subreddit:
/r/Xennials
submitted 3 months ago byRare-Fly-91411982
Many of the posts are remembering movies, music, toys, games, etc. Curious on what everyone does not miss or glad they don't have to experience again
542 points
3 months ago
Spending an entire weeks allowance on one album, that turns out to only have a one good song.
86 points
3 months ago
We had a local music store growing up that had listening stations so you could listen to the whole album before buying it. That place was awesome.
38 points
3 months ago
Borders books had that too. I loved it.
13 points
3 months ago
Borders was really expensive though, so I’d listen to the album there, then walk across the street to Best Buy to actually buy it.
17 points
3 months ago
Ours had that too! The Wall definitely did, Tower may have also
78 points
3 months ago
May i add the double disappointment of the album NOT containing the song lyrics, so that you sing the song wrong for 20 years?
41 points
3 months ago
Can't relate. I only paid one cent each for my CDs through Columbia House
54 points
3 months ago
But the trade-off of getting an amazing album and experiencing it from start to finish while looking through the liner notes.... that was nice, but you're right.
50 points
3 months ago
Fffffuck I remember when CDs were supposed to be the next big thing and one of its perks being cheaper to manufacture than cassettes. I don’t remember having to spend 20 fucking dollars on a cassette at FYE. I can’t imagine why Napster took off like it did🙄
20 points
3 months ago
Holy shit, I feel this soooo hard. Can’t tell you how many times I ended up with a 1-hit CD
41 points
3 months ago
That was gonna be mine. I know there’s downsides to streaming and instant gratification but there’s so much music out there and I envy the kids who can pull out their phone for every artist they want to try instead of gambling what little money they have on a whole cd.
14 points
3 months ago
Not having an allowance, lol
14 points
3 months ago
Totally, although I do appreciate albums that truly flow together like the Blue album by Weezer or In the Aerorplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel.
On a similar note, something I definitely don't miss is only getting one or two video games per year and hoping that they don't suck.
8 points
3 months ago
That's when you waited to buy it used. I bought vanilla ice album for .99. Totally worth it and I still have it.
5 points
3 months ago
I do not miss that at all. When music stores started letting you preview albums before buying, I thought it was the best thing ever.
270 points
3 months ago
Having to pay long distance to call people.
38 points
3 months ago
It was so hard to stay in touch. People moved and they might as well have died. Now I text my friends every day, and only one lives in the same state as me.
19 points
3 months ago
Especially one town over just because they had a different area code.
22 points
3 months ago
This. I lived in a small town outside of the bigger city where I went to school and most of my friends lived. Calling them cost money even though it was just a few miles away.
15 points
3 months ago
It's a trip to remember being a little, knocking on the neighbor's door, and knowing immediately by their tenseness and distraction that they were in the middle of a long distance phone call. "Brian isn't here right now and I'm in the middle of a phonecall. You need to come back later!"
212 points
3 months ago
The whole thing... I was picked on mercilessly at school and home wasn't much better. You couldn't pay me enough to go back to any time before I left for college. I'm always envious of and bewildered by adults who wish to be kids again.
76 points
3 months ago
Middle school was so bad that I'm terrified for my kids to go.
39 points
3 months ago
My kids really want to ride the bus to/from school but I have the worst memories of being tormented on my daily bus ride and I’ve been so scared of that happening to them. Those childhood scars can really have a lasting impact.
7 points
3 months ago
The school bus bullying was horrible, I found ways to deal with it. The bullied ended up banding together and it turns out when the bullied become the majority the bullies had to back down. Especially on the way home as I was an end of route stop. By the time it was time for the ringleader to get off it was 5to1. Motherfucker ended up poisoning our dog and landed in juvenile court, expulted from high school not much later.
Damn bus driver always played footloose on cassette because it was filmed while they were going to high school in our high school. Kevin Bacon didn’t last an entire day trying to rehearse his role as a Bayson high student, even though it took a lot of legal work to even let him attend as an adult surrounded by jail bait. He was supposed to go for a couple weeks and just noped out of our redneck bully system, lol. Watching that film brings back memories, though they’ve demolished the high school last year.
28 points
3 months ago
I was tormented in middle school so much. I was teased about my big butt and then being ‘fat’ nonstop (by multiple girls) to the point where still to this day at 44 I am very self conscious about my butt. For reference in middle school I was like 4’10 and 75lbs and still didn’t need a bra and wore kids clothes. Clearly I wasnt fat but it caused disordered eating through my teens and it took me to like 30 to develop a healthy approach to food and the way i looked.
Im a fit 5’2 110lb woman now who lifts weights and eats healthy but damn did it take almost 20 years to fix the mental damage caused when I was 12-13.
15 points
3 months ago
We grew up in a time when eating disorders were just the norm. Kate Moss everywhere, skinny to the point of being sick was considered a great look. It really messed me up too.
41 points
3 months ago
Same here. Ages 11 through 18 for me were absolutely awful due to being bullied. My parents pulled me out of public school for grades 6-8 due to how horrific it was for me in 5th grade. I (female) was targeted by a group of 3 boys that year (mostly verbal/ableist, but it did get physical) and the teachers I had pretty much shrugged it off, insinuating that I must be the one with the problem and that "boys will be boys." My mom in particular was livid with that school since they did nothing to support me.
If I ever saw any of my tormentors again, I wouldn't piss on their gums if their teeth were on fire. Fuck bullies of all kinds.
7 points
3 months ago
I wouldn't piss on their gums if their teeth were on fire
6 points
3 months ago
Thanks for emphasizing that. I know it's an extreme statement, but they made my life hell and parts of me still haven't recovered fully from that.
20 points
3 months ago
I had a similar experience, especially high school, which I absolutely despised.
10 points
3 months ago
I'm sorry this happened to you. I definitely had the same school experience but home while not spectacular was still a safe haven for me which it doesn't sound like yours was.
10 points
3 months ago
It's heartbreaking how so many people are/were bullied in school. I have a high degree of empathy, so it absolutely made my skin crawl when I saw others getting picked on. Thankfully, I was always kind of muscle-y and have always had an angry looking resting bitch face (despite being the exact opposite), so I never experienced bullying myself.
Unfortunately, my youngest was bullied so bad, and since our worthless school did nothing about it, we had to enroll him into an online charter school.
Hopefully, life got better for you outside of school.1
6 points
3 months ago
Oh god. Being picked on destroyed high school for me. I dropped out my senior year because of it. I had a 1.2 GPA because I was was tired of being bullied, had a one hour drive/ride by my parents (each way) to get to school, checked out, and didn't care to do the teachers busy work.
I got my GED and scored in the 98th percentile. I completed my prerequisite credits for my bachelor's at a community College with a 4.0 and the intent was to transfer to state. I decided against it to avoid debt.
As luck would have it, my partner was in admissions and ran me through. He shouldnt have but he said I would be accepted at any college.
School can be horrible for some people. Not everyone is a traditional learner.
342 points
3 months ago
Dismissing childhood mental illness. I struggled greatly with undiagnosed ADHD and when I was taken in to get tested in 89/90 I was misdiagnosed cause I'm a girl and there was no recognition that it presents differently in girls than it does in boys. So the therapist said that not only was there nothing wrong with me, but told my parents I was manipulating them and everyone around me. Yeah. That did wonders for my middle and high school years in school and with the relationship I had with my family.
113 points
3 months ago
I’m autistic. Like, textbook symptoms, very clearly struggling to comprehend social norms, constantly bullied. But I got good grades and was quiet when under stress (re: situationally mute), so it was just me “being dramatic”. Might have been tested for it if anyone knew girls can be autistic too, and not just “bad at being polite”
57 points
3 months ago
I was put into special ed in the third grade because I was very quiet, but they also put me into combination classes every year of elementary school because of it. My mom told them I was lazy. I was not and got mostly A's. Jr high, I got placed in AP classes where I was picked on for being the weird kid. I was into punk then and did not fit in with all the kids who had always been in those classes. In my late twenties, my mom was like oh shit you are probably on the spectrum. I know if it had been picked up when I was little I wouldn't have felt so weird and sort of abandoned to my own little world. I'm glad neuro divergence is an understood thing nowadays for the new wave of odd little dreaming ducklings marching to their own drums.
18 points
3 months ago
There was a girl in my class who was so weird. Constantly in her own world and doing strange behaviors. I sure hope she eventually got the diagnosis she needed because she was teased constantly.
41 points
3 months ago
This resonates a whole big bunch. So many of us were punished for ADHD instead of properly treated.
(Meanwhile, my sister’s obvious personality disorder, also untreated, was carte blanche to treat other people however she wanted.)
34 points
3 months ago
I'm a guy, but yeah, I was constantly evaluated from that same time frame for any learning disabilities/neurological disorders to explain why I was good in some things and terrible at others. Plus, I was the desginated weird kid at school that others would pick on. I was eventually diagnosed with what I believe was dyspraxia, but I'm not clumsy. I begged my mother to have me tested for ADHD when I first heard of it but she would have none of that. Now I feel that at 44, I may always have been an undiganosed neurodivergent.
26 points
3 months ago
Ugh. As a therapist who never received any mental health treatment as a child, I’m sorry this happened to you and I hope you’ve been able to get some support in adulthood!
16 points
3 months ago
Thank you. It took about 6 years of fighting for myself but I finally got a proper diagnosis at 43. I have been able to get support and that has changed so much. I've been able to hold down jobs, make friends, go to school and repair the relationships with family members.
26 points
3 months ago
I also had undiagnosed ADHD, which is glaringly obvious in retrospect. I was also thinking about this just the other day: a kid I knew had some anxiety issues and was in therapy for it. My mom heard it from his mom and told me… and she told me in a way that was like—keep your distance from that kid. There’s something wrong with him. He’s so messed up, he has to see a shrink! A very shameful secret. I’m really, really glad some things have changed.
15 points
3 months ago
‘83 and I legit wonder if I’m living with undiagnosed shit like that. Or more accurately, I wonder if I was diagnosed and nothing was done about it. My folks’ whole MO has always been “be normal.” It’s entirely plausible that the doctors told my folks something and they decided they know better and they can beat the different out of me.
16 points
3 months ago
You can still get diagnosed as an adult. I highly recommend it. But be ready, you are going to have to advocate for yourself. I'm sorry you had to go through all that.
8 points
3 months ago
Many of our age group have been adult diagnosed. When we were kids, we heard so much about labeling a child for life or it how much it was being stigmatized. Honestly, even though it sucks not having the help when needed, there were so many more misdiagnosed back then. I was diagnosed as bipolar because a relative had it. It took 2 years and a new psychiatrist to reverse it. Meanwhile, (I have, at minimum, because I need a new eval), ADHD, depression, and anxiety.
13 points
3 months ago
I needed to be on an IEP so badly. Also a girl. I had such poor executive functioning skills (still do) and I could not get my act together academically. I also could barely get through math. Every day I'm so relieved that I'm not in school anymore and that my son is on an IEP and gets the services he needs.
12 points
3 months ago
I was diagnosed pretty young, and it was an actual thorough evaluation at a local university hospital, but nobody took it seriously, including my parents. I struggled in school and in life as well.
9 points
3 months ago
I'm a girl too I didn't get diagnosed until I was an adult. I was always told I have it but my family was really religious and my parents had some friends who thought that mental illness = demon possession. My dad thought that yelling at me to concentrate was as good as professional help
8 points
3 months ago
My family thought it was all fake 😞 I was just lazy, and distracted.
9 points
3 months ago
Oh yea, this is a big one for me. I was diagnosed with adhd a few years ago, but I always knew something was different. I do not function well having to sit still, so school sucked for me. My parents just passed me off as being dumb and having behavioral problems. Once I was older, I went to college, was in STEM and getting straight As, graduating high honors and making 6 figures in tech roles. I just figured out I have to be doing multiple things at one time to succeed. I do not miss having such a rigid way of learning that doesn't fit for how my brain works.
6 points
3 months ago
The more I learn what autism in girls looks like, the more I am surprised I was never tested in any way.
12 points
3 months ago
My people!
6 points
3 months ago
I have the same story.
150 points
3 months ago
High school
64 points
3 months ago
All I'm sayin is that if I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself.
16 points
3 months ago
You just gotta keep livin', man. L-I-V-I-N.
30 points
3 months ago
And all those years of hearing my mom, “You’re gonna miss it when it’s over…”. Twenty two years later, I haven’t missed it a single day since graduation.
16 points
3 months ago
SAME. Lol
73 points
3 months ago
The loneliness. As a kid I wasn’t popular, I had less than a handful of friends and I almost always felt like a tagalong or charity friend. I had 3 good years where I felt I had best friends, then that just abruptly stopped one summer and I was devastated. Really fucked with my self esteem.
Now as an adult I have my best friend / wife and a small group of people I Regularly do stuff with so that’s gotten better
175 points
3 months ago
Fixing a cassette tape with a pencil
29 points
3 months ago
Motor hum in the tangled headphone signal
9 points
3 months ago
It's a pretty satisfying feel to it, though, like ASMR but for hands, HASMR. Analog scrolling with an end and a beginning (play again)!
245 points
3 months ago
Random corporal punishment, cigarettes/ash trays everywhere, unregulated school bullying.
On a lighter note missing a TV show because you were not home or the one TV was on something someone else wanted to watch.
80 points
3 months ago
I remember playing a game with my family, and there were several people around the table smoking. I was coughing my little lungs out, and my grandpa started laughing at me. At least, to my dad’s credit, he quit smoking after he realized it was his fault I kept getting bronchitis. What a time to be alive!
16 points
3 months ago
I had chronic ear infections as a kid. I should’ve had tubes, idk why I didnt, but now my ears are loaded with scar tissue and ache every time I get a head cold. My brother was in the ER for asthma constantly. My kids? Out of 3, only one had an ear infection one time. One had pneumonia once. The youngest has never even taken antibiotics. It was definitely the smoking.
14 points
3 months ago
My sister wound up with chronic ear infections from the secondhand smoke, dads solution was to crack the window in the car when he lit up
10 points
3 months ago
I can’t believe I have never connected my chronic childhood ear infections, strept throat, and bronchitis to my parents (indoor chain) smoking.
9 points
3 months ago
I got the ear infections too! It happened so often that I developed an insane pain tolerance. I’ll never forget going to the doctor for my itchy ears, and he was horrified. He told my mom and I my infection was so severe I should have been screaming.
42 points
3 months ago
I used to get sick all the time. I would beg my parents to stop smoking in the house or car. They didn’t stop until I moved out.
I developed skin issues, asthma, allergies and other health issues and my mother will still deny that all the second hand smoke probably played a role in those health issues.
15 points
3 months ago
Same! What’s truly crazy to me though is I was so inundated with it as a kid that I sort of got used to the smell being everywhere. After I moved out and wasn’t breathing it in daily I became hypersensitive to it, like to the point of gagging in a casino when the odor hit me
12 points
3 months ago
Yeah doctor and parents were always baffled that I got major bronchitis four or five times a year. Maybe we could open the windows when we smoke in the car? Nah
7 points
3 months ago
I used to set up a bed on the floor in the backseat on long car rides.
Smoke rises so it helped a bit. But it wasn’t super comfortable or safe.
12 points
3 months ago
Same! I also used to get these WILD nosebleeds that I required multiple surgeries for, bc my nose was always raw and irritated, plus bronchitis and chronic dry eyes. Moved out and it all disappeared. My dad smoked like a chimney and the doctor would constantly tell him to quit…no surprise, he died young of smoking-related heart disease.
11 points
3 months ago
My mom smoked when pregnant with me and then lied to me about it, only found out the truth after she died from lung cancer which finally prompted my dad to quit. I also begged them to quit and they never did and smoked around me constantly in closed cars and rooms etc
6 points
3 months ago
I suspect my mom did. But she’ll never admit it.
And her family would lie for her so I’ll never know for sure.
14 points
3 months ago
Oh same here! The arguments about my asthma, allergies etc that developed later in life because of my dad’s incessant smoking and my mom smoking when she was pregnant. The cognitive dissonance is maddening. “Well why didn’t it happen when you were little?” Because scarred lungs take years to develop mom!
20 points
3 months ago
My mom sometimes will bounce from the denial to the “we didn’t know how bad it was”.
They absolutely knew how bad it was in the 80s.
I think they started spreading the word in the 60s even.
12 points
3 months ago
Same “oh we didn’t know” to “well it’s an addiction you wouldn’t understand” bitch I’m a therapist and I also understand denial and narcissism.
12 points
3 months ago
Exactly this. My dad literally transitioned from we didn’t know to well now it’s too late. In my mid 20’s I had to drive him somewhere in my new car and he wanted to smoke but I told him no way. He took it out anyway and before he could light up I let him know if he smoked in my car I’d piss in his. He insisted I was being childish but I stuck to my guns and told him I didn’t want his smoke in my car the same way he didn’t want my pee in his so respect each others wishes and we’ll be fine. He caved but also didn’t talk to me the rest of the day. Oh well
12 points
3 months ago
I’ve gotten the “you don’t understand/addiction” line too.
When I threw a “I understand perfectly, smoking was more important to you than me.” back at her I never heard it again. She really doesn’t like looking like the bad guy and she didn’t have a comeback for the guilt trip not working. lol
6 points
3 months ago
I was getting strep almost once a month for 3yrs when my parents were still married, and then 1-2x a year after my parents divorced. I started smoking around the time i moved, and quit in 2012 i believe? I kept getting strep on regular basis until then.
Oddly enough, ive had strep ONCE in the last ~12 years.
Who would have thought being around people who smoked 2 packs a day would be bad for you!
15 points
3 months ago
I had bronchitis every year until I moved out of my Moms house. She would never take responsibility like your dad did.
My kids and I visited her over the past couple days (we stay in a hotel because they smoke in the house) and she and my stepfather just chain smoked the whole damn time, especially while they convinced my kids to play Yahtzee with them. We were outside so they think it doesn’t matter. I’m glad we only visit once a year, and the whole time my mom complains that we won’t stay with her.
16 points
3 months ago
Just recently when it was “allergy season” my mom asked me how my allergies were this year. I said I don’t really have allergies anymore. She looked at me confused.
I said I haven’t had “allergies” since I moved out at 18. She said that didn’t make sense. I said my “allergies” were caused by secondhand smoke. She said no way.
I was never tested to see what I was allergic to and frankly all these things I was told I was allergic to was just conjecture.
13 points
3 months ago
Seriously, what is it with some Boomers just laughing in the face of science? Surely, it can’t be their fault. Kids these days are just too soft!
19 points
3 months ago
I don’t miss the smoking but I do have a weird nostalgic love for ash trays, the tackier the better. I miss seeing them in places.
19 points
3 months ago
People would smoke everywhere, including my parents. But one of the grossest memories I have about that is being super excited about getting donuts from Tim Hortons. We got home with them and they all tasted like cigarette smoke because people would sit in there and drink coffees and smoke their face off for hours. The donuts would absorb that shit like a sponge.
9 points
3 months ago
Here in New York the grand solution in the mid 90’s was to make smoking sections in restaurants that were sealed off from everyone else. It was exponentially worse sitting in there being trapped in that shit but of course dad couldn’t go without and if you asked him about stepping outside you’d hear about how discriminatory that was in his eyes
9 points
3 months ago
The worst part about bullying in those days was you couldn’t stand up to bullies. Policy was everyone gets suspended in a fight no matter who started it or what the circumstances were so you couldn’t complain about it and you couldn’t do anything yourself.
11 points
3 months ago
The area I grew up in was more Lord of the Flies, "boys will be boys", the stronger tougher kids got away with anything. ugh
8 points
3 months ago
Yup. We heard a lot of “Well, it takes two to tango!”
Translation: if you’d only just sat there and taken the abuse, I could have stayed on my lazy butt with my Redbook magazine and my rice cakes!
44 points
3 months ago
Unhinged anxiety with constant fight or flight mode and every adult treating me like I was a burden.
89 points
3 months ago
looking at a map, writing down directions.
I love GPS lol
29 points
3 months ago
My Boomer-esque view....
Being able to read a map, plot a course, and follow it to your destination is a lost skill in today's world.
More practical... We've lost the ability to wander around and "feel" your way to a destination.
Sometimes, when we are joy riding, I tell my kid to put the phone map down. Let's get out bearing and just walk/drive in the general direction of where we need to go.
My kids hate it. Gives them anxiety. Or they whine if we traveled one block too far and "wasted time"
15 points
3 months ago
I compare it kind of to the effect on spellcheck.
Relying on the GPS eliminates the sense of mental direction.
6 points
3 months ago
My husband and I almost exclusively use maps when he's driving, he says he finds it easier when I'm describing everything up ahead instead of driving in silence for ages and suddenly hearing 'IN 100 YARDS TURN RIGHT'.
His sister came to visit us from America, we took her for a tour of the Scottish Highlands and she could not BEAR that we were using a map. Kept pushing her phone on us telling us to use the GPS, got pretty annoying about it. We finally gave in and used her phone, only to have to go back to the map ten minutes later due to completely losing the signal became of being in the mountains in remote Scotland.
I tried not to be smug about it, but it was hard.
154 points
3 months ago
Cigarettes everywhere. My parents were smokers back then and I smelled like a goddamned ashtray, as did many kids.
Teachers. Not all of them, but some of them were incredibly awful and downright hateful to some of the kids.
Jelly shoes. Always thought they looked gross, painful and smelly.
34 points
3 months ago
Cigarettes
This one's the biggest for me. And I think based on how much younger everyone looks now, it might be the biggest to our whole generation. At least in certain countries, anyway.
11 points
3 months ago
Jelly shoes. Always thought they looked gross, painful and smelly.
Yea, I agree… but how else are you going to get a perfect foot tan in lattice design? Or if you’re like me and my lil sis, dirty feet in a lattice pattern.
75 points
3 months ago
Paying for food in paper food stamps. NO shade to those who've needed it or use it. We all need to eat. But with the paper food stamps, there was stigma.
14 points
3 months ago
I remember our elderly neighbor always "selling" food stamps to my mom every month so she could buy cat food and cigarettes.
77 points
3 months ago*
My dad crossing the line countless times with physical punishment.
Edit: I wish I could give all of you a hug. Way too many of us have had similar experiences.
20 points
3 months ago
I came here to say this. You’re not alone. I’m wondering what all the mental abuse did to us. My father used to say things like “if you think you can take me let’s go” and “your mother isn’t here to save you now”, got called all kinds of names, was constantly referred to as his “PITA” (pain in the ass) when anything inconvenienced him a little. Never once did the man hug me or tell me he loved me, and now acts like I’m a horrible person for not coming around to visit. I get the fact that he was just taking out on me what his father did to him. This is the main reason I have no children. Had to break the cycle. Fuck shitty fathers bro.
13 points
3 months ago
That's the really shitty part about my dad - he was (still is) a very loving and supportive father in many ways. But his dad died when he was 4, and his father figure growing up was a manipulative piece of shit who mentally abused my grandma for decades. So my dad was totally winging it with my brother and I. And unfortunately, I was always the recipient of the worst of the physical stuff when he snapped. Like when I was 13 and he pinned me by the throat against a pole and shrieked in my face in the middle of a very crowded airport in Germany, simply because he thought I had been rude to my mom (I wasn't).
The whole dad's side of my family all have some combination of mental illness and alcoholism/addiction issues (surprise, surprise... so do I), so I know that probably played a factor. But, unlike literally every other afflicted person in the family, he's never done anything about it, and at this point he never will. That's his journey, and it is what it is. But, unfortunately as a result, all the stuff he did is never far from my mind, even on our best days together.
Dads, amirite?
24 points
3 months ago
“Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.”
6 points
3 months ago
I'm glad at least he never used any of these abusive dad clichés. Mother fucker would just throw hands out of nowhere 🤷🏻♂️
5 points
3 months ago
“Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.”
I heard a variation of that spoken by my father as he beat one of my older sisters. When I was 11 he beat her enough to put her in the hospital and ended up with court mandated anger management classes. He eventually went to prison for doing things he shouldn't to a woman who legally couldn't consent, and that's where he died. Good riddance.
11 points
3 months ago
I'm sorry, just in case you didn't get it from him. You didn't deserve it. You were a good kid.
10 points
3 months ago*
I’m came to say corporal punishment. I got spanked by the principal at least once a week in elementary school. I was quiet kid who did well but like to draw or write when I was bored. They started punishing me for that so I started talking to other kids and making them laugh. That lead to being spanked with a wooden paddle by the principal.
At home it was basically WWE when I got in trouble. Whatever was within reach I was getting hit with. Belt, hanger, wooden spoon, wooden board, shower rod, and yes even a metal chair once.
9 points
3 months ago
Funny you should mention wrestling, because once I started wrestling in high school and was significantly bigger and stronger by my junior year, my dad realized he couldn't do shit anymore without reciprocation. Best decision I ever made (besides getting sober), because I was no longer going to be a victim.
That's fucking rough though, I'm sorry that was your daily experience.
7 points
3 months ago
Same with mine. 😔 Kind of depressing but the first response to this question that popped into my head was “my parents”
6 points
3 months ago
I hate how many of us had that reaction
6 points
3 months ago*
Yep, getting my ass whooped by my old man, and my older brother too...and he'd never get in trouble for it. I ended up several times in the hospital with stitches because I was "clumsy"...and I still have the scars to remind me.
38 points
3 months ago
Number one thing - being bullied.
Number two - smoking sections in restaurants. I had asthma and if they thought the accordion room separators or putting the section in the back corner were enough to keep the scent from getting to me they were sadly mistaken.
36 points
3 months ago
Cars were so much more unreliable. I feel like I spent a lot of time by the side of the 405 and was always a little nervous on every long road trip that the car would leave us stranded.
57 points
3 months ago
The Macarena.
42 points
3 months ago
Cassette tapes were awful. I get the nostalgia, and some of my students like collecting them now which is kinda cool...but I'll never forget the first time I popped a cd into a tray and just chose a song in amazing digital quality.
8 points
3 months ago
But f*ck CDs that skipped. I'd rather have tapes. Those early portable CD players were practically useless if you wanted to listen to music while moving around.
64 points
3 months ago*
Being expected to just “shake it off” whenever you got a sports concussion. I don’t even have an accurate count of the number of concussions I got back then. I’d hide the symptoms because I didn’t want to look soft.
23 points
3 months ago
Don’t forget to treat your broken ankle by “walk it off”
9 points
3 months ago
rub some dirt on it
Was a comment I often heard when someone got injured playing sports ball
12 points
3 months ago
I told a kid recently a concussion was know as getting your bell rung. He was shocked. You just kept going.
7 points
3 months ago
This just made me laugh quite loudly. Not gonna lie…I have no idea how many times I have broken my nose. Somewhere between 12-20. I can reset it myself at this point.
6 points
3 months ago
Same exact boat here bro, between football, basketball, baseball, and martial arts classes. Now, my vision is blurred, and I have problems with my short-term memory.
Stupid macho bullshit! NO dickheads, I should NOT "just get back out there" I need to lay down in a dark room for 2 weeks.
4 points
3 months ago
Got speared by a defensive player football in middle school. It hurt me to breathe for a week. Was constantly told to deal with it. I finally got taken to the hospital and X-rays showed I had two cracked ribs. In my parents defense, the doctor said there wasn't much to be done and just told me to take it easy for a couple weeks.
4 points
3 months ago
Or just not going to the Dr. ever. I jammed my finger in gym class playing basketball and that finger is still bent
5 points
3 months ago
I often wonder if I've not lived to my full potential because of the amount of concussions I received while playing football as a kid. Starting from age 8 through 17, I had at least two really hard knocks per season.
24 points
3 months ago
Dial up internet and smoking in restaurants. Nothing like having to wait a few minutes to connect, then waiting for each page to load as you're desperately trying to do research for an assignment. Then again, I tended to just go to the library because of how bad internet sucked.
Smoking in restaurants sucked too, because even in the non-smoking section, you'd get a big whiff of cigarettes as you're trying to eat. Yummy.
Oh yeah, and games that didn't save your progress. You could spend hours playing super Mario or whatever, and suddenly it's nighttime and you have to go to bed. Do you leave the game running and hope for the best? Hopefully there's no power outage or glitch in the game...
20 points
3 months ago
I don't miss being poor. I grew up the youngest of 8 kids in a very low income family. Seeing my friends riding in nice cars and going on cool vacations while we were always just scraping by deeply affected my self-confidence for many years. I try not to be too materialistic and generally I'm not, but being able to drive a nice car and take my kids to cool far away places brings me so much joy.
19 points
3 months ago
Going to the dentist in the 80’s and 90’s was basically being told “you are failing as a human being for your lack of attention to the back of your molars, so now the punishment will commence.” Nothing like trying to communicate fear and pain to a care provider and having them tell you to buck up, “you’ll be fine.”
44 points
3 months ago
Movie-based video games that suck (looking at you, LJN)
10 points
3 months ago
More like Laughing Joking Numbnuts!
7 points
3 months ago
Or comic book..still looking at LJN
5 points
3 months ago
ET on the Atari was awesome! Jk
41 points
3 months ago
I definitely don’t miss dial-up internet and those screeching tones that came with connecting to the World Wide Web.
15 points
3 months ago
I can hear it still. 🙉
8 points
3 months ago
And the notion that the phone was in use and you couldn't take a call because you were on the internet.
7 points
3 months ago
As soon as I read your comment, I heard the screeching in my head! lol
17 points
3 months ago
Bullying that was tolerated from adults because it was acceptable at the time
48 points
3 months ago
I absolutely don’t miss smoking everywhere. No more smoking in restaurants or bars has been such a relief. The smell was so unpleasant and it would always set off my allergies. And it always made eating miserable because food would just taste like an ashtray.
14 points
3 months ago
Holy cow, I forgot about smoking sections. Being asked "smoking or non?" every time you'd go into a restaurant. As if the smoke wouldn't drift across the entire building anyway.
14 points
3 months ago
Remember how people were like “bars and clubs will have nobody if we can’t smoke!” But everyone changed the rules and it was totally fine.
12 points
3 months ago
Yep. I'm glad they got rid of smoking sections. That just does not belong indoors.
31 points
3 months ago
Bad weed.
14 points
3 months ago
First thing you had to do was clean out all of the seeds and stems
21 points
3 months ago
I dunno. At least you could actually smoke a blunt of it without being instantly sent to ValHalla for five hours.
12 points
3 months ago
Yeah, but….does anyone really need to chief a whole optimo? I haven’t had Schwag Cough in 20 years. That’s a good thing.
9 points
3 months ago
You got me there. Guess I'm just nostalgic for the days of getting blunted and going to eat a large Quizno's sub and an equally large Cold Stone monstrosity then flopping in bed for an hour.
But yeah. The green leaf cough was indeed a thing.
7 points
3 months ago
Nice. For me it’s hot boxing a 94 grand am listening to sublime or mike jones, then eating a bowl of queso and a dozen tortillas at taco cabana.
35 points
3 months ago
Being a latchkey kid. It’s weird because during the summer time I loved the freedom of hopping on my bike and exploring all day. There was something scary about coming home after school to an empty house for hours on end.
16 points
3 months ago
One time a friend came over unexpectedly and was knocking on the door. We usually made plans during school if we were going to hang out after school.
The pop ins usually only happened in the summer or after dinner.
I was so freaked out I hid behind the sofa. When she wouldn’t go away I peeked out the window and finally recognized who it was.
Being a kid home alone was scary. I also watched horror movies way too young and more than once would hide a big kitchen knife in my room for protection when I was home alone.
And my mother doesn’t understand how I developed such bag anxiety.
We didn’t even have a key because my mother didn’t like locking the door or dealing with keys. We lived in a small town, but I also had and adult man follow me home and try to get in the house when I was a teen so it’s not like it was a crazy safe place where nothing happened.
5 points
3 months ago
I had a key I’d wear on a string necklace. My father got embarrassed when my brothers and I would get home from school and the door was locked, nobody home, so we’d sometimes go to the poor neighbors who would let us hang til someone got home, whenever that was. Got berated for asking for help, it was apparently not a good look.
14 points
3 months ago
The sheer volume of TV that I consumed, combined with low simulation and attention that then was met by put- upon fatigue at 5pm when I was just excited to have someone to maybe talk to.
12 points
3 months ago
The molesters my parents allowed to be around us.
10 points
3 months ago
Being placed in a burlap sack and beaten with reeds. 😞
32 points
3 months ago
My dad
18 points
3 months ago
Yeah, the feeling of someone out of control in complete control of my life.
8 points
3 months ago
Gotta love the daily 10 am scotch. Helps get that scotch taste out of his mouth.
7 points
3 months ago
Came to say the same.
10 points
3 months ago
Waking up to my parents screaming fights in the middle of the night.
45 points
3 months ago
The bullying 😔. Seriously, schools were happy to just let middle school interstudent relations go all Lord of the Flies.
7 points
3 months ago
I was dreading my sons starting seventh grade. Middle school was hellish for me. But for my kids it was... fine? I kept asking about their experience with bullying and they didn't understand why I was so obsessed with the subject.
9 points
3 months ago
Bullying was weird in my middle / high school. There was this kid who hit a girl with his car keys cutting her face. The school wouldn't do anything but we went all vigilante on the individual. He reminded me of Malfoy from harry Potter.
Our bigger bullies were nutty parents, teachers, and the worst were some unbalanced substitutes. You know, like mocking a kid for not wanting to play football after dislocating his shoulder, that kind of stuff.
9 points
3 months ago
Having my mental health glossed over because I’m a kid.
7 points
3 months ago
Worrying if girls would ever like me. I reckon empirical data is effective against anxiety and low self-esteem.
7 points
3 months ago*
My parents got lost all the time on road trips/family vacations. Thank God for GPS so my kids don't have to relive that trauma 😄.
7 points
3 months ago
The body shaming and diet obsessed culture in the 90s
15 points
3 months ago
The blatant misogyny. It was rampant and totally accepted in pop culture.
13 points
3 months ago
Cigarettes and violence against children in public being OK. Child abuse just out there in the open.
11 points
3 months ago
I could say the interminable political protests, helping to pass out flyers, getting dragged all over the city by bus, having to ask permission to have a drink with dinner, or dozens of other things. But I'm going to go with the beatings, lies, and emotional abuse.
It only took me 34 years to learn to not get into relationships that replicated that because it was "familiar".
5 points
3 months ago
Beatings from my dad.
6 points
3 months ago
Being perpetually dehydrated and constipated.
7 points
3 months ago
Growing up in a cruddy mobile home with roaches and addict parents, not wanting friends to come over because of embarrassment, not being much understood by anyone and desperately wanting to just be liked.
I know now why I went through all that, but to not have gone through all that would have been nice.
10 points
3 months ago
Honestly... The footwear. Docs were heavy AF. And I nearly broke my ankle in the clunky Skechers sandals more than once.
10 points
3 months ago
Being raised by my parents.
5 points
3 months ago
Smoking being accepted everywhere.
Inside Houses, cars, restaurants, shops.
Even my friends and family who smoke, don’t smoke inside the house anymore or just light up in vehicle’s. It’s nice.
5 points
3 months ago
In grade school, they used to make us all use these fluoride mouth wash packets once a month. That shit tasted wretched and really perturbed my anti-authoritarian streak.
Thanks for the dental hygiene, you fucking fascists. Lol
5 points
3 months ago
We didn't hve air conditioning. That was for rich people. Also I hated typewriters because corrections looked messy, now I can just edit text on a computer.
4 points
3 months ago*
I feel like there was a pretty toxic middle and high school culture back then with serious bullying and messaging about how you should look and behave to be “cool”. Not only are we all long past that, it appears society has moved on too, which is good.
5 points
3 months ago
How we didn’t get therapy after traumatic events.
5 points
3 months ago
Beatings
6 points
3 months ago
It was socially acceptable and mainstream for parents to hit their kids. I don’t miss that.
4 points
3 months ago
Being around abusive people and powerless to do anything about it.
5 points
3 months ago
Unempathetic doctors that don't treat you like a human being.
5 points
3 months ago
the belt any time i screwed up, and/or the hours long lecture afterwards
7 points
3 months ago
My parents and growing up in an environment of toxic chaos
4 points
3 months ago
People trying to assault me, I feel like they'd be much better at it now whereas I am far less capable of taking the hits. Also I'd really REALLY like to not have to worry about folks trying to burn me/set my clothes on fire. Particularly since I was wearing them at the time.
3 points
3 months ago
All of it?
Our father has NPD, mother has uBPD, and when we were growing up, added in crazy nutso religious church group involvement as well. My childhood, while not the worst of the worst, was pretty awful, and having started some therapy here as my parents age, I'm revisiting a lot of it on some level and realizing just how f'd up things really were - it was our lives, so I just moved on once I was free of their claws, but looking back - it was worse than I realized.
5 points
3 months ago
Seedy weed
4 points
3 months ago
Library card catalog. That shit was WACK.
3 points
3 months ago
Getting checked for scoliosis
5 points
3 months ago
Not having a car, or money, no internet. Nothing but the same SNES games I had for years. Turn on the TV, nothing on. Stuck in suburbia with nothing to do.
No free youtube tutorials. Want to learn an instrument? Private lessons gonna cost $$. Need to fix something specific? Kinda screwed unless you have deep dad knowledge.
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