45 Strange Childhood Realities People Later Learned Were Far From “Normal”

I am one of the lucky ones. My parents are going on 48 years of marriage, and happy with each other. Not a single one of my friends' parents are still married. Hell, most of my husband and I's (21 years) friends are divorced.

My parents are still married going on 38 years. I used to beg my mom to divorce my dad.,.

Same. I remember realizing (late, high school) that some peoples parents didn't love them and I was SHOOK.

The worst form of abuse that children face is being powerless and their concerns ignored by society. They're told to endure abuse that adults would NEVER tolerate (e.g. adults would leave, divorce, quit, file criminal charges, etc.), told that their abusers "were doing their best" or "they mean well". If it's wrong for a boss to hit an employee, then it's wrong for a puported "adult" to hit a child.

My parents were very much in love. My hubby's parents resented each other and stayed together for the kids. We make it a point to show our kids how much we love and respect each other.

Can we acknowledge how brave YOU were to admit to that guy what you were feeling, and not dismissing him with an "I'm fine"? Vulnerability is not weakness!

My dad and his friends were SA pos. One night, a band member that had not participated waited until they were all passed out, and pulled me aside. He quit the band and friend group, helped with our escape. Only reason I trust men.

Well, thank God that that ended differently that a lot of other stories that start with a 13-year-old fall asleep at a strangers house on the couch and they’re 20-year-old son coming and doing something that’s not playing a guitar. ❤️

I hear you... My heart is broken for you. At least that chap was a decent human being and played a song on his guitar just to comfort you. It means a lot I think.

Or a father who refuses to consistently take medication for a mental illness =( It wasn't until I was much older (and became a nurse) that I came to realize the cyclic nature of mental illness...So many "take the meds until they feel better", then quit taking them.. never realizing that the medication(s) must be taken consistently & long-term =(

Who cares whether it's a 'thing' or not! It's lovely and you could turn it into a family tradition and share it with others.

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Supper. We didn't all sit up at table, but having had tea, the evening meal, at around five thirty, we always had something later in the evening as well. For us, that was often cereal - it was years later that I learned that most people had cereal for breakfast, not for supper.

This was a very common habit throughout the 1800's in most of the western world that most cultures practiced. Sometimes coffee was consumed, or hot chocolate before caffeine was understood.

I had a similar thing but with chocolate milk and a sandwich.

How lovely. What a good idea.

For me, it was coming home from school (4th grade). All I had to do was open the front door a bit and do a vibe check, and I’d know which one of their two extreme moods my parent was in (even if they were on the opposite side of the house).

THIS! And you never ever unlearn it, you somehow become so good at knowing when a "Vibe" is around even as an adult be it at work while shopping ......

I been talked ablut behind my back a lot since i was young. Enough so that if im in my room n i hear my parents talk i hyper focus in on it to see if its about me...

100% I wake up before my father, but I can tell how the day is gonna go based off the "aura" as he walks down the hallway in the morning.

It’s called hypervigilance. It’s what people who have been abused develop to try and protect themselves. Ask me how I know…

Once I got older I just stopped asking for permission. I hid things from my mum, not bad things just like going to a friend's house with a pool, if I got caught then I took the beating. Still worth it. One day I realised I was big enough to hit back, didn't hang around long after that

I grew up sleeping in the basement - was seldom upstairs with the family

that is so abusive to a child. I remember as a kid having friends over, or going to a friends house, sleepovers, etc

Bad parenting at its worst.

I grew up friendless. It wasn't that my parents said no..it was that I was the school outcast. I was below the last tier. I didn't fit in anywhere. If anything, teachers and parents tried to push me into social events. Alas, all that did was make me retreat within myself.

My mother baked certain cookies when we got snow. She passed 3 years ago at age 93. When snow is in our forecast, which isn't often because I live in eastern NC, US, I always make sure I have the necessary ingredients and make the same cookies. I miss my mom every day.

A few years back, one of the ladies in work brought in some cake to share after baking a lot that weekend. We were discussing the recipe, and sharing others, when this younger guy (not too young, maybe late 20s/30) said, "wow, I never realised it was so common for people to bake at home! My mum and grandma never baked". Turned out he had almost never had home-baked goodies in his life, and was freaking out over how good they were, and also how come nobody in his family baked!!

I learnt how to bake cakes from my mum. I'd help in the kitchen and my reward was being able to lick the mixing bowl out afterwards (with a spoon - we weren't heathens!)

For the SCHOOL....??? AWESOME MOM!!!

Baking from scratch is a lot of work. I have a feeling most mothers had a full time job and very little time outside of work

I used to make "breakfast for dinner" when things were tight, usually just before payday. By the time my kids were teenagers, they would ASK me to do this. It became a special treat back then and still is. Eggs, hashbrowns, sausage or bacon or ham, pancakes or waffles, sliced tomatoes, cut up fruit, OJ or apple juice. Whatever we had on hand. Everyone pitched in & helped make it. It was a great family activity. Wasn't until they were adults that they found out why we did it. Now they come over and ask for it. Turned something I was ashamed of into something we all loved.

I loved breakfast for dinner, especially when I was older and it was just me and Mom. We would have all different kinds of pork like slab bacon, jowl bacon, salt pork, pork chops, homemade sausage, fried ham, hamburger/sausage/chipped beef and gravy on toast or biscuits (with gravy or without) fried potatoes/hash brown and fried or scramble eggs, pancakes or waffles. Basically it was what we referred to as a Southern/Farmer's breakfast, except it was for dinner. Since Mom and I worked all different shifts, especially before she retired, it was something we could share and have time to talk. Once Mom became sick, I would cook her whatever or whenever she wanted me to if it would mean that she would eat. Even if it was at 2 am or 2 pm that was alright with me. I would give ANYTHING to have just one more meal with some coffee, iced tea, milk or juice where we could just sit and talk to each other.

My mom only cooked Sun-Thurs and we either had “fend for yourself” nights or eat out night

Not even a peanut butter sandwich instead of cereal?