Mine was our CRT TV. I would rapidly push the power button on and off because I thought the picture coming and going looked cool but eventually it fell inside of the TV. I think I later stuck a magnet on the TV.
Not looking for Reddit answers like “My parent’s marriage”
Dec 20, 1985
My dad drive into our driveway with his brand new 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo. After showing me and my little brother, his brand new car, he then broke the news that our Christmas would be a “little light this year.” I put an entire bag of sugar in his gas tank that night.
His Christmas was a little light that year, the fuck.
Edit: Oh, hell yes, I absolutely told him I did it. On Christmas morning.
Edit 2: as an adult, I still think it’s one of the most awesome cars I’ve ever known (my fav car is still the BMW 2002, tho). He got a new one - the fuck - and I later learned how to drive stick in that car. He has still never forgiven me, although I have still never forgiven him for what he did then or in the decades following. We haven’t spoken in years.
As the years go by, I only grow more proud of my 6 year-old self for punishing that selfish fuck for putting himself before his kids/family. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Also, my mom laughed about it at the time and always has since.
Damn what the fuck was he thinking
Of himself
My kid stuck a big ol donut magnet on our TV and ruined the screen.
Can be undone
It’s a little late now, but I’m curious, how do you fix it?
Degauss. However I’ve NEVER seen that option on a TV, only electron microscopes. Apparently it exists.
Ah yeah that TV definitely didn’t have that option. My CRT computer monitor did though
VHS player when I was a toddler. Was in the daycare and saw a cord, so naturally I pulled it. It was on top of the TV, which was bolted to the wall high up. Shattered on impact. Nearly fell on my head too.
I put a sandwich in the slot… Twice. I distinctly remember thinking how perfectly it fit. Didn’t bust, but wasn’t a good idea.
I’m not sure how much my brother costs, but the three of us brothers were running across the top of monkey bars and jump kicking each other. I kicked my youngest brother off and he busted his head on the ground. It’s ~40 years later and he still has the scar on the back of his head.
I thought that was going to end with him dead
Yeah, it seemed really flip
Oh wow, yeah I see that now. Oops!
I grew up in a very unorganized town that wasn’t really regulated with traffic laws. I learned to drive a truck at about 12.
When I was 14 I was driving my dad’s truck around town. I suddenly had the urge to see how well the brakes worked. I drove fast down a gravel road than slammed on the brakes as hard as I could. Within seconds it blew both front brake lines.
Later that same year in the winter I got the truck stuck on some ice. It wasn’t bad, I just happened to stop on a very slippery patch of ice and couldn’t move forward. I got the idea that as the tires spun, they were getting hot which meant it was melting the ice. If I did it long enough I would eventually get down to the gravel. I got impatient and spun the wheels faster smoking them like crazy while the engine roared. In the middle of the noise and smoke, a tire exploded and the truck jumped and deflated. I had blown out a tire.
Dad wasn’t happy with me for a long while because the truck went to the shop and we had to pay a lot of money to get them fixed.
At the very least, I never made these mistakes again.
I’d argue that if pushing the brakes hard can blow up the brake lines, they already needed fixed.
Yeah, that definitely saved them from a later tragedy.
“The Electric Company” came on TV, so of course we were dancing around the TV in excitement … and knocked it over. Crash!
Understandable though.
What is “The Electric Company” ?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HFLW1853Abg&pp=ygUVdGlvbiBlbGVjdHJpYyBjb21wYW55 Show made songs for kids and taught spelling.
There was also a pbskids show with the same name https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/the-electric-company/t/tec-full-episodes/
Which also had a tion song though I can’t find the episode right now.
“is an American educational”
That’s why I’ve never heard of it
Xmas ornament my parents got of QVC or something. I fell into(onto?) the mantelpiece because I’m clumsy and I was much younger at the time and I knocked it off. It was actually my favourite ornament too.
I didn’t break something expensive in terms of dollar amount, but my Mom knits. In high school she asked me to do the laundry for her while she was out of town. I knew sweaters went in the delicate cycle, but what I DIDN’T know is even the delicate cycle was too much for her very nice, hand knit, cashmere sweater that fit her perfectly.
It came out felted and 2 sizes smaller. And I felt HORRIBLE then. Now, I’m all grown up and I’ve learned how to knit myself. Now I think back on that and marvel that I’m still alive and she didn’t come home and just bury me in the backyard. That’s how I know she loves me. <3
Have you hand-knitted her a cashmere sweater that fit her perfectly? What am I saying, that was probably why you learned knitting.
Sadly I was never able to perfectly recreate that cashmere sweater, though I came close. Getting perfect gauge is really hard to do on fitted garments for knitting. Mom had wanted me to learn to knit since I was really little but it never caught my interest until I was an adult. Through the pandemic we did work together to knit a modular blanket and sewed it together once we could meet up in person again! https://imgur.com/a/u4M4ynb
I feel like, depending on your age at the time, this is more on her than you. I’m an adult, and I don’t buy myself clothes that can’t handle the normal setting on my washer and dryer. I know it would be a case of when, not if, I’d forget. No way I’d trust a child to pay attention to something like that.
So in her defense (and another aspect of why she didn’t murder me I’m sure.) Is that she’d forgotten entirely that she even wore that sweater. Apparently it always sits on the edge of her hamper so she visually sees it and removes it to her special wash bag for extremely fancy clothes. But she’d left town in a bit of a hurry for family matters and I’d even volunteered to do laundry. I didn’t realize that sweater was extra special on my own.
That “on the side of the hamper” method is what I use for my extremely delicate stuff now, and so far I haven’t shrunk anything. yet
My teen brother parked his motorcycle on the driveway. I don’t even remember how I managed to tip it over; I must have tried to climb on the seat or something and pushed at just the right angle to make the kickstand give way. Then in a tears and adrenaline fueled panic, I pressed it up… and tipped it over on its other side. I left it as it was dinged up on both sides. I tearfully confessed to my brother what I had done and he didn’t really care; ends up it was a total junker but in my little kid eyes it was the coolest thing ever.
I worked briefly at dominoes. One day I parked my bike a little too close to the others and didn’t put the kickstand properly. It tipped over and dominoed five other bikes.
Jesus maybe? At church during the Christmas service. Accidentally dropped it. No clue how much it was worth, but I don’t remember breaking particularly expensive things.
An antique crystal vase.
I was maybe in my tweens and bought flowers for some occasion (a birthday or anniversary maybe) and the florist said I should use boiling water to keep them fresh (yes, it is a thing), but obviously I misunderstood, and not knowing any better I added the boiling water directly in to the vase (which I chose because it was my favourite) and of course it exploded in my hand. Lucky I wasn’t hurt, and I did manage to glue some of it back together, but I was not getting away with it. My mother was furious.I’m not even a tween and I still don’t understand what they meant for you to do. Are the flowers supposed to be in soil, and you’re supposed to just water the soil with a bit of boiling water?
I mean, as an adult, I’d probably check if the material could hold boiling water…but even that’s not 100% if it seemed ceramic or something, haha
You say you’d check, but couldn’t look up “boiling water flowers” before replying here? At least when this happened I had the excuse of not having the internet yet (and being a literal child, following the obviously unclear instructions of a professional, to the best of my understanding)…
https://www.sarahraven.com/articles/the-basics-of-arranging-cut-flowers
Yes, I’d check about putting boiling water somewhere, but not googling before writing that comment. The comment allowed me to express solidarity with you that it was an easy mistake to make.
Maybe boiled water, like water that has been boiled and is now cooled off again
Ahh… to disinfect it or something in a place where the water might not be fully clean?
Yup, that’s what google told me. It removes some of the bad stuff that might be in the water
Reminds me of a story of my parents. They were in Venice for their anniversary and had rented a room above a glass maker. One morning he wanted to show them how beautiful the morning light looked as it falls through this huge glass pyramid he had made. An enormous thing. One of his master pieces. Super expensive and also super heavy. He dropped it and it shattered into a million pieces.
I still have the crystal they got me as a souvenir. It makes nice rainbow colours when the sunlight falls through.
At least it wasn’t you who did it, and you got a cool gift out of it lol
My phone in school. It was a smartphone, back before smartphones were quite the norm, so it was a big deal, and I was in another state as a minor, so I did need a phone. There was some two for one deal, so my parent got theirs and mine, so it wasn’t quite so bad, but it was technically a pricy bit of tech.
Campus was on a hill, so I stumbled and dropped it while walking down the stairs.
I think it would translate to, like, five stories of stairs if it was in a building and not on a hill?
It never went into the grass, just kept bouncing down stairs. 🤦
This made me laugh. I’m sorry for your loss.
A brand new multi thousand dollar video camera that my pops had saved up for. I disassembled it entirely, just trying to figure out how it worked. He wasn’t even mad at me. I grew up and now can fix just about any electronic down to the component level. I like to think he saw the curiosity in me and was more proud than anything.
Was it long enough ago that he could simply take it back to the store and have them reassemble it for him? Or did he reassemble it himself? Or did you try to reassemble it? You’ve left me hanging on the edge of my seat!
It was done for, he got another one but it wasn’t nearly as expensive. It wouldn’t be for quite a few more years before I learned how to non-destructively disassemble things, and I didn’t have access to many tools. I can barely remember now but I’m pretty sure I used a butter knife to get out screws and pry stuff open. I just didn’t understand how a little box could record videos and I had to try to figure it out. I was probably 7 or 8, based on where I lived when it happened.
When I was around 14, my parents got my sister and I a 2nd hand Xbox (the OG big square Xbox), but we were too poor to buy any games for it. I used to rent the games from blockbuster for three days at a time.
I was fascinated with electronics, I’d build little radio kits and LED chasers, I was okay with a soldering iron. I was researching mod chips online, to play burned games. The guides on installation emphasised how small all the solder points are, and how fine the wires are, that it’s not a job for a beginner. But I thought it would be fine.
I tried to order a modchip online, but the site didn’t deliver to Australia. I remember seeing people advertising in the news paper classifieds section modchipping services, so they must be available somehow. I called one of the guys, but he said he only sold them as part of installation, couldn’t sell me just the modchip. I called a couple others, but none wanted to talk to a 14yo kid.
My parents caught wind of what I was trying to do, and they offered to pay to send it to the guy to get it done. So we just went with that. I was disappointed I didn’t get to do the installation myself.
The next week, we got our Xbox back, turned it on, and played a couple of burned games, it worked great. But I was curious. Did the guy do a good installation job? What gauge wires did he use? Which brand and model modchip did he use? I was full of questions. So while my parents were out I opened the Xbox up, disassembled it right down to the motherboard. I found the modchip, I was fascinated by how small it was, how fine the wires were, and how tiny the solder points were. It all looked so fragile. It looked like the guy had done a pretty good job.
I put the Xbox back together, went to play it, but it wouldn’t read any discs, not even genuine discs. Weird, did I forget to plug something back in on reassembly? I opened it up and found the disc drive cable was slightly unplugged. Plugged it in, reassembled, and tried it again. This time it read genuine discs, but it wouldn’t play any burned discs. I tried for a while, and it was like the modchip wasn’t working. That was when my parents got home. I was so angry and frustrated with myself, my mum asked what the matter was, and I started sobbing and crying furiously, I said “why can’t I leave things alone?” and “Why do I always have to take things apart?” and “Why didn’t I just enjoy the games?”.
A couple days later I had calmed down enough, I opened the Xbox up again, and had another look. I saw the problem immediately. One of the tiny hair-like wires on the modchip had popped off. Maybe because of my previous poking around in there, or maybe it just came off by itself, idk. Luckily it was on the modchip side, not on the motherboard side, so there was a relatively large pad to solder it back onto. Still smaller than anything I’d soldered before, but I gave it a go. It took about an hour, with my oversized non-temperature-controlled soldering iron, but I got it soldered back in place. While was there I resoldered a couple wires alongside it, so they were more secure too. I was shaking with anticipation when I put it all back together yet again, and fired it up. It worked! Played burned games again! I was so happy I was crying. The awful low from days before transformed into an amazing high of achievement, and gratification.
My parents told me the lesson was to never take things apart, leave well enough alone. But they were wrong.the lesson was far greater. It gave me the self confidence to know I can fix things. Yes I can and will break things, but I can fix them. I somehow absorbed that into my identity. From then on I was always trying to fix things. Phone line died, I repaired it. Computer got a virus, I formatted and reinstalled the OS. Lawn mower wouldn’t start, I cleaned and rebuilt the carburettor, didn’t know what I was doing, but I just did it, because I had the confidence. Then at age 24 I got a jobs as an electronics repair technician, so it worked out for me.
That’s a great story! An Xbox mod chip was my first soldering job! It was a Team Xecutor chip, and I too used an old, terrible iron. I’m honestly not even sure how I did it, when I got more into soldering later, and looked up that chips installation process, I was amazed I was able to do it. My dad got me the mod chip even though he hated gaming because he thought correctly that it would be a great learning opportunity for me. He always supported my curiosities and hobbies. I’ve got to go thank him now. Thanks for sharing the story with me.
or he’s doing the long con, and waiting till you buy something expensive so that he can disassemble it “out of curiosity” to test your reaction
Huge respect for pops for not disassembling you.
For real. He could have very reasonably been very angry at me, and it might have defeated my curiosity before it really got a chance to get going, but by doing what he did, he associated it with good feelings that continued through until now.
I love this lil’ story, thanks for sharing
I set the mayority of my mothers finest dresses on fire. I was very young. We had a powercut one night so we were using candles. It came back soon after, but i was still a curious boy with a candle in my hand. I wanted to go somewhere dark again so i went inside my closet and closed the door. My mom ran out of space in her room for her dresses so she put them on my closet. Only the stuff she didn’t use often so it had the worst and the best. They were wrapped plastic and i was fascinated by how the plastic shrunk when the flame got close. But eventually I got too close and actually set it on fire. How did i react? Got out, shut the closet doors and went to watch tv. It’s a miracle i didn’t torch my whole house
That’s such a great reaction to starting a fire in a closet full of priceless and flammable stuff! “Oops! I think I’ll just close the door on that problem and hope no one notices.”
I’m tempted to call it such a child’s reaction to a problem they don’t know how to solve. But I know I’m guilty of doing the same thing as an adult, just not with a potentially fatal raging closet fire fueled by a plastic coated wedding dress.
The more I think about it, the more in awe of what you managed to achieve.
Lol yeah as an adult I feel like I’ve done similar things. Not with a house fire or immediately life threatening scenario. But definitely like “well I don’t really want to deal with that problem…I’m just going to walk away and hope it goes away” lol!!
How did i react? Got out, shut the closet doors and went to watch tv. It’s a miracle i didn’t torch my whole house
Lmao - reminds me of when I was in my early twenties and couldn’t handle my beer. We had a few people around, and the toilet was occupied, so I threw up in a bucket and hid it in a closet and went back to the party. Cue to next morning, “Lads… why is there a bucket of-”
My sister and I figured out that we could draw. On the windshield of our neighbours car. Using stones.
…
I definitely have seen artistic careers with better beginnings.
Believe it or not, she’s now running a graphics design studio.
I believe you
