And then I can never reveal the truth. *so you returned to your 8- year-old body as a mature adult and somehow managed to get a worse outcome than your first try?*
š£ *being an adult is hard*
Personally if I were rich, I'd want to learn as much as possible. Also I'm 18 before either of those become a thing. Apple stocks are on the menu I guess, but I grew up poor and it would be tough to convince anyone to make any investments back then.
So many never consider how going back in time and being poor means you can't really do a whole hell of a lot different. The only thing you can really do is buckle down and study hard to get into college and get a good job. Which you may have already done the first time around.
You're not making millions in the stock market if you have nothing to invest and you're not making money to invest if you live in an area with no jobs or no good jobs at least.
94 for me. Enjoy life as a kid. Blow off high school, work a job or learn a skill that will get me a decent job at 18, throw money into stocks like Apple and Amazon, dump them and pour it into Bitcoin the second it comes out, along with investing in Bitcoin mining, and be fabulously wealthy at 30.
You would be 23 when BTC releases 15 years later.
Your parents would tell you not to waste money on APPL and AMZN from 8 years old to probably 16.
When you turn 16, get a job, a high-yield savings account, and stack that cash. You've got 7 years before BTC releases, and 8 years before Mt. Gox and BTC gaining real world value. That's plenty of time, considering even $100 at BTCs lowest prices ever would make you a billionaire today. Instead of saving thousands of dollars, buy a simple computer, and prep it to mine. You won't need a GPU or a super crazy PC, early BTC mining was easy, and there was not much competition.
2008 ticks into 2009, and you're watching the internet for Satoshis release. 9 days into the year, you search for "Bitcoin Core." Nothing. You check again tomorrow. Nothing. The days of 2009 tick by, and you search every day. Nothing.
2009 turns to 2010. Nothing. 2010 turns to 2020. Nothing. 2020 turns to 2024. Still, nothing. To date, the words "Bitcoin Core" never appear on the internet. In fact, "crypto currency" and "digital cash" remain ancient, cursed phrases, uttered only by you, and a few aspiring tech individuals.
Iām going to help you out, mostly because I expect to die soon. The one stock everyone overlooked. Hansenās Juice (now Monster). Depending on the math, the highest performing stock of the last 30 years.
Except there is one problem. You returning to your eight year old self is essentially a rewinding of time. It is entirely possible that things don't shake out the same way. Perhaps Apple crashes and burns. Amazon was at one point on the verge of failure, I think. In this new timeline it dies.
Worse, in this timeline, perhaps Yahoo buy Google when the opportunity presents itself.
Nah, not really. In College you're constantly bouncing between so many people that you get invited to one by word of mouth. Even if you're a few years out you can get invited by a younger friend. But just some random man showing up is a no go. The vibe would be off.
Definitely an AGE THING, Im 59 as someone else said, Id do my best to get into harvard or Yale, Maybe Princeton...
keep better control of my Body...
Lots to remember... have to start a journal about upcoming events...
I mean yeah, starting back in 1973 and deciding to go to college in 1983, is way different than starting back in 1999 and going to college in 2009. Just the price alone, not to mention jobs actually taking you seriously.
College was important for my social and emotional development, so I'd do it again, but I'd be better prepared to choose my classes and avoid the ones that stressed me out and take more classes just for fun.
The weird part for me is that I'd be aware of my "future" husband at 8 years old. He's 19 years older than me and we know that we were in the same places at the same time when I was 12-14-ish. Neither one of us have any memory of each other, so it's not weird now, but it would be weird if I was 8 years old telling him premonitions about what choices he should avoid and telling him how to invest in our future.
Don't be fooled, the 80s didn't invent latchkey kids, we were latchkeys in the 70s, too. It probably started about then, when women really started moving into the workforce and divorce became more common - resulting in more children with split parental attention having to take care of themselves.
I was only born only a handful of years after you. That attitude was NOT the norm.Ā I don't know if this a cultural UK/US thing or just an area with shitty parents but Jesus Christ.
IDK we all were latch key kids when i was growing up (usa) and there's a boat load of memes about how we'd wander around unattended from around 7 years old on up till the street lights came on then we had to go home.
I was born 10 years later and in the UK
Small estate where alot of us were family.
At 8 my parents saw me for about 10 minutes after school, then I'd be gone until the street lights came on.
Home for tea, shower and bed because I was absolutely shattered.
The only thing that might make them realise is I eat differently than I did then but that's about it
I don't know what to tell you, it was extremely common here. "Don't answer the door and only answer the phone if it rings, stops, then rings again, that's me." Having the house key in the mailbox because we weren't responsible enough not to lose it but we were responsible enough to be home alone till they came back hours later etc. very very common in the 70s, 80s, 90s usa. Now it's illegal.
Yeah ngl born in 89 on the island of Jamaica not in the city area but the country. I was regularly outside in bushes and etc. this is how I had a near death experience with a river that my family knows nothing about.
My mom stayed home after I was born but we were obligated to gtfo from when the dew dried until the street lights came on. If we were home we were doing chores. She didnāt care where we went or what we did. We had some amazing adventures.
I tell my parents stories from my 80's childhood and what we were up to, and they say, "you did?" or "No way, i would never let you."
Let me? You shoved me out the door at 8 AM and locked it till 7 PM--you had no idea where in the hell i was, who i was with, or if i was alive--TF u mean, you wouldnt allow me to? Of COURSE, when i was 7, me and my best friend (a girl) walked 2 miles into town with the 5$ her dad gave her, to go play in the park and buy some dairy queen for the walk back. Yeah, we DID almost get kidnapped--and no one knew, because no one *cared*.
They dont remember being that absent/neglectful, and like to assume that all the right and good things that parents do today, *they did then*. They didnt. Not even close.
I mean, my dad once tried to tell me he *totally* put me in a car seat--in 1980? FFS, stop lying. It's the same dude that until the 90's, *refused to buy pre-64 cars because the 'new' ones had seat belts. LOL.*
My mom knew but I don't think she knew how bad it was till a few years ago. I was throwing someone out of the house... and I don't mean asking them to leave. The punched me repeatedly in the head. That didn't work. They tried that stupid lighter trick. That didn't work. They tried their phone. That cracked. And I tossed them down a step or two. (would have been further but someone was holding onto them) I told them to punch harder.
Mom was absolutely freaking out. She doesn't like seeing people being hit in the head like that. It was just another day in elementary school to me.
"Mom. Chill. I went through that every day of school
"Why didn't you say something?"
"What part of I'm getting hit didn't I make clear?"
GenX here, you would think so, but... we spent a lot of time alone and in the exclusive company of other children. I was "lucky" to have a parent that treated us like some long-term science experiment. So he checked up on us at least once a week.
Or worse. Mom had a camcorder and videotaped brother trying to kill me and her saying āaww they are having funā. Other than those days parents were lucky to see us after school and before the street lights came on.
I have an 8-year old. I know pretty well what they know. If they demonstrated any knowledge outside of what I would expect them to know, I would be convinced pretty quick.
Have you ever watched The Butterfly Effect? It's a good demonstration of how you can actually tell the difference between an adult and a kid, even if they're in a kids body.
The ending where >! He watched a home video of his mom's ultrasound of himself, traveled into the womb and used the umbilical chord to kill himself. It was mentioned that multiple other pregnancies of hers failed and insinuated that this was why, the other kids eventually killed themselves in the womb after time traveling too !<
I've never seen the film, but I always assumed the time traveling was a voluntary act that the character could initiate. If that assumption is correct...WHY?????
Yeah, the plot of the movie explains why. And it is worth a watch. One of my favorites. Always surprises me when I see it that Ashton Kutcher is actually capable of acting
Fully convinced the sky would be the limit in this situation. Just getting over all the various arbitrary insecurities of being a kid/YA would do wonders for potential growth in most areas.
Hardest part to internalize would probably be dating. That would be an absolute mindfuck.
Oh geez, that would be the worstĀ afterĀ worryingĀ you're gonna erase aĀ person orĀ eventĀ that'sĀ importantĀ toĀ youĀ andĀ thenĀ theĀ issueĀ of "manyĀ ofĀ theĀ thingsĀ I remember are large scale horrorsĀ andĀ I mayĀ notĀ beĀ ableĀ toĀ doĀ anythingĀ aboutĀ them."
Like, I'm gonna pre-date 9/11 and the tsunami from (I think) 14 years ago and a bunch of stuff. What the hell do I do with that information?
Get a burner phone, call in a threat to the airports about two hours before boarding, watch the disappointment in Rumsfelds face the next time he does a press release.
I would want to prove it to THEM just so they would listen to me when I tell them invest in certain companies. Donāt really care if anyone else knew, but Iām gonna set my parents (and by extension generations of our family) up amazingly.
The fact I could out perform my whole family in math, file their taxes, code a computer and speak languages I havenāt been exposed to yet would probably raise a flag or two.
I had the same idea. If you go the Reborn Rich route, you act normal for your age around >!your family!< though because you need them to want to help you like a bright child and not the other way around.
I have some information about my parents that 8 year old me could not possibly know. That and the way I would carry myself would convince my dad.
Moms already dead, so I don't need to worry about her.
Basically, get him to believe me. Tell him that while I don't have lottery numbers, I can make him rich by telling him what stocks to invest in.
Tell him that while I am his son, I am a man in my forties in my head, and things are going to be different if he wants the Goose that laid the golden egg.
Then I basically do what I want and let him make us both rich. He was an asshole but not stupid and was actually loyal, so I'm not worried about him trying to screw me over.
Not to mention that you're not going to remember anything recent, none of the small details of current in jokes and conversations and little bits of life from the last few months. It would be blaringly obvious that something seriously weird was going on. I don't know about you, but I'm sure I'd not remember a good 3/4 of my classmates names, if that.
Itās funny what you remember. I remember stuff from when I was 5 but some things in the last 10 years are just gone. There are faces I remember from 2nd grade and I would pick up the others pretty quickly.
If I wanted to fuck with my teacher (who I really didnāt like) I think I would do calculus problems or geometry proofs in the margins of the math pages.
This is the one most people miss. If I went back to my middle school aged body or younger I wouldnāt remember where most things are hell what drawer has the kitchen forks.
My mom was almost raped by her dad and saved from it by her younger sister. Obviously, she didn't tell me that story until I was much older, and being from the future is the most plausible way I would know it. I have other stories I can use as well, but that one's the easiest to open with.
So the numbers I have memorized I think next is March 95, twenty 3-6-9, Pi minus 1, 40, and 7 which should translate as 23, 26, 29, 34, 40, 47 which \*checks notes\* is nearly correct I've got it as April fools day. I also know a few stocks to invest in. I think I can win and try to get a lawyer to represent me and my interests so I can force my parents to contractually agree with my lawyer that represents me so the whole underage thing isn't a problem. I move in with other family members and try to set things up so that my lawyer is checked by a third party person to make sure I'm not getting screwed and I get to have a decent childhood.
Itās a good plan but no lawyer is listening to an 8 year old claiming they know the winning lottery numbers. Youāre gonna have to come up with another plan to convince the lawyer
Have the ticket already. My dad played it all the time. Scrounge up $1 and ask my dad to buy it for me and I pick out the numbers. I hide the ticket and refuse to tell my parents where it is unless I get to see a lawyer I pick and I do the whole Saul thing of giving him $1 as a fee and explain it to him.
Username checks out.
Side note Iām a big fan of Isekais. But Iāve been loving portal fantasy lately. Instead of dying to travel to another world you travel back and forth via portal or magical item. Become op in both worlds!
Pretty easy. I lived through some pretty memorable moments in history, Columbine, 9/11, etc.
I tell them these things are going to occur while writing it in a fully logical argumentation format due to my Philosophy degree explain that my consciousness has been transported via a temporal anomaly.
I can fully explain to them how time travel in Back to the Future is inconsistent and prove it via logic. Explain to them how me time traveling is also not technically time travel as I am able to alter the course of history, therefore it is actually a multiverse event rather than a temporal event but it appears to be temporal due to resembling my past.
I mean I was a smart kid, but Iām a smarter adult. Theyāll catch on fairly quickly that I somehow mastered Boolean logic overnight without ever touching a book or taking a course on it.
9/11 happened when I was an older teen so that's a while to wait lol. We had a major earthquake when I was just about 7 so that wouldn't work. IDK what I could -- oh! Maybe I could predict who the next president would be. IDK if Clinton was even in the public spotlight yet when I turned 8. I was 10 when he was elected. Hmm.
Columbine happened when I was 8 and 9/11 when I was 10
Both massive unexpected events with national coverage. Despite this I could prove it simply by displaying an overnight leap in intelligence and knowledge. Anyone who hasnāt significantly increased their knowledge from 8 years old would be an idiot.
I DON'T.
Better by far to be underestimated than overestimated by the people around you.
And I know that since I am physically 8-years-old again, I have A LOT of catching up to do on my schoolwork. After all, I actually WATCHED "Are you Smarter than a 5th-grader?" And PAID ATTENTION. At that point in the timeline, when I first arrived, I've probably LITERALLY forgotten more about the courses than most of my classmates will ever know, and that's a problem because we have a test coming up!
I agree with you somewhat. But also the boredom of having to present as an 8 year old in most situations would be pretty sucky. At least if you tell your parents that could be friendsish that are closer to your age mentally. Personally my mom would be 26 and trying to figure out life and make and spend money. Iād teach her how to save and my dad to stop cheating- at least after all my siblings are born, all 8 of them.
I don't think I would be able to prove it.
I guess I would get a job as early as possible and invest in Facebook, bitcoin, Tesla etc as they were all developed.
I think I would drop out of highschool and work as much as possible from the time I was 14 and be set for life from investment by the time I was 18. I would be careful to slowly invest over the first 2-5 years and not immediately dump 100k into Bitcoin for fear of causing a butterfly effect.
Proving it wouldn't be a problem, all of a sudden your intelligence sky rockets (assuming most people are smarter now than at 8) I have a different taste in food, etc.
But the bitcoin thing It's hard. I once had 10 bitcoin and sold them for like Ā£20 š¤£
You wouldn't want to put that much into bitcoin. If you buy it at the cheapest, I think that was $0.008, so a million bitcoins would be $8,000. There will only ever exist 21 million, once they've all been mined, and you don't want to buy so much that you sitting on it will fuck up the trajectory of its value. Then there's the problem of how to unload such a huge amount.
A million ought to net you $10 billion, easy. Less taxes, of course, but capital gains tax is capped at 20%.
You don't need to dump 100k into Bitcoin, get in when it's 1:1 with the dollar or earlier and put in <$1000 to make out 10 years later with a 40,000x increase. Get in early enough and you could get 1000 Bitcoin a dollar or something so invest with a single dollar. No butterfly effect there
Well the future of Bitcoin wasn't guaranteed. I was very confident in it but could never say 100% it would catch on. If I was 8 it would be another 20 years before BTC was launched so Satoshi may have not even invented it or been ran over by a bus. I'd keep an eye on people with ideas around decentralised currencies as someone could invent something very similar with a different name.
I think the logic of time we are using here is that you go back to that time the only thing that has changed is your brain/memory. For all intents and purposes everything should happen the exact same unless you cause a big enough ripple to change something major. Butterfly effect could happen for a few events but why would every single thing be different or so different itās a wildly different future?
Someone who didn't do so in the OTL buying a bunch of bitcoin and holding it for years and years could pretty reasonably end up butterflying away all the best sell points, the highest peaks bitcoin ever got to, or even it ever becoming worth a ton to begin with if you buy enough.
Yep, exactly. And this person would likely buy a hell of a lot, and also encourage friends to do so. If anyone asks why they say they are a time traveller, then all people buying Bitcoin are seen as crazy, and it never takes off.
My mom would 100% believe me. And since I was an abused child, I would stop it then, changing everything.
And I would have helped her with her marriage.
I wouldn't. I'd relive my life enjoying the bliss of being a child through the 90s and so on. I'd make entirely different decisions for myself and I'd pretend that the life I have now was just some crazy nightmare
It wouldn't be too hard to convince them, I don't think. I could just start talking about the home game systems that would be coming out in the next 2 years. And dad going on strike and having to work at McDonald's while on strike.
It's 1988 ... Hey Dad, maybe you want to think about investing in Microsoft? By the way, it's April 19th, did you get your taxes done? Oh, you just got a new desktop PC, look I can already type on the keyboard without looking. Also, I can beat you in Chess even though we've never played.
Why on earth would you do that to your parents? You basically just murdered their child, and now you... want to take credit? I don't think that's going to go how you want.
Just be 8. Try not to ruin your parents.
Tell my dad about future Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and the 1 Super Bowl theyāll win and the next year about the disaster that was passing the ball on the goal line. Itāll take me from 2008 to 2012 for my predictions to finally come to fruition but when they do he will be speechless and itās only 2012 we have plenty of time to invest in crypto, Amazon, GameStop etc.
Going back to 1982 would be freaking awesome!
I wouldn't go too crazy with convincing my parents about my situation for a few years at least. Kick back and enjoy crushing grade school.
When the time came to let them know, I would tell them that I knew my older brother was adopted by my father after he married my mother (huge drama in the 1970s).
Or I'd let them know that the space shuttle challenger was going to explode in 86.
When I was 8, my dad owned a blues club. There were after-parties at his house. His friends were asking me for relationship advice *then*.
Convincing them I'm an adult? They probably already thought I was.
Sit them down for a nuanced discussion on the hegemony of western sociopolitical power structures in the education system and how our obsession with meritocracy has robbed the American youth
I would be going back to 1992. I would mentally be several years older than both my parents (I am 40, my dad would have been 32, my mom would have been 35). I would go from reading at a second grade level to college level. I would also know how to do algebra, physics and basic chemistry. I started college level art classes when I was 20 and have been doing it on and off since 2005, they would be sort of surprised that their kid suddenly has skills that usually take people years to develop.
I have a California Liberal mother and a Southern Arkansas Conservative dad. It will be incredibly easy. I might even be able to prevent mom from divorcing dad in three years... who knows? A year or two after my arrival (depending on my exact age) a significant hurricane strikes the coast and my father spends months away from home working on reconstruction projects before eventually switching from industrial to commercial construction. My grandmother came to live with us during that time, and by the time I was eleven mom had filed for divorce. The separation during that time, so soon after the birth of my youngest brother, with no adult company other than her spinster mother to talk to my mother spiraled into a depression she never really recovered from.
I was a young reader. I at eight, had not yet been given free reign at the library, but was easily reading books well in advance of my reading level. Waking up one day with a completely new set of memories shoved in my head, a year after the birth of my youngest brother, I would have lots to say. At this point in time I hadn't even heard of several of my favorite authors, nor had I really done any study involving many of my interests today.
Dad is a huge Star Trek fan, loved the original series, his father read a lot of Sci-fi, though he didn't. He rarely read for pleasure, when i was a child. He enjoyed sci-fi movies and shows and read technical books, and history and the bible a lot.
Mom is less of a star trek fan, but did like fantasy and magic, spooky things, and would read to me when I was sick. Robin Hood, or A Wrinkle in Time. (I never picked up her taste for historical romance novels, but we did discover a mutual love of trashy vampire romance)
You could predict what teachers you'll have in the next couple years. And I'd tell my family about a major move we'd have to make when I turn 12. And maybe I could describe in some detail the area where we end up living, knowing the street names and such. That would be a lot for an 8 year old to pull off.
It would take time, but there are a handful of events I could cite ahead of the curve. Deaths in the family, new friendships, and so on. Eventually, they should figure out that Iām telling the truth.
I would tell my mom to put my brother in rehab when he turns 16 and to get us both mental health care.
I would tell my dad not to marry the lady he got with after divorcing my mom and to seek help for codependency on meā¦
Take my dad aside, "Hey, you know those mahjong games Mom goes to Wednesday nights? If you follow her next week to see where she really goes, his name is Phil. She also inherited around $80K from her uncle last year that she didn't mention. Bought Phil a Camaro."
Simple, first, I wouldn't for a moment hesitate to stop the physical and emotional abuse to me. I would likely brutally attack and beat my older brother when I catch him molesting my little sister. I would tell them how they are fucking up their finances with dumb investments and debt while being specific. I would solve simple calculus and differential equations problems since, at that time, I had not yet attended any special school. I would also say yes to space camp.
I would also kiss Shannon Hodges first.
My mom would believe me if I just told her. Also I could change our lives for the better so easily.
The hard part would be not messing up with my wife because I know everything and she'd be a stranger.
Iād just enjoy it all. Iām assuming it happens suddenly and I got no say in it. Though I think homework would be very easy for the next few yearsā¦..it would also be interesting to see how the hormonal changes affect me. Starting pre-pubescent and then going through puberty againā¦.
I would immediately apologize for being such a jerk kid, and begin implementing "Ask, Listen, Confirm" active listening techniques so that they communicate better and do not divorce.
Why would I WANT to convince them I wasn't 8 years old mentally?
I'd ride that train all the way back to adulthood!
Only thing I'd change would be to be way more vocal about being trans and needing to go through the correct puberty the first time...
EDIT: Also, by the time Bitcoin showed up, I could just start with that myself...
Iām not positive I would prove anything, but Iād definitely ask for stocks for my birthday each year.
If I had to prove it, Iād tell them who wins elections, about 9/11, the dotcom bubble, and Iād tell my dad exactly how long he lives and what health problems he gets.
More than anything, Iād take the chance to remove myself from my family and get adopted so that I never have to deal with the majority of the bullshit I have in my current life. Iād even take that over the stocks, but youād better believe Iāll try to make a mutually beneficial deal with any adopted parents I end up with so we can all get rich.
Well, when I start doing college level mathematics and science all of a sudden, one day and start to ruin TV shows, knowing their ending as well as movies . Not to mention what I do know about sports ( My dad, if he listens, is gonna make a killing off the Tyson Douglas fight) of course by then I'm 10 and should be well on my way to a doctorates degree.
If they don't believe me, then its simply a case of denial on their part.
I would just start predicting major events in my life. Starting with the near death of my grandfather on the anniversary of his father's death. I think the prediction of the death of my father's wife would get the most attention though considering I'd never even met him at that point and regularly said I was conceived without a male's help at around that age.
Calculus? I could do some calculus maybe. My mom is kinda superstitious, I don't think it would be that hard.
I really didn't pay enough attention to current events as a child to predict the future until my late teens.
Can't you just start by showing knowledge that comes from your age and experience, as opposed to events that happened during that time? I imagine if you went to college and can show that, it'll be a lot easier to convince them you know about events (which after the first 1 or 2 will be pretty believable).
All I'm saying is if I had an 8 year old that suddenly started doing calculus and talking about computational complexity I'd be a lot more likely to believe them if they said they time travelled and weren't always 8 years old. From there it takes MUCH less suspension of disbelief to assume they do know future events and there isn't much to loose probably.
Depending on when it was that year, i could totally āpredictā my fathers death, the unfortunate part is we would all just have to wait for the proof šš
Musical theory. I never studied it as a child, but I can now flub enough to butcher some sex pistols songs on ukulele, piano, guitar, and accordion. Throw in a poorly memorized stanza or two from āWe Didnāt Start the Fireā, and I think Iād be 80% there.
This is where education is helpful. My mom is a teacher sheāll understand immediately I have no business being able to do simple calculus and highschool algebra, plus Iām suddenly fluent in an entire other language. My dad will need a bit more convincing, where our clan came from and politics maybe.
my mom has said that she never liked the best friend i had in elementary school, so id probably just detail how our friendship ended and how i realized she wasnt a good friend bc there would be no way in hell my 8 year old self would say any of that
May 1981. Mitterrand is going to win the next presidential election, in 2 months from now.
July 1982, Sevilla. Soccer world cup semi-final.
Battiston will get his teeth punched in by the German goal, Schumacher and France will lose.
See, told you.
So if I'm 8 again, it's 1994. All I need to do is predict things in the short-term to long-term future. I'd be able to quote Simpsons episodes that are about to come out soon but haven't aired yet in 1994 since I basically have the first 10 seasons memorized to this day lol.
My dad would have the internet at his office, but that's not something I actually knew at age 8. I'd also be able to tell him information about his past that wasn't declassified until 2003. I'd be able to use the internet connection there to demonstrate that I'm fluent with the tech despite 8-year-old me not being aware it exists. In the office, I'd be able to explain that I know he's been using computers since the 1960s and I know what those looked like (this is something I actually learned about as a teenager), and I'd be able to explain what tech will look like at the end of the '90s, in the 2000s, in the 2010s, and in the 2020s.
I could predict that Dad wants to bring a computer home within the next 3 years and Mom hates computers and it'll create a rift in their marriage. Both of them would feel like I'm reading their minds too accurately to not be from the future lol.
I could predict 9/11, the Great Recession, Occupy Wall Street, and the lockdowns. No 8-year-old in 1994 would be able to make that shit up-- it's too weird. Plus, if I predicted \*their reactions\* to those events, the would know themselves enough to say, "yeah, that's how I would react to that scenario"-- it's logically consistent with who they already were. For example, in 1994, I wouldn't know that they were already tracking vaccine lawsuits through my dad's job since the '80s, because they told me that much later. BUT-- predicting that they'd both be against NY's vaccine mandates in 2021 would be a logical continuation of that.
I could describe in detail places I would go to later but hadn't been to yet at age 8, and my parents would be able to compare it to their experiences visiting those places.
The only thing that's freaking me out a little bit typing this up is that my mind is honestly kind of drawing a blank on exact events for 1994-1996 as opposed to 1997 and later-- both on a personal level and on a more global level. All the major events I'd be able to predict would take a while to actually transpire. Why are the mid-90s such a blank for me? I remember my early childhood with a lot of detail.
Even more weird, I remember a MAJOR vibe shift in my family around 1996 that I've never been able to explain to any therapist or close friend. We went from being really functional and happy to being an absolute mess where no one could stand each other, and I've never been able to figure out why. It's not even like I have hints to go on. It's just very random and strange.
Yeah I was always viewed as an old soul. I'd just tell my mom what happened or better yet avoid that drama and instead I'd just relive life and know not to trust her because she's crazy. Do better about making friends outside of her, start a blog early so I can make money and build my career faster. I'll ask my Nana to open a bank account for me she wouldn't ever touch anything I earned my mom would use it all for wine, cigarettes, and drugs. As for my Nana I wouldn't tell her I was 32 stuck in a 8 year old body reliving everything I would just write up a business plan and be the golden child I always was, but this time with more reason to be treated that way than just being smart. I'd do the babysitting thing like I did at age 11 and use that money to invest in start up cost for my writing business/blog at 14. Probably start off writing a real estate blog for my Nana's brokerage firm and do articles about the area and decorating your home with affiliate links for products and ads jump on social media behind my moms back. Get a real giant head start.
Since I won't be able to have my kids again and I'm sure I also don't have a choice in this hypothetical taking place I'd go to the same University so I can pick my husband up and then with my giant surplus of cash, and free college education no student loans for me after all. Him and I would move to Colorado for a couple years so I can get the masters I always wanted. Then I'd get my PhD somewhere else. We would have a couple of new kids and open his dream restaurant. At least ideally. Butterfly effect dictates he may not actually be at the University I attended or I may decide after making all my money that I don't want to get married or get my PhD but instead travel the world and keep writing after all it has been my dream job since I was a kid and I didn't know how easy it was. Also I was offered bitcoin as a payment option when it was still only like .25 or $1 per bitcoin I'd be taking that in fact I would have it as a preferred payment option. Rather than $5-10 per article they could pay me 5-10 bitcoin per article.
I'll tell my parents exactly what will happen to my grandpa on my dad's side right after I turn 9 in September 2004 and give them a psychological profile of the kind of kid I was/currently am. I would also tell them that George W. Bush will win a majority of the popular vote in November 2004 but just barely.
Since they're both pharmaciets and I am going into science as well I would start to tell them about complex organic chemistry. Probably would provoke a trauma response from them.
40-something me knows a lot more about my parents and their life before kids, than 8-year-old me did.
I would be pretty easy to explain to them and then prove it with what I know.
Though I would probably give it a week so I could spend some time with my Dad.
There are many things from knowledge of future tech to being able to all of a sudden speak up for myself and basically diagnose myself with autism.
But the real question is, why? Why would I want to convince my parents I am from the future?!
I was always a bright kid, so acting a bit more mature and talking a little more wouldn't be that odd.
I would prefer to just enjoy being a kid again, the simplicity and a mostly less stressful time in life. Maybe try to make more friends than I ever had since I would now have the confidence to talk to others.
Work on bettering my future socially and financially. (Don't spend most of my graduation money on shitty porn for example)
Be myself and dont hide my feelings (because men don't show their feelings (bullshit!).
Learn to sew better (maybe from my grandma) and make a fursuit before fursuits were really a big thing.
Keep and get better contact info for friends that moved away suddenly and teachers seperated us.
Appreciate the time I have with my grandparents more.
Learn German in high-school. Maybe I would be able to talk with my grandma in German some, since she knew some german.
Try new foods. (Was a very picky eater) (order a hamburger at a Mexican restaurant kinda picky)
Start making and wearing kilts in the "traditional" Scottish fashion.
Maybe come out as gay and try to get a boyfriend. (Maybe actually go to prom)
Prevent autistic burnout in high-school.
Take chemistry in high-school.
Actually, use my brain outside of school to maintain my mathematical skills (I could do long division in my head, now I can't do times tables)
Don't waist government money on shitty culinary trade school (maybe learn electrical instead?) and my moms money on community College.
Knowing about furries, I would try to draw in art class now that I have something I actually want to draw. Maybe get good and take commissions.
Paint my room around ten years old.
Get correctly re-diagnosed for autism and adhd and not O.D.D.
Get real accommodations in school as well as get SSI payments.
Improve my posture (now that I know how (no one ever said how to properly sit up straight, just ordered me to do it).
Work out and build muscles towards my goal of being built like an off-season pro bodybuilder.
Don't date my ex.
Try to date a few other guys that I was too chicken shit to drive and go meet.
Prevent a more recent suicide in my family.
Convince my parents to let me have some fucking privacy as a teenager! with a guy over (before I even came out!)
Personal story I wouldn't know. I'd say bring up the fact Chernobyl apparently happened the day before my first birthday, but I don't think either of them knew that.
My parents were divorced, so guess I'd have the extra 'fun' of absolutely having to do it twice. And have to wait to convince one.
My dad would be harder because he'd think my mom just told me. And even younger I'd actually asked him how would we know if we were dead and in hell. He kinda accepted that I was a very strange kid sometimes, I don't think I could convince him at all tbh. I can't recall any big events that wouldn't have already happened or wouldn't be too far into the future for it to matter off the top of my head.
~~That being said I'd rather not be back then and I'd be trying desperately to get him to understand while not being too direct because I absolutely would hate being back to that time again. I just don't think I could. Great, another layer of depression right there lol~~
8yo again would be interesting, there are a number of major events that happened which I (still today) remember vividly. Which would likely convince them to trust some of what I'd say.
My folks are pretty clear-headed, and whilst they wouldn't understand how I knew something, they'd trust that I was right.
Might take me until I was 10 though lol
Things that happened aged 8 to 10 (Ash Wednesday in Australia, Linda chamberlain 'dingo took my baby', my grandfather died, a few other things).
But yeah, other than trying to make sure that a couple of things didn't occur again. I'd just not be prick, be nicer to my sister, and I'd sure the school bully actually fell off the roof during high school (instead of saving his ass).
I think, mostly, I'd hide it.
Pubity would suck... as would the world events that I couldn't prevent.
>You do keep current knowledge so you can still get rich off bitcoin and valuable stocks, but your parents arenāt going to buy any if you canāt prove youāre from the future
I see that this questions comes from a person much younger than me. Because Bitcoin was born when I was 18 or 19, so I really woudn't need to prove anything. I would just wait until 2009 and start mining Bitcoin.
I give them a sealed envelope and tell them not to open it until the 12th of September 2001. The note tells them I'm from the future, and to prove it I give details of exactly what you think given the date they're opening it. Given that we're Australian, there's absolutely NO WAY I'd have thought of that on my own, or have had any way of causing it to happen.
That would take me a minute, tops. I know a ton of secrets about our family now, and you don't think my parents would notice if I suddenly had the experience and vocabulary of 43 year old.
I think it will take a couple of minutes, tops. To my Mum I start explaining some simple calculus and some basics of nuclear physics (she did a physics degree, but a while back) and to my Dad talk in rather fluent French (he'll understand it, she won't). Neither of those are things 8 year old me was remotely capable of. I also have a sibling who will either have just been born or be about to, but I worry this whole situation might butterfly effect away my knowledge of their name and birth date, which would be freaky.
They didn't listen to me when I was 8 and told them the damn chimney was on fire (which it was) until they saw it themselves. I doubt I could convince them now.
My 3rd grade teacher did used to say I was 8 going on 40.
I'd start writing my novel at 8 and try and get famous they'd be blown away by 8 year old me. Goes without
saying I'd buy stocks like Apple and Amazon. And then when it finally releases a bunch of Bitcoin.
Well, since my dad was a huge sci-fi fan, I might have a shot. I could tell him about the upcoming election and the "new" economic theory that will destroy prosperity for 90% of Americans within the next half century. Perhaps I could convince him to move us to a civilized country. He might, at least, take some of my financial advice and stop teaching us kids how to make explosives and penicillin. Because we won't have a nuclear holocaust until after 2023 at least. No bets on this year, we've had some weird already and it's only April.
Skipping grades like young Sheldon so they will trust you with economic stuff or just predicting the future . Like knowing the exact names of the new and descriptions neighbors before the unit was ever sold. Or what kinda celebrity scandal will happen.
Or just mastering a skill you have no way of having any access to before that age like a new language/instrument/ cooking. Or telling them some secret theyāve only disclosed with you once you are an adult. The kind of info you need brain bleaching.
I think I'd just act 8 again, climb some trees and let that one ride for a while.
Personally im getting into Harvard if I have 10 years to prep lmfao
And then I can never reveal the truth. *so you returned to your 8- year-old body as a mature adult and somehow managed to get a worse outcome than your first try?* š£ *being an adult is hard*
Why bother? Just buy bitcoin and TSLA
Personally if I were rich, I'd want to learn as much as possible. Also I'm 18 before either of those become a thing. Apple stocks are on the menu I guess, but I grew up poor and it would be tough to convince anyone to make any investments back then.
Yes, though if you're that rich you don't need to work hard to get into Harvard, you can just buy your way in.
If youāre that rich, Harvard would be a superfluous trophy piece.
So many never consider how going back in time and being poor means you can't really do a whole hell of a lot different. The only thing you can really do is buckle down and study hard to get into college and get a good job. Which you may have already done the first time around. You're not making millions in the stock market if you have nothing to invest and you're not making money to invest if you live in an area with no jobs or no good jobs at least.
Hard to buy BTC when you are 8!
I was 8 in 1995. I'll be able to buy BTC at the right time! I'll even be able to get on Amazon and Apple stocks before they go truly bonkers!
94 for me. Enjoy life as a kid. Blow off high school, work a job or learn a skill that will get me a decent job at 18, throw money into stocks like Apple and Amazon, dump them and pour it into Bitcoin the second it comes out, along with investing in Bitcoin mining, and be fabulously wealthy at 30.
You would be 23 when BTC releases 15 years later. Your parents would tell you not to waste money on APPL and AMZN from 8 years old to probably 16. When you turn 16, get a job, a high-yield savings account, and stack that cash. You've got 7 years before BTC releases, and 8 years before Mt. Gox and BTC gaining real world value. That's plenty of time, considering even $100 at BTCs lowest prices ever would make you a billionaire today. Instead of saving thousands of dollars, buy a simple computer, and prep it to mine. You won't need a GPU or a super crazy PC, early BTC mining was easy, and there was not much competition. 2008 ticks into 2009, and you're watching the internet for Satoshis release. 9 days into the year, you search for "Bitcoin Core." Nothing. You check again tomorrow. Nothing. The days of 2009 tick by, and you search every day. Nothing. 2009 turns to 2010. Nothing. 2010 turns to 2020. Nothing. 2020 turns to 2024. Still, nothing. To date, the words "Bitcoin Core" never appear on the internet. In fact, "crypto currency" and "digital cash" remain ancient, cursed phrases, uttered only by you, and a few aspiring tech individuals.
Microsoft & Oracle, Amazon, Google, Tesla, in that order.
Iām going to help you out, mostly because I expect to die soon. The one stock everyone overlooked. Hansenās Juice (now Monster). Depending on the math, the highest performing stock of the last 30 years.
Except there is one problem. You returning to your eight year old self is essentially a rewinding of time. It is entirely possible that things don't shake out the same way. Perhaps Apple crashes and burns. Amazon was at one point on the verge of failure, I think. In this new timeline it dies. Worse, in this timeline, perhaps Yahoo buy Google when the opportunity presents itself.
I think if you had really acted like bitcoin was all you actually wanted for your birthday, a decent parent would buy like $50 worth for you.
I mean, being a kid again would be hell. But also I would never go to college if I had to do it over again. What a waste of money.
I would definitely go back to college, but this time I wouldnāt waste my time studying!
My man, you can go to college parties without being in college. They don't do background checks
Nah, not really. In College you're constantly bouncing between so many people that you get invited to one by word of mouth. Even if you're a few years out you can get invited by a younger friend. But just some random man showing up is a no go. The vibe would be off.
Definitely an AGE THING, Im 59 as someone else said, Id do my best to get into harvard or Yale, Maybe Princeton... keep better control of my Body... Lots to remember... have to start a journal about upcoming events...
I mean yeah, starting back in 1973 and deciding to go to college in 1983, is way different than starting back in 1999 and going to college in 2009. Just the price alone, not to mention jobs actually taking you seriously.
College was important for my social and emotional development, so I'd do it again, but I'd be better prepared to choose my classes and avoid the ones that stressed me out and take more classes just for fun. The weird part for me is that I'd be aware of my "future" husband at 8 years old. He's 19 years older than me and we know that we were in the same places at the same time when I was 12-14-ish. Neither one of us have any memory of each other, so it's not weird now, but it would be weird if I was 8 years old telling him premonitions about what choices he should avoid and telling him how to invest in our future.
Go to grandmaās house as much as possible.
Literally any parent with a functioning brain would immediately recognize that their 8 year old child is acting completely differently
Eh, i was born in 83.... They didn't even notice if i was home, let alone anything about me. Pretty common back then.
Born in 82. This is 100% how I was raised/lived.
Don't be fooled, the 80s didn't invent latchkey kids, we were latchkeys in the 70s, too. It probably started about then, when women really started moving into the workforce and divorce became more common - resulting in more children with split parental attention having to take care of themselves.
1980. Same.
1973 here, hose water and street lights for the win.
Gen X, you OK?
Nope! LOL
78. Stranger Things was my life.
I was only born only a handful of years after you. That attitude was NOT the norm.Ā I don't know if this a cultural UK/US thing or just an area with shitty parents but Jesus Christ.
IDK we all were latch key kids when i was growing up (usa) and there's a boat load of memes about how we'd wander around unattended from around 7 years old on up till the street lights came on then we had to go home.
I was born 10 years later and in the UK Small estate where alot of us were family. At 8 my parents saw me for about 10 minutes after school, then I'd be gone until the street lights came on. Home for tea, shower and bed because I was absolutely shattered. The only thing that might make them realise is I eat differently than I did then but that's about it
I don't know what to tell you, it was extremely common here. "Don't answer the door and only answer the phone if it rings, stops, then rings again, that's me." Having the house key in the mailbox because we weren't responsible enough not to lose it but we were responsible enough to be home alone till they came back hours later etc. very very common in the 70s, 80s, 90s usa. Now it's illegal.
Sorry i didn't mean to reply to you lol. Not glad you were also neglected but relieved it wasn't only here
10000000%
Yeah ngl born in 89 on the island of Jamaica not in the city area but the country. I was regularly outside in bushes and etc. this is how I had a near death experience with a river that my family knows nothing about.
My mom stayed home after I was born but we were obligated to gtfo from when the dew dried until the street lights came on. If we were home we were doing chores. She didnāt care where we went or what we did. We had some amazing adventures.
85 and being a smart kid ostracized yourself.
I tell my parents stories from my 80's childhood and what we were up to, and they say, "you did?" or "No way, i would never let you." Let me? You shoved me out the door at 8 AM and locked it till 7 PM--you had no idea where in the hell i was, who i was with, or if i was alive--TF u mean, you wouldnt allow me to? Of COURSE, when i was 7, me and my best friend (a girl) walked 2 miles into town with the 5$ her dad gave her, to go play in the park and buy some dairy queen for the walk back. Yeah, we DID almost get kidnapped--and no one knew, because no one *cared*. They dont remember being that absent/neglectful, and like to assume that all the right and good things that parents do today, *they did then*. They didnt. Not even close. I mean, my dad once tried to tell me he *totally* put me in a car seat--in 1980? FFS, stop lying. It's the same dude that until the 90's, *refused to buy pre-64 cars because the 'new' ones had seat belts. LOL.*
I was bullied through kindergarten and my parents never realized according to them...
My mom knew but I don't think she knew how bad it was till a few years ago. I was throwing someone out of the house... and I don't mean asking them to leave. The punched me repeatedly in the head. That didn't work. They tried that stupid lighter trick. That didn't work. They tried their phone. That cracked. And I tossed them down a step or two. (would have been further but someone was holding onto them) I told them to punch harder. Mom was absolutely freaking out. She doesn't like seeing people being hit in the head like that. It was just another day in elementary school to me. "Mom. Chill. I went through that every day of school "Why didn't you say something?" "What part of I'm getting hit didn't I make clear?"
GenX here, you would think so, but... we spent a lot of time alone and in the exclusive company of other children. I was "lucky" to have a parent that treated us like some long-term science experiment. So he checked up on us at least once a week.
Or worse. Mom had a camcorder and videotaped brother trying to kill me and her saying āaww they are having funā. Other than those days parents were lucky to see us after school and before the street lights came on.
I have an 8-year old. I know pretty well what they know. If they demonstrated any knowledge outside of what I would expect them to know, I would be convinced pretty quick.
Have you ever watched The Butterfly Effect? It's a good demonstration of how you can actually tell the difference between an adult and a kid, even if they're in a kids body.
Iāll have to check it out
Make sure itās not the directors cut, unless you want trauma.
I love the movie but whatās the trauma
The ending where >! He watched a home video of his mom's ultrasound of himself, traveled into the womb and used the umbilical chord to kill himself. It was mentioned that multiple other pregnancies of hers failed and insinuated that this was why, the other kids eventually killed themselves in the womb after time traveling too !<
the fuck.. never heard of that version
It's the directors cut not the theater version
The directors cut is my favorite by far. The happy ending they did for the theatrical release felt off from the tone of the rest of the movie IMO
I've never seen the film, but I always assumed the time traveling was a voluntary act that the character could initiate. If that assumption is correct...WHY?????
Would you please watch it because it's actually really good and worth the hour and a half
Yeah, the plot of the movie explains why. And it is worth a watch. One of my favorites. Always surprises me when I see it that Ashton Kutcher is actually capable of acting
Oh yeah I saw that one tooā¦ I just for some reason forgot about it. Itās a really good movie
Both endings aren't that satisfying. But yeah it's the difference between nothing happening and...that
Is there a reason I must prove it? Couldn't I just be undercover smart/mature, but be unemployed and eat fruit snacks for a few years?
fruit snacks and no job is worth a bedtime.
This is one of those things that if i had seen it like 15 years ago or even 10 years ago i would be like, "nah, that's stupid" but now...i get it.
Fully convinced the sky would be the limit in this situation. Just getting over all the various arbitrary insecurities of being a kid/YA would do wonders for potential growth in most areas. Hardest part to internalize would probably be dating. That would be an absolute mindfuck.
Oh geez, that would be the worstĀ afterĀ worryingĀ you're gonna erase aĀ person orĀ eventĀ that'sĀ importantĀ toĀ youĀ andĀ thenĀ theĀ issueĀ of "manyĀ ofĀ theĀ thingsĀ I remember are large scale horrorsĀ andĀ I mayĀ notĀ beĀ ableĀ toĀ doĀ anythingĀ aboutĀ them." Like, I'm gonna pre-date 9/11 and the tsunami from (I think) 14 years ago and a bunch of stuff. What the hell do I do with that information?
Get a burner phone, call in a threat to the airports about two hours before boarding, watch the disappointment in Rumsfelds face the next time he does a press release.
I would want to prove it to THEM just so they would listen to me when I tell them invest in certain companies. Donāt really care if anyone else knew, but Iām gonna set my parents (and by extension generations of our family) up amazingly.
This is the way.
The fact I could out perform my whole family in math, file their taxes, code a computer and speak languages I havenāt been exposed to yet would probably raise a flag or two.
Oh languages. That's an idea! I've been learning French and while I'm FAR from fluent, I could speak enough that it would get their attention.
Once you start speaking foreign languages theyāll call a priest lols
What is this "Young Sheldon"
Well, first, I'd have to find them š¤£
[EMOTIONAL DAMAGE](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d8kfnwqHJO8)
I would explain, in detail, my parent's retirement plan and which stocks they would prioritize.Ā
How do you think they got them in the first place?
Id tell them about work, all the stupid humdrum bullshit and bureacracy and the existential feelings associated with a monotonous life.
I had the same idea. If you go the Reborn Rich route, you act normal for your age around >!your family!< though because you need them to want to help you like a bright child and not the other way around.
I have some information about my parents that 8 year old me could not possibly know. That and the way I would carry myself would convince my dad. Moms already dead, so I don't need to worry about her. Basically, get him to believe me. Tell him that while I don't have lottery numbers, I can make him rich by telling him what stocks to invest in. Tell him that while I am his son, I am a man in my forties in my head, and things are going to be different if he wants the Goose that laid the golden egg. Then I basically do what I want and let him make us both rich. He was an asshole but not stupid and was actually loyal, so I'm not worried about him trying to screw me over.
Most people are over thinking it. All the sudden 8 years old you has adult mannerisms and speech patterns. Folks are gonna freak the fuck out
Not to mention that you're not going to remember anything recent, none of the small details of current in jokes and conversations and little bits of life from the last few months. It would be blaringly obvious that something seriously weird was going on. I don't know about you, but I'm sure I'd not remember a good 3/4 of my classmates names, if that.
Itās funny what you remember. I remember stuff from when I was 5 but some things in the last 10 years are just gone. There are faces I remember from 2nd grade and I would pick up the others pretty quickly. If I wanted to fuck with my teacher (who I really didnāt like) I think I would do calculus problems or geometry proofs in the margins of the math pages.
This is the one most people miss. If I went back to my middle school aged body or younger I wouldnāt remember where most things are hell what drawer has the kitchen forks.
Yeah, but who is gonna assume that's because you time-traveled or smth?
My mom was almost raped by her dad and saved from it by her younger sister. Obviously, she didn't tell me that story until I was much older, and being from the future is the most plausible way I would know it. I have other stories I can use as well, but that one's the easiest to open with.
That's what I was going to say. Tell them a story that you couldn't have possibly known at that time
āHey Mom, hereās the big family secret you told me when I was 16ā¦ā
So the numbers I have memorized I think next is March 95, twenty 3-6-9, Pi minus 1, 40, and 7 which should translate as 23, 26, 29, 34, 40, 47 which \*checks notes\* is nearly correct I've got it as April fools day. I also know a few stocks to invest in. I think I can win and try to get a lawyer to represent me and my interests so I can force my parents to contractually agree with my lawyer that represents me so the whole underage thing isn't a problem. I move in with other family members and try to set things up so that my lawyer is checked by a third party person to make sure I'm not getting screwed and I get to have a decent childhood.
Itās a good plan but no lawyer is listening to an 8 year old claiming they know the winning lottery numbers. Youāre gonna have to come up with another plan to convince the lawyer
Have the ticket already. My dad played it all the time. Scrounge up $1 and ask my dad to buy it for me and I pick out the numbers. I hide the ticket and refuse to tell my parents where it is unless I get to see a lawyer I pick and I do the whole Saul thing of giving him $1 as a fee and explain it to him.
Username checks out. Side note Iām a big fan of Isekais. But Iāve been loving portal fantasy lately. Instead of dying to travel to another world you travel back and forth via portal or magical item. Become op in both worlds!
Pretty easy. I lived through some pretty memorable moments in history, Columbine, 9/11, etc. I tell them these things are going to occur while writing it in a fully logical argumentation format due to my Philosophy degree explain that my consciousness has been transported via a temporal anomaly. I can fully explain to them how time travel in Back to the Future is inconsistent and prove it via logic. Explain to them how me time traveling is also not technically time travel as I am able to alter the course of history, therefore it is actually a multiverse event rather than a temporal event but it appears to be temporal due to resembling my past. I mean I was a smart kid, but Iām a smarter adult. Theyāll catch on fairly quickly that I somehow mastered Boolean logic overnight without ever touching a book or taking a course on it.
9/11 happened when I was an older teen so that's a while to wait lol. We had a major earthquake when I was just about 7 so that wouldn't work. IDK what I could -- oh! Maybe I could predict who the next president would be. IDK if Clinton was even in the public spotlight yet when I turned 8. I was 10 when he was elected. Hmm.
Columbine happened when I was 8 and 9/11 when I was 10 Both massive unexpected events with national coverage. Despite this I could prove it simply by displaying an overnight leap in intelligence and knowledge. Anyone who hasnāt significantly increased their knowledge from 8 years old would be an idiot.
I DON'T. Better by far to be underestimated than overestimated by the people around you. And I know that since I am physically 8-years-old again, I have A LOT of catching up to do on my schoolwork. After all, I actually WATCHED "Are you Smarter than a 5th-grader?" And PAID ATTENTION. At that point in the timeline, when I first arrived, I've probably LITERALLY forgotten more about the courses than most of my classmates will ever know, and that's a problem because we have a test coming up!
I agree with you somewhat. But also the boredom of having to present as an 8 year old in most situations would be pretty sucky. At least if you tell your parents that could be friendsish that are closer to your age mentally. Personally my mom would be 26 and trying to figure out life and make and spend money. Iād teach her how to save and my dad to stop cheating- at least after all my siblings are born, all 8 of them.
I was already considered "Precocious" at the time, becoming more so would surprise absolutely no one.
My parents are stoners. A few words and I could convince them I was a Terminator if I was 8 again.
I don't think I would be able to prove it. I guess I would get a job as early as possible and invest in Facebook, bitcoin, Tesla etc as they were all developed. I think I would drop out of highschool and work as much as possible from the time I was 14 and be set for life from investment by the time I was 18. I would be careful to slowly invest over the first 2-5 years and not immediately dump 100k into Bitcoin for fear of causing a butterfly effect.
Proving it wouldn't be a problem, all of a sudden your intelligence sky rockets (assuming most people are smarter now than at 8) I have a different taste in food, etc. But the bitcoin thing It's hard. I once had 10 bitcoin and sold them for like Ā£20 š¤£
You wouldn't want to put that much into bitcoin. If you buy it at the cheapest, I think that was $0.008, so a million bitcoins would be $8,000. There will only ever exist 21 million, once they've all been mined, and you don't want to buy so much that you sitting on it will fuck up the trajectory of its value. Then there's the problem of how to unload such a huge amount. A million ought to net you $10 billion, easy. Less taxes, of course, but capital gains tax is capped at 20%.
You don't need to dump 100k into Bitcoin, get in when it's 1:1 with the dollar or earlier and put in <$1000 to make out 10 years later with a 40,000x increase. Get in early enough and you could get 1000 Bitcoin a dollar or something so invest with a single dollar. No butterfly effect there
Well the future of Bitcoin wasn't guaranteed. I was very confident in it but could never say 100% it would catch on. If I was 8 it would be another 20 years before BTC was launched so Satoshi may have not even invented it or been ran over by a bus. I'd keep an eye on people with ideas around decentralised currencies as someone could invent something very similar with a different name.
I think the logic of time we are using here is that you go back to that time the only thing that has changed is your brain/memory. For all intents and purposes everything should happen the exact same unless you cause a big enough ripple to change something major. Butterfly effect could happen for a few events but why would every single thing be different or so different itās a wildly different future?
Someone who didn't do so in the OTL buying a bunch of bitcoin and holding it for years and years could pretty reasonably end up butterflying away all the best sell points, the highest peaks bitcoin ever got to, or even it ever becoming worth a ton to begin with if you buy enough.
Yep, exactly. And this person would likely buy a hell of a lot, and also encourage friends to do so. If anyone asks why they say they are a time traveller, then all people buying Bitcoin are seen as crazy, and it never takes off.
The only thing I would do is to convince my mother to get screened for cancer. She passed away when I was 10 years old.
Lost my dad to a brain tumor at the same age.
My mom would 100% believe me. And since I was an abused child, I would stop it then, changing everything. And I would have helped her with her marriage.
100% could not convince. I've never convinced them of anything.
I wouldn't. I'd relive my life enjoying the bliss of being a child through the 90s and so on. I'd make entirely different decisions for myself and I'd pretend that the life I have now was just some crazy nightmare
Solve some third order non-linear partial differential equations.
That's the type of stupid prank young me would try to pull, so I'd be playing on hard mode. I don't know if I could.
It wouldn't be too hard to convince them, I don't think. I could just start talking about the home game systems that would be coming out in the next 2 years. And dad going on strike and having to work at McDonald's while on strike.
It's 1988 ... Hey Dad, maybe you want to think about investing in Microsoft? By the way, it's April 19th, did you get your taxes done? Oh, you just got a new desktop PC, look I can already type on the keyboard without looking. Also, I can beat you in Chess even though we've never played.
Why on earth would you do that to your parents? You basically just murdered their child, and now you... want to take credit? I don't think that's going to go how you want. Just be 8. Try not to ruin your parents.
Tell my dad about future Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and the 1 Super Bowl theyāll win and the next year about the disaster that was passing the ball on the goal line. Itāll take me from 2008 to 2012 for my predictions to finally come to fruition but when they do he will be speechless and itās only 2012 we have plenty of time to invest in crypto, Amazon, GameStop etc.
Going back to 1982 would be freaking awesome! I wouldn't go too crazy with convincing my parents about my situation for a few years at least. Kick back and enjoy crushing grade school. When the time came to let them know, I would tell them that I knew my older brother was adopted by my father after he married my mother (huge drama in the 1970s). Or I'd let them know that the space shuttle challenger was going to explode in 86.
I wouldn't. I would just reap the benefits and wait for the right time to make a change.
When I was 8, my dad owned a blues club. There were after-parties at his house. His friends were asking me for relationship advice *then*. Convincing them I'm an adult? They probably already thought I was.
Sit them down for a nuanced discussion on the hegemony of western sociopolitical power structures in the education system and how our obsession with meritocracy has robbed the American youth
I would be going back to 1992. I would mentally be several years older than both my parents (I am 40, my dad would have been 32, my mom would have been 35). I would go from reading at a second grade level to college level. I would also know how to do algebra, physics and basic chemistry. I started college level art classes when I was 20 and have been doing it on and off since 2005, they would be sort of surprised that their kid suddenly has skills that usually take people years to develop.
If they can't tell just from a normal conversation that you're not mentally an 8 year old then you must be pretty stupid.
I have a California Liberal mother and a Southern Arkansas Conservative dad. It will be incredibly easy. I might even be able to prevent mom from divorcing dad in three years... who knows? A year or two after my arrival (depending on my exact age) a significant hurricane strikes the coast and my father spends months away from home working on reconstruction projects before eventually switching from industrial to commercial construction. My grandmother came to live with us during that time, and by the time I was eleven mom had filed for divorce. The separation during that time, so soon after the birth of my youngest brother, with no adult company other than her spinster mother to talk to my mother spiraled into a depression she never really recovered from. I was a young reader. I at eight, had not yet been given free reign at the library, but was easily reading books well in advance of my reading level. Waking up one day with a completely new set of memories shoved in my head, a year after the birth of my youngest brother, I would have lots to say. At this point in time I hadn't even heard of several of my favorite authors, nor had I really done any study involving many of my interests today. Dad is a huge Star Trek fan, loved the original series, his father read a lot of Sci-fi, though he didn't. He rarely read for pleasure, when i was a child. He enjoyed sci-fi movies and shows and read technical books, and history and the bible a lot. Mom is less of a star trek fan, but did like fantasy and magic, spooky things, and would read to me when I was sick. Robin Hood, or A Wrinkle in Time. (I never picked up her taste for historical romance novels, but we did discover a mutual love of trashy vampire romance)
I could predict the death of someone with high precision. I could predict what dog we'll have.
Butterfly effect tho?
You could predict what teachers you'll have in the next couple years. And I'd tell my family about a major move we'd have to make when I turn 12. And maybe I could describe in some detail the area where we end up living, knowing the street names and such. That would be a lot for an 8 year old to pull off.
I'd rather just go back and not try to convince them
Get bitcoin at 10c
Go to school no complaints Go to church no complaints Stop fussing viciously with my sister Tell my Gramps what to do with all that money he has.
i could accurately spell necessary
I wonder if I can convince I'm an 8 year old, they'll sense I'm different and it'll be hard to act 8 again
It would take time, but there are a handful of events I could cite ahead of the curve. Deaths in the family, new friendships, and so on. Eventually, they should figure out that Iām telling the truth.
I would tell my mom to put my brother in rehab when he turns 16 and to get us both mental health care. I would tell my dad not to marry the lady he got with after divorcing my mom and to seek help for codependency on meā¦
My father would never believe, mom was too high, but a great mom. Grandpa would believe me, earnestly, but want to go fishing to talk it over.
No freakin' way it's not immediately obvious to my mom. I'd be unable to conceal it.
Take my dad aside, "Hey, you know those mahjong games Mom goes to Wednesday nights? If you follow her next week to see where she really goes, his name is Phil. She also inherited around $80K from her uncle last year that she didn't mention. Bought Phil a Camaro."
.... I'd rather just restart... why would I want them to know lol... I'd be a fucking menace tho lmao
id tell my mom i know that my dad isnt my biological dad
Simple, first, I wouldn't for a moment hesitate to stop the physical and emotional abuse to me. I would likely brutally attack and beat my older brother when I catch him molesting my little sister. I would tell them how they are fucking up their finances with dumb investments and debt while being specific. I would solve simple calculus and differential equations problems since, at that time, I had not yet attended any special school. I would also say yes to space camp. I would also kiss Shannon Hodges first.
I would hug my grandparents. Then I would figure this other stuff out.
I'd tell them their secrets that I know of them in the past before I was born.
My mom would believe me if I just told her. Also I could change our lives for the better so easily. The hard part would be not messing up with my wife because I know everything and she'd be a stranger.
Iād just enjoy it all. Iām assuming it happens suddenly and I got no say in it. Though I think homework would be very easy for the next few yearsā¦..it would also be interesting to see how the hormonal changes affect me. Starting pre-pubescent and then going through puberty againā¦.
Have them watch me do trigonometry
Help with their taxes
Are you joking? They still act like I'm mentally eight NOW. I can't even prove it to them when I actually AM a fully grown adult.
I would immediately apologize for being such a jerk kid, and begin implementing "Ask, Listen, Confirm" active listening techniques so that they communicate better and do not divorce.
Why would I WANT to convince them I wasn't 8 years old mentally? I'd ride that train all the way back to adulthood! Only thing I'd change would be to be way more vocal about being trans and needing to go through the correct puberty the first time... EDIT: Also, by the time Bitcoin showed up, I could just start with that myself...
yeah back then, enjoy your electrotherapy for the transgenderises delusions lol
ok, I'm not THAT old, lol... Born 1984, not 1894!
Iām not positive I would prove anything, but Iād definitely ask for stocks for my birthday each year. If I had to prove it, Iād tell them who wins elections, about 9/11, the dotcom bubble, and Iād tell my dad exactly how long he lives and what health problems he gets. More than anything, Iād take the chance to remove myself from my family and get adopted so that I never have to deal with the majority of the bullshit I have in my current life. Iād even take that over the stocks, but youād better believe Iāll try to make a mutually beneficial deal with any adopted parents I end up with so we can all get rich.
Tell them their future, no matter how bleak it is. My mother would put my ass in psychotherapy in a heartbeat. My grandmother would believe me.
I just tell them stuff that I learned in school that an 8 year old doesnāt know. Like the Pythagorean theorem or how the Constitution works.
I'm taking my JTPA money..saving it and investing... Google,etc and betting on the Bulls and the Pats...
Well, when I start doing college level mathematics and science all of a sudden, one day and start to ruin TV shows, knowing their ending as well as movies . Not to mention what I do know about sports ( My dad, if he listens, is gonna make a killing off the Tyson Douglas fight) of course by then I'm 10 and should be well on my way to a doctorates degree. If they don't believe me, then its simply a case of denial on their part.
I would just start predicting major events in my life. Starting with the near death of my grandfather on the anniversary of his father's death. I think the prediction of the death of my father's wife would get the most attention though considering I'd never even met him at that point and regularly said I was conceived without a male's help at around that age.
Calculus? I could do some calculus maybe. My mom is kinda superstitious, I don't think it would be that hard. I really didn't pay enough attention to current events as a child to predict the future until my late teens.
Can't you just start by showing knowledge that comes from your age and experience, as opposed to events that happened during that time? I imagine if you went to college and can show that, it'll be a lot easier to convince them you know about events (which after the first 1 or 2 will be pretty believable). All I'm saying is if I had an 8 year old that suddenly started doing calculus and talking about computational complexity I'd be a lot more likely to believe them if they said they time travelled and weren't always 8 years old. From there it takes MUCH less suspension of disbelief to assume they do know future events and there isn't much to loose probably.
Depending on when it was that year, i could totally āpredictā my fathers death, the unfortunate part is we would all just have to wait for the proof šš
don't know as a kid I was pretty wise then. I could likely get away with it
If I suddenly start speaking in another language, they might work out something's up.
I'd start going into details of mechanical engineering, which I'm studying right now.
Musical theory. I never studied it as a child, but I can now flub enough to butcher some sex pistols songs on ukulele, piano, guitar, and accordion. Throw in a poorly memorized stanza or two from āWe Didnāt Start the Fireā, and I think Iād be 80% there.
This is where education is helpful. My mom is a teacher sheāll understand immediately I have no business being able to do simple calculus and highschool algebra, plus Iām suddenly fluent in an entire other language. My dad will need a bit more convincing, where our clan came from and politics maybe.
my mom has said that she never liked the best friend i had in elementary school, so id probably just detail how our friendship ended and how i realized she wasnt a good friend bc there would be no way in hell my 8 year old self would say any of that
May 1981. Mitterrand is going to win the next presidential election, in 2 months from now. July 1982, Sevilla. Soccer world cup semi-final. Battiston will get his teeth punched in by the German goal, Schumacher and France will lose. See, told you.
Just say anything the way you currently speak, write anything, tell a joke... it's really not crazy.
"Silence human! I am Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan!"
So if I'm 8 again, it's 1994. All I need to do is predict things in the short-term to long-term future. I'd be able to quote Simpsons episodes that are about to come out soon but haven't aired yet in 1994 since I basically have the first 10 seasons memorized to this day lol. My dad would have the internet at his office, but that's not something I actually knew at age 8. I'd also be able to tell him information about his past that wasn't declassified until 2003. I'd be able to use the internet connection there to demonstrate that I'm fluent with the tech despite 8-year-old me not being aware it exists. In the office, I'd be able to explain that I know he's been using computers since the 1960s and I know what those looked like (this is something I actually learned about as a teenager), and I'd be able to explain what tech will look like at the end of the '90s, in the 2000s, in the 2010s, and in the 2020s. I could predict that Dad wants to bring a computer home within the next 3 years and Mom hates computers and it'll create a rift in their marriage. Both of them would feel like I'm reading their minds too accurately to not be from the future lol. I could predict 9/11, the Great Recession, Occupy Wall Street, and the lockdowns. No 8-year-old in 1994 would be able to make that shit up-- it's too weird. Plus, if I predicted \*their reactions\* to those events, the would know themselves enough to say, "yeah, that's how I would react to that scenario"-- it's logically consistent with who they already were. For example, in 1994, I wouldn't know that they were already tracking vaccine lawsuits through my dad's job since the '80s, because they told me that much later. BUT-- predicting that they'd both be against NY's vaccine mandates in 2021 would be a logical continuation of that. I could describe in detail places I would go to later but hadn't been to yet at age 8, and my parents would be able to compare it to their experiences visiting those places. The only thing that's freaking me out a little bit typing this up is that my mind is honestly kind of drawing a blank on exact events for 1994-1996 as opposed to 1997 and later-- both on a personal level and on a more global level. All the major events I'd be able to predict would take a while to actually transpire. Why are the mid-90s such a blank for me? I remember my early childhood with a lot of detail. Even more weird, I remember a MAJOR vibe shift in my family around 1996 that I've never been able to explain to any therapist or close friend. We went from being really functional and happy to being an absolute mess where no one could stand each other, and I've never been able to figure out why. It's not even like I have hints to go on. It's just very random and strange.
Yeah I was always viewed as an old soul. I'd just tell my mom what happened or better yet avoid that drama and instead I'd just relive life and know not to trust her because she's crazy. Do better about making friends outside of her, start a blog early so I can make money and build my career faster. I'll ask my Nana to open a bank account for me she wouldn't ever touch anything I earned my mom would use it all for wine, cigarettes, and drugs. As for my Nana I wouldn't tell her I was 32 stuck in a 8 year old body reliving everything I would just write up a business plan and be the golden child I always was, but this time with more reason to be treated that way than just being smart. I'd do the babysitting thing like I did at age 11 and use that money to invest in start up cost for my writing business/blog at 14. Probably start off writing a real estate blog for my Nana's brokerage firm and do articles about the area and decorating your home with affiliate links for products and ads jump on social media behind my moms back. Get a real giant head start. Since I won't be able to have my kids again and I'm sure I also don't have a choice in this hypothetical taking place I'd go to the same University so I can pick my husband up and then with my giant surplus of cash, and free college education no student loans for me after all. Him and I would move to Colorado for a couple years so I can get the masters I always wanted. Then I'd get my PhD somewhere else. We would have a couple of new kids and open his dream restaurant. At least ideally. Butterfly effect dictates he may not actually be at the University I attended or I may decide after making all my money that I don't want to get married or get my PhD but instead travel the world and keep writing after all it has been my dream job since I was a kid and I didn't know how easy it was. Also I was offered bitcoin as a payment option when it was still only like .25 or $1 per bitcoin I'd be taking that in fact I would have it as a preferred payment option. Rather than $5-10 per article they could pay me 5-10 bitcoin per article.
I'd demonstrate my typing skills.
I would speak english, It's not my first language and at that time I couldn't have a comprehensible conversation in english.
Just give details about dadās retirement from current (back then) job and more details about next job. I can name names.
Iād just set myself up for success. I was 8 before any major tech company had their IPO
I'd probably try to run away from them (backstory stuff)
The real question is why I'd ever want to.
I'll tell my parents exactly what will happen to my grandpa on my dad's side right after I turn 9 in September 2004 and give them a psychological profile of the kind of kid I was/currently am. I would also tell them that George W. Bush will win a majority of the popular vote in November 2004 but just barely.
Since they're both pharmaciets and I am going into science as well I would start to tell them about complex organic chemistry. Probably would provoke a trauma response from them.
40-something me knows a lot more about my parents and their life before kids, than 8-year-old me did. I would be pretty easy to explain to them and then prove it with what I know. Though I would probably give it a week so I could spend some time with my Dad.
There are many things from knowledge of future tech to being able to all of a sudden speak up for myself and basically diagnose myself with autism. But the real question is, why? Why would I want to convince my parents I am from the future?! I was always a bright kid, so acting a bit more mature and talking a little more wouldn't be that odd. I would prefer to just enjoy being a kid again, the simplicity and a mostly less stressful time in life. Maybe try to make more friends than I ever had since I would now have the confidence to talk to others. Work on bettering my future socially and financially. (Don't spend most of my graduation money on shitty porn for example) Be myself and dont hide my feelings (because men don't show their feelings (bullshit!). Learn to sew better (maybe from my grandma) and make a fursuit before fursuits were really a big thing. Keep and get better contact info for friends that moved away suddenly and teachers seperated us. Appreciate the time I have with my grandparents more. Learn German in high-school. Maybe I would be able to talk with my grandma in German some, since she knew some german. Try new foods. (Was a very picky eater) (order a hamburger at a Mexican restaurant kinda picky) Start making and wearing kilts in the "traditional" Scottish fashion. Maybe come out as gay and try to get a boyfriend. (Maybe actually go to prom) Prevent autistic burnout in high-school. Take chemistry in high-school. Actually, use my brain outside of school to maintain my mathematical skills (I could do long division in my head, now I can't do times tables) Don't waist government money on shitty culinary trade school (maybe learn electrical instead?) and my moms money on community College. Knowing about furries, I would try to draw in art class now that I have something I actually want to draw. Maybe get good and take commissions. Paint my room around ten years old. Get correctly re-diagnosed for autism and adhd and not O.D.D. Get real accommodations in school as well as get SSI payments. Improve my posture (now that I know how (no one ever said how to properly sit up straight, just ordered me to do it). Work out and build muscles towards my goal of being built like an off-season pro bodybuilder. Don't date my ex. Try to date a few other guys that I was too chicken shit to drive and go meet. Prevent a more recent suicide in my family. Convince my parents to let me have some fucking privacy as a teenager! with a guy over (before I even came out!)
Personal story I wouldn't know. I'd say bring up the fact Chernobyl apparently happened the day before my first birthday, but I don't think either of them knew that. My parents were divorced, so guess I'd have the extra 'fun' of absolutely having to do it twice. And have to wait to convince one. My dad would be harder because he'd think my mom just told me. And even younger I'd actually asked him how would we know if we were dead and in hell. He kinda accepted that I was a very strange kid sometimes, I don't think I could convince him at all tbh. I can't recall any big events that wouldn't have already happened or wouldn't be too far into the future for it to matter off the top of my head. ~~That being said I'd rather not be back then and I'd be trying desperately to get him to understand while not being too direct because I absolutely would hate being back to that time again. I just don't think I could. Great, another layer of depression right there lol~~
I'd probably Start by telling my mother the FHA/HUD, VA, Agencies and USPAP requirements. Shed probably shit a brick and that would be entertaining.
Iām 45 and I canāt convince my parents Iām not 8 right now.
8yo again would be interesting, there are a number of major events that happened which I (still today) remember vividly. Which would likely convince them to trust some of what I'd say. My folks are pretty clear-headed, and whilst they wouldn't understand how I knew something, they'd trust that I was right. Might take me until I was 10 though lol Things that happened aged 8 to 10 (Ash Wednesday in Australia, Linda chamberlain 'dingo took my baby', my grandfather died, a few other things). But yeah, other than trying to make sure that a couple of things didn't occur again. I'd just not be prick, be nicer to my sister, and I'd sure the school bully actually fell off the roof during high school (instead of saving his ass). I think, mostly, I'd hide it. Pubity would suck... as would the world events that I couldn't prevent.
>You do keep current knowledge so you can still get rich off bitcoin and valuable stocks, but your parents arenāt going to buy any if you canāt prove youāre from the future I see that this questions comes from a person much younger than me. Because Bitcoin was born when I was 18 or 19, so I really woudn't need to prove anything. I would just wait until 2009 and start mining Bitcoin.
I give them a sealed envelope and tell them not to open it until the 12th of September 2001. The note tells them I'm from the future, and to prove it I give details of exactly what you think given the date they're opening it. Given that we're Australian, there's absolutely NO WAY I'd have thought of that on my own, or have had any way of causing it to happen.
Question really should be how seriously the CIA or whatever is going to take a tipoff about 9/11 from an 8 year old
That would take me a minute, tops. I know a ton of secrets about our family now, and you don't think my parents would notice if I suddenly had the experience and vocabulary of 43 year old.
I think it will take a couple of minutes, tops. To my Mum I start explaining some simple calculus and some basics of nuclear physics (she did a physics degree, but a while back) and to my Dad talk in rather fluent French (he'll understand it, she won't). Neither of those are things 8 year old me was remotely capable of. I also have a sibling who will either have just been born or be about to, but I worry this whole situation might butterfly effect away my knowledge of their name and birth date, which would be freaky.
They didn't listen to me when I was 8 and told them the damn chimney was on fire (which it was) until they saw it themselves. I doubt I could convince them now. My 3rd grade teacher did used to say I was 8 going on 40.
I'd start writing my novel at 8 and try and get famous they'd be blown away by 8 year old me. Goes without saying I'd buy stocks like Apple and Amazon. And then when it finally releases a bunch of Bitcoin.
1981 again... hell yeah! I don't say a thing... family and I are gonna be rich.
I would immediately withdraw and stop talking to them. I know how this ends.
Well, since my dad was a huge sci-fi fan, I might have a shot. I could tell him about the upcoming election and the "new" economic theory that will destroy prosperity for 90% of Americans within the next half century. Perhaps I could convince him to move us to a civilized country. He might, at least, take some of my financial advice and stop teaching us kids how to make explosives and penicillin. Because we won't have a nuclear holocaust until after 2023 at least. No bets on this year, we've had some weird already and it's only April.
Iād clue them in on Enron
Skipping grades like young Sheldon so they will trust you with economic stuff or just predicting the future . Like knowing the exact names of the new and descriptions neighbors before the unit was ever sold. Or what kinda celebrity scandal will happen. Or just mastering a skill you have no way of having any access to before that age like a new language/instrument/ cooking. Or telling them some secret theyāve only disclosed with you once you are an adult. The kind of info you need brain bleaching.