How different were you as a child?

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At school, throughout my childhood, the other kids always regarded me as a freak and an outcast, for reasons I never understood. At home, there were some kids in the neighborhood who played with me, attracted by the swing set in my family's back yard. These kids were all 2 to 4 years younger than me. Kids my age wanted nothing to do with me. Even the younger kids who did play with me regarded me as a freak, though they tolerated me.

When I was in kindergarten my parents were told that I was socially underdeveloped and therefore had to either repeat kindergarten or attend a smaller school. My parents decided to enroll me in a small Lutheran school.

I did very well academically, which my parents were proud of. My parents were also proud of my musical ability (I figured out how to play the piano by ear at age 4, including chords, though I never reached professional musician quality). As a result there were always SOME aspects of my life that I felt good about, despite being an outcast among age-peers.

Socially, things actually started to get a little better for me in high school. In the parochial schools I attended for grades 1 to 8, all the other kids were in one big clique that excluded me. In high school (the Bronx High School of Science), there were lots of little cliques and no one group I had to belong to or else. Most kids just left me alone, which was a relief. And I eventually managed to make my first friend (though that friendship did not last beyond high school).

In college I joined the local Gay Liberation Front (I'm bisexual; this was before what was then called the "gay" community began officially calling itself the "LGBT" community), where I earned positive strokes for my letters to the college newspaper responding to the campus religious right wingers. Alas, soon afterward, the Gay Liberation Front changed its name to the Gay Academic Union and became more of a social club, where I no longer fit in.

I have always sought ways to avoid pressure to conform. I worked as an electronic engineer in the mid-to-late 1980's and early 1990's, back when geeks were geeky. I now do work-at-home computer programming (not making nearly as much money as is made by programmers in corporate offices). I live in a cosmopolitan neighborhood with immigrants from many different countries around the world. And, throughout my adulthood, I have always sought friends in oddball subcultures of one kind or another.

To be honest, I was basically the same as a child as I am now, except for being less moral. I don't think I've changed in any other respect since I was ten or so, except that I was also smaller (assuming that's possible) back then.

I wasn't easy to be around when I was a child, right up until my early 20s really. I'm more like a proper adult now; I actually enjoy myself when I'm out, instead of whinging all the time like I used to. In my late teens/early 20s I used to get easily agitated, which made me become aloof, moody and disinterested. Now I am pleasant to be out with, and I'm confident and independent too. When I was younger I was afraid to pay for things in stores, instead I would ask my mum to do it for me. Now I know what I'm doing and just get on with it, without feeling anxious or shy. My social skills have noticably progressed. I am pleased with myself.

Answer same as wrong citizen


Homophobic precious lil "people" no job, no hobby, no skills, no job skills, make it worse

I was a very headstrong, opinionated, stubborn, imaginative, and creative kid. When I was a teenager, all of that stuff got submerged, and I became really shy, quiet, and docile.

I’m embracing my inner child more these days because I’ve realized that there’s nothing wrong with who I was. My quirks just needed to be properly channeled.

It’s okay if not everyone likes me or approves of me.

very different

was nonverbal up until the age of 8

never had any tantrums or meltdowns until puberty(only time I cried was when I hurt myself

therapists thought I will always be low functioning or 'ret*d''


now I'm a bus driver.

When the other kids in the neighborhood were playing "Cowboys and Indians" or "Cops and Robbers", I was off by myself playing "Alien Ambassador".

I was fortunate to be an only child. I also lived rather rural, which despite its disadvantages is highly private and quiet. I had immense alone time and I am very grateful for that.

I never shared the interests of my peers. Some family would try to encourage those interests to help me fit in, but it never worked. What the other kids liked was boring, and they often felt the same about my interests. I think Pokémon was the exception where I did share an interest. Even though I became obsessed with music later on, it was a taste apart from my peers, often emphasizing older music.

I was bullied and mocked most of my grade school life. In adolescence, I was accused by people I occasionally played music with that I came across as severely sheltered and naïve. I also had a terrible fashion sense in adolescence and frankly looked embarrassing in retrospect.

I could be weird at home in many ways as well. When I had the place to myself, I would mostly just run around, talking out loud with nonsense, dancing and flailing around being a goof. Those were honestly my happiest moments of childhood, and I'll never forget that strong sensation of disappointment and dread as I heard "whomever" returning. All I really wanted was to be alone.

I was a very focused child who was always forced to believe in things I didn't want to believe. It was like living on the Planet of the Apes being the only human being. Thinking about it a little bit... none of this has changed much to this day.

It depends what part of childhood we're talking about. For me to cover all of it I would possibly be writing a short book

Some things about me have stayed the same but over the years I've had a lot of fluctuations. Some were small and others larger, but never quite the same.

Entering school and the time I spent there I would consider the reason that I did fluctuate so much. I always felt like I was getting it wrong, I felt a need to hide but wanted someone to see. I felt painfully visible but entirely ignored. Who was i supposed to be? What was acceptable? What was the things I was feeling? I didn't know then so I thought the worst of myself. It was chipped away at over the years.

I have more answers I did back then, I understand so much more about myself and the world that I had been living in. I stopped blaming myself so damn much. I was very angry after that but since then I've let go of a lot of that. Still kinda bitter though lol

Early childhood I was kind of dreamer. I had things I wanted, things I thought it would be obvious I would end up getting eventually. Certain matters, things considered 'coming of age" I wanted probably more than the average person. But finding out that many of those things I may never had, many of the things I dreamed about, I simply was not capable of. It was devastating for me to realize all these things I'd wanted just weren't likely, and many never did. I've had to let them go. It's is still taking time for me to re-adjust to what is the reality; emotionally mostly. I'm not that kid anymore.

I know one major difference. With trains, I used to prefer 00 gauge Great Western Railway model trains, but now I prefer 7mm narrow gauge trains to my own freelance model railway company. Quite a major change there... Still model railways though.

I was far more introverted in my childhood, teens, and young adulthood than I am now. I am far more physically active now in my 50s than I was at any other time in my life, except when I was a very little girl. I never played a sport until I began taking tennis lessons at age 50.

-I had ontological insecurity.
-I had a dissociative disorder.
-I Lived in profound confusion.
-Depression was my companion.
-No direction in life.
-No social support.
-And worst of all, no Google!

Life was a blast.
For other people.

I don't make a habit of looking back.
There are very few pleasant memories from back then.

The upside is: Life now is the best it has ever been.
-I have defined who I am.
-I'm in touch with reality.
-I have a considerable degree of life wisdom.
-I haven't been depressed for over 30 years.
-I'm focused on self-actualisation.
-I have Google!

As a child I had selective mutism (I still do, actually) which held me back a lot when meeting new people especially because I didn't ever really want to meet new people. I was quite often described as being "away with the fairies" and I had a really strong "special interest" in animals, specifically dinosaurs.
I always felt as though I was on the outside looking in at the other kids, it never really bothered me much but I always had this really nagging feeling of being different and unable to really relate to other kids like everyone else seemed to be able to do. I now know that it's because I lack emotional attachment and I had no reason or desire to be attached to any of the other kids, but I forced myself because it meant being picked on for being a "loner" if I spent time on my own.
I would cry quite often as a kid because nothing ever really made sense to me, but to everyone else I was just crying for no reason.

I would describe my childhood as a giant slideshow of confusion with a lot of happy fantastical memories thrown in. My childhood remains to be the happiest time of my life.

I never connected with people when I was young either.

Those on the spectrum are known for having an affinity with animals.
I prefer animals to people.


I've used that phrase a million times in my life because it always was true.
I think that might be one of the reasons I am so good a body language and theorising what people are thinking about based on their actions and what they say meaning how they say it. Reading between the lines.
Mostly I can't predict how people are going to respond to me to save my life, however.
We lack: "Theory of mind".



Same here.


At least you had the "fantastical" part.
My childhood was a nightmare. <shudder>

I also embrace my inner pea, I mean child.