What was something that you didn’t realize was messed up until you were older?

Having to share a bed with my dad from 9 – 12 year’s old. It was creepy when he put his hand on me as one would a dog. My sister’s moved out and I claimed both rooms, and turned one into an office/study area. Which was ok because I wasn’t sleeping at night, from the neighborhood dogs howling all night and my dad creaping me out.

Also during the same time my teacher moved my desk into a dark furnice room with no lights for a large portion of the school year. All I could do was sleep.

Adulthood.

How or why people would take advantage of your kindness.

How family members made me feel inadequate.

Everything?

Oh, lordy, such a list.

My mother told me I was the only reason she didn’t get a divorce, and I was the only reason she didn’t commit suicide. I was a little kid. I had no idea what to think- just that I was really. sad.

The school sent me to a psychiatrist, who told my mother that the best thing she could do for me was divorce my father. I’m sure glad she didn’t. Neither one of them were great but they balanced each other out. The psychiatrist was a creepy guy, and I didn’t like talking to him.

•The entire education system.

•Friends I didn’t realize were using drugs. We moved, several times. When we moved, I thought people I met on drugs were about where moved to. Then we moved again, and there were even more people I knew using, I wanted to go back to the place of innocence. I finally got to visit, found out classmates were using way back, and I just didn’t know. A boy I used to flirt with was dealing, and eventually was shot in the face with a shotgun.
So many lives ruined, and nothing I can do.

I caught on to what religion was all about when I was 14.

Racism

The country at large. It’s pretty shameful, but it took the Vietnam War to get me to pay attention.

That nearly everyone looks at you with a hint of suspicion when you’re a grown man and there is a young child around.

“Your daughter/son is adorable!”
“Thanks” (but is maybe 2% nervous that you could be a pedo)

Nursery rhymes. Like Ring Around The Rosie. It’s about the Black Plague.

The story of Lot’s wife in the Old Testament. It’s like a damn horror movie.

Any man who tells you that “things will be better if you listen to me” and “I know whats best for you” is an abusive asshole.

Any man who calls you names and ignores you just to get what he wants is an asshole.

It is not “normal relationship behavior” it’s abuse.

The hippies were right about a lot.

Milo & Otis, it’s such a cute movie with a catchy theme song when you’re a kid. As an adult you realize it was like 65 min of animals being more or less tortured on film.

There were a couple of older guys that would hangout with my friends and I on a regular basis. As an adult it seems super weird for guys in their mid-late 20s to hangout with kids between 13–17 years old.

Not really messed up, but looking back, I suspect a lot of the dads/uncles at birthday parties and such when I was a kid were probably stoned. It’s pretty funny to think about.

When I was a kid, lucky strike cigarettes were popular. They were filterless. I was accustomed to seeing men smoking them, but now I wonder how many times it wasn’t what I thought.

American History. You learn a lot of things about our society when you open your eyes and can get beyond the “My Country ‘tis of Thee”, grade school level “Greatest country in the world” hype.

When I was 14, one of my (slightly older) classmates had a “boyfriend” who was 35. It felt strange, but I had no idea how weird that was. Teachers found out, and took action.