Beating us children up

Telling us beeing gay is wrong and that gay people should be killed

Telling us foreigner like Chinese, turkish people, black people in general are all evil and should be killed

.....

Apple-pie_best-pie Report

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I'm not grown just yet, but ik this is bad, and if not bad, absolutely f*****g stressful. My mom would do all these nice things for us, like take us on expensive trips and get our favorite foods, and right after she would find something small to yell at us for and then bring up the fact that she spent money on us, if any one of us responded in a way she didn't like, she would make us give her the money she spent on us back.

scharscar Report

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Not having "the talk."

Refusing to let me have a girlfriend in junior high, saying I could date when I turned sixteen.

When I turned sixteen refused to let me take the car because they were afraid I had a date, said they didn't want me getting a girl pregnant, and I couldn't date until I was 18.

When I'm an adult, start asking about when I'm going to start dating and give them grandkids.

Gee, I don't really know. You absolutely mucked up my developmental years when I should have been learning all this stuff, now as I try to stumble through this as an adult, I just come off as weird and creepy.

Thanks a lot.

ozarkbozark Report

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They still think spanking is one of the best forms of punishment

azmetrex , Liza Summer Report

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Uf, that's gonna be a long one, just need to get this off my chest.
My mother had diffulties giving birth and she 100% knew that I had spwnt hours suffocating inside of her. This cused brain damage, but my parents didn't even check if there's something wrong with me.
When I went to the proper doctor she literally cried: "Why didn't they bring you to the specialist as a child?". They just thought it's ok because I walked talked, started reading very early, made it to school, made to uni. My mom hates that I take meds to improve my problems. She says that I can do without drugs even though she knows what happens when I don't take them.
Also they always treated me as an adult both physically and mentally. They were keen tourists and never bothered that I can't walk as much as they can or that I might be bored /thirsty /hungry. As for mentally, they didn't get that child's mind wirk not like one of an adult. When I was playing and imagining things they asked me not to be stupid. "You know magic isn't real". Yeah, I know, but I'm playing, I am five, it a game!
I was always my mother's girlfriend, confidant to whom she revealed her intimate secrets.
Later when my parents had divorced my mom took her boyfriend to our apartment and they had wild sex, you know, as in bad porn with yelling your lungs out, moaning and other stuff. It lasted for hours at night. I had no place to go and it was in the time of my finals. She never saw it as a problem "because we're friends and you're a big girl, act like an adult, there's nothing wrong with having sex".
After I had graduated from uni I went to be an au pair. I was in shock that people really ask their kids stuff like "How was your day?", that they care for what their kids feel, read bedtime stories even if the kids are already "big" (they were seven and nine), that they just care.

fragielijs Report

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Differentiated between son and daughter

fishwithbrain , Kevin Gent Report

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They'd do all household chores. They'd never tell me to do any particular chore. They'd always complete each chore before I was ever aware it existed. If I ever noticed them doing some chore and expressed interest in joining, they'd always say, "no, I've got it, don't worry".

Then after the fact they'd just generically scold/shame me for being selfish and rude because I never helping out in the house and have zero life skills or consideration for others' tireless work.

And they'd actually make me believe it's true because I was indeed never helping out in the house. But it was only due to the stupid unecessary social dynamic of their own creation. They actually expected that I magically guess/assume what they want the house to look like, race them to do the chore before they do, and successfully fight them when they insist politely on doing it. No wonder when I was a kid I thought chores were so hard. As soon as I left home for college I just naturally did all chores effortlessly with no problem.

Some-Basket-4299 Report

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Smacking. I don’t think I realised how much it affected me because I don’t go around hitting people but I’m definitely affected by it. What was scariest was that they would do it calmly.

Like, they both agreed at some stage that a smack is an acceptable form of punishment. My sister & I would be disobedient (within normal childhood limits) and we would be taken to our rooms, over the knee, and smacked.

It was traumatic. I can understand & empathise with a parent that gives a child a smack because they are at their wits end super stressed because they usually feel immense guilt afterwards. But my parents love to tout the ‘children don’t come with manuals’ diatribe to excuse their inability to research anything.

Mayflie Report

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Pitted my brothers and me against each other for approval. My older brother gotr praise for good grades and musical talent, younger brother for being great athlete, youngest brother for being the baby of the family, sister was daddy's little girl. I was the loser with no talent (not true, I was just too shy to show myself for fear of being laughed at...which I was often).

My dad terrorized me (fear of heights) and laughed while my mom literally stood by and took pictures of me crying.

ChrisNEPhilly Report

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abusing your child verbally and physically and gaslighting them into thinking it never happened. also leaving them to take care of their toddler sibling at at 8 for a while is pretty high up there. also just kicking your teen/pre-teen out whenever you feel like it because you "have the power to do that"

MxMilk Report

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Starting at 4 I went to the daycare at 8:00 and was one of the last ones there. The summer between 2nd and 3rd grade mom couldn’t afford daycare for both of us so I became a 7 year old latch key kid.

javabean808 Report

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Not trusting me that I'll be able to take care of myself. My mom was so overprotective that I wasn't allowed to stay in my groupmate's house for sleepover. This was for my thesis and I was in college. We were 4 in the group. I was chatting with them through Skype throughout the entire night. haha!

shespokestyle Report

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Comparing my sister and I, making us compete for their approval. "X, why can't you be independent like Y?", "Y, look at your sister's grades. You should learn from her".

It is so engraved in our brains that we compete naturally and subconsciously now, even as adults. No need to say that our relationship isn't the best.

alimacallenotna Report

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Saying „don’t talk back, be better than him”, like literally if someone was talking s**t to me they would always tell me to ignore it, because it’s not worth it. After some time I realize that there are very few situation when you should ignore this, and in most cases you should stand up for yourself and not allow something like this

Jamato42 Report

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Withholding food

t8ertotTHOTdish Report

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I’m still a teen living with my parents but their are definitely a lot of things they do wrong that I don’t need to be grown to realize. One thing that comes to mind is my mother always just wants peace and to look at the good side which isn’t always bad but, with her that means if someone does something bad she will find the smallest good to make them seem okay. A few days ago I was talking to my mom about a friends mom who bought us some fast food and my mother knowing I don’t like this friends mom says “see she’s not all bad” now this friends mom is extremely emotionally abusive I can not stress the amount of pain she puts her child in and my mother knows this and is saying she isn’t all bad because she bough some $20 fast food. She also just doesn’t listen to me I remember I told her a therapist I had at the time was saying a lot of s****y things and that I didn’t trust him and don’t feel comfortable telling him things, she told me we’re going to keep seeing him “just in case I wanna kill myself” as If I didn’t just tell her I didn’t trust him and wasn’t comfortable talking to him. It was weeks before I convinced her to let me leave him

anon Report

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My father was somewhat abusive for a long time, and so was my mother. I thought it was normal. I thought the yelling and the hitting was just what parenting normally was.

Traditional_Hall_268 Report

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That evrrything had to be just perfect. Add a kid who was a rule follower, undiagnosed ADHD and my perfectionist stream is a mile wide.

And now as an adult my mum doesn’t actually understand perfectionism. I’ve literally got ‘if you were a perfectionist you’d at least have a clean house’

Thanks mum.

Lozzif Report

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My mom has 4 daughters, I'm the youngest one. We didn't have lots of money, but we had what we needed.


Unfortunately, as the 4th kid this is often the limit of parental support you'll get. I get that 4 kids are a TON of work and I'll forever be proud of my mom for the way she raised us all, but honestly, I was a pretty bright kid with a lot of interest in music, art, computers and such, when I wasn't reading I was drawing, ALL THE TIME. I wrote stories, I drew comics, I read several books per week as a kid, the whole shebang. I sometimes wish my mother would've picked up on that more, maybe some guitar lessons or better drawing utensils, maybe just some not-so-obviously-feigned interest in my hobbies. (She did what she could but she's a terrible liar). She loved that I was reading so much of course, but without anyone to engage with it just became a way of escaping reality instead of leaving my comfort zone and doing something new.

Anyway, it became next to impossible for me to share anything I've worked on with anybody because I felt like I annoyed people, and over the years I kinda stopped working on personal projects bc I felt stupid about it.

So yeah, TL;DR: wish my mom would've cultivated my interests a bit more. Its hard to find a hobby as a grown up lol

heckin_chill_4_a_sec Report

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My parents were great for the most part, there's only one thing that I would consider bad. And that's saying "You need to try your best in school" now this doesn't sound bad right? I would agree, but anytime I did bad on a test I would get this long lecture about how I need to "try my best and Do my work" Which really made it feel like that my best was never enough, I'm pretty much over it now, but boy the easiest way to get on my nerves now is to suggest that I'm not doing my best.

Jaxofalltradez Report

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Terrorized me for getting in trouble at school. Hey, uhhhh... maybe public school isn't the greatest environment for someone with Asperger's. And no, I don't have ADD or ADHD and I certainly don't need medication for my misdiagnosis. Thanks for the tardive dyskinesia though!

cringelord69420666 Report

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Low-key blackmail me. My mom stared to realise that whenever she would want me to do something, I was much more likely to do it when she offered something in return. So like if she wanted me to go to the barber, I would get a packet of chips or some chocolate as a reward of sorts.

But as time went by this started to escalate as I became more of a problem child (not doing my homework or studying, skipping school) and she turned from giving me stuff to make me do work to taking stuff from me to get me to do stuff. I used to love my PC and used to love to game because I didn't really have much of a social life in real life so I would rely on it to remain sane. My mom having realised how important it was to me would tell me stuff like 'The next time you don't go to school/ don't do your homework/ do x or y chore, you don't get to play on your computer for a day.'

While this might work for a lot of people (I'm aware that grounding your kids is relatively normal) this essentially was a learning experience for me. I realised that I could use their means against them and ensure that I get my way. I started to ask myself, 'What do my parents care about?' and the only thing they cared more than my education or social life was my wellbeing and health.
Knowing this, everytime my mom give me an ultimatum I would tell her, if she pulls the wire on the WiFi or hide my PC somewhere, I would starve myself for the rest of the day.

At first, my parents thought I wouldn't be able to handle it but they very quickly realised I didn't give a c**p if I didn't eat for a day or two and were essentially forced to accept that they can't really punish me by taking stuff because I would just ruin my own health to spite them.

This behaviour escalated to the point I would just use my own body against them to get the things I wanted or do whatever I wanted with no restraints. So to parents who might be doing this, please make sure your kids don't end up like I did.

(Apologise for bad English I'm not a native speaker)

PrasZ Report

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At one point I was pretty much my mums therapist, I stopped talking to her and told her to get real help after she admitted while driving that she wants to wrap us around a big tree. To this day I don't think she has gotten help.

LumpDinosaur Report

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The tooth fairy gave me $20 per tooth, so I rushed to get a few out.

BBoySlim , Jelleke Vanooteghem Report

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All they ever cared about is sending my sister and I to university and never thought about the consequences (They both had degrees themselves).They never really encouraged us to pursue other hobbies or non-uni options. It back-fired big time my sister is in a crappy grad job and me realizes university was a waste of time. I also discovered new interests which I would probably never had discovered if I was still living with my parents.

ParaniodUser Report

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I wasn’t aware of it as a child; I am the oldest of three boys five and six years apart (my younger brother is five years younger than me, and the youngest is six years younger than him). Only the middle brother was planned, and in retrospect, it showed. He was the most favored and the youngest was next most favored because he was the baby. So I got all the emotional neglect and trust issues.

Eroe777 Report

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My parents were great with me, but of course no one is perfect so here's mine: Constantly blaming on us (me and my brothers) that the house was dirty and untidy to the point we were convinced we were a disaster. It was interesting when I moved out and realized my dorm first and my apartment later were always pretty neat while the family house was still a mess. The funny thing is that they will still blame it on us when we go back to spend a holiday with them or so. Gotta love them.

Dr_Chemiramen Report

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My parents did a phenomenal job with me and my siblings but there are two things I wish they had done differently -

1. it wasn’t good for my work ethic to be told how smart I was all the time, because it definitely made me feel like I didn’t have to try very hard in school or at extracurriculars or at work.

2. Rather than let my brother and I resolve our own problems, my mother would always just make snap judgements about who was right or wrong, which could not be appealed, and I believe that ultimately created a lot of distance between us for a long time. It felt like we grew up as adversaries, always trying to use her mom-power against each other. It made me bitter because as the older brother I rarely got the benefit of the doubt and I resented how easily he could get me in trouble if he wanted to.

Timegoat Report

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I am 13 but had to mature at 5.Favorites, underplaying your kids,don’t accept your kids opinions,Yell at them for something out of there control and force you to do something that you want them to do

The_Lobster_Haker Report

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hmm, there was [this doozy](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/a85w78/whats_the_most_strangely_unique_punishment_you/ec8cujt/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3), my mom liked to use a cutting board on me as a fairly common punishment, plus there was a handful of times i can recall my dad trying to start a fistfight with me (yelling at me to "put em up"). oh and all the times my belongings were under threat of being taken out to the driveway and destroyed in a number of different ways purely because i didn't look away from the TV fast enough or whatever.

kbyyru Report

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Carrying their burdens, which lead to me neglecting myself and not having a sense of identity.

TheSilverCrystal Report

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Overall I had good parents, but they're human so they made mistakes.

I would say communication was the biggest issue. They didn't communicate well with each other, and they didn't communicate well with my brother and me. I often didn't feel safe to talk about issues, a lot of times I got the reply: "You're making a big fuss over nothing" or something like that. I didn't feel like I was taken seriously.

Vaalermoor Report

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Kinda everything: constant screaming, being toxic af, drinking, not letting me to do anything, fueling my anxiety and making me scared of outside and people (and then being mad at me for not going outside lmao), not making sure I have at least normal education, not buying me encyclopedias I wanted, not caring about my actual talents but forcing me to play piano, s******g on anything I'm interested in, dragging me to clinic everytime I sneeze but closing eyes on my mental health, not caring how I look etc etc etc...

showMeYourCroissant Report

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Well it's not a new realisation, but;



My dad (although he's an amazing person and my absolute most consistent support system and role model) was barely every around when I was growing up. He didn't notice until I actually confronted my parents a few years ago. It meant I had to take care of myself way earlier in life than most kids ought to.



My mom was an alcoholic when I was growing up. She won't admit it, but my two older siblings both agree. In her "defense" she was doing it to cope with the fact that my stepfather was beating her (and partially myself). Despite understanding her perspective after a *lot* of conversations about it, I'd say she was not being a good parent. She also tried to convince me that a lot of my worst traumas growing up were just bad dreams. Took a lot of therapy for me to stop being constantly angry over this.



On the other hand, though, I taught myself to view the whole situation as a lesson on what *not* to do if I ever become a parent, rather than just hating my parents for it.

zethrick Report

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Saying things are bad without saying why

RepresentativeDuck18 Report

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My dad "motivating" me through guilt trips.

xtzferocity Report

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Saying that I couldn't do anything or handle anything

Small_Tax_9432 Report

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I had nearly 0 restrictions growing up. Didn't ever have a curfew or told I couldn't go somewhere even if far away.
They left me to watch the trailer by myself that we camped in the summers sometimes and I'd party hard doing drugs and drinking under 18.
I'm doing things a lot differently as I don't want my kids involved with those things. Sure I had lots of fun but also lost many friends and saw lot's of messed up things along the way and would have wanted more time to be a kid and actually have some discipline.
My parents were/are super nice and that is/was their problem lol.

Growerofgreens Report

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Had children.

LusciousLennyStone Report

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I feel a little awkward writing this because I'm currently living with my family and getting on better with my parents than I sometimes have. That said:

- Not teaching me how to escape from situations in terms of logistics and transport. Independence was always about how to get from a to b by myself (or from one carer to another), not how to leave b and get to a by myself.

Because I have communication and emotional issues, that made me feel trapped and created a lot of unnecessary conflict when I couldn't escape the scene, which in turn made my parents and other people think I was less mature than I actually was.

I don't mean that they didn't teach me how to leave a place socially, but rather that they didn't teach me the practical part of it. I'd be taught how to get on a plane to go on holiday, not how to leave the house and get a plane home, and so on.

And this was a problem if I wanted to *stay* somewhere as well, sometimes, because they'd want me to leave at the same time unless I was really mature enough to go where I pleased in that situation, or someone didn't mind looking after me.

- Being too "normal" as parents. Despite supporting me financially now to go to a specialist school and buying me equipment and stuff for my hobby, and despite being a little eccentric themselves, they both had very regular jobs and I think they kind of expected me to be a more regular person in that way.

In hindsight, perhaps there would have been serious downsides, but I envy the kinds of parents who would, well, you know, some kid who's into music and they book them a set at a bar, or some kid who starts a business and they give them some legal framework for it.

In hindsight, maybe this is too much to expect from them, and honestly, I've taken the tremendous support they *have* given me for granted, but it's frustrating to know that I could have been luckier in that way.

- Worrying that certain things would be a nuiscance

I sometimes feel like my parents treat the house a bit like a museum. Although they do sometimes allow me to film there with a crew, I feel like I can't change it as much as I'd like or else I'd get into trouble.

In my teens, I was no longer allowed to invite large numbers for birthday parties because they were afraid the place would get trashed or something.

- Getting me to meet other adults

This shouldn't be considered bad parenting; I would always feel excluded when they were invited without me, whether I liked the adults or not, and I was quite lonely compared to other kids.

But it meant that I invested a lot of time and energy into certain people who didn't see me as equals, and also meant that I had a lot of traumatic experiences with people whose lives weren't as long as the average young person's would be.


- Taking me to the wrong schools

My first school was adequate as schools go, but it was a private school and it made me very sheltered from the reality of the world for most people. My second school was too rough for me, I got teased and it was not really suitable in that way.

It wasn't their fault, but I also think a lack of understanding of my condition was a problem for me growing up.

- Gender issues

This is the one exception. I'm getting on worse with them on this one.

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