What is something about your childhood that you DON'T miss?

[Y2KStardust]

It's more of a personal thing, but man I do *not* miss the lack of education around mental health. I was a socially anxious autistic, not some failure of a child! (as if such a thing can exist)

Also, the family situation I was in as a kid. I'm much more stable now and have had better experiences, lots of real unconditional love from mama and my stepdad(!!) even though SD has now passed on. Baby me had no idea, they didn't like ANY association w/ a "dad" and now I can say I have one 

[teomodo]

this is such a good topic, i feel like i'm a very nostalgic person, sometimes to a fault. this thread has definitely made me more grateful to be where i am now 

seconded what everyone's already said about the lack of autonomy in your diet and movement and all that. i was always chubby and unhealthy and sedentary as a kid and there just wasn't much i could do about it. but now there is! and i do. do things about it, i mean. as difficult as it feels learning how to take control of my life and build those good habits as an adult, i have sooo much more freedom to do so. master of my own destiny, etc. also being able to buy alcohol. that's a fun freedom.

i also REALLY don't miss the whole culture of the chans/SA/YTMND/kiwifarms. i was exposed to a lot of that stuff from my brother and i'm still recovering from whatever complexes it gave me that made me embarrassed to just like... be alive. the "cringe culture is dead" movement has genuinely been such a positive thing for the internet, i think. i love that the appreciation for the amateurish and unpolished and weird seems to be spreading.

also, petty, but i don't miss the aftercare counselor from my elementary school. dude was a huge bully, he'd always look for excuses to yell at the kids and put them down but he sucked up to all the parents. eff you mister steve!!!

[devils]

I'll spare you my tragic backstory and say that one light thing I definitely do not look fondly in any ways was getting overly invested in extremely online nonsense, from DeviantArt trolling during the 2000s to 2010s Tumblr's brand of social justice (if you know, you know).

[konamiesque]

i definitely don't miss how severe my anxiety used to be. the worst part is that because of my alexithymia i didn't even realize that i was anxious, let alone what was causing it, so i'd end walking around thinking everything was fine until i started manifesting physical symptoms like chest pains and nausea. not fun!

[tarraxahum]

being in the closet and not even knowing about it (wasn't even aware there were OPTIONS)

not being able to draw most of my ideas yet

not fitting in in any friend groups and constantly being on some level aware that my peers perceive me as weird (most of them were friendly or at least normal about it, some of them... were not)

I guess it mostly boils down to Not Knowing Things About Myself and therefore not being able to navigate them.

[Quinn]

1. being super small compared to everybody else
2. not being taken seriously even if i was right.. (which happened a few times :pppp)
3. webpages taking AGES to load
4. skool teachers yelling at me for not using capital letters right
5. having to use crappy free game sites coz we weren't allowed to download/buy any gamez!! :p
6. having to get parental verification for EVERYTHING

[Azure]

something i definitely don't miss about childhood is the lack of freedom...people complain about being an adult and having to pay bills and such but at least you can pretty much do what you want when you want to do it!

[starbreaker]

There's nothing about my childhood that I miss. I was broke, ignorant, and powerless.

[sig]

Being dragged around to random ass places I just did not really want to be at.

[zanarkand]

the first thing that comes to mind is that i absolutely do not miss the obsessions with thinness of the 2000's. every woman on TV and in movies was impossibly skinny and there was no body diversity whatsoever. i'm glad that with Y2K fashion becoming popular again i've seen a lot of plus size teens and young people dressing in those styles because in the past you could not find cool clothes in bigger sizes at all. and in general i don't miss the fatphobia that was so widely accepted and normalized. obviously things aren't perfect now, but they're much much better. this goes for so many other things, you never saw queer or trans or disabled people in anything if they weren't a big joke or being tormented so yeah i do not miss that at all! also, being able to answer the phone and use the internet at the same time is pretty sweet 

[Memory]

I definetely don't miss that weird obsession over celebrities life and gossip about it and just general severe misogyny. Also that bullying to the point of crusades against "different" folks(you know, queers, pluz-sized people, geeks, etc... it was pretty bad back then)
Yeah, and school -_-

[KittyTheKat]

being in the closet and not even knowing about it (wasn't even aware there were OPTIONS)
...
not fitting in in any friend groups and constantly being on some level aware that my peers perceive me as weird (most of them were friendly or at least normal about it, some of them... were not)

I guess it mostly boils down to Not Knowing Things About Myself and therefore not being able to navigate them.

Yeah I had a similar experience! I have to say that it's nice being an adult and able to assess myself to work things out mentally. I became so much happier when I realized I have the freedom to decide who I am and not worry about other people thinking I'm off. DEFINITELY don't miss feeling like I have to "color within the lines" so to speak.

[grovyle]

Definitely not being taken seriously and not having any say in what I was or wasn't doing. If I didn't want to go to a birthday party, most times (if I wasn't sick) my parents would make me go anyway, for example. And there are MULTIPLE times I remember being right or just wanting to voice how I was feeling and being dismissed just because I was a child. One time I was tired for doing too many things and my mom called my aunt to laugh at me!!! What!!!!!!!!!
Also I'm out of the educational system as a whole now, so maybe it isn't only applicable to childhood, but I don't miss my whole social life and sense of self-worth depending on school. If my schoolmates didn't like me, that was it! Hope you like playing alone and feeling unloveable! ??????????????
And for the nerdiest one: I've loved pokemon since I was literally one year old, and when I was a kid I couldn't find merch for it ANYWHERE, and if I did it was bootlegs, or really expensive, or very little. Since pokemon go came out, pokemon had a revival and now there's pokemon stuff everywhere!! I felt so alone growing up bc none of my friends liked it, and I didn't get a second-hand community feeling from finding merch and thinking "oh, people must be buying this!! there's more people that like pokemon out there!!".

[bby]

former friends, dial up speeds especially, not being taken seriously due to my age, going to school (i do like learning and i miss college some but high school was terrible), and not being able to make certain decisions. like if i didn't want to be around family but had no choice.

[GHOUL]

the feeling of my brain still developing!! i feel like as a child my head always felt fuzzy and lights were so bright and just all my senses were so high!! i didn't understand things and all i wanted was to sit on the floor and cry and zone out and drool on plastic...