“This is so unfair!” It’s a phrase you’ve likely uttered to your parents after getting grounded for something that felt undeserved. However, looking back, you can probably agree that most of the things you were punished for were probably justified.
…Except for that *one* thing that truly was incredibly unfair. In a recent Reddit thread, people reminisced on the one time they were disciplined when they were younger when they felt like it wasn’t at all deserved—and they’re STILL not over it.
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“That’s Not Your Necklace!”
“When I was 4 I had a little red rocking horse necklace. It was my favorite. I wore it to a puppet show my dad took me to one day and took it off and put it beside me. The kid next to me picked it up and wouldn’t give it back. We fought. My dad told her dad he didn’t recognize the necklace and let her take it. I’m 45 and still salty.”
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“I Know I’m Right!”
“We were on a field trip to some Washington forest and the ranger started asking about products that grow in or are made from forests. 3rd grade me who had just discovered in some Ranger Rick article that latex rubber comes from tree trunks confidently raised my hand to share. “Uh rubber from trees, now that doesn’t sound right does it” and she moved onto another. 35 years later and the salt is still there.”
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“I Did Have to Pee!”
“When I was about 6, during daycare naptime I had to go pee. The ’teacher’ said I couldn’t go because I’d “…already gone once.” I hadn’t. So I laid back down and proceeded to pee my pants. My mom would arrive to pick me up before naptime was over. When she arrived she saw my wet pants and asked me what happened. The “teacher” was standing right there and I was so embarrassed and ashamed that I said something to the effect of “Somebody poured a glass of water on me.” It took me 30 years to realize that a) only allowing kids to go to the bathroom once every 4 hours is messed up and b) even if I had already gone once, it takes a real f*cker to not let a little kid go to the bathroom and then to stand there while they make up stories to explain why they wet their pants. I hope that lady has painful incontinence.”
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“I Wasn’t Talking!”
“A teacher thought I was talking when I was the only silent kid in the class and didn’t let me do some sort of activity the rest were doing.”
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“I Was Just Sharing!”
“My second grade teacher had a reward system for grades. It was a candy-dispensing machine that you twist and candy came out. 2 twist for an A and 1 twist for a B. I got a B and got my candy, gave it to someone else then went to sit down and she accused me of taking an extra twist, and told me stealing was wrong. I told her I actually took one and gave it away cause I didn’t like chocolate and thought M&Ms were nasty. And she told me, ‘we don’t call things nasty’ and made me go to my desk and put my head down as a punishment.”
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“That Was a Gift!”
“We had a special arts and crafts week when I was about six, maybe younger. I made my dad a Christmas stocking out of clay, because I’d always thought it was unjust that he didn’t have one. It was going to be my Christmas presents to him. I took it to the teacher to show her, and so it could be fired later. She methodically destroyed it by balling it up in her hands, and then tried to put it down to a brain fart. I was shocked, but mostly I wanted a replacement stocking, since it was meant to be a gift. I asked her to remake it for me, since she, a teacher, would be allowed to use the clay any time, but I only had a few minutes left. The next day I was told I’d been bad and I wasn’t allowed to participate in the arts and crafts week any more, and that was that.”
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“But I’m a Good Kid!”
“Once a week, in kindergarten, they would pick a name of a kid who would win a toy. Only good kids could participate. I was always a good kid, but not really lucky. My name got picked only once in the whole year. That day, unfortunately for me, I was next to a kid who would not shut up during the lesson. I spoke once to ask him to please stop talking. Guess who the teacher chose to punish for disturbing the lesson? That’s right. Me. Didn’t get my toy.”
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“But That Wasn’t My Phone!”
“Someone’s phone went off in class, so teacher demanded that person turn their phone it. No one budges. She holds us in class for a good 20 minutes into the next period antagonizing us about this phone that rung. Eventually she let us go and warned all other teachers about this phone incident. My 8th period teacher then gets involved and antagonizes us all again. Said he was gonna stand out in the hall and whoever knows anything to report to him. Some kid went out there and said it was my phone. I got yelled at, got written up for Saturday detention, and later that year found out the kid who told on me was the one who’s phone rung in class.”
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“I Was Just Being Honest!”
“In 4th grade our teacher told us to write a paper about what we thought of our school, now our school wasn’t great and I was homeschooled up until that year and struggling with the change so wrote about my frustrations and how I was generally unhappy with it and she insulted me in front of everybody until the point that I cried and then told me I should get up and read the paper too the class, I refused and she made me rewrite that paper until it was positive, you know instead of trying too help me with the problems I had.”
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“She Just Wants What I Have!”
“When I was younger my family didn’t have much money. Like at all really. I really wanted a telescope because at the time I was super into space exploration and i kept seeing people talk about looking at the planets through a telescope. Mom picked one up from a yard sale that was missing all its lenses, everything you looked at was blurry. I tried for two months straight to figure out a way to use it but to no avail. My little sister has always wanted to do everything I want to do, to a point i no linger talk about things I’m interested in as she gets literally everything she could possibly want/need for these interests while I had to make do. Anyways she got a brand new discovery channel telescope with fancy lenses and she hasn’t taken it out of the box once.”
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”But I Really Am Sick!”
“I used to get 2 comics delivered on Saturday mornings. Highlight of my week! Wasn’t allowed to read them unless I finished my breakfast. I felt really sick and didn’t want to eat, dad ripped up my comics. As I was protesting they noticed a few red spots on my arm, took off my shirt and I had measles. No apology, no comics. I was so mad that in now 41 and it pisses me right off.”
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“It Wasn’t Me!”
“A teacher thought I was talking when I was the only silent kid in the class and didn’t let me do some sort of activity the rest were doing.”
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“That’s Not My Garbage!”
“In kindergarten, we sat on this foam mat made out of large puzzle pieces, and we were all assigned one. My puzzle neighbor, Tommy, threw his garbage onto my square. Every time I pushed it off, he’d put it back. I eventually got mad and told him to knock it off, and the teacher noticed and yelled at me for throwing garbage into his square. I sat out for the rest of the day and my pin was brought down to ‘bad day’. I accidentally broke his nose on the metal spider a few weeks after during tag, though.”
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“Why Take My Favorite Toy?!”
“It was the 80s. My uncle gave me KITT from Knight Rider for my birthday. It was by far my FAVORITE toy. Shortly after, my dad accused me of a crime I didn’t commit. No matter what I said he didn’t believe me. As punishment, he took KITT and gave it to goodwill. I’m 40 and I’ve yet to forgive my dad for that.”
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“I Told You I Didn’t Feel Good!”
“My 4th grade teacher refused to let me go to the nurse when I said my stomach hurt. I threw up on the floor and she got mad at me for it. Fu*k you, Mrs. Gibson.”
Is there an instance you can think of where you were punished and didn’t deserve it—and you’re still annoyed about it?