Chain Restaurant Workers Reveal Which Meals We Should Avoid At All Costs
Chain Restaurant Workers Reveal Which Meals We Should Avoid At All Costs
[rebelmouse-image 18346977 is_animated_gif=Bigger doesn't always mean better, and restaurants are certainly no exception. Be careful what you order in chains, employees say.
etphonetrome asked, Chain restaurant workers of Reddit, which meal should we avoid at all costs?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
This actually blew my mind a little.
[rebelmouse-image 18346978 is_animated_gif=Big Macs, if you don't care about the middle bun, order a McDouble, sub mac sauce and add shredded lettuce, its half the price and you dont pay extra for lettuce or substitutions, and you get pretty much the same amount of food.
Microwaved or not, their chicken wings are amazing.
[rebelmouse-image 18346979 is_animated_gif=Not a real big contribution but when I worked at Applebee's the microwaved Mac and cheese bugged me. Along with pretty much any desserts.
Today, in unsurprising news...
[rebelmouse-image 18346980 is_animated_gif=Hi, I used to work for Smoothie King. This isn't really anything specific but do NOT go there because you think it's healthy. All of the smoothies are actually pretty unhealthy for you.
EDIT: here's one of the main reasons why. It's most definitely the sugar. Everything that makes the smoothie taste good most likely has sugar in it. The strawberries are surrounded with a sugary syrup. So are the raspberries, blueberries, and peaches. The juices that we add are a thick syrup idkk why they call it juice because you definitely can't drink it down by itself. Then you add the marketed "raw cane sugar". Just because it has raw in the front doesn't make it NOT sugar. The worst smoothie I see people get is the hulk. I've seen so many people get the hulk for their children but whenever I try to tell them it's like they refuse to believe anything there could possibly be bad for you. LITTLE JIMMY DOES NOT NEED TO BE DRINKING THAT FAT SLUDGE MAM I DONT WANT TO BE RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS HEART EXPLODING. I have every smoothie basically memorized so if any of y'all have specific questions just ask.
But they're so. Good.
[rebelmouse-image 18346981 is_animated_gif=I worked at a Pizza Hut for a while. Most of it is fine, although I wouldn't order wings on a Wednesday unless you are able to deal with a long wait. Their wing street menu gets slammed on that day due to the wing special, and most Pizza Huts don't have enough fryer space to keep up with Wednesday business.
The regular breadsticks are the most likely thing to not be made freshly, because they are ordered in packs of five sticks, but prepped and cooked in pans of ten sticks. Not a big deal during peak hours because we sold so many breadsticks that it didn't matter, but in slower hours it sometimes meant that if there was a 20-minute gap between one order of breadsticks and the next, the second customer got breadsticks that were significantly less tasty. They weren't rock hard or anything, but their fresh breadsticks are great and their 20 minute old breadsticks aren't great.
Deep fried cheese, covered in cheese, masquerading as a sandwich. Two please.
[rebelmouse-image 18346982 is_animated_gif=I worked at Denny's for longer than I'd like to admit. I don't know if they still serve it, but never ever ever eat the Fried Cheese Melt. It actually topped the list on a local news network as the worst thing in America that you can put in your body.
For the uninitiated, it's 4 mozzarella cheese sticks with cheese on top and bottom between two pieces of bread. Disgusting.
That other thing? A breakfast sandwich with donuts as buns. 'Murica.
[rebelmouse-image 18346983 is_animated_gif=There is a place called Crave Burger here, I'm not sure how much of a chain it is, but they have whats called the "fatty melt," which is a cheeseburger but instead of normal buns, there is a grilled cheese on top and bottom.
I went there once and they had a pizza burger. Without reading the description I had ordered it - it was literally a personal pan pizza on either side as buns, a hamburger patty in the middle, mozzarella, pepperoni, and a bowl of marinara sauce for dipping.
They also have this f_cking thing.
Your cheesestick sandwhich doesn't seem so bad now.
Don't care, it's unlimited.
[rebelmouse-image 18346984 is_animated_gif=Olive Garden: The only ingredients not frozen are herbs, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Even the pasta and bread is shipped frozen. I realize this is standard procedure for most chain restaurants, but Olive Garden advertises itself as being authentic upscale Italian cuisine. It's a lie
Sounds about right.
[rebelmouse-image 18346985 is_animated_gif=I work at Subway and one day my ex-manager was getting out a few platters of sandwiches for a customer, but the platters hadn't been closed/secured correctly so they busted open, spilling sandwiches onto the floor in the back. He said "f_ck it" picked them up without gloves on, put them back on the platter, and gave them to the customer. I died a little inside that day.
Well, I think we have a lunch plan today.
[rebelmouse-image 18346986 is_animated_gif=Former McD worker here, I got nothing you shouldn't have, but as a consolation, what you SHOULD do, is order a 'Double cheeseburger, sub artisan, sub cheddar'
You will not regret it. Also quarter pounder instead of double cheeseburger works.
An expert... ordering rolls... ok then
[rebelmouse-image 18346987 is_animated_gif=I worked at a Japanese casual fast food restaurant that had two locations, but this applies to other places. We had this thing called a Volcano roll and it cost $7.25. A California roll there cost $3.75. The Volcano roll was a Cali roll cut into the shape of a triangle and topped with spicy mayo that has been heated up with about $.10 worth of fish, literally just a few bits. You are much better off ordering a Cali roll and paying $.50 extra for spicy mayo on the side and asking them to heat it up.
I had one really smug guy come in with his date and ordered a couple of rolls like he was a sushi expert, one of which was a volcano roll. When the Volcano roll was served in the restaurant, we would usually put it on top so it looked nice, like a Volcano. When I brought it over he was like, "Oh, I didn't know you guys put the sauce on, I've only gotten it for pick up and the sauce is always on the side. I don't really like it, could you bring me one without it?" I tried not to laugh and said sure. I went back and the sushi chef asked what was wrong. I told him that he didn't like the sauce and want one without it. He laughed and said alright, so he took a Cali roll, cut it up, and put it on the plate. I brought it back to the guy and he was super pumped. Basically, this guy paid $7.25 for a roll that would have cost him $3.75 and me and the sushi chef got to split a free volcano roll. Normally I would have told him about it, but dude was being so arrogant by trying to impress his date with his "sushi knowledge" that I decided not.
So really, you should be careful, look at the ingredients of the rolls that you have, because some of them could be glorified and overpriced California roll
Microwaving a wrap? Gross.
[rebelmouse-image 18346988 is_animated_gif=Red Robin - the chicken in both the BBQ and Caesar wraps are pre-cooked and they are microwaved. Substitute it for crispy chicken.
Are veggie patties food? Asking for a friend.
[rebelmouse-image 18346989 is_animated_gif=A&W here in Canada. Everything is okay to order actually since we all cook it fresh especially during a rush but if they have a veggie burger ready and it's not a busy location or its during slow times, stay away or ask them to make another one for you fresh (they're obligated to make you one and is usually not a hassle for them). 9/10 times that veggie patty has been sitting there for hours.
Of course it's all fried, that's the point of going.
[rebelmouse-image 18346990 is_animated_gif=Idk how Long John Silver's hasn't been mentioned yet. I worked at 3 different locations during high school. Pretty much everything is fried, we all know that, but the oil is only switched out like once a month and that's only if your manager gives a sh*. So the fries are cooked in the same oil as the fish, chicken, shrimp, hush puppies, and so on. The fish and chicken are scooped up out of the oil and thrown on a rack above the fryers. That rack is just covered in grease and hardly ever cleaned, and even if it is cleaned, it's never good enough; grease gets in the cracks of everything. The floors are absolutely disgusting, and everyone had to buy non-slip shoes seemingly every month. The oil would just eat away at them. The corn on the cob sits in a literal heated sink until someone buys it... you might be getting corn from last week depending on how busy it was. My clothes always smelled terrible after a shift, and my girlfriend hated it if I came over after as well. It would make my hair smell like cat vomit, she said. A shower after a shift was an absolute must.
Just all in all the absolutely messiest, most gross "kitchen" area I've seen in my entire life.
I worked there for maybe a year, and after the first day, I vowed to never eat anything from there. I'm 30 years old and haven't since.
See below why Chipotle is amazing... the chips.
[rebelmouse-image 18346991 is_animated_gif=There's nothing really disgusting or poisonous at chipotle, but depending on how busy the store you go to is and what time of day it is, maybe or maybe don't get the steak. It's cooked to be medium rare but after more than 15 minutes on the line, you end up with basically dog food.
The Barbacoa and Carnitas usually for lined periods of time because no one really eats them, and the chips are made with an obscene amount of salt and oil.
That's twice the recommended daily limit of sodium. No wonder it's so good.
[rebelmouse-image 18346992 is_animated_gif=Chili's. The Buffalo Ranch sandwich has the sodium content of 17 McDonald's medium fries.
"Hospice clean meat." What...
[rebelmouse-image 18346993 is_animated_gif=I work at Jimmy Johns and there's a very high standard of cleanliness. Every store gets inspected every few weeks and the motto is to keep the store "hospice clean". That being said, it's really gross that we leave the meat sitting out all day on the prep tables.
Shut up Subway's tuna is amazing BECAUSE it's all mayo.
[rebelmouse-image 18346994 is_animated_gif=Use to work at Subway. What we did was empty bags of tuna into a big bowl. The tuna came in chunks so we broke it up into fine crumbs with gloved hands. Then we dump a bag of mayo and mix it together, again with gloved hands. Then we put it into three containers and cover them with lids. One would go up front if we needed it, the rest would go into the fridge. We also put the date and time it was made on the containers. The only thing I can think of that was kinda gross was that the mayo was kept outside of the fridge so the mayo is always room temperature.
Sweet, sweet chai.
[rebelmouse-image 18346995 is_animated_gif=I work at Starbucks so idk if this counts but pretty much everything has more sugar than you think it does. Especially our lightly sweetened chai, the chai syrup comes with less sugar but we end up pumping liquid cane sugar into it anyways.
Mmmmm. Hot chicken water.
[rebelmouse-image 18346996 is_animated_gif=I work at Dairy Queen and I wouldn't recommend eating anything with the grilled chicken. We microwave it and put it in hot steaming water. Everything else is pretty standard and I would eat it myself.
There is no wrong way to order Domino's.
[rebelmouse-image 18346997 is_animated_gif=I seriously doubt anyone will see this, but do NOT order the bread twists at Domino's. They're made using one half of a pan pizza dough, and drizzled with garlic oil and parmesan dust, and will cost about $5.99. Instead, you should order the parmesan bread bites. Those are made from one half of a pan pizza dough and drizzled with garlic oil and parmesan dust, but only cost $2.99
Everyone has a different relationship with hygiene.
While some people wash their hands every time they enter a new room, and never leave home without a bottle of hand sanitizer, others might not care where their hands have been as they bust open a bag of chips.
However, one thing that both parties have in common is that over time, they might have developed certain practices related to their own personal hygiene that are unique to them.
Helping them either make sure their hands, teeth, and body are as clean as can possibly be or help them get things done as speedily, if not as effectively, as possible.
"What is the peculiar hygiene habit that you've developed?"
So Nothing Gets Overlooked
"When I shower I slowly rotate in a circle like some type of vertical rotisserie chicken."- RootsRoots55
To Help It Come Out... Maybe?...
"When I sit down to poo, I sort of sit in a way that spreads my cheeks as much as possible."- Myzx
Clean Before You Clean
"I wash my hands in the shower before I touch my face."- plasticIove
Happy Wash Hands GIF by Mecklenburg CountyGiphySurprisingly Overlooked
"I spend an extra minute in every shower making sure I thoroughly clean my feet."
"Not weird to clean feet."
"But definitely weird to remind myself every day 'gotta wash them trotters'."- ingoodtime23
Don't Overlook The Hard To Reach Places
"I see a lot of elderly people in the hospital.'
"99% have toenail fungus."
"I keep anti-fungal shampoo in the shower next to a toothbrush and scrub my nails and in-between my toes every morning."- Resilient_bookworm
Nothing Says You Can't Have Fun In The Shower...
"More of a fun one, but related to hygiene."
"When in the shower, and I'm lathering up my body with my soap/shower gel, I ensure a nice seal between my arm and body."
"Then I keep my fingertips against my hip and extend my elbow, creating a huge bubble in the gap between my arm and body."
"Then I blow it to see how big a bubble I can blow before it pops."
"Yes I'm a 35 year old man."- Angry_Cornflake
Extra, Extra Dry
"Squeegee myself with my hands in the shower to get most of the water off before I towel dry."- clydeswitch
Wash Up After Cleaning
"After using a sponge or cloth from the kitchen sink, I wash my hands with soap."
"These things are just nasty, imo."- knuckleduster12
A Few Steps Ahead
"Taking showers in the middle of the night."
"I have insomnia and one night I decided, what the hell, I need to shower when I get up anyways, so I'll get it out of the way now."
"Maybe it's placebo, but as soon as I got out of the shower and got into bed I slept like a baby."
"Now if I can't fall asleep or wake up in the middle of the night I'll go take a shower instead of laying in bed trying to force myself to fall asleep."- SunnySilver8
Relaxing Homer Simpson GIFGiphyBeware The Excess Spray
"I try to close the toilet seat lid before flushing because I saw a video once where green 'bacteria' gets shot out of the toilet."- LrckLacroix
Their Expert Hiders
"Full body tick check before bed every night."
"I spend a lot of time in the bush and lyme sucks."- cat_named_virtue
The Proof Is In The Pudding... Flavored Toothpaste
"My friends think it's weird that I time myself brushing my teeth so that I brush for the full 2 minutes."
"Joke's on them though, I have the nicest teeth in the friend group."- selloboy
Brush Colgate GIFGiphy...Seems Kind Of Dangerous...
"I like to shower in complete darkness."
"Turn off the lights, block the bottom of the bathroom door with a towel or my clothes if I have to, maybe put some music on if I'm in the mood, and just have a nice, long, hot shower."
"It's incredibly relaxing, almost like a little nap with how warm it is and all the darkness."- Adventurous-Till2924
Should That Even Matter?
"As a straight guy, washing my a**, apparently."- fromkentucky
It Can Get Out Of Control
"I trim my armpit hair every time I trim my beard."
"It’s like a buzz-cut under there."
"Deodorant is more effective that way."-
One would like to think that everyone follows the most basic rules of personal hygiene without needing to be reminded.
At the end of the day though, what's important is doing whatever puts your mind at rest that you are as clean as it possibly can be.
Still... How can you really tell how clean you are if you shower in the dark?
I have seen many a scary movie.
A horror movie done right can haunt you forever.
Have you seen "The Exorcist?"
Good Lord.
I don't know if I'm ready for the new sequel.
I love to be a little frightened by a movie.
But haunted for life is a different story.
Plus, I can't sleep with the lights on...
Redditor Specialist-Crazy1466 wanted to hear which movies we still see in our nightmares, so they asked:
"What is the scariest movie you ever watched?"
Some scary movies give me heart palpitations.
So I try to be picky about the stories I watch.
The Balance
the descent horror GIF by Coolidge Corner TheatreGiphy"The Descent. Horrible monsters mixed with darkness and claustrophobia makes a scary movie."
itsminimal
"I was looking for this movie. Imo this film is the perfect balance between bloody, physical horror and actual psychological terror."
AkiraN19
Too Much
"White Noise. Wasn't scary when I watched it in the theater but became VERY scary when my car stereo only picked up static the whole ride home."
stfupcakes
"Oh damn, that was so good. I worked at a video store in ~1996 or so, and a coworker put it on. I was mesmerized. I later took it home and watched it in the dark, as you should, and damn. That's a masterpiece."
Far_Blueberry_2375
"Took my high school girlfriend to it, and she was in tears she was so scared. Almost 20 years later, and she still freaks out if I bring it up."
Prp076
Chilling
"The Day After... I watched it when I was a kid and it absolutely terrified me. When it originally aired, ABC had to set up a phone hotline with counselors standing by. It's one of the scariest depictions of nuclear war in film in my opinion. Chilling."
scarletmanuka
"I've been thinking about these movies, and how unrealistic they are. We all just survived a pandemic. What happened? Things were bad, tent hospital, turned away, truck morgues. And people just... learned to bake bread. Made music."
"Gave up offices and started doing things for their neighbors. Nuclear war would be obviously, a horrific shitshow and not to be entertained, but I really believe, we'd come together and make a good world after. It wouldn't be the complete collapse of our humanity, and the rest can be rebuilt."
Cheap_Doctor_1994
The Splatter
"The Grudge. I don't know why, but this f**king thing is so scary. I had to pause it. Never had this before. Even the worst splatter is nothing for me, but this... No."
Yggdrafenrir20
"It was when the lady got sucked into the bed when she was hiding under the covers. Like they took away my only defense in the dark as a kid."
Colossus245
"I had the same reaction. Something about it just made my skin crawl in a way that other similar movies like The Ring didn't. For several years afterward whenever I had a nightmare, the grudge lady was somehow involved. Yugh."
JonEleven
Turn it Off
Happy Got You GIF by BounceGiphy"There are definitely better movies, but Sinister has always scared the crap out of me. It took me 2 tries to watch it. It’s the only movie I’ve ever turned off from being so scared."
Cobonmycorn
Never saw Sinister.
And now I know to skip it.
My nightmares are bad enough.
"The Thing. My first viewing was at night, and I was maybe 5 or 6. It scared me so bad I only watched subsequent viewings during the day until I matured a little more."
Same-Reaction7944
Never Again
“'The Ring' when I was 9 or 10, that was scary."
DelusionalGorilla
"I saw it in my 30s, on pain meds for kidney stones, while my wife and kids were away. The thing that freaked me out the most was that in the middle-end of the film someone called me from an unknown number and hung up."
EnIdiot
"It's the only movie I absolutely refuse to watch ever again. I saw it ONCE as a kid and I'm 30 now. I still have occasional nightmares about it. Sometimes I'll be eating and this movie will pop into my head for NO REASON and I lose my appetite completely. I'm haunted by it."
guiltyonallcharges
Too Much too Handle
"Event Horizon... or maybe Pandorum."
Nulltan
"Worth noting Event Horizon is one of the most famous cases in the lost media community. It had 30 minute cut for being too grim for the test audiences. 30. Minutes. While some scenes did make their way to the 2006 DVD, most of it is considered most likely lost for good barring some miraculous surprise discovery."
"You can read about what was cut at the Lost Media Wiki here: https://lostmediawiki.com/Event_Horizon_(partially_lost_unreleased_130-minute_cut_of_sci-fi_horror_film;_1997)"
Lights On
"The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I kept waking up at 3 am on the money for weeks afterward. Didn’t help that I found and listened to the original tape-recorded material of her speaking fluidly in different languages while being exorcised."
Opening-Ad-3775
"This is it for me. I watched it in theaters when my boyfriend was out of town. I went home and slept with the lights on. I love scary movies and had never done that before or since. I’m going to have to look for those tapes!"
LostintheLand
Wobbled
kathy bates misery GIFGiphy"Misery. My knees were wobbling when I walked out of the theatre. No more Stephen King for me."
suzymwg
"I watched that while dealing with a stalker. Horrible choice."
sethro919
I love scary movies, but some of these sound like a step too far.
Misery still haunts me.
We all want to believe we are perfectly safe, but the fact is, the world can be a scary and dangerous place sometimes.
For the most part, we can protect ourselves, but sometimes we end up in dangerous situations through no fault of own (or anyone else's).
Redditors are no strangers to situations like these. In fact, some of them have been in actual near-death situations, and they are ready to share those stories.
It all started when a Redditorasked:
"When have you ever feared for your life? Why?"
Fight The Ocean
"When I got caught in a riptide while stupidly swimming alone in the ocean."
– ItAllDepends99
"My brother saved someone this way, and he never forgot it! He almost drowned too because she was fighting so hard and pulling him under. Another guy had to come help get her out because the current was so strong, but they made it."
– sordidcandles
"I just started working as an ocular recovery technician and live in a beach town. My first case was a 26 year old man who drowned off the beach. I don’t know if he was a tourist or a local, but as a local I grew up being constantly lectured on water safety and how to get out of a riptide. It broke my heart looking at him in the morgue and thinking about how scary his last moments must have been. Water is not something to play with."
– maddicatdog
Living Roadblock
"Ex was driving and a moose walked out in front of the car."
– IjsKind
"Moose are no joke. Every person I know who's been in an accident with a moose have their entire care totaled and the moose just walks away like nothing happened."
– bobbi21
Just Breathe
"Woke up in the throes of a severe asthma attack. Clocked my pulse at 227. As I was digging for my inhaler, I kept thinking what a stupid way to die this would be."
– BuddleiaGirl
"I’m in the hospital on day 3 with my 10-year-old who is recovering from a severe asthma attack. It’s incredibly scary. The crazy thing is, he has not had any issues with asthma since he was 3. His pediatrician told me he outgrew it (he was born with juvenile asthma). Unfortunately, he did not, as the pulmonologist said it can go dormant, may never reoccur in your life but never truly goes away. My son had the perfect storm of triggers, and here we are. We’ll now have an aggressive asthma attack plan for him but damn this was incredibly scary. Like top ten level fear thinking he could not make it."
– HideousYouAre
She Was Mad!
"Wasn't the only time or most frightening time, but the most memorable was when I was a teenager and got pinned to a wall by an extremely agitated cow. She'd knocked her water bucket apart and I was replacing it and she charged me. I just happened to fit exactly in between the horns. I do mean exactly - I had matching bruises on each side like I'd been hit twice with a length of pipe. She hit hard enough to drive her points a couple inches into the wall and stick. I've been in car accidents, fallen off things, been in fights and even had a young tree fall on me. None of that compares. Felt like being caught by a huge wave."
"Anyway I bonked her as hard as I could on the forehead and bolted out the door when she pulled her head back. The whole thing took maybe two seconds tops. Best part? My parents were right outside, they thought I'd just been killed. The wall was solid for the first 4ft, then 2in gaps between 2x8 boards for the rest. They saw the whole thing but couldn't see me below my shoulders - just the charge, the catch, and the wall crack from the impact and the horns pushing through."
– Iamtheonewhobawks
Shaking Earth
"7.2 Earthquake in Japan made the apartment I was in wobble like Jello. Tried to stand up in my chair and walk away from the window, ended up crawling away and having a small bookcase spill my books on me."
"Spent a few seconds leaning against the inside wall/sliding closet, looking at the ceiling and having a very vivid picture of being crushed to death by collapsing concrete and debris."
"Slept outside for two nights after evecuating. Apartment did not even have a crack in it! 10/10 would recommend Japanese government housing."
– kaidenka
A Surprise Drop
"I was minding my own business walking in like 2 ft of water at a beach, holding my toddler. There was a massive clay pit that had opened up in the shallow water, but the water was murky so i didnt see it. I slid into it and the water was just deep enough to be over my head, because I couldn't stand up due to how slimy it was. It was shaped like a bowl. I couldn't swim up because my feet were just sliding into muck and it felt like an undertow. Just when I started breathing in water, my knee hit a rock in the side of the pit so I put my foot on it and launched us up. The lifeguards didn't do anything even after someone called us an ambulance to make sure we didn't dry drown.. We were under for maybe 20 seconds."
– BackgroundAd7040
A Scary Walk Home
"So I was 14, walking home from the bus stop, as I did every day. It was about a mile from the bus stop to my house. I’d walk home about halfway with a friend of mine, before he turned off to go home. About 2 blocks from our bus stop, a guy started walking along with us.
"This was in a major city, so it wasn’t the first time someone started randomly talking to us. What was weird was that he wasn’t crazy or weird. He was pretty normal. He was asking about our lives, asking about what was going on. Randomly he asked about what we’d been up to the last Friday night. We both said about the same thing, that we’d been home with our families, which was true. Even though he didn’t sound crazy, this guy was giving bad vibes. Something was off."
"We got to the turnoff point where my buddy would go to his house, he said goodbye, and left to go home. By the way, I don’t blame him for doing this, regardless of what happened next. So this guy keeps walking with me, bad vibes continue, but he hasn’t said anything directly threatening yet. We get to a cross street, and he says, “Don’t run, my boys are right across the street.” Then I look and realize about 4 guys are following directly across the street. And that’s when it all sinks in. The bad vibes are real."
"I could tried to run at this point. I had a friend who only lived a block away. But I decided not to. Maybe I just thought it was pointless. I kept talking to him."
"We talked for a while more as we walked, and he told me that his brother had been stabbed around where my bus was let off a few days before, and I fit the description. He said he’d gotten out of the life, but was back to avenge his brother. I told him that it wasn’t me. He asked me if I was taking drugs. I said I’d f*cked around with pot but nothing more. He believed me. We kept walking."
"Eventually he started talking about why he’d gotten out of the life, and that I needed to stay on the right path. Eventually, we got back to my house. He said that he was glad he talked to me, because initially he was just going to shoot me and walk away, but he believed me and was glad he hadn’t. He waved his boys away, who were down the block. The he left, and wished me the best. I told my parents, reported it to the cops, didn’t sleep for a few nights, and eventually moved on. But yeah I almost died right there."
– NiteOwl2020
A Shock To The System
"Got shocked the other day. Work in the solar industry, I thought I was having a heart attack and that this was it"
– ryanjbanning
Bond. James Bond.
"Playing an outdoor game we called 007 at age 11 where you get dropped off a distance away from a home base and you have to sneak back in the dark without being spotted by your driver, who would call you out if they saw you while driving around the neighborhood. Me and a friend were sneaking through irrigation canals to be off main roads (not through people’s properties, those were fenced off) and someone who’s backyard we were sneaking past cocked a shotgun and fired a warning shot into the ground of his yard. We crawled on our stomachs in the canal until we were far enough away. Pretty scary at 11."
– SolarisIX
"What the hell is wrong with people and immediately shooting at things that move in the dark?"
– dewky
Noises In The Basement
"I have a more light-hearted one. I heard strange noises from my basement and though someone broke in. My heart was racing and I didn't know what to do. I kept listening down the stairs at the noise and decided it wasn't human. Turns out a woodpecker came down the flue and out the access hatch and was flying around. I managed to shoo him out the door and breathed a sigh of relief."
– SpecterCody
"I am terrified of birds so this would have been a lose-lose situation for me."
– Oohwsh*twaddup
Metal Death Trap!
"I hydroplaned when someone break checked me, and ended up in a ditch, I was fine my car was fine, my heart rate was goin insane."
– Crimate_Change
"This is like medical-related, not a situation like in most other replies. So basically, one day 2 years ago I started noticing some really odd symptoms I had that resembled a UTI (which I had never had before), but I kind of had this gut feeling it was more than that, even though the symptoms were subtle so I told my parents immediately."
"I woke up the next morning at 5am, with this sharp pain in my bottom right side. Oh, maybe it's a cramp. I use the bathroom and try to get back to sleep, but this pain starts growing, sooo much it feels like a stabbing pressure. I toss onto my side. The pain is still fully there. I go on my stomach. Still fully there. I sit up, walk around, do any position possible, and the pain is only getting worse and at this point, like 15 minutes after I woke up, unbearable."
"I have no idea what's going on and I'm scared out of my mind, so I tell my parents. Our first guess is appendicitis. So my mom rushes me to the ER, and on the car ride there I'm writhing in pain, crying, no matter how I sit or how I press my side the pain just continues to escalate."
"I get to the ER and they don't take me right away, and in the waiting room I'm throwing up into a bag from the pain and apologizing to a couple next to me in between bouts of dry heaving/vomit. I'm finally taken in, and they take me to get an ultrasound like 10 minutes later, but I can't stay still when the technician is taking it because of the pain."
"I eventually stop even attempting to cooperate and demand pain medicine, and when it's put into my IV I took like 10 minutes to lay there and breathe and feel better, it felt so nice to not be in extreme pain."
"Anyways, I had a kidney stone. A tiny little kidney stone made me think I was dying and was genuinely the most painful thing I've experienced in my life. I remember asking my mom on the car ride over if I was dying, because we had no idea what it was and why it was only getting worse. It's a genetic thing for me, but if you're reading this, drink water."
– kglove34
Well, I'm definitely going to hydrate all the time now!
People are required to have a license to drive, fish, and have certain jobs.
So it boggles my mind that people aren't required to have a license to have kids.
Some of the cruelest and most vicious things I've ever heard were words uttered by a parent to a child.
As an adult, I was haunted by a few thigs.
I can't imagine the scaring of an adolescent.
Redditor Tight_Anywhere6794 wanted to hear about the things parents have said in the past that haunts everyone still, so they asked:
"What insult have your parents said, that is stuck in your head as an adult?"
I've been blessed with the mother I had.
So I can't speak from experience.
But I've heard parenting horror stories.
Bad Expressions
Sad Kid GIF by 1tvGiphy“'You’re so annoying.' Said to me as a young kid while I was expressing enthusiasm over some new interest. Later my father complains I never tell him anything."
foppishyyy
Mean Spirited
"What did I do to deserve a fat kid?"
Silosolo
"My parents also mocked me for being fat, and outright physically abused me as in forcefully grabbed my fat child manboobs or slapped me while calling me fat-related names."
"A lot of people at school did it too, so obviously I have a lot of self-image issues like I never let anyone see me without clothes these days. The worst part is that I legitimately internalized a lot of hate, I could never care for myself enough to actually get fit."
FoeWithBenefits
What's My Name?
"My parents divorced when I was young and they hate each other. My mom would call me my dad's name when she was really upset. What makes it worse is that I confided in her that I never wanted to be like my dad. She used that ammunition against me."
Discarded_Pariah
"That's awful. You are your own person. You aren't your father."
blksmnr
Unfunny
"'You can't even laugh right.'"
"My mom in a weird moment I thought we were bonding. There's something inherently extra evil when someone tells you your joy is wrong. Told her I'm engaged and hoped she could at least be happy I'm happy and she ghosted everyone to the point the family thought died. She's a mess."
BlindEditor
"I'll never understand parents that are so hard on their own children that they can't even be happy for them. So their sole function is to bring misery to their offspring?"
macabre_irony
Evil
Oh My God Wow GIF by The Roku ChannelGiphy"My little brother was drowning, I tried to save him but also almost drowned, we got rescued by a neighbor. My mom told me that they should've left me in the pond. I haven't spoken to her in many years."
Ilookbetterthanyou
Good Lord. How do people like this exist?
Tragic.
HIM
"She told me I was acting just like my father when I would get upset. I would just get kinda pissy and sulk. He would go on rampages and scream and hit and throw things. He pushed her down the stairs once. I would never lay a finger on my current partner. The worst part is I look just like him. I was wondering if my mother always expected me to turn into my dad. I prove her wrong every day."
rot_grl
10 Years Old
"When I was ~10 years old, my mum once said 'If I could go back in time and make sure I never gave birth to you, I would in a heartbeat.'"
"Never forgot it. Talked to her about it a couple of times years later and her responses ranged from 'That never happened' to 'Oh yeah and I suppose I’m just the worst mother ever' and finally 'Yeah but I didn’t mean it, you know that.'"
"Messed me up tho tbh. Another one was '[older sibling] was the only child we actually planned for, the rest of you were accidents.' I don’t think it was intended as an insult, but being told your entire existence was an accident as a child kinda stung."
SpiderP*bes
Failures
“'You’re the biggest mistake I ever made.' - my mother when I was 5. I’m 32 now and it’s been the undercurrent for our relationship ever since, constantly wondering if anything I’ve achieved or struggled for is something she’s genuinely proud of or just relieved to say I wasn’t a total failure on her part."
thefaehost
Generational Issues
"Not a parent but a grandparent, I was adopted when I was 12 years old (my parents were both drug addicts so I was in and out of foster care most of my life) my adopted mother's father turned to me on Christmas Eve when no one else was around and said 'My daughter should have never adopted you, she should have let you stay on the streets where you belong'… he got nicer as he got older and sicker but I couldn’t find it in myself to forget what he said even almost 10 years later. Went to the funeral for moral support but was indifferent about his passing."
samweather227
Just Me
Sad Kids GIF by Cian DucrotGiphy"I was an only child and lonely. When I asked for a sibling, the response was 'If you want to know why we don't have more kids, go look in the mirror.'"
Responsible_Fly_3565
Some people should never have children.
Awful.