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40 Things We All Did Or Experienced As Kids But Never Talked About Since Then
Ready to blush? Just kidding—nobody enjoys making their cheeks burn out of involuntary embarrassment in awkward situations. But this time, we are taking you on an emotional rollercoaster where it may be the only option.
It’s called blast from the past. Remember your 8-year-old self drinking coke in a wine glass, thinking you were as tipsy as auntie Becky at a family reunion barbecue, ready to pass out on the floor and beg for salvation? What about the time you cried for 10 days straight after finding out that gum you swallowed would stay in your stomach forever? What if I told you that you're not the only one? In fact, that little kid with ginger frock from school, your cousin from Wyoming, and I was all secretly doing the same weird things. So, let’s go down this cringe-inducing memory lane were things we all did as kids are laid out on the table.
Pandas, is anyone having a déjà vu moment? Then share your experiences and childhood memories in the comments. Also, scroll down below to see what Krystine Batcho, a professor of nostalgia at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, told Bored Panda about the influence that childhood experiences have on the course of our lives.
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Sure, and also running with the finger ready to press the living room lights
Prof. Krystine Batcho, a licensed psychologist and scholar in nostalgia, has developed a universal tool to measure our emotions towards the past using The Nostalgia Inventory Test. It measures how deeply and often people feel nostalgic.
Bored Panda asked the professor about the role our childhood memories play in our lives. “Childhood memories can influence adult lives in a number of ways. They can contribute to our overall sense of happiness in life.” Social experiences we had when little turn out to be crucial. “Positive childhood social events, such as family get-togethers during the holidays or parties to celebrate birthdays or achievements, help establish good self-esteem and healthy social skills in adulthood.”
Prof. Batcho’s life-long research has suggested that “positive childhood memories are associated with more adaptive coping skills in adulthood.” For example, people with happier memories of childhood were less likely to turn to counterproductive ways of dealing with stressful situations, such as substance abuse or escapist behavior. Healthy coping is not something we’re born with, but rather “is learned during childhood by role modeling trusted adults, and memories of how respected adults coped with adversity,” said the professor.
I used to draw on my erasers and then stamp them on my skin whilst the pen ink was still wet.
Most of us deeply cherish powerful childhood memories and carry them throughout our lives. Batcho explained that this phenomenon is called a “'rosy retrospection,' that is, a tendency to remember the past as better than it really was.” But there might be an evolutionary reason for it, because “a favorable focus on the past helps most people remain healthy and happy despite the practical and emotional challenges of adult life.”
On the other hand, one's current mood has a tremendous influence on memory retrieval. “When we are sad or depressed, we are more likely to remember negative events in our past and remember past experiences less favorably.” That’s why if you’re in a bad mood, it’s better to leave those blasts from the past for another time in order not to distort them.
I do this at my parents' house and I snarl and hiss because my dad's office is right at the top and I know he's sitting there witnessing it. I'm 46.
i always dreamed of having this one as kid, but mom said it was too expensive...
The good old round about, don’t see them these days. My dad pushed me on one really fast and I let go scraping my face along the gravel. Years later I had a lump on the side of my head that had to get cut out and turned out it was a stone. The dr believes it travelled from the injuries on my nose from the roundabout.
We call them Merry-Go-Rounds. But flying off and scaling your face doesn't sound so merry!
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Discovered that if you went down a metal slide a couple of times sitting on a wax paper cup the speed really increased a lot. The real joy was watching the next unsuspecting kid zip down and fly off the end, possibly hurting himself. Ah the innocent fun of childhood.
We used to polish the slide (in the little play lot in our alley) with waxed paper as kids. Worked great! There were wild grape vines growing on the fences there. We used to chew on the little Y-shaped tendrils - they were sour/tangy. We had so much fun in that play lot - no phones or selfies included.
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Merry-go-rounds were my favorite. In Kingergarten, girls weren't allowed to play on those or the monkey bars because we had to wear dresses back then.
I always wore shorts under my Catholic school uniform skirt. Total tomboy
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I pretty much refused to go on the closed plastic slides because they friggin electrocuted me
And if the slide itself didn't shock you the metal screws would
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Ours look different. They are like a round bench where everyone looks at everyone else and in the middle is a sort of wheel you can use to rotate that thing
They forgot swings making you feel like a superhero or a bird when you jumped off of them at the highest point possible mid-swing.
The best part about the merry go round was having my dad push it. He could get it to go so fast.
i still feel so proud when i hide in the bathroom while the lights out, my cousins searching for me, even get in the bathroom but didn't find me at all because of the darkness and me silently dodging their hands movement, because i got adapted to the darkness)
We were told not to do that because apparently the janitors clean the walls
So true. And the same snacks you had at home tasted 1000 times better at their place!
This is such an old wives tale, so many people still believe this as adults. For those of you that do, it isn’t true.
I used to write BOOBLESS, BOOBIES and HELLO on my calculator lol.
Note: this post originally had 66 images. It’s been shortened to the top 41 images based on user votes.
I still do some of those things. Not fully aware how adulthood works.
I love that most of them are even relatable to people from different countries and cultures.
I'm glad to see that even though I was socially isolated and homeschooled as a child, my childhood still shared things in common with everyone else's :)
Wearing swim goggles and pretending to swim through the house and looking at the ceiling pretending the house is upside down raising my feet to walk over lamps
For me it was the absolute joy in getting junk food at a friend's house for sure lol
Yes, I remember being really distressed one time because someone threw away my Rocket Pop before I was done with it!
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I have a score of at least 50/65. Bit sad to think I thought I was partially unique. Didn't see this listed, but I used to pour Coke into a coffee mug and pretend it was hot coffee when younger, sipping it, as though it would burn my mouth.
I’m actually kind of disappointed it didt have the taking apart of nutty bars.
I saw the same story on buzzfeed like a week ago.... whatever still funny hah!
C'est quand je vois ce genre de trucs que je m'en rend compte qu'au final, tout ce qui nous sépare, c'est nos langues. Parce que notre enfance est quasiment (voir exactement) la même 😂
We had a fad when I was 8 or 10 (mid-70s) of felt mouse figures, about life sized, wearing an outfit and accessories. They were expensive in the stores so if our parents weren't buying, we would take felt and accessories and make our own.
What a great journey back to childhood! I did almost all of these things! It's so funny to see that they seem to be almost universal.
I still do some of those things. Not fully aware how adulthood works.
I love that most of them are even relatable to people from different countries and cultures.
I'm glad to see that even though I was socially isolated and homeschooled as a child, my childhood still shared things in common with everyone else's :)
Wearing swim goggles and pretending to swim through the house and looking at the ceiling pretending the house is upside down raising my feet to walk over lamps
For me it was the absolute joy in getting junk food at a friend's house for sure lol
Yes, I remember being really distressed one time because someone threw away my Rocket Pop before I was done with it!
Load More Replies... I have a score of at least 50/65. Bit sad to think I thought I was partially unique. Didn't see this listed, but I used to pour Coke into a coffee mug and pretend it was hot coffee when younger, sipping it, as though it would burn my mouth.
I’m actually kind of disappointed it didt have the taking apart of nutty bars.
I saw the same story on buzzfeed like a week ago.... whatever still funny hah!
C'est quand je vois ce genre de trucs que je m'en rend compte qu'au final, tout ce qui nous sépare, c'est nos langues. Parce que notre enfance est quasiment (voir exactement) la même 😂
We had a fad when I was 8 or 10 (mid-70s) of felt mouse figures, about life sized, wearing an outfit and accessories. They were expensive in the stores so if our parents weren't buying, we would take felt and accessories and make our own.
What a great journey back to childhood! I did almost all of these things! It's so funny to see that they seem to be almost universal.
