Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Reflect On Their Most F**ked Up Memories From Childhood

Little girl looking out a window
woman in green orange and yellow dress standing near window
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Reddit user Specific_Dimension77 asked: 'What’s something f*cked up you witnessed during your childhood, but didn’t realize the severity of until you were older?'

Make us preferred on Google

Memory can be a funny thing.

There are some memories in which every moment will remain completely vivid in our minds for the rest of our lives.


Others we might remember the context and moments from, but find ourselves a bit hazy on some specifics and details.

Some people have memories like that from their childhood, where they weren't exactly sure what they were remembering.

With a little time, as well as some context from others, discovering what these memories were is sometimes a very rude awakening indeed.

As the only way to describe these particular memories could be "F*cked up."

Redditor Specific_Dimension77 was curious to hear from people with memories from childhood which they learned in adulthood were a bit more unsettling than they realized, leading them to ask:

"What’s something f*cked up you witnessed during your childhood, but didn’t realize the severity of until you were older?"

Unknowingly Complicit...

"My dad and I used to play 'Spaceship”'and to get the spaceship started, I’d have to blow into a tube to hear the electronic beep."

"It was his DUI test to start the car before they started putting cameras in the cars."

"Glad he’s sober these days."- Expensive_Change_893

"Pretty sure when I was 7 I was an accomplice to robbery."

"I was supposed to stay the night at my friend's house."

"Her parents said we're stopping to look at a house real quick."

"I didn't think anything of the adults all black outfits."

"They were still professional."

"I did think it was odd that they had me go through the bathroom window to unlock the door, but they said the realtor forgot to give them the key."

"This was such a beautiful, wealthy home."

"They didn't take anything large, but I did notice the mom leaving with a lot more jewelry on the she came in with."

"She said she left it last time they were there."- prettylittlepastry

Sometimes Its A Blessing When A Memory Gets Foggy

"I was sitting on the couch at 5 yo when my parents started arguing and my mom threw a red book at my dad."

"Just thought it was a fight."

"Turns out it was their pre-divorce fight after my dad caught her cheating."

"Didn’t learn about the cheating until I was 16 and only recently learned it was a brick that she threw at him."- missybeputtinitdown

"To Err Is Human, To forgive Is Divine."

"One of the times my dad left he would send me beautiful letters with the envelope decorated in different cartoons and cute drawings."

"I was maybe 9 at the time and clueless."

"A few years later I realized he would decorate the envelopes to take attention away from the red 'inmate mail' stamp on it."- Smolbeanis

Sense Memory

"When I was about 12, me and dad were walking the dog, when we saw a huge fire at a house at the end of our street."

"My dad was a fireman at the time, so his first reaction was to sprint towards it."

"Naturally, I followed him."

"A crowd of people had gathered around a bus shelter nearby, so I went to see what was happening."

"On the ground was a kid from my school, I think he was 2 or 3 years below me."

"I'll never forget how badly his face and hands were burnt."

"The skin was a strange mixture of charred flesh and fresh blood."

"I just froze for what felt like an eternity before my dad found me and sent me home whilst he stayed to help."

"The kid survived, but it was years before I saw him again."

"He was horribly disfigured as a result."

"I don't think about it much, but every summer we have a barbeque, and the smell of the coals takes me right back to that evening."- Full-Cardiologist233

Privilege Check

"When I was a kid, we took a family trip to Las Vegas and stayed at Circus Circus."

"My mom wanted to get a magnet or souvenir from Caesar’s Palace, so we parked somewhere and went inside."

"I wanna say we might have parked in an area reserved for staff?"

"Or it could’ve been for guests/visitors."

"That part is very fuzzy."

"My parents didn’t care regardless and had never been there."

"When we were walking back to the car and over a sewer grate (the kind with slots) I sneezed."

"A gruff, male voice from below in the sewer said 'bless you!'"

"Being an innocent kid, I said thanks as my parents hurried my brother and I into the rental car."

"Years later as an adult, I watched a documentary about homeless people who live in the Las Vegas sewers."

"In it when they’re inside one of the sewer tunnels, their guide pointed up at a sewer grate above them and said 'you see this?'"

"'This is the parking lot of Caesar’s Palace'.”

"That whole realization that I was there as a kid gave me whiplash."- snickerdoodle_bandit

The Truth Can Really Hurt

'My seventh grade English teacher accidentally gave me a document he had written."

"It was on an old floppy disc he assumed was blank."

"It described how he volunteered with an humanitarian group in the 70's that traveled through impoverished countries and provided free vasectomies."

"They eventually trained him how to do it, and he would do them, even though he had no real medical training."

"This is not even the messed up part."

"He goes on to explain that he decides that he wanted a vasectomy and to do it himself. He then described in very graphic detail how he did it to himself."

"He even said the date, like March 1st, 1981, or something like that."

"He described in detail cutting through things, and how rubbery it felt."

"Again, not the f*cked up part."

"I thought the story was hilarious because he wrote scrotum so many times, and I was a seventh grader."

"Well, I spread the story around to my friends."

"It eventually spread to a parent, that shared it with the school."

"His wife who was also a teacher there, promptly quit."

"Their son who was younger than me, born in the 90's, also left the school."

"He kept his job."

"What I figured out much later was that his wife had cheated on him and had gotten pregnant, but pretended like it was his."

"The f*cked up part is that he obviously knew she cheated, but never told her."

"He had raised the boy as his own son."

"Once she realized he was sterile, and he's known the entire time, she left him and took the kid."

"Had I not shared that story, that kid could have lived his entire life without knowing, and that family could have stayed together."- fredsam25

The Things People Do For Money

"I was sledding with a friend and saw smoke on the horizon."

'His mom came and picked us up."

"It was my 3rd-floor apartment on fire with my mom and grandma (and others) outside in the cold."

"Everyone got out safely, but we couldn't find our cat (until later)."

"My computer and Star Wars collection among so many other things were destroyed."

"We still have the photos."

"Found out later, unknown to her, my mom's BF owned the building and had the dumb a$ manager wack a pipe so he could get the insurance $$."

"My mother has been somewhat of a hoarder since."- determinedforce

Not Trusting Others Cause No One Could Trust Him...

"My parents divorced when I was 3 because my father got another woman pregnant."

"When I was 6, my father took me and my two older sisters (10 and 15 at the time) to 'donate blood'."

"Decades later I’m talking to my mom about it and she reveals it was a paternity test, as my father didn’t believe I was his daughter."

"Test proved I was in fact his."

"Probably should have realized sooner that a 6 is a bit young to be donating blood."- miss-quiche-lorraine·

Some might say these poor people would be better off if they didn't know the truth.

But facing the truth and confronting our demons is sometimes the only way we can move on with our lives.

Even if the memories will never stop haunting us.


More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshot of Kellyanne Conway; Donald Trump
Fox News; Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images

Kellyanne Conway Just Tried To Claim Trump's Divisive Speech On The National Mall Was Actually 'Inclusive'—And The Delusion Is Real

President Donald Trump's former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway was criticized after she praised his speech on the National Mall on Wednesday night by claiming on Fox News that Trump extended an "olive branch" to people who didn't vote for him.

Trump's remarks themselves resembled a campaign rally more than the unifying and "inclusive" celebration organizers had promised. Within minutes of taking the stage, he criticized former President Joe Biden without mentioning him by name, declaring that the United States had recently been "a dead country" before claiming it had become "the hottest country anywhere in the world."

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot from @kelseycorky's video; AMC Theatres
@Kelseycorky/TikTok; Sheldon Cooper/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Woman Sparks Debate With Video Calling Out AMC Theater Conditions After Paying $60 To See Movie

Going to the movies after school or at the end of a long week was a favorite pastime for Millennials and Gen-Xers.

Until the pandemic, it was a pretty affordable experience, assuming the moviegoer was mindful about their purchases at the concessions stand.

Keep ReadingShow less
Toddler receiving red card on soccer field
@EpicClipVault

Little Boy Gets Red Card After Crashing Older Brother's Soccer Game In Hilarious Viral Video

The FIFA World Cup is in full swing in the United States, and like every other year, there's a healthy dose of cards getting thrown for bad or questionable plays.

But adorably, one team of young players was interrupted by an excited future soccer player.

Keep ReadingShow less
Woman stood up and blocked by date
@raphousetv2/X

Woman Speaks Out After Realizing After 45 Minutes That Her Date Dined And Dashed On Her In Viral Video

Not every first date is going to turn into a relationship, and not every relationship is going to last.

In fact, a person can end a date, friendship, or relationship for any reason that they want—though preferably, they'd be honest about it and not keep the other person guessing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Jo Frost
@jofrost/Instagram

'Supernanny' Star Speaks Out With Warning To Parents Who Aren't Allowing Their Kids To Learn Basic Life Skills In Viral Video

Jo Frost, a global parenting expert and a British TV personality known for starring on the hit reality show Supernanny, has finally spilled the tea on something she's needed to talk about for a long time: how children are growing up less and less prepared for adulthood.

In a video she initially shared on Instagram, Frost looks apprehensive at first, clenching her hands as she prepares the viewer:

Keep ReadingShow less