What kind of child were/are you? Meek? Rebellious? Full-on hellion?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

When I was younger, I was very shy, but I've always driven my mom in particular insane with my individuality and the time (usually extensive) I always give to myself. Today I would not call myself particularly rebellious, and I'm certainly not a full-on hellion--I don't drink, smoke, drug-up, sex wit da boyz, run away, stay out particularly late (or stay out at all, during the school year), get bad grades, have run-ins with the law, etc. I do sass my parents like hell and ignore most of their commentary, but nearly everyone does, including my parents to their parents, so nothing new there. :P Oh, and my mother and I exchange obscenities all the time, but again, there's nothing new there--my mom's been swearing at things and people since she was younger than I am now, and I don't consider her behavior abusive at all, since I give as good as I might get, and usually do something stupid in the first place to invoke that ire.

:D

[Maine-ah]

1. I was good as a small child.

then I was a teenager. All hell broke loose. Smokin' pot, drinkin' ect...I didn't have sex though until I was 18.

[Omphaloskepsis]

2. I had a medical condition that prevented me from speaking....

or really making much noise at all until I was four.

And my family life was kinda hectic. My parents fought enough that my sister and I didn't really ever do anything bad. Was learned to be quite and try to act invisible. We were scared of making things worse. My parents fought enough, we didn't want to exacerbate things.

By the age of fifteen both of us had left. When my sister was fifteen or so my sister ran away to live live our grandpa. Two years later I ran away to live with my sister.

Both of us got good grades but started fucking up after we finished High School.

[BlueIris]

21. This post explains a lot.

[Donk Yore]

3. cautious

my family was, and is, nuts.

[Deep13]

46. ditto. nt

:grouphug:

[KansDem]

4. I gave my parents no trouble as a child or teen.

My stepfather would have backhanded me if I had...

[qb]

5. Shy, introverted.

I found my voice when I came out last year :)

[AlCzervik]

6. i was a pain in the ass 2nd child, my sister was an angel.

she had blond hair and blue eyes and i was the exact opposite, the black sheep.

[supernova]

7. Quietly rebellious

I didn't chafe at my parents so much because they were eminently reasonable people who just expected me to be responsible. But I did rebel at the expectations my community placed on me without, I thought, really bothering to see the real me.

So I simply kept my own counsel most of the time and was all too happy to be considered a little weird, because it meant that I was left to my own devices and thoughts.

[DarkTirade]

8. I didn't generally CARE enough to rebel.

Never done drugs. Never snuck out of the house. First alcoholic beverage I ever had was one my parents gave me.

[LeftyMom]

9. I was usually too smart to get caught.

O8)

[DarkTirade]

34. Usually?

:P

[Sugar Smack]

10. I was a quivering blob of shy fear.

I got over that when I was eighteen.

[MrCoffee]

11. As far as my mom knows, I was damn near perfect.

She doesn't know all that much, actually.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

16. Mr GoG's mom told me time and again that he was a perfect child.

I always assured her that he still is.

[SacredCow]

12. Went through stages....

As a small child, I was pretty good (at least in comparison to my sister). In High School, I ran with what would probably be known as the "goth" crowd today, but it was well before that term was coined. We were REALLY into the Cure, The Smiths, and other angst-driven music. For the most part, we were good kids and got good grades and all, but we marched to the beat of a different drummer...

[johnnie]

13. Here I am at 5 years old (1969)

A few years before that I tore most of the whiskers out of that little kittys mom's face, she lived to be 21 and never held it against me..lol. I have my Brando hat on, my sleeveless shirt, jeans and tennis shoes..ready to kick some kindergarten ass.

Honestly, I was a royal pain in the ass. I started getting notes pinned to my shirt to take home early in the first grade and it lasted until the day I graduated from high school. I can attest to the fact that getting whacked on the ass with a belt doesn't stop a child from being a little shit. I was a nice kid, but I was always into some sort of trouble, you can't keep a good man down.

[Tikki]

14. BORED.....

Fed, sheltered and clothed....otherwise...ignored.
Most of the time I had to learn to find my own way around everything
and I suppose I was a little too curious to be called meek...:shrug:



Tikki

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. I can still remember some of my tantrums...

I used to bang my head on the floor. Once I banged hard enough to cut myself. I shouted, "Mommy, Mommy, I'm BLEEEEEEDING!"
And she shouted, "Go ahead and BLEEEEED!" back at me.

Sometimes I was a good kid...for the most part, I like to think. Sometimes I was wretched.
Same as my parents.

[Oeditpus Rex]

17. Perfect

Seriously. I never did anything wrong.



I was boring as all fuck. :(

[redqueen]

18. Rebellious.

DEFINITELY rebellious.

Not rule-breaking, mind... but questioning. Always arguing. My earliest memories include my parents saying 'you should be a lawyer'.

[distantearlywarning]

19. Appallingly bad.

The kind of child mothers threaten by saying, "I hope you have a kid just like you someday!"

My mother says my first word was "NO!" (delivered in response to every reasonable request thereafter for the next 17 years).

As a small child, I had a tendency to throw tantrums, especially in public places where my mother would be horribly embarrassed. In elementary school, I was sent to the principal's office on a weekly basis, usually for fighting with my classmates - another trial for my poor mother, who was a schoolteacher employed at the school I attended. In junior high, I was placed in advanced math and english courses on the basis of aptitude and IQ tests but refused to live up to my potential, preferring to get by with as little work as it took to get Cs and Ds. By 15 I had a drug problem and got kicked out of high school for poor grades and general antisociality.

Now? I'm 33, happily married, a homeowner, middle class and completely normal in appearance, don't even drink coffee, and working on a Ph.D. My parents are greatly relieved that I am not in jail or dead, and have mostly forgiven me for the 18 years of hell I put them through. We have a good relationship and talk frequently. I have chosen not to breed, partially out of fear that in fact I would end up with a kid just like myself (my husband also comes from a long line of hellions, so we figure we'd have about a 98% chance of hitting the total bad kid genetic lottery.)

[sasquatch]

49. What will your Ph.D be in?

:shrug:

[PassingFair]

20. I was ALWAYS well behaved.

But I always said exactly what I meant, and I
never argued unless I knew I was right.

I am roundly despised, even today.

[Scarlett17]

45. I wouldn't say roundly. . .

maybe semi-circularly.

:evilgrin:

[Shakespeare]

22. Outgoing and well-behaved.

Neither my sister nor I ever got into trouble, nor did we give our parents any trouble (respect was expected and deserved). To her credit, my mom has told both of us how much she appreciates what good kids we were.

[Withywindle]

23. Eccentric and quiet at first

When I was little, I played in the woods by myself all day. Read constantly. I was an only child and never really exposed to other kids at all until kindergarten, so I couldn't relate to kids at all. I talked like a little adult, they tell me. I had no patience or interest in any of that running-around noisy shit. Books, books, book!

Then when I hit thirteen or fourteen I became a total shit. That was when the cussing and crying really started in my family--and arguably the physical abuse. Is it child abuse if the kid always hit first, and was by then bigger and meaner than her mom? Started drinking and smoking. Didn't care about anything but punk rock and Beat Generation writers. Lost my virginity at 15 to a 26-year-old (I went after him aggressively). Went to college in another state a year early to get the hell away from my town.

My parents and I spent most of my 20s apologizing to each other profusely. They're my best friends in the world now.

[Fire Walk With Me]

24. Extremely shy and outrageously intrusive.

I've since pulled these together somewhere in between.

[Faygo Kid]

25. My mother, Rosemary, was always good to me, but Dad was tough.

Soon, I will take over the world. Yet I have to admit, I was a wild child, but never wanted to piss off Dad, that's for sure.

http://www.celebritywonder.com/img/movieposter/tn/1968_Rosemary's_Baby.jpg

[Starbucks Anarchist]

26. Very quiet.

[kwassa]

27. sex, drugs, rock 'n roll

Hey, it was the sixties

I went from a quiet bookish and artistic junior high student a loner, who used to read four or five novels a week, to a quietly rebellious teen who hung out with a smart but fast crowd. We did sex and drugs as soon as we could, and tried very hard to be as grown-up as we thought we could.I was growing up in a college town and crashing college parties while we were in high school.

we were actually pretty good students, and tried to keep all our illicit activities secret from our parents. We did borrow a friend's parents car without permission (they were away on vacation, leaving behind the teen-age friend of mine) and drove to this festival in New York called Woodstock.

We got in trouble.

[u4ic]

28. Invisible

I needed to be that way. Everyone but my mother in my family were happy to pounce on me when they could.

But behind that shy, nervous kid was a talkative, friendly, adventerous and enthusiastic one waiting to get out. Finally happened as an adult, and I'm kind of now living the childhood I should have. :)

[Adsos Letter]

29. I was pretty rebellious...

joined the Army soon as I turned 17 to get away from an alcoholic/abusive household...

[havocmom]

30. Closet Berserker

Pretty quiet, well behaved, passive but always paying attention. When my sense of justice was offended, I was hell in bobby sox.

Nearly killed three boys with my metal lunch pail (metal and glass thermos inside in those days, quiet solid) because they had tormented a school chum who was a) Chinese and b) very small. They had been picking on her and they just went too far. I snapped No one actually died, or even required stitches, but they were chased across the playground, cornered like the rats they were and soundly defeated by one scrawny blond girl who had never really been noticed before that instant. The whole school watched as I dealt some pretty harsh punishment for how they had made that small Chinese girl cry and beg at them to stop taunting her.

After hearing of that altercation, our teacher made the boys (who looked somewhat, um damaged - but not in any real trauma) come up, one at a time, get on their knees before the class and BEG forgiveness from the 9 year old they had been so cruel to. Hell, I figured I would be executed or something for the beating I gave them.

Absolutely NOTHING was said about my behavior. And I returned to my normal, quiet, peaceful behavior...
The teacher did take to seating any lad who would not behave in school directly in front of me after that though. The rest of elementary school went by rather peacefully.

I got to spend a lot of Saturdays at Ports o' Call Village, a tourist spot on the PV peninsula near the Harbor of Los Angles after that. The Chinese girl's parents had a shop. I got to watch glass blowers and hang out on a stern wheeler with a toy shop. And I hardly ever spoke. It was just so peaceful.

[woo me with science]

31. LOL I love this story. nt

[havocmom]

33. They didn't even send a note to my mom or ANYTHING

And one of the boys used to leave gift offerings on my front porch. He even had two other boys 'rough him up' in our front yard in an attempt to get me to come out. One of the other boys I clubbed came to my door all outta breath to point out that #### was "getting beat up by two big boys, who are BIGGER than he is!"

I didn't fall for it and said "that's nice", shut the door and went back to my history book. What? Did they think I was the Lunch Box Avenger or something? Like I was gonna muss my hair defending THEIR hides?

I do wonder about #### now and then. Hope he got a good job because I think he may have an expensive predilection ...
:evilgrin:

[woo me with science]

37. "The Lunch Box Avenger" :)

Sounds like they admired you. Little kids are smart-they have respect for people who stand up for what's right.

It would've made a great DU handle. :)

[Adsos Letter]

36. Wonderful story...wonderfully told...

[struggle4progress]

32. I asked a lot of questions. So I learned young about the existence of authoritarian

jerks who really really want to people just to do what they're told without asking questions. I then discovered the simple tactic, of continuing to ask logical questions while ignoring increasingly agitated demands to STFU, would reduce many such jerks to incoherent rage. :D

[mitchum]

35. I was a teacher's pet and future President as a little boy, then I became a bad boy...

now I'm a "used to be a bad boy" Which is pretty cool; the aura is still there, but little of the aggravation remains

[HuskerDU]

51. Same here, exactly. Such a good little boy. Such a rotten teen

ager.

Now I like to be what the Shangri las said, 'he's good bad, but he's not evil.'

[Tresalisa]

38. I was a little smartass know-it-all,

and now I'm an older smartass know-it-all. I got so many spankings as a kid, I'm surprised my butt isn't flat.

[enigmatic]

39. weirdo

Who has mellowed into a "loveable" eccentric as I've slid into middle age..

[ThomCat]

40. I was the good kid, who was ignored because I didn't stand out.

I was the one that was easy to neglect, because I didn't raise as big a stink.

It's very nice to be hundreds of miles away from everyone in my family.

[liberaltrucker]

41. Quite a hell-raiser, politically

I came of age in the late 60's (DOB 3/11/1954). The third of four boys.

My older brother was in Vietnam in 67-69 when I was 13-15 YO.
You can imagine the arguments I had with Mom when I announced
I was against the war! Many obscenities followed throughout the
years with most of my immediate family. We love one another, though.

It may surprise you to know, most of my family, in ALABAMA, support
Barack! Go figure.

Back to your original question: Before puberty, I was quite the Mama's boy.
:blush:

[China_cat]

42. This is the child I was

And still am.

[Inchworm]

43. I was full-on hellion

I was labled "incorrigible" by priests and the legal system by age 10. Weeee! and what a fun life it was after I realized they werent saying I lacked courage. I knew better. The bastids!! :D

:hi:

[Deja Q]

44. The past doesn't matter. The future does.

As a child, I wanted to die.

As an adolescent, I wanted to die.

As a young adult, there was an almost funny irony. Managed to stay alive.

As an adult, despite external influences, I want to live. Meanwhile, society is dying.

[dropkickpa]

47. Hellraiser to the nth degree

We all were (me and 5 brothers). It's a wonder my mother isn't more insane then she is. Lucky me, Dropkid is the same way :banghead: I just had to sign off on a notice this morning of her fighting on the bus, being bossy on the playground, punching a boy who was picking on her friend, and kicking another kid during a tussle.

My family sounds like a sailor convention during holidays, and my mother swears up and down she has no idea where we got such foul mouths. She gets really mad when we tell her it was her. She "never" says fuck.

[dolo amber]

48. I was a hyperactive space cadet that lived in my own little world

Not much has changed. :shrug:

[raccoon]

50. Rebellious, my family would say. I didn't volunteer to be the family scapegoat,

I got drafted.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

52. very shy till i was 6. then i suddenly became an extrovert. i was very good in school

and almost gave my mom no trouble. the only thing is i didnt listen to commands. if my parents wanted me to do something they would have to explain why.

[movie_girl99]

53. very shy and quiet in elementary school

came out of my shell in Middle School and became pretty rebellious in High School. I swear a lot too..mostly while driving or when i'm annoyed at someone.