What did you do while you were a child/teenager that you wouldn't want your own children to do or even perhaps to know about?

When I was 16 I left town every single weekend to go live with my girlfriend that lived an hour away. I would leave Friday afternoon and return late Sunday night…did this every weekend til I moved in with her full time on my 18th birthday. I think I would prefer my 16 year old child NOT do that.

Other than that I didn’t do anything anyone would find objectionable. Never drank or did drugs.

So. Much.
Sex, too young, too often, too unprotected.
Drinking, too young, too much.
Smoked pot, not too often, but still.
Snuck out at night, repeatedly.
Took stupid risks with my safety.
Skipped school, repeatedly.
Dropped out of high school.
Didn’t go to college.

Obviously, since I’m posting this here, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t tell them about. We’ve talked about most of this stuff, and I’ve always been honest with them about my life. I tell them about the mistakes I’ve made, in the hopes that they won’t make the same ones.

You rebel @Auggie.! I can relate though :D

The only thing I can think of is to grow up (it was too damn fast!). In other words, do ‘kid’ things until you KNOW your no longer a kid.. I married too young and even though we stayed together (in love) until she passed away, I’d rather see my kids wait until they were financially capable of accepting the responsibility..

Shit, I forgot one. Thanks for reminding me, @chewhorse… I got married (the first time) at 19. I’d rather they wait a bit longer than that!

Just a tad over 18 for me augustian but fortunately she endured the lean times and the (little) better times for 35 years. (I was damn lucky to have found her).

@chewhorse I’m glad it worked out well for you. :) Mine lasted 17 years before we went our separate ways, amicably.

Pretty much everything.

Maybe. I don’t know, I was a wild child… I got into just about everything that a teenager can get into, but shouldn’t. I think I gained a lot of experience, learned a lot of lessons, and had a lot of fun in the process… so maybe I wouldn’t be against my children having a similar adolescence. A lot of good came out of the time I was spent “being bad.”

I could write a novel and the first chapter would be full of how I couldn’t resist tearing off the tags on mattresses and seat cushions.

Many things. But, I’m still a teenager. So, I don’t know.

All sorts of stuff I never want KatawaGrey to know about, but I think she already found out about the bastard child I had in the 80s. <sigh>

I would never have them suffer the indignation of wearing purple flares or having their hair look like a thatched cottage…....what in the hell was I thinking back then?

@ucme pics?

@FutureMemory Have been burnt long long ago! The surviving ones are locked away somewhere in my Aunt’s attic…...& there they shall remain.

@ucme What haircut is this that looks like a “thatched cottage”?

@Aethelflaed Aren’t we the nosey bugger then? Well if you must know, i’d describe it as very long, resting on the shoulder, with a fringe so straight & sharp it could cut paper!

@ucme No, I just meant, was it an “in” hairstyle, like the mullet or the shag?

Oh gross, A mullet? I did a lot of stuff that I shouldn’t but never a mullet.

@Aethelflaed My two brothers & a few mates did share the same barber yeah. Not a mullet though, as I say I liked to call it the thatched cottage.

Okay this is a pic, not of me, but a strikingly similar look to the one I wore :¬(

I had that haircut when I was a kid in the late 70’s/early 80’s ;)

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Excellent, I see your “admission” even warrants a GA…..funny dat!

I had that haircut, too.

Me too. Forced upon me by an unfashionable mother, I might add.

I went from one extreme to another, I had my head shaved into a “suede” cut. The barber had a fit when he see me coming!

@FutureMemory Nice, but my fringe was way harsher i’m sad to say.

Resuming my normal avatar…haha I can only take so much of that hairdo.

I never had the haircut, and I liked the avatar.

@ANef_is_Enuf :) Kind of you.

Hmm, way to remind me why I’m not having children:

Hitchhiking everywhere
Buying drugs from strangers in parking lots
Getting convoluted ideas about sexuality because of exposure to porn before emotionally prepared

I think my guardian angel is still moaning quietly in the corner of the padded cell

@Blueroses : But then you might get one like KatawaGrey, or Fly or Mangeons or Laineybug. Makes it worth all the worry and angst.

I don’t think there is anything I wouldn’t tell my kids (perhaps there are two things but that’s my call and I’ve made it) especially if I can use my own experiences to help shape their lives for the better.

I used to smoke a lot – mostly because I hung out with a bunch of stoners. I don’t do it at all anymore. I wouldn’t have a problem telling my kids about it in the future, but this is something I wouldn’t want them doing.

I did a lot of bad things as a teenager, but in a way fucking up is a path to self-discovery, and some of my worst mistakes back then have shaped who I am today. Some of them were things that no parent would ever want their kid to do- I’ve had some pretty shady experiences, but hopefully gained some insight from them. Once my future kids are mature enough, or if they have fuckups of their own, I might tell them about some of it.

I liked to play with fire. Oh man those were the good times! I still like and enjoy fire but in my teenager years I did courses to learn about being a fireman so I know how to control it. I came close to being an arson in my youth because we liked to set fire to garbage containers. And we were setting them on fire almost every day.
I will learn them about fire and how to deal with it but I wouldn’t want them to play with fire like I did. Nowdays you get fines for doing so if you get caught and since some neighbours have nothing else to do they will for sure call the cops for things like this “they just crossed the line” – is the first line to say to the cops when they get here.

@Hibernate Have you ever burned down a building?

Arson also means burning someone’s crops or forest.

And no I did not yet the containers we were burning constantly are not the small types. We had one container for like 400 hundred peoples or so. So it came close to being arson. I still look back sometimes and just nod my head to what things we did as kids.

I really hope they don’t feel like they have to be in a relationship in order to feel complete like I did when I was a young teenager. I did stupid things because I felt like I was incomplete without being in one then. It was a lonely time. I don’t want any potential child of mine to ever go through that.