The Shocking Childhood Beliefs We Thought Were Normal—And Why They’re Still Haunting Us Today

Being expected to run after my parents like servants as well as do all of the housework from around 4th grade onward. My parents ordered my sister and I around constantly. They wanted tea or coffee? We were supposed to make it. They wanted food. We were supposed to fetch/make it.

The pile-on of being at school from around 7:15 am (first on the bus on a 45-minute rural route) to 4:00 (last off the bus on the same route), doing homework with the expectation that we’d be on the honor roll, and then having to do all of the cleaning in the house, fetch and serve, and do some of the cooking was not right. It was way too much for kids. I never even questioned how hard it was until decades later when people were doing everything for their kids as part of modern parenting.

To this day, I feel like I’m failing if I’m not doing everything fast and well because of how I was raised.

DerHoggenCatten Report

My family would accuse me of lying and get mad at me, even when I told the truth, and now I have issues where I get extremely defensive if I think someone thinks I’m lying, and I literally shut down when I so much as think someone is mad at me, it starts with me getting defensive or freaked out, and if it’s bad enough I go quiet and full deer-in-headlights mode.

Yeah, totally thought that was normal as a kid, until I moved in with my dad.

Cautious-Panda05 Report

It probably was OK, felt very strange but acceptable. Back in the ‘50s the mom of one of my friends would check every kid going into her house for head lice. Each time. She never found any, but we had to line up for her inspections. .

TheAcmeAnvil Report

After my parents divorced, my mom decided she’d rather spend all her money on booze rather than pay the mortgage or any bills, so I spent the winter before we got evicted erecting blanket tents and very carefully arranging space heaters so I could be warm because the gas furnace got shut off. I told the neighbor one day, CPS got involved a bit later, and my mom coached me how to respond to them so I wouldn’t get taken away even though now, I wish they had. Cold showers in December when the rest of the house is also unheated

Head-Case Report

Probably the beatings. But seeing that all of my friends were subjected to the same punishment, it sure seemed normal.

And all of the heavy lifting of the household chores. My poor sister was 2 years older than me. She knew how to run the washer and dryer by the time she was 5. We both knew how to cook basic things by the age of 7. And by the time I was 11 we were both responsible for cleaning the entire house (my brother was 4 years younger and responsible for NOTHING).

True, my mother did work (AFTER I was around 10), but as much as I loved her, she was a terrible slob. The kitchen was a disaster after every meal she cooked and her bedroom was a nightmare of clothes strewn absolutely everywhere and overflowing ashtrays. And we were responsible for cleaning that too. My sister was in charge of cooking dinner every night during the week. One time she made instant mashed potatoes instead of boiling and mashing real ones and my mother screamed at her for a solid hour.

endorrawitch Report

Constant negativity and judgement isn’t ok. Took me a very long time to get past that.

dew57nurse Report