I feel extreme guilt for killing frogs when I was young.

r/

It’s probably not as serious as I make this out to be. Anyway, This happened a long time ago. I was on holiday. I was around 10 at that time, and I was in someone’s field/garden (it was big.) There was a shed, and there was an axe. I noticed that there were frogs in the area, so I picked some up with something and I laid frogs against a tree stump and I axed the frogs limbs off. I drowned some, I watched them squirm and suffer. I did it to multiple. My friend did see me do it and he was morbidly creeped out, but he laughed it off.

What was going through my mind when I was doing it? I don’t understand why I went to those extreme lengths just to kill frogs. Was I bored? Am I a psychopath? I understand I was still a kid but, I did probably have some intrusive thoughts.

Comments

  1. Emotional_meat_bag Avatar

    Kids are weird man. If you’re not feeling internal pressure to continue torturing creatures then you’re all good

  2. dangersiren Avatar

    You were a child. Kids to weird shit all the time because they don’t have the ability to think critically in the moment. You followed a morbid curiosity and there wasn’t a responsible adult around to offer guidance.

  3. StitchedSilver Avatar

    Similar thing with bugs to a much much lesser extent, but you’re feeling bad about it now which means you’re not a psychopath or whatever.

    Kids are essentially just really, really, drunk adults. And drunk people do some fucking weird shit.

  4. TRSHUSK Avatar

    Yeah, same thing but with a Bird.
    I was so excited because I wanted to “hunt” something with a rifle and when I finally did… I felt awful.
    To this day is probably my biggest regret and probably will be till the day I die.

  5. iOawe Avatar

    Honestly you were just a kid. When I was a kid I used to kill the carpenter bees with a tennis racket. It was fun when I was little. I was imagining I was playing baseball with them. You were most likely bored. 

  6. CHEDDERFROMTHEBLOCK2 Avatar

    I still feel guilty about fishing in a small pond while camping with my friends family and hooked a frog. It’s delicate throat didn’t take well to the fishing hook…I cried and I’ll cry now thinking of it. Never fished again. I love frogs.
    Then the time I was little and thought I could save a newborn baby bird off the sidewalk inside a lotion container to keep it warm. You have empathy now which often comes later when the brain starts to fully develop and you were a kid. It sucks and yes it was very shitty, but it’s important lessons and have to forgive your small unknowing self. I used to also rip the pinchers off earwigs cause I hated them after getting one caught in my foot, I figured they’d be nicer as “worms”.

  7. Aphanizomenon Avatar

    You didn’t just killed them, you torturef them and you are def not overreacting. It’s not normal for kids to use an axe to torture animals. It would be weird if it were bugs, this way it’s troubling. People who are comforting you here are doing so because they did the same and don’t want to acknowledge it’s not normal.

    But holding on to guilt will not do anything for you. It’s better to reflect. Did you enjoy that they suffered, was this amusing to you? Did you think about hurting other animals or people before or after that? Was something bad happening to you at this time? Did you have friends, were you social?

  8. deadenfish Avatar

    I used to literally massacre snails and slugs in deliberately painful ways for most my childhood until i had the empathy node turn on in my brain, its all good man.

  9. UnfilteredSan Avatar

    Wow. I love Frogs so much so this bummed me out 🙁

  10. LickthebladeEvy Avatar

    Some people hunt with no guilt. I’m not into it at all. But your willingness to self reflect and ask yourself “why did I do that???” Is growth within itself and that’s a good thing to be proud of.

    My mother did the same when I was a child. She was probably in her 40’s at the time. I went to the backyard and caught her shovel-chopping mice in the back yard garden and then drowning them in water/bleach mix. She would chop their heads off and this freaked out my dad. Looking back; she was a grown adult and this is very telling about why she should have never been trusted to have children and raise them. I’m lucky I didn’t end up that way.

  11. Nice-Ad-6116 Avatar

    wtf is wrong with people??? am I the only person who never ever even thought of hurting another living thing physically as a kid??
    genuinely curious bc I remember even as an elementary school kid seeing boys stomp on bugs just to make girls cry and i still remember the feeling in my stomach watching them do it. You people need genuine help

  12. Nice-Ad-6116 Avatar

    also everyone saying this is normal for kids to do, how would you react if you witnessed your own child doing this? I want to know

  13. Creepy_Promise816 Avatar

    It’s very common for children to do this developmentally! It’s your way of exploring the world and learning ethics and boundaries!

    The fact you’re feeling guilt shows how strong your empathy really is! Even for frogs! 🫂 That makes you a good noodle