17 People Shared Childhood Stories of How Adults Really Disappointed Them

Adults often violate the fragile boundaries of children and upset them. However, when we grow up, we often make the same mistakes with our own children. We are absolutely sure that many mistakes in the relationships between adults and children can be avoided if we look at the situation from a different angle. Hopefully, the following stories will help do that.

• In my family, nobody understood what personal boundaries were. I shared my room with my younger sister and my mom never let me close the door. There was no lock in the bathroom door and my grandmother could just come into the bathroom to take soap, detergent, or do something else. When I wanted to talk on the phone, I spoke quietly, but my mom would ask, “Who are you talking to?” At the age of 12, I started a diary and, a few months later, my mom wanted to talk to me. She had my diary in her hands. I felt terrible because I thought she knew everything about me. She opened a random page, and asked me, “Who taught you to write the ’T’ like this?” But now I think about how she read everything that was in there, but she was worried about my writing instead of my personal issues. © strongasf**k / Pikabu

• When I was little, my kindergarten class went for a walk. I found a green heart made of glass. It was really beautiful. I don’t know if it was valuable, but I went up to the teacher and showed her my finding. She said, “Give it to me, or you’ll lose it. When your mom picks you up, I’ll give it to her.” In the afternoon, my mom came, and I told her about what I had found. But the teacher said, “She found a piece of green glass, I threw it away.” Luka13 / Pikabu

• When I was 15-16 years old, my mom came back home from work and told me she had a surprise for me. I was ecstatic when she gave me a stray puppy — he had huge paws, curly fur, and he was just a regular stray dog. We spent the entire summer in the nearest forest, where I taught him commands and played with him. But soon after that, my mom told me that she had really gotten the puppy for my cousin. She said that I was supposed to realize how stupid it was to keep a non-purebred dog in an apartment. I remember sitting with my puppy in the forest hugging him and crying while he licked my cheeks. In the evening, my cousin came by and took my dog away. © OlgaOlgina / Pikabu

• My father always knows best. Here’s a situation from my childhood: we were eating soup and I didn’t add any sour cream to it. My father said, “Put the sour cream in, it’s better that way.” I said I didn’t like it that way. He repeated, “Put the sour cream in!” I said, “I don’t want to.” Then, my dad licked his spoon and hit me on the forehead. Now, I’m 40 years old and, even though they didn’t beat me, when my parents call me, I will find a myriad of reasons not to go to their place because they still treat me like a child. © Dr.Fa / Pikabu
• We never celebrated my birthdays and I always inherited things from my sister. But at the age of 9 or 10, something amazing happened: my parents bought me a big pack of markers. I started to draw. For a whole year, I created a city with a lot of families. They had houses, furniture, pets. All of them had professions, salaries, and there were prices for products. It was like The Sims but on paper. At about the same time, I went to a classmate’s birthday party, and they gave me a notebook with seashells. I started writing a story about a girl who lived in an underwater kingdom. Then, one day, I returned home and found that my mom had been cleaning. All my things — including the markers, the notebook, and the city I had created — were thrown into the dumpster. I never got attached to toys after that. © Nechainka / Pikabu

• I got over my parents never knocking on my bedroom door. But it happened when I was 20. My mother knew I was alone with my boyfriend, but she quickly opened the door, saw us, and said, “Guys, do you want beef or fish for dinner?” © Karteneya / Pikabu
• A boy on the street insulted my brother and I used a bad word to call him out. My brother told my parents and they punished me. I remember crying and being really upset. I was protecting him! © Sofia Nikitina / Facebook
• My dad took me out for ice cream and then left me at the airport alone to fly off to his new wife. My 7-year-old sister was with me. He called a family friend after he went through security to pick us up. He told us not to tell our mom because he owed a couple of thousands in child support, and he was afraid she’d stop him. I broke down as soon as I got home and told her. © FillinThaBlank / Reddit
• When I was in 1st grade, I drew a girl during class. The teacher attached the picture to my back and made me stand in front of the class like that. 40 years later, I still remember that day, even though I still love drawing. © Elena Sereda / Facebook
• When my wife was a child, she was looking forward to her birthday present. And her parents delivered: they gave her a big box with big, beautiful silk bows in front of everyone on the street. She was happily opening the beautiful box hoping there was an amazing present inside. And in the box... there was an old, dirty, one-eyed doll picked up from the nearest dumpster. She was incredibly disappointed. She started to cry holding the dirty doll while her parents laughed... And then they gave her the real new doll. They got what she wanted — she was shocked. But she never liked the new doll. She washed the poor, old one, and loved her instead. © Lobastik / Pikabu

• I still remember that day and how I felt. We weren’t a rich family, sometimes we had no money to eat. It was around Christmas time and I went to kindergarten, of course, there was a Christmas tree there and a Santa Claus. At the end of the celebration, all the kids got presents except for me: as if my parents hadn’t paid the money for me. My sister took me home, and I was crying. The next day, my mom went to the kindergarten to ask why I hadn’t received a present. It turned out that the nurse had lost the money my mom had paid for my present. After the holidays, she apologized to me and gave me my present. But I could never forget the humiliation I felt when I was the only one without a present. © Overheard / ideer
• I remember I wrote a sad poem about love. I wasn’t even a teenager yet. I showed it to my mom. She started reading it with a mocking voice; it was like a slap in the face. After that, I promised myself not to show my poems to people close to me. © Tatyana Pisareva / AdMe
• As a child, I hated going to school and kindergarten. The teachers and principal mistook my childlike behavior and social awkwardness for being psychotic and stupid. So I was isolated a lot from other kids in my class. My kindergarten teacher literally had my desk faced against a wall away from the other kids despite me doing nothing wrong. So, I was always told by both parents how weird I was. It seemed my mom always wanted me to be like those girly popular kids in my grade she liked so much. Because of this, by the time I reached puberty, I had already gained a lot of weight from overeating and inactivity. Later, my suicidal tendencies and a new eating disorder (anorexia) lasted all the way through high school. I was only able to fix my problems when I finished school and moved to a different country. © Anonymous / Quora

• My dad would make me feel terrible for giving me anything. It’s like he’d make me beg. We were poor, so the money we had usually went to his habits. So he would make me praise him, and he’d make me feel so guilty for needing money, even if it was for food. It made it so I can’t ask anyone for anything. My anxiety goes through the roof. © Praise_Bob_Dobbs / Reddit
• I remember, when I was 11 years old, I came home and saw a giant dinosaur. It was as tall as me at the time. I circled around it for 2 hours, and I even wanted to unwrap it, but I decided to wait. My mom came home and gave the dinosaur to the 6-month-old child of her friend — that had barely learned to sit straight right — in front of my eyes. I was so upset; I made my mom promise she would buy a big toy for me. I’m 25 years old now, and, of course, I never got the toy. But when I was in my last year of college, I told this story to a professor, and 2 days later, she gave me a toy. It wasn’t very big, but it was much bigger than anything I’ve ever had. © Bezynazap / Pikabu

• I got kinda chubby in my teens and I had this one pair of pants that looked ok-ish on me in contrast to most of my pants. My mom threw them away because at the time I had had them for a couple years. My self-esteem was not the same since then. © countess_cat / Reddit
• I was sick for a year and a half; no doctor could figure out why I was in pain. My dad told me that I’m wasting all his money because my “sickness was all in my head.” I’m having a hysterectomy next month because the “sickness” was endometriosis that spread and keeps coming back. © Qu33nM4ry / Reddit
• When I was 16 years old, I chatted with my boyfriend, with kisses and cute pictures. One day, I left my phone in the kitchen and when I came back, Grandma and Mom were all over me, and they said, “It’s indecent to write that to boys.” And the fact that you can’t read other people’s correspondence was normal for them.

Did your parents do something that made you really disappointed with them? What mistakes are you trying to avoid with your children?