What was your first memory of a disappointment...or something Unfair

I don't remember much about early childhood except the loss of pets. However, in seventh grade algebra, I was struggling. While doing homework one day, my father came to my room, explained a problem a couple of times; I just didn't get it. He dropped the pencil and while walking out he said, "You're hopeless." From that day forward, I was convinced I couldn't do math. That changed later (mid-30's), though.

At about that same time, he took me to work with him, into an airplane hanger. There was this gorgeous red, open-cockpit biplane. I said, "I want to fly a plane like that." He replied, "Girls don't fly." I believed him.

I spent most of my life trying to please him. Never did.
 

It's really sad how often people write about how they tried please their fathers..mothers as well, but majority seems to be fathers.

It's well documented here that my father was a horror....so I know the feeling of trying to please these sperm donors, who just are not interested... .. ..its always puzzled me as to why they became fathers in the first place...
 
hollydolly said:
It's really sad how often people write about how they tried please their fathers..mothers as well, but majority seems to be fathers.

It's well documented here that my father was a horror....so I know the feeling of trying to please these sperm donors, who just are not interested... .. ..its always puzzled me as to why they became fathers in the first place...
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I thought I was going to be alone on this issue. My father was the issue for me, not my mother. She was always there for me, but she died when I was 22.
 

hollydolly said:
It's really sad how often people write about how they tried please their fathers..mothers as well, but majority seems to be fathers.

It's well documented here that my father was a horror....so I know the feeling of trying to please these sperm donors, who just are not interested... .. ..its always puzzled me as to why they became fathers in the first place...
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Perhaps some of them didn't want to become fathers, but circumstances and/or intimate situations meant they weren't able to prevent pregnancy happening!

I know that my 'father', and I use the term very loosely, had no intention of fathering me. I just happened to be one of the consequences of him date raping my mother. He denied having anything to do with my conception, and the social workers all believed him (he was a charmer!) until I was born and I looked just like him. By then it was too late of course, and he got away scot free.

However, a few years ago my wife decided to see if there was anything in the online genealogy sites about him and his family. It seems he died in 1975, and his only son reported the death. But, we couldn't find any evidence of a birth certificate for the son, so it's possible that I'm his only actual offspring. In which case it serves him right for disowning me if he had to adopt someone else's offspring and treat them as his own.
 
I was always "daddy's girl" until my brother came along. I was 7 when he was born, so you can imagine how disappointed I was when he took the teacher's side. She was a real S.O.B. Later, I got knocked down by an 8th grader who was running to catch a ball. Well, I got a bloody nose out of that encounter and this teacher came running out to help me. I screamed at her, not to touch me, ever again. Just then, my mom pulled up in the car to take me home for lunch.

Lunch was spent in my uncle's office, who was a doctor, packing my nose. Some fun that 2nd grade was.
 
Back in the day when living together unmarried was not normal, my aunt lived with a man and they had a child. When some relatives were chatting and mentioned she wasn't married, I'd spoken up and said she was married. They all laughed at me, which really hurt my feelings and felt so unfair because my mom had told me they were married so how could I as a kid have known I'd been lied to.
 
Naturally said:
Finding out quicksand was NOT going to be a regular life hazard like cartoons promised. I spent my entire childhood watching cartoons, learning to recognize it and prepare for it. Never once needed the training.
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WheatenLover said:
Me too. And to top it off, I read recently that people don't actually sink far down enough not to be able to breathe. Whether that is true or not, I've never been near quicksand, so all that learning was for naught.
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I had no idea people want to sink into quicksand. Googled it and for less than $15 (assuming you are in France) you can have a quicksand experience!

quicksand experience.jpg
 
I'm also one of those kids that learned disappointment at a very early age, mostly due to my faters drinking. I learned I could never trust what he said nor could I depend on him, saddness by a thousand small cuts of being let down.

A lesson I learned about the unfairness of life....my father was in a nearly fatal car accident when I was around ten (yes he was drunk). My oldest brother took my mom and I to see him in the hospital, at the time I had this little transistor radio my grandmother had given me and had taken it with me. While we were in the hospital my radio was stolen from my brothers car and my brother called me a stupid little f**ker for bringing it with me, told me I deserved to have it stolen. Boy was I confused, was it really my fault? Was I really that stupid?

Losing my radio was bad enough, but my brothers insults wounded me more.
 
I was five. My mom was getting fat. She had to go away for a few days but she said when she came home, she'd have a surprise for me, something I would really like.

Oh, boy! A puppy!

Instead she came home with this.....thing....that cried a lot, smelled bad frequently, and took up a lot of her attention. I had to be quiet a lot because it was sleeping. And it couldn't play with me or fetch a ball. All it did was lay there and wiggle.

I did come to really like it....or her....sometime later.

But I was really disappointed for a while. No puppy.
 
To my knowledge no one was intentionally cruel but times were diffrerent. My parents were married during the depression and had 4 children. My mother managed to serve 3 meals a day for 7 people (including grandpa) and rested in between. Girls were instructed about their limitations and inferiority.

Books and learning how to draw put a little of the missing magic into my life,
 
jujube said:
Instead she came home with this.....thing....that cried a lot, smelled bad frequently, and took up a lot of her attention. I had to be quiet a lot because it was sleeping. And it couldn't play with me or fetch a ball. All it did was lay there and wiggle.
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I was also 5 when it happened to me. I was outside playing in the yard, and my mother called to me to come see my new baby sister. So I ran into the house and went into my parent's bedroom. My sister was laying on their double bed with her tiny chubby arms and legs waving at the air. I went to touch her, but my mother said, "Don't touch her with your dirty hands." I was disappointed, but I guess I went and washed my hands thinking, "This is going to get old. Am I going to have to wash my hands all the time now?"
 
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JustDave said:
I was also 5 when it happened to me. I was outside playing in the yard, and my mother called to me to come see my new baby sister. So I ran into the house and went into my parent's bedroom. My sister was laying on their double bed with her tiny chubby arms and legs waving at the air. I went to touch her, but my mother said, "Don't touch her with your dirty hands." I was disappointed, but I guess I went and washed my hands thinking, "This is going to get old. Am I going to have to wash my hands all the time now?"
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it's funny for me.. because kids came fast and regular in my house... the first when I was jut 13 months old... so I have absolutely no recollection of him coming home.. nor the next.. the only one I remember is the youngest , because I was already almost 8 years old but by then I had younger siblings anyway, so it made no difference...to me..
 

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