Have you ever loved doing something that you later realized was horrible or cruel or harmful to others? Because I used to rope cattle, until the day I saw a calf’s neck get broken when the rope caught it wrong. One of the worst moments of my life. (This is professorfangirl, by the way, who is disdained to anonymity by every askbox.)

I’m sorry you had to go through that.  🙁  I hope it helps to consider that you never hurt any of them.  As long as it’s done right, they’re fine.  And you stopped when you realized the danger.

I think I was pretty rotten to my little sister when I was a kid.  She’s never blamed me for it, but thinking back, I’m really ashamed because I think I was kind of a bully.  She’s always been a fantastic little sister and she never deserved me being mean or dismissive to her.  I really was a selfish little brat.

More recently, I finally broke the terribly bad habit of using the word ‘retarded’ as an insult.  I’m glad of that (and grateful to my friends who called me on it and helped me kick the habit), especially since I’ve never considered being MH/MR something shameful.  Honestly, I’ve always found the MH/MR people of my acquaintance to be admirably methodical and clear in their thought processes.  The people I’ve met who are stupid are the ones who don’t question their own assumptions or analyze their reasoning.