Your biggest disappointment as a child.

Tea3 you’ve just reminded me. I was walking along on holiday in front of my dad he stopped to pick something up ,it was 2 half crowns, a fortune in 1964. I was so upset because I’d missed them. I probably wouldn’t have been allowed to keep them anyway.

I failed my 11 plus. I was in the top set at Primary School and everyone else passed. On the first day of term at my Secondary School, I watched through the window as all my old friends walked to the bus stop in their new uniforms. They were much smarter than me and the girls wore hats - soft hats in the winter and boaters in the summer. I was devastated. Years later I got an Open University Honours degree so felt redeemed.

I’ve just remembered something else that disappointed me....

I couldnt understand why I never saw the back of people in photographs or newspaper pictures.....?‍♀️ I’d turn the photo/page and be ?

* Katyj* My story is very similar to yours I too am an only Lonely and when I was about 4 my dad and grandad bought a lovely golden spaniel pup called Kim home for me I only had her a week or two and she disappeared I was told that she had snapped at my Nan and wasn’t safe to keep, that was a huge disappointment to me, I was also bought a rabbit we called her whiskey she apparently wasn’t easy to look after and disappeared the same that Kim had, as we lived with my lovely grandparents at that point I guess they weren’t keen on anything that wasn’t a perfect pet
My second big disappointment was a Christmas present, all my friends had lovely skating boots, that they used to glide around on the street and I was very envious so I asked for them for Christmas, one day just before Christmas I was poking around upstairs, looked in the cupboard and saw a box, I was thrilled as I realised it was probably skates ready for my Christmas present, I peaked inside and there was a pair of those horrible scratchy skates that used to be strapped onto your shoes, I was so disappointed I can’t remember how I dealt with it But I do remember that I probably only use them once as all my friends were gliding past in their lovely boots I was scratching up and down the garden path I don’t know whether my parents ever realise and I can’t remember quite what happened but I do remember I didn’t ever use them after that first time and I don’t think I ve ever been on slates since

I suppose it wasn't exactly a disappointment but when I was 10 my mother made me have my hair cut because she didn't want to spend so much time plaiting it for me. In my own mind my long hair was ME. It seemed awful that she couldn't see how much it mattered. And I was given an awful 1930' style "schoolgirl" haircut that made me look like the village idiot (it was like a little girl in her favourite painting, which I hated)
I told my mother all this years later and she was horrified. It was just a hair cut to her.

I was brought up Catholic and some of my teachers were nuns. Our class (we were about 7 years old) were going on a school day trip to Formby Beach, a local National Trust beauty spot. We were told every day for weeks by our teacher Sister Gemma, to pray for good weather. I can remember kneeling at my bedside and praying really hard that it would indeed be sunny for our trip. Well, I can't describe the utter astonishment I felt on looking out of my bedroom window on the morning of our trip and saw that it was pouring down ? That day, my belief in God was truly tested!

Week after week I listened to Uncle Mac on 'Children's favourites' on the radio but I never had a record played for me. I was so sad and disappointed. I hadn't realised that your mum had to write in and make a request. I don't know how she could watch me listening and not even try. I expect she thought it was funny ?

A bishop was coming to give a talk at our school. I was so excited as I thought he would have robes and a headdress like in a chess set. I was really disappointed that he wore a very ordinary black suit and dog collar.

I feel your pain. I think my most memorable is my 9th birthday party. I was so looking forward to it and had helped with the baking and preparation. On the day I woke up with flu and had to go to bed. I was really poorly but it was too late to cancel the party so my big sister entertained all my friends.
I was too sick to eat a thing and only one of my friends came to see me in my sick bed.

The time I realised my narcissistic mother and abusive father were in fact my real parents.
I really did fantasise about my real mother coming to get me.

One. Christmas my brother ( golden child) got a Sony cassette player and recorder, I got a copy of Pride and Prejudice.

On my first trip to London when I was seven I was very disappointed when Piccadilly Circus turned out not have a ring and clowns and ponies. It wasn’t a proper circus at all! In a different way I was disappointed in Buckingham Palace, too. In my mind palaces had romantic turrets and so on, not a bit like this flat-looking grey building.

I never told anyone I was disappointed. I think I felt a bit stupid for not knowing what these places would be like.

When I was about five years old I had eye surgery. At the check-up appointment a few weeks later, the consultant asked me what I'd like most in the world. 'A pony', I said optimistically. 'Very good', he said, 'I can give you one'. So ..... He drew one for me! Oh, the disappointment

I was so looking forward to my 7th birthday, as I was to have a party.
About two weeks before there was a measles outbreak at school and I started to worry that nobody would come to my party. By the time the day came I had measles myself and the school was closed due to the epidemic.

Some of these stories are really sad ( some are just typical childhood disappointments ) but all show how parenting has changed over the years.Mind you, it may have swung a bit too much the other way now.
I think I had a lot of disappointments but a strange one was being worried and anxious because I had passed my 11 plus.
My good friends didn’t and I wanted to be with them, also the sec mod was brand new and attractive. I never liked the grammar school either, so there wasn’t an upside.

Finding the local library when I was about 7 and delighted that I could borrow books.It was so disappointing to realise we didn't have any children's books at home and I never had either parent read to me.

Deedaa it was a haircut for me too. It was my ambition to have really long hair and it was past my shoulders when I was about 8.
My granny lived with us and often commented how untidy my hair was and how it should be short, then one day she kept on about it so much that I said 'all right, if we go right now'.
I was given a hideous cut, like yours, and was in floods of tears.
My Dad tried to comfort me, which helped a bit, and he took me to the barber to try to improve it but I don't even remember what it was like after that.
I didn't have it cut again, apart from trimming the ends, till I was in my 40s.

I wanted a monkey but they wouldn’t let me have one.
I’m the one with the doll . How boring!

Not having piano lessons because my sister had them and always kicked off and wouldn't practise. I wasn't even given the chance because of her. How unfair was that! Also I never had a bike!

My biggest 'disappointment' was something that has never changed - that my big brother wanted nothing to do with me.

Two disappointments when I was 11.
First I didn't pass my 11 plus. I'd been sure I'd done well in the exam. All my friends went to the Grammar school and I had to make a whole set of new friends.
Second was at Christmas. My present was a driving game that my sister had been talking about, not the transistor radio that I'd been longing for.

I found out years later that there were more 11 plus passes than places at the Grammar school. They had to have a cut off point, and I just missed out.
I never knew that my mother had been to see the primary school headmaster to ask him why I hadn't passed.

My OH as a child found a bicycle hidden in his Mums shed. He was so excited thinking it was a present for him. He was so gutted when his cousin was given it for Christmas.

I was ten. My class had been lined up to have our booster Diphtheria inoculations. My arm swelled up, painful and inflamed and I ran a temperature. I had to stay in bed while my parents took my sisters to the theatre in Glasgow to see Margaret Lockwood in Peter Pan. I'd been looking forward to it for weeks. One consolation - or so I hoped - was that I would be unable to play the piano in the Ayrshire Music Festival the following weekend. Sod's law - my sore arm recovered and my protestations fell on deaf ears. I played really badly!
Another disappointment was when I started secondary school. My mum, my aunt and two older cousins had all been good hockey players and had told me how great it was, filling me with ideas of scoring goals and being the golden girl of the school. It turned out that, although I wasn't a bad player, there were too many excellent players in my year and I never made it to the first XI - occasionally a reserve, but no more .

Wedi
Off subject really, and I don’t want to rub salt in your wounds, but we had lots of jelly and ice cream.
Four little girls in a room in the cottage hospital, we were there for about a week I think. We had a marvellous time.

Some of these are so sad, but also so funny! ?

My parents did not have much money. I knew not to ask for things as they would not be able to afford them, but it was always awkward going back to school after Christmas, hearing what presents other children had, whilst I only had colouring books, maybe a jigsaw puzzle. Each year I hoped for a “ big present” but it never came.
I was good at French and one year there was a school trip to France and all my friends were going.I was so disappointed that I couldn’t go.