17 People Confess The Terrible Things They Did As Kids And Have Regretted All Their Lives
Article created by: Justinas Keturka
Some moments from childhood will always stay with you. A family vacation to Disneyworld, learning how to ride a bike and getting your first pet might be some of your most cherished memories. But along with the best moments from being a kid, our brains tend to hold onto the very worst moments as well. Particularly, the actions we are most ashamed of. Recently, Reddit user 21078 posed the question, “What’s a terrible thing you did as a child that you really feel bad about as an adult?” and got many people thinking back on their youth.
From saying something awful to another kid to accidentally harming an innocent animal, we’ve gathered some of the most honest responses that people shared confessing to what they did as children that they will never forget. Be sure to upvote the answers that you find most powerful, and then let us know in the comments if there is anything from your childhood that you would like to get off your chest. And if you’re interested in another Bored Panda piece featuring people confessing to shocking things, check out this story next.
In my first act of teenage attitude/rebellion I mocked my father’s suicide attempt from a few months earlier. I was 12 and it felt good to be mean to someone that had hurt me emotionally in such a way. That was the last time we spoke. I didn’t realize he was calling to say goodbye. He tried again and succeeded that night.
I was playing Sesame Street figures with another kid, his toys. We were both 5.
For whatever reason I really wanted to keep his Count Dracula, but I couldn’t just take it straight up. So I got this great idea that I would throw it up in the air until I got it stuck in the tree. Kid was freaking out on me, and I just kept throwing. I succeeded and in a fit he grabbed all his toys and ran home with them.
It then occurred to me that there’s no way I could get it either. So I went home too.
Couple of weeks later I am outside wandering aimlessly. It was a windy cold day. Then all of a sudden the Count fell right in front of me. I was so excited I grabbed the toy and ran to the kid’s home. His parents answered and I was so excited I was like “is so and so home, I found his toy!!!!”
They both were sad looking and took the toy as they said “no”.
Later found out when I was a teen that the kid died of cancer. My sister had a heart condition, and we just happen to live in this cheap apartment complex near the hospital. All those friends of mine were all sick kids.
Anyways, I pestered his parents for the longest time always asking if so and so could play and when he was coming back. I was too young to realize what was going on.
Back in elementary school, I was one of the students who had many friends. I was what you would call the “class clown”. There was this kid who was darker in color than us and stank bad when going to school. As a kid who didn’t know much back then, I used to make fun of him for the way he looked and smelled bad. I bullied him every day, and because I’m friends with the whole class, they would too. Little did I know that that boy was selling little packets of pepperbefore and after school hours. That’s why he smelled and looked that way. As a little kid who needs to work like that, it’s a pity that we made fun of him because he wanted to earn money. I’m [angry] at myself for that.
I put itching powder on a little girl on the bus…she had an allergic reaction and lost patches of hair.
When I was 6 I made fun of the fact my dad didn’t know how to speak English when he first came to the United States little did i know just how hard he worked to give me and my sister the life he always wanted I still feel horrible to this day
Giving a hate letter in middle school to a teacher (who btw looked quite depressed) because my, at the time friend, hated him.
I feel so bad about that to this day.
So back in junior high one of my classmates Chris told me that his friend Leon asked him out. Me being young and ignorant didn’t believe this to be true so I confronted Leon and asked him are you gay? Leon replied “Who told you this?” I told him Chris did. He turned white and I didn’t see him throughout the whole day. I heard ambulances but didn’t think much of it. He came back a couple of days later. Told me that the rumor wasn’t true but was noticeably hostile towards me for the rest of the school year.
Fast forward 5 years I then found out through mutual friends that he was actually gay and after I confronted him he went to the top of the school building intended to jump. Thank God he didn’t. Still feel bad to this day.
Saying no when my brother asked for a hug.
My brother is 2 years younger than me. When we were little our mum was clearly struggling with taking care of us as well as herself ( she suffered with a few mental health issues as well as being a single mother at the time). Because of this she would take her anger and stress out on us by getting mad at the tiniest things. Basically had to walk on egg shells around her. One day she got mad at my brother for something and yelled as she usually did which left my brother in tears ( he was about 6/7 at the time) I came out of my room to check on him and he asked me if he could have a hug. The other kids at my school said it was embarrassing to hug your family members so thinking about this I replied to him with a no and with a disgusted tone of voice and expression. I don’t know why I did that. I regret it so much. He needed support and I let my fear of people thinking I was weird get in the way even when they weren’t there. I wish I could tell him that I’m sorry but we’re not really close enough to have that kind of convocation. I try not to be too hard on myself about that choice I made since I was only 8/9 at the time and didn’t have the emotional maturity I have now.
Back when I was a kid in the 60s, playground safety didn’t exist. We had this aluminum slide in the communal playground that was surrounded by concrete. One day, when I was about 8 or 9, I noticed a lot of commotion at the slide. There was a boy, about two or three, who was next to slide but was refusing. There was a line of kids behind him, yelling at him to go but he just wouldn’t move. I got tired of the yelling so I made all the kids move, climbed up to him, and tried to lift him to either slide him down or carry him down, whatever would work. He refused to let me lift him, and instead, climbed over the side of the slide so that he was hanging by his hands. It was a long drop (at least 6 to 8 feet) down to the concrete below. I tried pulling him up, but he was too heavy. I and all the other kids panicked and ran to the other side of the playground, leaving him to his fate. Fortunately, one of the high school boys playing football beside the playground noticed the kid dangling and jumped the playground fence and caught him when the kid finally lost his grip. The high school boy yelled at us for not helping him, and I felt a mix of anger and shame that even today I still think about sometimes.
Once I tied a kid to a lamppost with a jump rope and just left. I feel bad about that every couple of months
I bullied a girl in middle school to the point that she had to transfer to the school in the next town over to get away from me.
Stole this little kid’s toy sword and shield and then dumped it in the trash. His teeth were really messed up so it’s likely those toys weren’t something his family could easily afford. Completely innocent little boy who had done absolutely nothing to me. I was about 7 at the time.
I still remember the look on his face as he was crying and I feel terrible about it whenever this thought pops up in my head.
I made a yo mama joke to my friend the week his mom died.
I knew about it, I just had totally forgot. I remembered the second it came out of my mouth.
I was friends with unpopular kids growing up. To protect my own image, I didn’t defend against their bullying when I was around. They never ever seemed to mind, but my cowardice haunts me to this day.
I filled my hand with black pepper and blew it into my mom and sister’s faces in the middle of a nice restaurant because I thought it wound just make them sneeze like in the cartoons. Their faces turned bright red, eyes watering and my sister started loudly crying. I was left alone in at the table with everyone looking at me and wondering that the hell just happened.
Back in 7th grade there was a group of girls that I would mock constantly just for being women. I had no idea why and no one was influencing me to do it. I’m now in my second year of college and I look back on it occasionally and I’m grateful I’m not that person anymore
