What Were You Like As A Little Boy?

[Guest MrAwesome]

My mom asked me about something, when I go stealth, what is she gonna say if someone asks about when I was a little boy. and I told her, tell them the truth. I was quiet, kept to myself, a good little boy. I played with trucks, and legos. I played with my uncle's "Big wheel" a lot, until it had no grip left on the wheels, I've worn the same design of sandal since I was little, every summer. I loved to watch scooby doo, and unfortunately barney... and I was a lot of fun.

What was everyone else like as a little boy?

[Guest B.heard]

My mother was dead strict with me wanting me to be 'normal' but I was always myself.

I had older brothers and I played football with them had many many fist fights with them I got their bikes and toys as they got older and spent most of my childhood like most young lads football, biking, playing 'war' games and getting into scraps.

Lucky for me my mother learned it was pointless trying to make me dress in anything but pants and a t shirt since I always out getting into muck and trouble, the hardest part I find will be explaning school I went to an only girl school not by choice and I tend to just skip over that part as I have no idea how to explane it

[Guest Pól_Eire]

As a very small child, I liked to play with wooden blocks. We had a lot of them and my brother and I used to build gigantic structures that my mum would take pictures of. I built the GPO after we visited Dublin when I was 3 or 4. I played with trucks, cars, and the toy electric railway that my father made for us that we were only allowed to play with around Christmas. I wasn't a shy child and was good at talking to adults. As I got a little older and my brothers got to an age where they could play even though they were only little, we played, fought, argued, and tried to drive my sister round the bend (she's older than all of us). We played sports, wrestled, and played war games and the like. I liked music quite a lot, even as an infant. I wasn't thick, but it took me a very long time to learn to read, so I didn't like school much when I was very small. I was good at maths. Looking back on it, I did get into extraordinary amounts of trouble at school, but it didn't really seem like such a big deal at the time (my mum thought differently though).

I was a good child for the most part, if a bit bold. My mum would probably say that I was a bit of a handful with more words in my mouth than I knew what to do with. I think that's partly because the brother directly after me was very very quiet (he barely spoke until he was three) and rarely got upset about anything. I did have some real anger problems, especially as a small child (they sent both me and my older brother to see a child therapist, actually, because of that). I learnt pretty quickly to answer adults questions with what they wanted to hear rather than the truth, and I was good at knowing what they wanted to hear. By the time I was five or six, I was already far more proficient at hiding parts of myself, deflecting, and deceiving other people than I ought to have been.

I'd tell your mother to just tell the truth, or at least, a slightly edited version of it. It's easier and less stressful than lying outright. You're still you.

-Pól

[Guest My_Genesis]

Why lie about it? Not like there's much to lie about...

I was kind of a troublemaker with a bad temper lol. I screamed and shouted at my mom a lot, had a lot of tantrums...

In elementary school I got into trouble all the time for a variety of things...I was pretty curious though, and I asked questions about almost anything. For some reason I always let girls take advantage of me because I could never say no (at elementary school age this refers to things like giving food away at lunch, so that what started out as 5 Oreos would end up as me only eating one...in case anyone had anything different in mind )

In Kindergarten I started seeing a counselor at school, I don't remember it very well but my mom said it was because my teacher thought I was having trouble adjusting to having a little sister (she was born November of my kindergarten year). So that continued through elementary school, I didn't like seeing a counselor but pretty much everyone (teachers, my mom, the counselors themselves...) encouraged me to continue. In third grade I was put on anti depressants (half of the smallest adult dose mind you..) and apparently they worked because my teacher would tell my mom there was such a remarkable improvement in my work and social interactions. By 5th grade I was tired of seeing a counselor because I was just getting sick of being pulled out of class for someone to ask me personal questions, I kinda felt like I was being interrogated.

I used to play with my dad on weekends...stuff like blocks and Lincoln logs, card games, memory games, puzzles and stuff. And he taught me how to play baseball at 8 years old which is now really the only ball/team sport I don't completely suck at now lol. I always wanted to do better than my guy friends at sports and stuff, I guess I was competitive - on a mental level if nothing else - but that became difficult when I didn't have a lot of opportunity to play sports or video games. To this day I've never had my own game console and that kinda makes me mad When i was a little older i learned how to entertain myself with all that stuff, like i would sit on the floor in my room and roll little hot wheels cars back and forth, have them have contests with each other to see which ones can flip over the most without landing upside down...

i guess basically i learned how to entertain myself since it was so difficult for me to interact with my friends outside school. (Whether that was because of my mom's control issues, personal preference or a combination of both I have yet to figure out.)

I always wanted that picture perfect type family...big house in the suburbs, friends to walk to and from school with, all that...

And since that doesn't seem to be a possibility with my own family I guess that's now what I want for my own future..although the thought of having kids does kinda scare me. ..I think that whole picture perfect thing is part of the reason I can be obsessed with conformity and stereotypes sometimes..lol.

But now that I'm in college looking back at my childhood really just depresses me, I guess because now that I'm not living with my parents all the time, in retrospect i realize how isolated a life I lived mainly because my mom was really controlling, money was always tight, my dad was always at work and didn't stand up to her (and therefore didn't really stand up for the rest of the family)....by high school I didn't have many friends...actually I felt like I just couldn't really be close enough to anyone to make any close friends.. I just wanted to leave home, I felt so stuck, trapped and oppressed as a human being...I grew up in NYC, and never would I have guessed that you can grow up on a tiny plot of land populated by about 8 million people, and feel more alone than ever...it also made me claustrophobic, which I think is one reason I developed problems with anxiety lol

WOW...sorry to turn this into an abridged autobiography lol....this stuff has been on my mind lately though, because it's easier for me to see now what I've missed out on and that can really bug me sometimes.

[Guest leo]

come to think of it

i played football and such when i was younger,

i was raised with 3 brothers so i did what they did

we used to build little tents from sheets in our room

we used to fight a lot and get into trouble

i used to fight a lot at school with the boys never girls

all through till i was 11 i plyed football and hung out with guys

but when i hit high school i was no longer allowed to play football as i was a 'girl'

so i socialised with girls but never enjoyed it

[Guest Leigh]

well...i was very isolated as a child, and when i was around people i often acted out...i guess you could say i either loved or hated everyone i met.

i have a big family (6 kids..) so i guess i didn't get a lot of one on one with my mom. i spent most of my time with my brother who's before me in line and my baby sister.

apparently i was the alpha male i the group, but i don't really remember... oh, i just remembered that my brother wanted to be a girl when he was younger... i guess it really is genetic.

anyway..back to me. i loved to play out doors, adventure games, digging a hole to the center of the earth...we played army and ninja... i never really played sports, which i regret, but my mum wanted me to do ballet.. which i hated. i threw a tantrum the first day, and i'd just come from McD's and had some ketchup packets and a smashed them all over the floor...lol..i was an angry kid.

other than that, i've always been kind of a mystic, and into art. i think i was a hippie in a past life..lol..so that might be part of it.

i guess i was mostly a loner, and i kind of hated the kids i knew because i had to play with the girls all the time, and none of the boys wanted to play with me cuz they were scared of me...

oh well...

peace&respect

[Guest CharlieRose]

I learned how to read when I was very young, and I was obsessed with biology. We still have like fifty kid's guide to animal type books on the shelf. I loved dinosaurs, reptiles, sharks, and big cats. I watched animal planet, discovery channel and every other show about animals I could find.

I also was very stubborn and antisocial. I would read books for hours. At like my fourth birthday party I apparently asked my parents if they could make everyone go home early.

[Flint]

Hmm when i was a little boy i had 2 personas with a big difference.

School persona:

Shy, quiet boy. The kid that sits at the back of the class and appears to be getting on with his work. Although i never actually did get much work done i tended to write over teh same lines over and over again making it look like i was writing away. I was terrified of confrontation and was very easily upset due to depression. At school i was the loner, the subject of laughter and often name calling and the occasional beating.

Home, playing on the street persona:

At home on the street playing with the other kids i was suddnly quite a confident little boy, i often was the one in control of the games we'd play i appeared to be the confident boy on the street that the other kids for some reason appeared to look up to, either the kid looked up to me or they felt intimidated by me. Some kids felt intimidated by me i have to regretabbly say and others that were part of my group lookded up to me. I was the leader, the confident leader who seemed to know what he was doing. I was loud, playful and full of energy. i liked to ride my bike, run, walk as much as i could regarding my heart condition and i loved to play football and go out on my scooter. I loved hanging out in the woods behind the house, i spent most of my early teens there.

School i looked like a vulnerable, tired boy. Home on the street playing i looked like a boy full of life, full of ideas full of confidence. My confidence was sometimes tested however and i did show signs that my confidence wasn't quite what it looked to be.

[Guest Eagledancer]

I was my Dad's little fisherman. I loved to hunt, fish, ride horses and work cattle in the summers. I played Cowboys and Indians and was always the expert bowman. I was every girl's shoulder to cry on, and I put many a bully on their butt on the playground. I laughed and cried. I believed that "puberty" would bring me my physical change I so desired, so I tried to earn my way to manhood. I was a good boy. I expected respect while respectful. I championed for the underdog. I felt pain both physically and mentally, but I did not show it. My parents are both deceased, so I do appreciate the chance this post gave for me to reminisce about my foundational years. Kudos to you for bringing up the idea.

[Guest Evan_J]

I was a pretty good kid and yet "rambunctious". I didn't get in any serious trouble when I was small, I always stuck up for "the good kid", was pretty quiet (very cerebral) liked playing cards with my grandfather and racing on my bike. HOWEVER I was the kid that also thought it was a great idea to tie one end of a sheet to the bed and the other to myself and jump down the laundry chute I also was the kid that the firedepartment had to be called for cuz I got both me and my dog stuck in the stair bannister. ....there were several trips to the emergency room too...... to sew up my chin and cut my teeth out of the gums after a fall..... sticking a stick from a sucker in my ear..... twisting my kneecap to the back..... um....so I was "busy" lol. The best one was my grandfather who instinctively knew to tell me not to jump off the garage...I never figured out how he knew I was thinking of doing that lol.

[Guest Jackson]

Okay, okay.

I was my father's shadow: milking cows, putting up hay in the barn, playing out in the back acres with my younger brother, swimming in the creek in the summer, skating on the puddle that always seemed to form and freeze in the winter. Although I was a very good boy in school (other than being bored out of my skull), I was a little bit of a daredevil at home. Racing bike on the new concrete put down for our cattle feeder. Trying to ride a calf and getting kicked in the chin. I showed cattle and judged land for 4-H. I loved eating crab apples and reading books by the creek. Fishing always seemed a little boring since we only caught chubs. If the creek would have had bigger and better fish, I probably would have enjoyed it. Watching crawfish in the water.

I always subscribed to the adage "Children should be seen and not heard," when I was in public and not alone. Where I got that I have no idea.

I will always kind of miss those summers of having 186 acres of land and not a responsibility in the world. I could "run away" from home and camp in the pasture. Go raccoon hunting with the coon hounds at night after we'd finished all the chores. Playing baseball with my brother and my mom as we waited for my dad to finish up in the barn.

Those were the days.

[Guest StrandedOutThere]

I was a nerdy little book boy. My favorite toys were Transformers, Battle Beasts, G.I. Joe, He-Man, and any kind of R/C or Matchbox car (or truck). I really, really, really wanted this: USS Flagg

...but I ended up getting this instead: Mobile Command Center

Oh...and I was all about dinosaurs for a good period of time. Who am I kidding? I still love dinosaurs. Any of you older guys remember Dino Riders?

Sometimes I'd go outside. I liked to ride bikes. Several of the neighborhood kids made a pretty rockin' BMX track near my house, over by the railroad tracks. We weren't supposed to play by the railroad tracks, but we always did it anyway. My friends and I would also spend a lot of time building forts in the woods near home and planning "missions". We'd run around with water guns (this was back before they painted them so they wouldn't look like real guns) and pretended we were at war.

When I was older, say 5th grade on, I would spend a lot of time reading. I was (and still am) really in to sci-fi. Let's see....I read a bunch of Star Trek: The Next Generation novels. I read a lot of Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut, and Frank Herbert books. My mother made me a ST:TNG uniform for Halloween when I was in 6th grade. No one told me how nerdy it was to wear the shirt from the uniform to school....on days that were not Halloween. Thank goodness I went to a private school where most people were as clueless as me.

Oh, and then there were the video games. Back in 1988 or so, my dad got me an Atari 7800. I will still school you young fellows on any classic game. Try me. Q-Bert. Frogger. I'm awesome. If anyone is into classic games, PM me.

We got a Nintendo, one of the old 8 bit ones, in like 1989. After that I was obsessed with video games and with being the best. My mom wouldn't buy me many games, so I got REALLY good at the ones I had. I don't know if I can do it now, but a used to be able to play the first level on Super Mario Brothers 1 without looking at the screen.

Now that I live in grown up land I have much less time for my toys, but I still have them around. I have a ridiculous video game collection. My action figures are packed up, but I plan to display them in my office once I have a permanent residence. Nerd pride!

[Guest Cody_T]

nerd! Read everything. I'm not even kidding. I was super active as well, but I'd say that the most noticeable thing about my childhood (I consider it fourth grade and below, followed by the "missing years") was reading. From Nancy Drew/The Hardy Boys (they were practically the same characters but with different genders, although the second did have more time spent on cars than clothes... basically I considered them interchangeable), to the Hobbit (to this day only JRR book I've read fully/liked) to the random parenting book my parents left lying around the house to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book that my dad gave me as a "present" when I was 9 or 10. I literally would read anything and everything. I still do, but I have a little more limits (okay, not really... it turns out that the Gossip Girl series is actually really addicting!)(but in a "I read it because I had nothing else to do and would never read them realistically" way). So I spent all my free time reading, in class (I consider classes to be free time, because I'm there, aren't I? I'm fulfilling my obligation), on the playground, while walking, while biking, while skateboarding, while rollerblading (my mom once got a worried call from a neighbor about this ).

Aside from that... we played a ton of sports, kickball and soccer and baseball in the street (never broke a window either! Although there were close calls), football in the empty lot sometimes. Did crazy random stunts on bikes and razors, got not so random resultant scrapes and bruises. Attempted to make spy and ninja movies (never actually did), watched fake wrestling, created a club thing that we built ladders and swings for with the scrap lumber from the job sites from our neighborhood, etc. Oh and considering that I was pre-homosexual and all... I liked sewing clothes for stuffed animals, and everything artsy/craftsy.

All in all, I wasn't very into toys. My favorite was probably legos... but I really just had the most fun when we messed around with my dad's tools. And of course, when reading

[Guest Liam]

When I was a kid, I read a lot. I learned to read when I was 3, and I used to just sit in my room and read all day. My brother would come to me and beg me to play some board game, and I would tell him that I didn't want to, that I would rather read. I didn't read all the time, though. I played with blocks quite a bit. My brother and I would build houses for stuffed animals, ramps for trucks, etc. I had dolls, and I used them in order to make up stories. Basically, I would set the doll on the ground and make up a story in my head about it. I would continue these stories at night when I was trying to fall asleep, and would often have stories running for weeks at a time. They were often about homeless children; I don't really know why. I hated "playing with dolls," though. I never really understood it. My friend used to want to play Barbies with me, and she would hold up the doll and pretend it was talking and ask my doll to go to the mall with it or whatever, and I thought that was kind of weird. I rode my bike around the neighborhood, and sometimes rollerbladed or borrowed my brother's razor scooter thing. I played a fair amount of hide-and-seek with my brother and my cousin, and sometimes played basketball or catch with my brother in the front yard. In the summers I swam a lot. I was also involved in some organized activities - soccer, basketball, softball (which I was terrible at), ballet (which I was also terrible at), church choir. In general, though, I was a really quiet kid, really shy. I usually preferred to be alone.

[Guest Zack L]

Hm...I've never been very athletic, but me and my two best friends hung out in our tree fort and threw rocks at the little girl invaders. We played video games (POKEMON!), shot each other with nerf and water guns, and ran around being loud an obnoxious. Out of the three of us I tended to be the one who thought about the consequences of what we did...but ended up going along with it all anyway. I sometimes tried to get my Dad to play catch with me, but he was more interested in trying to make me play with dolls, so I gave up. I raced my friends on bikes, skates...anything but feet since I'm kinda slow. XD I never got to play with blocks since I never had any as a kid. Didn't really have legos either. Since I didn't really have a sibling as a kid I had to play stuff alone a lot...my parents tried to force barbies but I managed to convince them to buy me a gameboy, and I never stopped playing games. =3

Fortunately I now have a little brother, and when I see him we wrestle, race around, and play catch. It's nice, cause when see him the little boy inside me who didn't realy get a chance to live can come out and play! =D

[Guest Tay-Tay]

i grew up on a farm i ran around caused trouble played in the mud rode with my dad in the tractors played with legos and i got my sister in trouble! i had a great time the only thing that sucked was that my parents said she and her and gah but other then that i had a fun time

[Guest Keane]

My mom made me be a pretty little angel, and I played with dolls sometimes but I liked stuffed animals better. They were my best friends :] And I was a wimp because she raised me to be one. When she'd try to dress me up I'd act like I have a huge stick up my butt all the way up till I was 14. I think I started rebelling around age 10 and she got squeamish

I never really got to be a little boy :/

[Guest Sergei]

I was the same as I am now. I didn't believe in gender stereotypes. I dress how I wanted regardless of if the clothes were for "male" or "female" and I played with the toys I like. Barbies one day, lego and mechano the next. I was completely comfortable with my interests regardless of what stereotypical gender catagory they fell into. I don't ever intend to go stealth though, so my mother can talk about the past as it was. I'm a proud transman and enjoy being seen as one.

[Guest Jacobox]

When I was little I was into the action figures and of course pokemon, digimon, yu-gi-oh (those were the shows) I like playing with spiderman, and batman. I read comic books and other stuff. When i was little I liked a lot of girly things (which I regret deeply) I liked barbies and bartz. I wore girly clothes and felt pretty (it makes my skin crawl).