What I remember most strongly from childhood is the sheer rage, frustration, and abject helplessness that comes of being at the mercy of everyone else's decisions, and having no ability to meaningfully change anything about my own life.
It is terrifying to know that the adults around you can decide something for and about you and you have no power in that situation. You can only hope to manipulate and influence the adults into making a choice you can live with.

I had a pretty good childhood... truly.

But I had a great imagination, and so I lived most of my childhood in fear and terror lest the good childhood I had be destroyed by the adults in my life that I could not influence.
Even though that never really happened, even though I was, in the end, spared the nightmares of my childhood, I still spent far too much of those years living with stress and uncertainty.

I knew far too well how powerless minors are, at the base of it all.


So..... however nice it was not to be the one concerned about making a living or organizing the household such that all the chores are completed and checking in on everyone's health etc. etc. for all the markers of adulthood....
I would FAR prefer to miss childhood, and instead keep the bone-deep certainty that whatever might go wrong in life, although I am responsible for the household now, I also actually have the ability to be responsible for the household.

"deal with the things children do".... children have to deal with many of the same things adults do, but they aren't granted the power to actually deal with them. They are at the uncertain mercy of fate and vicissitude of adults both. Adults need only worry about fate.

I recognize that the ideal of childhood is a sheltered one, where the adults have unbroken mercy and manage to throw themselves between children and fate, too, but.... that's just the ideal.
I can't think of anyone whose childhood had that as its reality.

Oh.

I think, then, if I understand that original question correctly, that I *did* miss out on my "childhood", because I can't remember worrying much about those things.
I mean, I did have acne. But I didn't much care, since it didn't actually impact my health in terms of stuff-that-could-put-you-in-hospital, if that makes sense? I know skin health is still health, but it's more like getting a head cold. Annoying, but you know it won't make any long term change to your life. And I was teased by people, of course, but it never really... I mean, sometimes I would get bored with the unimaginative nature of the insults and try to supply them with better ones, but they'd never actually use them, they'd just say I was weird and move on. And I wasn't part of the popular-kid-crowd, but I did get along with most of the popular kids' parents, so I didn't much care about the kids? And yes people made fun, sometimes, but not often, honestly. And I didn't worry about *peer* pressure so much as pressure from the adults. Wanting to please everyone, yes... but adults fall into that trap as much as children, so that doesn't seem an issue exclusive to childhood, so....
Eh.
I had about a year of "childhood" when I was six or so, and had first gone to school, and still cared more about the kids my own age than I did the adults. Then we moved, and I stopped caring about anyone who was still legally a minor.

Moi wrote:

Yeah, not everyone experiences the same things.

So true.

Moi wrote:

I've gained the ability to see straight through a lot of people in my adulthood.
So having a skill like that as a kid would have been really helpful.

And that sounds SUPER useful, yes... I want a skill like that NOW. I keep getting fooled by people, still.
>.<
I like the sound of your friends. :)

So basically a totally "normal" childhood or a childhood where you're physically a child but mentally an adult, is that right? I think I would go with mentally an adult. I would probably be really unpopular, but I already was anyway so meh, but I think I would learn more in school, never get in trouble, make better decisions, etc.