49 Things From Childhood That We Only Started To Appreciate Once We Grew Up
We tend to think that childhood sucks when we’re little. We can’t wait to grow up and be like adults. Then we’ll be able to watch whatever we want on TV, buy whatever snacks we want, and go out without telling anyone and without a curfew. That’s why they say that youth is wasted on the young – because we don’t yet know how good we actually have it.
A couple of years ago, one Redditor was curious to know what cool things people experienced in their childhood but didn’t appreciate until they became adults. They went on r/AskReddit and posed this question to the community. People shared all sorts of wholesome and sweet things and even some impressive stories.
Having loving & kind parents, and a happy family unit who genuinely enjoyed each other and had great holidays together.
Seemed normal to me but reading reddit makes it seem so unusual.
Waking up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday to play video games for a few hours before watching cartoons.
I mean, I can do that now. But it just lacks a certain charm as an adult.
Remember how you use to feel waking up on Christmas day? And now Christmas is just a holiday we save up for and worry about what to get people and hope we didn’t forget anyone. I miss the stress free Christmas.
Having a functional body.
Having free fun time.
Making friends easily.
All of these were a given for me, until it becomes no more a given.
This might sound stupid or boomerish.
When I was a kid -1960s- every town had its own stores for everything. Local shoe shop, local sporting goods store, local five and dime, non franchise gas stations, local one-screen movie theater. Every town was a little, local economy.
Then the malls killed it all. Now the big box stores are killing them.
Progress?
Growing up on a farm and participating in 4H. So many kids today completely lack any sense of where their food comes from, why we need to be humane ro animals or why it’s so good for the mind to be outdoors! Not to mention the built in work ethic and sense of responsibility and accomplishment that comes with raising animals and doing physical tasks.
Being allowed to be in the room while adults spoke. I would hear things & put them in the back of my mind and forget about them. Whenever they come across my mind in certain conversations & situations, they make so much sense. No, I was never bold enough to ask questions or make comments or statements if I was not being spoken too.
Coming home after school and having almost no responsibilities. In fact, we were not even allowed in the house until dark because we got in the way! Now I get home after work, and I still have so much to do. I would love that feeling again.
I’m from europe and in the middle of the woods near my village there is an abadon monestary from the XV century, it’s a huge place. We would play hid and seek there. It’s an amazing place but for us was just a good place to play.
Eating meals at the table with the whole family, using food grown in our garden. Majority of my childhood friends were raised this way so i didn’t see the value in it until i left my small town for college and realized that it wasn’t the norm in a lot of households. Now I really appreciate the time and conversations my family had during meals.
When I was five or so I was throwing a tantrum. So my dad locked me in his room and let me tire myself out. Once I was quiet, he’d walk in and calmly ask “are you ready to talk?”
The first couple times I baited him and just went back to the tantrum.
The last time, after I was thoroughly disheartened, he explained to me the importance of thinking things through rather than emotionally.
The lesson stuck.
I’ve shared this before, but it is a very important thing I realized I did not appreciate until I was an adult.
When I was a kid my dad and I had a tradition every week of going to the video store and renting a movie or two to watch together. I remember I used to get really upset at him because every single time we’d actually start to watch the movie he would fall asleep.
It wasn’t until I was older that I realized that the reason he would fall asleep was because he was exhausted from working two very physically demanding jobs to try and give me the best life he possibly could. On top of that, even though he was tired he still made an effort to try and start a little tradition with me and spend time with me.
Those memories of me having to nudge my dad awake are so great in my eyes, because they made me realize what a caring and hard working man he was and still is to this day.
Those few kids in school who had it all to be popular and they were, but they weren’t mean or cliquey.
They had all the social power a kid could have – they were good-looking, funny, dressed well, athletic, everything – but they didn’t exploit it. They were usually smart and well-behaved (though not too much) but also fun and didn’t take themselves too seriously.
I didn’t have many friends growing up, and even fewer genuinely good ones because most of my not-so-popular friends secretly wanted to be in those mean cliques and only spoke against them because of sour grapes (I was likely one of them, at least at some point).
I wish I had known to seek out those genuinely decent kids who really had their heads on straight.
Later in life, I got to know some of them and they are still great people – really the best kinds of friends to have. A number of them mentioned that they totally would have been friends with me when we were in school together – they even thought about it, but I didn’t seem interested.
I just assumed anyone who had so much going for them wouldn’t want to be friends with me.
I sued two federal agencies in my childhood and won both times.
I didn’t really appreciate the scope of how rare it was to win against the federal government once, much less twice, even when they’re blatantly mistreating you.
International travel. Seemed normal as a kid, but I didn’t realize how rare it was until I was an adult. The family wasn’t rich; my parents just put all of their entertainment and discretionary money towards traveling.
Showing livestock. I was embarrassed about it as a kid and especially as a teen. Looking back, it’s pretty badass that I was able to halter-break, groom, and show 1,200 pound steers as a kid.
Growing a garden with many varieties of vegetables and fruits.
It’s rewarding sharing fruits and veggies with others – then canning all that can be canned at the end of the growing season.
Not only making friends easily but always getting to hang out with them easily because of school. As an adult, it’s difficult finding the right time to hang out with one friend, let alone several.
For me my answer is simply my parents. As a kid the life your given tends to be what you think life is. I greatly took for granted my parents and the love they gave me. I never saw them fight or yell at eachother, they never punished me for no reason but rather explained why what I did was wrong (which worked very well) They allowed me freedom as I grew up because they had the mindset of kids and teens make mistakes our job is to help them learn from them. The craziest part about all of this is my parents are extremely Mormon. My dad is a high ranking leader in the church as well as my mom. When I decided it wasn’t for me unlike many mormon parents they accepted that and told me they love me no less. This is quite unusual for mormon families especially one this deep in the religion.
Growing up I was like any other kid and would get pissed at my parents for some reason or another. I never told them I hated them but there were times that I felt like that. Looking back that was so childish as they never gave me anything close to a reason to feel that way. I aspire to be in a marriage as good as theirs and I aspire to raise my kids as well as my parents did.
When I was about 10 years old, I lived next door to a guy who played for the Pittsburgh Penguins. (This is in Massachusetts)
One spring morning, I was playing hockey in the driveway with my friends. Pro hockey playing neighbor comes over to play with us. He was so nice/cool to us. We gave it everything we possibly had, against him, while he wasn’t even close to trying. At one point, he took a slap shot that ripped a few seams in my street hockey net. (Worth it.) He also put a dent in the wooden back stop we had behind the net. He stopped after that, because it was as loud as a gun shot and he didn’t wanna disturb the neighbors. We were all checking him, hitting him, roughing him up, trying to fight him, etc. and he did a good enough acting job where it kinda seemed like what we were doing was actually semi-effective.
That night, the Penguins had a playoff game against the Bruins, in Boston. Neighbor was an absolute animal that night. He hit everyone who dared to touch the puck, scored a goal, nabbed an assist, got in a fight and eventually got ejected from the game. At the old Garden, the away team had to walk past the Bruin’s bench in order to get to their dressing room. When hockey neighbor went to pass by the Bruin’s bench, he got into it with the guy at the end and absolutely manhandled him. When a resulting brawl broke out, the camera zoomed in on neighbor who was terrifyingly angry and talking trash. (I could see his mouth form the words “F**K YOU! YEA YOU! F**K YOU!” as blood leaked from the bridge of his nose.) A seriously intimidating individual at 6’5, 250lbs.
In looking back, it’s absolutely insane to me that he went from my driveway to my TV screen and that my friends and I also “fought” him earlier that morning.
Having – your own – money. All the time as a kid, I took my end of the week hard earned 10 pounds from my dad to the corner shop and bought myself the old vimto, brain licker, space raiders and monster munch combo and thought nothing of it. Now, as an adult with literal hundos given to me each week, I make sure to be grateful everyday for anything I purchase for myself, whether it’s food, games, furniture, appliances, anything. Even paying my rent makes me feel quite accomplished.
Going up to the cockpit of an airliner during flight and talking to the pilots and looking out the windshield down at the Rocky Mountains. August 2001 right before 9/11 made that impossible.
When I was a little kid (probably around ~5-6 years old), there were a few times when I was riding my bike around the neighborhood in the afternoon and my dad happened to see me while on his way home from work. We would always “race” back to the house, and I thought I was the fastest biker ever because I would always win even though my dad was in his car.
After a while, I completely forgot about this. Then, when I was 18, my dad was teaching me how to drive stick in the exact same car he had when that happened, and I happened to drive past a kid about that age on a bike. Suddenly I remembered those “races” again, and at the same time I realized that my dad had been revving the engine in neutral.
By age five I knew every swimming stroke except the butterfly. Had been given infant swimming lessons; learned to swim before I could walk.
As a kid I kind of noticed other people weren’t as comfortable in the water, but it wasn’t until adulthood that I realized how many people either couldn’t swim at all, or were apprehensive about their skills at it.
World famous children’s book author Robert Munsch toured Canadian schools throughout the 90s and personally read to my class several times.
This one’s really specific, but when I was a kid my father took me to see the King Tut exhibition when it was on tour. He bought this special package deal that included a private viewing of the exhibition with cocktails (I was the only child there and I did not get a cocktail, LOL), and then we took a week long river boat journey back up to our home city. The whole thing was just insanely cool, but I don’t think I really appreciated how amazing it was until I was older.
Also, less specific: having the freedom to ride my bike anywhere I wanted. I’d be gone for hours without any adults worrying about me or needing to know my every move. All the kids I knew had that freedom, and this was way before cell phones. Different world.
Living at the beach, checking the waves from the deck and walking to surf.
The northern lights. I took for granted being able to see them in the sky a few dozen times a year.
Now I live further south and I haven’t seen them in years.
We had a small 2 bedroom lake cabin on about an acre of land with a dock and beach. My dad rented it for over 30 years for ~$225 per month.
We used to grab our golf clubs, toss them on the boat, and casually ride over to the golf course to play.
I never appreciated how cool driving your boat to the golf course was. It just seemed normal.
Shared my bedroom with my brothers. Hated it as a kid, being the only girl but I do look back on some good late night joking and fart beats.
I lived on a tiny island and used to take a boat to school every morning. I hated it because it was so limiting to my social life, but now when I tell people about it they think it’s the coolest childhood ever! Makes me appreciate how unique it was.
My dad had an airplane and I lived on a farm and he would buy a bag of candy and rain it down in the field for me and my cousin to find.
My friend and I used to pretend we were statues when cars drove by. We really thought people would think we were statues. I saw some kids doing that awhile ago and completely knew what they were doing. It was so funny bc they looked ridiculous but I knew exactly what they were doing and i had never seen anyone else doing that before! If I did that as an adult people would think I was on Crack lol.
My grandfather worked for the Milwaukee Brewers (USA baseball team). I got to go all over County Stadium:
Dugouts, on the field during warm ups, spring training visits, locker room visits, first row tickets.
I had a baseball signed by the entire 1994 team but I didn’t take care of it. All the signatures faded except Greg Vaughan’s.
Now, 30+ years later I’m lucky to be able to afford 1st row seating!
Saw Halley’s comet when I was a kid. It was really cool at the time but I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now, knowing it won’t come around again until I’m like 70.
Getting to watch Michael Jordan play live. I mean, as a kid I understood he was a good player, but, I had no clue who he really was or what he had really done, and how he would be viewed. Simply amazing.
Coming home after school and having almost no responsibilities. In fact, we were not even allowed in the house until dark because we got in the way! Now I get home after work and I still have so much to do. I would love that feeling again.
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We tend to think that childhood sucks when we’re little. We can’t wait to grow up and be like adults. Then we’ll be able to watch whatever we want on TV, buy whatever snacks we want, and go out without telling anyone and without a curfew. That’s why they say that youth is wasted on the young – because we don’t yet know how good we actually have it.
A couple of years ago, one Redditor was curious to know what cool things people experienced in their childhood but didn’t appreciate until they became adults. They went on r/AskReddit and posed this question to the community. People shared all sorts of wholesome and sweet things and even some impressive stories.
Having loving & kind parents, and a happy family unit who genuinely enjoyed each other and had great holidays together.
Seemed normal to me but reading reddit makes it seem so unusual.
Waking up at the crack of dawn on a Saturday to play video games for a few hours before watching cartoons.
I mean, I can do that now. But it just lacks a certain charm as an adult.
Remember how you use to feel waking up on Christmas day? And now Christmas is just a holiday we save up for and worry about what to get people and hope we didn't forget anyone. I miss the stress free Christmas.
Having a functional body.
Having free fun time.
Making friends easily.
All of these were a given for me, until it becomes no more a given.
This might sound stupid or boomerish.
When I was a kid -1960s- every town had its own stores for everything. Local shoe shop, local sporting goods store, local five and dime, non franchise gas stations, local one-screen movie theater. Every town was a little, local economy.
Then the malls killed it all. Now the big box stores are killing them.
Progress?
Growing up on a farm and participating in 4H. So many kids today completely lack any sense of where their food comes from, why we need to be humane ro animals or why it's so good for the mind to be outdoors! Not to mention the built in work ethic and sense of responsibility and accomplishment that comes with raising animals and doing physical tasks.
Being allowed to be in the room while adults spoke. I would hear things & put them in the back of my mind and forget about them. Whenever they come across my mind in certain conversations & situations, they make so much sense. No, I was never bold enough to ask questions or make comments or statements if I was not being spoken too.
Coming home after school and having almost no responsibilities. In fact, we were not even allowed in the house until dark because we got in the way! Now I get home after work, and I still have so much to do. I would love that feeling again.
I'm from europe and in the middle of the woods near my village there is an abadon monestary from the XV century, it's a huge place. We would play hid and seek there. It's an amazing place but for us was just a good place to play.
Eating meals at the table with the whole family, using food grown in our garden. Majority of my childhood friends were raised this way so i didn't see the value in it until i left my small town for college and realized that it wasn't the norm in a lot of households. Now I really appreciate the time and conversations my family had during meals.
When I was five or so I was throwing a tantrum. So my dad locked me in his room and let me tire myself out. Once I was quiet, he'd walk in and calmly ask "are you ready to talk?"
The first couple times I baited him and just went back to the tantrum.
The last time, after I was thoroughly disheartened, he explained to me the importance of thinking things through rather than emotionally.
The lesson stuck.
I've shared this before, but it is a very important thing I realized I did not appreciate until I was an adult.
When I was a kid my dad and I had a tradition every week of going to the video store and renting a movie or two to watch together. I remember I used to get really upset at him because every single time we'd actually start to watch the movie he would fall asleep.
It wasn't until I was older that I realized that the reason he would fall asleep was because he was exhausted from working two very physically demanding jobs to try and give me the best life he possibly could. On top of that, even though he was tired he still made an effort to try and start a little tradition with me and spend time with me.
Those memories of me having to nudge my dad awake are so great in my eyes, because they made me realize what a caring and hard working man he was and still is to this day.
Those few kids in school who had it all to be popular and they were, but they weren't mean or cliquey.
They had all the social power a kid could have - they were good-looking, funny, dressed well, athletic, everything - but they didn’t exploit it. They were usually smart and well-behaved (though not too much) but also fun and didn't take themselves too seriously.
I didn't have many friends growing up, and even fewer genuinely good ones because most of my not-so-popular friends secretly wanted to be in those mean cliques and only spoke against them because of sour grapes (I was likely one of them, at least at some point).
I wish I had known to seek out those genuinely decent kids who really had their heads on straight.
Later in life, I got to know some of them and they are still great people - really the best kinds of friends to have. A number of them mentioned that they totally would have been friends with me when we were in school together - they even thought about it, but I didn't seem interested.
I just assumed anyone who had so much going for them wouldn't want to be friends with me.
I sued two federal agencies in my childhood and won both times.
I didn't really appreciate the scope of how rare it was to win against the federal government once, much less twice, even when they're blatantly mistreating you.
International travel. Seemed normal as a kid, but I didn't realize how rare it was until I was an adult. The family wasn't rich; my parents just put all of their entertainment and discretionary money towards traveling.
Showing livestock. I was embarrassed about it as a kid and especially as a teen. Looking back, it's pretty badass that I was able to halter-break, groom, and show 1,200 pound steers as a kid.
Growing a garden with many varieties of vegetables and fruits.
It's rewarding sharing fruits and veggies with others - then canning all that can be canned at the end of the growing season.
Not only making friends easily but always getting to hang out with them easily because of school. As an adult, it's difficult finding the right time to hang out with one friend, let alone several.
For me my answer is simply my parents. As a kid the life your given tends to be what you think life is. I greatly took for granted my parents and the love they gave me. I never saw them fight or yell at eachother, they never punished me for no reason but rather explained why what I did was wrong (which worked very well) They allowed me freedom as I grew up because they had the mindset of kids and teens make mistakes our job is to help them learn from them. The craziest part about all of this is my parents are extremely Mormon. My dad is a high ranking leader in the church as well as my mom. When I decided it wasn't for me unlike many mormon parents they accepted that and told me they love me no less. This is quite unusual for mormon families especially one this deep in the religion.
Growing up I was like any other kid and would get pissed at my parents for some reason or another. I never told them I hated them but there were times that I felt like that. Looking back that was so childish as they never gave me anything close to a reason to feel that way. I aspire to be in a marriage as good as theirs and I aspire to raise my kids as well as my parents did.
When I was about 10 years old, I lived next door to a guy who played for the Pittsburgh Penguins. (This is in Massachusetts)
One spring morning, I was playing hockey in the driveway with my friends. Pro hockey playing neighbor comes over to play with us. He was so nice/cool to us. We gave it everything we possibly had, against him, while he wasn't even close to trying. At one point, he took a slap shot that ripped a few seams in my street hockey net. (Worth it.) He also put a dent in the wooden back stop we had behind the net. He stopped after that, because it was as loud as a gun shot and he didn't wanna disturb the neighbors. We were all checking him, hitting him, roughing him up, trying to fight him, etc. and he did a good enough acting job where it kinda seemed like what we were doing was actually semi-effective.
That night, the Penguins had a playoff game against the Bruins, in Boston. Neighbor was an absolute animal that night. He hit everyone who dared to touch the puck, scored a goal, nabbed an assist, got in a fight and eventually got ejected from the game. At the old Garden, the away team had to walk past the Bruin's bench in order to get to their dressing room. When hockey neighbor went to pass by the Bruin's bench, he got into it with the guy at the end and absolutely manhandled him. When a resulting brawl broke out, the camera zoomed in on neighbor who was terrifyingly angry and talking trash. (I could see his mouth form the words "F**K YOU! YEA YOU! F**K YOU!" as blood leaked from the bridge of his nose.) A seriously intimidating individual at 6'5, 250lbs.
In looking back, it's absolutely insane to me that he went from my driveway to my TV screen and that my friends and I also "fought" him earlier that morning.
Having - your own - money. All the time as a kid, I took my end of the week hard earned 10 pounds from my dad to the corner shop and bought myself the old vimto, brain licker, space raiders and monster munch combo and thought nothing of it. Now, as an adult with literal hundos given to me each week, I make sure to be grateful everyday for anything I purchase for myself, whether it's food, games, furniture, appliances, anything. Even paying my rent makes me feel quite accomplished.
Going up to the cockpit of an airliner during flight and talking to the pilots and looking out the windshield down at the Rocky Mountains. August 2001 right before 9/11 made that impossible.
When I was a little kid (probably around ~5-6 years old), there were a few times when I was riding my bike around the neighborhood in the afternoon and my dad happened to see me while on his way home from work. We would always "race" back to the house, and I thought I was the fastest biker ever because I would always win even though my dad was in his car.
After a while, I completely forgot about this. Then, when I was 18, my dad was teaching me how to drive stick in the exact same car he had when that happened, and I happened to drive past a kid about that age on a bike. Suddenly I remembered those "races" again, and at the same time I realized that my dad had been revving the engine in neutral.
By age five I knew every swimming stroke except the butterfly. Had been given infant swimming lessons; learned to swim before I could walk.
As a kid I kind of noticed other people weren't as comfortable in the water, but it wasn't until adulthood that I realized how many people either couldn't swim at all, or were apprehensive about their skills at it.
World famous children's book author Robert Munsch toured Canadian schools throughout the 90s and personally read to my class several times.
This one's really specific, but when I was a kid my father took me to see the King Tut exhibition when it was on tour. He bought this special package deal that included a private viewing of the exhibition with cocktails (I was the only child there and I did not get a cocktail, LOL), and then we took a week long river boat journey back up to our home city. The whole thing was just insanely cool, but I don't think I really appreciated how amazing it was until I was older.
Also, less specific: having the freedom to ride my bike anywhere I wanted. I'd be gone for hours without any adults worrying about me or needing to know my every move. All the kids I knew had that freedom, and this was way before cell phones. Different world.
Living at the beach, checking the waves from the deck and walking to surf.
The northern lights. I took for granted being able to see them in the sky a few dozen times a year.
Now I live further south and I haven't seen them in years.
We had a small 2 bedroom lake cabin on about an acre of land with a dock and beach. My dad rented it for over 30 years for ~$225 per month.
We used to grab our golf clubs, toss them on the boat, and casually ride over to the golf course to play.
I never appreciated how cool driving your boat to the golf course was. It just seemed normal.
Shared my bedroom with my brothers. Hated it as a kid, being the only girl but I do look back on some good late night joking and fart beats.
I lived on a tiny island and used to take a boat to school every morning. I hated it because it was so limiting to my social life, but now when I tell people about it they think it’s the coolest childhood ever! Makes me appreciate how unique it was.
My dad had an airplane and I lived on a farm and he would buy a bag of candy and rain it down in the field for me and my cousin to find.
My friend and I used to pretend we were statues when cars drove by. We really thought people would think we were statues. I saw some kids doing that awhile ago and completely knew what they were doing. It was so funny bc they looked ridiculous but I knew exactly what they were doing and i had never seen anyone else doing that before! If I did that as an adult people would think I was on Crack lol.
My grandfather worked for the Milwaukee Brewers (USA baseball team). I got to go all over County Stadium:
Dugouts, on the field during warm ups, spring training visits, locker room visits, first row tickets.
I had a baseball signed by the entire 1994 team but I didn’t take care of it. All the signatures faded except Greg Vaughan’s.
Now, 30+ years later I’m lucky to be able to afford 1st row seating!
Saw Halley's comet when I was a kid. It was really cool at the time but I didn't appreciate it as much as I do now, knowing it won't come around again until I'm like 70.
Getting to watch Michael Jordan play live. I mean, as a kid I understood he was a good player, but, I had no clue who he really was or what he had really done, and how he would be viewed. Simply amazing.
Coming home after school and having almost no responsibilities. In fact, we were not even allowed in the house until dark because we got in the way! Now I get home after work and I still have so much to do. I would love that feeling again.
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