Lighthearted - is there anything that you did as a child that you feel guilty about to this day?

[redflowerbluethorns]

Lighthearted post. Here are my things that have stuck with me:

Age 5 eating my brothers flake bar which he'd saved for days, then denying all knowledge

Age 12 (this is a bit outrageous), my best friend was coming for a sleepover. My mum told me she'd bought special snacks and rented a video because the next day my best friends mum was moving her to AUSTRALIA but she didn't know so I couldn't tell her. I didn't. We had a great sleepover but the whole time I was sad because I wouldn't see her again. She was telling me how her mum had booked for them to go to legoland the next day and she couldn't wait...the next day comes, she left, I got a phone call a few hours later saying her mum had lied about legoland and that they were at the airport to move to Australia :( she was sobbing and I had to act shocked.
I think about it all the time and wonder if I should have told her.

Why was she so angry?

The last line made me laugh out loud.

That is such a Mum thing to say

Yes. When I was 7 my Mum wanted me to go down the round and around corner to little shop to get her something. I was playing and did not want to go. She made me go. She gave me a £1 note. I ran down the road and posted the money down the drain and ran back and pretended I had fallen over and it fell down drain. My Mum was so upset she cried. I didn't realise that was food money for lunches in that week. I was never sure if she believed I had fallen or not. Mum has died now and I wish I could undo it.

as a young teen, I broke a crystal Knick knack at someone’s house and didn’t tell them about it. I just left it on the shelf. I was the only person in the house at the time so it only could have been me. I was afraid they would ask me to pay for it and I was desperately saving up to move out of my parents house.

on a lighter note, I used to sneak into the cabinet and steal bits of Oplatek to eat. It’s identical to communion wafer, but used in a ritual at home. I was obsessed with the texture. I don’t know that my parents really would have cared that I wanted to snack on the leftovers in the wafer packet, but I was worried my mother would find it an offense against her religion. Plus they lasted forever so I could only snack on ones that had been accidentally broken and couldn’t be used in the future.

When I was in primary we had to write a poem about our best friend as homework. I told my mum and she asked me which friend I was choosing and I said 'you!' - probably just to flatter her

I wrote it at all out and proudly read it out to my mum who had tears in her eyes. Anyway, the next day on the way to school I obviously had second thoughts about reading this nauseating ode to my mum in front of my class so I changed it and wrote a quick one about my friend.

My mum later asked me how it went and I told her I had to rewrite it because the teacher said I wasn't allowed to write about my mum - which now, as an adult I realise how fucking stupid that lie was, like a teacher is going to insist you can't write about your mum in a poem about friends 🙄😅

I bet my mum thought I was a right dumbarse!

I stole a little trinket box from my friend. I 'justifies' that it was at the back of a shelf covered by stuff so she mustn't want it.
Never played with , never really looked at it as I was so embarrassed. Had to get rid of it eventually.

Some things stick out for me that I still feel bad about 30+ years on:
Putting my rabbit in the paddling pool to see if it could swim. It could and was fine albeit pissed off and wet
Cheerily waving my parents off to work while waiting for the school bus then turning round and going home
Feeding my little brother mud pies
'Editing' my school report (pretty sure my parents knew about this - no child only takes 3 classes...)
Taking my brother for walks over the back fence and into the woods when he was a toddler.
Feel guilty I was a pretty shit child. But on balance I was a very quiet teenager!

😂 bloody kids! I’m quite proud that the worst word we could possibly think of was poop… could’ve been worse 😬

When I was 7 I shaved off my sisters best friends eyebrows I got into so much trouble I still see the friend and it still gets brought up,
Also when I was 13 went to call for my friend her dad went up to get her I stood on the rug accidentally breaking his glasses I just moved never mentioned it to her and I’m positive he never said anything to her either felt bad for ages for that one

I still feel guilty for so many things. Mostly stealing really silly things. I wasn't even a bad kid so no one ever suspected me. I just wasn't v happy with my home life. I once stole a plastic bangle from a shop and felt so bad I had to bury it in the garden. I still wouldn't tell anyone in real life even today.
I know this is meant to be light- hearted but how do we move on from this stuff? It's madness that we still torture ourselves years later. I always tell my children to be honest with me and I won't shout/ I'll be less angry etc as hate to think they'd be too terrified to tell me something and it was eating away at them. Some incidents on here are just kids being kids.

I did this too! I then tried to disguise the damage with a clever arrangement of cushions and teddies. My mum was so annoyed when she discovered the mess I'd made. They had to have the room redecorated. 😬

I wasn’t a bad kid but I can think of a few occasions when I was unnecessarily mean to other kids. It makes me feel bad but there’s nothing I can do about it now.

Stood on my radiator in my room to see out of the window to watch some fireworks someone had randomly let off mid week when I was meant to be in bed.

I stood right on the top. I wasn't a particularly big child but I was a child standing on top of a radiator, it's bent over til it was fully touching the carpet. I ran into bed and my parents ran in my room.

I told them it had just fallen over 😂🤦‍♀️ you know like radiators are prone to doing whilst still attached to the wall..

I was a big animal lover. There was a little spider on the bath and I drowned. I wanted to see what would happen I guess (I was about 4). My mum came in and I told her it had fallen in some water and drowned. She seemed so sad! I couldn’t admit it was my fault.

Looking back she was clearly just trying to empathise with me being sad 😂

I drowned it! I didn’t drown!

I used to always have to share my sweets with my little sister. One day I told her the sweet I had was really disgusting and I was saving her by not letting her eat it. She believed me and looked so sad watching me eat the poo sweet.

@ilovepixie she was probably angry for wasting food, money was pretty tight at the time but we didn't realise as kids!

Copied a poem from my Christmas Bunty annual and sent it to our local paper. It was printed and I won a postal order. My parents were so proud until my Dad discovered my crime!

When I was 11 I needed to get the very elderly dog out into the garden so she could do her business and I could get to school. (I was the last one to leave the house.) She was dithering at the door, tottering slowly along and pausing every few steps. I was impatient and thought I would miss the bus.

I said, "Come ON!" and pushed her with my foot to hurry her out the door. She didn't fall over, but it made her stagger. I was immediately consumed with guilt. Imagine treating a lovely arthritic old dog like that, especially when it was obviously my own fault that I was running late.

I think the guilt is there for a reason and we shouldn't move on from it. It helps us to be better people by discouraging us from doing the same things again. In your case, I bet as an adult you don't steal things anymore.

In my case, I posted above about being impatient and rough with my elderly dog. Now I am very patient with elderly people: I don't get wound up about slow drivers or people who need a long time to bag up and pay for their shopping, for example. I think I learned my lesson.

Some things are meant to be painful, to help us learn. Plus it helps us empathise with others who make mistakes, because we can imagine how bad they might be feeling.

When I was at school aged around 12 I stole the pencil case full of lovely coloured pencils from my friend. I had an obsession with art materials and loved to pant and colour but we were too poor to afford nice pencils.

To this day I feel dreadful and wouldn't dream of stealing anything ever. I'm still obsessed with art materials but can afford what I want. Sorry Pearl (that was her name)

When I was about 8 or 9 we were on holiday in the canaries. We were staying in a tower block with balconies and I was looking out at the view/pool from ours and the man below me was doing the same. I SPAT ON HIS HEAD and have no idea why. I ran back in to the apartment. Still feel ill with the guilt. And can still see the back of his head. I would go mad if any of my kids did this! Mine never found out.

I remember hurting my twin sister a few times - once swinging a collapsible umbrella around, and it extended and hit her. And once I kicked her and she was already standing off-balance so that properly knocked her and she hurt her ankle. I don't think I wanted to hurt her whenever we used to fight and squabble, those times particularly stick in my mind.

I think I "helped myself" to the odd 20p from my mum's purse for sweets - probably common, but not great behaviour.

I was another wallpaper-picker, and used to wipe bogies on the end of my bedframe - why! Gross, child self.

Collected sponsorship money which I forgot to take into school on the right day. Didn't hand it in after as I'd have been told off for bringing it in late. Hid the envelope under my bed and slowly spent it.
Used to lie about taking the dog for a walk after school. Got found out as mum realised that his lead hadn't been moved for days. I didn't like walking him as I'd usually see people from school. I was bullied through most of secondary school.

I stole a book I really liked from school. I had it for a very long time and reckon I got good learning mileage from it!

I also once (maybe aged around 7/8) nipped a baby cousin of mine on the ear to see what happened. The answer was that he cried and I felt very bad. I've never been cruel to any other children since!