Did I miss out on anything during childhood?

Question

Since 8 had to do work when I got home from school. I wasn’t allowed to do my homework until I did my chores. My mom didn’t work but she would wait for me to get home so I could go to the grocery store, even though we lived 2 blocks away and she had a car, she would wait for me to get groceries. I used to tell her I couldn’t carry that much, and she would say “stop your whining”.And I had to vacuum the house every day, and cook dinner, as well as laundry and iron my step-father’s clothes. Every weekend I had to mow the lawn,wash the cars, and pull the weeds. My step-father would bust open my bedroom door at around 7am every Saturday and Sunday and make me get up and do yard work or whatever stupid things he was up to that weekend, because he didn’t want me to be “lazy”. So I never got to play with the other kids, or sleep in, or do whatever, and never really got to learn to socialize with kids.

Anyway,did I miss anything worthwhile?

Answer 1

Yes, unfortunately you did miss out on having a childhood. You should have had times to play with friends, be on a sports team or involved in scouts. You did learn another life lesson that most kids don't have (althougth I don't think most should have had at age 8). You learned how to be incrediably responsible. Unfortunately, it's too bad your mom and step dad couldn't have found a healthy balance. I would suggest you not worry about the past and be sure to live each day to it's fullest by becoming involved in things you are interest in. From what you wrote i think you are an adult now and I would suggest you could be a big brother/big sister to kids. This would be a great way for you to see what kids are like and with your experiences offer some very mature insight to them (usually these kids have no real parenting in their life). You'll find that happy medium.

Answer 2

You probably did miss out on some of the fun of childhood, but I don't think any of us had a perfect one. As parents, it's hard to find that balance between preparing our kids to be responsible, hard working adults, and allowing them to be completely dependent and lazy just because "they're kids". It seems like your parents went a little far to the preparation for adulthood side. Once your chores were done, were you allowed to play with friends, or listen to music, or just hang out and do nothing? The fact that you're asking indicates that you're well adjusted, though... so just consider it experience, and accept that you may have missed out on some fun. To be honest, I remember certain fun times with friends, but not much of it, so I guess in the long run it wasn't that important.
I had a lot of responsibility as a child (like you), and now that I have a 12yo, I tend to go to the opposite extreme - I want him to have the 'perfect' childhood that I didn't have - but now that he's 12, I've realized that I took it too far, and getting him to do things and be responsible is VERY difficult. All my fault, I know. :-)

Answer 3

This kind of sounds too bad to be true, becuase who would abuse their child like that? It's a good thing you are now an "MBA grad student" so your childhood didn't effect you that much, at least not academically and socially.

Anyway, I don't think you should worry about your past because what can you do? You can buy toys and relive them through your future kids, or you can play with "adult toys' or watch children play to give you an example of what you missed. good luck

Answer 4

Ok, first of all, in my opinion, you were considered a house slave. Second of all, you only missed out if you feel that you missed out
but again, in my opinion, yes, you did. You were not allowed to be a child.

Answer 5

Did you miss making friends?

Answer 6

your parents are abusive people, you should have refused to do all of this stuff and called child servises. If this happened your whole life I'd have to say this is very sad.