What's the baddest thing you did when you were little?

[nicknack]

When I was about 9 I used to pinch pennies from my dad's cash drawer to fund sweet purchases. I didn't think he'd notice if it was just small amounts. Kids can be very stupid. I got slippered for that.

[Panoramix]

However, I did precipitate the nervous breakdown of the cruellest teacher in our school.

IME, cruel teachers are just insecure. I remember that we drove mad a freshly qualified physics teacher. We managed to make her cry and at the same time loose all the little authority she had left.

[clarion]

I wouldn't have done it to a teacher without authority, but this man intimidated kids to the extent that they peed themselves when he shouted (this was a secondary school).  Corporal punishment was still legal, though very rarely used in our school, but potentially an outcome.

All I did was refuse to be cowed by his insistence that I was talking in a lesson when I wasn't (maybe this should be in the other thread) and became the first ever person to stand up to him.  I walked out of the lesson to go and speak to the Deputy Head about his behaviour.  I heard from my colleagues that he ended the lesson crying under the desk.  He never bullied any more kids, and left three months later - unusually, in the middle of an academic year - after spending most of that time away from school.

I'm sorry it had to happen.  But I am pleased for every single child who might otherwise have felt his wrath.

[rusky]

A friend also had the bright idea of writing 'Warning; heavy plant crossing' on the road in chalk. When a car came around the corner, we would then drag a branch from a tree across the road on a rope!

[teethgrinder]

I couldn't get away with much. My dad probably wrote the book on being naughty, he played truant for 6 months and only got found out because the head came to his house one day to see if he was seriously ill and would he ever come beck to school, so he knew all the tricks, so nothing really got past him. My dad probably did enough for my generation anyway.

But I was a general shitbag. crab apples were a favourite. If you found a good stick. One which was the right length and with a bit of flex, you could push a crab apple onto it's end and use the stick to lob the crab apple for miles!
This was the weapon of choice for lobbing crab apples at the windows of the flats until an angry flat dweller would shout at us. We never did the first floor flats incase they chased after us, we wanted a head start.
Plus the usual kids stuff with fires and knives, nothing nasty. A few cuts and minor burns, but nothing malicious. Plus other stupid pranks. Pretty pathetic stuff really.

Then I discovered cycling at about 12. Being naughty was more about going further from home than I was allowed. I used to stash pocket money in my bedroom and save up to buy some drink on my longer rides. It's probably how I got into Audax really. I wanted to ride a long way but always had the time pressure too. The best week was when I set out to do 5 100 mile rides in a week. I didn't manage it. I managed Oxford and back. That was my first 200kride and I did that in about 10 hours. Cambridge and back wasn't quite 100 miles. Northampton and back, I had to give up because I got a bit lost. Being late home would mean my bike getting locked up for the rest of the school holiday, so I didn't risk it. Huntingdon and back was also a bit short of 100 miles, but not by much.. I can't remember the other place now. I still managed over 500 miles in 7 days though.
I was much less of a shitbag though. Maybe there's a lesson there. Give kids something decent to do, that they want to do instead of telling them what they can't do or that it' too dangerous, then maybe they'll do something decent. I think a lot of bad behaviour from kids is because they are bored and frustrated and told that they can't. I think that kids act like shit because they are treated like shit. Reading Clarion's post above, that seems true. That teacher was an adult in charge of kids, but it was Clarion that was the more mature IMO

[barakta]

I wouldn't have done it to a teacher without authority, but this man intimidated kids to the extent that they peed themselves when he shouted (this was a secondary school).  Corporal punishment was still legal, though very rarely used in our school, but potentially an outcome.

All I did was refuse to be cowed by his insistence that I was talking in a lesson when I wasn't (maybe this should be in the other thread) and became the first ever person to stand up to him.  I walked out of the lesson to go and speak to the Deputy Head about his behaviour.  I heard from my colleagues that he ended the lesson crying under the desk.  He never bullied any more kids, and left three months later - unusually, in the middle of an academic year - after spending most of that time away from school.

I'm sorry it had to happen.  But I am pleased for every single child who might otherwise have felt his wrath.

Similar to my 'badness' which won't surprise anyone who has met me...  I don't even call it badness cos I was bloody well right all along. It was usually defying authority because they failed in their duty of care and if they weren't going to look out for me I was going to defend myself.  I made it clear I wasn't taking any punishment I hadn't deserved at any point in my school career including 'class detentions' where I hadn't been naughty or self-defence from the regular physical assault I got.  I wasn't even taking punishment if they threatened (out of their authority scope which I guessed) to escalate punishment to suspension in fact I dared them to try it giving them my parents number on more than one occasion which funnily enough never got called!  

My best one was pointing out mid-bollocking over some ridiculous petty uniform rule how much more efficient senior teachers were at punishing petty uniform rules than physical assault towards me where I had evidence and witnesses.  I told senior teacher that I refused to follow rules I considered to have no necessity while they failed to look out for my wellbeing and physical (and mental) safety. I said if they could do more to protect my safety I would consider following petty-rules.  This got me further punished by being made to sit in said senior teacher's office with him all afternoon so I got my own back by STARING at him for two hours straight.  It freaked the crap out of him .  I also genuinely forgot to take the "your child has been norty" letter home to my parents but told them anyway and had a huge argument about the required letter of apology which I simply refused to write.  

[Cunobelin]

No1Son & No1Daughter raced the pram containing No2Daughter down a slope. Pram v apple rolling. Pram won, bounced off the wall and No2Daughter woke screaming, bounced up and about in her pram.  

Does 45 count as young?

At an Army Ladies Night someone came up with the idea of "Wife racing"

This consisted of placing wife in a small skip designed for beer bottles and then releasing them down a slope into the Hospital...... in our state it never occurred that the automatic doors might not open quickly enough.

Twenty seconds after the first heat commenced the automatic doors were destroyed and two wives in a snotty heap.

Being true gentlemen we all fell about laughing!



 

[rogerzilla]

Made the odd incendiary bomb, although they were never much good.

Had a bit of a penchant for exploring, often strangers' gardens.
 
Idly digging with a stick one day on the bit of grass opposite our house, ended up discovering a huuuuge cave under the grass, big enough to hold about six people and about five feet deep.  Goodness knows how it got there; I remember when it was a field and then was developed into an estate.  We widened the hole big enough for us all to get in and out, then our parents went apeshit and called the council to fill it in 

[clarion]

Oh - there was the time we went garden-hopping to see if we could get along Chain Lane from Keats Avenue to the Crest Motel (we could, but only just avoided an angry man with a big rake).

[ian]

To avoid pilchards, I feigned food poisoning so effectively that they called an ambulance and rushed me to hospital. I was in too deep then to back out, so spent the rest of day at A&E in my Oscar-nominated performance of Oh My Stomach!

[robbo6]

Clung to the back of the train from Barrow to Ulverston, (10 miles, 3 tunnels) and we had valid tickets.
Found a technique of putting a drop of something on the back of air rifle pellets which increased their range and penetration considerably.
Later, stretching "little" a bit, on a hot August day, padlocked the gate at the bottom of Hardnott pass, causing mayhem as far as Ambleside. It's a cattle grid now. Spoilsports.

[jogler]

Later, stretching "little" a bit, on a hot August day, padlocked the gate at the bottom of Hardnott pass, causing mayhem as far as Ambleside. It's a cattle grid now. Spoilsports.

ace

[chris]

When I was about five I used to put two nails in the bottom holes of a 13 amp socket, then rest old pennies on the nails. I'd then use my sisters violin bow to turn the power on. One penny would jump off undamaged, two pennies would buzz for a second or two before falling off with grooves melted in to the bottom penny. Five pennies would buzz for a few seconds before the fuse in the distribution panel blew.

[Panoramix]

I wouldn't have done it to a teacher without authority... 

May be but in my experience kids don't grasp the full consequences of their acts. Although it was indeed very mean of us, we were doing it for fun rather than for being wicked. I am not proud of it but on the other hand a qualified teacher in her late 20's should be able to understand kids psychology better.

[graculus]

A friend had a large garden at his house, in which was a very old disused greenhouse, brick built to about 3 feet high  then (rotting) timber framed. When he and I were about seven we climbed on to the roof and crawled along it, kicking in the panes of glass as we went (I have since gained a  sense of self-preservation).
The result was discovered later, but we only admitted to throwing stones to break the glass and were duly chastised.
It was forty years before I told my Mum what we had actually done.

[itsbruce]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/8KvWzIksOBs&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/8KvWzIksOBs&rel=1</a> thing that kid'll ever do?