#not a kid not an adult

[embervoices]

[Image Transcription] A post from Reddit. The username is not visible:

I had an English teacher my freshman year of highschool who was one of the RARE adults that treated all of his students with respect while at the same time challenging us to do better.

I distinctly remember him telling our class

"You are not as mature as you think you are, but you are more mature than your parents give you credit for"

He also told us about an agreement/rule he had with his own kids. He understood how hard it was for kids to do the right thing in the face of peer pressure. So he had told his kinds that if they were ever in a situation (underage drinking, drugs, whatever) where they knew they shouldn't be, they could call and using an previously agreed upon codeword that was banal and unsuspicious, he would know he needed to go get them and be 'the bad guy'. He would show up, "Uncle Buck" style and get them out of wherever they were. This would allow them to safe face with their friends and there would be no consequences for being in the situation in the first place.

A reply on Reddit from Mazon_Del

"He also told us about an agreement/rule he had with his own kids. He understood how hard it was for kids to do the right thing in the face of peer pressure."

My parents had two parts to this. The first was that my dad was always willing to be the bad guy. We could ALWAYS blame him for not being able to do something we didn't want to do.

The second was that no matter what, if we EVER felt uncomfortable, we could call them at any point of the night and ask to be taken home. There would be NO punishment, even if it was a situation where we'd done something like sneaking out to go to a party we actually WERE told not to go to.

As they said (roughly) "We'd rather be silently disappointed in you and really tired on a workday, than have to attend your funeral."

[/Image Transcript]

My Mom had similar rules with me that she got from her parents. I had a secret word and a script that I could call her and use. "I'm having such a radical time, can I stay longer?" and she would know to instead come IMMEDIATELY and drag me out of there. "Radical" and "rad" were popular with my older siblings peers, and some of my own friends, but I never picked it up myself, so it was hypothetically believable.

I'm glad I never had to use it, I'm not sure I could have pulled it off believable.

Mom's other rules on this front came out when they WERE potentially necessary. My first lover was older than me, had a car, etc. and she set rules for me that it would be pretty easy to work around, but also pretty easy to get caught breaking.

I pointed out how easy they might be to work around if I really wanted to. She shrugged and said (roughly),

"You're more than smart enough to totally evade any rules I set for you if you want to. You're almost an adult. I couldn't pick you up if I tried. It's not my job to keep you out of trouble anymore. It's my job to provide you with every possible resource to keep yourself out of trouble that I can."

And you know what? Actually spelling that distinction out for me meant I used those resources a lot more wisely than I might have if I was busy chafing against them as restrictions.

[bodhimcbodeface]

I really think they need to start teaching kids in schools that most blind people can see a little bit, most deaf people can hear a little bit, and most wheelchair users can walk a little bit. And they are still disabled.

[lesbian-disaster-academic]

i used to be so good at writing strong, thoroughly-researched, thoroughly-edited essays.

as a kid in hs, my teacher literally came up to me, holding my 40 page essay on the intersection of the European witch hunts and capitalism/exploitation/gender roles (it was supposed to be 7 pages...whoops) and went like "this is literally a master's-degree level thesis. what are you doing?? you could literally use this as your final dissertation in a master's program, what the fuck."

NOW??? NOW?? you'd think I'd be oh so skilled. but alas. i can barely piece together two ideas. adhd skill-regression is so so real. im SOBBING

[chloesimaginationthings]

The FNAF Vanessas meet their younger selves..

[theshadowrealmitself]

I like to think that Vulcans who come to understand that Humans just can’t try to process emotions the same way as them, it’s just healthiest to let it out in harmless ways, decide that venting and stuff should be taken just as seriously as Vulcan’s meditation time, and will encourage the Humans around them to complain about what’s upsetting them

People who are used to aloof Vulcans who avoid Humans at all cost running into one comforting a Human

“-and then they said my cheesecake was subpar, and they didn’t even bring a dish!!!”

“The purpose of this event was that every participant brings a food item of sorts, correct?”

“Yeah!!”

“And they did not follow this rule while insulting dishes that were brought?”

“Mostly just my dish but yeah >:(“

“How illogical”

“That’s what I’m saying!!!”

[sreppub]

jason ignored the clearly labeled tupperware and ate tim’s leftover garlic chicken pasta

[inkskinned]

having good & true friends will literally save and protect you in a million unfathomable ways. like okay we have written so many times about lovers. but the way a platonic friend laughs and cries with you. the way they hold your hand at 14 years old and at 34. the way they keep a little silver tie to you, touching base over and over and over. how you can go years without talking, only to re-meet and discover: oh shit! you're still cool!

there are people who have been in my life for more than half of it, and i have loved every version of them. do you know how fucking beautiful that is. yeah love will save the world. but the way friends love you is gonna save the you.

[kenchann]

his beloved daughters

[frownyalfred]

thinking about a Damian who was raised his entire life hearing how much he looks like his Father, how he's the blood son, how he's better than any other child Bruce Wayne has taken in, starting to buy into it like a kid does, only to hit puberty and turn out looking like 80% Talia.

[mathysphere]

In 1999, on the 30th anniversary of the first moonwalk, the members of rec.crafts.textiles.needlework shared their memories of the historic event. Transcripts in alt text.

[paterday]

It is vital for kids shows to have the horrors in them. The children YEARN for the horrors. They CRAVE the horrors. I craved the horrors and so will the next generation. And so will the next. Years and years and years of craving the horrors. Which is why you gotta put scaries into the kids stories.

[metanarrates]

it's actually really weird to me that a lot of adults don't seem to remember the worst bits of being a child. were you not horribly aware of when adults were talking down to you as a child? don't you remember how little autonomy you were allowed, even when it came to things that seemed pretty harmless? don't you remember the times when adults would seemingly be assholes to you for no reason? even if you had nice and reasonable parents, didn't you ever have teachers or other adults in power who treated you disrespectfully? didn't it sting no matter how people justified it?

especially when I was a teenager, it seemed obvious to me & to most of my peers when an adult wasn't treating us with respect. you could almost smell it, in certain classrooms. there would be this palpable, shifting undercurrent of teenage dissatisfaction whenever some teachers started talking. and it made a lot of the kids act out! which of course made the teachers try to exert their power, which never worked because nobody respected them, which made them get more draconian, etc.

as a teen, I didn't really get why my peers and I seemingly had a superhuman sense for when an adult was on a power trip. but now I think I get it. kids are systematically denied autonomy, respect, and consistently have the validity of their experiences denied. like, flat-out. they're a vulnerable class of people made even more vulnerable by their lack of societal rights. being disrespected as a kid is so frequent that I would say it's a defining experience for most children. is it any wonder they tend to pick up on when an adult doesn't see them as worth listening to?

so yeah, of course a ton of kids want to be treated "like an adult." to them, that's synonymous with being treated like a human being worth listening to. it's up to you, as an adult, to understand that wish for what it is, and behave accordingly. you don't gotta be a child psychologist. you don't gotta be perfect at it. all you have to do is remember how painful adult disrespect could be when you were a kid & do your best to act with some compassion.

[liquidstar]

adventure time lore is insane. it starts off just being a goofy kids show that has magic for no reason, but then you learn that all magic users are manic and/or depressed (what betty calls sadness and madness). because it turns out magic is actually a cosmic force beyond mortal comprehension, that itself was learned from cosmic entities that predated the existence of time itself inside a sea of monsters. and "magic" really is just understanding more about the nature of the universe than most people. that, in a way, reality isnt "real" and understanding that allows you to mold it. and thats magic. but that drives you to insanity and/or apathy. and there are beings who hold significant cosmic importance who are more prone to magic. and the reason magic became prevalent on earth is because of a nuclear war a thousand years ago, which released the entity that represents the destruction of all life onto the world. and after a nuclear apocalypse this gave way to a new earth, where magic could thrive. but a lot of the beings we see arent even magical, theyre just mutants from what happened 1000 years ago. and humanity as we know it has been all but wiped out. but everything stays the same because cycles of war and violence continue. and it doesnt matter if its nukes or magic. everything stays the same, but still changes.

[xuviec]

yuji got into a fight at school and uncle sukuna comes to pick him up ( jin is ranting about how yuji is being influenced by sukuna ) !!

uncle sukuna ! nephew yuji !

[chloesimaginationthings]

Cassidy loves to scare the FNAF night guards..

[t00thpasteface]

"it's very problematic to make your space aliens autistic-coded" SPEAK FOR YOURSELF 👽👽👽👽👽🛸🛸🛸 ALIEN LASER BLAST ATTACK ✨✨✨🌠🌠🌠🌠🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟