Without military safety briefings, are you surprised you survived childhood?

As a child I was in many foster homes. When I moved back in with my mom and Step-dad bad things happened. At age 8, I was raped by a teen boy, and had to go with the cops to pick him out. I STILL remember his face, and name! My mom swept it under the carpet! Now I have P.T.S.D. from it. Also my parents would leave me home alone, and go out drinking till sometimes 3 in the morning, and come home and fight each other!

When I was in high school my sister witnessed a murder and we had to go into hiding until everyone involved was caught. Also I almost tripped flat on my face when I went to accept mt diploma. Other than that my childhood was good.

Went into shock due to a Reaction to a Drug in a Dentist Chair at 6, That was fun, People turn upside down and melt and they sound like Charlie Browns teacher when your about to die. Wasn't till I was much older that I was seriously concerned about my Future Viability. Something about being 18 miles downwind of the Largest Volcanic Eruption in a Century makes you go "Damn I'm going to Die Today". Not that Lucky. I'm still here.

I grew up in the 70's and 80's. That being said, our cars didn't have seat belts, I NEVER wore a helmet and it wasn't uncommon to get up bright and early in the morning eat breakfast and be out the door until the street lights came on. Often, I was miles away from my house. I definitely wonder sometimes how I made it out alive...lol! I made some poor decisions growing up and had some issues with authority. Joining the military right after high school was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

I had a dumpster fall on my "nether regions" in the 3rd grade, grew up in a welding shop, had many mishaps with 3 and 4 wheelers, broke my 1st-4th metatarsals sophomore summer of highschool, destroyed 3 cars via "acts of God" while in highschool...... plus my dad's cooking (mom was AGR ARNG). 29 years old and still kicking!!!

After about 4 years into my enlistment, my Mother confessed that she was happy I had joined. She figured I wouldn't make it past 21. We played hard growing up and invented the terms "Watch this shit" and "Hold my beer".

I honestly never gave it much thought. Personally I think the fact that so many of the dumb survived into adulthood has allowed them to take positions of authority and power in the legal and political system. The laws and warnings now found on items that while we were young weren't necessary have helped reduced or canceled out Darwin from the equation. Before it wasn't necessarily the smartest nor the strongest that survived just the ones that had the most sense not to do stupid stuff. For example seat belts, early in my childhood they were first mandated. My second car I ever owned was a 67 Ford Mustang which had lap belts. So between the year my car was made until my childhood in the 1980s you had a period of time when seat belts were not mandated, which led me to conclude that if you had sense you wore a seat belt without being forced to do so. The same applies with motorcycle helmets there was a case of a man riding without a helmet during a protest against helmet laws that was killed when he went over the handlebars during the protest and a review of the crash determined that he likely would have lived had he worn a helmet.

Judging by what I've seen of members of this website, I'm not surprised that many have survived well into adulthood.

I saw my life story flash before my eyes a dozen times before I was a dozen years old.

The clip was short so maybe it wasn't scary enough to get me to think twice.

I think twice now because I take longer to heal when I don't.

HAHA. 9 concusions, 9 whiplashes, knocked unconscience 5 times, 3 skull fractures, 5 fractured metatarsals, knocked on my ass more than once from high voltage shocks (60kv was the highest) and a little fire bug (nothing big luckily). Also laid up with Steven Johnson's syndrome from penicilin and respiratory arrest twice from anaphalactic drug reactions. 1 near drowning while trying to bodysurf an incoming hurricane. 3 dog attacks to include 7 dogs. Lastly I swam through some Baracuda while trying to learn how to sail surf. All before I graduated high school.

Yea, I'm surprised I'm still around.

Early teenage years I'm a child from the70s we still played out doors pre video games lol
BB gun fights and me swinging on a grape vine and then getting shot just as I am in mid swing falling and thinking ok I'm going to die and mom's going to kill me