To think this is overkill ?

[AdderJagfa]

The context to this is I was 9 years old and it was the no man’s land time between Xmas and Nee Year - so let’s say around December 29th?

I had a mad crush on a boy at the time and I wrote a letter and rang someone’s doorbell I knew 2 streets away and gave it to the woman of the house who had kids roughly my age - I’d signed letter with the boys unusual surname. I wrote another letter and signed it with a completely different surname

After i delivered the letters I walked home knowing I’d made a huge mistake

That evening my doorbell rang and the husband and wife from the house in question were both at the door with the letters in hand and came into speak to my parents

I got a huge telling off and dressing down by my parents and felt very mortified and embarrassed about the whole thing. There was such a bad atmosphere in the house I actually begged for the cleaner to come the next day 😭 - but she didn’t cos Xmas hols

Just to say the content of my letters wasn’t in any way rude or offensive

AIBU to think the adults in this situation went too far?

It's really hard to understand what exactly happened from your post. What were the letters about? I assume the other couple were quite concerned about the letters because otherwise they would have just put them in the rubbish and moved on? Did you know them very well?

Eh?

It’s hard to comment without knowing what was said in the letters. Were they love letters?

Thank you! That was the point I was trying to make with my own comment but lack of sleep and my neurodivergent brain just likes to word splurge.

You gave letters to random people because you had a crush on an unrelated, totally different boy? Is that right?

This reads like the start of an episode of Dr Who.

The wording is super confusing. At first I thought you went to deliver 2 love letters you wrote, but after re-reading it just sounds like you went to a house and gave out fake letters for some reason???

Without knowing what you wrote it’s hard to know if it was overkill, but regardless it was very strange.

Yeah I really can’t get past giving the letters to some utter rando.

Depends on what you wrote …
what did your parents tell you

Post reported

I honestly believe that if you want to put this behind you, you need to accept that delivering the letters was wrong and your neighbours did get upset by it.

But you were only a child and sometimes children do silly stuff and you didn't intend for people to get upset.

Your parents possibly overreacted but it sounds like an awkward situation and if it was a one off I would put it behind you. You and your parents both could have made better choices that day but you're all only human.

Be kind to yourself.

But now we might never get answers! 😂

I like how you have used so many words but given zero information!

I am losing my marbles, or the ability of some posters on MN to write a comprehensible post has left the building recently.
You were 9
You wrote a couple of letters
You dropped one at house one, the second at house 2
One set of adults from one od the houses came and spoke to your parents

Still no idea what the issue is, presuming you are no longer 9 and this didn't happen last night?

OP is this one of those threads where you pick an isolated event that people will inevitably have different opinions on when what you really need to do is discuss your difficult childhood?

Ok, I’ve now read all the responses on this thread and this poster has the most accurate interpretation of the circumstances so everyone if you want an accurate interpretation read THIS !!!

The ONLY part of this poster’s interpretation that’s not accurate is the very last paragraph so I’ll set people straight.

No, the letters weren’t love letters and they weren’t addressed to the children in that family.

Just to reiterate I’d only just turned 9 the previous October - and this was the tail end of December..

The content of the letters was very mundane actually - it was a typical ‘adult’ scenario - it was actually congratulating a hypothetical adult on getting a job. So looking back it was a 9 year old writing letters meant to be to hypothetical adults about ‘typical’ boring, mundane, adult subjects. Although I handed the letters to the mum of the house - they weren’t really ‘addressed’ to her, her husband or her children.

it was like a child writing 2 random letters with boring ‘adult’ content to 2 different hypothetical adults but delivering them by hand to a completely random house where the family are known to the child but not particularly well or close. The mum didn’t open the letters in front of me. I just delivered them and left.

Just for context - the year was 1981 and no1 at the time was

Human League - ‘Don’t You Want Me’

only 3 channels etc etc

after the incident but when the couple were still there my Dad came into the other lounge where I was watching TV and it was the classic thing where I was so embarrassed I was trying to brush him off but he had both letters with him and was insistent in addressing the matter

The other letter was signed with a unique surname of a TV celebrity who was very big in December 1981 - think along the lines of Monkhouse but it wasn’t Monkhouse iyswim.

I don’t know what first name I signed either letter just the surnames - maybe I just put an initial - idk

my mum was very cold with me the next day - and a few weeks later we passed the woman in the street - me & mum - and the woman was cold with us. My mum said “she was cold with us ‘cos what you did, you’re not going to do that again are you?”

No it was only one house

Yes . This is actually absolutely right - and crazy right? But I had just turned 9

Exactly !!!!!! Spot on !!!!!

December 1981

I don't think your parents overreacted here OP. You did a harmless but odd thing, which was perhaps unsettling for the recipients. I'm trying to imagine a random kid that I slightly know handing me letters like this at that age...
I think it was your parents' responsibility to teach you not to do things like this and not to include others outside the family in your fantasies.
Also, you say over and over about only being 9- but that's quite old for this behaviour I think.

No I didn’t think they were going to pass it along at all

I don’t know why I did this at all

It seems so random but I immediately regretted it

OP I am about the same age as you and seriously impressed you can remember so many details about a minor childish prank. Even if you are explaining yourself really badly.

No idea why it bothers you so much, your parents gave you a row because it was quite a weird thing to do. You have no idea what was going on with the family who received your weird letters - which you must have written your own address on as they wouldn't be able to find you anyway. Still baffled as to the relevance of the cleaner, or indeed the relevance of ANY of it more than 40 years later.

Also, I think that your parents needed to impress upon you that you can't write letters in someone else's name, especially a local little boy.