my child hood sucked.

I'm glad I never had a mentor. They aren't for everyone.

i think its cool that you volunteer to tutor..but in my school they dont let kids tutor others and i really want to volunteer but i cant find anything where i live or even close to where i live where i can volunteer this posses a big problem? how did you get into the whole tutoring thing??

Yeah... I remember my child hood. When I was really little like 1,2,3.... my Dad was in the air force so we lived on a military base. Then when I was three my Dad retired from the military and we moved out to a ghost town!!! I'm not kidding. The population like 250 people. The we ended up with so many bills!! I have no idea how we had so many. But a lot of times we were short on food. I have an older brother and two older sisters. So, there was 6 people in our family and that's a lot of people to feed. My Dad used to go to like blood banks and sell his blood just so we could have food on the table!! We had to keep the heat off and wear extra layers of clothes. There were a couple of times when people would just show up with food for us. Most of those times we had no food in the house. Except like mustard and relish. :-) Then we really couldn't afford new clothes so we went to school wearing clothes that weren't "as cool as" everybody elses. And kids would tease me and make fun of me. When I got off the bus at the end of the day kids used to pick fights with me. I had a lot of self-esteem issues because of that but things are a lot better now. And, we don't have all those bills, we live in the city, we have enough money and I grew through all of it. My story isn't all that bad. I know that there are a lot of other people who have worse stories than that. And others have great stories!!!! And I'm really thankful that now I can help other people instead of other people always helping me.

Yeah... a few years ago I used to obsess over my childhood, but now I almost forgot what it was like!
I never really had older kids help me out; they always picked on me, and so I was afraid of them. I only have a younger sister, who's almost 17 now. We're like best friends now, but I used to get really annoyed with her, and I almost hated her. We got into some pretty violent fights; I could be really evil when I fought her. Then I had to teach her to read and do math (because everyone else was either too busy or too lazy to do it...), and she has a learning disorder. Those were some REALLY trying times... When I asked to her to read to me, she'd just describe the pictures in the book. When I tried to get her to multiply, she'd try to manipulate me into telling her the answers! I wasn't at all patient, and I'd get really mad and even hit her when she did that. I was a bad older sister...
My own childhood was mixed. My grandparents sometimes used to take care of my sister and I, and spoil us rotten. But the kids at school were sadistic little snobs who made fun of my hair (red), my clothes (from Pic and Save or Target), my voice (they asked me if my parents lied when they said I was a girl... I have a really deep voice), my behavior (I was diagnosed with a mental disorder called Tourette's Syndrome when I was about 9), my love of horses... I could go on forever! And since I was such a stubborn, hyper, bad-tempered and just plain hard-to-handle kind of kid, a lot of adults couldn't deal with me. I got sent to the principal's office every other week in elementary school! My parents couldn't deal with me either; usually my mom was very loving, but sometimes she would verbally abuse me, or even hit me. I think she has problems with depression...
I love kids, and I think I'm better at handling them than when I was younger. They like me because I'm like a big kid myself: I like to get down on the floor and play games with them, treat them as equals. One problem... they seem to be afraid of me ever since I started wearing makeup! LOL! I really want kids of my own some day...

Jill

P.S: Quick question for you all... did you have nicknames when you were little that no one uses anymore?? Sometimes my parents called me "Squeaky", because that was the exact opposite of how my voice sounded. LOL

I still am a child, but i know where you mean. Quite a few of my friends are about 18 or 19 and are a really great help to me. And i'd like to be able to help others the way they've helped me...when i'm older.

I am the youngest of three girls and my sisters are a lot older then me one is 13 years older and the other is 17 years older. I always wanted a little sister though. My mom watched my two younger cousins so they were like part time bros for the years she watched them. I still want to have a little bro or sis maybe through big brothers, big sisters in a few years, so i can do what my sisters did for me. I do have a new baby nephew though, and i am going to do everything my sisters did for me for him. I send him a card for every holiday like my oldest sister did for me, and i pick up cute little things for him when i see something that he would like. i think my attitude toward children would have been the same though without my younger cousins because I grew up around adults more and always wanted to help younger children. I still make helping children my biggest cause and I can't stand ANY type of child abuse(verbal included). i love working with kids and i would love younger sisters.

I have 7 brothers and sisters and I'm the oldest but I cannot really answer b/c we got taken away from our mother b/c she went buck wild after all of the abuse ended..so I haven't lived with them for years!! But I have a little one of my own, and growing up with 7 kids as a child makes me not want to have anymore kids,(ok MAYBE one ) Who knows, I just know for sure I could never handle that many children!!

How many of y'all have little brothers or sisters? Do you feel like your attitude towards children is changed because you have a couple of little monsters at your house (j/k about the monster part)? And only children, do you feel like you would love to be a big brother or sister, or are you just as glad to be the one and only?

Peace,

Birdy

Thanks Birdygirl...I'm sorry about all the verbal abuse you endured..I went through it too mostly from my stepdad, but I was homeschooled the majority of the time until I hit high school.. so I can't say I know exactly how you feel, but I can imagine

I'm sorry you had such a bad childhood. Just think, though: for every childhood torment you endured, there's someone out there who can sympathize (like me) because they had it the same or worse. Even though I didn't go through the h**l you endured, I have gone through verbal abuse all my life from different people and have been treated like a pariah in my schools until I reached high school. I feel so bad for you....:(

Yes, I do remember quite a bit actually. I remember all the stuff I endured from my stepdad, I remember traveling every 2 weeks from country to country and never having a stable home. I didn't exactly have a bright wonderful childhood and I don't care to rehash and think about it. It just brings tears to my eyes. But I think that this was a great topic to post.

Well...I do help out a lot with little kids...during the school year I volunteer as a tutor and a mentor for kids in the 6th grade, but I don't do it because I remember what is what like when it was done for me. I do it because I remember that I grew up without anyone to talk to. I babysat my little bro and sis almost every day, my parents weren't home, and my older sister was always at school so it was the 8 year old watching 2 infants. It made me stronger and it helped me develop a sense of responsibility at a very early age and I thank God every day for that experience. Because now I know what kids need to grow properly...they need love and I try to give that as much as possible.

Man BridyGirl, Where did you grow up at? All I can really remember from when I was a child is being locked in my room(the lock was on the outside of the door) while my dad slept and my mom worked. The only time when I was a child that I was happy(that I can remember) was when I was at my Grammy and Pop's house. Anyways. When I move back home to my Pop's house in June I'll be able to be more active in helping people. I can't wait. Here I have no access/no transportation/no job. I dislike it greatly here.

I love volunteering to help with children. Over the summer I volunteered with the safety town program which teaches young children 4-7 about safety such as bike safety, water safety, playground safety, fire safety, and being safe in general. it is a great program and the kids are so adorable and really get attached to you over the 2 weeks that it lasts.

I miss being little I am sorry if I missed the whole point of this post. . .

I've helped out some at a camp for homeless children [ Scotties Place ]. It feels great to be
a part of it and be working with and helping the kids. [ for info on Scotties place: www.scottiesplace.org ]

Simply awesome. Thanks to everyone that's replied so far. I love when people reply to my topics!!!!! It makes me feel good to know I say and believe stuff that others actually agree with. THANX!!!!

I agree theres this woman I call my God mother who does things for me because my biological mother isn't around to support me physically nor finacually and she tells me when I get older to do the same thing for a child. And I will because I know how they fell.

i cant believe you put what ive been havin gon my mind for days now. thank you. for the past couple of days i have been thinking bout my elemnetary school days. i always used to look up to the high school kids and thought that they were so great. i wanted to be just like them. so now i have been wondering how much i would like to give back to them because i remember what it was like. i know that if i were to go down there now, they would be so happy that they were chilling with a high schol kid. i want to see that smile upon their face more then anything becasue kids are so adorable. they are the world and i want to help them grow up and be a positive influence, be there for them, and play with them. thought i dont think i can have kida of my own i would love to help elementary school kids.