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nemomarx parent
isn't it mostly about childhood nostalgia? "I'm more stressed then when I was a kid" seems pretty basic
alabastervlog
I'm more stressed out than like... during Summer, when I was a kid.

I've never, ever been as stressed out as during school, grades 7-12. If the rest of life had been that stressful or worse, I'd have checked out a long time ago.

p1necone
Yeah I remember a constant trend in my child->young adult years was hearing "oh you think it's hard now? wait until you get to "next thing"'.

Every single time without fail (except maybe the jump from kindergarten to school) what actually happened was that the adults around me breathed down my neck a little bit less and I got access to a little more freedom to do fun stuff.

Being a kid in school is horrible. You're entirely reliant on your parents to buy you everything and enable you to experience things, nobody trusts you, everything is full of arbitrary rules.

The jump from school to university was especially stark - I kept being told it was going to be really hard, I'd need to work way harder than in highschool etc etc. Turns out what actually happened was I went from 6 straight hours of unavoidable class a day to maybe 2 or 3 much more interesting ones that were recorded and posted online and could be skipped when needed with no consequence, roughly the same amount of homework and I got to live with people my age 5 minutes walk from a 24 hour McDonalds.

And working... they pay you quite a lot of money to be there (seriously even a minimum wage job is unfathomable to a kid, do you know how many gameboys you could buy with that?), there's no homework and you get to do something you're really good at.

nemomarx OP
Maybe I just had an easy time but 7-12 was a lot less stressful than office work and arbitrary meetings all day. I probably just miss the predictable schedule
alabastervlog
Huh, I'd liken school in those grades to a series of meetings basically all day, that are mostly presentations, every day of the week, with a lot of restrictions and harsh conduct & expectations from the people leading the meetings, which'd never fly in an office. Often with terrible lighting and long stretches without seeing the outdoors, even though a window. And crazy-early start times that may have you not seeing the sun until 3PM or so, for months. And, especially toward the end, a couple more hours of work at home every day. Mostly of math problems.

Also, all that, plus you're not getting paid for it.

s1artibartfast
If that were a job, I was characterize it as a boring job, not a stressful one.

I'm sure experiences differ, but mine was that school was trivially easy and inconsequential, but sometimes time intensive.

I wouldn't consider a job where I have to go and listen to a boring presentation for 8 hours a day stressful. What is stressful is the rat race and making sure I can afford mortgage payments

fragmede
OTOH, if you fail out of class, most of us wouldn't have become homeless, just placed in a remedial class. Whereas getting fired from your office job would land you out on the street if you're living paycheck to paycheck.
Tijdreiziger
Only if you live somewhere without unemployment insurance (or you mis-manage your money).
TeMPOraL
I'm having hard time relating; my experience is literally the opposite of yours. Grade 7-12 (if I parse that correctly; I mean 12-17yo) were literally the best part of my life. School was boring AF, but had its moments; it gave me some interesting people to talk with every day, and then I had plenty of time to pursue my interests. Stress? What stress?

Before that period? I don't remember much. After that period? Everything gets downhill. Being an adult in a society sucks and I hate it. Normal people lifestyle, with its routines and "work/life balance", with everyone around you having expectations around random customs, with having to do everything in tiny bite-sized chunks, because there's not enough time left after work, chores and family - that's just not compatible with my mind.

Yeah, I guess, this could be a mental health issue.

imp0cat
There was another discussion @hn a few days ago where this was explained. When you're young, your life is pretty much on rails and you are very sure what the next step is (ie. kindergarten - > school -> high school -> uni). But when you finally finish your education, the tracks end there and now you have to figure out where to go from here and that can be mentally draining.
ForOldHack
My school had a lot of field trips. I have never been part of a job that included trips to "the little farm. "I asked a friend from Hong Kong, if he had trips to A little farm, and he said he did.
nemomarx OP
I think this is supposed to be team building exercises, but I've never heard of a farm for one. Could be good!

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