Long time readers have heard me talk about my family before, and will know that I grew up in the church. Now when I say "in the church" I don't mean going to church a lot. I mean ... like ... making church. Behind the scenes production team kind of stuff. My parents were both ministers, and I spent six days a week in church as a default setting. Meaning if I wasn't at school or out specifically doing something else, I was in church.
I didn't like it. At all. But it never struck me as potentially toxic or damaging to me. That didn't happen until I was an adult.
Now I'm not saying religious upbringings are all bad, or that minister's kids can't be healthy happy people - but holy sh*tsnacks did my life lack balance! I had no friends outside of the kids of other church officials (there weren't very many.) I was often unsupervised for hours at a time in a room in a church where tons of other adults had total access to me. It didn't end well all the time. On a good night I would fall asleep in a pew somewhere and one of my parents would wake me up to take me home when they were done. On a bad night... you can research statistics and make some informed guesses.
Lack of sleep is incredibly damaging to children. I was subject to insane expectations and pressure because everything I did/didn't do was seen as a direct reflection of my parents and the church. Mistakes were not allowed. I had no time to gain any social skills or real-world knowledge, but I was intellectually quite advanced so I started high school at 12 years old and was the perfect victim for older, bigger, less naive classmates. My parents were hyper-focused on church and totally blind to how it hurt me. I stopped going as soon as adulthood allowed and almost never go back.
Again, I'm not saying church was toxic, I'm saying my parent's hyper-focus on it with no regard to their child was toxic. It wasn't purposeful or malicious. My parents adore me! It was honestly just batsh*t insane.
Reddit user u/RehmanAbraham asked:
What did your parents/family do that you later realized was insane?
And yeah, this came to mind immediately, so I read through to see what other people's experiences have been. Turns out, I'm totally not the only one who looked back as a grown-up and went "... wtf?"
Here are some of the more popular responses.
Mom's Tent
When my mother "left" my dad, she pitched a tent in my walk-in closet. I was 7 or 8 and she lived in my closet for months before she got her own place. I still remember her reading her Joyce Meyer books by lamplight.
Howling With Duke
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We lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere (at least 35 mins to the nearest grocery store.) I am not sure how it started, because I was a kid; but any time our puppy dog howled, we would all howl. Loudly. To the point that it was a deafening sound and would kind of make your ears rattle.
His name was Duke. I would occasionally howl first because then he would follow and then so would my mother, father, and two older brothers. I thought it was awesome and it felt invigorating to do. I now realize this is odd.
The 1997 Computer Incident
On the day my dad decided to buy our family's first PC, he loaded me and my younger sisters into the back of our little two door Honda and drove the 20 minutes to the store.
After purchasing the computer, my dad realize there wasn't enough room in our tiny car for three children, car seats, and the giant 1997 computer. So he LEFT US at the store, apparently thinking that if he bought us all candy bars, that'd be enough to keep a 5, 3, and 2 year old occupied and out of trouble. He took the new computer home and then turned around to come back and get us, having left us alone for easily 40 minutes
Matchmaker Mom
My mom was always very invested in our romantic lives, partly because that was an area where we didn't stack up well as compared to our cousins. The most insane manifestation of this was when I agreed to go out on a date with a guy, only to find out before the date that he was a predator.
Mom flipped out trying to convince me not to cancel the date. "You don't know if you don't give him a chance!"
Thankfully, my dad was on my side and I cancelled the date. But Mom sulked the entire rest of the night and demanded I log her in to my Facebook account so she could scroll through my friends list so that she could see which of my male friends were straight and single so that she could push me towards them instead.
Locked In Our Room For Hours
My brother and I would be locked in our room for hours at a time and told to be absolutely silent. Went on for a few years.
One morning I woke up super early, earlier than normal, and was hungry. So I went to ask my mom for oatmeal. I open the bedroom door, and my mom is rubbing the back of a shirtless, sleeping man who is NOT my dad. Mom panics, jumps out of bed and gently pushes me out of the room. I kinda stand in the kitchen confused, when my dad comes in from another part of the house and asks wtf I'm doing, and sends me back to my room.
They finally divorced a couple years ago, and my mom confided that my dad made her sell herself to pay the bills for a while when we were kids.
A lot of memories made sense after that.
Murder Weapon For The PB&Js
My parents visited underground Atlanta back in the early 90's. Not the safest place. Anyways, my brother was a baby and crawled under a bench they were sitting on. He pulled out an umbrella bag with a very sinister knife inside.
My parents don't report the knife or anything, but instead KEEP it and it becomes a staple knife in our kitchen. So yea, pretty sure my parents used a murder weapon to cut the crust off our pb&js.
Third World Countries
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When I was in 6th grade (I think) my mom decided we needed to understand what it was like for people in third world countries. We ate oatmeal for breakfast, beans and rice for lunch, could have one fruit for a snack, and beans and rice plus some romaine lettuce for dinner. All of this for a month, and we were only allowed 3 cheat meals.
In high school looking back I just thought she was batsh*t nuts. But once I started having bills and such of my own it occurred to me, my parents were just that broke. They just didn't want us to think of it that way, so they tried to make it into some lesson. Damn do I love those two people.
The Babysitter
I was seven and my brother was five (during the early 80's). We were told to wait in the school parking lot for the babysitter to pick us up. Thing is, we never met her before and had no idea what she looked like. So we waited until a woman pulled up with a picture of us in her hand. She showed us the picture and asked if it was us. We said it was and she told us she's our babysitter. We got in the car without thinking twice. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
The Scenic Drive
My dad had a bad drinking problem. As a young kid with a drunk for a dad I never really thought about him purposely killing us. He was an angry drunk but mostly verbal abuse. It wasn't unusual for him to go out for a ride after a drunk fight.
He had just gotten into a fight with my step mother and needed a drive to burn off all the alcohol in his system. He drove us twenty minutes into the woods on a sandy trail in a minivan. He didn't say much during the ride. We got stuck (obviously because we were in a 2wd caravan) but luckily some 4wd truck dude came through and winched us out.
When that guy showed up dad wasn't quiet anymore and we left the woods when we were unstuck and went home. I'm not sure what his intentions were that day but this was the only time he took some of his kids with him. I'm guessing that's what had my stepmother so upset. The look on my stepmothers face when we returned made me rethink whether it was a fun ride in the woods or a "f*ck this life" moment worthy of the nightly news that I had just narrowly averted.
Dad's Therapist
Throughout my childhood I would end up being my dad's therapist. He'd often tell me he sometimes wished he would go to sleep and never wake up. A bit heavy for a 12 year old to hear from their parent I guess.
After I became a teen and could drive, he'd call me in the middle of the night while I was at my mom's house and ask me to rush over because he was sick and needed help. I spent a lot of nights feeding him jello and sitting awake in his room so he could sleep because his medication would make him hallucinate and think demons were going to kill him in his sleep.
It wasn't until I was older I realized I missed a lot of my childhood because I had to parent him instead of the other way around.
Eventually he found a wife who takes care of him and cut me out of his life. Apparently he tells her stories about how I never spent time with him and never cared because she sends me rants about how awful I am.
Email Scams
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My dad fell victim to many money scams in the early 2000s. He would always say he's sitting on a gold mine and I thought we were gonna be rich. Yeah I don't think he's learned his lesson, I still catch him replying to bullsh*t emails.
She Couldn't Just Leave
My dad began doing drugs and drinking crazy amounts of alcohol when I was young. I didn't really notice or think it was strange until I was around 12. All kinds of weird stuff ensued: he peed on my moms dog, broke my kids table, threw a hair dryer at my mom, and more I don't know. My mom and I moved out when I was 15 and I was so excited, but then he decided to go to rehab and I didn't understand why my mom couldn't just leave.
But rehab changed his life, he's like a different person and honestly it's so weird being around him being all nice and stuff now. Still an ass sometimes, but harmless. I'm 20 now, and I think I've moved on from my hate and I love him but idk. Emotions are weird.
Alex Jones And 4th Grade
When I was still in elementary school I lived with my dad/step-mother. Long story short, thet were extremely racist and homophobic. Racist towards Middle Easterners specifically. This only started when I was 8 and he began to watch Alex Jones almost every day (back in 2013 when Alex Jones had less eyes on him).
The way he explained it made sense to me, an 8 year old with a very manipulable mind. That kind of sucked later on because I had a best friend in 4th grade named Ali, who I found out was Muslim. I, under the manipulated spell of my father, did not know what to do.
I didn't want to ask my dad if having a Muslim friend was okay, because I know how he thinks. He'd pull my ass right out of the school if he knew. And I didn't want to stop being friends with Ali.
To make the rest of a very long story short. I moved to my moms and don't speak to my father often. I haven't spoken to Ali in a while - not because I'm a racist, but moving to my moms meant moving 300 miles away.
Now I do my best to be nice to every one, no matter their beliefs, skin, or sexuality. If any Muslim users read this, I am truly sorry people like my dad exist. And I'm sorry that their prejudices rub off on their children. Maybe someday we can all live together regardless of skin color. Best of luck to those of u who stuck through that long-ass story.
Armed And Unmedicated
My family doesn't believe in mental illnesses despite everyone having one; so little-to-none of us are properly medicated. All of the teen boys are armed to the teeth and have been in trouble with the law...
I'm almost 24 and have been trying to find a way to convince my parents to let me get therapy. (Literally once a week, free. But, I'd have to pay gas money but I can't because I cannot find work so I have no money...)
"There Won't Be A Fire"
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My mom would take batteries out of the smoke detectors and put them in the TV remote. When I first noticed her doing that I asked, "What if there's a fire?"
She rolled her eyes and said, "There won't be a fire." So we didn't have smoke detectors for decades.
In 2013 there was a fire and the only reason we didn't die was because my husband noticed it. Everyone was asleep.
Ramona
My aunt and uncle had a small doll that the whole family treated as their daughter. Her name was Ramona and we took her everywhere with us. We talked to Ramona as if she was a real person. She had clothes, toys, a bed and she even had her own seat at the table. I knew Ramona since forever and it never crossed my mind that other people didn't do that. I was 25 when i realized that Ramona was a replacement for the child they could never had.
My uncle died 10 years ago and it sort of felt that Ramona died too and my aunt decided to bury her with him so they could be together
Sweat Time
So growing up, I was a fat kid. My parents would lock me in my room for hours with no food and a cup of water to "sweat the calories out of me."
Where I live, temperatures go from 90-105 degrees. I had no idea what was going on; they just called it "sweat time" and acted like it was a normal thing. So i just rolled with it and played on my ps2.
The Maggots
MAGGOT HOT DISH
My family lived on a farm that had lots of farm animals and any animals that died would be tossed into a dumpster and were picked up later for disposal. Of course the rotting animals would attract flies in the meantime. To keep us busy my mom would send my sister and I, with little zip lock baggies, out to collect maggots out of the dumpster FULL OF ROTTING ANIMALS. My mom would then pretend she was making the maggots into rice dishes.
My sister and I would ACTUALLY EAT THIS thinking it was the maggots we collected and were totally fine with it. Didn't find out this was weird until late elementary school.
No Talking
My parents had a strict no talking at the dinner table rule, like not even to ask to pass the salt, not a single word was allowed to be said while we are eating. I grew up with it and just accepted it, I really struggle to do "social dinners" to this day my brain just goes "food time not talk time"
Vacuuming
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My dad didn't like vacuuming so growing up, he'd make me and my brother pick up pieces of lint and fuzz off of the carpet by hand for long periods of time. I prefer tile flooring now to say the least.
So what do you look back on and cringe?
For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.
Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.
The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.
Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:
"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"
Serious Danger
"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."
"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."
oofboof2020
Waiting for Food
"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."
"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."
nowhereboy1964
Captain Hobo to the Rescue
"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."
"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"
"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."
FartAttack911
Survival
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"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."
faithfulpoo
These Tsunami stories are just tragic.
On the Sand
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"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."
oyloff
Be Clever
"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."
OstneyPiz
Bad Jokes
"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."
Alegan239
YOU
Who Are You Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
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"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"
PrettyLola2004
Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.
No one should talk to others in the dark though.
Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.
While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.
Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.
Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.
For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.
Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:
"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"
The Tiny Issue Of Water...
"Absolutely not."
"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649
Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...
"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."
"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."
"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."
"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep
The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...
"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."
"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3
Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap Dierenartsen
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What Do You Mean Allow?
"I have no choice."
"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412
"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show
Hug GIF by The BarkPost
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Who Needs An Alarm Clock?
"I let my two cats sleep with me."
"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."
"And so do I."
"We've all developed a lil routine."
"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_
Whose Bed Is It Anyway?
"Yes."
"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."
"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor
"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."
"Would not come out."
"Got some food and some water in dishes."
"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."
"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."
"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."
"She was too busy eating."
"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."
"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."
"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."
"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."
"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."
"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."
"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."
"She would not go."
"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."
"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588
sleepy kitten GIF
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Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...
"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."
"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."
"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle
Saying No Just Isn't An Option...
"'Let'."
"Lol."
"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren
Felines Only!
"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz
Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang Official
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Is That My Hair On That Pillow?
"My dog is perfect."
"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."
"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."
"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester
It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.
Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...