Did you have a happy childhood?

[Beware the Beast Man]

Poll question: Did you have a happy childhood?

I'm posting this poll inspired by eyesroll's childhood nickname thread. Needless to say, I had some pretty rotten nicknames growing up.
I always used to think that the "bad childhood" excuse was just that: and excuse. Nowadays, I'm not so sure. I've noticed lately I'm able to trace every ambition, thought, fear, insecurity, and anxiety back to my days as a child. Somedays, I still feel like that fat kid who learned to be funny as a way of feeling accepted. I don't know, maybe I'm just blue today.

[eyesroll]

1. Happy, uneventful

Took a lot of crap for being showy about book-smarts, but nothing too bad on the trauma meter.

Sorry you're down.
:hug:

[Beware the Beast Man]

2. Thanks.

Yeah, I "hit the trifecta". I was fat, poor, AND smart. The unholy trinity.

[sniffa]

8. that was me

fat, poor, and wicked smaht.

i didn't reaLize how poor we were untiL Later in Life. i just thought i had crappy cLothes because my parents were mean. i aLso thought everyone had those giant bLocks of cheese in their refridgerators (as weLL as "no-friLLs" food)... and for the most part, everyone i knew did have that - i grew up in the projects.

[Magrittes Pipe]

10. Way to go, eyesroll, you've ruined the Beastman's day.

You are truly a horiible person.

[Beware the Beast Man]

14. She did nothing..

It was already shot anyway (besides, it's your fault..yeah that's it!).

[Magrittes Pipe]

15. Okay then.

Bad Hedges! :spank: BAD Hedges! :spank:

[redqueen]

18. But you *like* beating yourself up.

Is that really a suitable punishment?

[liontamer]

3. I'm the same way

I thought I put childhood things behind me, but I see my childhood fears shape my current actions and it both angers and saddens me

[MuseRider]

4. As far as friends go

I always had really good friends and lots of fun but the family part of my childhood was often unspeakable. The only bad nicknames I had came from my parents so school, camp and friends were always the best part of my life.

[Lavender Brown]

5. Happy but uneventful childhood, unhappy pre-teen and teen years

[Frances]

6. Well my childhood wasn't insane

but I had some very happy times.

My father had a job that required him to visit small family farmers, and he often let me ride along with him when he made those visits. I have extremely happy memories of those times.

I think my father's respect and liking for farm families made me the strong Democrat that I am today.

I believe in giving every person the opportunity to make the most of him/herself possible.

[TriMetFan]

7. I had a Very Happy childhood.

The scrapes and bumps I got as being a kid were a learning experience. My best Friends are my Mom and Dad. They are the best. Even now my siblings and our family's still take vacation with our parents.

[NashVegas]

9. It Seemed Fine at the Time

It was only when I got to see how others lived that it got sucky in comparison.

[mongo]

11. alcoholic father, medical tramas out the ying-yang for me.

And a mother who told me over and over - Don't fight - Don't EVER fight - if you get hit in the side you could DIE DIE DIE!

It was no wonder I was the number one school scapegoat from elementary through high school.

[catzies]

12. I voted "other," because I'm having it now, in my 40s.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood. I started mine at 36. :)

[phillybri]

13. Uneventful

n/t

[Gothic Sponge]

16. Painfully Traumatic

My father was an alcoholic. He is a millionaire, but when my mom and him split, he got away with paying only $25 dollars a month in child support.(he had a good lawyer) My mother remarried, but my step father was verbally and mentally abusive. They split too. I'm an only child and my mother worked long hours, so i felt neglected.

[redqueen]

17. Traumatic

It's only an excuse if you use it to try to shirk responsibility for your actions.

[noonwitch]

19. Good and bad, more good than bad

I was the kid at school who had cooties. I had a few traumas before I was 5-a house fire at age 2, another kid smashed me in the face with a metal tonka truck at 3, my uncle accidentally almost drowned me at 4 and other things that I'm not going to talk about here. And of course, the time when I was 4 when my dad outdrove the tornado with all of us in the car.

On the other hand, my family was economically secure, we had a nice home in a good school district, my parents taught me to not judge people by the color of their skin or other surface issues, and the 70s in general were a good time to be a kid. My mom is a lunatic, but I was unaware of that at the time. I played in Little League softball, took violin lessons, had access to books, had 3 living grandparents throughout my childhood, and my parents didn't get divorced until I was grown up.

[soothsayer]

20. We had the BEST TOYS ever!

My parents had great taste in toys.

[VOX]

21. Pretty darn good. I was a happy kid, for the most part...

But it was about age 11 when I realized that the world was insane.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. No, you'd be looking like this:

[pagerbear]

23. If you include adolescence, the answer is different

Before adolescence, it had some good and bad, but with the onset of puberty, all hell broke loose!

[Nikia]

24. No, I wanted to get get through it as quickly as possible

I've shared a few details here before and I don't want to rehash it all right now. My motivation not to run away from home or turn to crime for the sole purpose of going to Camp Youth Center was that I had hope of going to a good college and getting away from it all and having my own happy life. It's still all with me though. I have to figure out a way to overcome some stuff. It's amazing the things that we learned as children that are hard to dismiss as irrational and damaging to our self esteem. For example, I have to learn how to believe that everything is not my fault.

[miss_kitty]

25. no n/t

[Go Eagles]

26. traumatic and good

Painfully traumatic but also very good in many aspects.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

27. i was born an adult

so no

[SarahB]

28. Good and Bad.

I was exposed to so much stuff. So many different kinds of people and cultural things. I lived in a city, but I spent a lot of time on my grandparents farm too which gave me the best of both worlds. My parents were both educated and very intelligent (and progressive politically), so I was given the gift of a love of learning, an open mind, and always seeking new ideas. We never seemed to have much money though, so I learned to be frugal and a bit creative and self-sufficient as well.

I had some hard stuff too. My parents had an awful marriage (married and divorced twice to each other before I turned 19), my brother, who is my only sibling, has severe disabilities, and my mom was emotionally and verbally abusive while my dad was kind, but often absent or detached most of the time.

For too long, I let the negative define my life. I choose not to now. I don't make decisions anymore based on being a scared, unsure little girl or trying to build what they didn't give me. I make my choices on account of my own dreams, desires, and responsibilities as well. Seems healthier.

[AlFrankenFan]

29. Not at all

I moved a lot, my parents got a divorce, I have an biopolar sibling. Plus I still have four more years till I get away. Much more than that, but that's the nutshell version.

[NNadir]

30. My parents loved me enormously.

They had very little education, needed to work very hard, and weren't well off but they were great parents, loving, sacrificing, generous and kind.

They've been dead for a long time, but I am still trying hard to be worthy of them. My childhood was pure bliss.

[mitchum]

31. Yes...and it does not prepare one for the reality of adulthood...

I agree with Larry David on that. Actually, I agree with Larry David on many things....