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Son & Mother Discover Cheater Dad Because He Sent Them An Email Meant For His Side Piece

Son & Mother Discover Cheater Dad Because He Sent Them An Email Meant For His Side Piece
Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Our heart breaks for those who have been the unwitting victims of a cheating spouse. It's hard to be blindsided by something so horrible with zero warning.


u/imnotfromomaha told us her story:

My Dad [M 43] cheated on my mom [F 43] - and my mom and I [M 19] found out because he sent an email meant for his new GF to us.


This a bit surreal for me so I apologize in advance for my emotion in this post.

I - along with my mom - discovered that my dad was cheating on her because he accidentally sent a message meant for his new girlfriend in an email to my mom and me. (What a fucking idiot, I know.)

As my parents have always fought, I guess I expected a divorce (I'm 19, no siblings, and they've been married 20 years), but I never thought about cheating. This is especially hard for me because I am close to my dad - he is my role model and one of the best friends - but this is so two-faced it gives me stomaches. Additionally, I am not very close with my mom.

The hardest part is that the email said that he "just got away" from my mom and me so he could meet up. In other words, he chose this person over being with me (and my mom) this weekend. I leave for sophomore year of college this weekend so to hear that he didn't want to be with me is extremely painful, and unexpected.

I'm writing because I need advice:

  1. How to approach my dad - right now I have no plans to talk to him, at least for a while. My mom - who I want to support in this especially difficult time for her - wants me to give him the silent treatment but tomorrow (before I leave) wants me to say all these things about how he lied to us, etc. she wants to keep the marriage, I'm 99% sure my dad wants to get a divorce. My mom believes that if I say the right things that make him reflect, he'll realize he's missing out on family things, repent, change, and come back. Personally, even though I think a divorce is solidified, I owe it to my mom to support her.
  2. How to approach topic with friends - my mom doesn't want me to tell anybody because I don't think anyone in our community would expect this, and as a result it'd become nothing but gossip and embarrassing. I have close friends that I certainly trust, but I'm worried that 10 years from now at my wedding or family events they'll see my dad and presumably new wife with such disgust. I don't want to be known as the kid with a dad that cheated on his mom, but I feel like I have to tell some people. I know my friends will support me, I just don't want them to look at my dad so negatively. He is an amazing father (except this does break my respect for him), just a bad spouse.

To all those who say my dad is not the villain: since when is cheating a way out? he could have just ended things. I appreciate trying to see his perspective but lying to me, avoiding time with me while I'm home for new girlfriend? Fuck.

TL;DR: My Dad cheated on my mom. My mom and I both found out in horrible way and know I want to know how to approach my dad and if I should tell my friends.

Here was some of the advice he got.

One

Giphy
My mom believes that if I say the right things that

Oh God. No. This thinking is highly emotional, which is fair. But, it is not reality. Just nod until she clears her head. But, forget all that.

You are right, this is your family, and ramifications could last decades. So, even though you love your friends, I don't think you need to rush the cat out of the bag. I think you should get a counsellor. You need someone to talk to, end of. Get a pro to help you unload. Your friends don't benefit and aren't qualified to help in that regard anyway. No need to stress them out..

If you want to tell your friends, that's up to you. This is something that happened to you, nobody owns it. You can. But, you should honestly wait until you process it with a counsellor first. That way you don't go off sounding irrational like your mom, talking at the highest emotional time. That kind of stuff is hard for your friends. They can't tell you that you are wrong. They can't stop of you from doing things that will be bad for you...

You get it.. get a pro. That's going to guide points one, two, and help you through the list that grows from there.

dinosaur_train

Two

I think your mom is putting you in an awkward position by asking you to influence your dad's decision regarding their marriage. Their marriage is their business and they need to sort it out between themselves and decide what to do next. Putting you in the middle of that is unfair.

If I were you I would concern yourself with your relationship with your dad as a completely separate thing from their marriage. You have every right to be upset and he has amends to make with you. Hopefully in time this will happen.

In the meantime, if you feel you need support, maybe identify a couple of close friends to talk this through with. Hopefully as your friends they will provide support without judgement.

partingwords

Three

No no no!!! Do not get between your parents on this one, their marriage is their business. You should t be asked to "say the right words" and win him back for her. If she wants to save the marriage, she needs to do it herself, and take responsibility for the things she did that have made the marriage bad as well, it will likely take couples therapy, but even you can see that it's over.

IF you talk to your dad, talk to him about it's impact on YOU. Tell him you feel like he had to escape you, and that he should have done this the right way instead of being a shameful cheater.

Bangbangsmashsmash

Four

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I went through something very similar to what you are describing- closer to my dad, dad cheated on mom during sophomore year of college, ditched us to talk to gf, mom emotionally manipulating me/putting me in the middle, etc. I cannot recommend counseling enough to give you the coping skills to get through this. I used my college's counseling services and it was a godsend.

  1. You cannot be the one to support your mom. She needs to find support elsewhere. You are going through your own grieving process through all of this and she is going to need a LOT more support than you are capable of providing.
  2. Tell your friends. I waited because my friends all loved my dad and I didn't want to taint their relationship with him or view of him. I wish I had told them sooner to help myself accept it sooner. You have nothing to be ashamed of, you did nothing wrong. I am telling you this as someone ten years on the other side of this incident, nobody will view you differently for your dad's actions.

PM me if you want to talk. I'm so sorry this is happening to you. Things will get better, hang in there.

Womanbearmoose

Five

I want to write my dad a letter and tell him he hurt me. But I'm scared I'lll come across as too emotional.

"Too emotional" isn't really a thing. This is an emotional situation and you have every right to feel how you feel about it.

Sit down and write out however many letters you need to. Decide after they're written if you want to send them.

Don't feel pressure to say things to help your mom or keep the family together. Your mom and dad's relationship is between them and they're the ones to work it out. As for not telling anyone; does your college offer any counseling services?

Everyonelikeskittens

Six

It's strange to me that he accidentally sent it to two people vs the mistress. It may still be unintentional but it's less likely to me. Could it be that they decided in the past to stay together until you were an adult and your mom wants to delay the divorce because she hopes to change his mind? Sending the email to you both would force her hand by informing you about the situation in an explosive way that's not easily ignored.

It's magical thinking that someone can say the right words to make the situation okay. The only thing that you might be able to do is to guilt him into staying in a relationship where he's unhappy. That's not fair to anyone. I would talk honestly to him about how you feel and ask questions to understand him. You can make the case for him staying with your mom if you still want to, but you need to understand that if the relationship between your parents is broken you cannot fix it.

suzi_generous

Seven

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I think you should cut your mom some slack. Don't do what she is telling you! But I wouldn't hold what she is doing against her either. Right now she is in free fall and not thinking straight at all.

Again - do not do what she wants. It is not your place to mediate your parent's marriage. They will figure it out on their own. I would recommend you advising your mom to confide in her friends, perhaps start seeing a counselor. Advise her to NOT sign anything from your dad until she has a lawyer look it over.

I'm sorry - but cheaters do not play fair during a divorce anymore then they played fair during their marriage. Protect your mother by insisting she get a lawyer.

Your dad is still your dad. You love him but now it is complicated. This is going to be rough. I hope you take advantage of counseling provided by your university. Learn how to enforce boundaries with both parents.

Understand though, that you are completely justified in your feelings towards your dad. You may eventually want to confront him about this - and that is your right. Don't be guilted into accepting his mistress. Don't be surprised if your dad is angry that you aren't happy for him.

Finally, don't carry your parent's secrets. It will weigh you down and eventually crush you. Tell your g/f. Line up counseling. Confide in your best friends. Take care of yourself. Your world just came crashing down, too. It's ok for you to be sad and mad and relieved all at the same time.

I'm sorry.

abermarm

Eight

Don't listen to your mom here. She's going into damage control mode which is understandable but she's doing things wrong.

First, don't say what she wants about your family. If you say anything to him, say what you feel.

Secondly, tell your friends. Your mom is embarrassed but it's not her fault and nobody is going to think badly of her. And you're going to need your friends' (hopeful) support. Tell them. Talk to them, if they're good friends, about how you feel, because you need to talk to someone and your mom isn't the right person. Good luck man

troggysofa

Nine

Hey just so you know you don't have to do anything about this right now. You don't have to know how you feel, you don't have to know what to do, you don't have to have a confrontation. You will not get this figured out and resolved today. And you don't have to. Take time to feel how you feel without others input and then do what you feel is right when you feel it is right.

dotheSAFETYsplat

Ten

My mom suspects that my dad has been cheating on her. He vehemently denies it. What I have told my mom, and she hundred percent agrees with me, is that I will not get in the middle of it. It is wrong of your mom to ask you to play any role in their marriage or their divorce if it comes to that. You can support your mom emotionally, but remind her that you still love your dad and nothing will change that. I told my mom that if my dad was cheating on her, It is absolutely horrible and reprehensible, but it is a wrong against her, not a wrong against me, and I won't let it change my relationship with either of them. As hard as it will be, don't let yourself get in the middle. Don't condone the behavior, but stay out of it as much as possible.

ProfessorMMcGonagall

Customer Service Clapbacks
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

Customers can be total jerks sometimes, and workers want nothing more than to put those people in their place. From employees who finally stood up for themselves to Karens who got what they deserved, these clap-back stories are sure to give you great karmic satisfaction:

Take A Breath

woman standing on food counterPhoto by Robert Bye on Unsplash

I was working at a coffee shop in a busy downtown area. There was a businessman that was notorious for being awful with our staff. One morning, he came in and ordered a coffee and a cranberry scone. We happened to be out of cranberry scones that day, and when I informed him of this, he flew off the handle and started swearing at me.

But I was NOT going to let him speak to me like that. I looked him square in the eye and said, “You’re a grown man throwing a temper tantrum over a cranberry scone. Sort your life out”. I then calmly turned to the next customer. The next day, he apologized, and was never a problem again.

Just Look!

At a pawn shop, this lady paid me $20, and I gave her change. She flipped out because she knew she'd given me a $100 bill. She screamed, cursed, and called me every name in the book; just lost her mind. The whole time, she was saying she knew she paid with a $100 bill be she'd just put one in her wallet earlier. I asked her repeatedly to just check her wallet to see if the $100 bill was still there or not.

She just kept yelling she didn't need to check because she knew she'd given it to me. Eventually, she checked, and all the anger just blew out of her. She was mortified, the $100 bill was there.

Picture Imperfect

I worked at a photo printing lab, and we got people in all the time who claimed we were stupid and had messed up their pictures. One woman had us print 800 vacation pictures. They were bad quality, dark, and out of focus. When she came to pick them up, she insisted that we had ruined them, that they were perfect in her camera, and that she had a very expensive camera so there was no way the pictures could be dark or out of focus.

We finally gave her money back, even though we had done nothing wrong and were out a lot of time and paper. She called us 30 minutes later and told us she was at a store across town, and they had reprinted all of her pictures and they were beautiful, in focus, and nice and bright. I had to tell her that the same person who owned our store also owned the store across town and that not only would it have taken that store several hours to reprint 800 pictures, but their printer was down that day, so they couldn't have printed anything.

She hung up on me.

A Toilet Situation

woman beside black monitorPhoto by zibik on Unsplash

I had a customer come in to do a return on a toilet seat. He went to the customer service person who told him the store policy, which is that the store doesn't do returns on plastic seats. He told her he just took it out to check it and it's not the right shape, but she just repeated store policy. Since there was no manager around to override it, we couldn't return it.

The customer service person braced herself because she knew it was coming—he was about to have a major adult tantrum. He started raising his voice, berating her. She's super shy and quiet, so she kind of just shut down. The other cashier then said very loudly, "It's dirty, he didn't just take it out. He's a liar". That's when he became overwhelmingly angry. I reached over, pushed her lightly aside, and said, "You're on break, go upstairs". She protested but I repeated myself, and she left. The customer asked what she said.

I replied, "Don't worry about it, I'll handle it later. We aren't doing your return". He started to protest again, but I cut him off. "I don't care. I don't care what you did or what you have to say. We aren't doing your return today. You've got two options: either take your toilet seat home and come back tomorrow and talk to a manager or take your seat and get out of here. Either way, you're leaving here with your seat".

He left after that. From that point on, managers were required to be present at all shifts.

Free For All

I was a server years ago and this woman who’s usually a nice lady comes in. We had messed up her salmon a few days prior, so the manager had given her a free meal card which is good for one single meal. Well, a few days later she comes in with at least fifteen people about an hour before we closed, and they all ordered seafood and steak anorderednks, and her whole party is awful to me and my friend who is another server.

One guest even threw his plate on the ground, breaking it and throwing food all over because his steak was overcooked. After all this, the other server went to take the woman her check. It was a couple of hundred dollars, and she whipped out the free meal card! The server takes it to the register, comps one of the meals off, and comes back with the new total and the woman loses it.

“I have a free meal card! This was one meal for all of us! It should be free!” And the server just stiffens up and politely explains that that isn’t how it works and stresses that she had to have known that she couldn’t have brought fifteen people in here and expected free meals for everyone. The woman stands up and pours her drinks all over my friend and my friend runs to the back to get the manager. My friend kept her calm, but the manager flipped and told the lady to get out and never come back.

That was a crazy night.

Reaching My Limit

When I worked at Subway in high school, there was this guy in his 30s that came in with his wife almost every day. He was awful and talked to you like an idiot. Not because he was in a bad mood either, but because he thought it was funny to be a jerk to kids working fast-food jobs. One day I had enough and took his sandwich I was in the middle of making and spiked it into the garbage can and told him to get out. He told me I couldn't talk to customers that way and I told him "I just did".

He called the owner and dropped my name, and she told him that if I blew up on him like that it was probably deserved, and she asked him to not return. I for sure thought I was fired. Lucky for me, the owner knew exactly what customer she was talking to, knew me well enough to know it take well lot to get me irritated, and knew that I wouldn't do something like that for no reason.

Full Of Gas

a person holding a drillPhoto by Jesse Donoghoe on Unsplash

I was working at a gas station in a very rich part of town. During a nice summer day, a prime example of the douchebag variety of the human species drove his super-expensive Lamborghini in, and in that haughty, I'm-rich-so-you-must-do-what-I-say voice, demanded that it be filled with premium. The attendant started to do so, only the guy immediately snatched the nozzle from him and screamed "You're too stupid to do this on your own".

We're in Oregon, where you can't pump your own gas because of state flaws. Well, being that he's an idiot, gas spills out from the nozzle all over his sparkly jerk mobile. At this point, he truly flips out, and storms into the store, where I'm working as the cashier and de facto manager. He immediately demands to speak to the owner, and that we are going to pay to have his car repainted AND he's not going to be paying for his gas.

I try my best to calm the situation, but he's got a good rage going and doesn't want to be calmed down. While he's spewing forth, I notice that an officer from the local department is about to come into the store to get snacks, a drink, or some such. s gives me a nice idea: "Sir, I'm afraid that the gas is in your tank, and you pumped it yourself, so you are going to have to pay".

He exploded. He asks, exactly, do you think you can do if I just go and get in my car and leave?" Thank you, good Lord, for your timing. He says this, at full bellow, right as the officer walks through the door. My response? "Well, I can't do much ice West Linn Officer standing behind you will probably take you in for second-degree theft".

This second-degree and to see the officer, who has a very evil-looking smile on his face, nodding vigorously. Yeah, he shut up, paid, and we never saw him again.

The Slimy Sandwich

I worked at a sandwich place for a year or so. I was making this dude a hot chicken sandwich; I brought the sandwich up to the front and tried to hand it to him. Then, he just looks at me for a second then proceeds to scream and swear at me for spitting in his sandwich. I didn't spit in his food and told him this over and over. The dude was yelling at me for probably five minutes.

I was patient with him and gave him a new sandwich made by a different employee and refunded his order is dude decided that he wanted to be a jerk, so he hung around the store telling customers I was going to spit in their food and swearing a ton. I waited for my manager to step forward and kick the guy out, but he was just pretending nothing was going on.

Finally, as I was making food for this family with young kids, who were uncomfortable, I lost it. I slammed down the knife I was using, startling everyone because I had been so respectful to this guy for so long and screamed "We are a family-friendly establish family-friendly quit being a jerk and get out of this store!"

For whatever reason, that worked, and he left while swearing at me. I apologized to the family for the guy, and my swearing at him. I nearly lost my job from that and got a long lecture from my boss about how the customer is always right and that I need to be respectful. Luckily my manager vouched for me, saying that I was extremely respectful until the guy started making other customers uncomfortable.

Where’s The Manager?

I was a manager of a CVS, and during an extremely busy time of the day, I opened the Photo Lab register to help the regular cashiers keep the lines down. I announced that I was open, and the nearest customer happily took her merchandise to my register. Then, the second nearest customer started loudly saying that she was first, and it was her turn. I said she will be the next after I take care of this customer.

When it was her turn, she started going off on me that it was rude of me to not help her...blah blah blah. I ignored her as much as possible. She kept going on and on until I said, "Lady, I opened this register as a favor so the wait time would be shorter. If you would rather wait in one of the regular register lines, you are more than welcome". She was shocked that I talked back to her.

She found one of the employees who was stocking a shelf in the candy aisle and demanded that she speak to a manager. That employee called for a manager over the intercom, and I happily walked over to the candy aisle to see her waiting for a manager. With a big smile on my face, I let her know I was the manager on duty. She walked out of the store without saying a word...

I was off work like an hour later, but apparently, she sent her husband in looking for me, but I was at home by then. They complained to corporate. I was only told to not take my job so personally, and that was it.

Do You Know Who I Am?!

man in white crew neck t-shirtPhoto by engin akyurt on Unsplash

My folks used to own a Tastee Freez in South Carolina and I worked in it most summers as a teenager. Since it was a small town, everyone knew each other and most went to the same church. One Sunday night, one of the ladies from the church called in at about five minutes after ten and tried to order a 20-piece chicken nugget, even calling them McNuggets.

When I informed her that we closed at ten and the grill and fryers were already cleaned and closed for the night, she got irate with me and started yelling in my ear about how she knew the owners of the place and she was going to get me fired and did she know who I was talking to. I calmly replied that yes, Mrs. Greene, I knew exactly who I was talking to, since my parents and I lived right across the street from her, and she had asked us in church that morning what time we closed for the night.

We were never on speaking terms again.

How Dare You!

I worked at a Walgreen's photo lab, and it was my first job. There was a nice lady that used to come by every now and then to have her pictures developed, and whenever they came out, we would chat about them because I thought they were great. One day while we were talking, another customer arrived. When I asked her how I could help her, she started yelling at me because she didn't like the way her photos came out.

She threw them on the counter and was angry with me and wanted to speak to my manager. I called for my manager, and she came over and tried to calm the angry lady down. The angry lady started pointing at me and said that I messed up her photos, and blah, blah, blah, threats, better business bureau, yak, yak, yak. I didn't know what to tell her other than I'm sorry and that I didn't know what was wrong.

I told her I processed them like I was supposed to and that most of the work was done by the machine, to which she immediately replied, "Then what good are you?" Suddenly, the nice lady with the cool pictures pipes up in this authoritative tone, "How dare you? How dare you say that to him and accuse him of ruining your pictures? He already said he was sorry. Do you realize that what you said is going to cost him his job? shame on you".

The angry lady just got quiet, realized how she was acting and left. I thanked the nice lady, and it made me tear up a bit afterward.

Whopping Problem

During high school, I worked at a Burger King. There was one woman who would always come into the drive-thru during the afternoon and ask for a Whopper Jr. with extra onions. And I mean, a LOT of extra onions. And no matter how many we put in, she always came into the store and complained that there weren't enough. This happened in the middle of the afternoon most of the time, so we didn't care.

However, one day, we had four buses full of US Army enlistees at the store at the same time. Convoys of chartered buses would go by periodically, and they usually stopped at our store because the bus drivers knew my boss. Now, these people were always the nicest, most respectful people you can imagine, which was a welcome change after dealing with jerks the whole day.

They also always ordered a ton of food—all king size, tons of double and triple whoppers, the whole nine yards. My boss would always have me give them the "senior discount" (15% off), and they enjoyed that immensely because it said that they were getting a senior discount on their receipts. Anyway, as nice as they were, they strained our store to the limit because they ordered so much food—and things spiraled quick.

So, we were almost literally going hammer and tongs to keep up, and that's when the onion woman came into the drive-thru. My boss told me to just grab two handfuls of onions and put them on the sandwich because she didn't need a scene when we were as far behind as we were. I could barely close the sandwich because of the onions, but I managed it, and we gave it to her.

Now remember, the store was full of US Army enlistees. They probably had not had fast food for weeks. And the line was out the door. So, the woman came in and pushed her way past all of the people to scream over the counter that she didn't have enough onions. My boss was mad, so she took the sandwich, handed it to me, and told me to do whatever the heck I wanted with it.

I dumped the entire tub of onions on this sandwich, wrapped it up tight, and taped it shut. My boss then handed it to the woman, and she opened it right on the counter to "make sure there were enough", even though the burger was like six times bigger than normal. Then, the best thing that could have happened, happened—the thing exploded all over the place. So, freaking awesome. All the enlistees were trying not to laugh. One of their officers was waiting by the counter for his food, and finally, he just gave up and started laughing his face off.

The others took this as a cue, and she had about 250 of these guys all laughing at her. It was one of the best days of my high school life. She didn't come back for a month, and she never ever complained about not having enough onions ever again.

I’m The Most Important

man in red and white button up shirtPhoto by Afif Ramdhasuma on Unsplash

I only ever lost it on a customer once when I was working at an office supply store. The customer was one of those self-important money-pusher types. He came in during the lunch rush on a day when we were shorthanded. He wanted to buy a phone. I normally would have helped him, but I was stuck on the register. Even so, I did everything I could to help this guy anyway.

When I was finally able to focus on him exclusively, he launched into a lecture along the lines of how he specifically was the most important person in the store. And I lost it. I barely remember what I said to the guy. I know I tried to walk away first, but he pushed it. I ended up tearing into him so badly that he basically ran from the store, and the assistant manager on duty was too stunned to do anything about the incident.

Swapping The Toppings

When I worked at a sandwich shop, I got assigned to train a new girl, who was shadowing me at my register. A big woman comes in with two other gentlemen and orders a croissant sandwich with no tomatoes, or "sub" avocado. I proceeded to explain to her that I couldn't do that, as tomatoes and avocados are not equivalent. Before I even get that far she interrupts me, starts to mock the way I was talking to her, and tells me that they've done it for her before.

I stood my ground and told her regardless of if someone else had done it before, I wasn't going to because that's now how it works. She gets super angry and says some stuff to me, then looks at my trainee and says, "Don't learn from her, Cynthia, she's a bad one". She then struggled to pay with her card because she was broke apparently, and she gave me lip when I said her card was declined.

When she walked away, the two gentlemen she was with came up to me and apologized. I was so checked out, I just said, You're the one who must deal with her every day, not me".

An Explosive Day

I had already put my two weeks in at the gas station when a woman comes with a van and tries to pump gas with the vehicle running. I told her over the intercom to shut the engine off. She started to argue with me over the intercom, and I just turned it off to deal with the small lineup inside. She comes inside and starts arguing with me. I calmly told her the rules are for safety, and if she wants to fuel while the engine is on, she can try another gas station.

She starts screaming telling me I'm just being a jerk to ruin her day. I just snapped in front of everybody and yelled back, "Oh really!!? am I in your place of business harassing you for following the rules so people don't explode??!" To which all the other customers laughed. She kept arguing back, so I said fine, go fill your tank. As soon as she was outside, I locked the doors.

I told the customers they could leave if they wished by pushing the black handle, and nobody did until the irate customer sped off.

A Stressful Sunday

woman in black and white striped long sleeve shirtPhoto by Julien L on Unsplash

I didn’t explode, but a customer screamed at me in front of the entire restaurant. She ordered breakfast for her family on a Sunday, and we told her there would be a 45-minute wait for such a huge order to go. She came 10 minutes later, furious we didn’t have it ready yet. She was so angry that this was causing her to miss church. She ended up leaving after calling me a string of names, without the food. Then came the most unexpected turn of events...

She came back later, hugged me, told me she was sorry, and said something along the lines of having a sick child. I don't know. I block bad stuff at work out of my head, but the hypocrisy still cries out in my brain from time to time.

The Noise Of The City

I work at a hotel, and at around 10:30-ish, a woman called down very upset because of a noise coming from outside. The hotel is downtown, and it was Saturday night. People were partying. Anyway, she told me to fix it immediately, and I informed her that the noise ordinance for our city as far as private residences go does not kick in until midnight, so I couldn't do anything until then as far as reporting it goes.

I offer to move her to a different room on another side of the hotel, away from the noise source. She refuses, saying it was late. She then demands that I come up with another solution. I tell her there isn't one. I tell her I can call someone, but they won't do anything until at least midnight, probably later. I again tell her that we have other rooms in a quieter area of the hotel, but she begins to shout that she doesn't want to move and just wants me to make them quiet.

This is when I flipped. I didn't yell at her, but I said something along the lines of "Ma'am, I have offered you the only solution I have to this problem, and you have refused it twice. At this point, I can't do anything to help you". She blew up and threatened to call our corporate office, and I told her she was welcome to do that, that I looked forward to speaking with them, and gave her my name. Then, I hung up on her.

I Have My Arms Full

I work in an anime store in the mall. One of the things we have is a wall of Funko Pops. This guy brought up like 10 to the register and was just being ridiculously impatient the entire time. Our cash register is a little more than a calculator, so punching in each thing can take some time. Before I even hand him his receipt, he shouted: “Can I get a bag?!?”, so I said we don’t have any.

Watching him waddle out of the store with 10 pops stacked high made me feel better.

The Worst Last Day

a woman in a white dress is looking at a shelf of foodPhoto by Rey Joson on Unsplash

It was my last day working in a common retail chain. 20 minutes before my shift ended, I was helping a middle-aged woman do a return and exchange with coupons. She was getting agitated, because our coupon policies are very strict, and she was giving me attitude. I looked her straight in the eye and took a deep sigh, “This is my last day, I’m supposed to leave in five minutes” without smiling. She immediately became quiet and was way more cooperative.

One Step At A Time

I worked for a one-hour-photo at a CVS-style store. We would take overflow at our register if the lines got too long. A lady comes up with a cart full of stuff and a large fistful of coupons. Whatever, I ring her up and process the coupons. The total is something over 100 dollars, something like $122.35. She gets mad, saying I messed up big time—but she was the one who messed up,because she tried messing with ME.

After a little back and forth, I void the whole transaction and start again. After every item, “This cat food rang at .89 is that okay?” After every coupon, “You can see $1.00 came off Ma’am, is that correct?” This must have taken 15 minutes. At the end, “as you can see the total is $122.35”. She was furious but couldn’t say anything. It was glorious. I am 37 now, have a child, and 1-hour photos don’t exist, but I still think of my triumph.

Tell It Like It Is

I stopped to get gas today, and while talking with the cashier, I mentioned that she was probably tired of people yelling at her about the price of gas—but since she is the one standing there, she probably gets it a lot. She said that every day, someone complains to her like she can do something about it. A guy then came in and demanded "Why the heck is gas $3.76 a gallon?”

Without missing a beat, she said, "Because it went down 10 cents this morning". He just looked at her, paid, and left.

I Can Help With That

person holding black handled scissorsPhoto by Tá Focando on Unsplash

I used to work at a video store, and after a while, I got desensitized to people throwing little hissy fits about late fees. One day, a gentleman tried to rent a movie and I had to let him know he had accumulated some late fees on his account. Cue the standard rant about having returned them on time, blah blah blah, "...and I'm just going to cut up my membership card when I get home!!" I reached under the counter, grabbed a pair of scissors, held them out to him, and said "Well, you can do that here if you like". He gave me a venomous look and left the store in a huff. And it felt so good.

Do You Know What You’re Doing?

I’ve worked in a hardware store since I was 16. When I was about 17, I cut two keys for a guy. I’d been cutting keys for a while, and so had the hang of it. I was told that he returned when I wasn’t there, told my colleagues that the keys didn’t work, shouted that I was a stupid little girl that didn’t know what she was doing, I shouldn’t be allowed to cut keys, etc.

My colleague was already mad but looked at the keys to see what the problem was. He had been trying the keys in the wrong locks. As in key A in lock B and key B in lock A. He left with his tail between his legs and has not returned since. As a young blonde girl, I regularly get stuff like this. Proving them that I am far more clued up than they think I am always satisfying, though.

Well, Go Ahead!

I used to work at CVS. One day, I had a customer who was incessantly complaining about how the toothpaste he was buying was a lot cheaper at Walmart. He even pulled out his phone and showed me a chart that compared the prices of it at different stores. I didn't get worked up or anything really. Instead, I retaliated in the best way that I know how—I just acted very uninterested and said, "Go to Walmart, then".

Make Me

a man sitting in the back of a yellow truckPhoto by Documerica on Unsplash

I remember I was probably 17 or 18 working at Whataburger in Austin. I worked early and late hours. I remember this one time very specifically, the customer had come to the window, and I politely asked him to move forward. There was one car behind him, and I was just trying to give the guy his drinks. The customer then yelled at me, telling me the only way he would move is if I made him move, and told me I wasn’t anybody to tell him what to do.

During his yelling, he pointed at me, and I just slammed the window shut in his face. My managers came to me asking what was wrong, and I explained and begged them to handle the customer. I then realized, when I turned to hand him his food, that the window was cracked, and he heard everything. He threatened me, saying if I ever slammed the window in his face again, he’d “beat me up”. This dude was like 30, by the way.

Before he could finish his sentence, I slammed the window again and ran outside. He drove off and threw his food out the window. I didn’t get fired, I just got moved to cook.

This Is Bananas

I was a grocery store cashier in high school. I had a dad and his toddler son come through my lane one afternoon. They racked up $302 in groceries and only had a $300 EBT voucher, so the dad proceeds to tell his son that “this man says you can’t take the bananas with you today”. Annoyed, I decided this is a point I’m not budging on at 16 and tell him that’s not the case and to not lie to his son, that perhaps another item could be left behind so the son could have these bananas.

The man explodes at me, and my manager tells me I must apologize to the man or be fired. Instead, I walked out and never looked back.

Big Red Flag

When I was in high school, I worked at Sears. If you were under 18, the name on your name tag was highlighted in red. It was around Christmas and some dudes, both at least 30 years old, started hitting on me. I politely told them no and tried to walk away. One grabbed my arm, so I said loud enough for people to hear, “If you don’t get your hands off of me right now, I’m calling security”.

Then they said they’ll tell my manager I was being “an absolute jerk”, and I said “Yeah, and I’ll tell security you’re being a pedophile. I’m 16, back off!” They ran out of the store before security could get there.

You’re Kinda Slow

blue shopping cart on street during daytimePhoto by Eduardo Soares on Unsplash

I’m a manager at a grocery store. I was checking people out because we were busy, and a dude wearing a Dallas Cowboys jersey comes through my line. He didn’t have a whole lot, but he paid with both dollar bills and loose change, so it took a bit to count it because I don’t trust people. He gets angry, asks me if I’m stupid or something, and insists he could have done better. From that point on, it was no more "Mister Nice Guy" from me.

He had been quiet though, because there were other people in line. So, I loudly asked him if he talks to everyone like that or just people that can’t fight back. He got quiet and left.

Conversion Conundrums

I worked at the Manchester, NH airport, at a car rental place. Twice a week, we'd have someone come in with a reservation for a car in England. I had one guy demand that we honor the reservation's pound cost, not the dollar cost. I said I'd honor the equivalent, pulled up a dollar-to-pound chart, and converted on the spot. It would've cost him $20/day more than just taking our no-reservation price.

Another customer with the same issue said "I thought the dollar sign looked funny, but I figured that was just a website bug or something. Never seen a dollar sign look like that".

That Thing From High School

I worked at a drugstore in high school. I had a German couple check out at my register, and they were incredibly rude. They were complaining in German about the customers behind them in line, using vulgar language and whatnot. I wasn't moving fast enough for their liking, and the woman called me some curse words in German, obviously not aware that that was the impractical language that I took in high school.

When I finished their order, I stared her in the eye and said thank you in her native tongue, and they both looked shocked and embarrassed. It felt good, man.

Your Job, Not Mine

person holding white rabbit figurinePhoto by Bianca Ackermann on Unsplash

I worked for Dollar Tree, and we sold a lot of porcelain figurines that we would have to wrap up in several layers of wrapping paper so they wouldn't break. After a year or so working there, I became accustomed to the majority of customers wanting to do the wrapping themselves because it made them feel assured that if they did the wrapping, their product wouldn't break.

I would casually and kindly ask the customer beforehand what their preference was, and it never became a big deal until one guy who drove a brand new Porsche flipped out over the simple question and told me he was too good to do that kind of thing and that I am the one with the job so I should be doing it for him. The words were harsher, but it was so long ago that I can't remember them that well.

I finally got fed up. I wrapped them and told him to get out. The manager and customers didn't say anything and went back to their business.

Lost And Found

I’m a cart pusher at a large grocery store in the US. I was sweeping the sidewalk by the entrance to the store when I see an old woman drive her car onto the sidewalk by the door, very close to me and other people walking. She then opened her window and threw a bunch of trash out of it. I walked over, swept it up into the dustpan, put it in her window, emptied it, and said, "Excuse me, ma'am, you dropped this". She had such a confused look on her face!

Less Than Perfect

I used to work as a croupier at clubs, and during a shift change, my colleague accidentally made a wrong payment to a paying customer. Gamblers being what they are, the complaints that ensued were awkward. and no matter how much my colleague said he was sorry, the customer kept on complaining. Finally, I just had to take over the situation. I gave the customer a piece of my mind: "Sir, people make mistakes, we are not robots. If you want to play with machines, there are slot machines in the other bar".

He shut up and the other players seemed relieved.

The Mess At The Pool

white and blue swimming poolPhoto by Nick Shandra on Unsplash

I worked as a lifeguard for my first "real" job. One night, at the indoor water park, a child came up to me. He asked me very quickly where the bathroom was, I pointed him in the right direction and he quickly said, "No, I need one closer!" I swore in my head as he pooped himself in front of me, all of it running down his leg. I radioed him into first aid, and we took him in and paged his parents.

Eventually, his dad came in, and we chit-chatted about his son, no big deal. It happens more often than you think. His dad told us to change and clean him, me and my manager refused. The dad was furious and yelled why not. We told him he was not our son. That shut him up.

Going On And On

I used to work in the main office of a large chain of furniture stores in the UK. I worked in the evenings, phoning customers to let them know their furniture was in and arrange a delivery date. One night I phoned and asked for Mr. or Mrs. McSomethingOrOther. The guy on the phone starts ranting to me about people phoning up his elderly parents trying to sell things.

He went on and on and on and wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise. I think he may have even used the toilet while he was ranting at me. When he finally wound down, I said "Are you finished now sir? I'm phoning to arrange a delivery date for your parents' new 3-piece suite". Yup, that shut him up completely.

Fix My Order!

I work at McDonald’s, and one morning this older guy who’s a regular at the place and was known to give the workers a hard time was trying to order breakfast. He said he wanted eight extra sauces with his food. I told him that it will cost extra because it’s store policy and he got a bit agitated; he then tried ordering coffee, and he kept on confusing me saying he wanted this amount of condiments inside and this amount outside, and other special requests for his coffee.

I also couldn’t really hear him the whole time, so I just punch in everything on the register that I think he was trying to tell me, and when I finally repeat his order, he had a look of sheer anger on his face, raised his voice, and told me I have his whole order wrong. I told him I can change it no problem, but he just proceeded to yell names at me, telling me I didn’t know how to do my job, and said “Forget you, I’ll go with the other cashier”.

By now he had caused a scene, and everyone was staring at me. It was truly awkward, and I was angry at the guy because I just tried to help him with his order, and soon after when he got his food he seemed like he had calmed down and tried to shake my hand and say sorry, but I slapped his hand away, shrugged and told him something like “nah bro, you gave me a hard time, try doing something like that again, and I’ll tell everyone to not give you service ever again”

He didn’t say a word and just left.

The Express Lane

person holding green leaf vegetablePhoto by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Man came to my express line with a basket full of groceries, when you’re only supposed to have one to fifteen. I asked him to count his items because I’m sorry, this is an express line... He responded with “That’s okay. You can count them”. I was a fast cashier. People have better places to be than my grocery line...I could run up to 25 to 30 items a minute with 100% accuracy. No way was I gonna let this smug jerk get away with his antics.

You better believe I went as slow as possible to run up this guy's order. I took three to five seconds per item, as he got progressively redder and redder... I finished the order with “It’s unfortunate how many people you’ve held up in the line sir. Have a fantastic day”. He called me names and stormed off. I apologized to every customer in the line for the wait and got them out in record time.

It was a small victory, but it was my victory. Every other customer wore nothing but a smile on their face for me at that glorious moment.

I Know I’m Right

Working at a bank's customer service center, a customer called in insisting he was shorted 200.00 dollars cash. Our department took calls like this very seriously, so I sided with the man who was certain a teller had pocketed it. He had his deposit ticket, which showed the amount, and when I looked at the amount deposited. It was a $200.00 difference.

Our bank scans all incoming and outgoing paperwork and found that he was reading the wrong amount, despite my questioning him from the get-go that we were looking at the same numbers on the same forms. He got stern and he got mad, saying his check was for $XXX.XX dollars and we didn't give it to him, we were taking it. I pulled up the check, pulled up the tickets, and explained what was what.

Faced with the evidence and my acting like a non-jerk he took it all in and said: "I know I'm right; I know she stole my money, but you know what... I don't want to get anyone in trouble, I'll let it slide". and hung up.

Help-Desk Horror

Many years ago, I worked in a call center as a technical supervisor for a major PC vendor. When you asked for a supervisor, I was one of the people you got. One night, I was transferred a call from a customer that was having an issue where his PC would not boot, and he did not want to open his case to see if a card had come loose or to reseat any components. This was part of standard over-the-phone troubleshooting.

He argues for a while that his warranty covered a technician coming to his house to fix the problem. I explained it did... Once we diagnosed the issue and that would require looking inside the PC. He again stated he couldn’t because he did not have a screwdriver. After going back and forth for a while, he demanded that I show him where in his warranty book it said he needed to have a screwdriver.

I opened up a copy of his warranty on my PC and searched for the section that explained our troubleshooting policy and said, "Sir please turn to page 32 in your warranty guide. Are you there? Great. Please look at paragraph two line three. There, it states that you need to follow all the suggestions of the phone-based help desk before a technician can be dispatched". He quickly responded, "That doesn't say anything about a screwdriver!" I responded, "Sir, I suggest you get a screwdriver".

A Data Disturbance

man in red sweater holding gold iphone 6Photo by Nimi Diffa on Unsplash

I work for a cellular company, and one day, a guy comes in with his child complaining the service is shut down. I call in and am informed their bill is 20,000 dollars due to a month of constant data usage on a smartphone with no data package. I ask about this and turns out the family put the 17-year-old on the account with full access to avoid having to go into stores when he needed a new phone.

The kid was a jerk that broke cheap pay and talk ones constantly. Well one day, he bought the smartphone and put it on. He was warned that any data usage would be charged $30 per MB of usage so he should never use it. He denies having been told this and denies he was using the data. The father is yelling at me, saying his son never lies.

I grab the phone, open the browser, and under history, it shows he'd surfed right up until thirty minutes before coming to the store. I show the father, and he completely explodes at his son. End of the story, we knocked off 18 thousand dollars, and he's probably still paying a two-thousand-dollar bill.

My Undercover Boss

I was working in food service at a cash register. A customer came up and placed an order, so I rang it up, but she wasn't happy with how much it cost. She threw us off guard with her reaction—she started whining and being just awful. My co-worker came up and stood next to me, looked over what I did, and just kind of stood there polishing a counter. She squawked, "Get me your manager!" I say, "Ok sure, but ma'am, this is the correct price".

The co-worker standing next to me is the manager. He looks at the woman and goes "Yup” and continues polishing the counter. "buh...wha...uh...ok fine!" shouts the woman. She walks away. The two of us cracked up laughing.

A Sudden Snap

When I was 15, I worked as a secretary for a local doctor. This one guy comes into the clinic and tries to go inside the doctor's office out of his turn. I step in and tell him that he's next in turn. The guy waits by the door for about 10 more minutes, while mumbling curses to himself and side-eyeing me. I just sit there, look at him, wait for the door to open, go inside, and tell the doctor that that guy just stood there and cursed at me for 10 minutes.

The doctor says ok, and when they go in, I closed the door behind me and went to my desk. A minute later I hear shouts from inside. A few minutes go by, and the fragile, old, nice, neighborhood doctor is screaming like I couldn't even imagine. The door opens, and the guy leaves. The doctor comes out and tells me with his gentle voice, "I told him this is unacceptable behavior, and that he is no longer welcome here". He turns back to his office and never speaks about it again.

Do You Even English?

white and brown labeled boxesPhoto by Eduardo Soares on Unsplash

This guy came in and was buying a two-liter bottle of soda. As I'm ringing him up, he asks for a bag. I say, “okay dokie”, and continue to finish the part of the transaction I was currently working on. He asks for a bag again, I figure he didn't hear me the first time, so I say it again, a little bit louder, but continue to finish the transaction first.

When he asks for a bag the third time, I straight up say okay while looking at him right in the face. He asks me what okay dokie means and if I speak English. Being that I'm like, seventh generation American, and white as freshly fallen snow I'm genuinely surprised that this dude has never heard the phrase okie dokie and proceed to tell him that yes, I speak English and that “Okie dokie” is slang.

At that point, he starts throwing coins to pay for this bottle of soda off the counter directly at me and I just snap. I void the transaction, remove his soda from my register, and tell him that I'm refusing him service. The dude pushes back a little bit but surprisingly doesn't demand my manager and eventually just leaves.

Tension At The Theater

It was Christmas at the movie theater. Doesn't matter how many people you have scheduled for Christmas. Doesn't matter if everyone shows up. You're still shorthanded. Usually, one person would work the counter and the other would get the food ready. So, you've got two people per register. I'm one of the more senior people working that day outside of management, most of whom are currently helping to clean the theaters so we can admit the huge crowds in time.

This meant that when something came up in the back that threatened to delay the making of popcorn, I had to go take care of it. A co-worker tapped me on the shoulder, and informed me of the issue, I went to go to the back and some guy standing in line yelled out "Don't leave the register! It's slow enough as it is and I'm hungry!"

I'm told that I turned red, and started shaking from anger as I yelled at this guy about how I understood much better than him what it's like to be hungry since I hadn't eaten all day so I could serve him and everyone else, about how I understood what it takes to make this place run efficiently better than he does since I'd been doing it for two years, and how if he wanted me to come back as quickly as possible, then I had to be allowed to do my job. If he didn't want me to do my job, then he could either leave or take my place.

I don't remember that, though. I just remember the crowd going quiet, me punching the coconut oil box open so they could hook it up, and then a manager making me take a 30-minute break. My hand hurt for a couple of days, but it was fine

It’s All The Same?

I worked in customer service for a company called Future Shop, which is Canada's equivalent and daughter company to Best Buy. I remember one time some guy making a huge fuss about his future shop credit card bill, which was through HSBC Bank at the time, and because of that, I couldn't help him in-store. This man got so mad at me that he threatened to never shop at Future Shop again, and that he was going to Best Buy.

I giggled inside, then told him that we were the same company. He didn't believe me and told me to prove it, so I grabbed my pay stub and showed him the "Best Buy Canada" envelope. He stormed out of the store pretty fast.

Learning The ABCs

brown wooden table with black rolling chairsPhoto by Lucía Garó on Unsplash

When I worked in the media section, I spent most of the day stocking CDs/DVDs and finding them for customers. So, this lady comes over to me, getting in my face about how ridiculous it is that we don't alphabetize our selection. A little confused, I assure her that everything is in alphabetical order and offer to find it for her.

At this point, I wasn't planning on rubbing it in, but then she mumbles something under her breath about how dumb we are and wishes me luck. I sang the alphabet song while gesturing to the appropriate letters until I got to what she was looking for, in exactly the place it was supposed to be. Her only response was "Oh..."

A Horrifying Encounter

When I was like sixteen, I worked at a local haunted house, which, mind you, was a sweet gig, and would have been hard to get if the manager wasn't my good friend. Anyway, one night we were going through the usual show, and I played an "Escaped Experiment" character, kind of like Igor, all short and hunchbacked, whose job it was to jump out and scare the tourists as soon as they walked through the entrance. I even had a blood pack in my mouth.

One day, this group of typical dudes walk in and they're making noise and ruining the atmosphere, but nonetheless, I jump out and give the typical scream. Their response was totally appalling—one of those guys kicks me right in my face.

I stumble back a bit and manage to retain character. Meanwhile, this jerk is still laughing his dumb face off and kicking at me. Remembering that I have a blood pack in my mouth, I grab his leg, put it in my mouth, and bite just hard enough to break the blood pack. Fake blood goes everywhere. He starts crying because he thinks he's seriously bleeding, and is all, "Dude, what the heck?!"

My manager, who was also the tour guide of the attraction, quickly replied, "Oh, don't worry, he's had all his shots".

Extra, Extra, Extra

I used to work in a deli restaurant, and this lady came in and rudely ordered her food. I told her that everything should come out all right, and that I will double check for her to make sure her order would be correct. She insisted on getting LOTS of honey mustard on her sandwich. I typed in extra honey mustard on the ticket. Sure enough, her order came out and there seemed to be plenty of honey mustard there.

But when I deliver it, she complains to me about not having the extra about mustard I promised her and told me to "get a to more honey mustard" for her. I go to the back of the store, get an entire new gallon jug of honey mustard, and plop it on her table. Her friends were laughing, and she was steaming mad. She complained to the manager, who thought it was hilarious and laughed in her face.

Trouble With Tires

a garage filled with lots of tires and tiresPhoto by Vinicius "amnx" Amano on Unsplash

I was super busy trying to run the shop and the counter; I had already sold 14 sets of tires, not including the odd individual tires, and this older guy came up and demanded I go get him a tire. He told me the size, and I told him it'd have to be ordered. We don't carry 13" tires on hand. He blew up and started calling me insults I hadn’t heard since grade school.

I told him to leave my shop, but he got in my face and raised his hand to hit me. That’s when I lost it, dragged the old man off the property, and called the authorities on him. The next day, this dude comes back in with glasses and a hat and asks politely to order the tire. I called the authorities again and have him taken in for trespassing.

Do The Shoes Fit?

When I was in high school, I worked at a shoe store. We did this "buy one get one half off" sale all the time. The way it works is you buy a more expensive pair, and you get the cheaper of the two half-off, otherwise, we'd lose money. So, this woman comes in and buys two pair of kids' shoes. She looks at the receipt and thinks that 50 dollars is too much for her smaller child.

So, she returns them. She then proceeds to flip out because the difference for the other pair came out of the refund. I called the manager, and he came up, and she said, "he's a foster kid. He's not worth a 50-dollar pair of shoes, stop trying to rob me and give me my money". The manager refunded her the entire bill, took both pairs of shoes, and walked off.

We all gave her the silent treatment until she left, angrily. I feel bad for both the children and her husband who were just standing there quietly.

Man lying on edge of tennis court OR man falling off edge of structure
Martin Sanchez/Usplash

Life can be viewed as a series of moments in quick succession each influenced by a preceding event.

At any given time, things can go awry, but somehow things manage to fall in line much like an elaborate maze of dominos.

But one misplaced domino can cause the whole rigorous set-up to come to an unsatisfying end–unless the faulty piece is corrected just in time before the domino in front of it squarely taps it.

If you've been lucky, a last-minute decision in your life has been properly adjusted to avoid catastrophe.

Curious to hear about close-call situations from strangers online, Redditor True_Egg_5685e_Egg_5685 asked:

"What split second decision have you made in your life, that if you hadn't made it you would have died?"

Life can be treacherous in the fast lane.

Unwarranted Lane Change

"Driving 80 miles per hour on a lonely interstate in the middle of the night. Decided to change lanes for no reason, and ended up missing a crumpled car in the middle of the lane I just left. It looked like a professionally crushed car that had fallen off of a truck. No light lenses or reflectors."

– Upper-Job5130

Unseen Obstacle

"I was driving through Dallas on I-20 at like 2am once and had a similar experience. No other cars, just me doing 80mph, and I just absentmindedly changed from the middle to the right lane for no real reason. Suddenly there's a blacked out sedan just parked in the middle lane, no lights on and no people in sight. I thought I was hallucinating, it happened so fast."

– glum_hedgehog

Why Coffee Is Essential

"Fell asleep at the wheel, woke up and corrected my steering without panicking."

"Drowsy driving is just as dangerous as drunk driving. Never again !"

– Nielas_Aran_76

T"his happened to me when I was in my late teens. I was burning both ends of the stick and was driving home from working and falling asleep. I remember it so clearly. Nodding off, waking and being thankful I didn't crash and then nodding right back off again. I'm amazed I didn't kill myself. I did eventually hit a divider and popped two tires. I must've been going very fast. I don't know why I'm not dead."

– boringcranberry

You never know when a pedestrian is where they shouldn't be. Or when a car is traveling where it shouldn't.

Wayward Wanderer

"I'm from Northern Ireland and my brother and I were coming home from a night out, he was the designated driver. We were doing 70mph on the motorway and he moved into the fast lane and missed a guy walking on the motorway, dressed in black, by about a foot. So scary 😰."

– garymason74

Reckless Driver

"Grabbing a middle schooler's backpack as she was about to cross without looking and staying on the sidewalk instead of crossing the road. (I was in high school at the time)"

"The reason?"

"The red car that had almost ran me over a few weeks before was barrelling down the street at high speed."

"Car zooms past at the moment the kid and myself would have been in the middle of the road."

"Same driver. I recognized the shade of blonde hair."

– MerryMelody-Symphony

These people survived a terrorist attack.

At The Time Of Signing

"Was in a bombing. Knelt down to sign something when the detonation happened. Glass shards were a hair away from killing me. The person who gave me the paper to sign technically saved me, they’re fine too."

– PinkBedazzledLeotard

"Story time! My grandfathers family lived in Halifax at the time. My great uncle George was a newborn. They had him in his pram facing the window. For some reason my aunt went in and turned his pram around so it wasn't facing the window anymore, then she left the room. As she was leaving the room, the windows blew in. If she hadn't turned the pram he would have been shredded by glass."

– Lexifer31

These individuals continue counting their blessings.

Retrieving A Forgotten Item

"I went to ride my bike and almost forgot my helmet, I honestly debated grabbing it since I was only planning on doing a few miles; last minute I decided I might as well have it and then half a mile out I got hit by a car. Helmet was busted as hell but other than a concussion I was fine"

– SunfireElfAmaya

Narrow Missssssss

"Nowhere near as extreme as some of these, but I used to go for walks in a nature park right behind my neighborhood, usually with headphones. On one such walk, I happened to look down to see the foot I was currently stepping with was about 6 inches from coming down on a diamondback rattlesnake. It was arched back, ready to strike, rattle going, but I couldn't hear it over my music. Leapt back immediately and walked around it without issue, but holy crap, it gets my heart going just thinking about it."

– pownij

Life-Saving Maneuver

"I was caught in a bar brawl. Tumbled to the bottom of a crowd and was pressed to the floor when some psycho was on my back choking me. Couldn't move and couldn't breathe. I thought that was it. I was gonna die on the floor of a New Jersey nightclub. Suddenly I remembered a move my wrestling coach taught us to break grips. I found his thumb, folded it like a fist and squeezed as hard as I could. It cracked like a stick. I could hear him scream in my ear and he hopped off. I pushed up and swung my way out. I was choked so hard that both of my eyes were full blood red, no whites and I cracked a molar. That was a close one and who knows what would have happened if I didn't recall that one random move or if I never wrestled to begin with. Scary."

– Ghostface5000

A moment that still sends shivers down my spine was when I nearly avoided a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler that had been zig-zagging between the different sides of a busy street.

The presumably drunk driver was speeding and towards me and I had to decide whether to swerve into the parked cars on the street or steer the other way and risk driving into cars careening toward me.

I decided for the former and turned the steering wheel towards the parked cars, just as the truck clipped the back corner of my Nissan Maxima.

My vehicle spun 180, but thankfully, I managed to slam onto the curb where no cars were parked.

The semi-kept going. It was a hit-and-run. And I count my blessings that I live to tell about the fact that I didn't steer my wheel towards the left which would've had me on a collision course, head-on, into the semi.

There's no denying that men have it easier than women do in just about everything.

With this in mind, it's hard not to join in with those who judge men who display stereotypical, chauvinistic behavior.

However, some would argue, or more specifically some MEN would argue, that they are judged for too many things.

And indeed, everyone would agree that far too many men are judged for displaying behavior that doesn't exactly scream "masculinity."

Redditor Few-Strength5065 reached out to the men of Reddit, asking them what they think men should be able to partake in or enjoy without judgment from others, leading them to ask:

Happiness Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

"Being content with enough."- Zenshin26

The Definition Of Antiquated

"Being the one who takes care of kids in a relationship or making less money than their partner."- HartoCD

Everyone Has The Right To Decompress

"Playing."

"I bust my a** at work and save money so I can then play."

"That might be video games, might be a sport, might be building random shit in a workshop, but whatever it is, let a bro have his hobbies/playtime."

"See a 30 year old playing Pokémon?"

"Good, leave him alone and let him have his fun."- Link9454

Adam Driver Snl GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy

Head Out Of Gutters People...

"Eating bananas."

"Just tryna get the potassium bro."- MightyKing19

Father's Spending Time With Their Children? The Very Thought!

"Taking kids to the park/walmart/etc."

"Too many horror stories of some Karen taking issue with this as if it's wrong for men to be fathers."

"Also, just being a dad in general."

"There was that phase in the media where the father was played off as some idiot that couldn't even without the help of the wife.'

"Our culture seemed to buy this idea wholesale, and we're still reeling from the effects."- ridicalis

"Being a parent."

"Any time a dad is out alone with his kids other people always ask if he's on babysitting duty."

"It's not called babysitting it's called being a parent."- Elementus94

Fathers Day Dad GIF by America's Funniest Home VideosGiphy

Peace And Quiet Can Be Hard To Come By

"Wanting to be left the hell alone."

"It’s not that we don’t want to spend time with our partners, but for f*ck sake alone time is valuable."

"Sometimes your man just wants a little time to himself and there’s nothing wrong with that or anything to read into about it."-Jollybritishchap

Smart, Smart Boy...

"Maybe a minor one, not talked about a lot but: watching certain movies."

"Growing up I was always taught that certain things were just for girls."

"I’m 29, just watched Charlie’s Angels for the first time a month ago and I’m honestly mad at what could’ve been a pretty formative movie."

'When I was 14 or so, my uncle was trying to ask me and my cousin which movie we wanted to rent for the evening."

"It came down to Catwoman or Scorpion King, and my cousin chose Catwoman only for my uncle to say 'that’s gay' to which my cousin replied: 'how is you wanting to watch The Rock all shirtless and oiled up not gay, but me wanting to watch Halle Berry in a skintight leather cat suit is?'"- CinnaSol

All That Matters Is How They Taste

"Liking 'girly' cocktails."

"Let me have a margarita."

"Generally, anything deemed 'girly'."- Panal-Lleno

Jimmy Fallon Drinking GIFGiphy

NO MEANS NO!!!

"Telling a woman no."- AFLYINGDINGUS

Minimalism Is Popular

"Having empty apartments."

"As much as it’s nice to have decorations in a house, I don’t give a sh*t about it."

"As long as my house is clean and I am comfortable in it then I have the essentials."

"My girlfriend is the only reason our house is decorated."- Grundle_Gripper_

Dancing Alone GIF by Aaron AyeGiphy

Emotions Are A Sign Of Strength

"Opening up their emotions."

"Being a man can be so lonely."

"if your struggling don't be afraid."- JillHardenerOfficial

Interest Can't Be Forced

"Not being interested in sports."- Klutzy_Growth1945

Major League Soccer No GIF by Sporting KCGiphy

Many people have their opinions of what a "real man" should do and be.

Without any justification for that opinion whatsoever.

After all, it seems safe to agree that a "real man" couldn't care less what others think about their interests and hobbies, as long as they aren't bringing any harm to others.

Ideally, they might even be bringing others joy.

A group of graduating friends throw their caps in the air
Photo by Pang Yuhao

In movies and television, school reunions look like tons of fun.

Everybody attends and hilarity ensues.

But in real life, there is a lot of mystery surrounding these events.

Who plans them?

Who pays for them?

Why would anyone really go?

After decades start to pass, these people are really just strangers.

And it's also proof of aging.

Who needs other old people wandering around reminding you you're old?

Redditor Throwyz wanted to know why people chose to skip school reunions, so they asked:

"People who never went to their class reunions, why?"

My high school reunion was ok.

The sexy guys were still handsome.

That was all I cared about.

Who Cares

I Dont Care Shrug GIF by Puss In BootsGiphy

"I don’t care about the people I went to school with."

SnooLemons5609

"Same. Who cares. I stayed in touch with those I cared about. The end."

TinyNightLight

A Selective Process

"I keep in touch with the people from high school I want to keep in touch with. No need to go to a mediocre event and be judged by the others."

Leeser

"Living in the age of Facebook everyone I care about from high school knows what's going on in their lives already. Anyone I actually want to interact with I already do."

mousicle

The In-Crowd

"Didn't want to be there as a kid, so had no desire to return."

MahStonks

"This is the answer. I've skipped all of my class reunions and never regretted it."

"But one of my friends decided to go to a class reunion a few years back. He said it was amazing (or scary if you will) how quickly old group dynamics re-emerged, even 30-plus years later."

"The guys and gals who made up the 'in-crowd' back around 1988/89 had mainly peaked at 16. Everyone acted much more mature, obviously, but he said the whole affair got really cliquey really quick. Like I said, I never regretted not going."

Fresh-Hedgehog1895

Not Welcome

"First of all, I wasn’t invited. I’m still as invisible to them as I was back then. Second of all, f**k those clowns."

Sweet_Platypus4981

"LOL, me too. I wasn't invited to the five-year reunion, and I still lived in the same town! I randomly worked with an old classmate, and she told me that the official list had me under 'could not find.' It was just so hilariously petty. I considered writing a note to suggest that they simply consult the local directory for my name but decided I didn't care enough."

ChangeTheFocus

Peaks and Lows

I Know Right Mean Girls GIF by filmeditorGiphy

"I feel like reunions are for all the popular kids who peaked in high school who want to return to either gloat about how successful they are or to relive the 'good old days' if they weren’t."

ScoutJulep

The popular kids always have to show up and show out.

Even when their lives fall apart.

Irrelevant

Romy And Micheles High School Reunion Interview GIFGiphy

"Are class reunions a thing in the time of social media? We can find out everything we want from everyone we ever met should we choose to do so."

Lumpy-pad

Forget Them

"I stay in touch with my best buddies from high school and university, don't care enough about anyone else to make the effort of traveling for a reunion."

Bu**holeQuiver

"This indeed. Half of this thread is people going 'f**k those guys.' I literally don't care. Hope they're doing well in a general sense but if I wanted a follow-up, I would've gone after it sooner. I can't be ar*ed."

Hotemetoot

"Exactly the same reason for me. If I was still local, I probably would have gone, but it was not worth traveling almost 1000 miles round trip."

SharksFan1

Nightmares

"I was bullied, had my property vandalized repeatedly and permanently (my car was keyed to sh*t more than once), got in fights, had inappropriate comments made by teachers. Why the actual f**k would I travel out of state and pay hundreds of dollars for a ticket to be surrounded by those memories?"

Chaotic-NTRL

Didn't Know Most Of Them Then

"I graduated with 450 people and I didn’t even know most of them then. I personally think class reunions are for people who want to brag about how much money they have or how great their kids are. Show off the new plastic surgery. Why the f**k would I go to something like that? Later losers!"

lunalovegood17

Never Look Back

"I hated HS, couldn't wait to get out, hated where I grew up, felt like a caged animal, and my life only got better after leaving there. Didn't look back and didn't want to look back. Now 55 and retired with lots of good years in front of me."

Important_Outcome_67

"This is relatable. Plus, I already know how all of those people from high school are doing-- they're all wasting away their lives in a shitty small town, still living out the same drama from 12 years ago. And I'd rather not hear all about their latest MLM bullsh**t. Enjoy your retirement!!"

Think_Doughnut628

The Quest

"Millennial here graduated from HS in the mid-to-late 00s."

"I'm still close with a core group of friends from HS. Those I'm not friends with, but still cordial acquaintances with, I keep up with through Facebook, which I'm slowly trying to remove from my life aside from my Quest 2 and looking at cat pics and vids on Instagram."

"I wasn't very popular in high school. I have some great friends from then, but I was also relentlessly bullied. Seeing as I can keep up with the positive parts of my life from then via just talking to my friends, why go back to the people who bullied me? I don't think about them anymore, I'd rather live my life without communicating with them."

tacobelmont

Decades Past

Aging Matt Damon GIFGiphy

"I haven’t spoken to a single person from my high school class in over 20 years. I never really liked many of them back then so I’m damn sure not wasting time going to a reunion. Also I never even got an invite."

Technick83

As time passes, you care less.

Wish others well, but you don't have to know them forever.