24-05-2025
15 Things People Shouldn't Romanticize
For a myriad of reasons, people tend to glamorize certain things that maybe don't need to be. So, when Reddit user SoloSammySilva asked: "What's something people only romanticize because they've never actually done it?" so many people shared their thoughts. Here's what they said below:
"Living in the past. The 1920s weren't awesome, nor were the 1200s or the 1400s. You wouldn't have enjoyed life more if you were a knight in medieval times; you'd probably just die from an infection."
—DoomFrog_"As a general rule: anytime before indoor plumbing and germ theory probably sucked."—PirateSanta_1"As a woman, any time before reliable contraception sucked."—t1mepiece
"War, I'd imagine."
"Renovating an old house. Are you a person who can never sit still? Probably for you. Do you enjoy downtime? Probably not for you."
—thomilew"And you have to make sure you have LOTS of money. There are always expensive surprises that are found. Plumbing or wiring that needs to be replaced. 'The house shifted,' and now, the foundation needs to be repaired. Never know what is going to be next. Expensive!"—EmbarrassedPick1031
"The Mafia."
"Moving out to the middle of nowhere and building a shelter and living off the land."
—honestlyanidiot "A serious injury or major health crisis out there could be a death sentence."—OldCarWorshipper
"Been in a serious relationship with 'the bad boy.'"
"Mt. Everest."
—AnxiousPeggingSlut"A member of my college graduating class is forever frozen on Everest. He was a smart, fit guy and an ultra-experienced outdoorsman and climber. But he keeled over not far from the summit, and never got up.I can understand the taste for adventure, but people with a lot less experience and fitness insist on climbing Everest and sometimes need to be hauled to the summit. Local people make good money as guides, but at the risk of their own lives."—angrymurderhornet
"Sex on the beach."
"Business travel."
—Why_So_Slow"The whole day long I'm working, and when I manage to arrive at my hotel over at the other side of the city, I'm too tired to visit anything. Eat some cheap stuff from the hotel restaurant, go to sleep. It's really not romantic at all."—MrBlueCharon
"Being stalked. Seriously, a friend of mine was raving about a romance book where the guy stalks a woman and is obsessed with her, 'but he saves her life.' I've been stalked, nothing about it is romantic."
"Piracy. People assume that piracy was all treasure hunting, drinking, and sword fights, thanks almost exclusively to Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island. In reality, no buried treasure has ever been found in the quantities we'd otherwise been led to believe, there were never maps where X marked the spot, and most pirates weren't world-class swordsmen. The majority of pirates during the golden age were ex-navy officers or personnel, freed slaves, or criminals on the run who initially accepted pardons from England as privateers to prey on Spanish treasure fleets in the Atlantic. And even then, the 'treasure' wasn't so much gold or jewels as it was spices, cloth, and other textiles. Finding actual gold or jewels was extremely rare. Additionally, most pirateships were not massive galleons or man-of-war ships; they were pretty commonly sloops of 20-30 men and maybe a handful of 10-pound guns."
"Truth be told, most pirates didn't even kill their captives either; they just tied them up, ransacked the ship, and fled. It was extremely rare for someone to actually kill a prisoner in a pirate raid. But even rarer still was ship-to-ship combat, as repairs were extremely expensive and most crews wanted to avoid drawn-out conflicts as much as possible."—Mega_Nidoking
"Threesomes."
"Starting a business."
—Still_Emotion"My husband and I own a business that's mildly successful. If we're not careful, everything we do is centered around the business — our social life, what we talk about at home, and hobbies. We have to make a concerted effort to find other things to talk about, meet people outside our sphere, and do hobbies just for fun so that we don't work ourselves to death. It's a fun business, but even fun businesses are a ton of work and all-consuming."—LavenderGwendolyn
"Depression. No, they're not all tortured geniuses; they're just tortured."
And finally, "Being a manager. I thought it was all big paychecks and corporate perks. Nope, I'm just babysitting grown adults."
—Ratfor"I hated it so much that I asked for a demotion.I figured it would be easy, because I've always been a hard worker who needs very little supervision. Thought most people would be like that, but it turns out, almost no one is like it didn't help that my company had some pretty wonky sales/performance objectives. Everyone I managed could be completely on target ('meets expectations'), yet my branch (me) would be under our the only way for me to get a 'meets expectations' is if I am somehow able to motivate everyone to go above and beyond every single day for the entirety of my career. Couldn't even have conversations with people about failing to meet expectations, because on paper, they were doing exactly what their job description says. Yet every week, I was having conversations with my boss about 'underperforming.' Lol."—Subject_Reception681
Is there something you believe people only romanticize because they've never actually done it? Tell us what it is and why in the comments or anonymously in the Google Form below:
