When we think back on our childhood, memories often make us long for a time when our imaginations were free and life was easy. We should remember some things, but not too much. We have put together a list of 9 of the saddest stories people have told about their childhood.

“I used to tell my friends and teachers that I could sleep for 24 hours or more straight when I was a kid. When I was a freshman in college, I found out that my divorced father had been giving me cold medicines when I was in preschool so I could sleep through his weekends of custody. This completely shattered my world. For a while, it changed the way I saw the world.” (klentz9210) on Reddit

“I woke up one morning when I was young and couldn’t move. Got taken to the emergency room after screaming and freaking out. The doctors put me in the psych ward and told me there was no physical reason I couldn’t move. But they could tell I thought I couldn’t move because they were stabbing me and I wasn’t reacting, etc.
My parents fought a lot before they finally agreed to let me get an MRI. As it turns out, I have Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. The seizure was a type called Todd’s Paralysis, in which you have a seizure while you sleep and your brain and body temporarily lose link afterward.” SunnyLego on Reddit

“When I was about 6, my dad gave me as collateral to the owner of a gas station about 30 minutes from my house. He promised to pay later, and he did. But I was stuck with a stranger for an hour in the middle of nowhere with no one else around. While I waited for my dad to come back, I stared at the tiled floor for what seemed like hours.” From andrewalgerion on Reddit

“I was at a family dinner at my grandparents’ house when I was about 5 or 6 years old. I had to go to the bathroom in the back to go to the bathroom. The shower curtain began to move as I was zipping up my tiny pants. When I looked at it, I swear it jumped out at me. I screamed!
It looked like a person’s shape. After crying and running away to tell my family what happened, I don’t remember anything else. I still remember how scared I felt, though.” Reddit user Nofreeupvotes says:

“When I was two or three years old, fire ants bit both of my legs. It was clear that no one knew I was severely allergic to them, and my airway began to close up. Before my uncle came and called an ambulance, they put me in a bathtub full of cold water and tried to put lime on my legs for some reason I don’t understand. I remember lying down on the stretcher and then getting into the ambulance as the last thing I remember. In the morning, I woke up in the hospital with my parents and brother next to me.
What was crazy about this whole thing was that I thought it was all a dream when I was younger as a child. I was sure it was a bad dream and that it had never happened to me until I told my mom about it and she told me it was true.” From ayyo_emmyyo on Reddit

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