My late grandmother inadvertently introduced me to a group of her friends by my former last name. I remember being so shocked to hear her refer to me incorrectly (we were very close) that I rushed to correct her publicly. To this day I don't know why I didn't just keep my mouth shut, because it really didn't matter. I still regret calling attention to her mistake and embarrassing her in front of others. It seems like a small thing, but I wish I had been more sensitive to how my slightly outraged correction must have made her feel.

I don’t remember anything I said, exactly, but I remember being slightly exasperated with my sweet mom on my wedding day. :( There is a part of the video where a little before I was heading down the aisle, and she was adjusting something on my dress and on the video you can see I just sort of like, dismissed her or something. I was just nervous (we had a huge wedding) and was just using her as a convenient target bc she was, well, my mom, and would always love me, lol. I so wish I had been not so witchy (but with a B, lol.) Now that I am a mom, I can see how much kids unload on their moms since they love you unconditionally...but I wish I could have that moment back.

I don’t think so. I don’t remember anything and I’m sure I would recall if I’d done something like that. I don’t say hurtful things to people now and I think that’s probably been my nature all along.

Probably ;-)

lol, Terriks! Ida, were you able to apologize? I know I felt guilty after I said what I did, but was too scared and embarrassed to say I'm sorry.

Nini, it probably stung for your mom but it's a normal thing for children do to their moms because of unconditional love. Who else can they lash out to?

3katz, I've noticed how incredibly kind you are. Out of curiosity, did your parents teach you kindness?

My story. I've mentioned before that all but one of my grandparents had died before I was born. Not having a grandmother has bothered me to this day and it obviously bothered me at the time it happened.

I had a step-grandmother who was so nice to me, but I put up a wall between us. We went to the grocery store and my grandmother knew the lady checking the groceries.

My step-g introduced me as her granddaughter and I immediately corrected her and said, "She's not my grandmother." Yikes! I never talked like that to people either.

I sure with I could apologize.

Absolutely. I said things to my parents in anger. I have said hurtful things to friends and family. Again, usually it is anger-fueled.

Sometimes my "filter" is off and things just slip out. Sorry.

When I was quite young I told my mom that if she and my dad got a divorce I wanted to live with him.

I remember it vividly. Grade school, 4th or 5th grade, ice skating at our village outdoor rink. A girl who lived around the corner from me, not a close friend but we would play with other neighborhood kids as a group (Spud, Capture the flag etc) was skating by herself around the rink. A group of popular/mean girls began skating after her, calling her names, taunting her. I was there with a friend who joined in with the mean girls while I stood frozen on the perimeter watching - until they came around for another lap when my friend grabbed my hand and pulled me into the group. To this day the shame I feel makes me flush.

The things we say as children cannot possibly be held against us. Well, I would hope anyway. We're still learning, growing, finding our way and discovering how and where we fit. We're all bound to have made less-than-appropriate comments from time to time. I am really haunted so much more by the things that have come out of my mouth in adulthood. I did talk to my grandmother about the incident I described above, and she was very nonchalant about the whole thing. Obviously, it troubled me far more than it did her, but to this day I wish I had not said what I did during the introduction. I think that most of us who participate here tend to be quite introspective, and this both helps and harms us as we look back over our past regrets.

I have a sharp tongue. I regret a lot of terrible things I said in anger. I almost always apologized, but once I became a mother I realized how hurtful a child's words could be. My mother knew me well, so it was mostly ok, but I wish I had behaved differently.

I was the brunt of incessant teasing in my home growing up. The stories of how I was pushed to exasperation till I would stomp up the stairs to be alone (they lived in the apartment downstairs) are told with such mirth to this day. This ended when I was around 7 and my older cousin moved away (with his younger sister who was also on the receiving end). and my then teen siblings found more interesting hobbies.

As an adolescent/teen I said some pretty terrible stuff to my mom.

Looking back on it now, I’m trying to forgive myself, my siblings and my mom. I’ve carried this baggage around too long. I took what they said to heart. We still can’t/don’t discuss it.

To this day I don’t know how that was allowed to go on. It never happened on Sundays when my father was home.

I now am my mother’s caregiver. She is 90 and legally blind.

Sorry. I vented.

I suggest you forgive yourself. You were just a kid.

Thank you, Michele. Being teased is terrible.

Yep. Loads of things. Sigh.

I was an unruly teenager. Got straight A's in school and was a generally a model of decorum outside of my home - but inside a battle raged between my parents and me for years.

My parents, may God rest their souls, both had a pretty mean streak in them. Now that I'm older I realize they did love me and they raised me the only way they knew how. They were a product of their own upbringings too, which were not good. Lots of hurtful stuff was said over the years.

I wish I could go back in time and be nicer to them. And I also wish they had the skills to be nicer to me as a child too. Looking back, I was actually a pretty darn good kid. Got good grades and never needed to be hassled about studying or doing well in school, I wasn't really a behavior problem in any way. Yet somehow my parents managed to make me feel like I was a horrible child and a source of endless shame and embarrassment to them.

So yeah, lots of things come to mind for me on this. Unfortunately.

Oakley - thank you for that nice compliment. I guess my parents must have taught me to be kind though I don't remember anything specific other than the golden rule. I think there have been other significant events in my life that have greatly influenced the kind of person I am today.

Wow. I think I love this topic. Better than a GTKY. I do pop off at the mouth when someone deliberately hurts me, then I say something I always regret, although I meant what I said, but it's not often. By nature I'm sarcastic & can't help it. Neither of my parents were sarcastic so I have no idea where it came from and why.

My biggest humiliation as a child happened in 4th grade. My brother was a year older than me and he had the prettiest & nicest teacher in 4th grade and I couldn't wait for her to be my teacher.

One day in class with her, she stepped out of the room. When she came back she asked who "talked" while she was gone. Of course little Miss Hall Monitor told the teacher, and for once I wasn't the one talking.

The teacher gave them each a paddle on their bottoms & I started laughing. She called my name and gave me a whopper of a paddling.

The horror! lol

This is humorous looking back, but mean none-the-less. When I was about five, the plastic trolls with the wild hair were making their first go-around as a popular toy. We had some, and my brother was about 3. I told him they had magical powers, and they were my friends, and if he didn't do what I said, we would make him disappear and never bring him back. I went on to say that there was a witch in the car, same deal. And then I even went on to start in with magical incantations a couple of time if he wasn't scared enough. First my parents were frustrated as to why my brother suddenly became terrified of the Chevy station wagon, and no amount of logic could convince him otherwise. Because you see, only I could communicate with the witch, not Mom and Dad. Then, one bedtime, when Mom was trying to figure out why he was so upset and scared, he spilled all the beans. She stormed into my room, and was pretty darn upset, rightfully so. I was so focused on getting what I wanted from my little brother, I didn't think about how I was scaring him and making his life miserable, not to mention lying and taking unfair advantage of someone younger than me. Once it dawned on me, even at five, I felt horrible, horrible. And every time I think about that story, I want to go back in time and smack myself upside the head!

Pink: I like the part that "only you could communicate with the witch, not mom or dad"....smart little kid!!

The funny thing is it took my mom quite a while to figure out why he was obsessing about the trolls! Particularly difficult to get at the truth when the trolls were in the room listening as he ratted them out and I was down the hall, getting ready to wave the magic wand . . .This was a horrible thing really.

Pink, you and my big brother would have gotten along swell. He always had more money than me and one time he said I could have a peanut M&M for a nickel a piece. So I paid a nickel for each M&M. It was night and I couldn't go out and get my own. lol

Patrice, I meant to reply to you earlier. I'm so sorry your parents made you feel worthless. My dad treated me well, but my mom told me when I was in my 30's that when we were children she loved my brother more than me.

She also told me she loved my kids more than my brother's. Who says such things?