Full Grown Adults Are Talking About The Most Embarrassing Things They Did As Kids
Growing up isn't easy. We all go through an awkward stage, and for some of us, that awkward stage lasts a long, long time. We've all done something embarrassing that creeps into our minds in the middle of the night when we're trying to fall asleep.
Keep reading to hear about some of the cringiest things Redditors did when they were younger. These stories will make you feel a little bit less alone.
Singing Out Loud
"I was in a small restaurant with my dad and brother and when I went to the bathroom, I decided to belt out the chorus to Weird Al's "The White Stuff" in full volume thinking the bathroom would contain my vocals."
"I walked out realizing the restaurant was quiet and when I sat down my dad goes "what the hell was that?" and when he saw the confusion on my face he proceeded to explain to me that the ENTIRE restaurant heard me. —maip23
People Are Heavier Than Frogs
"When I was 7, me and my family were visiting Edinburgh and we decided to go to the botanical gardens. While there, I was drawn to these giant Lilly pads. I suddenly had memories of watching frogs jump on smaller sized Lilly pads and thought it would be an excellent idea to try and hop onto one to see if it would hold my weight."
"Safe to say it did not, and it was a long, wet walk back to the car after an embarrassing explanation to the managers of the gardens as to why one of their giant Lilly pads had a child-shaped hole in it." -novakw
Loud And Proud
"Back in 8th grade, I had just come back from lunch break and was sitting down for science class. Had been holding in a fart for a few minutes and wasn't too worried about it. Then the urge to sneeze struck and before you know it, I was sat in the middle of the class - everyone silent, and every pair of eyes on me - as I came to the terms with the fact that I had just done the loudest public fart known to man.
Of course, I tried to cover it up by saying "What? Why are you all staring at me?" Teacher even helped me out by shifting attention away, god bless her soul. I still have nightmares to this day." —Nozdoz
It Happens To The Best Of Us
"I asked a girl out in the hall after class one day, some girl that I had never even talked to before and I gave her my number on a piece of paper and said to call me in this weird awkward manner."
"Then I walked to my car (it was last class of 10th grade) and looked in the rear view mirror and noticed I had a GIANT booger hanging like an inch out of my nose. She never called." —JWBoosh
A Garbage Plan
"I liked this boy in my art class and found out through some mutual friends that he lived a few blocks from me. So instead of just talking to him at school like a sane person would I decided I'd get his attention by sneaking out of my house at 4am with a big bag of garbage, walking all the way to his house, throwing the garbage all over his lawn, then ringing his doorbell and running back home."
"The next day at school I asked him if anything weird happened at his house last night, when he said yeah I revealed that I was the one who "pranked" his family last night. He just awkwardly said "oh okay." and didn't talk to me for a few months after that. What the heck was I thinking? "—JunkieMcflunky
A Misplaced Hug
"When I was in kindergarten waiting outside to be picked up by my mom, I saw her approaching. I closed my eyes and ran at her and hugged her."
"Opened my eyes and I apparently I had not aimed correctly as I was hugging the wrong woman. One of my classmates yelled at me to "stop hugging their mom." I still think about it." —ashicolaa
Spelling Is Important
"In fourth grade, my mom took me back to the school after hours because she had some PTO meeting or something of the sort. With my boredom peaking, a brilliant idea popped into my head. I claimed that I needed to get something out of my desk in my classroom, and was allowed to go grab it - which gave me a few seconds in the classroom all by myself. When I got into the room, I immediately grabbed a piece of paper and wrote "I love you Kelsie!" and placed it in Kelsey's desk, the girl I'd had a crush on and had never spoken to, and left."
"Next day - I get into the classroom and everyone is surrounding Kelsey's desk. They are trying to figure out who wrote the letter - so naturally, I play along and try to decipher the handwriting to figure out this mystery crush who couldn't even spell her name right. Worst (or best) part was that my teacher knew that I was in the room by myself the day before. She never gave me up, but I know she knew." —Grassmaster_
What A Circus
"My mom took my brother and me to the circus when I was about 5 or 6. We got slushie drinks during the circus that were pretty frozen. Trying to break up a big piece of ice I jammed the straw to the bottom of the styrofoam cup putting a hole in the bottom and getting cherry slushie all over me."
"I started to cry when everybody was quiet watching the tightrope walker do his thing. Here I am screaming, covered in red stuff and a spotlight shines on me. A lot of people gasped thinking something really bad was happening. They stopped the show for a few minutes. The only thing more red than my shirt was my mom's face. I still think about that from time to time, and call my mom to apologize sometimes." —Komacho
A Rocky Bus Ride
"I was on the bus to school and started not feeling too good, and the guy sitting next to me told me I looked pale. Next thing I knew I threw up all over the seat back in front of me, oatmeal from breakfast everywhere."
"When I was done puking my brains out I looked over at my neighbor and delivered a legendary one-liner: "Well, that's what I had for breakfast!" He moved to the seat next to me." —elucsh99
An Honest Mistake
"My dad is mostly deaf. I was in the store with him as a kid and was trying to ask him buy a candy bar or something. I thought he couldn't hear me and was prettying much yelling "DAD!' Repeatedly at this guys back who happened to be wearing the same colored shirt and a ball cap."
"I tugged his shirt and he turned around and I realized it wasn't my dad. Immediate tears." —Frolic-a-holic
Thanks, Dad
"One time I was getting food from a food truck. Ordered, guy took my money, then as he was turning away I tried to say "Thanks Dude" and "Thanks Man" at the same time and it came out 'Thanks Dad.'"
"He didn't seem to notice but I quietly laughed to myself to tears." —Kaasteen
A Phone Book Pest
"When I was 11/12, if I had a crush on someone, I would go find their parents in the phone book, look up the phone number on whitepages, find their address, and then in an attempt to impress them I would REPEAT BACK TO THEM THEIR PARENTS' NAMES, HOME PHONE NUMBER, AND ADDRESS."
"I was literally a serial stalker and for some reason no one ever reported me." —dumbest
Poorly Executed Revenge
"This guy pulled a chair from under me just as I was about to sit and I landed on the floor. This was at a dinner somewhere by the pool and I was probably 12."
"To avenge this, I saw him standing next to the pool and thought I'd push him inside the pool. I went for it except he moved and I lost my footing resulting in me in the water wearing a suit. I was very very mad at myself." —defectedam
We All Had An Emo Phase
"In 3rd grade, I had a "boyfriend", as in we never kissed or held hands or anything like that, but were an item and would play together during recess and build forts at each others' houses. After about 2 weeks, he said he didn't want me to be his girlfriend anymore and ran off to go play soccer with his friends."
For 3 YEARS after that, on the date of our breakup, I would wear this oversized, puffy, black, kids motorcycle jacket (but it was shaped like a pilot bomber jacket and had fur/fluff on the collar?? I don't know what it was trying to be) and sit alone sadly on the swings during recess, trying to look edgy and depressed. Perhaps not the most embarrassing story from my childhood, but most certainly the cringiest thing that I did in elementary." –WombatHats
A True Horse Girl
"I was obsessed with the saddle club around first grade and I would trot around the basketball courts at my school and make little "clip clop" noises to imitate horse hooves."
"If people tried to talk to me I'd just make horse noises, even typing it out now is painful, haven't thought of that in years." —agirlshas_no_name
What Does A Horse Say?
"During a school play in first grade, I was cast as "The Horse." I basically had to stand to the side for the entire time until near the end of the play, where I had one line, which was "Naaaaay" (supposed to make a horse-like noise?) My cue to say this line was when the teacher leading the play said, "And the horse...."."
"I have severe ADD, and I remember looking around into the crowd and paying attention to anything but the play, when suddenly I locked eyes with my mother who gave me the prompt look of "Cmon kid this is your only part...." when I realized the teacher leading had said "And the horse...." four times already before I belted out a "Moooooo" out of fear and panic. The crowd got a huge laugh and my career in show business has never recovered." —xanderc6
Don't Tree Shame
"When I was four or five, my mother took me to a garden center to buy a Christmas tree. When I asked my mother why we were getting a tree in a pot, she explained to me that "this one is still alive, so when Christmas is over, we can plant it in our backyard."
"I started running around the entire store to 'warn' people and ended up yelling "MISTER, YOUR TREE IS DEAD!" quite a few times before my mother pulled me aside and told me it was rude to yell at people about their shopping choices." —loewentochter
An Unwelcome Interruption
"Once I was on a school trip to a farm when I was 10. Some of the kids including myself were called away to speak to a television crew about what we think about the meat industry. That bit went fine, but I was so excited about the prospect of being on TV that when I was walking back to join my class I yelled "IN THE HOUSE!" as loud as I could."
"I then realized I had interrupted one of the farmers as he was speaking to my class who were all seated quietly on the floor. The farmer, all my classmates, and my teacher all slowly turned to face me. I will never forget the look of utter shock and disappointment that my teacher gave me. The memory of this embarrassment still haunts me late at night to this day." —mindless_mike
The Regift Bandit
"There was a girl I was crushing on at school when I was about 7. I found my mother's jewelry and took her wedding pearls and gifted them to the girl I was crushing on."
"Her parents saw them and freaked out called my parents after figuring out who gave them to her and they met up the next day at school so they could give them back. I still cringe." –ayebizz
That's Not The Right Dad
"My dad and I were really close and I would cuddle with him a lot. We called each other "best buddies" and we were born on the same birthday. One day I was at a water park and I saw my dad laying down on a beach chair."
"I was pretty tired so I went over and laid down right on top of him. My dad said "what the hell are you doing?" and I put 2 and 2 together and realized it was not in fact, my father. I would have preferred dying that day." —cwswill
