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30 Things That Are Cool When You’re A Kid But Are Very Much The Opposite When You’re An Adult
What makes us give other people credit evolves as we get older. Thankfully.
But to really drive this point home, let's take a look at a Reddit post by user Jelz where they asked everyone to share all the things that make you cool in school but have the opposite effect in adult life.
Like buying alcohol for kids. Or playing with Beyblades and carrying around a giant arena for them at all times. Or just scroll down and check out the rest of the replies!
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It didn't make me cool, but an old friend of mine (we're no longer friends) was far cooler than me. Why? Because he didn't care about grades, was openly hostile to authority, smoked weed all the time, had a criminal record, and generally just had that "I don't give a f**k, I'm a badass" confidence.
That's cool in high school. Nowadays, though, that guy is thought of as being very uncool. Why? Because not caring about your job performance (the adult equivalent of not caring about grades), being openly hostile to authority (such as your supervisors, or the cops), spending most of your waking life stoned, having a criminal record, and somehow still thinking you're a badass definitely isn't cool in adulthood.
You were really cool if you were missing a tooth in school. If you’re missing a tooth in adulthood you just look like a crackhead.
In 3rd grade I broke my arm and got a glow in the dark cast, I also had glow in the dark shoes, I think it was the most my peers have ever liked me in my life.
Bragging about sex. Did it highschool, friends thought I was cool. Did it as an adult, everyone thought it was gross and my dad threw the family cat at me
Laughing at weird people.
Socially awkward people often make good friends and are very warmhearted.
I was cool because I had a DSi in fifth grade. I would flex on my friends by drawing pictures in rainbow on pictochat. I have a nintendo switch now. No gf, no friends, and no rainbow drawings. :(
I did 1000 bounces on a pogo stick when I was 12. As a 33 year old today, people would probably be concerned for my mental health.
They might be concerned for your mental health, but would they be able to be concerned about your physical health?
Burping really loud in the cafeteria. Kids from other classes knew my name because of that. I haven't tried that in the office, and I don't think I'm going go.
When I was eight or nine I found a huge stack of p**n mags in a paper recycling container. I had them hidden away in the woods close to school and would bring friends there to look at them during recess.
Imagining adults doing this gave me a chuckle 😆.
Being the "class clown" in any sort of instructional setting. It's funny when you're a kid but seen as obnoxious and attention-seeking when you're an adult
Probably because when you're an adult you want peace and quiet, no distractions like an obnoxious clown but when you're a child you're bored in school and the class clown brightens the mood
Owning an absurd amount of Pokemon cards.
IDK what more a woman would want than a raquaza EX.
I was voted "Most Likely to be Out of Dress Code" in high school, because I was always getting detention for breaking dress code. It was a pretty cool honor to have for a senior superlative, because it was about as rebellious as you could get at a Jesuit high school.
As an adult that would just get me fired if I was constantly breaking the dress code of a place that had one.
Eh, I think it depends. A lot are pure nonsense. But others are pretty logical, like no, you don't get to wear a T-shirt with a racist (or sexist or homophobic) slogan on it. You can't show up to work (at most jobs) naked. Certain clothes aren't right for certain offices (bikinis at almost all of them, but certain other clothes in more formal positions). I feel like some are created because someone likes to micromanage. But some are similar to that sign that asks people not to poo on the rocks. HR really, really wishes they didn't have to say "No, you really can't wear your Nazi armband to work", but this is the world we live in...
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There's also often an unofficial dress code as an adult. Even when there's not a published rule with a codified consequence, there are still consequences to flouting expectations. There's not really a dress code where I work. You need to wear clothes that aren't offensive and not stink. I could totally come in to work in a pair of ratty sweatpants or my pajamas, messy hair, and I'm not in violation. However, it will negatively impact how my coworkers see me. I am not getting promoted like that. I look like I don't care. Whether it's at work, or socially, your clothing and grooming are part of your interaction with people. Unfortunately, at least here in the US, the dress codes are so strict and out of touch, they're not teaching this lesson. They're more of a hammer being used to force obedience.
I think it's mostly a matter of 'we have to because 1 idiot can't be trusted' when it comes to dress codes, because in theory one isn't supposed to be in public in their underwear, yet "people of walmart" has evidence that even laws regarding indecent exposure won't stop that. So the need for a written code becomes vital to allow them to enforce as needed but because there's always that one guy who "it just says I have to wear pants, doesn't say on my legs" it has to have something dumbly specific. Granted on the point of being too strict and out of touch you're absolutely right.
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First professional gig, wore red socks from time to time, boss said they were not professional, now i'm a director for a pretty large interest - today wearing shorts and, yeah, red socks. But there are limits...I'm not dressed all in red for example.
I got in trouble for breaking dress code. Didn't have a lot of money and my grandmother would alter my grandfather's old button ups into blouses. Because she took the sleeves off, as well as taking them in, adding darts, etc. My shoulders would partly show and I had one teacher who sent me out of class every time I wore one. I was proud of those shirts. My granny was an awesome seamstress. And so I would get my shoulders measured and they would see if they could see my bra straps and they would send me back. Not sure why I had a hard time in that class. /s
Back in the 1990s when I was a bank teller we had a strict dresscode. Business attire was required. Dress pants or skirt and a button up blouse or nice sweater. No cleavage.No vests or sleeveless tops unless worn over a shirt or under a shirt or sweater. Dress shoes.Pantyhose if legs were exposed. Modest jewelry was OK. Appropriate hairstyles were a must as well. No non-natural color dyes, no spiky hair, etc. I mostly wore dress pants or skirts with a button up blouse. Sometimes I'd wear a suit jacket or sweater. I usually wore black leather dressy boots. I liked long skirts or pants so I didn't have to wear pantyhose. Now I'm disabled and not working but I do miss dressing up every day. Edited to fix punctuation and to add a sentence for more info.
I think that schools should have a basic uniform dress code and the items should be available at a reasonable price from the school and nearby stores ( eg black pants or regular jeans, plain polo or tshirt in school colours). It's parents less likely parents will have to spend big bucks on back to school wardrobes and kids will be teased about not being trendy.
I just moved and found so many clothes that I never wear just 'cause I had to get awful "office" clothes for a while. I never held a customer facing job but I couldn't wear most of my normal clothes no matter how dressy they were. Ridiculous!
At the Jesuit high school I went to in the 60's, you could ignore the dress code by paying a fine. So there was essentially no dress code for the rich kids and a strictly enforced one for everybody else. (Guess how much I've given them as an alum.)
I’m an adult and I still refuse to follow “ dress codes” and / or what is supposedly deemed as what society deems “ normal” as an adult! Imposing Dress Codes anywhere is archaic , demeaning , and controlling. Just because you are an adult it shouldn’t mean you have to dress to conform to someone else’s idea , belief , or opinion on what is an “acceptable “ way to dress at work or otherwise .
Yeah, because in the workplace it's inappropriate to be in a bikini, and in school they just want everybody to wear a tie
It's one thing if the dress code is restrictive and sexist as most of the ones imposed by schools are. Most of the time work related ones have at least a reason for them. Not to say there arent sexist dress codes out there and they should be fought at all costs.
As long as all the pink parts are covered, dress codes are as dated as Aqua Net.
Dresscodes are just misogyny and patriarchy. 99% of them only apply to women.
Bragging about what your parents got you. New clothes, new toys, car, etc. Making kids jealous with the latest stuff
If you're an adult and bragging about still being dependent on your parents...definitely uncool haha
Playing with beyblades and carrying around the giant arena for them at all times. You never know when a spin battle may ensue.
God I used to impress people by smoking cigs up my nose.
I do not see that going over well at all now.
Knowing someone that would buy alcohol for underage kids.
I remember in the 80's my friend group asking someone in the parking lot of the local liquor store to buy us alcohol and 8 out of 10 they would. Shocking to think about now.
At my school, bragging about how drunk you got at the weekend was a thing! People would take pictures/videos if their friends who were falling about the place/passed out etc and everyone would come in on Monday and laugh about what ‘scenes’ they were. At our prom we gave out prizes like ‘most likely to...’ and we had a few drink related categories and there was just generally a vibe that if you didn’t go out every weekend and get really drunk, you were a bit of a weirdo.
Now though (I’m 25), seeing girls tripping over their heals and being so drunk they can’t open their eyes properly/talk without slurring is just embarrassing.
Back in the day, Hot Wheels was the s**t. We used to bring them into elementary school, show them off, and trade them.
Anything with gold wheels was hot s**t. Anything that was a model of a real car was too. We used to just make stuff up that "boosted" the rarity of a car. Stuff like, "This one is in metallic white and only 10 were made!"
Collecting Hot Wheels now probably not so cool.
^(Although I still think they are cool.)
I don't know it's cool or not but I definitely love it.A family friend's 4 year old is crazy for these and loved it when he showed me his collection.
In high school I sold pages of p**nography out of a briefcase that I named "Bob".
Being an overall d**k, or rude to other people made people think you were cool or something. Now you're just an a** and everybody is an adult so they can see it.
Pretending to be a 1337 h4x0r by opening command prompt on a school computer, knowing a little bit of HTML and some similar trickery that may look cool until you know that it doesn't really do anything.
During school lunch when a kid got in trouble I started the Jerry Springer chant and the whole class started chanting "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry".
In High School, I knew all of the lyrics to a ton of late-90s and early 2000s club banger rap songs. I was known for this throughout my entire school, and people would always dance near me at dances to watch me flawlessly lip sync these songs. I did the rapping hand movements too, and often some of the dances from the music videos, although I was a much better lip syncer than dancer. I am and was a tiny white girl from a small rural village.
It's so embarrassing to think about now. I do occasionally get asked to do it at the weddings of classmates, but I wiggle out of it by sticking to the bar. I can't imagine the brain power I wasted on this, when I should have been focusing on my studies. Probably one of the reasons that I had to take remedial math in college. Thank God I no longer live near where I grew up, I've been hiding from memories of my high school self ever since, I was so cringe.
In 8th grade I made sure I had the HIGHEST heels out of all the girls in class. They were these clunky things from Payless. Not sure how I did anything in those considering I can’t even walk in heels as a 32 year old woman today...
Oh man I wore heels, 4.5 inch platforms, everyday almost when I was 16-17 and even wore them to work at the supermarket. These days as I'm nearing 40 I can wear if low and if I'm not standing much at all.
Me and my friends showing up to school/ events dressed the same
I've never really understood why people can be so anxious about possibly wearing the same as someone else. I once wore the same shoes as someone else at a festival (which means, out of 20.000 people) and I said to her "Nice shoes! Harhar" and the girl just threw me a death glare.
Wearing sneakers with your prom tux.
Cheating and getting away with it was rad in school but if you cheat the IRS instead of getting cool points you get jail time
I dunno, three generations of the Trump family have been cheating the IRS for a century and, so far, have got away with it.
I was the best club penguin sled racer in my 6th grade class.
It'd be really hard to consider this cool now, what with Club Penguin closing down and all.
well, I would have to say trading card games.
In school: Yu-Gi-Oh
Later in life: Magic The Gathering.
Not s******g on MTG, its a great game, but doesnt really come off as "cool" per se
Nothing wrong with non mainstream hobbies. But apparently binge drinking after a random sports team won/lost is the golden standard...
Note: this post originally had 49 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
In high school I owned an absurd amount of records: LPs ,45s, reel to reel etc. School friends thought I was the music god. The school DJs always came to me for music they didn't own. But as an adult who still owns an absurd amount of music, some people tell me to grow the eff up. ? I don't get the hostility. EDIT: my collection is very eclectic.
don´t listen to those people, they are just jealous :) it IS cool to have a lot of music
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Has anyone else here discovered that if you get downvoted twice you get banned from the site? It's kinda lame. By way of thanking Bored Panda for their lameness, I will now post a few words. Die. Dead.
BoredPanda is one of the most hypocritical websites I’ve ever been on. They censored the word sex in an an article about gay pride and they also censored the word d**k in a sign for D**k’s Sporting Goods. Yet, they let some of the worst trolls I’ve ever seen on a website, some with more than 4000 downvotes (gooberpeas for example) still post homophobic, transphobic, and extremely racist comments. They make it next to impossible to report users like this and they don’t seem to care about their users because they never ever respond to your emails asking for hate speech or a troll removed. Yet, I’ve seen good users get suspended because trolls downvote their comments. It only takes one comment that is voted below a negative 8 to get your account suspended—I’ve simply seen people who ask a question on this site get downvoted.It’s really sad and lame. BoredPanda really needs to do better or they are going to start losing readership. Hire a moderator, BoredPanda because what you’re doing is pure censorship and that’s pitiful.
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What a joke of an article. Being rude to people's hobbies and bodies isn't cool in any age. Who cares if you collect Pokémon cards? There's no age limit for having fun. What a pointless and judgemental article.
A lot of these didn't sound like cool even for highschoolers but whatever
I was a really good speller when I was a kid. Nearly made it to the ESPN stuff you see. I remember thinking I was going to base my entire life on it.
Smoking cigarettes... I started smoking when I was 16. Bought my own cartons and usually was the one every one else bummed a cigarette from
In high school I owned an absurd amount of records: LPs ,45s, reel to reel etc. School friends thought I was the music god. The school DJs always came to me for music they didn't own. But as an adult who still owns an absurd amount of music, some people tell me to grow the eff up. ? I don't get the hostility. EDIT: my collection is very eclectic.
don´t listen to those people, they are just jealous :) it IS cool to have a lot of music
Load More Replies... Has anyone else here discovered that if you get downvoted twice you get banned from the site? It's kinda lame. By way of thanking Bored Panda for their lameness, I will now post a few words. Die. Dead.
BoredPanda is one of the most hypocritical websites I’ve ever been on. They censored the word sex in an an article about gay pride and they also censored the word d**k in a sign for D**k’s Sporting Goods. Yet, they let some of the worst trolls I’ve ever seen on a website, some with more than 4000 downvotes (gooberpeas for example) still post homophobic, transphobic, and extremely racist comments. They make it next to impossible to report users like this and they don’t seem to care about their users because they never ever respond to your emails asking for hate speech or a troll removed. Yet, I’ve seen good users get suspended because trolls downvote their comments. It only takes one comment that is voted below a negative 8 to get your account suspended—I’ve simply seen people who ask a question on this site get downvoted.It’s really sad and lame. BoredPanda really needs to do better or they are going to start losing readership. Hire a moderator, BoredPanda because what you’re doing is pure censorship and that’s pitiful.
Load More Replies... What a joke of an article. Being rude to people's hobbies and bodies isn't cool in any age. Who cares if you collect Pokémon cards? There's no age limit for having fun. What a pointless and judgemental article.
A lot of these didn't sound like cool even for highschoolers but whatever
I was a really good speller when I was a kid. Nearly made it to the ESPN stuff you see. I remember thinking I was going to base my entire life on it.
Smoking cigarettes... I started smoking when I was 16. Bought my own cartons and usually was the one every one else bummed a cigarette from
