this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2026
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Bro I was born to Chinese parents too. I stopped seeing movies with my parents when I started going with my friends instead.
Idk what young people do these days, but in my day, aside from movies, we did things like:
ETA bowling, but I don't actually like it. It's just that my friends went all the time so I did too.
Were you allowed/encouraged to go outside?
From age 0 to 8, I was mostly either:
then we immigrated to the US
then from age 8 to 12 I was either:
cant go outside because big scary CPS (Child Protective Services) is gonna take you away
Going outside required parents
My self esteem plummetted because I got bullied in school... by ABCs (American-Born Chinese) because my English sucked at the time and I was deemed "weird"
I first started walking home in 6th grade...
inertia stayed with me... so used to not being alone, from then on being alone outside felt scary...
and...
Nobody wanna really be my friend...
And I was really scared by this point...
Then smartphones came along and I didn't have the latest iphone to be "cool"
Didn't have cool shoes... (offbrand shoes lol)
So yeah...
Like there are "friends" but not really friends... never hang out outside of school...
Like idk if I was even brave enough to do "hang out outside of school"
I mean I love being in the US, but immigration kinda caused a bit of stress and anxiety...
Wished I came earlier...
Or was born here...
Then I'd have a solid "sense of identity" cuz when I was a teen, my self identity was on shaky grounds and all over the place...
Didn't have the self confidence to explore in the world... + didn't have a chance to do so early childhood...
Edit: sorry for the downer traumadumping...
The TLDR is just I had a lot of elements of a "stereotypical" Asian American childhood lol... didn't have much fun... and afraid to ask my tiger mom for fun stuff... (love her tho... sort of...)
Yes, I'm Canadian so going outside was encouraged because you have to take advantage of good weather. There were woods behind my house that had trails so I spent a lot of time in there. There were bears in there so I never went alone.
Hanging out with other kids usually required a ride because I went to Catholic school and all the neighbourhood kids went to public school, so none of my friends lived within walking distance.
I wasn't cool in school either, but I had a bunch of friends just as weird as me. The good thing about having to wear a uniform is that since everyone is dressed the same, it's harder to bully kids for not wearing what's in style.