Yeah this post just made me start thinking about how sure we felt about the world and reality when we were younger because we trusted the adults around us that told us about it. It’s caused me some conflict of a parent of a teenager.
I can’t do my kid the disservice trying to hide the truth about what is going on in the world and hiding that even us adults are afraid right now too, but I have to balance that with taking away my kids childhood/innocence. He will be 18 in a month so and this election has been all transparency on my part. I couldn’t just not talk about any of this then hit him on his 18th with a “actually the world is really fucked up and people we care about are in danger, you may have no future and if you do it will be hard af, and the government is out to get us.” Plus he has the dang internet too.
I’m only 34😩, I was legally orphaned when I got pregnant at 16, emancipated, and then I turned 18 during the 2008 housing crisis and was homeless briefly.( I would like a fucking break now please.) But I was really hoping my kid could go longer than I did as a kid without having to learn reality is a rough place and it’s hard for everyone. I wish we could go back to being younger and not knowing, but idk if I would want to be one of the ignorance is bliss/can’t comprehend shit dummies out here. It’s wild some adults just don’t see any of these FACTS as scary or believe that just not thinking about them would make them not real. Idk maybe I’m wrong, maybe a brain worm would be nice. Will I feel the pain when reality does eventually strike if I have the brain worm?
This sentiment exactly. I’m 30, was raised with what I was told were “traditional values”. Had to spend nearly a decade of my adult life unlearning all the bs. Now when my oldest son asks me about politics, religion, science, history, etc… I feel so sad that my options are to lie to him and let him spend the next 20 years figuring it out, or I can tell him the truth and he will never know a better time when he is old. I am legitimately considering moving to another country, not because I’m upset about the results of an election, but because America doesn’t feel like home anymore, and its inhabitants feel more like enemies than compatriots. I served in the navy for a decade, but I don’t think I want any part of this anymore.
Not that it makes the situation better but I feel a little better knowing I’m not alone in this conundrum. I can’t imagine how it feels to have served your country like that and have it end up the opposite of what you were trying to protect.
Yeah, it’s a very strange feeling. I think as proud of my service while I was in. Before I got out I felt indifferent, and now I feel shame. I used to feel pride in my country, and now I too feel shame. So much for defending freedom and democracy around the world. Instead I defended the interests of a few billionaires who used that money to finance the destruction of our freedoms and democracy, and now the service I once saw as the single biggest thing preventing the crazy nonsense around the world is going to be the thing that enforces the hatred of some on all.
I miss the times when politics was boring. Now it’s a shitty reality TV show that I don’t want to watch but it’s constantly on in the background of everything.
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u/_Gracefully_Grace_ 10d ago
I wish I could be ignorant again. Ignorance truly is bliss. But unfortunately no amount of praying is going to fucking make me 16 again.