Adults Ruin Everything: 15 Childhood Joys Grown Ups Hijacked

Adults ruin everything. Some things are meant for kids, but that doesn’t stop greedy adults from hoarding it for themselves and ultimately ruining it.

Here are the top things made for children that adults ruin once they put their filthy paws on them. 

Childhood

Two little girls watering the plants outside their playhouse.
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Childhood should be a magical time filled with wonder, joy, and discovery. Far too many parents steal their children’s childhoods by putting them on display in front of the entire world, parentifying them, or forcing them to follow their parent’s dreams. 

Stop ruining your own kids’ childhoods. 

Young Adult Novels

Teenage boy wearing a unique hat and a striped shirt.
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The YA fiction genre is specifically geared toward children. These stories feature teenagers acting like teenagers and often get a lot of unjustified hate from adults who no longer understand what it’s like to be at that vulnerable age. 

Pokémon Cards

A binder page full of Pokemon cards.
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Adults hoard Pokemon cards, forcing children out of the fun game-turned-expensive-hobby. Jobless kids can’t compete with wealthy adults who don’t mind spending big bucks on rare cards to complete their collections. 

Youth Sports

Group of children sitting on the dug out bench wearing their team uniforms.
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Kids join little leagues to learn sportsmanship and teamwork, but their parents destroy any potential lesson by acting like giant jerks at sporting events. 

The kids tend to know better than the parents that it’s not about winning or losing. 

Things Kids Enjoy

Nervous child with a microphone in her face at a beauty pageant.
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Sports, dance, music – any hobby kids like got destroyed by their overbearing parents. A few decades ago, kids could enjoy their hobby once a week with friends, and that was that. Now, whatever activity becomes their whole life as parents decide their kid will be the “next big X” and force them to practice constantly. 

This attitude ruins it for the kids. 

Minions

Graphic featuring a variety of minion memes.
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The cute destructive critters from the Despicable Me movies should have stayed in their lane as loveable childhood toys. 

Instead, adults turned them into memes, and you can’t log into Facebook without a minion’s face attached to a despicable comment. I guess that tracks. 

Beanie Babies

Pile of TY Beanie Baby Toys.
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The fad of the late 90s started as a simple children’s toy. Unfortunately, Beanie Baby-crazed adults quickly hijacked the hobby, pricing children out of the beanie-baby market. 

We hope they learned their lesson when the prices crashed, but after seeing some delusion listings on eBay, we doubt it. 

My Little Pony

Blue wal paper with variety of My Little Pony characters on it.
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An adorable children’s show about sparkling ponies morphed into a weird obsession by adult men. “Bronies,” as they call themselves, took the show for themselves and sometimes have the nerve to deride the little girls who still enjoy it. 

They do far worse with it in the deep, dark corners of the internet. 

Clowns

Clown peering over a white shelf on a white background.
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The historic children’s entertainer morphed into one of the scariest foes of cinema. People are more likely to think of a horror movie than a children’s show when they think of clowns. 

Playing Outside

Two kids playing in the grass. The sister pushes her disabled brother's wheelchair.
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The streets are safer now than they’ve ever been at any time in history. Yet helicopter parents won’t let their precious babies explore their neighborhoods. 

When I was a kid, I’d bike to the local park, play kick the can with the neighbors, and enjoy the small slice of freedom my little suburb provided. Today’s kids aren’t allowed outside. 

Independence

Young boy dressed as an office working playing office work.
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My parents let me try and fail. Society let me be outside. 

Today, busy-body neighbors call the cops if kids walk to school on their own, play in parks on their own, or gain even a tiny sliver of independence. These kids who have never experienced freedom don’t know how to manage on their own. 

Education

Child walking towards the stairs leading up to a school with a backback on.
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Parents who think their little Johnny can do no wrong are destroying education for everybody. At one point in time, parents would stand behind teachers on matters of academics and discipline. 

Now, they sue if their kid fails, and blame the teacher if their kid acts up in class. 

The refusal to discipline their own kid not only harms the child in question, who grows into an entitled brat, but everyone around them who has to deal with the distractions. 

Paper Routes

Newspaper on pavement in the plastic delivery bag.
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Paper routes used to be the quintessential children’s job. Kids could grab their papers and deliver them to their neighborhoods while learning the value of a hard day’s work. 

Whether parents decided their child was too precious for a little outside work or adults decided they needed the money, most paper routes nowadays are done by grown-ups. 

Becoming an Adult

teenager sitting on the ground covering his face in embarressment.
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The childhood journey to adulthood culminates with an adult lifestyle and responsibility. Unfortunately, younger generations believe older generations stole this opportunity for them. 

Today’s young adults don’t have the same options as grown-ups from past generations. They can’t afford to have kids, buy homes, and enjoy all the adulthood joys promised. 

Instead, they linger on, grasping at their childhood hoods well into middle age because they can’t afford the transition into adulthood. 

The Future

The Earth at night from outer space.
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Teenagers today look to the future with trepidation rather than excitement. They’ll have to contend with the very worst effects of climate change, late-stage capitalism, and the culture wars. 

Today’s youth don’t have a bright future to look forward to. 

Adults Ruin Everything

Adults ruin everything: a father and daughter sit on the couch, both just staring at their phones.
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Kids need the freedom to explore, the discipline to improve, and the magic of childhood. Adults need to stop robbing children of these crucial aspects of growing up. 

Let children enjoy the blissful joy of childhood. They’ll never get those years back.

Maybe You Shouldn’t Have Kids

Woman crossing her arms in a refusal gesture.
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Despite all the pressure to procreate, it’s perfectly valid not to want kids. Millennials and younger generations are opting out of parenthood at record rates. 

Here are their top reasons for not wanting kids

Author: Melanie Allen

Title: Journalist

Expertise: Pursuing Your Passions, Travel, Wellness, Hobbies, Finance, Gaming, Happiness

Melanie Allen is an American journalist and happiness expert. She has bylines on MSN, the AP News Wire, Wealth of Geeks, Media Decision, and numerous media outlets across the nation and is a certified happiness life coach. She covers a wide range of topics centered around self-actualization and the quest for a fulfilling life.