What are the things you still regret doing as a kid?

I lost my best friend when she came out. I was judgmental and self righteous. I never got to apologize before she died.
There was the time I tried to get Chris Nelson to try to smoke. The time I called a girl for a guy and let him listen when I asked if she liked him, the time I went after a boy I knew my friend liked…. The list of childhood mistakes that keep me up at night is long.

Nothing. The decisions I made and their consequences made me who I am and lead me to be where I am today. And I’m OK with that. Life isn’t perfect and when I was younger there were things I wished I had done differently but now I realise that life will never be perfect and the more you worry about the past the less you pay attention to whats in front of you right now (in my case a good curry, a cold beer and a cute girl).

I don’t regret the mistakes that hurt ME at the time. I did grow and learn from them. The ones that keep me awake are the ones that hurt others.

In retrospect I would have been nicer to some of my teachers. Back then I didn’t realize they were human and had feelings too.

@whitenoise I hope some of my former students get around to saying the same thing… some of them were…whoo.

Starting when I was about 8 until about 16, I would over do it to make myself look better, cooler, more interesting, or even nicer. Whatever it took to stand out or seem better than I was. I always felt like “less,” so I worked hard at being “more.” I cringe at how often I ended up looking utterly foolish.

Loads. One that I have been thinking about the last few days was when I was about 12, my friends and I would be playing on the street. When a car came by, we would all get out of the way.
Once in a while I would wait for the car to almost pass, then I would slap the rear fender, grab my ribs, and roll on the ground. It freaked people out.
My friends all thought it was funny, but now I regret causing those drivers some stress. I have no idea of the rest of their lives, and some were probably already dealing with loads of shit, and didn’t need to think they hit a kid with their car.

“I regret nothing, as long as I enjoyed it at the time.” -Katherine Hepburn.
A motto I live by.
I think one thing I regret is being so boyish as a kid. If that happens, you’l find yourself in freshman year, not knowing how to apply eyeliner or know what a——tampon——is . Then you try to talk to girls about a football game you saw the night before. They won’t understand a word that you’re saying. Oh well.

@TheIntern55 Gee, do I know what you’re talkin bout.

I answered a similar one about a year ago. I regret ever smoking (I quit when I got out of the service). I regret tearing up Rodney Williamson’s knee in a football game and he never got a scholarship. Although they say he couldn’t read anyway, so maybe it really didn’t keep him out of college.
Other than that, nothing.

I regret resenting my two younger brothers. We became friends after we were grown, but what a waste of an opportunity to get to know them when we were young.

Shooting an wooden arrow to my younger brother’s eye. Fortunately minor injuries happened. But still i want to erase the incident from my life.

For some reason after watching Rocky III, I thought I had a chance at being the world’s first female heavyweight champ. Forget that I was very small, skinny, clumsy and totally nonathletic. My friends thought I was a total loser dork – so I beat up a girl who was even smaller and skinnier than me to prove I had it in me to be a boxer. Then this tomboy walked over and sucker punched me in the stomach so hard I thought I’d never breathe again.

There are so many things about that stupid Rocky III phase I am so embarrassed about and totally regret.

There was a group of us in the neighborhood that were allowed to walk to school together as young teens. All had been friends since kindergarten. When one of the member’s parents filed for divorce (which was uncommon in those days), she was an emotional wreck. When some of the walkers found out that that this girl had a fear of dogs, they would bark at her until she cried. It made me ill, and yet I stood by and did nothing.

About the same time, these girls demanded that a classmate take off her sweater in order to see if she was wearing a bra yet. I just couldn’t grasp why they would do this. And yet again, I stood by and watched it unfold.

That was almost 40 years ago. I still don’t know why I didn’t stand up for these friends at the time. Maybe it is due to never experiencing a situations like these before. I often wonder if this was the catalyst for eventually changing my behavior and standing up to bullies. By the time I was 17, it wasn’t a concern any more.

Honestly, I regret nothing I did as a kid. That kid made me the man I am today who, while far from perfect, suits me just fine.