too embarrassed. He ended up calling my parents and they came home and panicked. I came out and everything was fine. I did notice how his voice increased in panic as I kept doing this
This Is Why You Probably...Should Have Just Left...
Well...wife isn't happy this happened.
Wife & I and a big group of friends were at a friends parents farm for a 4th of July barbecue.
We had been out on the lake water skiing, now it was getting dark, and drinking and music was happening. Someone suggested we play hide and seek like we were all kids at camp again...well...I ended up under a tree that my ex girlfriend was under...we laid down and held still...nothing major happened...except they never found us and gave up looking...we didn't know how the game was progressing, so we stayed hidden for almost an hour.
We SHOULD have just come back and not told anyone we were hidden in the same place...but we had no idea the problems. Her new boyfriend made a stink and my wife waited until we got in the car to let me know she wasn't pleased. She calmed down eventually, but ex girlfriend just ended their relationship...
Oh, did I mention ex girlfriend was still in short shorts and bikini top since the lake...so the group was ruthless...
This Is Why You Don't Call The Cops At Birthday Parties
At my 8th bday party I was playing hide and seek with my friends while the adults sat in the living room. We were running and shutting and opening doors whilst also screaming for some f-cking reason.
Well the neighbor's thought that all this door slamming and screaming of children meant child abuse so they called the cops. So my bday party was interrupted by the police who checked every room and interviewed every kid to make sure they were ok. Lmao the look on my moms face when she opened the door.
This Is Why You Never Hide In A Place You Yourself Can't Get Out Of
About 7 years ago my friend had a bed, you can lift the frame under the matress for storage but it locks down and can only be opened from outside.
You can already see what 8yo me was thinking. My dumbass figured that if they found me, they'd have to lift the matress up to catch me, ultimately freeing me when I was found. Well this didn't happen. I was feeling claustrophobic and wanted to get out. So there is me now crying bc I'm stuck in the best hiding place EVER. My friend's mum comes into the room to see what the fuss is about. I was leftvin there bc it was funny to them. Never played hide and seek since that day
This Is Why You Make Sure Everyone Knows It's Your Birthday
If you ask me, when they started a new round because "everyone had been found" (except me) at MY birthday party.
This Is Why You Think Through Potentially Good Ideas
I thought I would be clever and hide underneath an abandoned vehicle in somebody's yard
it was covered with hornets nests underneath...
I was the first one found......
got 63 stings,the f-ckers chased me for a block, just like in a cartoon....cloud of bees behind me
This Is Why You--Ouch. Ouch. OUCH.
Before I was born my brothers and sisters played a game at my aunt's house down by the river. My eldest brother decided to hang by his fingertips inside the water well. Meanwhile and unknowing of that fact my other brother thought about hiding up inside the little steeple cover of the well and to get to it needed to slam shut the well cover. LMAO.
SLAM... blood curdling scream... Splash... Cries for help...
Between fits of unadulterated anger interspersed with disbelief and worry my aunt, grandmother and mom managed to get him pulled up which wasn't easy because with all of those smashed fingers of his he couldn't hold tight to a rope.
This Is Why You Enjoy Your Onion Volcano When You Can
I was a waiter and some kids from a party I was serving played hide and seek and about five minutes later they had to come back because the chef came to cook (tepanyaki restaurant).
There were two guardians looking after the children and one of them realised that a child was missing and freaked out it was like a mini man hunt in the restaurant (this was all done by the guardians since they didn't tell anyone, I just overheard them and decided to watch what they would do) , after about 5-10 min of searching the girl comes out crying 'they forgot about me' she was in the bathroom the whole time and she was quiet when they called for her because she thought they were still playing.
This Is Why You Don't Pick On The Younger Sibling
When I was a kid my two older brothers would always make me be "it". One time the both hid in a trunk full of clothes. I was probably 6 or 7. So I decided to lock them in. Only I didn't have a key, they panicked like crazy and were having trouble breathing. The babysitter was going crazy. I think she broke the lock eventually. But it was some scary moments.
This Is Why You Don't Take Your Children To Lowe's
I managed to send an entire store on lockdown and freak out my entire family when I was maybe 5 years old.
My family was at Lowe's, and I decided to take my Kirby plushie with me and hide behind some shelves or boxes, and see if they could find me. Turns out they couldn't, and ran around outside because they thought someone kidnapped me. The entire store went on lockdown for a missing child, all the while I'm sitting, giggling and waiting for them to find me.
I eventually came out of hiding after my mom passed me, and got in huge trouble afterwards... I never hid in public again as a kid.
This Is Why You Stay Out Of The Forest
When I was about 8 years old my little brother who was 6 at the time and my little sister who was 3 years old, were playing some type of easy hide and seek in my grandparents' back yard. Well there are woods behind their house. Our sister being a defiant toddler ran into the woods and my brother just saw her run in and ran in after her. They were in the woods for hours because she ran in so deep and they both got turned around. Our brother found a hunting post, climbed up it into the tree, and found a way out.
They then knocked on doors, covered in dirt and scratched up, until someone answered. A woman gave them a ride back because our brother was able to point out landmarks to get back to our grandmother's house. They got back while my mother was on the phone with the cops. They were discussing a helicopter to find them. We were 'this' close to a search party. They walked a collective two to three miles. They could have gone miles deeper into rural woods if they didn't keep going one way and find the post.
So yeah watch your damn kids lol. Telling them "Don't go into the woods" does not guarantee they will listen.
This Is Why You Don't Go Near COFFINS
So when I was a wee kid and a scout, we played hide and seek in the dark. We usually played something like this every time the last 15 minutes.
It was a medium sized cabin, essentially. There was a lot of places to hide, lots of stuff just lying around. For some reason there was a coffin there and nobody, as far as I know, ever hid inside. Because it's a coffin, and that's just creepy.
But my smart-ss hid inside it. Unlucky for me, another guy also looking for a hiding spot saw me. He decided to lock the coffin I was inside of.
Yeah, I had clausrophobia for quite a while afterwards.
Ps. I have an intense hatred of the name Marcus since because that was the bastards name
This Is Why...Yeah. Got Nothing For This One.
In my family this is know as The Massacre at Aunt Amber's farm.
We were at a family reunion at my Aunt Amber's farm. There were 5 kids. 2 city kids, two military brats(me), and my Aunt's daughter Lisa. Being bored by the adults we decided to head out into the farm and play. We settled on hide and seek and Lisa was It first. City kid one hid between a hay bale and a cow pen, city kid 2 hid under a feeding trough in the pig pen that was just cleaned and leaned next to the barn to dry, I decided to hide with the goats in on of their little huts. But the best(worst) was my cousin Nick. He hid in and empty plastic barrel by the horses.
Before Lisa finished counting we all started yelling or screaming. Kid 1 tried to move the hay bale closer to the fence when it shifted and squished him against the fence and he got stuck trying to wiggle out, kid 2 had a large pig lay up against the trough trapping him, I was getting chased around by the goat I just pissed off trying to hide in his hut, and Nick was being dragged around by the horses in their barrel toy. Lisa panics and runs for her parents who then proceed to rescue us. Me and kids 1 and two just get laughed at.
But we were told Nick could have actually been killed if the horses had decided to kick the barrel around.
This Is Why You Learn About History
My grandma was Jewish and she was playing hide and seek with her brother as kids. She hid well and was very happy, the thrill of excitement from finding the perfect spot. Nobody would find her there. Then, out of nowhere, a group of Nazi soldiers break in the house. My grandma told me this story and at this point, she starts crying. She told me she couldn't see anything, but she could hear the screams of her own family as they were carried away. Her mother, her father, her brother and her sister were all taken that and she never saw them again. She was left alone in this world. It had truly traumatized her to this day and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. I was and still am horrified at this story.
She was lucky to be alive.
Hope you're at peace now grandma, rest in peace
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk him about it.
We may not like it, but getting older is pretty inevitable.
With age may come wisdom, but it also comes with lots of responsibilities.
And some days, we're just over it.
Redditor brick_layer asked:
"What tasks are you tired of doing as an adult?"
Decisions, Decisions
"Deciding what to make for dinner."
- PortiaEss
"I would eat people kibble if it tasted good. Bachelor Chow (just add beer) needs to be a real thing."
- chaos8803
Hi, Ho, Hi, Ho
"Going to work and acting like a functional person."
- ovelanimimerkki
"Yep, I hate trying to work when I'm not emotionally stable or just exhausted. And you literally can't tell anyone or they tell you to go get a coffee which just makes the week go downhill over time."
- gg_ff_42069
Manners
"Being polite to other adults who don't deserve it."
- 25_-a
"Also known as the 'I am too old for this sh*t' phase of life."
- Zintao
Cleaning
"Cleaning the fridge. 🤢 when I find something way in the back that’s been forgotten."
- joydobson
"I finally cleaned out ours today because it was trash day, and the husband isn’t home to argue with me about how that sauce from 2015 is 'still good!!' 🤨 Now I have an empty fridge with just the bare essentials. Worth it."
- Grizelda_Gunderson
Circle of Life
"Working. Paying bills. Getting up early. Doing stuff."
- guyfromcroswell
"Agreed. Such a mundane cycle indeed."
- Emotional_Ratio_3251
Is Naked So Bad?
"Laundry grrrrr."
- FewPizza7880
"I tend to put the laundry in, hear it beep, forget about it for 6 hours then remember it needs to dry."
- marvel_is_wow
Traffic
"Anticipating the morons on the roads that change lanes without signaling."
"Or merging into 70mph traffic while doing 45..."
- haveyouseenthebridge
"Or being stuck behind those people as we're merging, I get pissed. Like speed up to the flow of traffic, being behind them merging puts me in danger too."
- Nigel_IncubatorJones
Maintenance
"Buying a house is an endless list of shit that needs fixing or improving."
- muffbiscuits
"This is one of the many reasons I bought a condo. The majority of the maintenance is somebody else’s problem. I haven’t cut grass, raked leaves or shoveled snow in almost a decade."
‐ yogaballcactus
Teeth
"Brushing my teeth. It's annoying."
- scottevil110"
"I feel this deep. It’s flossing for me."
- brick_layer
"Wait until you're in your 60s and all of a sudden the perfect teeth that never even had a cavity now all of a sudden have tiny cracks and need porcelain crowns and you have constant pain and Delta Dental only covers cleanings and x-rays and a single crown is like $1500 and they're telling you that you need four and you think, well, we don't really need two cars, I could sell my old Subaru."
- Nobody_Wins_13
Alarming
"Waking up to an alarm clock."
"I've been waking up to an alarm clock almost every day since 1985, and I'm fucking tired of it."
"I want to wake up when I'm done sleeping."
"I don't want to wake up and find that I've slept through/turned off my alarm(s) yet again, and have to choose between packing a lunch and taking a shower."
- thisbuttonsucks
What part of adulthood are you tired of?
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I would love to know how people don't fear death.
I mean, it's the end. Life will be over. That kind of sucks.
Yet there are people who find tranquility in it.
Can you teach the rest of us?
Redditor deensuk wanted to hear from everyone who has a calmness about the heading to the afterlife. They asked:
"People who are not scared of death, why?"
I have a constant fear of death. I wanna perfect the ending of "Death Becomes Her" so I can live forever.
Before
"I'm not scared of death because of working in health care I was around it so much. I AM scared of what leads to death, however."
Full-Mulberry5020
Why now?
"Why should I be scared now of something that's only going to happen at the end of my life?"
User Deleted
"I did this cult thing called the landmark forum and I actually did like their “meaning of life”: the meaning of life is that there is no meaning. Life is empty and meaningless. There is no answer."
"Life is what you make of it and every persons answer is equally valid because there is no meaning to life. Life exists as, basically, an accident, we are all here by complete accident, there’s no great mystery, it’s all biology and you are 100% free to make life about whatever it is you want."
Conservative_HalfWit
Death and I are good friends...
"I was very sick as a child. Spent ages 7-20 in and out of hospital due to kidney issues. Lost a kidney at 28. Almost died during the surgery to removed the dead kidney due to blood loss. Had 5 surgeries back to back during the next 2 years. Twice they had difficulties bringing me out of anesthesia."
"Found my favorite aunt dead in her bed when I was 22. Watched my best friend die from a brain tumor at 30. Death has been a constant force in my life. Sometimes just on the edges waiting, sometimes unexpected staring me in the face. I'm not afraid because it's always been there. I now work in healthcare. Death and I are good friends."
Tiny_Teach_5466
No Worries
"Because it's coming for us all, sooner or later. So there's no point in worrying about it. I am much more concerned about day to day minutiae. The Lars von Trier film Melancholia starring Kirstin Dunst portrayed this perfectly. If there was an asteroid hurtling towards the earth, I'd probably be more preoccupied with worrying about whether I left the back light on or not."
Giallo_submarine
It's Over
"Because no one has ever made it out alive, and I was dead for an eternity before I was alive, and didn't suffer the slightest inconvenience because of it."
MarshallApplewhiteDo
I never thought about the before much. I hope the before is quick.
The Effects
"I hope that when my times comes it will be merciful. My uncle had a stroke, he is paralyzed. My grandmother is 91, but is losing all her memories of her life. Death does not scare me, what could be left of me before I die is what terrifies me."
M1ssy_M3
No Terror
"It’s like when the writer Nabokov said that he saw a picture one time, a picture of before he was born. It was a picture of his mother, his brother and sister that were older than him, but he had not been born yet. He said that when he saw that picture there was no terror in him, even though he was looking at a picture where he didn’t exist."
im_on-the_can
state of nonexistence...
"I'm not afraid of death, I'm afraid of dying. Death is just the state of nonexistence I experienced before I was born. I don't remember it because I didn't exist yet. Death will be the same way. I just don't want the transition to be marked by pain and sorrow at things left unfinished. I want it to be quick, painless, and with me surrounded by love."
Wazula42
I'm Gone...
"Because once I die, I won't know it. I won't miss people or regret things or feel pain or sadness about anything. I might fear being sick and slowly dying, just having to live with the knowledge that it's all going to end and this is the last time I'll ever see the people I love or taste good food or hear good music. That sounds almost unbearable. But death isn't even a thing, it's just having done something (died)."
"It's like virginity, it's a made-up state of being that just says whether or not you've experienced a specific occurrence. Once I die, I'm gone. My corpse will be the empty wrapper I used to be in, just garbage to be disposed of in whatever way makes my survivors feel better. I'll be switched off. If I don't worry about what the light feels after the bulb burns out, why would I be afraid of being dead?"
SallyHeap
At Peace
"I’m scared now because I have young kids. Once my kids are old enough to be on their own I imagine the fear will subside and I’ll have a more relaxed approach."
User Deleted
Some very interesting perspectives. May it all calm peacefully and with great mercy for us all.
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Dating and the search for love and companionship... What a nightmare.
This journey plays out nothing like in the movies.
Every Prince or Princess (or everything in BTW) seems to have a touch of the psycho.
The things people say during what should be simple dinner conversation can leave a dining partner aghast.
Like... do you hear you?
Redditor detroit_michigldan wanted to discuss all the best ways to crash and burn when trying to make a romantic connection. They asked:
"You're on a date and it's going really great. What can another person say to ruin it completely?"
I once had a guy ask me if I was willing to follow him into the woods, depending on the price of the meal.
Yeah. No steak is worth that.
Plans After...
"Thanks for the ride but I have a date with someone else, I figured you wouldn't drive me if you knew I was going on a date with someone else and I really needed a ride."
"Online dating, talked to her for a while, finally got the courage to ask her out and then she said that as we got there."
iareyours
Mirror Image
“'You look just like my wife!'”
catalinachild
"I did have a guy tell me I reminded him of his son. I don’t believe English has a word to adequately describe my feelings at that time."
UnicornMagicRainbow
"That would definitely do it."
chaotica78
Third Wheel
"'Hope you don't mind if my mother joins us.'"
ofsquire
"Actually had a girl do this on a first date because she had anxiety issues. Honestly wasn’t bad except that 90% of the time she was silent and her mom talked over her."
"I didn’t mind that much and wouldn’t have minded trying again when she was more comfortable except that she was let go at the company we worked at and she deleted her social media profiles and she never responded on her number. Ah well."
Seightx
Liar
"'Hey bro aren't you gay? I made out with you last night.'"
"Random dude I've never seen before in front of my (f) date."
JHXC16
Was he lying though?
Filter Issues
"'You looked better on Tinder.'"
waqasnaseem07
"Isn’t it basic knowledge that everybody looks slightly worse than the worst picture you can find?"
no_user_ID_found
The Past
"'My ex used to do that too.'"
xxIvyOF
"Yep. I’ve definitely had two otherwise-decent-guy date-situations sour because the ex-comparisons just would not stop flowing. No woman wants to be seen as interchangeable—I’m not here to perfectly fill that ex-sized hole in your life. Focusing on the present moment and a future we could build together is a courtesy we need to grant each other in earliest dates of dating."
LarkScarlett
Powerless
"'I'm an alpha, you cant handle my top energy.'"
Midnightgay28
"I actually left a dude in the middle of dinner, in part, for saying this. I ordered an Uber under the table while pretending to listen to him. Went to the bathroom, and never came back. That was when I was young. Now I’d just say, 'How about we enjoy this meal in silence, before we head our separate ways.'”
UnicornMagicRainbow
Mommy...
"'Mother says I should be back by 9.'"
"Saying 'mother says' just feels weird."
bunnyrut
"That gives me Norman Bates vibes."
Werewolf_lover20
"'Mother says alligators are aggressive because they have an overabundance of teeth, but lack a toothbrush.'"
sodaextraiceplease
Obvs...
"'If you were going to be murdered, what method would you prefer. Purely hypothetical. Obvs.'"
Specific_Tap7296
If it looks anything like a Dateline NBC episode... RUN!
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Despite the advancement of technology rendering people left to their own devices–literally–to entertain them, there are some leisurely activities that will never go out of style.
Or so you would think.
Do people still knit to pass the time? Are people actively collecting stamps?
It depends on who's asking.
Curious to hear about hobby trends, Redditor gizehgizeh asked:
"What are once popular hobbies that are slowly dying these days?"

Before we've become conditioned to living on our phones, these activities used to keep people occupied.
Before Texting, There Was This
"Letter writing."
– littlekingMT
Literal And Tangible Joy
"Well the internet killed pen pals for sure. I do remember I had a Japanese girl for a penpal maybe back in 2007 or so. I honestly don't remember how it started, pretty sure some website, but that was a fun experience. But now I can just straight up talk to foreign people real time, lol. But yea getting a physical letter that someone took the time to write and mail still is hard to beat feelings wise."
– skyburnsred
Model Trains
"When I was growing up, every town had a model train store in it. Now I have one in region and everything else has to be bought online."
– Hairy_Effective1172
Pretty Rocks
"Don’t see anyone playing marbles anymore, I had an awesome collection in school."
– sheeple85
"I had some marbles as a kid in the 90s. My grandma got them for me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them. I always imagined them as a thing kids in the 40s played with."
– Ryoukugan
People Were Moving Canvases
"Paintball has been dying a slow death since 2006. Sad, really."
– hobo_recycler
Before the general population began hating clutter, collecting was once a "thing."
Precious Coins
"Coin collecting... I'm a silver/gold nut and I'm always hunting for precious metal coins. whenever I go into a shop they get all excited because 'no one under 70 collects coins anymore.'"
– ThatFishySmell99
Post It
"Stamp collecting."
– spooky_scully_mulder
"Collecting in general, really. Of course there are still prominent collectors but it's slipped more into enthusiast and niche territory than being a popular hobby that you might expect anyone to have."
– iuytrefdgh436yujhe2
What A Gem
"Rockhounding was immensely popular back in the 1950's and 1960's. Personally, I think it's a fascinating and fulfilling hobby, but when I go to a meeting at a rock and gem club, I'm usually the youngest one in the room by several decades."
– filthy_lucre
People once enjoyed making things.
Admiring The View
"Stained glass. I learned how to make it from my old man, and my junior high art class teacher also taught it. Very few artisans are still around."
– brobeanzhitler
Metal Vocation
"Black smithing."
– kenworth117
"I bought a forge to try. It’s insanely hard work, and crazy expensive. I still haven’t finished a piece."
– DSentvalue
Scrapbooking
"Yeah. I'm watching the arts and crafts stores around me completely uninstalling their racks for specialty paper. Now the only thing they have is mega packs of repeating colors/images. To boot all the inclusions like papercraft/die-cut things, washi tape, scissors, stickers, etc have gotten so expensive I would rather go buy $5 bags at value village to get an assortment of things versus buying anything new. I really, really miss yard sales for the same reasons."
– Phantasmai
I envy people who have jobs that are basically their hobbies.
Not everyone gets paid doing what they actually enjoy and have a profound level of passion for.
If they do, kudos to them.
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