Top 10 Things We Hated as Kids but Love as Adults

As kids, coffee can be pretty mystifying. Why would grownups drink something that doesn’t have the decency to taste as good as it smells? Even learning that it has caffeine doesn’t really clear things up, since soda has that too, and you don’t need to add anything to it to make it taste good. But whether our tastes change or we just need that boost that only coffee can provide, most of us take the plunge and become fans, if not addicts. Coffee is the grease that turns the wheels of the world…and we’re the wheels.

Children are not the most practical of people, but then again, they don’t really need to be, given that their parents usually take care of a lot of their needs. So when kids want gifts, they generally want toys, electronics, or anything else that’s fun, entertaining, cool or trendy. Upon becoming adults, while we still appreciate fun gifts, we also learn to love more practical presents too. If we need a new appliance or tool or clothes, we’re mature enough to be more thankful for it and to the one giving it.

When we were kids, it sucked hearing from someone that we looked younger than we really were. Kids are almost always in a hurry to grow up and prove that they’re mature, so being told that we appeared the opposite of what we tried to be, was very disappointing. Now that we’re adults, many of us want to recapture our all too fleeting youth, so someone mistaking us for younger than we really are is very flattering. Isn’t it funny how an insult becomes a compliment based on what age we are?

Cleanliness is rarely on our minds when we’re kids. The idea that dirt or other debris sticking to us could possibly be bad for our well-being is a concept that just doesn’t register yet. Baths can seem like exercises in frustration for kids, who, if they don’t object to being in the water, probably want to splash around, as well as for their poor parents, who just want to get their progeny clean. As adults, baths are significantly more pleasant to take, as they’re opportunities to relax, while also getting clean.

Whether it was a sneaky sip of beer, a glass of holiday wine, or a swig of something hard, most of us reacted the same way when we tasted alcohol for the first time: yuck! Alcohol, like coffee, can be an acquired taste, though experimentation can help us find a variety that appeals the best to us individually. In other words, you get used to it. But it’s its effects on our bodies and minds, both positive and negative that make it as popular as it is. Alcohol loosens us up and is a nearly universal social lubricant.

As kids, we had a lot of energy, particularly if we’d eaten sugar, and we liked to expend it by running and playing around. In addition, the concept of patience was tough to wrap our young minds around. How could waiting to do something possibly be better than doing it right now? Now that we’re adults, our energy is often expended performing our jobs or through exercise, so we’re glad when we finally get the chance to just do nothing. We’ve also learned the value of patience, since there are times when we can’t do anything to change a situation and just have to wait it out.

Siblings are often sources of irritation when you’re young. Whether they’re younger, older or a twin, our brothers and sisters get on our nerves and compete for our parents’ attention. While some of us can manage to get along with them early on, many of us cannot manage it until we become adults. Once we’ve matured, we realize that they’re closer to us, in terms of life experience and other ways besides, than anyone else we’ll probably ever meet and that they deserve our love and gratitude as much as our parents do. Then again, that rivalry can persist well into adulthood in some cases.

Our first impressions of vegetables tend to skew towards the negative when we’re children. Sometimes we dislike the taste - or lack thereof - of veggies. In other instances, it can be a case of judging them by how they look or their weird textures. Worst of all can be the fact that we’re forced to eat them by our parents; leaving us to associate them with punishment and negativity. But, as we grow older, our taste buds develop and vegetables become more palatable, or else we recognize their value as healthy additions to our diets.

Kids often develop an aversion to the opposite sex, largely due to fear and misunderstanding, which is exacerbated by playground rumors. There was a time when many of us believed in cooties or the dreaded lurgies, fictitious diseases invented by children to excuse their fear of boys or girls. Once we hit puberty however, most of us, began to gain a greater interest in the opposite sex, whether romantically or socially. Now that we’re adults, we understand that the other half, while still frustrating to understand sometimes, are definitely worth the confusion.



Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:



Classical & Jazz Music





Talk Shows


Horror Movies

As we know and as we said, kids are full of energy. Being still is hard enough, and falling asleep even more so. Why would they want to sleep when there’s so much they could be doing instead? Who wants to nap when everything is so new, fresh, and exciting! While some adults are prone to similar thinking, that kind of mindset tends to burn us out over time. Still, most of us are exhausted by the end of the day and we relish the chance to rest our minds and our bodies as much as we can, whenever we can.