As a small child what was the most simple, innocent lesson you had to learn the hard way?

TL;DR At the bottom.

So this took place when I was like 7 years old in the 1st grade. My favorite color was blue. But I had this male best friend who I was absolutely crazy for, for some reason. I was practically gay for him. Not even quite sure why because looking back he wasn't even special in any way.

But either way, his favorite color was green. And since I wanted to be like him in every way, I also changed my favorite color to green, or at least tried to.

At first "changing" my favorite color to green felt unnatural, as I liked blue more. After about a year though, green being my favorite color instead of blue turned into a genuine thing. I felt so proud of myself...

Only for my friend to change his favorite color to blue... which was the color I liked in the FIRST place before changing it just to please him... 🤦‍♂🤦🤦‍♀🤦‍♂🤦🤦‍♀🤦‍♂🤦🤦‍♀🤦‍♂🤦🤦‍♀

At this point I had put WAAAAAAY too much effort in changing my favorite color to green, so I was NOT gonna go through that entire process again to change my favorite color once more, especially not to my previous favorite color! 😩

Either way, the lesson here was: "NEVER change aspects of yourself just to please someone else!"

Funny enough, to this very day green is still my favorite color, and blue is still my second favorite color... it hasn't changed since! 😅

TL;DR So basically my favorite color was blue. But my best friend's favorite color was green. I spent an entire year changing my favorite color to green, till it eventually became genuine, only for my friend to change his favorite color... to blue... the color I liked in the first place... 🤦 Lesson here: "NEVER change aspects of yourself just to please someone else!"

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Casheyane · 31-35, F

How old where you when you realized that? That is brave of you to share.

For me, I can think of several things. But one is the thing that happened in grade 4.

A cousin of mine received money to do a home economics project for me. So then I brought her work to school.
My parents always taught me not to lie. So when my teacher asked "Who did your project?", I didn't even hesitate and said my sister did. XD
Apparently, my other classmate had his project done by his brother and copied my honesty. I kinda felt bad after that. I inspired him to do the right thing...but yeah, you can imagine our grades lol.

So I got to go home and tell how things went to my parents and they were dumbfounded. XD

twistedrope · 26-30, M

Parents have no requirement to care for, be there for or love their children. I not only learned it for myself, but spread my wisdom when a friend needed to understand her situation. Absolute poor performance from some adults who dare call themselves "parents."

EzraIsShy76028 · 22-25

@twistedrope Ah yeah. A lot of people are parents only to meet a certain quota. Just so they can say they reached a certain milestone. They don't truly want to be parents, for them it's just: "Yes! We're parents now! Now we have children to carry on our legacy when we die! Now all of our friends and acquaintances can see that we were able to have children, and they won't discriminate against us for not having children by a certain age! Yessss!"

They also expect their children to just simply be extensions of themselves. They don't expect or want their children to be their own people with their own interests. And they say shit like bragging about "I take care of my kids!" or "I never signed up for this shit!" And it's like first of all, you're SUPPOSED to take care of your kids, you're not going above and beyond, you're doing the bare minimum! And second, this is EXACTLY what you signed up for! Don't become parents if you can't handle the work that comes with it!

But yeah. A lot of parents are just horrible. They only have children because: "It's just what you do. It's a phase of life. You go to school when you're young. Then get a job. Then marry. Then have kids. Then grow old and eventually retire. Having kids is just part of that." And like..."it's just what you do" is a HORRIBLE reason for having children... 🤦

Therealsteve · 31-35, M

Having a physical condition I was born with which required painful surgery and that which will never be truly fixed taught me lessons.

And having a very mentally unstable dad and autistic mother and brother, which lead to major abuse and neglect against me taught me some things, too

TheOneyouwerewarnedabout · 46-50, MVIP

If I didn’t stop crying.. I’d get something to cry about 🤓

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EzraIsShy76028 · 22-25

@espns2025 Damn...you just took his comment in a whole 'nother direction. 😬

espns2025 · 46-50, M

@EzraIsShy76028 I actually didn't notice it was a male or I wouldn't have said that

EzraIsShy76028 · 22-25

@espns2025 That doesn't make it any better, lol. A random creepy/sexual comment is always creepy no matter what the gender/sex is. 🤷

Iwillwait · M

You faked it, til you made it so.

EzraIsShy76028 · 22-25

@Iwillwait Never thought of using those exact words to describe that specific situation, but yeah! "Fake it till you make it" is a perfect way to describe it!

Though in this context "fake it till you make it" was not a good thing, lol! 😂

Usually when people say that they usually mean like fake having confidence till one day you have confidence for real. Or fake being not lazy till one day you stop being lazy for real.

But in this type of case, changing an aspect of yourself to please someone else...NOT a good thing, lmfao.

Iwillwait · M

@EzraIsShy76028 So.. what's your favourite colour?

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