When and how did you find out that your childhood was over?

[Ihei 713]

I got the idea of this topic while I was watching the Hunger Games movie yet again.

Anyway, here's the question:

 

How and when did your childhood end?

 

Honestly, it happened when my perverted classmate told me all about his perverted likings..

 

I'm still a immature person by heart though. :3

Edited July 27, 2013 by Minty Wintergreen

[DiscordAnarchy 770]

considering I still watch cartoons, play games, buy toys, and act random and silly, I guess mine never ended. But in a more logical (gag) assumption, I guess it was when I had to start paying my own bills.

[Pan the Fabulous Ferret 2,642]

Childhood can end? Are you serious? No, you mustn't be. You're joking. 

 

Peter Pan and his lost boys never grow up, NEVER! We must ll be children and have fun and play forever....

[Princess Periwinkle 3,775]

I don't think there is a line to cross, here. It's more of a... Gradient.

 

Life slowly evolves, morphs, whatever you call it, it changes over time. Lots of my childhood is gone, but some of it will stay with me forever. <3

[The Stranger 812]

One day I got curious as to what porn was and i looked it up. I don't remember what age I was at the time but Google took my childhood away from me.

 

Even though my childhood is gone I still enjoy some of the little things I did when i was a kid. For example I still like to eat ice cream on my porch on a hot summer day as i listen to music.

[Scootalove 10,689]

I found out my childhood was over when all of the cartoons I watched growing up, ended and got cancelled. Then, it started to die when Nick, Disney, and Cartoon Network killed off the good cartoons then just make bad reboots.

 

I still have my childhood in my heart, since I still sleep with a blanket.

[Nerdy Luigi 2,065]

I found out my childhood ended when I stopped watching cartoons.

But after MLP my childhood seemed to begin once again (It really didnt, It just rekindled in my heart)

[Shift 4,272]

It kind of ended once Nick, Disney, and Cartoon Network killed of the old shows. Then I got into the internet. Seriously, in my grade, I probably know more about the internet then everyone added then doubled. Except for maybe this one kid, since I saw him wearing a 'ME GUSTA' shirt the other day and talking about how 'An Arrow to the Knee' is the most overused joke ever.

[Homura Akemi 974]

I was told on my 12th birthday that my childhood was over, though I almost still consider myself a child. Some say it stops when you hit puberty, but anyone else would agree that a 9-year-old is still a child. I'm not oober immature or anything, but I don't feel fully-grown. Sure, I have my driver's license and a job, but I still have a lot to be dependent on.

Edited July 27, 2013 by Dismajo

[lincolnshirepony 527]

I could go for the obvious answer and say it was the day I turned eighteen.

 

Buuut, I suppose that's no fun and not exactly accurate either. :B Growing up was (and still is) a gradual process for me. I don't know if I could pin the moment I stopped being a child. I do think I know how it happened.

 

When I was seventeen I learned some important life lessons. I started to really appreciate my parents and grow out of my childish entitlement. I also realized that adults can be as immature as children, and that they're flawed like the rest of us. I also was forced to see death in a new light when my uncle passed away... I really started to see the world as the harsh place that it is, and I also realized just how much other people have done for me. The simple view of the world I had as a child was completely shattered. So I left behind childhood when I learned how to appreciate people and when I learned how cruel the world can be. 

 

To be fair, I still hang on to parts of my childhood, like watching cartoons and playing pokemon. Also, relevant C.S. Lewis quote:

 

"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

Edited July 28, 2013 by lincolnshirepony

[Misty Rose 3,216]

I definitely AM NOT as innocent as when I was a child, considering the amount of perverted jokes I've heard over the years in school, and having received The Talk pretty early in life.

I'm 14 but I still consider myself a child. I still have that love for cartoons which got me into MLP anyway. Since the good 'ol classics are gone from Cartoon Network I watch them on Youtube if they're available (sadly most of them aren't) .

But I can be immature at times and my friends say I'm the most innocent and that makes me happy, because frankly I want to keep my innocence for a couple more years, and hopefully for the rest of my life. Innocence when it comes to *ahem* perverted stuff. But in the gore and blood department NOT innocent there.

So I wouldn't say my childhood is over, a good part of it is considering I don't watch Dora anymore, but for the most part I'm still a child!!

[MLPForums Phanact 1,374]

My Nintendo 64 broke and all hope in the world was lost. Kidding! The day my childhood died was probably the same day I realized that the religion I'd been brought up in was complete lies and I'd followed it blindly. Attending a Catholic high school and being openly Apatheist was a lot of fun xD

Edited July 27, 2013 by Kaz

[Scootaloodle 1,622]

When I stopped getting ID for buying age restricted products like alcohol for one thing:

 

I guess I just realised one day I wasn’t a child anymore on the outside: on the inside I’ve not grown up in lots of ways, the little kid in me isn’t done yet

[Fire Bomb 121]

I think my childhood ended when i stopped caring about dumb things, that and when i ditched wanting to be a superhero for wanting to work in a room with paper, pencils, and math.

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

It didn't really happen to me, I wasn't really around other people that much so I sort of never grew up. I still feel like I'm still a child even though it doesn't make sense. Maybe it stopped when I became 16, I'm actually far from innocent when it comes to a lot of stuff. I still make people believe that I have a child like innocent when it comes to some stuff. I loved horror movies, but now that I think of it I might actually have lost it so early that I don't remember it, it was when I discovered or well people told me that I was evil. I have done a lot of stuff in my life that got misinterpreted and people just thought I was evil and then I finally started believing it myself. So maybe at the age of 8-10.

[Mr. Critical 434]

When I became as tall as my mother. I was 13 years old and I almost stood to my fathers chin. But that doesn't mean I have to give up all of my childhood. I still watch cartoons, I sometimes eat junk food for breakfast.So if I can hold onto a small bit, I can live with that.

[DaReaper 1,944]

When i was at the Disturbed and Avenged Sevenfold concert went in the mosh pit and took me about 3 days to recover from it yeah thats when i was like dam i'm not young anymore

[Golurk 468]

This is hard for me to pin. To an extent, I still have it, seeing as I don't currently have a job and still live with my parents. Not to mention, I'm still legally a child.

 

Although once I entered high school, I noticed that I was just naturally more responsible and mature than most of my peers. If that's what you mean, it would have been around then. Otherwise, I'd argue I still got it.

[Smarts 1,622]

The day my childhood ended was when I discovered porn and masturbation at the ripe age of fourteen. From there, I changed drastically over the years. I started acting like a mature human being. I also studied more and learned to use a wider vocabulary in my writings and speech.

[Rory 150]

when my step dad was stabbed to death when i was 8 that was pretty much the end of my childhood i was just really depressed all the time and lost all faith in pretty much every thing.

[Nobody Special 210]

When I realised that academics are extremely important to jobs that I wish to get, and when I returned to my school after a year of absence to find how incredibly immature my class mates were. I realise that being a child is fun and all, but it gets you nowhere in the real world. I feel I am much more mature, both physically and mentally, than all of my class mates. I can uphold a serious conversation without laughing because someone said something like pencil or stick. I feel that academic success is more important than being a star player on a sports team, which, with my larger than average body, I am very capable of doing. I see no need for many friends, although I have many acquaintances. My childhood, in my own opinion, has ended at an early age of 14 years old, I wish I had used the time more wisely rather than wasted it away.

[Silverhoof 2,844]

I was in a Chucky Cheese with a pocketful of quarters...and I couldn't bring myself to waste single one on the games.

"OH NO!" I thought. "I'm getting old!"

[~Chaotic Eddie~ 479]

I knew I was done with childhood when I was 13. I consider adolescence and childhood to be two different things (i.e. an adolescent isn't a child but also isn't an adult)

[pjsforever 89]

Well, I doubt I've lost it yet, but a lot of my innocence/childhood happiness was lost in middle school, and high school... well, the way I viewed the world when I was younger is basically totally gone. I miss it. :c

 

But I'm still halfway through high school, so I guess I'm technically still a child and it hasn't ended yet. I still like cartoons and "kid" video games among other things, but I don't go to clubs or drink like my other classmates. I think they're more childish than I am, really; they're just trying to grow up faster, which is honestly pretty stupid. To me childhood is something you should cherish as long as possible instead of hurrying to grow up. A quarter of your life or even less, it's seen as "normal" to still act like a child and to do childish things -- and naturally you're more innocent too -- and to just throw that away to go to clubs, drink, have sex, do drugs, and all those stupid things is absolutely ridiculous. I understand the eagerness to.. be in your 20s, but how could they be so eager to just toss their childhood aside??

Of course, I'm not saying all teenagers should watch Winnie the Pooh and wear footie pajamas or whatever. But I'm sure you guys understand what I'm saying.

 

I treasure that I'm still a child, even though I'll still be able to do the things I do now in a few years when I won't be a kid anymore (though it definitely won't be the same). So I'll enjoy it as long as I can until I inevitably lose more of it...

[Dark Horn 430]

The day hormones started randomly popping out of nowhere, and almost overnight, I had acne, I was taller, and I felt an attraction towards females. I kinda, sorta miss my childhood, but to be honest, I wouldn't go back if I had the chance.