Let’s face it: kids do stupid things. We’re all guilty of it.
I did a lot of stupid things as a child. Once, I drank kerosene out of a kerosene lamp, presumably to see what would happen (hint: what happened involved the emergency room).
Sometimes, as kids, we do something that’s more than stupid; it’s really wrong and f*cked up. Those are the things that people regret doing when they look back on it.
Plenty of Redditors came name the things they did as children that they now regret, and they’re more than happy to share.
It all started when Redditor blazed_toucan asked:
“What f*cked up thing did you do as a kid?”
Unfaithful
"In 7th grade my best friend asked me if I would go and ask the boy she liked if he liked her and if he would go out with her."
"I went over and asked him if he liked her, he said no, then I asked if he liked me, he said yes, and then I asked him to be my boyfriend, he said yes."
"Then I went right back to my friend and told her that he didn't like her, but that he liked me and was now my boyfriend."
"I don't know why I did that."
– Deleted User
"I did a similar thing. My friend had a boyfriend. So I thought it was cool to like him even if I didn’t. I asked him whenever he was done being her boyfriend if he’d want to be mine. He dumped her and started “dating” me. We were in the 3rd grade. I never understood why she was mad at me. I was such an idiot."
– borntodyechaney
Prank Gone Wrong
"I thought it would be a great practical joke to bury a corn holder, small handle with two sharp prongs to hold corn on the cob, pointy side up in my yard and wait for someone to step on it. Of course, being a kid after all, I lost interest after a time and forgot. Sometime later in the summer, while walking bare foot, yes, I stepped on it. F*ck that hurt. Learned a valuable lesson about practical jokes."
– phil8248
Fire!
"When I was 11, my friend and I soaked a tennis ball in gasoline and lit it on fire and with gloves on tossed it around with my friend. Just cause."
"Ended up throwing it to him in an arc and he missed and it slid down his chest, leaving a on fire gasoline trail on his shirt. Had 1st degree burns and we really got in trouble for that one."
– TriscuitCracker
Absolute Disgust
"Gave my little brother ex-lax and told him it was chocolate when we were under 10. I knew it would give him diarrhea, but I didn’t know how badly. It was f*cked up."
– pettybage
"So I went to Philmont (a huge ranch in New Mexico owned by the Boy Scouts where you can do lots of hiking) this past summer. They have very strict bear policies, meant to prevent any kind of negative encounter with a bear. Ie, don't try to feed the bears, clean up your trash, hang your bear bags correctly. If you don't follow these rules, they will send you home, as a bear that knows it can find food around humans is a danger to both the bear and the humans."
"We were talking with some of the staff one day about bears and stuff, and one of them told us about an incident involving ex-lax. Now they recommend you bring something like ex-lax with you in the first aid kit, since it's fairly common for scouts to get constipated. The diet the feed you is probably very different from what you'd eat at home."
"Anyway, there was a troop a number of years back that had brought way more ex-lax than they needed to. So what did they do with it? Instead of leaving it in the locker at base camp, they made a "pie" out of it on like the third day on the trail. There had been a bear in the area, and they knew that, so they left the "pie" out to try to lure the bear in so they could see it. The adults in the troop were completely on board with the idea, too."
"Of course, with its super strong sense of smell, the bear found it. Unfortunately, the bear decided it liked the "pie" and followed them for the next few days, sh*tting runny diarrhea the entire time. Bear poop smells bad to begin with, but bear diarrhea is even worse. Finally, after like three or four days following them, the bear tore into everyone's backpacks overnight, destroying everything."
"After coming clean to staff about what happened, they got kicked off the trail, Philmont placed a permanent ban on their troop (their troop could never go to Philmont again), Philmont had to call in the State game wardens to kill the bear, because it was too comfortable around people, and the troop leaders were charged with bear baiting, which is a felony. So all in all, not a good day for anyone involved."
– a_lonely_trash_bag
The Dangers Of Book Fairs
"I tried to poison my mom's boyfriend. I was probably around 11. I had one of those science kits from the Scholastic book fair. I took the citric acid and dumped the whole container into his drink. He sipped it and just said, "this tastes like sh*t" and dumped it out lol"
– Zipperpants
"This made me laugh. Imagine being so happy you're going to kill the person you hate, just to watch them pour out your hard work and planning."
– Spacemage
That Backfired Terribly!
"Dropped a rope out of my second story window, tied it to a plastic tricycle, asked my neighbor if he wanted to go for a ride, and lifted him up to the window with the help of my brother and sister. Then we dropped him, and caught the rope before he hit the ground. It was stupid, but none of us had parents responsible enough to watch us or teach us anything."
– screwylouidooey
"Did he get hurt??"
– theshammy123
"Nope. Luckily we managed to catch the rope in time. We used to attempt to parachute off the roof of an abandoned garage with trash bags too. I was hospitalized trying to ride a bicycle on a downhill road in the middle of winter once as well."
"My siblings and I were put in foster care shortly after the window incident."
– screwylouidooey
Watch What You Drink
"I made my brother and his friends a jug of kool-aid with water from the toilet"
– basillemonaid
"Some friends drank some spilled cola out of the ground because they believed it would gave them superpowers. Long story short, they did not get superpowers."
– Ohmnonymous
This Is Kind Of Sweet
"I helped a Jewish kid steal a Christmas tree. He complained his family never had a Christmas tree"
– Redkachowski
"I feel like this could be the plot of a movie."
– birdwalk
Ouch, Ouch, Ouch!
"My cousin and I were like 7ish or so and playing upstairs in a room by ourselves. My aunt left her sewing machine in there ready to go. We were fascinated by how fast the needle moved up and down when we stepped on the foot pedal. Then we had the idea to see who could get their finger out of the way before the needle started moving. He went. Safe. I went. Safe. He went. Blood shot out and screaming commenced."
– DaShMa_
The Value Was Lost On Them
"When I was eight, I stole my fathers nickel collection and spent it on penny candy"
– Zerotits
"Oh damn, this made me remember something. When I was little, I took my dad's stamp collection, thinking they were stickers, and placed them all over the house; doors, wardrobes, walls, drawers. My dad was pissed."
– Hobbit-guy
"At least you got something for it. When I was a kid I did the same but with my mom's small collection of Sacagawea Dollar coins. Traded them to a kid in my neighborhood for Pokemon cards."
– TaurineLine719
Wonder How Well That Went Over
"Went to the cinema dressed as a ninja for attention"
– aloiuym97
"How were you supposed to get attention if nobody could see you?"
– Daafda
Talk About FOMO
"My parents used to my peel apples because kids can have trouble swallowing and chewing the skin. I was upset I wasn’t allowed it and when they weren’t looking I took the skin out of the garbage and ate it."
– Aislinn19
"You showed them!"
– em_square_root_-1_ly
Revenge Of The Bullied
"When I was in first grade a girl wouldn’t let me in her club. So the next morning our teacher took away her sunglasses because she was wearing them during class. During recess I snuck into the classroom and placed the sunglasses in the girl’s desk. Then I told the teacher when we got back that I saw her take her sunglasses back during recess."
"My teacher believed me, the girl denied it. The teacher pushed down her desk and the sunglasses were there. She got in trouble for not only stealing but for lying about it. No one ever found out it was me all along."
"And that is just one story of why I am going to hell!"
– Deleted User
"There was a kid name Jeff that was a real a**hole in 5th grade and I went to the bathroom and wrote"
""F*ck" -Jeff"
"On the bathroom door and a grown up actually fell for it or didn't give a sh*t because Jeff was a d*ck either way he went down for it"
– heanbangerfacerip2
I Was Just Making A Promise!
"My sister told me flipping the middle finger was "swearing at God" when I was around 5, and I thought she meant "swearing TO God", as in it's something you're supposed to do when you made promises. My a** was walking around church with my middle finger up till some kind older teenager finally gently told me to put it away."
– TserTaAbmet
I can’t stop laughing at that last one!
Do you have any stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.
People Break Down The Most Messed Up Thing Their Classmates Did In School
Not everyone's maturity level belied their age back in school.
But as adults looking back on the wild activities of our rambunctious classmates in retrospect, what may have been considered funny back then may not have been as hilarious as we once thought.
Curious to explore this notion, Redditor Silent-Zebra asked:
"What's something that a friend/classmate did in high school that was seen as funny at the time, but you now realise was actually not ok?"

Teachers became the victims.
Car On Fire
"Few messed up kids in my primary school lit a teachers car on fire, just because she gave one of them failing grade on midterm. It wasn't one of the mean teachers, she was mostly nice to students."
"Cops got involved but don't think they got punished accordingly, i know one of them was in and out of juvie already, and were all around 13- 14yr old, one was even in nazi sh*t. I know later on those kids got all tangled in dealing and robberies, probably all went to jail at some point."
– spooch001
Into The Cupboard She Goes
"Our religion teacher went into the cupboard for supplies, she was quite strict and not liked but now I’m an adult I realise it doesn’t excuse what happened next. The class clown snuck up and locked her in the cupboard."
"We all thought it was hilarious at the time and we all left the class. She was in there for the rest of the class until another teacher found her in there crying an hour later. She took 2 weeks off after that."
– usernamegenerator98
The Awful Rumor
"I had a Spanish teacher, Ms. G."
"EDIT: This was in Arizona. I found her full name in a yearbook because I had her sign mine in 2008. I’m not sure I should put her name out there, but I’m guessing she’s retired now. She doesn’t have a Facebook either. 😔"
"Students would lock her out of her classroom, unplug her computer, and they spread an awful rumor that she was having sex with another woman teacher in front of a classroom."
"She got locked out because a student came back from the restroom and said her car was hit in the parking lot. She ran out and then a kid locked her out. A few kids unlocked the door for her, but that was really sad."
"This teacher was so kind hearted, soft, and an excellent Spanish teacher. It was really sad what students put the teachers through. 😢"
– cakelover33
Bullying The Teacher
"In our school there was a teacher who had a mole, so of course the kids decided her nickname would now be 'mole.' She must have felt really hurt, as she eventually had the mole removed, leaving a little dent where it used to be. Did everyone then stop calling her names? Nope. They started calling her 'hole' instead."
– bemmu
People didn't know what to believe.
The Kidnapping
"My friend faked her own kidnapping. i was all fun and games until the police started chasing her 'kidnappers' van."
– AvocaDotty
These Low Effort Jobs Have Surprisingly High Salaries | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Have you ever worked one of those jobs that paid you to kinda sit there? If you have, you know the joy that comes with watching the entirety of Breaking Bad ...Showing The Goods
"Living in the Netherlands. Classmate was showing on his phone a whole online shop he claimed to have with all kinds of drugs and weapons. We thought it was funny because we didn't take it too serious. He dropped out of school early and turned out to be a big drug dealer. Well we could have known I guess."
– Environmental-Cold24
Kids can be so cruel.
Paralyzing A Kid
"Had a kid in my year who'd had a surgery that left a nerve bundle in his neck exposed. If pressed it would paralyse him. From memory it was for spina bifida and for some ungodly reason he told everyone."
"Certain boys took great pleasure in going down stairs behind him and pressing it which completely paralysed him for a few seconds and he'd fall like a brick. Usually onto whoever was in front of him."
"So dangerous. There were a fair few teeth knocked out because of this, his and other people's."
"It happened so much that in his 3rd year the school installed an elevator and you had to have a special key to use it. He got the only permanent issue key at that time."
"Kids are a**holes."
– notalotasleep
The Towel
"A kid took another kids towel after gym class shower. He used the other kids towel to dry his ass. Put a sh*t stain on the towel 3 foot long. Lots of nervous laughter because we were glad it wasn’t our towel. Sick bastard."
– Realitycheck-4u
Bye Bye Bike
"this was in elementary: my dad bought a brand new bike for me and i rode it to the park and these older kids came up to me and asked if one of them could take it for a test drive."
"i said ok and about 10 seconds in, i see the guy riding my bike being pushed off and my bike being stolen right in front of me. the older kids 'helped' me look for my stolen bike but growing up I realized that they plotted this whole thing and yeah i basically gave my brand new bike away."
– SingaporeanSlaw
It's difficult to imagine that some of these incidents were considered remotely humorous when certain people were targeted for their jokes.
What's not shocking however, are that the ones who came up with the most violent schemes wound up having run-ins with the law later in life.
Bullying in any form, whether online or in person, is not acceptable.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of bullying, there are resources online that Stop Bullying that are helpful.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
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New Mexico Authorities Give Stern Warning To Puppy After It Starts A Fire And Then Causually Sits Back And Watches House Burn
Puppies are widely known for their tendency to cause mischief, but one New Mexico pup named Kahuna outdid himself when he managed to start a fire while his owners were out of the house.
Not only did Kahuna accidentally start a fire, he also calmly sat and watched as the flames grew ever higher.
Nine-month-old Kahuna was investigating, as puppies do, when he jumped up onto a footstool to explore what qas on an ironing board set up in the corner of thr room.
He then knocked over the ironing board, which happened to fall on a furnace vent. The furnace was on and running hot enough to melt some of the plastic that fell on the grate, and it dropped down into the furnace.
Because the furnace was still running, this plastic then ignited and the flames began to spread to nearby objects.
Rather than freaking out as the flames rose ever higher in the corner, as many dogs would do in response to fire and smoke, Kahuna can be seen chilling okn the couch in a video released by Los Alamos County Fire Department.
Paige, Kahuna's older canine companion, doesn't seem too bothered by the fire either. She does eventually have the sense to leave the room, apparently after Kahuna ran away, however.
When the fire department shared the video of the incident on Facebook, most people were shocked but very glad the dogs were okay.
Tanisha Marie/Facebook
Julie Owensby Tolleson
Thankfully, the blaze was stopped before it spread too far.
This story could easily have had a much sadder ending.
Los Alamos County Fire Department also warned of the dangers of placing objects too close to furnace vents in a press release posted Monday.
Combustible items should not be placed within 3 feet of heating vents, or other heat sources, especially when pets will be alone in the house.
Functioning smoke alarms and an easy and well-planned escape route are also important.
The fire department even posted a photo of the culprit himself, finally looking mildly concerned.
The department added some levity to the end of their press release with the idea that Kahuna is:
"expected to be enrolled in dog training or Youth Firesetting Prevention and Intervention classes soon!"
Kahuna may not understand exactly what he did wrong, but his owners certainly do. The fire could easily have gotten much worse before it was extinguished, and could have caused much more damage.
The importance of proper fire safety precautions cannot be overstated.