People Break Down Which Punishments Might Not Sound That Bad But Are Actually Horrific

No one enjoys a punishment; however, there is a big red line that shouldn't be crossed. Sometimes it can seem relatively minor but when you really look at what the punishment fully entails a more gruesome side begins to show. “Old school" discipline has been shown to be damaging on many levels often causing lifelong damage whether physical or mental.
Even the current correction system in America still uses tactics as punishment of inmates that rather than leading to rehabilitation causes lasting damage to inmates in turn leading to higher rates of ricidivism. Yet, some parents will use similar degradation to punish their children. Someday perhaps, as a society, we will begin to discipline without causing lasting harm.
One Redditor by the screen name rivno2 was curious about what others knew of punishments both in real life or imaginary. They asked:
“Which punishment (either real or imagined) sounds "light" or "not a big deal" at first, but is actually horrific to experience?"
Some of the responses were shocking.
“after one hour you just want to hold your hands in ice water...”
“Peeling salted sunflower seeds with your bare hands. Had the choice between that and getting spanked. Chose the peeling and I regretted that immensely."
“It doesn't sound bad at first but let me tell you, after one hour you just want to hold your hands in icewater. Your fingertips get sore, sometimes you prick your skin and the salt dries out your fingers and makes them really sensitive."
“Not to mention that the salt creeps up your nailbed and hurts like sh*t, especially if you rip your skin near your finger nails. I never chose that punishment again." Mr_Gaster
Writing lines...
“As a kid, when I did something wrong I'd have to write a sentence 100-500 times as punishment. I remember having to sit in the car at a family reunion at probably 7 years old writing ‘I am a bad girl.’ 500 times because I'd taken a granola bar without asking.”
“Writing I am a bad girl that many times, repeated for minor infractions and sentences like ‘I am a liar and no one likes liars.’ Or ‘I ruined the day for my family.’ Just sticks with you and becomes internalized. I'm 31 now, it's been a good 15 years since I've had to write these, but I still think them about myself.” CuteNCaffinated
“The crime? I'm allergic to the incense used in church...”
“School made us do that as a punishment, copying pages and pages of quotes from the bible about bad people. Or lines of 'I'm not worth educating' 'my actions and life will amount to nothing' Yeah wonder why bunch's of students are anti Christian and struggling with depression and a career 10-15 years later."
“Got to the point I refused. Not wasting paper or my sanity, so an alternative was to go pull thistles and prickles and goatheads (sharp pronged thorny things) out of the grounds barehanded."
“The crime? I'm allergic to the incense used in church and my coughing disrupts service every Friday and Sunday." Snofall-Bird
Wait...WTF?
“Having to play with chicken. My grandpa always told me, when the neighbors kid would missbehave (100 years+ since then) his parents would lock him into the chicken habitat and put some liquid and/or meat on his feet. The chickens would peck at his feet and he would have to flee constantly until he was too tired to. Then he would be released.” iwannaconsumepp
Outlaws
“Outlawry. To be declared an outlaw. Today, we think of an outlaw as just anybody who breaks the law regularly. Back in the day, though, it was a punishment.”
“If you were declared Outlaw, that meant that you were literally ‘outside of the law’ and could claim no protection from it. If someone didn't like you, they could freely beat you, rob you, torture you, or even kill you.”
“When the stories refer to Robin Hood as an ‘outlaw’ that's what they're talking about. It's not a romantic, heroic, swashbuckling thing, it's the state of having no claim to any legal protection at all. The king (or whoever he appoints) takes your land, anybody who wants it can take your stuff, and anybody who doesn't like you can just beat you to death without consequences.”
“They can also put a bounty on your head and have people hunting you to claim it. What do you think would happen if you lost all protection from the law, and anybody who brought your head to the courthouse could claim a year's salary as a reward?” Wadsworth_McStumpy
Kneeling on something painful...
“Kneeling on grains of uncooked rice.” Andrezj1097
“It used to be a common punishment in Italy for children to be made to kneel on uncooked chickpeas.” c19isdeadly
The US prison system does need reform...
“Time. People underestimate the impact of duration of a sentence. In the US, it's not uncommon to hear in the news that someone received a 1 year sentence for such and such crime and thinking ‘wow that's so short they'll be out in no time’.”
“The numbers just seem so abstracted we forget just how vast even a single year is. Even for minor offenses, something like 30 days can be quite large. Imagine the impact on a person for having their life interrupted for an entire month, that will cost most people their jobs.”
“Sentence durations are pretty arbitrary and many of them are just the way they are because historically that is the duration that was expected, any changes are relatively minor. The truth is that modern sentences in the US are among the longest in the world and disproportionately large.” pm-me-gps-coords
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Stehbunker...
“Standing on concrete. Nazis called them ‘stehbunker’, Stalin called them ‘kishka’, but it's all the same idea, a cell so small you are forced to stand because there isn't enough room to sit.”
“Standing barefoot on concrete, for days, is beyond brutal. It won't kill you, but it will (slowly and very painfully) cripple you, while keeping you awake for days straight.” MyNameIsRay
Star Trek...
“Since you said imaginary, there was a punishment shown on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, that Black Mirror copied a couple times, and science fiction has used as a concept, likely before DS9. The concept is time dilation - the idea that time takes place at a different rate in the real world than it does in some other.”
“So for the punishment, the character Miles O'Brien was strapped in a chair for an hour and sedated, and he 'dreamed' he served a 10 year prison sentence. Or maybe it was longer, but in his mind, he was trapped in this cell for years and years.”
“In the dream, he may have been deprived of food, he was definitely deprived of social interaction, but at the end of it, he woke up, and only an hour had passed. (Actually, the best Next Generation episode, The Inner Light, played with time dilation as well. Same with the best Voyager episode, Blink of an Eye.)” experpernectu
Arms up...
“Being forced to keep your arms up all the time.” Adventurous_Pipe7479
“My dad did this to us with books. We had to hold them straight out in front of us and if our arms drooped, he'd add another books. I didn't realize how messed up this was until I started telling people about it. I'd beg him to spank us instead.” Lacebatty
Goat licking?
“Goat licking. In medieval times you would get your feet strapped between two wooden boards and theyd be sprinkled in salt (or similar) so animals (mainly goats) would lick them. Seems like it'd tickle at first but they won't stop licking. Apparently they'd lick flesh off until they hit bones.” BreadedPotatoMan
Bread and water...
“Bread and water rations, it was there to cause weaponized constipation. 30 days of constant abdominal pain, specifically tailored to humiliate is a lot worse than ‘oh bland food boo hoo’.” noobie9000
School punishments...
“My dad told me about a punishment that was given in schools when he was growing up (born in 1954) which was you had to go to the side of the aisle of desks and squat down (into like the Asian/Russian squat stance) and hold it for the rest of class. He said it never sounded bad but after a while your muscles and knees would lock up and at the end of class in order to get out of the position you had to fall onto your side or back to the floor to let your legs relax enough to allow you to move and use them.”
“He told me when I was super young but its always stuck with me cause I was so surprised that something that seemingly small would cause so much pain and loss of control. You essentially got insane Charlie horses when you dropped out of the position.” whothefuckknowsdude
Tickling...
“Tickling. No joke, the Nazis used this as a form of torture in some cases. It doesn't leave a mark, so it's also used in environments like mental facilities where patients may be restrained and staff go on a power trip.”
“Extreme cases can result in incontinence, vomiting and a loss of consciousness due to the inability to breathe. It's also easier for the torturer to do it for a long time without it wearing away at their conscience because the victim is involuntarily laughing, so it's easy to pretend that it's not that bad.” Usidore_
“Wall sits (air chair) are very painful when done wrong.”
“Wall sits (air chair) are very painful when done wrong. Lining your heel with your knee is the wrong way to wall sit but this was how I was forced to do it. Arms out in front like chair arms so you can't support yourself. 90 degree angles and no sliding.” WeirdoIdiotSavant
"Standing at parade rest...”
“Standing at parade rest without being able to talk for 5 hours. In basic training, someone got caught stealing food from the DFAC no more than 20min after we had been yelled at for people doing that.”
“As a punishment, we stood at parade rest from 5pm to 10pm without being able to talk and with at least one DS watching us at all times. I don't know how to describe it, but your brain can only come up with so much to do for 5 hrs while not moving.” EnegmaticMango
“...it can lead to frostbite injuries similar to 2nd and 3rd degree burns.”
“Closing your hand around a chunk of salt water ice, and holding it there. Dubbed the ‘salt and ice challenge’, where people hold onto it for as long as they can stand, it can lead to frostbite injuries similar to 2nd and 3rd degree burns.”
“It also essentially fuses to your skin, so if you try to open your hand it will rip off skin (you need to use warm water to detach it). I did this about 20 years ago, before it was a thing on social media. It sucks. Edit: With the attention this is getting, I feel obligated to say...definitely do NOT try this!” Rebuttlah
Hot rock painting...
“Painting rocks. A couple of guys in my AIT unit got in trouble, the sadistic drill sergeant tried being creative with an ‘approved’ punishment which was painting rocks.”
“As dumb as a punishment it is, the sadistic side was that this training unit was in southern Arizona during peak summer temperatures. The rocks were literally hot enough to fry an egg on and both privates' hands ended up being covered with 2nd degree burns.”
“The drill sergeant faced pretty heavy administrative action. I don't recall exactly what, but it probably one of he most severe I had ever heard a drill sergeant receive.” wonder-maker
“Once he troubled my aunt so much that she punished him...”
“My cousin, 10yo, quite agile never sits still. Once he troubled my aunt so much that she punished him. His punishment was to sit still on the bed and do nothing. No tv, no playing either on phone or with his toys, not even speaking, no one was allowed to come to his room so that he even can't watch others.”
“He asked her to read his textbook as he thought studying would lessen her anger but she denied even studying! He had to sit completely still. Initially that punishment seemed quite simple to me but what impact it had on a small child was huge. This punishment tortures you by boring you which a small child can't take. At last he broke down crying after which he was pardoned.” kvmedico
Sadly many of these are all too common. Remember to be kind even when it's time to discipline
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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When we first meet someone–whether through mutual friends, at school, or in a new work setting–we generally feel people out to determine if they're worth getting to know.
While the process could take time, some people make our jobs much easier after spotting instant red flags.
Curious to hear about our general radar of people, Redditor xxFluffie asked:
"What is something that makes you immediately dislike someone?"

Some people just think they are absolutely hilarious and never realize they're the only ones laughing.
Next In Line
"They laugh about having screwed someone else over. If you think you're not next, well, you'll learn."
– whiznat
Unfunny
"when you mention you don't like a thing and they immediately do that thing 'as a joke.'"
– wayfinder
Playing Devil's Advocate
"Kneejerk contrarians. People who, no matter what you say you like or believe, just have to dismiss it and say they like or think the opposite."
– BubbhaJebus
People who put others down get slammed here.
Bad Parents
"When they treat their kids sh**ty in public. I don't mean handling tantrums, setting a rule, having to hurry to the train etc. I mean perfectly normal-behaved kids getting in trouble for trailing along peacefully, looking at things, asking questions etc."
"If you don't like tiny humans who learn the world, why have them??"
– raxeira-etterath
Public Humiliation
"Treating people sh**ty in public for laughs. Like being rude to service workers because they think it’s funny. Big red flag."
– Ok_Personality_1080
Simply Uncalled For
"Someone who is a d*ck to other people or animals for no reason."
– xebt1000
Those with ulterior motives rubs people the wrong way.
The Scheme
"If they try to get me to join their MLM scheme."
– spazmcgee1
Hard Sell
"A guy I used to be friends with in high school reached out a couple of years after graduating about a business opportunity he wanted my opinion on because 'you've always been smart', then he set up a Skype call and brought some other dude into the call and they started trying to sell me on what was clearly an MLM scheme. The guy went from friend to 'I'm never talking to you again' in a matter of 10 minutes."
– Mental-Afternoon-164
A Timeline
"Good gawd, this! I've had more than one exposure to this abject bullsh**tery..."
- Back in the late 80's/early 90's I was invited to a meeting of literally the OG "Pyramid" where you're recruited to pay in, and then you go out and recruit others to pay in, and the last in line got f'kall.
- In 1995 I had a coworker try to reel me into Amway, which was a hard no.
- In 2000 it was Pampered Chef, though to be fair they did have useful products.
- In 2009 a coworker tried to get me into some stupid video calling service that was obviously stupid from the description. He even got offended when I called bullsh*t.
– Mystical_Cat
Too much ego is a no-go.
I Can Do Better
"Being a b*tch just to stroke their own ego."
"We get it, you can lift 5lbs more than the 12 year old, you don't have to rub it in their face just because you're slightly better"
– Livia_Pivia
Can't Top This
"Oh, you did <story that's been told>? That's nothing! I did <implausible story>.
"I get the whole empathy through relating common experience, and I'm someone who does that (which drives some people crazy on its own), but there's a big different by empathising through common experience, and one-upmanship."
– Tisarwat
Lacking Conversational Etiquette
"Starting to talk over me when I was already talking."
"Stop it you rude, arrogant jerk."
– R33Gtst
If one or more of these traits sound familiar to you, you're not alone.
We don't have time for braggadocios, pyramid-schemers, and conversation interrupters.
And that's just for starters.
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Children tend to believe just about anything they hear.
That there are monsters under your bed, watching too much TV will make your head explode, and silly faces will be permanent if you make them too often.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to silly things that children will believe.
Some call it naivitée, other's youthful innocence.
But it's hard not to look back with embarrassment on certain things we believed as a child, that today might simply seem dumb.
Redditor Disastrous_Toe_6548 was curious to learn the multitude of silly things people believed when they were children, leading them to ask:
"What's the dumbest thing you believed as a kid?"
Pleading to deaf ears...
"My dad told me he had hearing loss and couldn't hear me if I whined because my pitch would get too high."
"Would completely ignore me until I asked him questions in a normal voice."
"Trusted him implicitly until I was 12 and he yelled at my younger brother for whining."- Tyrion_Stark.
Get it while you can.
"That they took everything off the shelves when the supermarket closed."- fgyfddg.
Silly superstitions.
"My grandfather used to tell me that if I played with the fire, I'd pee the bed."
"I believed him for a while, until I got older."
"I think he was just trying to protect me from the fire."- teddypa1981.
"Rain, rain go away..."
"That if it was raining where I was, it was raining everywhere in the world."- morningshartz.
Age is just a number.
"My parents used to seem really old to me, so much so I believed they grew up like cave people as children, wearing giant leaves for clothes and what not."- Laleena_.
So that's how they're made!
"That smokestacks from the power plant created clouds."- Scaniarix.
An instant cure.
"The sun gives you sunburns, therefore, moonlight should heal them."- velocipeter.
Better safe than sorry.
"Don't drink and drive meant all drinks."
"My dad was super confused when I told him he wasn't allowed to have any soda until we got home."- hulagirlslovetoparty.
Don't believe everything you see on TV.
"There was an episode of Mickey Mouse where Mickey couldn’t reach something at first, so he tried again and somehow his arm was long enough to reach it."
"As a small kid I believed that if I couldn’t reach something, I should just try reaching for it again and my arm would then somehow be long enough to reach it."- That-Dutch-Person.
The miracle of childbirth.
"That babies are pooped out."
"When I was like 7 I was listening to my aunt as she explained that childbirth was pretty intense and painful for her, and I was all solemnly like, 'yeah, sometimes just my poops are painful, I don’t think I could get a baby out' and she went 'um, WHAT?' and her reaction made me realize real quick that I had f*cked up somewhere and I tried to change the subject while my mind was just reeling lol."- thesoundingfurrows.
Oh to be a child again.
And to believe literally everything you're told.
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