As kids, we sometimes don't have the best ideas. To be fair, some ideas can seem great at the time! We think they'll have a hilarious outcome, and be remembered forever. Well, sometimes they're not exactly funny, but they are unforgettable.
People on Reddit share the ideas they had as kids that did not work out as they hoped. Content has been edited for clarity.
“We Threw Caution To The Wind”
“My friends and I grew up in a town surrounded by woods, with a creek cutting the area in half. We’d utilize fallen trees and debris to build bridges so that we could cross. The water smelled like trash, and you didn’t wanna accidentally take a dunk. This creek was at the bottom of a hill, and during storms it would flood a little.
One year, we had a huge flood, it looked more like a lake than a creek. Our 15 year old selves decided this was the day, we were going to take my grandpa’s little John boat, and finally ride the creek. We had talked about it before, but the creek was never deep enough to pull it off. But now it was a raging white water river, and we figured it was our best chance.
I think about six of us got onto this small boat that had never held more than just my grandpa and me before, and all the little holes and cracks in the old girl finally showed themselves, and we were taking in water. No big deal though, Aaron over there has a water bottle, he’ll bail. Ryan and Shane have oars, so they’ll steer. We’re good, right?
Aaron puts his oar in the water, and the current rips it out of his hands. I later find out that set of oars was owned by my grandpa for 25+ years and he loved them. So ok, we got one oar, a water bailer, and four other guys to help guide the boat and push off of hills/rocks/whatever, right?
We forgot about all the bridges we made to cross this creek. We came into three of them, each time we’d having to each jump out of the boat, go across the bridge, and hop back in, otherwise the low height of the bridges would’ve seriously messed our heads up. The one kid who was too afraid to get on was running besides us, laughing his butt off. We were getting scared, but there wasn’t much we could do with one oar and raging waters.
At one point, a spider the size of my hand landed on our water bailers head. The guy sitting next to me smacked it off his head. He gave us one of those ‘what the heck guys?’ looks. But we didn’t tell him. We were getting more concerned about our success at this point, what seemed like fun started to seem like a truly dangerous situation. To this day, 10 years later, Aaron has no idea what landed on his head, we decided he never needs to know.
But now the waters are too rough, Aaron’s water bottle isn’t big enough to hold back the water seeping in, and we’re at a point in the woods that we don’t recognize too much anymore. We’ve already lost the guy who was following us from the shore, no idea where he is. Suddenly though, a rope hanging from a tree, just a few feet away from us. The oldest and strongest guy out of us all reaches and manages to grab it, locking his feet under the seat in the boat to bring the boat to a stop. We quickly decided which one of us were jumping in the water, and pulling the boat to the shore, probably about twenty feet away. The water wasn’t too deep, probably just 4 feet, but it was still awful. Clothes and shoes were destroyed, we cursed every little bush or sapling we ran into.
But we got the boat ashore, at an elementary school probably about a mile down the street from my house. We flipped it over, and carried it over our heads down the street to my house. We bonded a lot during that walk, and I don’t think I ever felt closer with them than at that time, even though we knew each other since pre school. It turned into an utter trash show, but we worked together and managed to pull it off, despite the loss of one oar that my grandpa still has no idea what happened to. I don’t talk to those guys anymore, as life always moves on, but dang, we threw caution to the wind that afternoon and LIVED.”
“It’s A Miracle I Survived”
“When I was about 16, two of my buddies and I were having a fire in his backyard. It was in a fire pit and everything but it was late, probably around 1am. So, you know that’s when stupid ideas start to hatch. We decided it would be funny to throw an axe can in the fire to watch it explode (he lives in an urban area, so it wasn’t a big deal). After about five seconds, we got impatient because it wasn’t exploding, so they told me to check on it while they took cover being a tree. Naturally I walk over and lean my neck over the fire pit so I could see in it.
That’s when the feces finally exploded. The fire probably went about 10 feet in the air, and knocked me off my feet. It sounded like we set off an M80. I laid on the ground for a couple seconds because i thought my face blew off, and they came over to check on me. Thankfully, I got away without even a cut. With all the dumb things my friends and I did when we were younger, it’s a miracle I survived.”
“Most Profound Thing We Had Ever Seen”
“When I was 12, I had a cousin who was 17 come over for the holidays. He ended up having to babysit me and my brothers.
To fight off boredom he suggested, ‘Hey guys! Wanna see what happens when you set one of your green army guys on fire?’
Of course we did! So he went and set up in our backyard with a plate and a lighter. Set them up in the middle of the patio. And began to slowly melt our toy soldier. This was the most profound thing we had ever seen. We just sat and watched the plastic toy slump over into a puddle on the plate.
After a month or so goes by. My younger brother and I were home alone with nothing to do. So I got the bright idea to melt another green soldier. But this time with him up against our wooden fence. In the corner of our backyard. My imagination had him fighting in a war. When all of a sudden, a flamethrower hits him!
Now in my backyard, our fence and the neighbors fences didn’t connect. This left a gap and opening we used as our secret hide out spot. This was covered in tall dry grass. This same grass was poking through the fence. Right above where my green army guy was fighting for his life against a flame thrower. After watching him curl over into a puddle, I happen to notice that the grass and fence was also on fire. So in my mind, I thought I should put it out by blowing on it. Which ended up being the worst idea as the fire spread and slowly traveled to the neighbors backyards.
Oh no! I thought when I ran inside to grab a cup of water from the kitchen to attempt to put out the fire. My younger brother came to my aid after seeing me run in and out the kitchen several times with his cup. But the flames were out of our control by that point. Cups not helping, I finally grabbed the water hose and sat on top of our fence and just spray the whole area. Finally able to put out the fire in everyone’s’ yard. After the whole ordeal, my brother started crying and I had to calm him down while also convincing him not to tell anyone.
About a week later, after telling our parents how we heroically saved everyone’ homes from some hooligans hiding in our secret spot (I said they were smoking and dropping their butts which started the fire), my brother and I got into an argument. So he attempted to blackmail me for the whole incident. I called his bluff, and he ended up ratting me out. Which got me grounded for a month.”
“That Kid Never Lived It Down”
“Our art classroom had a little cupboard with a sink. We had a heavily pregnant art teacher that would constantly sit in this cupboard either hunched over the sink or drinking tea and nibbling biscuits.
One lesson, she shut the door as she was hurling (crazy morning sickness that lasted all day) and we all thought it’d be a great idea to make fun (jokingly) of this kid because he tried to show off about wearing long Johns. None of us believed he actually wore long Johns to school, so I dared him to pull down his school trousers to show us. He obliges, stands on the table and lo and behold, he’s wearing long Johns.
Another lad in the class ran up behind him and pulled down his long Johns, only for us all to find out he had NO PANTS ON. As this happens, the teacher walks out of her cupboard to a face full of teenage boy willy. She turns around immediately and just screams. There was a door connecting our classroom with the one next door. Everyone heard the scream from the teacher and rushed in through the door. That kid never lived it down. He was in too much shock to pull up his pants quicker than he did. Never forget.”
“Feel Like I’m Going To Die”
“It was the day before the last day of school, and I was in my American Law class. My American Law teacher was one of those people who’s really into hot sauce, so much so to the point where he had a cabinet filled with assorted hot sauces in his classroom. My friend, who isn’t in my class, came in and told the teacher he wanted to try the hottest hot sauce he had. It’s some hot sauce called Da Bomb.
My teacher poured a small dab of it onto a spoon and informed him that it tasted like ‘lighter fluid and butt’ (his words exactly), then handed the spoon to him. Obviously, my friend was kind of nervous, so he asked a few of our mutual friends in the class if they’d do it with him.
Without thinking about it, I tell him I’ll do it as well, so my teacher pours a bit more into another spoon and gives it to me. My friend and I count down from three and then shove our respective spoons in our mouths. We experienced about 10 minutes of agony while the rest of the class watched, then it went away and we spent the rest of class goofing off.
About an hour later, I feel like I’m going to die. I am in a cold sweat, I’m shaking, I can barely walk. I manage to excuse myself from my Ceramics class and make my way to the nearest bathroom. I kneel in front of the toilet, and mentally pray I don’t throw up. Someone sees me on my knees and gets the nurse for me (bless their soul). The nurse shows up and walks me to her office, where I lay down for a while and eat some crackers. About 10 minutes later, I’m feeling good enough to go back to class
Fast forward half an hour, I’m feeling nauseous again. I go to the nurses, lay down, have a conversation with the other kid in the nurse’s office, and vomit mid-conversation. After that, I take a nap for 30 minutes and then go back to class. Felt fine for the rest of the day.”
“What A Great Experiment!”
“I was about 13 or 14 at the time. It was summer, so I was home alone with my little sister (seven or eight) while mom was at work. I was on the back patio, doing some painting. I had a big coffee tin (basically a small bucket) that had about an inch of gasoline in it to clean off the brushes. I thought I remembered hearing somewhere that liquid gasoline won’t burn, only the vapors. What a great experiment! Got a match, lit it, & tossed it in. Didn’t think about the fact about how the five to six inches of empty space in the tin above the gasoline was full of vapors.
Whoosh!
I now have basically a bucket of fire and… Oh no, mom will be home in half an hour! This will never burn out in time! I know! If it’s only the top layer burning, it’s going to take forever… But if I were to give the top more surface area, spread it out, it’ll burn off faster! I thought.
So I tip over the bucket. Yep, more surface area now, because the fire has spread across the entire patio, right next to the house walls!
Thankfully, there was a water hose nearby. I was able to grab it and eventually get everything extinguished with no damage, and still a few minutes to spare before mom gets home. Except… how do I explain why the entire patio & back wall is wet? Thinking quickly, I grab a soapy washcloth and start cleaning glass (the majority of the rear wall was sliding glass doors). Mom gets home, I’m about halfway through cleaning all of the glass. Told her I just noticed how dirty they were (they really were), and it was bugging me so I decided to clean them. I don’t think she wholly bought it, but she had no evidence otherwise and let it slide.”
“This Is Going To Hurt”
“I was in a student written and directed play in college as a gargoyle/demon. We started the play motionless along a roof line, then came to life and down onto the outdoor stage. We used a ladder to get down. I thought that spoiled the illusion and during a rehearsal decided to step off the roof and drop down onto the stage. Two problems: it had rained the previous night, and the grass I was jumping onto had been in the shade all day.
As I was preparing to step out, I noticed the gutter was down and a bit out from the roof so I jumped to clear it. Figured I’d land down into a run and head off the stage. Right leg lands and slips out like a cartoon character stepping on a banana peel.
I am now completely parallel to the ground, and have just enough time to think, This is going to hurt, before landing full-length on my back. I hit so hard that my glasses back-flipped off my face. End of practice for the day as far as I am concerned. Being young and not wanting to get in trouble for the stunt, I never went to the doctor. Some years later while getting checked out for an unrelated injury, I found out I had managed to get a hairline fracture of an ankle bone out of the deal.”
“Everyone Was Talking About It”
“When I was in middle school, I decided to have a New Year’s Eve party for some people from my school. I thought this will be good idea to introduce my friends to my parents. I made event on Facebook, and everything was fine.
However, there was something the Facebook event page didn’t show. Over 100 people from my school responded they were going to come. The worst part was they were asking for adult beverages. Yeah, 14-year olds asking for adult beverages isn’t the thing you would like to see at your party.
Many gross and awful parodies of my photos began to appear on event’s site. I decided to ask teacher for help to stop this, but he just mocked and made fun of me when he saw the pictures.
When it was the day of the party, no one came, because I made sure I wasn’t home on that day. But when I came to school several days later, everyone was talking about it. They said they were waiting outside my house, and I owe them money for useless waiting.
Since then, I didn’t trust many people from my school. The teacher that mocked me for the mean photos was fired. To this day, many people that were with me in middle school still talk about this situation.”
“Bam Does It!”
“My best friend and I were at a party and didn’t really know anyone. We went to the bathroom together as girls do and spotted a pair of electric hair clippers. This was 2007 and a certain Johnny Knoxville movie was huge – Bam Margera was famous for sneaking up on people and clipping a chunk of hair off at the scalp. We looked at each other, said ‘Bam does it!’
Then, we did it to each other. We both had very long hair, but we were smart enough to do it underneath by the noses of our necks. We could hear people all night in the bathroom yelling, ‘Where did this hair come from?!’
We woke up the next morning, very hungover and forgot what we had done. I went to put my hair up in a ponytail and I touched the shaved spot and screamed at the top of my lungs.
It all came flashing back, and as I reached for my cell phone to call her, she was calling me and I answered to her hysterically screaming, ‘What did we do last night?’
After that, we adopted the phrase ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time’ whenever we had other brilliant drink ideas.
Fun times!”
“Haven’t Tried It Since”
“As an agile and fearless 11 year old boy, I was always ‘pushing my limits.’ I had just mastered riding my entire block with no hands on my new six-speed bicycle. I was feeling good about my capabilities. Why not take it to the next level? No eyes. No hands. It took 30 seconds for me to bust into my neighbors truck. I broke their tail light with my front tooth.
‘Haven’t tried it since. Go figure.”
“What Were We Thinking?”
“When my brother and I were younger (middle school, early high school), we were pyros. Anything that was flammable was fuel, and we had a blast. We knew that if you put like axe body spray on a dot on your arm, it would burn up quick and light, but not burn you.
Well one day, we felt adventurous and curious and wondered if we used spray paint, would the color burn off. So, with permission, I sprayed my brothers whole forearm with blue paint, and set him on fire. It lit very well, but the color remained. Took a second to put my brother out though. He fortunately didn’t get too burnt, but like what on earth were we thinking?”
“I Sure Felt Stupid”
“When I was in grade school we were all sitting in little circle groups working on a project. There were about four or five kids per group, and I was sitting right underneath an open window. These were the type of school windows with a handle you turn and pull them toward you and they open at an angle. The teacher asked me if I would close the window.
I thought I would be cool and close it without getting out of my desk. I used my head and pushed on the glass which broke into a thousand pieces. There I was, sitting there, with my head halfway through the window frame and glass all over my head and shoulders. Amazingly, I didn’t even get cut; but I sure felt stupid sitting there like that in front of the whole class.”
“It’s A Miracle”
“We played a game on our playground in elementary school called “High Wire, Low Wire.’ It was mainly reverse limbo-two kids held a jump rope, pulled taut, and another kid would jump over it. The rope would gradually be lifted after each round, and would get higher and higher, and we could get huge running starts and leap over it. We won no prize for our victories but looking cool to everybody for two days, then having them totally forget our coolness.
Did I mention it was on the paved portion of our playground?
It’s a miracle none of us fractured our skulls, yet here we are.”
“I Didn’t Bother To Wait”
“When I was 11, I was in the back of my mum’s car when I noticed that her umbrella, which had a metal handle and opening mechanism, was bent. In a feat of strength that still surprises me to this day, I bent the handle back towards where it should have been and promptly snapped it off. Naturally, I felt bad about breaking her umbrella, so it seemed like a good idea to check whether or not it still opened. I didn’t bother to wait until we got out of the car. The top of the umbrella hit the seat in front of me, and the sharp metal shard where the handle had been went directly into the palm of my hand.”
“Really Bummed My Idea Didn’t Work”
“A couple of years ago, I was given a bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter cups–the miniature ones that are individually wrapped in foil. We have a fridge in our garage that is mostly used to hold adult drinks. It’s a side-by-side with the freezer on one side. It’s not hooked up for water and the ice maker. I thought it would be the most awesome idea ever to dump the bag of Reese’s Cups into the bin in the freezer for holding loose ice cubes. So, that way when you push the button on the outside of the door, a delicious chilled chocolate and peanut butter treat would be dispensed right into your hand.
I dumped the whole bag in and I shut the door…very excited to test it out and proud of my idea. I hit the button for the dispenser and all of them came tumbling out onto the floor. Dummy me wasn’t thinking how ice cubes get dispensed from there…it’s always more than one and they’d probably be bigger, too. I had to scramble and pick them all up off the floor because my dog thought he was going to get some freebie treats. Man, I was really bummed that my idea didn’t work out.”