What is the toughest thing you have ever done?

[Mr. Blonde]

I thought I had done some pretty tough things in my life, but last week shot to the top of the list. I had to deal with about a 100 6-10 year olds for a whole week. These kids mentally broke everyone they came in contact with. The two guys in charge of the camp said never again after they had to show technique to these kids. I know feel a strong need to apologize to anyone who knew me until I was about 13.

What is the toughest thing others have done?

[leftofthedial]

1. one time I had to deal with

about 6-10 100-year-olds


that really sucked.

[WindRavenX]

2. Come home for the summer to settle some family issues

Which, in retrospect, meant I would lose my boyfriend.
Oh well. I am not ashamed of what I did; I do not regret it.
But it still hurts...

[Viking12]

4. I'm sure it hurts

but if he was worth it he would've understood and been supportive. I'm sorry if that sounds trite, I don't mean to trivialize your hardship with pop-psychology. I'm sure someone will come along that respects your committment and you'll be better off in the long run. Best of luck.

[punpirate]

3. Obstacle course in basic training....

I'm not scared of heights, per se, but my balance is screwed up from months of ear infections as a kid, and my knees have been bad since I was a pre-teen. Climbing up and over forty feet of a creaking, swaying lattice of 4x4s was not pleasant. When some creep of a junior drill sergeant told me I had to do it again because I wasn't fast enough for him was even less pleasant.

[Mr. Blonde]

8. Speaking of bad knees

I had my knee scoped last December. After the MRI the doctor told me I had the knees of a 50 year old man. All I could think was "great so when I am 50 my knees will be 80"

I guess Pete Townshend was right about dying before I get old.

[aquaman]

5. I often have to deal with parents who have...

beaten the hell out of their children. I work in a hospital with kids that have been horrifically abused. Some of these parents are still involved and the state of south carolina wants to return kids to their parents if at all possible because of the money it cost to keep them in the "system." I would really like to put these parents through some of the pain that they have put their children through but can't. I, as a social worker have to be nice and therapeutic.

[rucky]

6. Tie:

Start a business & deliver my grandfather's eulogy.

[ForrestGump]

7. Physical: save my own life during a SCUBA diving 'whoopsie-daisy"

Emotional: divorce (and related kerfuffle) is probably going to take this cake before it's over

Plenty of worthy runners-up in each category, sometimes in both at the same time.

[TrogL]

9. Bury my wife

[Piperay]

10. Death of my mother

and during the same period dealing with the aftermath of being cheated on. :-(

[HEyHEY]

11. Thought of an answer to this question

Jeez, I know there's something, but I can't remember. Maybe leaving New Brunswick the first time, because I was leaving a hell of a girl that I hooked up with two weeks before I left, that was hard. Or maybe tellng my WHOLE family my problems with them and why I'd grown distant. I don't know. Oh wait, trying to make myself keep my ad - sales job was hard. Woke up int he middle of the night with bleeding teeth.

[huellewig]

12. I would have to go with my mom killing my father...

He beat up my sister really bad one night (head meet bathtub). He went for her (mom) and she got the gun and shot him in the head. Luckily I was a few rooms away. She panicked and took us to Mexico for a few years. We stayed with a guy in Copala Mexico while my mom went to turn herself in. She was arrested in Arizona and we got shipped to Redlands California to live with my aunt. We had to go back to Eugene for the sentencing. She got time served for being a battered woman. But the media blitz was insane during the trial. I was 10 and having the cameras and reporters yelling question at me was very overwhelming.

And the aunt I stayed with in Redlands just killed herself a few months ago.

What a wonderful world..

[HEyHEY]

13. Shit... I think I'll just remove my post

I can't believe she got time for that. SOrry I shouldn't say anything. I have no idea what I'm talking about.

[Liberal Classic]

14. Put my favorite pet to sleep

And I say this as an ex-Marine who recently buried his father.

At least my pop knew what was going on.

[REP]

15. That's Always Hard

With companion animals, we make the decision that ends their lives. Even when it's the kindest and most humane thing to do, that doesn't make it easy. I'd have to agree that euthanizing a beloved animal companion is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.

[Liberal Classic]

16. I feel pretty lame

Compared with huellewig's post just above. There was some abuse in my family, but nothing that quite compares with that. I will here and now count my blessings.

My pop recently lost his long fight with brain cancer. He was trapped inside his body, and when the end came it was a relief. Even with my clinically schizophrenic stepmom taking him to every faith healer and snake handler on the weast coast, he still retained rationality up to the very end. That I coped with pretty well. I would think by far the hardest thing would be losing a child. Our parents we expect to grow old and pass away, even if they're taken somewhat youngish. I'm not sure how I'd handle a child with leukemia, for example. Even so, a child has some capacity for reasoning. Some understanding that he is ill. I still think I could cope. I've hunted and fished. I've cleaned and dressed game animals, but putting down a pet just doesn't get any easier. I'm getting verklempt just writing about it.

[bushisanidiot]

17. Telling my kids their grandma died

followed closely by coming out to my husband and telling him I wanted a divorce.

[XNASA]

18. Primitive mountain hiking/camping........

Went for a week long hike/camp in Colorado. Made sure to get in shape and work-out with a 60 pound backpack, etc. Thought I was ready to go.

Second day of our hike, we climbed a saddle between two peaks and came down into a boulder field and my knees gave out. I felt fine except that my knees wouldn't work. We were in unmarked territory, following deer paths.....and I could just barely walk. But I toughed it out and made it through.

It was worse than football 2-a-days or boot camp. At least Navy boot camp.

[Tom_Foolery]

19. I've had many challenges in my life...

but nothing compared to what some of you have faced. You have my admiration. Mine include overcoming depression; watching my successful business go down the drain; going bankrupt; working low-paying jobs to make ends meet, etc.

[fishnfla]

20. Cut a 7/0 hook out of my ankle

Its was a trailer hook and a thrashing 20-lb king mackeral impaled it right thru my flesh, while he was still hooked to the lead hook. My crew was not up to the task, (one passed out) so I had to dispached the fish with the peacemaker as he was snapping a mouthful of razor blades less than inch away from my achilles tendon. Get the lead hook out of his mouth, cut the lead hook away from the trailer hook, cut the trailer hook in half, and then cut a hole in my flesh with a bait knofe to pull the barb thru. We were 45 miles offshore, so I soaked the foot in salt water, put a pressure bandage on and kept on fishing

[baldguy]

21. I walked about five miles.

I was riding my bike and hit some gravel on a turn. Wiped out and went into a ditch. Lots of road rash, sprained ankle & trashed bike. I was in the middle of nowhere and had to carry the bike back to a phone. Thankfully my sister was home & came to get me.

[bhunt70]

22. dealing with my wife in a coma for 3 weeks, helping with her subsequent

rehabilitation.

[kutastha]

23. Hm.. a couple

It used to be being pursued by and hiding out from a mafia low-life for a year, after my girlfriend told him and her dad (who had ties to some mob family) that I had attacked her (on edit: I didn't).

Now it's working on the psychiatric inpatient service. It is so difficult yet amazing to see what the human mind can do to people.

[AlCzervik]

24. When i was 15 my mother fell terminally ii

i took care of her along with hospice for the last 2 years of her life. I hate to say toughest, it was really the happiest and saddest thing i ever dealt with in my life, she died when i was 17 and just getting out of highschool, i moved in with my Dad and that was really tough, he's not exactly a touchy feely type of guy.

[mopinko]

25. ignore shrinks advice

and take my teenager off her "cocktail" of drugs. did keep her on mood stabilizers, but she was taking 5 different drugs, mostly to deal with the side effects of other drugs. she was getting more out there by the day. this was slightly harder than checking her into a locked psych ward. then i had trust. not any more. there are some amazingly stupid professionals out there. she is doing better, and now we are doing it the right way- s-l-o-w-l-y. i think we finaly have some decent help.

[Nikia]

26. Making the decision to move in with my dad

My mother married an abusive man who was a real sociopath when I was 11. Not only did I have to deal with him, but their marriage also caused my mother to be more angry and unstable as well. They fought constantly. When I was a sophomore in high school, my stepfather got transferred a few hours away and we were to move with him. My home life was bad enough and since I was an introvert I dreaded moving away from the support that I already had in my home community.
My father was willing to let me move in with him. They were poorer and I didn't really feel that my stepmother liked me, but it was a preferable situation to the one that I was in with my mother and stepfather.
The decision would have been easy except that my mother gave me a really hard time about this, I mean really hard. She blamed me for messing up her life by being born (She had me when she was 17). She said that she wasn't happy with my stepfather either but that we had to protect one another. She appealed to a sense of obligation that I always felt, that I was suppose to take care of my parents and be responsible for them from the time I was a young child. I was not comfortable in my making my decision to live with my father until I talked to my minister who pointed out that parents are suppose to be responsible for their children not the other way around. When I told my mother of my decision, she said that I would be dead to her. Luckily she changed her mind.
I kept a diary during this time and have finally reread it recently after being afraid to read it again for years. It was really tough and horrible. I am suprised that I didn't kill myself or even run away. I was strong then. I suppose that I should be confident that I can continue to be strong as I was then.