What’s something from your childhood that felt completely magical, but now hits differently as an adult?

r/

What’s something from your childhood that felt completely magical, but now hits differently as an adult?

Comments

  1. BoilingPolkaDots Avatar

    Being “right” in a debate.

  2. belindanohemyoro Avatar

    Videogames as a whole

  3. moodbloom-dev Avatar

    Building a blanket fort in the living room.
    As a kid it was a full-on castle, a secret world where the sofa cushions were mountains and the flashlight was a sun I controlled.
    Now, when I help my niece build one, I still feel a flicker of that magic—but I’m also the person worrying about ripped sheets, tripping hazards, and how fast the living-room mess will grow. The fort didn’t shrink; I just grew into the person who sees the laundry pile behind the curtain.

  4. d-doodlediva Avatar

    Staying up past your bedtime

  5. Militant_Individual Avatar

    Christmas was a big thing I had to realize was mostly for kids benefits as I grew up. Family time is great and all but Christmas went from being the happiest day of the year to just another day for me around highschool time.

  6. ffionafennel Avatar

    Riding in a shopping cart.
    Now I just push one while battling inflation

  7. Due_Cantaloupe_5581 Avatar

    Sleeping on couch and waking up on bed

  8. -cradiantrays Avatar

    Summer break.
    Three months of chaos, popsicles, and zero responsibilities

  9. -iexplorerella Avatar

    Opening a cereal box and finding a toy inside

  10. i-giselleanelise Avatar

    Falling asleep in the car and waking up in bed

  11. barkingbeautyq- Avatar

    Saturday morning cartoons

  12. Moguss9 Avatar

    To have a job 😀

  13. NinthFloorMannequin Avatar

    Complete & total autonomy

  14. f-simplesiren Avatar

    Going to the video rental store

  15. [deleted] Avatar

    Growing up and being an adult

  16. jvanderh Avatar
  17. mykittenfarts Avatar

    Christmas.
    IDGAF.
    I just ask my kids what they want to do then do it.

  18. Independent_Menu6490 Avatar

    Getting McDonald’s

  19. gruthscout Avatar

    Running to the ice cream truck.
    That jingle was a summon spell.

  20. PurpleVanilla1557 Avatar

    Nothing was really magical. I’m almost 40 soon and now it feels like I’m living in a dream that is magical. My childhood was ok compare to all shit happening today. But it was not what I wish it was. But I try to not think like this but I always do

  21. PhilosopherOne4059 Avatar

    Going to the river with my Dad.

  22. peachykeen-z Avatar

    Long road trips.
    Back then: exciting. Now: back pain and gas prices

  23. Ambitious_Hold_5435 Avatar

    The Olympics, sigh. To me, it was Christmas, Easter, and my birthday all wrapped up in one package. Then came the figure skating scandal where a French judge was bribed. And I heard about all the behind-the-scenes crap. No more magic for me anymore.

  24. Natashaxxiii Avatar

    Disney movies. I mean I can see how manipulated Stitch is now lol

  25. coolhandfelon Avatar

    Family trips to Audra State Park in West Virginia. Swimming in the river, eating sandwiches and drinking cold sodas out a cooler. It just sucks that life isn’t like that anymore, it’s miserable. When I think of happy childhood memories they all seem to have a golden hue to them. Now, everything is dull and colorless. I’ve actually never seen a color brighter than the lens I viewed my life through as a child.

  26. CittaMindful Avatar

    Having my entire family together.

  27. TheWhiteCrowParade Avatar

    The idea of working in animation

  28. Thursday_Addams_12 Avatar

    Disney. Felt magical as a kid. But when magic is combined with nostalgia, it hits different as an adult.

  29. hennings_cardigan Avatar

    Christmas.

    Its still special, and still my favorite holiday, but it’s just… different. Maybe its because my mom is gone so much that she hasn’t decorated the past few years, maybe it’s just because I’m older and Christmas lost its “spark”…

    Whatever it is… my memories of Christmas are much warmer and much more relaxing and nice than the holiday in reality now.

  30. arawendo Avatar

    st. patrick’s day. in elementary school my teachers put a lot of effort into making it seem like the leprechauns had come to visit our classroom the night before. all the glitter trails, fool’s gold and candy were so magical to me. it made it seem like even the air in the classroom was different. i 100% believed in leprechauns.

    hits a little different now knowing an unerpaid, likely exhausted teacher went into work early or stayed late to do that for us.

  31. MareOfDalmatia Avatar

    Getting lost in a book.

  32. KatNanshin Avatar

    Being genuinely interested in other people. I loved getting to know people, hearing their stories, listening to them. 🤩 …making new friends, going out and having new experiences and adventures with them.
    Now I ckufing loathe being around people…they literally drain me 😓

  33. holy_halestorm Avatar

    Literally any junk food. Idk if it’s recipe changes or what but it’s NOT HITTING anymore

  34. kittystillbites Avatar

    Christmas, and not because of gifts. It’s the family that is no longer around.

  35. Hangytangy Avatar

    Christmas with my whole family. My parents divorced and one side is problematic/deals with addiction.

    I don’t remember the last time it was just the 5 of us. We were all together for the last time, and we didn’t even know it.

    But yeah, Christmas before I found out Santa wasn’t real. The ones where it was just us 5. Now Christmas is so different.

    Thankful to have a great bond with my sister, though. We spent christmas with each other, made some of our favorite christmas foods and went through highschool year books.

  36. Cymelion Avatar

    Birthdays.

    I severely hate celebrating them now.

  37. Whisky_Shivers Avatar

    Theme Parks. Full of people — UGH

  38. b00kbat Avatar

    The Girl Scout summer camp I went to every year from ages 7-14. I worked there one summer at 18 and the magic totally disappeared.

  39. wandrnjenn Avatar

    I used to love county fairs as a kid.. All the lights and the rides. Junk food.. fried everything, rides everywhere..
    As an adult… the county fairs are just GROSS. I just smell vommit, see trash everywhere. The food makes me physically ill, and the rides actually seem kind of dangerous! Lol. Oh well! 😏 🎡🎠🎪

  40. Beneficial_Pizza_664 Avatar

    Being married. And being an adult in general.

  41. SV650rider Avatar

    A friend of mine told me that ever since he was old enough to make the money to buy his own presents, Christmas has been very different.

  42. MajesticAd9333 Avatar

    Playing in a dirty river 😂. Sometimes we would see dead animals float by, it was definitely unsanitary

  43. LukeSkywalkerDog Avatar

    My mother loved blue. The exterior and interior of the house were painted blue. At Christmas, she had BLUE Christmas lights strung on the house. As a child, I loved seeing all this. As an adult, I mostly run away from blue as fast as I can!

  44. Bman93907 Avatar

    Christmas 🎄

  45. amnicr Avatar

    The woods. Full of adventure, excitement, no cares in the world. Now I fear bugs, falling, temperature changes, being murdered, etc.

  46. lingeringneutrophil Avatar

    Flying on an airplane…. Always wanted window seat.

    Now it’s just rude FAs and terrible people pushing their ginormous bags and blocking the isle

  47. ceruleanblue630 Avatar

    That wonderful feeling of believing you had endless time to go anywhere, see everything and do whatever you wanted. Man, does THAT hit differently in your 50s.

  48. Kesse84 Avatar

    Birthdays :/

  49. emoposterchild Avatar

    reading till 3 or 4 in the morning and sleeping all day during the summer. Now im lucky to stay up to midnight. And read during break time or on the weekends if it’s not too busy.

  50. NeverEndingWhoreMe Avatar

    Staying at a hotel when on a trip.

    A hotel with a pool was always a great bonus on any vacation.

    Now all I can think about is how many people have slept in the bed, touched the door, etc.

    I take Lysol wipes to disinfect everything that I can, but it still grosses me out. I’ve brought my own towels and pillowcases and sheets, but I still feel an ick.

    I never sleep well and always have to take a shower immediately after I get home.

  51. m3kw Avatar

    Watching movies in theatres

  52. 44youGlenCoco Avatar

    Going to amusement parks in the summer. Now all the rides I love make me motion sick, and it’s such a bummer.

  53. Kesse84 Avatar

    Holidays/ vacations. As a kid and teenager, I was always SUPER excited. What would it be? I will meet new people and see new places. Later I was excited to spen time with my friends with less (or no!) restrictions.
    Now I am 40. I have a kid and two dogs, and I am dreading it.
    “Are we there yet?” “I am bored!!!”, “I am hungry! I don’t want a sandwich! I want snacks!”
    And dogs are like bark-pant-vomit-pee. If I am lucky it’s not all in the car.
    I swear when my husband says “Honey, you seem tense… Are you ok?” I want to cry and laugh at the same time!

  54. ember428 Avatar

    Horseback riding. 😭

  55. hohoholdyourhorses Avatar

    Those tube things you use at the drive thru at the bank. I thought those were some crazy technological futuristic ass shit as a kid. Not magically anymore, but I’d be lying if I said pressing the button and watching the tube go up wasn’t still a tiny bit cool.

  56. Lx_Wheill Avatar

    Star Wars, more specifically since the Disney purchase.

  57. opaquedestroyer Avatar

    Riding bikes with my friends to the card shop. Now it’s just driving in traffic to fight scalpers RIP

  58. godisapothead Avatar

    Going to the mall as a kid felt like stepping into a whole new world. The food court was basically a buffet of dreams, the toy store was heaven, and don’t even get me started on the fountain where people tossed coins and made wishes. Now, I go to the mall and it’s for errands. It’s wild how something that once felt magical just turns into background noise as you grow up.

  59. Bankai623 Avatar

    My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

    When I was a kid it was all the rage at my school. Every nerd was into it. Even the jocks had pony shirts as a joke for a while.

    As one of the nerds, I went in deep. Internet deep. If you don’t know about the online brony community, that was a mistake for raging hormones 13-15 year old me.

    I discovered “clop” (NSFW images of the ponies) and it was all downhill from there. Luna was waifu. Fluttershy was side waifu. I’d daydream about my literal herd of cartoon ponies. It was a fucking travesty honestly how easy it was to access, but there was just SO MUCH art it literally warped my entire sexuality for a while there.

    It took a long time to break out of that and get back to regular people. I had to like, wean myself off of it with furry, then eventually made it back to humans for college. Like it was some weird addiction. My clop collection was around 20gb by the end there.

    I can’t look at those ponies at all these days. I avoid them like an alcoholic avoids a bar. Especially Luna. Fucking Luna man… I dunno why I love that asthetic so much and some of the artists in the fandom drew her in the most appealing styles ever. I just mentally shutter that shit for my sanity. I still have a brony friend who has a giant lifesize plushie of Fluttershy he dropped 1.5k on and can only imagine the horrors she sees, but also imagine what happened if I went down that path.

  60. PipocaApprehensive Avatar

    Sailor moon 🌸 🤣🤣🤣

  61. Disastrous-Ad2800 Avatar

    relationships and dating…. remember the cheap fun of Valentine’s Day with a mystery rose or card or going to a movie? and the ‘so and so likes so and so’ rumours and chinese whispers? now in adulthood? oh dear god! my workplace is sterile and cold as it can get when it comes to romance.. especially considering there is a mixture of mostly single guys and girls…

  62. AnthonyTyrael Avatar

    Sweets.

    Now it shows in the mirror.

  63. Frosty_Bluebird_1404 Avatar

    Flying in airplanes and swimming at night

  64. SchwoopsForTheLady Avatar

    Christmas, there was just a feeling in the air.

  65. Active_Ad_5742 Avatar

    Having only 20 bucks. Used to make me feel so rich not it makes me feel so poor.

  66. Icameforthenachos Avatar

    When I was a kid Disneyland was truly “The Magical Kingdom”, there wasn’t anything like it. The last time I went I had to take out a loan just to get through the gate only to be met with elbow-to-elbow crowds, overpriced food, and two of the rides that I really wanted to go on were broke down.

  67. Sleepygirl57 Avatar

    Christmas and birthdays

  68. Just_a_Ginger_Fella Avatar

    The feeling about Christmas and the whole Christmas season.

  69. vhsdoc Avatar

    Growing up in Britain in the 80s I thought America was a magical place. Now… not so much.

  70. gofigure85 Avatar

    Public swimming pools

    Kid me: 😄

    Adult me: 🤢

  71. halfslices Avatar

    The idea of going Disney World, or amusement parks in general, feel like nightmares to me but used to be a dream.

    Airplane rides too.

  72. limbodog Avatar

    Disney World. I was totally into Epcot Center especially. But now I can’t shake DisneyCorp when I think about it.

  73. ActiveDinner3497 Avatar

    How much I could eat. My brothers and I would compete to clean our plates of massive portions (them being way older than me). Now I’d put on 20 pounds just thinking about it. Man I wish I could eat like I used to without consequences.

  74. Objective_Purpose768 Avatar

    Childhood: Falling asleep on the pile of guest’s coats on the bed in the bedroom when there was a house gathering.

    Adult: falling asleep anywhere that isn’t an orthopedic mattress, with a feathery duvet and supporting pillows

  75. silky_tears Avatar

    Fountains! At the mall, park, public places. I wanted to swim in them so bad. Beg to put my feet in the water. Scoop up coins. Experience is knowing how dirty the water is, and they are not in fact blissful pools to play in.

  76. knownerror Avatar

    Disneyland and Disney World. Magical as a kid! Now a complete pain in the ass of apps, reservations, wait times, and lighting money on fire.

  77. 0Tezorus0 Avatar

    Playing on the lap of uncle waldo.

  78. InannasPocket Avatar

    Getting to drive the car as soon as I could reach the pedals.

    Looking back, my dad was just drunk and trusted 8yo me more than himself on the road back from the bar. 

    I do let my 8yo take a turn driving up our driveway and she loves it, but not on city streets and not because I’m drunk!

  79. CriscoCamping Avatar

    National parks. As a kid I thought they were the best thing ever, now it is adult I have to force myself to look through the crowding and too many cars and tourists

  80. MyHonestOpnion Avatar

    Movies. When I watch them now, they are full of gratuitous female only nudity that has nothing to do with the plot. Cringe

  81. Bedroom_Bellamy Avatar

    Christmas. I absolutely destroy myself every year to try to make Christmas for my daughter feel like it felt for me when I was a kid, and every year I’m disappointed that it doesn’t feel the same to me. And then I finally realized that it will NEVER feel the same to me, but I’m giving my daughter her own special Christmas magic. And that makes it all worth it.

  82. anonymous_subroutine Avatar

    Christmas. Commercialization and greed.

    Disney World. Dystopian tourist trap.

  83. thezombiejedi Avatar

    Going to product parties with my mom. I obviously didn’t know it at the time, but they were MLMs. As an adult, I am staunchly anti MLM and cringe at people trying to recruit myself and others but as a kid, it was fun going with my mom to look at stuff. Knowing how predatory MLMs are now, it makes me sick knowing that those women (including my mom) were suckered into signing up for unknowingly driving themselves into debt. Thank God my mom didn’t take it too seriously and only did it for a few years, decided she hated it, and skedaddled 😂

  84. StevieG-2021 Avatar

    Christmas. Being a parent now I realize how much money, effort, and planning goes into making that one day special for the kids.

  85. External-Basket6701 Avatar

    Sleeping on the floor!! 🫣😴😡😥

  86. BrokenBucatini Avatar

    Christmas. It used to feel like such a warm and magical time when i was a kid, my parents would decorate the whole home (and at the time we lived in an old victorian home so it made the decor feel extra festive). Decorating the christmas tree, the stockings by the fireplace, above it; was a little barn and a little baby jesus that was meant to be decoration but i kept stealing him and playing with it (the lambs too). Getting sooo excited to open presents, and the christmas roast! And then a day or 2 later the extended family would come down and we’d celebrate again.

    Haha now i just feel like christmas is a bother. The roast dinner is still good tho.

  87. putridbeing Avatar

    Holidays. I will never forget the butterflies in my stomach going to sleep then waking up on Christmas morning knowing “Santa” had paid me a visit. It truly felt magical. I always loved Halloween almost as much as Christmas. I miss trick r treating, staying up
    late with friends watching horror movies as a teen, late night drives in high school seeing what we could get into on Halloween night. Even Thanksgiving feels different now. Family starts dying off, gets distant, makes excuses for why we aren’t all getting together anymore. I didn’t appreciate it enough looking back!

  88. fullmetalc-nt Avatar

    Going through the car wash. My dad and I always pretended we were being swallowed by a whale. We’d be vibing listening to Pink Floyd and watching the oil slick colors of the cleaner as it poured down the windshield.

  89. CG_1313 Avatar

    Summer. What do you mean I have to keep working and don’t get 3 months of sleeping in and doing whatever I want? Gross.

  90. PigeonsInSpaaaaace Avatar

    I grew up obsessed with that movie “Milo and Otis”. I love animals and the story was so cute and I must’ve watched it hundreds of times. As an adult and an animal trainer, all I see now are the multiple dangerous and abusive situations the animals were put in to get those shots.

  91. Human_Pumpkin_455 Avatar

    Christmas.. saddest time of the year, it will never be the same

  92. Truecrimeauthor Avatar

    That when my first pets got really really sick, they went to live with a nice family that could take care of them and they’re happy. Maybe I could go visit a little later on.

    FF- that’s not where they went.

  93. yogipandabear Avatar

    When I was a kid my mom knew someone who owned a “zoo”. They invited me to come visit sometime because they had tigers and other big cats and 14-year-old me thought that was incredibly cool. It turned out to be a barn in the middle of no where that had animals like a panther and puma kept in cages. There were two tigers kept in separate circus cages. And two big bins sat in front of the cages with signs asking for food donations for the tigers. I was encouraged to go into an enclosure with a pack of wolves to feed them chicken from my hand, and was told I was the first person to ever be able to do this. I was also allowed to play with two baby tigers in what was basically a shed. I remember being totally amazed and being surprised by how strong they were and also how their fur felt really burly like a thick rug instead of being silky like I always imagined. Anyway, at the time this felt very magical, probably in part because it was the 90s and no one else seemed to be questioning it. I think back now and I’m horrified both at the way the animals were kept and why my mom thought it was totally fine to let me into an enclosure with a pack of wolves. Anyway, the wolves eventually escaped and went on a rampage killing lots of animals in the local area so the whole thing was, thankfully, shut down.

  94. BurnerLibrary Avatar

    Okay, this is gonna sound absolutely stupid. Here goes:

    When I had just turned six, we visited Santa’s Village in San Bernardino, CA. We went into Mrs. Claus’ kitchen shop and my Mom sampled, then bought a dip mix. Mom was really big on hors d’ouevres and entertaining for a phase.

    That dip mix may as well have been pixie dust! I thought it was magic! It TURNED SOUR CREAM INTO A DELICIOUS DIP!

  95. New_Assistant2922 Avatar

    Anything Disney puts out.

  96. TNBCisABitch Avatar

    “Fancy dinner”

    Like a picnic at home… small triangle sandwiches, maybe some crisps or crackers, some biscuits. I used to love fancy dinners.

    Turns out we were poor and this was dinner when my mum just had to make do with whatever was left.

    Breaks my heart that my mum had to do that alone. She is amazing.

  97. Gardener_Of_Eden Avatar

    Christmas morning. 

    I’m Santa now.

  98. kittiesmalls521 Avatar
  99. DamianC469 Avatar

    Grocery shopping

  100. gatecitykitty Avatar