13 Childhood Memories That Turned Into Lifelong Scars

Childhood memories have a way of lingering—sometimes filling us with nostalgia for simpler days when imagination knew no limits. But not all memories are so sweet. Some are painful, best left untouched.

• On my 8th birthday, my mom told me to pack a bag as she had a “big surprise” planned. I was so excited and kept asking what is the surprise about. We pulled up to my dad’s house, I was confused. I will never forget that moment when my mom handed dad my bag, gave me a quick hug, and drove off without even looking back. I waited at the window for her all weekend... then the next week... then the next month. No one ever said the words out loud, but deep down, I knew that she wasn’t coming back.

• One day, when I was around 6, I went to a coffee shop with my parents to get some breakfast. After we ordered at the counter and got our food, we went and sat down at a table and started to eat. At one point, I needed to throw something away, so I got up and walked over to the trash can.
  In a stroke of horrible luck, just as I was throwing my trash away, someone who was standing directly above me was putting the insulating cardboard sleeve on their paper coffee cup. As they were putting it on, though, it broke, and a whole cup of steaming hot coffee fell out of their hand... and landed directly on top of my head. As you can probably imagine, a large cup of scalding liquid doesn’t feel very nice when it’s spilled all over you. I still have the scars on the top of my head. © Julian Frank / Quora

• [edited] I was 4 years old, taking a nap with my puppy in front of our fireplace. It was our first winter in the house, so it was also the first time we used the fireplace. All of a sudden, I heard a massive CRACK. Then, I saw something fall from the fireplace. It was a flaming squirrel. It attacked. I freaked out, but then I saw it was going for my best friend, my puppy.
  
  Then the rest fell from the chimney. It was like a scene from Lord of the Rings when the Orcs piled down the mountain, but instead it was 10 flaming baby squirrels charging out of the flames. My parents made it upstairs and called the Fire Department. Our house was fine, singed but fine. I remember all of the baby squirrels running around. I didn’t really understand what I was seeing, I just knew it was terrifying. Looking back, it was one of the most horrifying things that I have witnessed. © CANOODLING_SOCIO**** / Reddit

• [edited] At age 5, I was in my room playing when I looked out my window and saw what I thought was a zombie. It was a man with a messed up face staring at me through the window. I screamed and ran to my parents, who came to check but found nothing. For years, I was terrified of that window and had nightmares. Much later, I found out that my uncle, who was into special effects makeup, had been testing a zombie mask that day and decided to scare me as a joke. My parents didn’t know about it at the time, and when they found out, they were furious. But the fear stuck with me for a long time. © jstenoien / Reddit

• My dad left me in a child-safety-locked pickup truck when I was about 6 or 7. It was parked in the sun in our own driveway. He had run back in to get something before leaving, and then forgotten about me and the errands, and started watching TV.
  
  First, I cried because I thought I was going to be dehydrated and die, then I figured out a plan; the driver’s side window was slightly cracked, and I somehow managed to open the door from the outside using a gardening tool that had been by his feet. I had to slam myself against the door, though, and ate dirt on the gravel when I got out.
  
  I ran inside to tell my dad what happened, and he basically responded that he would’ve remembered I was there, and I would’ve been fine, and my scrapes were my own fault for being so impatient. Today, I don’t talk to my dad anymore. © viridian152 / Reddit

• When I was young, I once woke up paralyzed. Started screaming and freaking out, got taken to ER. The doctors put me in the psych ward, saying that there was no physical reason I couldn’t move, but they could tell I believed I can’t move, because they were stabbing me with things, and I wasn’t reacting etc.
  
  After lots of arguing from my parents, eventually I got an MRI. Turns out I have Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, and it was a type of seizure called Todd’s Paralysis, where you have a seizure in your sleep, and your brain and body temporarily lose connection after. © SunnyLego / Reddit

• When I was about 6, my dad offered my as collateral to a gas station owner about 30 minutes away from my house. He said he’d come back and pay, which he did, but for an hour, I was stuck alone with a man I didn’t know, in a place I didn’t know, in the middle of nowhere. I’ll never forget the eternity I spent staring at the tiled floor, waiting for my father to come back. © andrewalgerion / Reddit

• When I was around 3-4 I remember suddenly waking up at the bottom of my parent’s pool, which was 9 feet at the deep end. When I woke up I just remember looking up and seeing the sun coming through the water, then suddenly it went dark and I was being pulled up to the top. It was my mom saving me. I don’t remember how I ended up at the bottom of the pool, but I was. © Sir***ply / Reddit

• When I was 6, I was at a park with friends, and we were messing around near some metal railings. I grabbed one to climb over, and suddenly I couldn’t let go—it was like my hand was glued to it. I felt this intense buzzing through my body, and my muscles locked up. I was screaming inside, but couldn’t make a sound. A man nearby saw me and knocked me off the railing with a stick, which broke the circuit. Apparently, the railing was electrified due to some faulty wiring. I was shaking for hours afterward and had nightmares about being trapped like that again.

• When I was about 3 or 4 my dad, my brother, and I were in the living room. It was late at night and they were watching a scary movie. I was hiding behind his back and would peak out at some scenes and the scenes I remember were of this woman in an all white room with an open chocolate pudding on the table. She dipped her pinky in it and ate it. Then a blank space in my mind and the next thing I remember is her being an alien body thing that just had a human baby in a room that looks like the inside of a pumpkin. I’ve never been able to find that movie but that memory will never fade from my brain. © Skullface22 / Reddit

• I have to have a bottle of water or some drink with me anytime I’m in the car — as soon as I sit down, I start to feel parched and my lips chap. This goes back to a memory of my being 6-7 and on vacation with my parents. My dad wanted to drive to a petrified forest park in AZ, and we got lost, driving around in the desert with nothing to drink.
  
  Both my parents have told me a) we never went on a vacation to AZ and b) if we did, we certainly wouldn’t have gotten that lost. I’m 41 now, but the memory is so strong I’m pretty much convinced it’s just their way of trying to cover up their mess :) © LilVoodoo / Reddit

• When I was like 5 or 6, I was at a family dinner at my grandparents’ house. I went to their back bathroom to pee. As I was zipping up my tiny pants, the shower curtain started moving. I looked at it and, I swear, it jumped at me. I screamed!
  
  It looked like the shape of a person. I cried and ran away, telling my family about what happened, but I don’t remember anything after that. However, I still remember that feeling of fear. © Nofreeupvotes / Reddit

• When I was about 2 or 3, I got bitten by fire ants on both of my legs. No one knew (obviously) that I was severely allergic to them, and my airway started to close up. They put me in a bathtub with cold water and tried to put lime on my legs (I have no idea why) before my uncle arrived and called an ambulance. The last thing I remember was lying on the stretcher and then getting into the ambulance. I later woke up in the hospital with my parents and brother next to me.
  
  The crazy part about this whole experience was that as a kid, I grew up thinking it was all a dream because of how young I was. I was highly convinced that it was just an awful nightmare, and it had never happened to me, until one day I told my mom about it, and she told me that it had actually happened to me. © ayyo_emmyyo / Reddit

In this piece, eight more adults open up about the most devastating moments from their early years—raw, unforgettable stories that still haunt them today.