1. It's so easy to get into trouble......all the time
When I was a kid I only had to wake up in the morning and breathe to be in trouble. It was generally something innocent I didn't realise was dumb until AFTER I'd done it. It was endless.
2. No money
Everything you want costs more money than you think you will ever see in your lifetime. Pocket money - if you got it - kept you stocked in lollies/ice-cream & that was about it.
3. Weird comments from parents that make no sense
"Because I said so, that's why" is not an answer. It's just a power play & when you heard it, you knew you'd lost. It always baffled me. Clearly it meant no, but WHY did it mean no?
4. Visiting parents friends who had awful kids your age
Parents just assumed that when you visited people you would get along with their kids just because you were a kid too. Not always so. Some of my parents friends' kids were so evil & creepy I'm sure they would have ended up doing time.
5. "NO!!!!"
When you are a kid, pretty much every word you hear is 'no'. The writer P.J O'Rourke has written about the concept of the "NO" blizzard", which follows all kids around until they are about 15. "No, don't touch that/don't stand there/don't eat that".........and so on.
6. The opposite sex
If only we knew how much we had to look forward to. When I was 8 I couldn't stand boys. They pushed girls over in the playground, they said mean things, they never wanted to sit next to us or hold our hands. You got slightly better treatment if you could run fast or catch, but mainly, boys were just awful.
7. Haircuts
Pure torture. Sometimes my mum would cut my hair & it wouldn't be straight. Sometimes I would have to go to a salon and have it done. It was never, ever, what I wanted. Ever.
8. No car
I don't know how I survived trailing along behind my mother everywhere she went for 15 years. It doesn't surprise me that kids throw tantrums in shopping centres. It would have been wonderful at 8 to say to my mother "Hey babe, forget it. I'm bored & I'm driving home."
9. Dinner-time
Vegetables were just horrendous. Even now I'd rather die than eat brussel sprouts.
10. ????
Maybe you can suggest the last one