I'm 21 years old and an old friend of mine came to visit. We were best friends when we were 9 years old and we decided to do the same things that we did back then. It was the best time I've had for months or even years. What do you miss about your childhood?

brock_lee · 1 year

I miss the whole "not working the whole fucking live-long day" thing the most.

Blood_Orange · 1 year

Playing in the woods. There is no grown up equivalent of playing in the woods. Everything that involves the woods now involves deet, expensive camping equipment and a bunch of people trying to follow a trail. I miss the days when you could find spider webs and look for fish in the ponds. That was awesome.

Also, licking the cake mix out of the bowl.

talan123 · 1 year

New Calvin and Hobbes in the Paper.

Not having to worry about bills, economy, job, taxes, house, and the rest of that crap.

Hitting the turbo button on my PC.

Eating whatever I wanted without having to worry about the consequences in the next hour or so.

champagne_666 · 1 year

I miss being able to sit by myself for hours, uninterrupted. And reading all day long.

ramm · 1 year

Not giving a fuck.

nathanaz · 1 year

What do I miss?

Leaving the house in the morning to "go play" and then coming home to a lunch and dinner that is sitting on the table for me, then going out to play again, then coming home and going to bed.

In short, I miss the time when my "job" was to have fun, eat, and sleep.

Ze3ks · 1 year

4 player Golden Eye and Super Smash Brothers and Mario Cart and battling Pokemon on Game Boys and Pokemon Stadium.

ScarlattiisMyHomeboy · 1 year

I miss how long an average day felt. I always remembered days feeling twice as long as they do now. Christmas took FOREVER to get here, and nowadays it comes, actually, faster than I wish it would. Car rides to my grama's felt like an eternity (only a 10 minute drive, hitting every stoplight!), and I never knew how to get there because I never paid attention to the turns my parents made; I was, instead, trying my hardest to piss my older brother off.

UseThe4s · 1 year

-Playing with Legos, but not building something from a set, just whatever I wanted out of a huge bin of them.

-Climbing trees for no apparent reason. Sometimes jumping from a low branch, thinking I could fly for the first .5 seconds.

-Spinning in circles just for the sake of getting dizzy and trying to walk.

-Nerf gun and super-soaker battles

-Goldeneye and Smash Bros. for hours and hours...and hours

-Not ever having to think about having a job, paying bills, going to classes, impressing girls, making plans in advance, saving for the future, but just doing what I felt like at the time.

muffdyvr · 1 year

Shitting in the driveway and blaming it on the dog.

rich4rd · 1 year

my brother. he's married with kids now and works for a bank. he's practically dead.

CristoDk · 1 year

In Denmark you get 5 - 6 weeks holiday a year, no matter what job you have.

smug

battleolympus · 1 year

-Playing in the woods looking for a treasure, or capturing frogs.

-Playing with my NES on rainy days (mario bros 2/3 etc)

-Playing with the walkie talkie scanning the sewer to listen to secret voice.

-Sellings nice rocks for 25 cents to strangers.

-Playing with my Transformer & Ninja turtles outside, and inside.

-Playing with my lego/tonka/construx trucks on the street

-Making a tent.

-Sleeping in the tent and going out in midnight watching the neighbor

-Playing in the pool

-Spying the neighbor' cave throught the windows.

-Skating on the street

-Big wheeling on the street (big wheel)

-biking on the street until your father yell at you "hey, come back home!" when the sun goes down.

-Playing baseball, hockey, and soccer with friends (girls & boys mixed)

-watching "the girl" on her bike.

-Buying bazooka joe bubblegum for 5 cents

-having 75 cents and being rich.

-having 2 dollars = millionaire!

-buying upper deck/o-pee-chee/topps baseball & hockey cards

-throwing rocks on beehives and running like crazy

-renting a vhs movie

-walking & running everywhere (neighbor's ground)

-cutting worm in half after a rain

-burning dead worm on the street with the magnifying glass (mm horrible smelling)

-watching ants

-watching thunderstorm throught window and then going on the street with a metal crucifix yelling at the storm

-fighting with my brother and 10 mins later playing together

-2 months of vacation during the summer

-Puted rocks & pennies on the railroad to derail the train (never worked, doh!)

-creating fire with the magnifying glass

I MISS THE 80'S!!!!!!!!!!

I WANT TO GO BACK . I WANT TO BE 10 again!!!

Maschalismos · 1 year

A sense of hope for the future. :(

retired_student · 1 year

I miss fighting with my brother. I remember I'd grab a belt and a broom stick and just start swinging. Then he'd tackle me and stuff my face into a pillow, then I'd do a flip and reverse the situation. Then I'd slap him as he runs off and cries to my mom.

Back when I was the toughest girl on the block!

BrianMoser · 1 year

I miss watching cartoons on a Saturday morning.

ratbear · 1 year

I miss renting NES games back in the day. During summer break my mom would take my brother and I to the Mom and Pop video rental store on the weekends, and we got to choose one game to rent for a couple of days.

I fondly remember the excitement of having SO MANY games to choose from (in reality it was probably ~25-30) and the anticipation on the ride home that this 3 Stooges game is going to be the raddest game ever!! Even if the game sucked (Total Recall, I'm looking at you), we still had to convince ourselves that it was awesome, because thats what we were playing exclusively for the next 48 hours.

In these days of instant downloadable games, online multiplayer, and kids just being more jaded and blase about video games in general, I doubt my kids will ever be able to experience that same feeling of anticipation and excitement.

PunkRockMakesMeSmile · 1 year

The experience of being an unsupervised 8-12-year-old after the sun goes down is a charge and a power-trip I have yet to re-visit. The nights buddies slept over and we would eat a spoonfull of ground coffee, sneak down to the park, or just break bottles against a dumpster in an alley somewhere, or down to the basement to spend hours with our eyes glued to extremely slow dial-up porn, it felt like the world after dark existed specifically for us. It's a sensation that I fear exists only in my past.

Carstin · 1 year

I miss climbing up in a tree with my best friend Jens. We could sit there for the whole day and read Calvin and Hobbes and drink Soda. And of course discuss the girls at our school. G.R.O.S.S. I miss being nine.

mmmberry · 1 year

I miss being totally dirty all the fucking time. I also miss climbing trees, playing in the dirt, and just staying outside all day. I guess you can tell why I was dirty all the time. Man, I bet my mom dreaded seeing my ass at 7 pm each night.

youtea · 1 year

Your post made me smiled, and teared at the same time. Really wish I can do that with my best friend. Hell, I really wish I have a best friend like that. I have moved a few times in my childhood and had a hard time keeping close friends.

oodja · 1 year

Protip: if you're missing your childhood, have a kid. I've built more sand castles with my daughter than I ever did when I was growing up.

Tubemonster · 1 year

I miss going outside and walking around in the woods with my friends just because. We'd always end up stumbling upon something fun to do even though we didn't have any plans when we set out.

Adults seem to always need a reason to do something. I think we miss out on a lot of fun because of it. When was the last time you got into a full-on cattail battle with your friends or spent the entire day building a fort out of fallen branches? I miss those things so much.

nonodoggie · 1 year

I miss making forts. I miss riding bikes at top speed down the biggest hill in the neighborhood. I miss spending the entire evening in the sandbox making cities with the neighbor kids. I miss roasting marshmallows around the campfire with my little brother, and catching fireflies. I miss getting all my cousins together and playing kickball. I miss ball pits -- I got way too tall for those at a young age. I miss measuring the success of my day in grass stains and bruises instead of grades and budget.

I'm 21. My adult life is pretty good. But my childhood is not that far gone... and I don't see anything wrong with turning my dorm room into a fort when school starts up again. Thank goodness I never really stopped climbing trees.

DarkBlueAnt · 1 year

As a total nerd, I still do the same things I did when I was a kid. My free time revolves around playing video games, reading comics, and looking at pictures of action figures.

I'm not sure why people give this stuff up. It's really not that expensive if you don't want it to be.

Z80 · 1 year

What do you miss about your childhood?

Days, Weeks and Months were Sooooooo long!

Xophmeister · 1 year

Happiness

otterberg1 · 1 year

isn't that the plot to brokeback mountian?

panickedthumb · 1 year

"It was rather awkward because they were 9 and they saw us"

Hilarious. This was my favorite part of your story.

Sophocles · 1 year

Riding bikes to 7-11 to buy baseball cards, slurpees, and play the arcade games.

Riding bikes to the trails and taking them of jumps.

Riding bikes to friends' houses to play Nintendo or watch cable (neither of which I had at home).

Riding bikes everywhere.

madelinecn · 1 year

How easy it was to learn new things and think clearly. Being an adult (or at least one in your mid 20's) is all about juggling expectations and personal ethics. Nothing is simple anymore and there's no end in sight.

So in other words, innocence. Basically I miss the days when having a crush on a guy wasn't about fucking and having a job wasn't about building my future. I guess those are from two different time frames but same thing. Fuck man, I liked being irresponsible. This shit sucks.

K gotta go tell a board why they should support my organization!

CarlWearsPrada · 1 year

The general idea of being innocent for being young. You know you're not a kid anymore when you get more than just a slap on the wrist for doing something wrong.

And also the original Power Rangers and all the shows that absolutely kick the shit out of today's kids shows (at least from my time as a kid, the 90's)
Hey Arnold Rugrats Rocket Power Little Bear Kenan and Kel Original All That

the list goes on...

StaticKy · 1 year

What do I miss about my childhood? Friends...

warm-guts · 1 year

I miss how we could project our imagination so close to reality: playing with a group of friends, trekking through woods pretending that we were on the run from the evil king (who was our asshole neighbor - we would bother him on purpose and then run into the woods) - Felt so real sometimes.
Bows and arrows; rubber band guns (making them ourselves)
Flying kites
Riding bikes into new areas and the sense of discovery
My best buddy Ricky, whom I have not seen or talked to in a long, long time.

Davin900 · 1 year

I would just like to say, in all seriousness, that the closest I've ever come to recreating the feelings of childhood was with MDMA. I took quite a lot once and my friend and I spent like an hour running through some wet grass with our shoes off and our arms stretched out making airplane noises. I highly recommend trying pure MDMA if you can get any.

zak_on_reddit · 1 year

i miss my knees.

and i miss not having to work with people who don't have a clue what they are doing and whose incompetence makes my life miserable.

YanItor · 1 year

Not caring about the sweltering heat and being able to ride my bike 8 hours during 100 degree weather without a flinch.

foofoopoo · 1 year

I miss nap time

muffinz · 1 year

This past weekend I went for a walk through the river behind our house with my daughter and her friend (my daughter starts highschool in the fall - only say so as a frame of reference). And I mean we walked in the river and got stuck in the mud and almost fell over laughing into the water. We climbed over and into trees. We investigated weird rocks and walked through huge culverts. And on the way out I found an Ipod Shuffle to boot.

I haven't done that since I was a kid. Brought back fun memories. I'm so glad my daughter will still do that with her old man. Won't be long...

stijnb · 1 year

You guys make me not want to get old. And I'm already 20!

lake-of-fire · 1 year

Did anyone else start humming I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends while reading that?

vedema · 1 year

The feeling that adults always knew what they were doing.

THEJinx · 1 year

As a 1970's latchkey kid, I had a LOT of freedom from interfering adults.

I miss: Box sliding. In SoCal, there isn't snow, but there ARE a lot of little canyons. You open the box out, and use the cardboard as your sled. Watch out for rocks!

Hiking and building little forts in the canyons.

Saturday morning cartoons. When American Bandstand came on, that was the signal to go out and play. If you were still in the house when mom woke up, THAT was the signal to start cleaning house. Ugh.

Sunday mornings I would put the dog on a leash and walk. And walk. And walk. Miles of sidewalks, strange neighborhoods and parks and playgrounds and store windows....

We played with glass knocker toys, and made popsicle stick switchblades and clothespin guns, and walked around alone. We'd jump off the roof of the little house onto big floor pillows. Never broke anything but my nose.

We had a Schwinn Stingray and a 10 speed bike. We would jump ramp to ramp with them, do wheelies, jump the curbs - none of these fancy BMX bikes needed.

At night - kick the can, hide and seek, steal neighbors' fruit from their trees, watch lunar eclipses and the stars and the shadows.... Staying up to watch the first seasons of SNL... Waking up to the theme song long enough to go to bed.

Trying to find a library close enough to walk to was a challenge. The nearest one to my house was a few miles away across the freeway, where the plane crashed a few years later. But oh, the treasures - Walter Farley, C.W. Anderson, Alcott, Bronte, M. Henry... For a horse crazy city girl, reading about horses was the closest I'd get for a few years...

bluecollarguy · 1 year

Playing down at the creek.

Although, with 2 boys, I started doing this again. Walking the creek, building dams, trying to hand catch crawdads or minnows, etc. If feels nice to get away from everything and it is usually so peaceful when we go.

entropikone · 1 year

[deleted]

edwin23 · 1 year

I miss not having any responsibility.

voltagex · 1 year

I am never too old for Mario Kart 64.

as1126 · 1 year

Playing wiffle ball or basketball from 9:00 AM until dinner. Then night swimming in my neighbor's pool with his five sisters. Those were the halcyon days of my youth!

jwkim86 · 1 year

I miss not having responsibilities. Each summer day was an endless adventure of climbing trees, playing baseball, exploring sewage waste areas (kind of weird now that I think of it....), and just biking around. I mean, I can do the SAME exact things I did back then on the weekend but the problem is the notion of responsibilities and future concerns. For my case, I worry about student loans, work, application for law schools, and etc. So I miss the care-free mentality. Though.. I'm not sure I speak for everyone else but honestly, F*** childhood. I much prefer now than back then because of the fact that I, in a sense, have more freedom. I can choose how late I stay out, what I want to do, where I want to go, and etc. (There are obvious constraints, such as money but that was always a pre-existing constraint we just weren't aware of).

.... As we speak, I'm sitting at my desk drinking soda and playing an RTS game while in between projects. So it's kind of like childhood except I'm wearing a dress shirt and dress pants.

1556: Don't accept random camping invites.

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