When I (22F) was young, like probably 5/6/7 my parents used to take me to the play parks and while i was there, i used to pinch other kids, especially younger ones and make them cry. I don’t know why i did it. Now I’m pretty normal and i’d never hurt anybody intentionally but I still think about what i did, and i can’t figure out why i did it at that time. I feel pretty guilty about it even though i know I’d never do that. If anyone has a theory as to why a child would enjoy seeing other children cry, please feel free to share (For reference, i don’t remember much of my childhood, but i also don’t have any history of abuse or anything that i know of)
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people are weird. you likely were just finding boundaries. you found them, realise it was wrong and now you are an adult.
Kids are sometimes nasty for no reason. I used to do something similar (pinching, scratching) when I was about that age to a girl who used to sit next to me in school. Surprisingly, she never held it against me, and we remained friends all the way until we left her country when I was about 10, after which we lost touch. I can think in retrospect of no reason why I would do that, it went against my general nature as a person even then, I had no history of abuse from anyone in my family, I can confidently say that. Of course, now, in my 40s, I feel incredibly guilty and self-hating of myself for having done that, but I do know that I’ve heard of other kids doing it as well.