Have you ever been going through your childhood or younger memories, and suddenly you understood a certain situation in a whole different light than you did before? Perhaps you didn’t have enough life experience before, didn’t have the needed knowledge or insight to comprehend what exactly was happening.

Well, today’s list is about such realizations. Only catch — all of them are about people realizing that said memory from their younger years is a pretty messed-up one. And, well, they range from pretty tame to essentially criminal ones. So, let’s dive in, shall we?

More info: Reddit

Read More: “I Was Neglected” & 31 Other Stories Of Folks’ Happy Memories Turning Out To Be Royally Messed Up

#1

I thought I was cool because I was always dating all the older men. Literally I’d be 15-16 with 25+ year olds. Looking back, it was fn disgusting.

Image credits: Own_Midnight_6704

#2

I thought we were having a big 2 month long sleepover with my friend and his family when I was 6. Apparently my mum and I were homeless. .

Image credits: Sad-Maybe-844

#3

Christian youth groups with adults who you think of as being mentors, when they were actually predators.

Image credits: cwissiee

#4

Oh boy, do I have one.

When I was younger there were occasions where my mom would take out this spare mattress, lay it on the living room floor and me, her and my older brother would spend the night on it. I thought it was like cool sleepover time with the family.

When I was a teen I recalled those memories. For context I grew up in a neighborhood with gang activity. Turns out whenever the gang house across the street would get into it with a rival gang and start trying to attack each other, my mom feared stray bullets hitting the house. My room was at the front of the house. The living room floor was one of the furthest points from the front of the house. Really recolored my memory. But it did make the loud helicopters flying over the neighborhood all night suddenly make sense.

Image credits: JJWAP

#5

Camping in Florida seemed like months…turns out we were homeless.

max_bustamante replied:

Looking back don’t you appreciate that your parents made it seem like camping? I grew up dirt poor, but I never really knew it. Mostly because everyone around us was poor and my parents did what they had to. I always appreciated that.looking back, I remember my childhood fondly

Image credits: lbeemer86

#6

Seat belt laws must not have been enforced very strictly back in the 90’s because when we used to go on family road trips, I’d always ride in the back of our station wagon or the bed of our pickup (the truck bed did have a cover) and there would just be a bunch of pillows and blankets for comfort to prevent bouncing around too hard. As an adult, I obviously realize the safety concerns(it’s the other drivers I don’t trust), but I do still remember having a lot of fun during the ride, and do miss that station wagons barely exist anymore.

Image credits: DarkMishra

#7

I was in grade 3 before I learned that you do not use death threats in everyday conversation with people.

Given how home was, I literally thought that this was how people and families interacted with eachother.

Image credits: Ax_deimos

#8

Running behind the mosquito trucks.

Specific-Yam-2166 replied:

As someone living in the Deep South I honestly sometimes wish this was still a thing 😭

Image credits: research_rat

#9

Smoking at a young age.

geekworking replied:

Nothing like being trapped in a car with the windows rolled up and two parents chain smoking. When the headache gets so bad you start to dry heave. If you complain parents threaten to give you something to cry about.

Image credits: Dec8rs8r

#10

My friends mom was so cool. She’d buy us cigarettes and booze when we were like 16. It wasn’t until my late 20s that I realized what a loser she was.

Image credits: SneeKeeFahk

#11

I loved that I got to be alone for hours on end and could play in peace to my heart’s content. I was neglected.

OpalPuff replied:

I just remember the feeling of pure boredom and loneliness when my mom would leave for her classes at the university and my dad would sit at the computer in the garage. If I stepped foot inside the garage I would be met with an aggressive “Go play with your toys!” which made me fearful to ask for anything. I vividly remember choking on a Dorito chip, my dad came out at the last minute, handed me a glass of water and sternly told me to chew my food before heading back into the garage. I remember sitting on the couch in the dark living room wishing my mom would come home already. I was about 4 or 5.

Image credits: GeminiJuSa

#12

My dad always introducing me as his academically gifted child. Now I can’t stand the thought of failure or not being smart enough to an extreme level.

Image credits: Select_Notice_4813

#13

Surfing in the back of my dads truck while going 60 down the highway at about 10 years old. Amazing then. :).

Image credits: Badfroggin

#14

Meet a guy at a campground on vacation. He told me I was pretty and tried to kiss me but we got interrupted. My mom kept very close tabs on me until we moved on. She was right: I was 14, he was 21.

Image credits: auntiepink007

#15

That my bio-dad allowed me to use power tools without supervision. I remembered I would play with the jigsaw, I would sit on the garage floor and saw away with this piece of board in my lap. How I managed to not hack off my leg(s) is a mystery to me or my guardian angel working overtime.

Image credits: Noeybird83

#16

I thought it was awesome I could hang out at my best friend’s house and her mom pretty much left us unsupervised to get drunk on her back porch with the neighbors. Friend and i would stay up til all hours of the night in middle and high school talking to strangers on the internet.

Image credits: tactfulhedgehog

#17

My mom would set up playdates or activities for me (both were rare for the generally neglected GenX kids). I didn’t realize until I was older that she was keeping me busy while having affairs with men.

Image credits: WabiSabi0912

#18

When I talk about 99% of my childhood at work and I see the stunned look on people’s faces.

To me that was just a normal childhood.

Image credits: X0AN

#19

Had a spontaneous sleepover at the neighbors house one night with all my older siblings while our mom was on a work trip. Didn’t know until I was an adult that my dad was a severe alcoholic and came home drunk that night, so we left him home alone to show how close he was to losing us. That was the last time he ever drank that much.

Image credits: Willing-Strawberry33

#20

When I was small I thought bullying is cool but when I grown up now I regret hurting people.

Image credits: Petifys

#21

Judging other kids for not having a traditional-looking nuclear family unit… because in many ways I didn’t have one and was judged for it.

Image credits: Gumdroplets98

#22

The one black person in every movie whose job it was to be stereotypically black, so loud or irate or sassy. Think the civilian driver in Speed or the counter lady in National Treasure.

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Image credits: thingaumbuku