What was a strange experience you had as a child that you didn't know was incredibly disturbing until you were older?

I have a few. They aren't too traumatizing though.

  1. I remember I was at a neighbors house where I spent a lot of time. Not sure why, nobody there was close to my age. I was 8 and the "kids" were 16 and 18 year old girls. The 18 year old was autistic. The dad was an alcoholic. He came home and was drunk. The family made plans to go get takeout. I didn't want to go home yet so I went with them, even though I knew I wasn't allowed to (dad's rule). We get to the restaurant and the mom and 16 year old go in to get the food leaving myself and the autistic daughter with the drunk dad. While we wait he thought it would be funny to drive away, and he did. I thought it was funny at first but it wasn't until we got pretty far that I started to panic. I remember him yelling out at a group of kids we drove past. Finally I demanded we went back and told him he was being stupid. Thankfully he went back to the restaurant and I never told anyone about it.

  2. Another neighbor also had an alcoholic father but they had kids my age. I was about 9 or so. I was at their house, I wasnt suppose to be in their house because, again, it was my dad's rule but I was a stubborn brat. It was around dinner time and I remember the mom was acting really nervous and was panicking. She only spoke Spanish though so I didn't know what exactly was going on. Her kids also seemed worried. I knew their dad was coming home, though. She gets us all ready to go and we rush to the car and she drives us to a grocery store, but she parks behind it. I'm freaking out because I knew my dad would be pissed if he knew I was in someone's car. I call my dad on their cellphone and tell them what is happening and next thing I know my neighbor friends and their mom are spending the night at our house and we have to keep the blinds closed so their dad doesnt see them. A few months after this, the dad went to prison for beating his wife after coming home drunk and my neighbor friends got taken away for a brief period of time.

  3. We lived in a tiny ass house so my brother and I shared a room (my sister moved out). My dad never let us close the door when we went to bed. ever. We never understood it until years later when we learned my dad used to molest his sister (aunt spoke out). I guess he didn't want history repeating itself?

  4. My brother forgot his towel (probably 10 years old) when he went to take a shower and my dad refused to bring him one and demanded he get a towel himself (naked in front of everyone) even though my brother was sobbing.

  5. My dad would always insist he get in our beds and cuddle with us even when we were well over the cuddling age. (12-16) Or if he was laying on the couch he would insist we lay with him "no" wasn't really an answer.

  6. I remember when I was 8 or 9, we went to a religious gathering at a church friends house once a week. I used to hang out and bother the teenagers that were there every time. I remember this guy and girl from my church were flirting and talking. The guy says he wanted to ask her something but he can't ask in front of everyone else. I'm close by. He takes her into the garage then comes back out and says that I can hear it, and tells me to come with them. Then he asks her, "If we dated, would you have sex with me?" And she says "yes" I still don't get why he wanted me in the room for that. I was so little.

  7. At this religious gathering at the house they had a big ball that I used to love "bouncing" on because it felt really good. I would "bounce" on it for hours. Eventually, a year or so later, the woman of the house deflated the ball so that it wasn't so firm and the ball didn't feel good anymore. I later realized that I was literally getting off on a ball for hours at someone's house in front of a lot of people in the room, usually the teenagers.

/r/AskReddit Thread