Curious to hear from strangers online about their developmental growth, Redditor 1234kyou_ asked:
"What did you swear in your childhood you would never do, but ended up doing anyways?"
Some hobbies that delighted us as kids never really go away as these Redditors have experienced.
The "Bird Creep"
"Birdwatching. I used to think it was the lamest way someone could spend their time when I was a kid. How could anyone just sit around and look at birds? What are you, some kind of bird creep? ... 20 years later and I'm obsessed with birds. Love hearing their songs and seeing all the beautiful colors."
– Koala-teas
Unfilled Dream
"Give up drawing."
"I actually broke my own heart when I recently found a school project we did back when I was a kid. We had to write a letter for our future selves and mine starts with: 'Hey, did you become an artist already? I really hope you did not become a boring adult with a boring job who gave up on his dreams and passions.'"
"Well, sorry little me, but I kinda did."
– Aesma_
Tending To One's Garden
"Gardening. We had a large garden. We raised and preserved what we grew. It was me and my sister's job to care for this garden. This was back when whipping your child was acceptable punishment. I was whipped sooo many times, because I hated that I had to grew and preserved vegetables I did not like. I hated it! Swore I'd never have a garden. Never do THAT to my kids. Then I had kids. A switch flipped in my head. I had to have a garden! I never made my kids take care of it. Gardening was my 'me' time. But being little kids, they wanted to be with mom and 'help' with the garden. I 'gave' them an area and they were allowed to grow whatever they wanted. If it was a fruit or vegetables , they had to eat it. As a result, they both love gardening and neither are picky eaters."
– Eogh21
When it comes to keeping it in the family, it's not always the goal.
Like Father...
"I have become my father."
– jer1303
Like Mother...
"I have become my mom.... even the voice is similar."
– rogue1206
Dad's Cynicism
"I've taken on a lot more of my dad's cynicism than I would like, but mostly I have my mom's wonder and carefreeness."
"But my dad is rich and mom is poor."
"He does not share the wealth he just shares 'you should've done X like this'. But his advice is the level of 'tear down the sign punch them in the face and say you're looking at your new employee'. I've also never heard a single dad joke from him."
– BugTester350
Posthumous Disapproval
"When I was touring houses to buy before the pandemic, my mother's spirit must have possessed me because I opened my mouth and her voice said 'i don't know, i don't think I could live in a house without both a coat closet and a linen closet.'"
– TJtherock
Adulting is hard.
The Financial Hole
"Get into debt I can't pay off."
– lilviviv
Potty-Mouth
"I said I wouldn’t curse unless a nuke was dropped on my house. That was a f'king lie."
– -notjosh-
Can't Wait, Don't Hate
"Have sex before marriage. Thank f'k I never made good on that one since I'm 41 and have never been married."
– squid1891
I'm a pretty fussy eater. Always have been.
I grew up in a Japanese family where regularly eating natto was a thing.
Natto is a Japanese dish made from Bacillus subtilis-fermented soybeans. It's known to have magical health benefits but the smell is overwhelmingly powerful, and the nutty taste leaves little to be desired.
Many people not used to eating exotic foods can't stand the flavor and slimy, sticky texture–let alone the pungent aroma.
I swore as a child that would be the one food I would never eat again after having a bad experience.
And yet, here I am as an adult, eating it for breakfast 2-3 times a week after truly understanding the health benefits.
Natto–which is rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals– helps maintain healthy cholesterol levels, reduces blood pressure, and can prevent heart disease. Some studies have suggested it can prevent certain cancers.
Once I trained myself to get used to flavor and smell, I actually crave it now.
It's definitely an acquired taste, but it's crazy to know that we are all capable of liking or appreciating something previously thought of as repulsive once we set our mind to it.
There's a limit to what part of the animal I will eat...
"When we were kids, my mom said we could each choose one main dish that we didn't like, and if she served that she'd make something else for us."
"Mine was liver, which was one of my dad's favorites."
"I thought it was so gross."
"Recently my wife said she wanted to try it, so we made some."
"Nope, still exactly as gross as I thought it was when I was 8."- Fleaslayer
There's a reason they don't offer it at Starbucks.
"Koomis."
"AKA fermented horse milk."
"I mean - growing up in Kazakhstan, it was okay as a child, but I didn't take to it like the other kids and it just doesn't stack up to a good PB&J with the crusts cut off."- YouPeopleHaveNoSense
No cassoulet for me!
"Lima beans."
"Nasty little chalk pellets - NO, MOM, I’M NOT EATING THEM!!!"- OldBob10
Never trust blue, or 'bleu', food...
"Blue cheese once almost made me throw up from nearly the smell alone."
"I had it in a burger and the first bite I took i immediately lost my appetite."
"To top it off i had covid , I wasn’t supposed to taste or smell anything but blue cheese doesn’t seem to obey that rule ."- Noirrr_
It's crunchy, but not much else...
"Celery."
"I understand why it's important in soups and stuff, but god I hate it."- some-girl-online
Some people are literally born to hate it!
"Cilantro even tho it’s genetic."- AccomplishedWaltz802
They should be banned from all salads!
"Endives."
"Raw in a salad or baked with cheese."
"It's still an abomination."- Serge_Karamazov
People really eat this as a treat?
"Black Licorice flavor."
"How the hell does anyone under the age of 80 enjoy this hell spawn poison?"- Anjelikka
Who actually wants to eat a type of fungus?
"Mushrooms."
"I'm fascinated by them but I won't eat them."
"Unless they're magic."- GhettoSauce
psilocybin mushrooms shrooms GIFGiphyNo vegetable should be purple...
"Eggplant."- Suitable_Brain7650
Everyone has their preferences, and no one should have to eat any food that they don't like.
And more than likely, when you're out with a group of people, there's bound to be someone who will gladly eat your side of mushrooms.
As long as you'll eat their lima beans...
Reddit user IseraphineI asked:
"What is something you didn’t realize was going to consume so much of your time as an adult?"
Aside from the fact that bills and taxes don't stop; there's for real no such thing as a day off.
Why did nobody tell me so much of my life would be doing stuff like THIS:
The Kitchen
"Cleaning the kitchen. No matter how many times I do it, it still needs to be done."
- atapia2
"I love the feeling of finishing the mound of dishes and cleaning the counter/sink, then I step back and admire my work."
"Then I turn around to see the pot and pan I forgot were on the stove..."
- buckut
"I've started cleaning as I cook and it feels like its given me half an hour back every night."
- [Reddit]
"Oh my god, seriously!!!!"
"It’s only my wife and I here and I feel like I have to clean the kitchen 3x a day! Where does it all come from!?!?!!??"
- lenny446
"Kitchen."
"Cooking and cleaning didn't consume that much of time when I was in college. Now as an adult, wtf is this?"
- HotPineapplePizza
aaron carter cleaning GIF by MTV CribsGiphyThe Schoolyard
"Dealing with 'office politics' - and not just at work."
"Stupid me actually thought that the schoolyard bullies, mean girls et. al. would grow up and act like, well, adults. Sadly, way too many adults have the manners and morals of entitled toddlers."
- Nachtjaeger68
"Duuuuude. This."
"I thought people grew up after high school.... Not the case. They're still clique-y, and people are f*cking more mean about sh*t. F*ck people."
- suspline
"Yes! This is exhausting."
"I just want to do my job and go home. No drama please. Hate that I have cried after work related to the bullying."
- Head_Journalist3846
Recovery
"Recovering from work. Sometimes I need the whole weekend to be barely ready for next Monday."
- Can-t-Even
"I can’t recover in a weekend anymore so I’ve just started crying before work as a way to try to physically purge the stress from my system. It’s not going so well."
- finlyboo
"Same. My weekend is literally, 'Laundry for work' 'pack lunches/make meals for work', 'make meals for today'...."
"I get up and I get ready to go to work, I come home, make dinner and go to bed because I need to go to work in the morning. Don't forget to leave an hour before you actually have to show up for work because commute."
"How do normal people do this?! Seriously."
- -Firestar-
Not Nachos
"Deciding what to make for dinner. God, it's the absolute worst thing about being an adult."
" 'I have to eat again. AND go shopping for the ingredients!?' "
"You're a kid and think it's all nachos and Sourpatch Kids until you realize you have to care about nutrition and meal balance."
- Carl__Gordon_Jenkins
"And you have to feed the kids. At least 3 meals a day. Every day."
"They. Never. Stop. Eating."
- Canadian_Decoy
Menial Moments
"Menial tasks such as DMV trips, driving/commuting, doctor appointments, basic household chores."
"I did them as a kid, but as an adult it seems so much more of an annoyance."
"Also, having to pick up groceries or make runs to the store for this that and whatever, fixing broken shit around the house, etc etc..."
- Admirable-Appeal6710
james spader ugh GIF by HULUGiphyAlways On
"Parenting."
"Those little f*ckers are relentless. And they are ALWAYS there."
- MasonJack12
"It never occurred to me that once you become a parent, for the first 5, 6, 7? years you are always on."
"You get up, do your work as a parent, go to work, do your work as an employee, leave work, do your work as a parent, etc etc forever."
"Like there aren't weekends anymore or chill nights after work. It is round-the-clock you, on your game."
"Sure you get moments here and there to retreat and it's all worth it, blah blah, but nobody really prepared me for this existence where life really is f*cking exhausting."
- linds360
"Thanks for writing this."
"Currently wrestling with the fact that even though the smallest now sleeps through the night, she doesn't like to go to bed early, so can be up beyond 9pm. Her older sibling, however, likes an early morning, so is frequently up before 6 am."
"I need 9 hours of sleep to be a relatively well adjusted human. I even went to a doctor when I was in my 20s to check I didn't have some medical issue: all normal."
"So if my smallest is up later than normal, and my eldest earlier than normal, there aren't even enough hours in the night for me to be rested. Never mind the fact that once awake, I am everyone's preferred slave."
"I haven't felt rested in over 7 years. I'm so tired."
- Munchies2015
The Anxiety Trap
"Being trapped into inaction by my anxiety."
- FarseerTaelen
"Oh my god this."
"There's a reason why I'm on reddit right now."
- mindsnare
"I feel this."
"I couldn’t sleep well last night while ruminating on all the things I’ve been putting off, woke up at 5am to have a few extra hours to do things, didn’t do any of those things."
"Circle continues"
- quenual
"I feel this one way too hard."
"Combination of existential panic that I'm a 'real adult' now (mortgage, business trips, what have you) and severe ADHD."
- Carbonatite
Bee-Gees Should Have Elaborated
"Staying alive."
"Cooking, eating, flossing, brushing, exercising, sleeping, dressing, stretching, screaming into the void in existential dread, showering… it all adds up!"
- anaccountofrain
"You can probably combine the screaming in existential dread with the shower to save time. That way you can also stay hydrated at the same time."
- jerrythecactus
Stayin Alive GIF by Bee GeesGiphyAnother Part Time Job
"Commuting. At least pre-COVID anyways."
"I spend about 10 hours per week commuting to my job. That's literally 25% of the hours I spend at my job. It's like a part time job in and of itself."
- Flaky-Fellatio
"We are supposed to return to office in March. Managers are terrified about the loss of productivity that will happen."
- diegojones4
"I calculated recently that I was spending the equivalent of 26 DAYS - just shy of a month of the year - on trains and buses going to and from work. It was bullshit."
- RedWestern
"Commuting to work. It frightens me how 2 hours of my day are just wasted sitting in a car and doing nothing. That's 10 hours a week, 40 hours a month, 480 hours a year wasted."
- Estbolbotkzn
Money Money Money
"Budgeting."
"I'm fairly meticulous with documenting the money I spend because I know I badly estimate how much money I have or have spent without having it laid out in front of me."
"I was always broke when I first started working because of that."
"So now I take some time each day to document every purchase I made in a spreadsheet that I've been using for a few years now. It is segmented into six month periods and broken down by pay period."
"It took me a while to set it up in a way that consistently worked, but now I know where every bit of money I spend is going."
"I also have my own little tricks that I can play on there where I'm always saving money, at least according to the almighty spreadsheet."
- HaroldSax
Out To Get You
"Having to worry about what's out to get me as an adult. There's just so many things."
"Is the IRS going to audit me someday on a past tax return?"
"Is my health insurance going to f*ck me over by deciding not to cover something when it should?"
"Is someone at my job going to have a bad day where I'm fired over it? And taking the time, if I care to, to fight for it back?"
"So much bullshit to worry about."
- [Reddit]
Moment of honesty, as someone who has worked from home for pretty much a decade - the commute thing kills me EVERY SINGLE TIME I need to go into an office.
It's so much wasted time! Why? This could've been an email, folks...
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I hate Geometry. I always said I never needed Geometry. It was a waste of time. They said I'll use it everyday, it's imperative. Yeah... no. I knew I was right. But I was so nervous about it. Thanks guys.
It's all in Pencil
"Your permanent record. I'm 55, and nobody has ever asked me about the time I was sent to the principal's office when I was 16."
Danger
"Drug dealers. I thought people would force that drugs down my throat untill I was a broke addict. I have been offered it a few times in high school but funny enough they were all very wholesome interactions. My favorite was a guy who I had never spoken to, who had just learned I was chronically ill and he said that if I ever wanted to try anything he would give it to me for free."
"And would help me to do it safely since he knew I didn't do drugs. It was just a very pure moment and I will never forget that look of kindness and concern in his eyes. I've since been around many, many drug dealers (I think everyone in the Netherlands has) and have never been forced, tempted or manipulated to do drugs."
Yuck
"Cannibalism. Was a huge concern in late elementary to early middle school days. It was highly unlikely we'd ever crash in the Andes or that our wagon train would get stuck in the mountains in winter, but for some reason all the kids in my school were concerned about it. Should we eat someone? Could we actually do it if we had to? Who should we eat first? The fat kid will keep, but we don't want the muscular guy to lose too much weight. We were pretty messed up, I'm now realizing."
Easy Lies
"I'm 35 and I am about 90% sure I could just lie about having a bachelor's degree. Literally nobody has ever asked to see my diploma or thesis or anything. By this point in my life it's just assumed you have one if you say you do, especially since I went to a really small college most people have never heard of. They'd never check that unless I was claiming a graduate degree maybe."
Astray...
Let Me Go Love GIF by 3 Doors DownGiphy"Mom warned me to "avoid any girl who wanted to stick her tongue in my mouth ('French kiss') because it would lead me astray."
What better way to be lead astray than a lovely french kiss? Oh la la. And that permanent record scam I caught onto early in life. Although with the internet and social media, that is coming to fruition.
Movie Lies
hey arnold nicksplat GIFGiphy"Apart from infamous quicksand, I thought it would be a bigger problem being stuck in the alps and having to drink alcohol from a Saint Bernard's necklace."
Don't Swallow!
"Swallowing chewing gum."
"When I was 5, I did that many times and ended up with terrible constipation. I had to have X-rays for the doctors to check out what was going on. Our neighbor was a nurse and helped my parents give me an enema."
Flames...
"My school made me believe that I would be set on fire frequently. It has obviously not happened yet."
- hmm-mm-m
"My 50-year-old dad actually got set on fire not too long ago and he said his first reaction was to stop drop and roll like he heard in grade school and that it worked. So it may not happen very often but someday you may be thankful."
- aaronis1
"It doesn't help when you are covered in a flammable, self-oxygenating liquid. Ask me how I know..."
Good job, Mom!
"My parents both smoked before having kids, and my mom raised me on stories about how the first time she smoked a cigarette, she coughed so badly that she threw up. It made staying away from smoking cigarettes pretty easy, because I didn't want to puke!"
"Once I was in college I brought up the story to her and she blinked like an owl caught in the sunlight. "Wait, you believed me?" She said. "I was just trying to get you to not smoke. If smoking made me vomit, why do you think I smoked for 15 years?" Good job, Mom!"
All Hours
i hate everything lol GIFGiphy"My mom was obsessed with the idea that all bad sh*t only happened after midnight so that was my iron clad curfew. Guess what Mom? A ton of bad stuff has happened to me in broad daylight."
I love the night, always will. You learn the day is just as dangerous once you start watching DATELINE NBC type shows. Thanks for trying adults. Now relax a bit.
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