Were you a happy child/teenager?

freshpopcorn

Growing up I was bullied the odd time and they were the odd few issues here and there but my mother especially was good at talking me around or making things better when I was a child. Things got a bit harder as a teenager. I also believed more in thing getting better than I do as an adult.
I always find it weird looking at photos of me as a kid and how natural my smile looks. Maybe I'm wearing rose tinted glasses about the whole thing.


Were you a happy child/teenager?

Potential-Monke

I think it's easier to remember being happy. Looking back, I would say that yes, I was a happy child. Had my own fair share of bullying (ginger and small), but iirc I never really let it get to me. I'd fight whoever was bullying me, and even if I lost I'd feel better as I at least stood up to them. Took until 5th year and for me to throw a table at someone for it to stop. Going by today, I was definitely happier then than I am now, but a child just doesn't understand adulting, and by the time they do it's too late as you're already an adult!

I'm lucky, I'm part of the generation that grew up playing outside but got introduced to gaming/tech young enough to appreciate the vast improvement in everything technology. Really happy I wasn't born into it, as I get awful disheartened when kids/teens/young adults these days don't appreciate the evolution. Giving out about their 'slow' 40Mb internet and never even heard of dial-up. Or even worse, kids giving out a game doesn't have good enough graphics when it looks amazing. Take away their phones and laptops/gadgets and give them a pong console and see how long they last. Ungrateful good for nothing... mumble... mumble...

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Hard to remember the finer points but overall I'd say I had a very happy childhood. We were dirt poor but I had a loving family, great encouragement and good friends. As a teenager I suppose there were the usual heartaches and fears that come with adolescence but nothing has lingered or leave any scars or indelible marks.

Wanderer2010

Child fairly ok but teenager? Definitely not. Anyone who says schooldays are the happiest days of your life needs to be strung up. School days can be filled with misery and torture.

GRACKEA

I was until I became self aware. I'm definitely much more comfortable now in my 20s.

One eyed Jack

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Growing up I was bullied the odd time and they were the odd few issues here and there but my mother especially was good at talking me around or making things better when I was a child. Things got a bit harder as a teenager. I also believed more in thing getting better than I do as an adult.
I always find it weird looking at photos of me as a kid and how natural my smile looks. Maybe I'm wearing rose tinted glasses about the whole thing.


Were you a happy child/teenager?

I could have written the exact same post only it was my neighbour who was always good at talking me around or listening or making me feel like things would get better. Overall I’d say yeah, definitely had a happy childhood when I look back on it now as an adult and with a completely different perspective like I’m “outside” the situation now, but at the time jesus I thought it was shìt.

I couldn’t possibly have known what was ahead of me, but I wouldn’t want to do it again even now when there’s often times I’d think if I had done this or that differently and it would have led to a better outcome. I really have no way of knowing that for certain. It would just have been different.

Yeah, overall I’d say I had a happy childhood, definitely an element of “ignorance is bliss” because I was a happy child and spent more of my time laughing and joking and messing as a teenager than I did thinking about the future (I’d mapped out already how I wanted that to go), and I’m there or thereabouts, after a few setbacks and some good fortune in between

fmpisces

Yes, I was quite a happy child, I remember teachers remarking on school reports that I always had a smile. And it wasn't out of mischief either :P
That didn't change into my teenage years, despite all the normal angst surrounding those years and personal stuff going on in the family. I had (and still do have) a small but close circle of friends and we used to have great craic in Secondary school.

ILoveYourVibes

Not until i was 17.

r93kaey5p2izun

Not really, but in hindsight I was happier than might be expected given what I was dealing with at home. I was very self conscious about my looks and was embarrassed about where I was from because I was sent to school in a nicer area and people often made negative comments about my background. But I had a lot of optimism and hope that things would improve once I could get away from home, and that I could achieve anything. I had a very positive outlook on people in general. I'm much more pessimistic, cynical and hopeless nowadays.

ILoveYourVibes

Arianna Hollow Numerous wrote: »

Not really, but in hindsight I was happier than might be expected given what I was dealing with at home. I was very self conscious about my looks and was embarrassed about where I was from because I was sent to school in s nice area and people often made negative comments about my background. But I had a lot of optimism and hope that things would improve once I could get away from home, and that I could achieve anything. I had a very positive outlook on people in general. I'm much more pessimistic, cynical and hopeless nowadays.

Awh!

eviltwin

No. I grew up in a very toxic household, lots of abuse both physically and emotionally. I had a very low self esteem and felt very isolated. I left at 18 and things got better but it wasn't until my 30s that I could say I was happy or content.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Happy teenager years alright.

Childhood wasn't great, the mother was very hard on myself and brother. She beat the tar out of us. I always remember an incident when I was 7 where she slammed the back door into my face and knocked me out.


I'd a huge dark bruise developing on my foreward. When I regained consciousness she brought me down to the shop and bought me a lego garage and told me to tell Dad that I fell on the step outside.


She was very tough. I loved and feared her in equal measures.

LirW

Not really. We were pretty poor, my mother left my father because he became a hopeless alcoholic and had to fend for herself with 2 small kids while still being a student. He didn't get his sh*t together until I was in my teens.
It was a life of constantly moving around from one sh*tty area to the next. She tried to keep us afloat with bad jobs while somehow finishing her degree, which was next to impossible.
Throw in that the rest of my small family is incredibly toxic and we didn't have the money to enjoy things (no after school activities), we only had the other kids from bum parents to hang out with. It was really not a happy surrounding.
It got a lot better when she met her now husband when I was in my early teens and she finished her degree, got a good job and suddenly there was a double income. We could finally live in nicer areas and didn't have to live side by side with dealers, alcoholics and hookers (although the one hooker neighbour was really nice).

Because my mother made it her mission to show us how important education is we did well and were the only one of our peers to go to a decent school. But the other kids and teacher knew we didn't have anything and struggled financially to pay for even the small costs that come with attending school. I was bullied mercilessly, even by teachers and I became very reclusive.
Changing school with 15 was a relief and I never had to see anyone again.
So in my mid teens everything got a lot better and I could focus being a normal moody goth teen.

ILoveYourVibes

I want to hug everyone in this thread who says they weren't!

corner of hells

LirW wrote: »

Not really. We were pretty poor, my mother left my father because he became a hopeless alcoholic and had to fend for herself with 2 small kids while still being a student. He didn't get his sh*t together until I was in my teens.
It was a life of constantly moving around from one sh*tty area to the next. She tried to keep us afloat with bad jobs while somehow finishing her degree, which was next to impossible.
Throw in that the rest of my small family is incredibly toxic and we didn't have the money to enjoy things (no after school activities), we only had the other kids from bum parents to hang out with. It was really not a happy surrounding.
It got a lot better when she met her now husband when I was in my early teens and she finished her degree, got a good job and suddenly there was a double income. We could finally live in nicer areas and didn't have to live side by side with dealers, alcoholics and hookers (although the one hooker neighbour was really nice).

Because my mother made it her mission to show us how important education is we did well and were the only one of our peers to go to a decent school. But the other kids and teacher knew we didn't have anything and struggled financially to pay for even the small costs that come with attending school. I was bullied mercilessly, even by teachers and I became very reclusive.
Changing school with 15 was a relief and I never had to see anyone again.
So in my mid teens everything got a lot better and I could focus being a normal moody goth teen.

World class mum who never gave up

LirW

corner of hells wrote: »

World class mum who never gave up

She seriously is the best! My sister and her have a difficult relationship though because my mother lives now a very alternative lifestyle, my sister is quite conservative with her family views and resents that she didn't grow up in a happy home like the other kids in school

branie2

It was

freshpopcorn

I was a little disappointed with my college years to be honest.
My college lecturers were stricter than my teachers.
There was more bullying,etc.

I really felt I was told a whole pack of lies.

ILoveYourVibes

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I was a little disappointed with my college years to be honest.
My college lecturers were stricter than my teachers.
There was more bullying,etc.

I really felt I was told a whole pack of lies.

I m sorry.

For me they were the best yrs.

Mad_maxx

My father ( dead since 2001) was utterly incapable of thinking about anyone but himself, probably was a narcissistic personality type, mother always tried her best but was really too meek, home life was dysfunctional

Brother had - has autism, both failed to do anything about his destructive behaviour which took a toll on the rest of us, overall I didn't have a happy childhood

As for my teens, it was better, my twenties was a disaster however, through sheer random bad luck I encountered abroad a truly evil individual who sabotaged my big chance of a clean break overseas, severe depression at twenty one ( a vitally important age for make or break) almost killed me (and left a permanent scar even though things are objectively very good now for a decade), having my uncaring dad witness my being low was a devastating blow, I always prided myself on never showing weakness to him

freshpopcorn

ILoveYourVibes wrote: »

I m sorry.

For me they were the best yrs.

I suppose most of my secondary school teachers were laid back apart from the odd one.
You did your homework or didn't.
Same with atremdence really.
My class were fairly sound as well.
Apart for the odd thing.
In college my lecturers were always on about attendance phoning people and emailing them for not attending. Same with assignments.
One day a few of us skipped a lecturer he rescheduled it to our lunch time so he could go home early. He tracked us down and told us he was going to go out of our way to make our lives hell and fail everyone of us.
There was also a fair bit of bullying in the apartments/class.

IamtheWalrus

I was very happy until secondary school which was a new and horrible world to me. People fought (actually hitting each other in the face. Fights in primary school never had this). I found most people nasty and uncaring (fending for themselves I guess). Life took a turn for the better in college as I had friends I actually liked. But the trauma of that secondary school period has never left me.

sheepondrugs

IamtheWalrus wrote: »

I was very happy until secondary school which was a new and horrible world to me. People fought (actually hitting each other in the face. Fights in primary school never had this). I found most people nasty and uncaring (fending for themselves I guess). Life took a turn for the better in college as I had friends I actually liked. But the trauma of that secondary school period has never left me.

Similar experience- I was very happy, outgoing and popular even in primary school. But I found the transition to secondary school very difficult.

My core group of friends were gone/split into different classes and the new much more authoritarian environment (christian brothers) intimidated me. I became much shyer and less confident. I wasn't bullied and had a few close friends but the change has affected me to this day. Although today I would consider myself happy and have good relationships.
Always wondered if others found this particular change in life stressful and /or hard to adapt to.

Fenster

Goodness, no, not happy. So my childhood was <stereotypical Irish alcoholic parent misery> and then I grew up and it got better.

In hindsight happier and carefree..as opposed to this thing we call adulthood.
Piss poor..grew up with all sorts in all sorts of the roughest estates..in between spending time on the fathers family Funfair..which was the best and most disorganised way to spend a childhood..
Mother tried her best..in terms of keeping us safe and together..feck all guidance
Moved from house to house..20 in total maybe..new fella and all that jazz.
So yeah happy enough.
And enough struggles to teach me how to rear my own miles away from that

Autecher

Happy enough childhood up until the age of 10 or so. I can honestly say I haven't enjoyed life since then, it's all just so stupid really isn't it? I tried to top myself when I was about 20 but it didn't work, I didn't try hard enough and I don't have the guts to try it again because I'm convinced it won't work and I'll end up a brain-dead vegetable or something. If only we had America's gun laws I'd have ended this nonsense years ago.

Your Face

Yes and I still am. I haven't been grounded down yet.

Autecher

Autecher wrote: »

Happy enough childhood up until the age of 10 or so. I can honestly say I haven't enjoyed life since then, it's all just so stupid really isn't it? I tried to top myself when I was about 20 but it didn't work, I didn't try hard enough and I don't have the guts to try it again because I'm convinced it won't work and I'll end up a brain-dead vegetable or something. If only we had America's gun laws I'd have ended this nonsense years ago.

Autecher

freshpopcorn

Autecher wrote: »

Happy enough childhood up until the age of 10 or so. I can honestly say I haven't enjoyed life since then, it's all just so stupid really isn't it? I tried to top myself when I was about 20 but it didn't work, I didn't try hard enough and I don't have the guts to try it again because I'm convinced it won't work and I'll end up a brain-dead vegetable or something. If only we had America's gun laws I'd have ended this nonsense years ago.

Hi!
Here's a link to various services that may ne helpful to you of you are every feeling distressed.

https://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057082164/1

Sorry about that

Autecher wrote: »

Happy enough childhood up until the age of 10 or so. I can honestly say I haven't enjoyed life since then, it's all just so stupid really isn't it? I tried to top myself when I was about 20 but it didn't work, I didn't try hard enough and I don't have the guts to try it again because I'm convinced it won't work and I'll end up a brain-dead vegetable or something. If only we had America's gun laws I'd have ended this nonsense years ago.

I really like your posts and am really sorry to read that.

s7ryf3925pivug

not at all

Autecher I know this is *only* and website and these are *only* posts but it can be a helpful in ways you might not realise. Just engaging with the lighthearted threads and having bit of back and forth can be nice and a break from the noise in our heads. Please do stick around x

voldejoie

I was a happy child for sure, even though we grew up poor I was close to my family and always able to find ways to occupy my time going on adventures with my sisters and getting stuck up trees :pac:

I HATED school though and my teenage years (from 14/15) were fairly bleak, between a combination of the normal hormonal teenager drama and growing up a lot faster than I wanted to between different situations coming to a head. In my late 20s now and still trying to catch up with myself in that sense!

Bobblehats

All I recall is drink drugs music and chasing around after a football

Or maybe that’s all I want to recall. I try to omit the fact that I couldn’t retain possession very well.