What's the most adult realization you had as a young child. I'll start.

kaidu · 8 months

One day, I'm going to have to pay bills.

I was 3 or 4, and didn't realize how far off that was, so I started freaking out cause I didn't have any money.

tristamgreen · 8 months

Third grade - we were studying the human body - internal organs, learning to differentiate the digestive system from the nervous system etc., and we had to do a report on some human-body-related topic.

I chose "how babies are made".

Our research material consisted of a third-grade-level book that replaced all the key parts with parts from robots - i.e. the robot didn't have a penis, it had an extending ...thing that went into a "special slot" on another robot.

Yeah, I put two and two together on it while I was presenting the report to the class. Imagine, if you will, an eight-year-old boy standing there talking about the robots, and then the look of "what the FUCK?" coming across his face while he slowly realizes that the "extension" and "special slot" are actually a penis and a vagina, and that they have to come together in order to make a kid.

Iplaywithsinged · 8 months

My parents....Are people. I went to a work party and was amazed that my dad had a life outside of me. HE HAS FRIENDS? HES FUNNY? WHAAAAAATTTT?

ashcore · 8 months

I was 8 and realized my moms boyfriend of 5 years was a really mean person that could be violent so I told my mom that she needed to break up with him. She got really mad at me and that's when I realized my mother would never be someone that I could look up to or trust completely. 21 years later I still have those feelings about her.

Or when I was 6 I saw my dad cry and realized that he wasnt the strongest man in the world.

riloh · 8 months

when i was about 10, i learned the truth about why my dad wasn't in my life: he was in prison for breaking the law in a serious way. it made me realize that parents are just people too, and it helped me realize that my mom was basically just a fragile lady, breaking her back and stretching her limits to provide for two young boys and give them a youth that didn't feel lacking or poor.

Pantisocracy · 8 months

I was about 8 sitting in the back seat of the car while my dad was driving us to the movies. We passed a man who was jogging with a slight limp, my dad begins to say "See that jogger there? Obvious hamstring injury on the right hand side metatarsal inflicted from velocity increased incline", it all sounded very clever and I nodded. I thought for a second, my dad isn't a doctor, nor does he jog and we saw this guy for maybe only three seconds? I remember saying "WAIT A MINUTE! YOU DON'T KNOW THAT AT ALL, THAT'S ALL TRASH!", my dad started laughing and to this day he recounts this story to the family when his son found out he is an all time bullshitter.

martlet1 · 8 months

My pediatric doctor always greeted me at his office with "hows it going scallywag?", which I thought was pretty cool. I always wondered how he remembered to call me that each time I came in. When I hit 12 I had to go to a "regular" family doctor and my mom and I went to pick up my file, and I overheard him greeting another kid with "hows it going scallywag?", which kind of stung until he looked over and give me a little wink.

texasjoe · 8 months

That a woman's vagina is not located where her belly button is.

I actually mentioned this out loud in front of a bunch of high schoolers when I was like 10. They showed me Hustler.

LynzM · 8 months

I diagnosed my Type 1 diabetes when I was 9 (from reading the Babysitters' Club books). My doctor didn't believe me, and asked no follow-up questions. A month later, after I'd had strep throat four times in a row, they hospitalized me, and guess what? facepalm I told you so.

intern4tional · 8 months

A kid a year or so ahead of me hanged himself w/ a chain when I was in the second grade.

He used to ride our bus to school, so the school sent some counselor out who told us some weird story about why he wasn't going to be on the bus anymore.

I remember walking out of the meeting with the counselor and realizing that her story was bunk. Dennis was dead and he wasn't coming back.

EDIT: Grammar

Tat2darms · 8 months

I was 6 years old and my family(brother, father and mother) and I had gone out for dinner and a movie. We went home for my mom to change clothes, I don't remember why she had to change, and she went into our house leaving us in the car. It seemed like we had waited forever when my dad said, "I'll go and find out what's taking so long". So my brother and I were outside waiting when my Dad came running out of the house. I remember the look of panic and fear in his eyes. He got us out of the car and told us,"Run! Don't ask questions just run to the neighbors!". It was late and dark and our neighbor was almost 1/2 a mile down the road.I remember grabbing my little brothers hand and running, with tears streaming down my face and just being so scared.

The next day when I went home we had cardboard and visquine(sp?) on all the windows in the back of our house, about 4 or 5 windows total. My older brother had come home in a drug fueled rage and shot out the windows in the back of the house and then took my mom hostage. The cops came and with the help of my Dad calmed him down and took him into custody. No one was hurt luckily, but I think for the first time I truly knew what fear was. Terror of the unknown and maybe also hatred came into my life at that moment.

TLDR; At 6 years old we had to run from our house because my brother took my mother hostage.

safe_work_for_naught · 8 months

We were sitting at a traffic light, and I was staring at the cars on the other side of the intersection. The epiphany dawned on me that what I would call my left was right to the people on the other side. After a minute or so of checking my mental work, I realized I was right. That opened the door to a whole new world of realizing other people could have a different perspective on something than I could. I was about five or six.

(PS: It's Ritalin.)

barbsteele · 8 months

I was ten-ish and a bit of a shop lifter; I would stash things from stores in my pockets for a rush. I then went to the library and actually stole a book instead of checking it out. I stashed all my stolen goodies in my closet until the guilt started eating me alive. I confessed to my mom how I could not live with myself anymore, I was a bad person, etc. I look back and think how dramatic I was with my lifted Goosebumps book and jelly bracellet.

vfr · 8 months

Probably realizing that most adults are not very happy and that I never wanted to be like that.

RosieMuffysticks · 8 months

The day before my fifth birthday, I realized that my parents (dad and stepmother) didn't know when my birthday was. She thought it was the 30th, and he just went along with it.

Every year.

When my 17th birthday was approaching, I decided that I wouldn't say anything to anybody about it. I had decided that the anguish of knowing they didn't care was worse than being ignored. The day of, my stepmother's mother called her to remind her that it was my birthday.

The only good side to it was their guilt got me good presents. I'd rather have had a heartfelt hug, though.

squaretwo · 8 months

In first grade, I had the realization that I have only this one life to live and that no one else could live it for me. Everyone else had their own lives and we were just going through this world together. I don't know if that is such an adult realization, but at that moment, I felt like all the walls around me had fallen down. I still remember that feeling.

ekscrement · 8 months

Bathroom water is the same as kitchen water.

vodkasoda · 8 months

I asked my first grade teacher if South America and Africa were ever together because they looked like they'd fit perfectly. She told me no and laughed at me. A few years later when I learned about Pangea I wanted to smack a bitch.

Edit: spelling

gjallard · 8 months

Since I could remember, I always realized that school (K-12) and college were temporary, and that any goal I had needed to transcend those institutions.

I think some of the greatest frustrations in life must come from people walking out of their graduation ceremonies and thinking "OK, now what?"

hammertimebustamove · 8 months

When I was around 6 and I found a childhood picture of my grandmother. It hit me that all old people used to be young once, they aren't just saying that to annoy you. Flipped my world, lemme tell ya.

awesome404 · 8 months

After I lost my 1st tooth the whole tooth fairy thing didn't add up. So I pulled my 2nd tooth out in bed and put it under my pillow. I did not get a shiny quarter. The next day I told my parents I lost my tooth, put it under my pillow and... jackpot. I never told my parents, I just collected the quarters happily.

elemenohpeas · 8 months

I can eat my dessert any time I want.

themindlessone · 8 months

Adults are the same as children. Everyone is flying by the seat of their pants.

emptynamebox · 8 months

At 7 years old I shattered my femur playing peewee football. During the 6 months I had to spend laying down, immobile (this was before the fancy surgeries we have now) I came to the realization that, no, I couldn't be anything I wanted to be. Do to both my poor eyesight and worthless right leg, I would never be a pro-athlete or astronaut. I would never be a big strong-man. I figured I probably wasn't as smart as most kids and couldn't be a scientist, either. And I had myself a little 7 year old depression. That mentality stayed with me until I was in my senior year of high school when I decided, "screw this, I might not make it, but I'm gonna do whatever I can to be whatever I want, even if it kills me". And now, you wouldn't even recognize me :)

punintentional · 8 months

When I was in second grade, my grandfather died. I found a book laying around my grandma's house that was something like How to Talk to Your Kids About Death.

At the time not really grasping I was being a troll, I read the section that had frequently asked questions by kids and how parents should address them. I then proceeded to ask my mom a battery of these questions, at which point she realized what I was doing and got visibly upset.

I guess at that moment I realized I totally didn't understand the gravity of what was going on, and there are some questions no one, not even your parents, have the answers for.

suulia · 8 months

On a fall weekend, my mother's drinking had escalated to full blown alcoholic, and my father traveled a lot on business and had no idea. I woke up on Monday, Mom passed out drunk, Dad who knows where, knowing I had to get to school somehow. I didn't have anyone to help me get ready or drive me to school.

I cried, knowing that I was utterly alone. I realized at that moment that nobody is there for me, but me, and that if I needed something, I had to do it myself. I was 5 and in kindergarten. I showered, dressed, put cheese and crackers in a bag for lunch, and walked to school. I made it just in time.

8 months

[deleted]

SullyDuggs · 8 months

I was about six or seven when I asked my mom "If I had a flashlight and I was travelling at the speed of light would I be able to see the light from the flashlight?" She said "Yes, of course, light is the fastest thing in the world." I then told her "If I was going the speed of light then light would not be able to go faster than the fastest speed?" This just tripped me out and I didn't even realize until much later that this concept is something Einstein used as inspiration for his theory of relativity. I would have pursued this further but I think Super Mario Kart came out that same year.

I_Climb_Most_Things · 8 months

When I was very young I realized that you can't do shit without money.

ranalizorcy · 8 months

In about fifth grade I thought about death for the first time. I wasn't really religious but our teacher was and she started talking about death for whatever reason. Meantioned eternal life in heaven or something and all I imagined was blackness forever. Scared the shit out of me at that age.

herpderp_roar · 8 months

I think when I was 10 I broke my favorite vase and I tried to "turn back time" by closing my eyes and thinking really hard (I don't know what I was thinking back then). Anyways, after that ordeal, I learned that regretting would only waste my time since I can never turn back time and that instead, I should work on improving myself rather than grieving for my past mistakes.

magicbullets · 8 months

Dogs don't go on holidays. They got rid of the dog!

Almost_a_Full_Moon · 8 months

I was like 10, and i realized that the older you get, the more screwed up your family becomes.

ReneeJade · 8 months

I wouldn't call it a realization so much as an idea. When I was about 5 or six, I was for a short while convinced that the whole Universe existed in someone's dreams, and that when he woke up, the Universe would cease to exist. I'm 95% sure that I came up with this all by myself. Shortly after that, I realized that trying to reason about the Universe itself, or anything beyond the Universe, is an endless task that can never go further than speculation.

beetnemesis · 8 months

Hm. 5 years old, "...this Santa thing doesn't really make any sense."

OsakaWilson · 8 months

My parents were old, in their 40s when I was a kid. I recognized that the other kids parents were amazingly immature. The younger they were the stupider, less reliable and consistent, and more likely to get angry over little things they were.

eugenedubbed · 8 months

I remember in fifth grade standing in the science lab looking at a moving model of the solar system while the teacher explained to the class the movement of all the heavenly bodies. When he explained that the moon always showed us the same face and said it just happened to spin right at that speed, I had a sudden epiphany.

I raised my hand and asked if the moon was heavier on that side. He very quickly told me no, that it just happened to spin that way. I was crushed. :(

I still remember the way my brain made the connection. It was a feeling of clarity that I got for an extended period only one time, during a game of chess that I OWNED. How can I get my brain to do that more?

astamar · 8 months

When I was about 11 or so it dawned on me that teachers don't know everything. I learned this when a bunch of my teacher's solutions or a test were horribly incorrect.

ZoneGuy0 · 8 months

After about a year of trying in elementary school, I decided that it didn't matter what other people thought of me. I've stuck to that philosophy ever since.

caprican27 · 8 months

A lot of people are assholes, but that gives me no right to treat others terribly

lookslikeabear · 8 months

5 years old coloring. Realization. "Mom, is there a Santa Clause?" Mom, making dinner: "No." Coloring some more. "I guess then there is no Easter Bunny either." Mom: "Nope."

nodicenoclay · 8 months

I remember sitting at Mass, age 6 or so, wondering why everyone came to church when no one believed it. My logic being that, as I wasn't convinced by it, there is no way all those grown-ups could have been.

EDIT: This was not a "LAWL CHRISTIANS R DUM!!1!!!" moment. I learned that people can believe different things when presented with the same information, and that I, as a reasonable being, could disagree with an authority figure (priest, parents, etc) on logical grounds.

RoxyMonoxide9 · 8 months

my dad always made a point of speaking calmly even in tense/argumentative situations. As a kid I tried applying this technique in situations where I was trying to get something, such as a new toy, from my mom. I was surprised how much easier it was to get something across or get my way by just controlling the tone of my voice.

As an adult, I still try my best to speak calmly during heated debates because it is truly surprising to me how much easier it is to communicate your point/needs to another person when you try not to raise your voice.

leokl · 8 months

When I realized I was going to die someday.

merrakell · 8 months

I remember being six years old and asking my mom where Barbies came from. She told me little kids in China made them and I promptly threw out all of them.

WcJessen · 8 months

Mommy is cheating on daddy : (

BadWolf359 · 8 months

That parents are not always right, and some (like my father) are abusive.

wordsbyheart · 8 months

I had a similar situation except it was my parents who stood up for me, not myself as you did. All of my teachers told my parents that I should be put on Ritalin but they refused to do so. I eventually grew out of it and became a great student, got by Bachelors and have had a great job for over 5 years now.

sayaandtenshi · 8 months

[deleted]

ebg1313 · 8 months

I was six when I laughed at a dinner guest (roughly 25 or 30 years old) who asked my dad (Applied Math Major and VP of some tech company) why people don't just pump water back up into hydroelectric dams to get more electricity.

After I laughed my dad looked at me and asked "why did you laugh"? And I said: "We'll you can't make energy like that. Just like when I put a marbles track in a U format, the marble slows down because of all the sound it is giving off" (I didn't realize air resistance and all that, but I had the right idea). Nobody had taught that to me except for my toys.

Then my dad opened up the encyclopedia to the 2nd law of thermodynamics. It was hilarious the reaction the guest had. He swore I'd grow up to be an engineer or scientist. Which I did.

BearPond · 8 months

I began having existential questions pop up at around 12. Started when I was staring at a gap in between a door frame, and trying to comprehend that the nothingness of that gap was a thing, but it also wasn't a thing - but at the same time it was a nothing that was necessary to exist in order for there to be a something (the door). Then i made that gap into my imaginary friend, and started telling it things, then in a way I was praying to that gap, then I kind of replaced the concept of god with a gap, and then finally one day I realised how stupid it was to talk to a gap.

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