Remembering your childhood disappointments

hollydolly

hollydolly

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Location
London England
Can you remember your big disappointments as a child?

Something that was a huge let down and you still remember it to this day... sad,? funny?... surprising?.. share it here...

The first one that comes to mind for me, I was about 6 years old, had been invited to a children's birthday party at the neighbours house..
The birthday cake contained sixpences.. which was a huge amount in 1961 for a child to have.. only unbeknown to me the woman had added buttons as well... and all the children got a sixpence in their portion of cake....except me... , I still remember the disappointment to this day...
 

I was 10 years old and my family went on home leave to America for the summer. When we returned my best friends, two Scottish brothers, had left the colony.......their father's firm had reassigned him to Ceylon (Sri Lanka now). Their amah (housekeeper...a servant) told me they asked her to tell me goodbye and not to forget them.
I didn't know the word 'closure' then, but I certainly felt the lack of closure.
Fifty two years later I found them on FaceBook. One lives in Edinburgh and the other in London.
 

When I was about 7, Bobby Meninhall's family moved away. I don't think he thought of me as his , girlfriend, but he was special to me. He was always getting into trouble, and I intended to keep him out of trouble. It is nice to have a sense of purpose, but I never saw him again.
 
In elementary school, maybe 4th of 5th grade (don't remember exactly)
A Christmas gift 'exchange'...you pick a person 's name to give a gift and someone picks your name
And so it goes
Names are called.to the end

Except minešŸ˜°
Someone said...what about J. ( me)
Teacher asked who picked my name
(Still remember his name to this day)
Teacher took gift he got and gave it to me
Pack of pencils
Even now...
Dread gift exchanges to this day.
And..have been disappointed šŸ˜ž
 
There are actually two that I remember.

I asked for Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots one Christmas and never got them. My parents evidently thought they were too violent.

I rode the bus through high school unless my Dad let me use his car. I begged him for a '76 Celica Fastback when I graduated. After the graduation ceremony, I walked outside the building and sure enough there was a shiny new '76 Celica Fastback out by the steps. I was so excited... until I found it was someone else's. Instead I got a used '73 Opel Manta that had been traded in by one of his business associates after an accident. :(
 
My friend Sheila told me the "facts of life" (pretty inaccurately) and said that my parents "did it".

I objected, insisting that *my parents* would never do "that".

She reminded me that "that" was how you got kids and, since there were a lot of kids in my house, it was pretty obvious that my parents did indeed do "it".

I remember being very disappointed in my parents, that they would do such a thing.

Oh, the innocense and propriety of childhood.
 
I had a dog called rags. When we moved I was told by my parents that rags was a country dog ...eg used to independent wandering for days at a time ... and that she would not adapt to being kept inside the upper class neighborhood into which we were moving .. so they made me leave her ...

a week after leaving her we got a phone call from someone in our neighborhood who got our number from her dog tag saying rags was there ...

now, get this ... rags had never been to our new home and it was 10 miles from our old home YET RAGS GOT THERE ! I never forgave my parents for taking her back ...

I never heard of what happened to rags after that .. I believe she died of a broken heart.
 
When I was told that my grandfather had a heart attack that morning and was in the hospital, not expected to make it.
I was 13 1/2 yrs old and the adults in the family wouldn't let us kids see him.
He was only 67. He only got to enjoy retirement for 2yrs.

Pop used to take me everywhere with him. He taught me to talk before I could walk. I was his first grandson.
I carry his name, Fonzy, as my middle name. Miss my granddad. Were he alive today, he'd be 125yrs old.

69377521_1450919740.jpg
 
I suppose that my biggest frustration/disappointment, as a child, revolved around receiving gifts for birthdays, Christmas, etcā€¦

My mother would always ask what I would like and I always offered specific suggestions but rarely received anything remotely close to what I wanted. I eventually learned not to take the bait.

I learned that the less you expect the less disappointment you will face.

Another incident comes to mind.

One year we went to the State Fair and my mother gave my sister and I five dollars each to spend as we liked.

My sister quickly spent her money and I held tight to mine as I considered all of the possibilities. My mother got upset and told me that if I wasnā€™t going to spend the money that she would take it back. I pulled the money out of my pocket and held it out to her, she went ballistic.

Those things and many others helped to shape who I am today and how I treat the people that I care about.

I have absolutely no doubt that my mother loved us and was doing the best that she could for us while dealing with her own challenges and demons.

Iā€™m not sure that I would have done any better if I had children of my own.
 
Truly sorry to hear that story OG - I don't go smoochie over dogs but I do love them caringly. My own appears to be a rejected one and I have now discovered is a Bull Arab - I think that's what they told me - to me he is just lovable Bundy and has settled in well. I finished up the paperwork at the shire office today and he is now registered for the next two years. I spent much longer out today shopping etc but when I got back not a stitch out of place and not a lot of excitement from him either. I suspect he has been somewhat neglected and perhaps cannot return love - just a wild guess. But

getting back to your dog can anyone imagine the feelings of the dog being left behind - I'm not sure of the emotional structures of dogs so maybe they just accept it and get on with life anyway - but your dog had some inner sense to follow the trail and turned up in your new neighbourhood but once again rejected by your parents. Wot can I say??
 
hollydolly said:
Can you remember your big disappointments as a child?

Something that was a huge let down and you still remember it to this day... sad,? funny?... surprising?.. share it here...

The first one that comes to mind for me, I was about 6 years old, had been invited to a children's birthday party at the neighbours house..
The birthday cake contained sixpences.. which was a huge amount in 1961 for a child to have.. only unbeknown to me the woman had added buttons as well... and all the children got a sixpence in their portion of cake....except me... , I still remember the disappointment to this day...
Click to expand...
Can we please address how mean the button thing is?
 
Olivia said:
My entire childood from three years old untill 18 was nothing but a disappointment having to move to a new location every
two years (military family). It was not fun and exciting. lt was horrible.
Click to expand...
I have heard those sentiments re-interated time and time again by service kids friends
 
Jace said:
In elementary school, maybe 4th of 5th grade (don't remember exactly)
A Christmas gift 'exchange'...you pick a person 's name to give a gift and someone picks your name
And so it goes
Names are called.to the end

Except minešŸ˜°
Someone said...what about J. ( me)
Teacher asked who picked my name
(Still remember his name to this day)
Teacher took gift he got and gave it to me
Pack of pencils
Even now...
Dread gift exchanges to this day.
And..have been disappointed šŸ˜ž
Click to expand...
It's strange how these frst impressions stay with you for liife..
 
Olivia said:
My entire childood from three years old untill 18 was nothing but a disappointment having to move to a new location every
two years (military family). It was not fun and exciting. lt was horrible.
Click to expand...
I was like that. not because my parents were in the military but because they were fleeing from something.. I know not what... but it meant I moved school and houses approx every 3 years... always the newbie, always the one who had no friends, always the one terrified to go into a new school with new people.. always the one who'd just made friends and then we were on the move again.
 
Last edited:
Olivia said:
My entire childood from three years old untill 18 was nothing but a disappointment having to move to a new location every
two years (military family). It was not fun and exciting. lt was horrible.
Click to expand...
During my childhood, almost every year, we were in a different school. Sometimes we were in 2 different schools in the same school year. Years later, I found out that my father had a low paying job(s). And he must have had problems paying the rent with all the other bills we had.
 
Paladin1950 said:
During my childhood, almost every year, we were in a different school. Sometimes we were in 2 different schools in the same school year. Years later, I found out that my father had a low paying job(s). And he must have had problems paying the rent with all the other bills we had.
Click to expand...
Horrible... :(
 

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