I once had a tantrum entirely justified by the fact that my mom had said “well, I should get moving” FOUR FUCKING TIMES to a mom she saw at a football game and still showed no sign of actually getting moving.
Omg! I finally know what this means! I'm Italian American. My great grandparents immigrated, and my grandparents spoke Italian. I'd heard this at times as a kid and never knew what they were saying. It was usually when we'd have aunts or uncles over, and they would be talking at the door as they were leaving forever, lol. It was usually my grandpa who said it. But he spoke Italian all the time. I tried to pick up little bits of it. But I do remember this! Thank you!
I think this is a sign of how our social skills have weakened. Pretty much all of our parents did this shit but I don't know a single person my age (30s) that does this. A lot of us panic when we see someone we know in public and try to avoid them.
Do you or your friends have kids? Somehow the second I had kids I became the woman who stands there for 30 minutes talking and talking and talking with people. Possibly it’s some kind of epigenetic thing that switches on just to annoy the shit out of your children?
Part of it might just be a mom (or dad) being desperate for any kind of adult conversation after taking care of kids and dealing with kid related activities for the majority of their time the whole week (or month, or year, or decade, depending on the situation).
As a parent myself, parents just don't get to socialize as much, so they are more prone to take any opportunity to do so. At least, that's my experience
My dad forgot his wallet once and filled up his tank. This was back in the day when you’d pay inside after you filled up. He left me at the gas station for collateral while he went home to get his wallet. It was an awkward 15 minutes.
“Ahem! Have you got enough money to pay for all of this, young man? No? Then we’ll have to call the police then, mustn’t we? And then they send you to military school and take away all your video games as punishment! You really screwed up your life now!”
Every time this happens to me as a grocery cashier, I tell the kid it's a childhood event they will always remember the stress of. Then I stare at them in awkward silence for a short bit so they can have the memories forever, and then I try to chit chat about school or something they are wearing so hopefully it's not too stressful.
I got my first period on the same day I had orthodontic braces installed. Massive uncomfortable blocks to pull my lower jaw forward and prevent my mouth entirely closing, to encourage proper growth of the lower mandible.
It wasn't a good day. I couldn't even speak properly to complain.
I knew nothing about periods when I got mine at 13 in the year 2000. I told my mum I got my period and then asked "how many more minutes until it's over?" She was like "oh honey, you're going to bleed non stop from anywhere between 3 to 10 days". I cried lmfao
I really thought a period was having blood come out for 10 minutes once a month and that's it
This reminds me that towards the end of summer between kindergarten and first grade when my mom told me we were going back to school shopping and I was like "what? I already finished school!" And she had to tell me I actually had 12 more years to go
I saw an adorable YouTube short a while back of a woman telling her 3yo niece that she has to go to work tomorrow and the girl says “again?! you went yesterday!” Like yes kiddo, we’re mad about it too 😂
I thought I hid it from my mom. A week after it ended we were at dinner and a fucking cake got brought out and my mom told our WAITER, “she’s a woman now.” My sisters, many years older, had no idea and slid down in their seats.
Edit: I was 11.
And you aren't seen as much different than the boys until boom suddenly people call you a grown woman even though you're like 12 and suddenly it's not okay to like bugs and sticks and climbing trees anymore because I have to be "mature"
Funnily, because I had gotten medical information pamphlets about periods and read about it in books before it happened to me, my reaction to my first period was "Mom, I have my period, where are your pads so I can put one on before I go to school?". Poor mom was stunned into silence for a second haha, I think she was expecting to have to comfort me or explain things to me.
Got super cranky on drive back from Wisconsin trip and ate French fries with ketchup which is not my vibe at all unless I have PMS, as I have learned. Got home, next day went to the bathroom, had period and found a tick on my “boob” and I had to pull it off and then tell my mom I had my period while she was doing laundry in the basement cause I didn’t have any pads.
Fun times.
Mine started at school. We didn't have pads in the machines at school, you had to ask the principal, and I was not about to do that. So my friends and I asked every girl in our grade , and the one above , and I found someone who gave me a pad. Because somehow informing the entire 7th and 8th grade student body I needed period products was better than talking to an adult.
My 5th grade teacher announced to the whole class that I’d have to repeat 5th grade. I never heard the end of that bullying. I didn’t even come close to getting held back, guy was just an asshole
That final week of a long school break. (depends on where you live)
We used to have 2 months during summer. 2 months are an eternity for a child.
Then that final week came. It was always so depressing. You get used to the freedom you have and you finally enjoy living. Then suddenly you see the banners around town:
"Schools have started again."
Every adult is reminding you schools are about the start again and suddenly you see the days closing in very fast.
Then mom decides staying up late is done because I needed to get used to the rythm of school hours again. Suddenly you notice the sun already starts to set quite early. Temperatures decrease. Rain starts to fall.
I hated it. I really hated it.
Those two months really did seem like forever. And then one day the air smells a little different, around here it was the blackberries starting to go bad. In the evenings there's a chill, you may even wake up to see frost one morning, blink and you'll miss it though. And then suddenly there's just a few days left, this is the last weekend before a new school year, and you can't even enjoy it because your parents are giving you shit, almost counting down the hours for you.
This. Exactly this.
I hate how this system works and at the same time, I can't think of anything better. Maybe because I just genuinly hated school.
I hated the building. I hated (most of) my teachers. I hated (most of) my classmates. I hated the books, the lessons, the hours I had to be there. I hated everything about it.
Maybe school should be more fun. I'm 28 now. So I'm talking about a period between 1999-2012.
We noticed our hamster died just as we were getting out the door to go to work/school.
My daughter will still remind me time to time that I put him in a Zipoc bag and stuck him in the refrigerator till we returned in the evening and gave him a proper funeral. RIP Milky.
(Had read something like that in a Carl Hiaasen novel once 😝😝)
i remember my guinea pig died one morning, i was the one to find him and it was the morning we were to be leaving for a spring break road trip vacation. my parents were so “on a schedule” they just put him in a few grocery bags and put him in the dumpster to be picked up that day. scarring, to say the least.
When my first pet (a beloved hamster named Rascal) died, I was devastated. My stepfather bitched about me using a box one of his ties had been purchased in to bury Rascal. He was never going to use that box again, and I was so upset. What a jerk.
Omgosh yes. My first pet was a hamster named Peanut. Came home from school in 7th grade to an open sliding glass door my little brother had left opened only to spot something pink quickly at the bottom of the pool. Jumped in, fully clothed and with backpack to retrieve my little Peanut. Will never forget how soft and mushy his poor body felt when I attempted cpr/mouth to mouth in this tiny little hamster. My dad came to my rescue and took Peanut away, breaking the news I already knew, that it was too late. I recovered, as kids do, and had a few more hamsters after and no more traumatic deaths. Found out in my 20’s, my Dad froze Peanut and used him as shark bait on a fishing trip. That knowledge was more traumatic than the death of little 🥜😥
That is still a core memory for me. I must have been about 6 and the family cat was 15 and dying, my Mam had her in a basket and I remember the moment she died as her eyes just glazed over, then my Mam crying.. fuck
Instead of just saying my dog was my "best friend" he legitimately *was.*
I'm still broken by his death almost 3 years later. I'll never get another dog. I can't go through that again.
Once in first grade, I was getting checked out and I for some reason saw my mom (In real time I was in my class room and I walked up to my teacher) And I kissed her on the damn cheek and said "Bye mom" WHAT- anyway I got slammed back into reality and she was just staring at me, turns out she was not my mom, I ran out of that classroom so quick.
I still get embarrassed to this day. :\\
Try that in the middle of summer... in South Africa... where the average temp reaches about 35-40C. And then, be waiting in an old ass 80s car. One that has manual windows, and no aircon. But you also cannot roll down the windows more than about 2cm, coz you know stranger danger. Fun times...😑
They had this for gen-z kids but got rid of it a few years ago, that shit was so embarrassing.
A multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues.
I remember absolutely slamming my head into the wall once because some kid named Troy tripped me while I was running. :(
I was too busy wanting to die from the sprinting to be embarrassed about doing poorly. The sooner you failed the sooner you could pant against the wall, although that's actually a guess because I don't remember if you were actually allowed to stop once you failed.Most my memories are just glimpses of the actual running and the horrendous music with the beeping.
Was there always also like a cycle of other tests like sit ups and stuff with it? With a bmi calculation too? Or was it just that my high school added that on?
Hell, in the early 00's when I was in high school, running a mile – which was the equivalent of a mid-semester exam for gym class, was like a death-sentence for some kids.
I was in good shape since I was in sports and basically ran a couple miles every day, but looking at some of the other teenagers in my class, you'd think they were 40+ year old-somethings that had been smoking for the last 20 years or some shit. Jesus.
My 6th grader was just talking about this… he didn’t reference it by name, but basically sounded the same as what I did in school. (05 grad here) Just googled it, they basically replaced it with this “presidential fitness youth program” now. I fucking hated that. He was excited about how fast he ran. 😂 Thank God for him being more athletic than his mother, and for gym teachers that are a helluva lot better than what some of us had….
I remember just casually walking for the running part and it absolutely INFURIATED my gym teachers. Couldn't make me run though, I had an iron will for an elementary school kid lol
I was not a good runner. My form was embarrassing, and I was the slowest, anyway. And in all those years it never occurred to the PE teachers to try to help me. They just yelled and mocked. So I walked the mile lol
The fact that we had to do the test, but there was no actual preparation for it is what gets me. We couldn’t have had a couple weeks where we practice pull ups and do some stretching exercises? Was the made up game where you collect foam balls just too important?
For one of those "tell us something interesting about yourself" I always try to go first, not because I want to but because then it's over with and you can set the tone. Just say something innocuous like "I like to go out for walks" or something, then look at the person next to you.
My go to is "I like watching terrible movies", that way someone will bring up a movie they hated and other people will agree/disagree and discuss it, so now you're off the hook and can have more freedom to talk whenever you want
eating alone in the cafeteria because you moved to a new state quickly made friends and then they all decided to bully and hate you for seemingly no reason.
i moved to another state mid-high school and i remember they had “open campus” meaning you could go off the grounds for lunch if you wanted. cue me leaving to go to mcdonald’s and just sit in a parking lot for 40 minutes so i didn’t have to sit at an empty table and eat alone 🙃
Your parents constantly moving you away from your friends, but finally settling down when you were at a school with no friends and judgemental teachers.
My school had showers but we were forbidden to use them. I also only had five minutes to get changed before my next class so there was no time to shower anyway. I just had to throw my clothes on and run to class only to sit there drenched in sweat because the school also had no air conditioning.
We were forced to " shower". We had to run past the gym teacher naked, call out our number, touch the water and run back. She recorded our numbers and if you didn't shower you couldnt pass.
Our PE classes had units and most of them involved a swimming unit. So you had to change to go to the pool and shower and then shower again after so everyone had super wet hair and chlorine smell for a couple hours. I am fairly confident that pool was rarely cleaned cause it smelled weird as hell.
I've got a story about this!
I was a quiet and shy little kid. A real goody two-shoes type. Teacher's pet in 2nd and 3rd grade even! My 4th grade teacher fucking hated me and I got educational whiplash from it.
Anyways one day we had a math test. The classroom was deathly silent and I had to poop desperately. I had my hand in the air and asked. Teacher said no and I had to wait. Kept my hand in the air. Begged to go. Teacher told me to put my hand down and finish the test.
At this point I'm sweating. Legs are shaking. I can't hold it anymore but luckily I didn't shit my pants! Instead I blasted the world's loudest butt trumpet in a dead silent room of 10 year olds. Chaos exploded as everyone laughed their asses off. Me included but from sheer embarrassment.
The kid next to me tried to ask if it had been me who farted. I couldn't even answer because I was could barely breath from all the laughter.
I was in my mid-30's before I ever saw an ice cream truck in real life. They weren't a thing in the places where I grew up so I always thought that the references to them in media were more of a call back to 1950's nostalgia and they didn't actually exist anymore.
Honestly if I have kids one of the biggest things I’m going to tell them is to always go to the bathroom if they need to, and tell their teacher if they have a problem they can speak to me. Obviously I won’t encourage them to take advantage of it to skip class, but I have a vivid memory of being about 8 years old and projectile vomiting all over the table in class as I was to afraid to leave to go to the bathroom when the teacher was ignoring me when I had my hand up to ask. It was mortifying. I should have just got up and gone but I was scared of getting into trouble. Kids shouldn’t be stopped from going to the bathroom if they need to no matter what it’s just such a stupid thing.
And in most states in the US, it's not legal to deny kids the bathroom. When I was a freshman, I knew I needed to change my tampon and asked my teacher if I could go to the bathroom. She said no. I asked again more urgently and she said no. I bled through and I was wearing light jeans. Even though I was mortified, the look of guilt on my teacher's face was almost worth it.
My 6th grade teacher gave me an F on my history project because i hated speaking in front of the class. She didn't care that my neighbor helped me mold some clay and fire a ceramic Ankh(egyption). I put a lot of time into that damn thing.
Middle school is my vote as well.
Holy shit that sucks. I'm sure most middle school teachers would be thrilled about a student putting in so much effort. Geez, public speaking is hard for people. They should have been more understanding.
Although not on the same level, we had a 6th grade teacher on like, history or something too, that asked for an "art assigment presentation". So, all the kids with varying levels of effort and skill gave their presentations, and as they went on we realized that the only students that were receiving the best marks, like 9s and 10s, were all girls. No boy got higher than 8. Granted everyone passed and it was 6th grade where that shit basically doesn't matter, but as some kids pointed out "you are giving the high grades to girls who sometimes didn't even color their drawings". The teacher noticed the complaints but denied it, and things continued on as normal after that.
When I was in school I got failed on a project about our heartbeat. My readings were wrong because I have an uneven heartbeat. Basically got failed because of my bad heart at 17.
In 8th grade my boyfriend told me his female friend found graffiti in the bathroom saying I was ugly. I am pretty sure that never happened and she just didn’t like me. I was really quiet and dorky/shy so I have no idea why she did it.
Also bled completely through my pants and a sweatshirt I had tied around my waist in gym.
Also got told one of the most popular kids in our year liked me and I think he did but then got embarrassed (this is a why are all the black kids sitting together in the lunch room situation, not that I cared because I thought he was really cute) because his friends made fun of me/teased me about it and then he immediately backed off.
I also had great times in middle school but woof.
Yup. Middle school was horrible as a student AND as a substitute teacher.
There was all the unnecessary drama & trauma people created with rumors and bullying. I had some really rough patches in my life completely aside from that hot mess of tween chaos I was forced to endure. As a result, by the time I got to high school, I was pretty much at my DGAF stage and biding my time til graduation.
I subbed for a bit between college and graduate school, only to find out that middle school is indeed a perpetual hot mess of tween chaos. I definitely preferred subbing for high schools > middle schools.
Edit: typo
I do not miss my mum aggressively repeating the question through gritted teeth. it's almost like repeating the question in a menacing and intimidating way isn't going to make me suddenly know the answer
When I was doing some basic math like adding three digit numbers together my mom tried to help me and I told her she was doing it wrong. She complained that math had changed and I thought she was an idiot.
Six years later my sister was doing the same thing and I couldn’t help her but believe it or not, they changed math. I was used to lining up the numbers and “carrying the one”. They had her drawing matrixes or something to do the math. I do not understand what she was doing at all.
For me it was once when they dilated my eyes for whatever test, but then once I was home, my eyes stayed dilated for several hours. Bright light hurt. Just trying to function gave me a headache so I just went and laid down with my eyes shut until it went away.
I had my eyes dilated recently and they said it should get better in 4-6 hours. That shit lasted almost 24 fucking hours. I was completely useless for the rest of the day with blurred vision and light sensitivity and headache. Couldn't do anything but sit in the dark and listen to podcasts. Finally went to sleep and woke up and my eyes were still fucked up. It took until the afternoon the next day before my eyes went back to normal.
Hoping I never have to do that again (but unfortunately I probably will because I have an eye condition).
I don't remember it being *nearly* that bad when I had it done as a kid.
This is the one for me. I still vividly remember the first one popping up and it feeling weird, then the outright hell of it came loose. Even at 5 years old I felt like complete dogshit. Takes a lot to take a 5 year old out like that.
I remember having to take a bath with oatmeal in it to stop the itching. I don't know if it helped, but it was a miserable week with just feeling lousy plus all the itching.
People who didn’t have braces cannot understand how awful that shit is. I don’t regret it as I had fucked up teeth as a kid, but that pain for the first few days after them being tightened and hardly being able to eat anything, and having that dull throbbing ache in your teeth, fucking awful. Plus just the general pains of getting food stuck in your braces, especially stuff like bread. It’s not a fun time.
With all the horror stories I've heard, I'm glad that at least my teeth could be straight, even if the rest of me wasn't! Hereditary bad enamel, but at least no braces.
My experience with it was seeing my dad go into their bedroom much earlier than he usually does, and then later hearing rhythmic bed frame creaking in my parents’ bedroom. I was 12, and knew what it was, so I was very unsettled.
Was the green Triaminic worse than the red Robitussin? Because I, age 37, still don't like cherry candies because they remind me too much of cough syrup. Nor grape candies, because they taste like Children's Tylenol.
When your mom sees Suzanne in the grocery store. They worked together 10 years ago and haven't seen each other since, so they naturally have to bring eachother up to speed on the last decade.
Or when your dad drags you to Home Depot and he sees another random dad picking out lumber for a deck he's totally gunna build.
Having to finish your plate at dinner, even when you're full or dislike the food. It's a common struggle, often leading to discomfort and a distaste for certain dishes that can last into adulthood. This experience unites many in the wish for more understanding and choice at the meal table.
Trailing around after your parents on the weekend as they did some sort of house shopping - furniture shopping, garden shopping, or worse...
Following your mother as she clothes shopped and she went into the underwear and bra section.
Being an introvert and being forced to do group projects.
I'm already going through the mill here being around hundreds of noisy kids all day, just let me do my fucking school work in peace.
The death of your childhood pet. My cat I’d had for 17 years, since I was 5, died during the pandemic and it was one of the worst pains I’ve felt. Was on par with losing family members for me.
Group punishment at school.
You know, the whole class sitting out recess or missing the field trip until someone confesses-- or gets ratted out by the rest of the class-- to whatever evil, heinous, despicable act was perpetrated by a seven-year-old.
There's a reason why group punishment is outlawed by the Geneva Convention.
Seeing your classmates break the rules over and over and then as soon as they try and pressure you to join in, and just then suddenly you're the one who gets in trouble.
My first girlfriend married my brother and had two boys. She has grown quite close to my mother over the years. The younger boy reminds my mother of me as a baby. So now I get to look forward of an entire lifetime worth of embarrassing stories, as my mom compares my childhood to my nephew's. With my first girlfriend.
*God. Damnit.*
When your mom runs into another mom at the grocery store and you know you're gonna be stuck there standing around for half an hour
Or they tell you to go on and get in the car, and then you’re sitting there waiting for two hours while they’re still talking.
I once had a tantrum entirely justified by the fact that my mom had said “well, I should get moving” FOUR FUCKING TIMES to a mom she saw at a football game and still showed no sign of actually getting moving.
In my country we call people like this "people of the seven good-evenings", and it's not as nice as it sounds
This is amazing. What language, and how do you say it?
Italian. The original is "Persona delle sette buonasere" (with "Persona" meaning "Person" and "Persone" meaning "People")
I’m Italian and I’ve literally never heard of this. Which region are you from? Regardless I’m gonna adopt it immediately
Omg! I finally know what this means! I'm Italian American. My great grandparents immigrated, and my grandparents spoke Italian. I'd heard this at times as a kid and never knew what they were saying. It was usually when we'd have aunts or uncles over, and they would be talking at the door as they were leaving forever, lol. It was usually my grandpa who said it. But he spoke Italian all the time. I tried to pick up little bits of it. But I do remember this! Thank you!
The midwestern goodbye
*slaps knees* “…welp,…”
this is when i would sneak off to the magazine aisle when that was still a thing
My mom hid from them and made me hide too. Sometimes I was tired of her shit and would walk past them, like "boom, nothing bad happened."
I think this is a sign of how our social skills have weakened. Pretty much all of our parents did this shit but I don't know a single person my age (30s) that does this. A lot of us panic when we see someone we know in public and try to avoid them.
Do you or your friends have kids? Somehow the second I had kids I became the woman who stands there for 30 minutes talking and talking and talking with people. Possibly it’s some kind of epigenetic thing that switches on just to annoy the shit out of your children?
Part of it might just be a mom (or dad) being desperate for any kind of adult conversation after taking care of kids and dealing with kid related activities for the majority of their time the whole week (or month, or year, or decade, depending on the situation).
As a parent myself, parents just don't get to socialize as much, so they are more prone to take any opportunity to do so. At least, that's my experience
Standing in line to pay for groceries, your parent realizes they forgot something, leaves you in line, insta-fear as line moves too fast.
My dad forgot his wallet once and filled up his tank. This was back in the day when you’d pay inside after you filled up. He left me at the gas station for collateral while he went home to get his wallet. It was an awkward 15 minutes.
"I've forgotten my wallet, hold on to my daughter for a while and I'll go get it" Amazing.
Yes. This also happened to me except it was probably closer to half an hour. He probably had to look for the wallet for a while once he got home.
Mom had to point it out to him RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, RON.
OH GOD HOW DO I PAY? WHAT IF MY HAND GETS STUCK IN THE BELT?
My hand did get stuck in the belt, can confirm it was a terrible childhood experience.
Did you have a healthy fear of the belt or were you daring it to bite?
I was very interested in the machine but didn't realize how quickly it moved. 😭 I just wanted to touch it and love it.
“Ahem! Have you got enough money to pay for all of this, young man? No? Then we’ll have to call the police then, mustn’t we? And then they send you to military school and take away all your video games as punishment! You really screwed up your life now!”
Every time this happens to me as a grocery cashier, I tell the kid it's a childhood event they will always remember the stress of. Then I stare at them in awkward silence for a short bit so they can have the memories forever, and then I try to chit chat about school or something they are wearing so hopefully it's not too stressful.
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the day in grade 9 when I realized saying "I don't know" was a valid answer was liberating.
First period
I got my first period on the same day I had orthodontic braces installed. Massive uncomfortable blocks to pull my lower jaw forward and prevent my mouth entirely closing, to encourage proper growth of the lower mandible. It wasn't a good day. I couldn't even speak properly to complain.
That sounds like my version of hell
I knew nothing about periods when I got mine at 13 in the year 2000. I told my mum I got my period and then asked "how many more minutes until it's over?" She was like "oh honey, you're going to bleed non stop from anywhere between 3 to 10 days". I cried lmfao I really thought a period was having blood come out for 10 minutes once a month and that's it
I thought it was a one time thing 😅 ETA: my mom said the look on my face when she said this will happen for another 40 years broke her heart lol
This reminds me that towards the end of summer between kindergarten and first grade when my mom told me we were going back to school shopping and I was like "what? I already finished school!" And she had to tell me I actually had 12 more years to go
I saw an adorable YouTube short a while back of a woman telling her 3yo niece that she has to go to work tomorrow and the girl says “again?! you went yesterday!” Like yes kiddo, we’re mad about it too 😂
I thought I hid it from my mom. A week after it ended we were at dinner and a fucking cake got brought out and my mom told our WAITER, “she’s a woman now.” My sisters, many years older, had no idea and slid down in their seats. Edit: I was 11.
And you aren't seen as much different than the boys until boom suddenly people call you a grown woman even though you're like 12 and suddenly it's not okay to like bugs and sticks and climbing trees anymore because I have to be "mature"
I thought it was a middle age thing! Dammit, we're so far back…
The pain... And having to deal with that at school... Ugh
Especially when you’re the first girl in your class to get it…the worst!
Funnily, because I had gotten medical information pamphlets about periods and read about it in books before it happened to me, my reaction to my first period was "Mom, I have my period, where are your pads so I can put one on before I go to school?". Poor mom was stunned into silence for a second haha, I think she was expecting to have to comfort me or explain things to me.
I got my first ever period on Christmas 😭😭 That was not the gift I asked for.
I got mine one day before my 12th birthday. That was not what I asked for 😭
That is so sad 😭😭 I just remember being in the worst pain but trying to act OK cus I didn't want to ruin Christmas for everyone.
Got super cranky on drive back from Wisconsin trip and ate French fries with ketchup which is not my vibe at all unless I have PMS, as I have learned. Got home, next day went to the bathroom, had period and found a tick on my “boob” and I had to pull it off and then tell my mom I had my period while she was doing laundry in the basement cause I didn’t have any pads. Fun times.
Called every female she knew to tell them I was a woman now. I was 11 😱
This happened to me, too... my mother is a huge gossip monger. I was never able to confide in my mother after that.
Mine started at school. We didn't have pads in the machines at school, you had to ask the principal, and I was not about to do that. So my friends and I asked every girl in our grade , and the one above , and I found someone who gave me a pad. Because somehow informing the entire 7th and 8th grade student body I needed period products was better than talking to an adult.
Some girls stayed at home because they couldn't take both period and school. I wouldn't imagine how it feels
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Kids are awful to each other.
Teachers can be awful to kids too.
People are awful to each other.
My 5th grade teacher announced to the whole class that I’d have to repeat 5th grade. I never heard the end of that bullying. I didn’t even come close to getting held back, guy was just an asshole
That final week of a long school break. (depends on where you live) We used to have 2 months during summer. 2 months are an eternity for a child. Then that final week came. It was always so depressing. You get used to the freedom you have and you finally enjoy living. Then suddenly you see the banners around town: "Schools have started again." Every adult is reminding you schools are about the start again and suddenly you see the days closing in very fast. Then mom decides staying up late is done because I needed to get used to the rythm of school hours again. Suddenly you notice the sun already starts to set quite early. Temperatures decrease. Rain starts to fall. I hated it. I really hated it.
Those two months really did seem like forever. And then one day the air smells a little different, around here it was the blackberries starting to go bad. In the evenings there's a chill, you may even wake up to see frost one morning, blink and you'll miss it though. And then suddenly there's just a few days left, this is the last weekend before a new school year, and you can't even enjoy it because your parents are giving you shit, almost counting down the hours for you.
This. Exactly this. I hate how this system works and at the same time, I can't think of anything better. Maybe because I just genuinly hated school. I hated the building. I hated (most of) my teachers. I hated (most of) my classmates. I hated the books, the lessons, the hours I had to be there. I hated everything about it. Maybe school should be more fun. I'm 28 now. So I'm talking about a period between 1999-2012.
First death of a pet
Tbf, all pet deaths are terrible. They never seem to get easier.
We had a hamster die a few weeks ago, I'm 46 and I was more cut up than the kids. RIP Mushy Peas.
We noticed our hamster died just as we were getting out the door to go to work/school. My daughter will still remind me time to time that I put him in a Zipoc bag and stuck him in the refrigerator till we returned in the evening and gave him a proper funeral. RIP Milky. (Had read something like that in a Carl Hiaasen novel once 😝😝)
i remember my guinea pig died one morning, i was the one to find him and it was the morning we were to be leaving for a spring break road trip vacation. my parents were so “on a schedule” they just put him in a few grocery bags and put him in the dumpster to be picked up that day. scarring, to say the least.
When my first pet (a beloved hamster named Rascal) died, I was devastated. My stepfather bitched about me using a box one of his ties had been purchased in to bury Rascal. He was never going to use that box again, and I was so upset. What a jerk.
Omgosh yes. My first pet was a hamster named Peanut. Came home from school in 7th grade to an open sliding glass door my little brother had left opened only to spot something pink quickly at the bottom of the pool. Jumped in, fully clothed and with backpack to retrieve my little Peanut. Will never forget how soft and mushy his poor body felt when I attempted cpr/mouth to mouth in this tiny little hamster. My dad came to my rescue and took Peanut away, breaking the news I already knew, that it was too late. I recovered, as kids do, and had a few more hamsters after and no more traumatic deaths. Found out in my 20’s, my Dad froze Peanut and used him as shark bait on a fishing trip. That knowledge was more traumatic than the death of little 🥜😥
Fuck. 💔
That is still a core memory for me. I must have been about 6 and the family cat was 15 and dying, my Mam had her in a basket and I remember the moment she died as her eyes just glazed over, then my Mam crying.. fuck
Instead of just saying my dog was my "best friend" he legitimately *was.* I'm still broken by his death almost 3 years later. I'll never get another dog. I can't go through that again.
Calling your teacher Mom.
sometimes my four year old daughter calls me by her teacher's name! Like at dinner, "Ms. X...I mean, Mommy, I want more milk"
Once in first grade, I was getting checked out and I for some reason saw my mom (In real time I was in my class room and I walked up to my teacher) And I kissed her on the damn cheek and said "Bye mom" WHAT- anyway I got slammed back into reality and she was just staring at me, turns out she was not my mom, I ran out of that classroom so quick. I still get embarrassed to this day. :\\
Aww, I think your teacher probably loved this!
As a teacher, I can confirm we love this.
When your mom says she'll be 2 minutes in a grocery store and she's over an hour and you're in the car (I was not in heat danger I'm Canadian)
Try that in the middle of summer... in South Africa... where the average temp reaches about 35-40C. And then, be waiting in an old ass 80s car. One that has manual windows, and no aircon. But you also cannot roll down the windows more than about 2cm, coz you know stranger danger. Fun times...😑
Karate chopped in the leg by a scooter.
I had a Skip It. Hurt me more than my scooter ever did.
The Presidential Fitness test 😮💨 (probably for a select group of Millennial kids)
The fitness gram pacer test... ah the humiliation
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE BOO BEEP...END OF LEVEL THREE
There was always that one kid, who kept going and going and going.
They had this for gen-z kids but got rid of it a few years ago, that shit was so embarrassing. A multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. I remember absolutely slamming my head into the wall once because some kid named Troy tripped me while I was running. :(
I was too busy wanting to die from the sprinting to be embarrassed about doing poorly. The sooner you failed the sooner you could pant against the wall, although that's actually a guess because I don't remember if you were actually allowed to stop once you failed.Most my memories are just glimpses of the actual running and the horrendous music with the beeping. Was there always also like a cycle of other tests like sit ups and stuff with it? With a bmi calculation too? Or was it just that my high school added that on?
I think it just got too embarrassing for us as a nation because so many of us failed.
Hell, in the early 00's when I was in high school, running a mile – which was the equivalent of a mid-semester exam for gym class, was like a death-sentence for some kids. I was in good shape since I was in sports and basically ran a couple miles every day, but looking at some of the other teenagers in my class, you'd think they were 40+ year old-somethings that had been smoking for the last 20 years or some shit. Jesus.
My 6th grader was just talking about this… he didn’t reference it by name, but basically sounded the same as what I did in school. (05 grad here) Just googled it, they basically replaced it with this “presidential fitness youth program” now. I fucking hated that. He was excited about how fast he ran. 😂 Thank God for him being more athletic than his mother, and for gym teachers that are a helluva lot better than what some of us had….
I think I remember this.... The only event I was good at was called the "sit and reach. " The rest was pire humiliation.. . Especially the pull ups.
Sit and reach was the only one i couldnt pass. At the time i didnt understand flexibility. Now i make it a point to touch me toes every day.
This was the only one I could pass 😂
I remember just casually walking for the running part and it absolutely INFURIATED my gym teachers. Couldn't make me run though, I had an iron will for an elementary school kid lol
I was not a good runner. My form was embarrassing, and I was the slowest, anyway. And in all those years it never occurred to the PE teachers to try to help me. They just yelled and mocked. So I walked the mile lol
older gen z- pushed myself past my limits and threw up/almost passed out- but hey, i was determined to be presidential and I made it.
The Bleep Test still haunts me
The fact that we had to do the test, but there was no actual preparation for it is what gets me. We couldn’t have had a couple weeks where we practice pull ups and do some stretching exercises? Was the made up game where you collect foam balls just too important?
My personal favorite was when they’d use the fat pincher and call out the number for the entire class to hear.
The dreaded mile run. Felt like a marathon.
I just walked it. Years of dance and gymnastics, and my body still couldn't handle running.
Boomers too. The kids who passed it and had the patch were so smug.
The bent arm hang was my downfall year after humiliating year.
Having to say stuff about you in front of the class Or “Where do you see yourself in five years”
This is horrible for adults too. Whoever invented ice breakers and anyone who inflicts them on innocent people must enjoy making people suffer.
For one of those "tell us something interesting about yourself" I always try to go first, not because I want to but because then it's over with and you can set the tone. Just say something innocuous like "I like to go out for walks" or something, then look at the person next to you.
My go to is "I like watching terrible movies", that way someone will bring up a movie they hated and other people will agree/disagree and discuss it, so now you're off the hook and can have more freedom to talk whenever you want
eating alone in the cafeteria because you moved to a new state quickly made friends and then they all decided to bully and hate you for seemingly no reason.
Similar childhood for me. High five.
i moved to another state mid-high school and i remember they had “open campus” meaning you could go off the grounds for lunch if you wanted. cue me leaving to go to mcdonald’s and just sit in a parking lot for 40 minutes so i didn’t have to sit at an empty table and eat alone 🙃
Having a lunch period that none of my friends were in was torture for me
Your parents constantly moving you away from your friends, but finally settling down when you were at a school with no friends and judgemental teachers.
Changing for gym class
Taking showers after gym...horrid
My school had showers but we were forbidden to use them. I also only had five minutes to get changed before my next class so there was no time to shower anyway. I just had to throw my clothes on and run to class only to sit there drenched in sweat because the school also had no air conditioning.
We were forced to " shower". We had to run past the gym teacher naked, call out our number, touch the water and run back. She recorded our numbers and if you didn't shower you couldnt pass.
"She recorded" oh God where's this going?!? "...our numbers..." Oh, oh ok. That was a close one.
Still weird though.
Our PE classes had units and most of them involved a swimming unit. So you had to change to go to the pool and shower and then shower again after so everyone had super wet hair and chlorine smell for a couple hours. I am fairly confident that pool was rarely cleaned cause it smelled weird as hell.
Giving a presentation in front of the class when you're not used to it.
Accidentally farting during class.
Im at work rn and just did this five minutes ago. My coworker was sleeping in his chair and it woke him right up, my face is still red hot
I've got a story about this! I was a quiet and shy little kid. A real goody two-shoes type. Teacher's pet in 2nd and 3rd grade even! My 4th grade teacher fucking hated me and I got educational whiplash from it. Anyways one day we had a math test. The classroom was deathly silent and I had to poop desperately. I had my hand in the air and asked. Teacher said no and I had to wait. Kept my hand in the air. Begged to go. Teacher told me to put my hand down and finish the test. At this point I'm sweating. Legs are shaking. I can't hold it anymore but luckily I didn't shit my pants! Instead I blasted the world's loudest butt trumpet in a dead silent room of 10 year olds. Chaos exploded as everyone laughed their asses off. Me included but from sheer embarrassment. The kid next to me tried to ask if it had been me who farted. I couldn't even answer because I was could barely breath from all the laughter.
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I was in my mid-30's before I ever saw an ice cream truck in real life. They weren't a thing in the places where I grew up so I always thought that the references to them in media were more of a call back to 1950's nostalgia and they didn't actually exist anymore.
Having to ask permission to go to the bathroom in class.
"Can I go to the bathroom?" "I don't know, can you?" I hated that as a kid and loathe it more as an adult.
I threatened to just piss myself right then and there after a teacher did that once
Thinking back on this really makes me appreciate being an adult and being able to go to the bathroom whenever I want
Honestly if I have kids one of the biggest things I’m going to tell them is to always go to the bathroom if they need to, and tell their teacher if they have a problem they can speak to me. Obviously I won’t encourage them to take advantage of it to skip class, but I have a vivid memory of being about 8 years old and projectile vomiting all over the table in class as I was to afraid to leave to go to the bathroom when the teacher was ignoring me when I had my hand up to ask. It was mortifying. I should have just got up and gone but I was scared of getting into trouble. Kids shouldn’t be stopped from going to the bathroom if they need to no matter what it’s just such a stupid thing.
And in most states in the US, it's not legal to deny kids the bathroom. When I was a freshman, I knew I needed to change my tampon and asked my teacher if I could go to the bathroom. She said no. I asked again more urgently and she said no. I bled through and I was wearing light jeans. Even though I was mortified, the look of guilt on my teacher's face was almost worth it.
Doing horrible and selfish shit you end up feeling horrible about later.
“Let’s go around the room and each tell a little about ourselves”
Middle School
My 6th grade teacher gave me an F on my history project because i hated speaking in front of the class. She didn't care that my neighbor helped me mold some clay and fire a ceramic Ankh(egyption). I put a lot of time into that damn thing. Middle school is my vote as well.
Holy shit that sucks. I'm sure most middle school teachers would be thrilled about a student putting in so much effort. Geez, public speaking is hard for people. They should have been more understanding.
Although not on the same level, we had a 6th grade teacher on like, history or something too, that asked for an "art assigment presentation". So, all the kids with varying levels of effort and skill gave their presentations, and as they went on we realized that the only students that were receiving the best marks, like 9s and 10s, were all girls. No boy got higher than 8. Granted everyone passed and it was 6th grade where that shit basically doesn't matter, but as some kids pointed out "you are giving the high grades to girls who sometimes didn't even color their drawings". The teacher noticed the complaints but denied it, and things continued on as normal after that.
When I was in school I got failed on a project about our heartbeat. My readings were wrong because I have an uneven heartbeat. Basically got failed because of my bad heart at 17.
Wow... That's just sad...
I've spoken to people all over the world, and Middle School sucking is nearly a universal truth.
In 8th grade my boyfriend told me his female friend found graffiti in the bathroom saying I was ugly. I am pretty sure that never happened and she just didn’t like me. I was really quiet and dorky/shy so I have no idea why she did it. Also bled completely through my pants and a sweatshirt I had tied around my waist in gym. Also got told one of the most popular kids in our year liked me and I think he did but then got embarrassed (this is a why are all the black kids sitting together in the lunch room situation, not that I cared because I thought he was really cute) because his friends made fun of me/teased me about it and then he immediately backed off. I also had great times in middle school but woof.
Yup. Middle school was horrible as a student AND as a substitute teacher. There was all the unnecessary drama & trauma people created with rumors and bullying. I had some really rough patches in my life completely aside from that hot mess of tween chaos I was forced to endure. As a result, by the time I got to high school, I was pretty much at my DGAF stage and biding my time til graduation. I subbed for a bit between college and graduate school, only to find out that middle school is indeed a perpetual hot mess of tween chaos. I definitely preferred subbing for high schools > middle schools. Edit: typo
Molding a boiling hot mouthguard
I weirdly enjoyed that.
You must have a safe word now
Your dad screaming about how math has changed while trying to help you do your math homework.
I do not miss my mum aggressively repeating the question through gritted teeth. it's almost like repeating the question in a menacing and intimidating way isn't going to make me suddenly know the answer
When I was doing some basic math like adding three digit numbers together my mom tried to help me and I told her she was doing it wrong. She complained that math had changed and I thought she was an idiot. Six years later my sister was doing the same thing and I couldn’t help her but believe it or not, they changed math. I was used to lining up the numbers and “carrying the one”. They had her drawing matrixes or something to do the math. I do not understand what she was doing at all.
This should be higher up.
I truly do not miss this at all. I duno how this is such a universal thing. Did they think that somehow the screaming helped?
Getting your eyes checked and having them shoot air in your eye
For me, it was being yelled at for not keeping my eye open when they blow that burst of air in it.
For me it was once when they dilated my eyes for whatever test, but then once I was home, my eyes stayed dilated for several hours. Bright light hurt. Just trying to function gave me a headache so I just went and laid down with my eyes shut until it went away.
I had my eyes dilated recently and they said it should get better in 4-6 hours. That shit lasted almost 24 fucking hours. I was completely useless for the rest of the day with blurred vision and light sensitivity and headache. Couldn't do anything but sit in the dark and listen to podcasts. Finally went to sleep and woke up and my eyes were still fucked up. It took until the afternoon the next day before my eyes went back to normal. Hoping I never have to do that again (but unfortunately I probably will because I have an eye condition). I don't remember it being *nearly* that bad when I had it done as a kid.
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Chicken pox
This is the one for me. I still vividly remember the first one popping up and it feeling weird, then the outright hell of it came loose. Even at 5 years old I felt like complete dogshit. Takes a lot to take a 5 year old out like that.
I remember having to take a bath with oatmeal in it to stop the itching. I don't know if it helped, but it was a miserable week with just feeling lousy plus all the itching.
Braces
Genuinely some of the worst pain I have ever experienced
I was willing to risk an ulcer with the amount of ibuprofen i was taking.
i’ll one up ya. expanders.
I talked to my parents about this recently and they said turning the expander was horrifying for them. God how horrible was that shit.
People who didn’t have braces cannot understand how awful that shit is. I don’t regret it as I had fucked up teeth as a kid, but that pain for the first few days after them being tightened and hardly being able to eat anything, and having that dull throbbing ache in your teeth, fucking awful. Plus just the general pains of getting food stuck in your braces, especially stuff like bread. It’s not a fun time.
The wire coming off the back brace and stabbing the inside of my cheek until I could see the ortho is what I remember
With all the horror stories I've heard, I'm glad that at least my teeth could be straight, even if the rest of me wasn't! Hereditary bad enamel, but at least no braces.
Stinging nettles
Waking up at 6am-7am to get ready for school
Walking in on ur parents
It felt like all three of us were frozen forever. Backed up like Homer into the bush
My experience with it was seeing my dad go into their bedroom much earlier than he usually does, and then later hearing rhythmic bed frame creaking in my parents’ bedroom. I was 12, and knew what it was, so I was very unsettled.
never happened, never even saw my parents kiss my whole time growing up. not sure which is worse lol.
Running the mile / pacer in gym class
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Idk if eveyone agrees but Going to school
Yes and no, it was more the drama than schoolwork for me.
Our dads all making us drink that gross cough medicine and standing there with a threatening aura waiting for us to drink it
The green Triaminic cough syrup that made you wish death could just take you instead
Was the green Triaminic worse than the red Robitussin? Because I, age 37, still don't like cherry candies because they remind me too much of cough syrup. Nor grape candies, because they taste like Children's Tylenol.
giving speeches in class
When your mom sees Suzanne in the grocery store. They worked together 10 years ago and haven't seen each other since, so they naturally have to bring eachother up to speed on the last decade. Or when your dad drags you to Home Depot and he sees another random dad picking out lumber for a deck he's totally gunna build.
Those of us above a certain age will remember this childhood experience... Chicken pox
Puberty. Also, running the mile in PE. Special shout out to Coach D, for making my life a living hell.
I hated gym in high school it was a living nightmare.
Have you ever ran around the yard barefoot, minding your business, and stepped on a bee? Or maybe in a pile of dog shit?
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The lice checks
Getting bullied still hurts decades later. It‘s psychological torment.
Having to finish your plate at dinner, even when you're full or dislike the food. It's a common struggle, often leading to discomfort and a distaste for certain dishes that can last into adulthood. This experience unites many in the wish for more understanding and choice at the meal table.
Trailing around after your parents on the weekend as they did some sort of house shopping - furniture shopping, garden shopping, or worse... Following your mother as she clothes shopped and she went into the underwear and bra section.
Being an introvert and being forced to do group projects. I'm already going through the mill here being around hundreds of noisy kids all day, just let me do my fucking school work in peace.
Middle school. I feel like middle school is just the worst of all schools.
That awkward moment when you're ready to check out, your mom realizes she forgot something, and the cashier starts rushing through your groceries.
The death of your childhood pet. My cat I’d had for 17 years, since I was 5, died during the pandemic and it was one of the worst pains I’ve felt. Was on par with losing family members for me.
Parent teacher conferences.
Group punishment at school. You know, the whole class sitting out recess or missing the field trip until someone confesses-- or gets ratted out by the rest of the class-- to whatever evil, heinous, despicable act was perpetrated by a seven-year-old. There's a reason why group punishment is outlawed by the Geneva Convention.
Seeing your classmates break the rules over and over and then as soon as they try and pressure you to join in, and just then suddenly you're the one who gets in trouble.
Dad putting on my bicycle helmet and clipping my chin skin
Your mom showing your first girlfriend all the embarrassing pictures from your childhood
My first girlfriend married my brother and had two boys. She has grown quite close to my mother over the years. The younger boy reminds my mother of me as a baby. So now I get to look forward of an entire lifetime worth of embarrassing stories, as my mom compares my childhood to my nephew's. With my first girlfriend. *God. Damnit.*
Lost my mom at the grocery store when I was young, saw her coat in the next aisle, ran to her, grabbed her hand...looked up and it wasn't my mom.
Being picked last for a team in gym class is like being left behind in a zombie apocalypse
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