It's a global pandemic and entitled adults are still running rampant.
In fact, oftentimes their public tantrums are even worse than children's'—which is embarrassing. But that's unfortunately a sign of our times.
Even worse, usually these people don't even have a good reason to freak out.
Like, is this REALLY the hill you want to die on?
A Redditor asked:
"What is the absolute dumbest reason you've seen someone who isn't a child freak out?"
Here's a list of the worst public meltdowns that full-grown adults have had, courtesy of Reddit.
The worst offenders manage to embarrass their own families.
"Worked for a cellular company and a woman was in with her parents and they were making her get off their plan. She was non-stop complaining how unfair it was. Parents were matter of factly being like this is happening. Tried to tell them she'd just pay for her portion, parents calmly replied she'd said that before and hadn't. Complained that they could afford it. Parents calmly ignored her. Whined about how much more it cost for her to have her own plan than stay on theirs."
"While she's over loudly whining to her father across the store I start talking to the mom. She tells me it's not that they can't afford it or anything like that but that they are retired and on an okay but fixed income. The daughter was earning six figures at her job according to mom. She was also 30."
Ogier_79
"My mom threw a burger back into the drive-thru window at McDonald's because it had pickles on it. She told them no pickles. She was screaming at them and they threatened to call the cops. I sank so low in my seat."
Horselovermidwest
Giphy
"Senior year in high school, was playing soccer, and the goalkeeper on the other team was being looked at by a few Pac-12 schools. When our team scored a goal in overtime to win it, the girl's mother (I assume) ran onto the field to console her daughter, then looked over at us celebrating and began calling us all sorts of names I won't type here. She even accused us of intentionally scoring just to make her daughter look bad, not to win or anything like that, we just wanted to make her look bad in front of the scouts."
EvaOfDestruction
Technology seems to be the biggest catalyst for grown-up temper tantrums.
"Worked at Gamestop, guy came in complaining his PS3 didn't work and he wanted a new one covered by the warranty Gamestop provided. Well the warranty he bought was in 2009 when it came out, and being 2017 we couldn't cover it, he threw a massive fit and left the store, came back 3 hours later with the PS3 just decimated, screaming "look what you did, I shot this with my gun because of you" threw the console across the store and left. I think he used a shotgun cause there wasn't much left to it, like it was shredded."
SubsforLunch
"This girl wanted to get her own cellphone plan. She needed proof of residency to do so. She came in with a bill in her name, unfortunately, she didn't come with it address to her. We needed the actual mailing address on the bill, not just her name."
"Cue her screaming, crying, calling me a cnt, btch, and doing everything but throwing herself on the floor. She stayed in the store for 5 hours, calling customer service 6-7 times while with us, and just refusing to accept that we needed it addressed to her."
"Multiple times she would start crying again on the phone with customer service and go "and then there's this b*tch here in the store and she's just insert tantrum groan."
Callmedelete
Sad Baby GIF
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"I used to be a teller in college. Before chips in cards, we could swipe your card for you and you would enter your pin. After the chip, they took away our ability to swipe. So naturally, we would have the customer insert their card. At this time, they also added rims to the numbers to avoid people looking at your pin. One guy complained to management about this and screamed in the lobby that it is unjust to have him insert his card."
"Another guy told me that banks clearly don't want to service "normal" sized people because he couldn't see the number when he typed. I said, "that's ridiculous. We don't want people stealing your pin. Fraud is expensive and hard on everyone." He just replies with 'riiiiigghhht.' You cracked the code, clearly bank managers want to lose money by excluding a large majority of the population."
ColombianOreo524
The poor retail employees put up with so much.
"Once had a thirty year old woman throw a screaming tantrum with tears and threaten to sue my company because we had been out of FarmVille gift cards for weeks and her crops or animals would die or something."
Chalupachamp
"A grown woman berate an innocent Walgreens employee because they were out of Hilshire Farms baskets and she NEEDED them. The holidays are not fun for retail workers."
CatPawSoup
Temper Tantrum GIF by memecandy
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"Worked at a common American food chain fresh out of high school and had a grown man scream vibrations through my molecular structure about there being a 25 minute wait on baked potatoes, which I had absolutely no control over as a cashier."
"After he finished his tantrum he left, then came back ~30 minutes later to order his meal without a baked potato. Had he been a reasonable human being, I would've told him we now had them available, but he was a d*ck, so I did the bare minimum. I hand him his food, give him a lil nod, and off he goes...but on the way back to his table he spots another guest enjoying, of course, a baked potato."
"This man RAGED back to our counter, hurled his burger at me, and had to be escorted out of the building via police intervention after several minutes of uncomfortable confrontation with our entire staff. I consider myself rather empathetic, but I will never understand that man's rage. F**K YOUR BAKED POTATO, CHRISTOPHER!"
Meek-sleep-machine
"This middle-aged woman wanted to buy a TV from the store I used to work at. For some reason, there was an extremely cheap price tag on the box. I don't remember the exact price but it was less than $20, while the TV actually cost a couple hundred. She insisted the price tag had always been there and therefore we had to sell it to her for that amount (even though all the other tvs of that type had the correct price on them.)"
"When the employee said no, she demanded to see the manager. When the manager said no, she threw a tantrum, screaming all her way to the exit while threatening to call the police because we wouldn't sell her this brand new large flat screen tv for like fifteen dollars."
86sleepypenguins
“you suck a**”
"A lady came to eat at a diner I worked at, and had an absolute melt down because her toast was overdone. We gave her new toast minutes after she complained the first time, and she spent the rest of her time there throwing a full tantrum over it. Instead of signing her check she wrote 'you suck a**' in big letters on the bottom. I always say, someday I hope I have so few problems that I can spend a full hour and a half raging over toast."
thestiine
He had no children in his car...
"Our city does a free lunch program during the summer. They'll give a school style lunch to any kid under the age of 18 if you go to the designated location. During COVID they converted the program to be grab-n-go. Technically you were only supposed to get one meal per kid in the car but usually they were pretty lax about it."
"I happened to pull up just after a man asked for 20 lunches. He had no children in his car. The woman who was handing out the lunches told him that she could only hand out 1 meal per child and he had none. He then proceeded to berate her and threatened to shoot her, which in my city is very plausible."
BeeEyeAm
The VP
"My friend's boss, a VP, freaked out over the colors on the slides for his presentation. Now you have to know, he picked the colors and the graphics department told him the combo wasn't a good choice but he insisted so they made them up his way. Then when he saw them projected (this was in the olden days when presentation were projected onto screens) he freaked out."
"I know all about this since I had a front row seat to the festivities because he called my friend while we were out to dinner. My friend then had to interrupt our evening to get a rush order of different colored slides made up THAT night and flown out to his boss."
"Also, another good friend was head of the graphics dept. so I got to hear what the VP said to them, both when he originally ordered the slides and when he got them. 'You people are ARTISTS, you should have known better than this!" God, what an a**hole."
feliciates
Overbaked
"I when I worked at a grocery store bakery, I had a women have a mental break when I told her I couldn’t bake a used condom into a cake for her."
ShepherdDesign
Nbc Idk GIF by Good Girls
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I scream... you scream...
"I worked in retail for a while, so this was a common occurrence. The best example was one day a man came into our store (a popular eyeglass store) and I helped him try on some glasses, walked him through lens types. Seemed perfectly nice. Then we get to the paying portion and he demanded I give him a discount."
"Everything in the store had a fixed price point and it was very corporate and we couldn’t give discounts. Not me, not the managers, no one. Dude then threw what I can only describe as a tantrum in the store. He was screaming at me so much that everyone in the store stopped what they were doing and watched."
"It was exactly like telling a child that they can’t have an ice cream or something. The kicker was he didn’t even have a reason why he thought he should get a discount, like a senior discount or student discount or something (we didn’t have any discounts anyway). He just demanded that he get one."
Neat_Consequence8289
The Law
"Wife had a client whose mom came to every family court hearing. At one hearing opposing counsel hooted, hollered, and waived his hands a lot for about ten minutes. My wife stood up, quoted the relevant statute and sat down. The judge ruled in her favor. Client's mom goes off because the other guy was the better attorney according to her. After my wife won the hearing by following the law. Mom isn't allowed to set foot in my wife's firm for that stupidity. If you want to hate humanity be a lawyer."
Monkey-Tamer
Every Woman
"My friend's mother has problems with every woman he has ever brought home. His current girlfriend is an absolute delight, especially considering his ex. But she finds reasons to be upset with her. The stupidest thing she has been upset with was because his girlfriend moved a towel apparently."
bpanio
Monopoly Blues
"When my wife and I were still dating we had a roommate who freaked out over basically everything. She started crying over a game of Monopoly, started crying over a game of Pandemic, yelled at me because I asked if she used my vegetable broth, and smashed a ceramic bowl across my face because I asked her to keep her cat in her room for a little bit (like my wife and I were doing with our cat) after our cats got in a fight."
tim_to_tourach
The Break Up
"In high school, my younger sisters knew someone who became so distraught when Justin Timberlake broke up with Britney Spears that she had to stay home from school."
fumor
britney spears television GIF by RealityTVGIFs
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“it’ll peck your eyes out"
"I was doing a volunteer outreach to help unemployed men find jobs, we set up a temp office in a poor area, matched job orders with skills. Most of these guys were pretty tough looking characters. About a dozen guys were in the waiting area and a hummingbird flew in a window, pandemonium ensued, one guy was screaming “it’ll peck your eyes out" within a few seconds the place was empty, until I escorted the hummingbird out with a cap."
Disposable70
Moral of the story?
Essential workers need to be paid more to deal with these peoples' BS.
We should learn something from them though.
It costs literally nothing to be a good person and treat other people like human beings.
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Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.
We've all complained or vented about something in our lives which, in the grand scheme of things, wasn't exactly a problem, or is very easily solved.
Then there are those who complain about things that others almost hope will happen to them at some point in their lives.
These are known as "first world problems", as they are problems that pretty much only the world's one percent faces.
From having to fly business class instead of first class, or being served Roederer instead of Dom Pérignon, these complaints are often met with amusement, bewilderment, or even anger.
Redditor jennimackenzie was curious to hear the most absurd "first world problems" anyone ever complained about, leading them to ask:
"What’s the most ridiculous 'first world problem' you’ve seen people get worked up over?"
"Tale As Old As Time..."
"I once knew a mom who was legitimately devastated, to the point of tears/grief, because a doctor predicted her 8 year old daughter's final height to be around 5'2","
"Which wasn't tall enough to get cast as Belle at Disney World."
"That was the child's (and her mother's) only dream in life, apparently."
"Didn't appreciate my suggestion that she could be Minnie or Mickey."
"Lol!"
"Only a face character would do!"- TravelLovingMom
"Must Be Funny, In A Rich Man's World..."
"My boss from about a decade ago was this insanely rich dude who always went to the bank to get fresh and crisp currency."
"He'd call the bank in advance to make sure they had some on hand."
"I think he was a germaphobe."
"He had a trash can that he'd throw $1 and $5 bills in that he thought was 'dirty' and regularly just donated it vs spending it."
"I asked him why he did this and he said it was too much trouble and asked if I wanted it."
"I said f*ck yeah dumped it into my bag and when I got home it was close to $400 in singles and fives.
"Another time, he wanted to upgrade all the computers in his studio, so we went to a store and bought 10 PCs."
"They all had $150 mail in rebates and he wasn't bothered to go through the trouble of mailing them in."
"3 weeks later I received $1500 after spending a whole afternoon filling out all those goddamn forms."- azninvasion2000
Money Burn GIF by nog
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Who Wore It Better?
"When I was about 19 years old, I was at my boyfriends family BBQ."
"I was wearing this pretty floral sundress."
"His cousins girlfriend showed up in the same dress and she was SO mad that she went and changed."
"I will never understand being upset when someone is wearing the same thing as you.'
"Did you really think that your shirt you bought off the rack is going to be unique to you?"
"No."- mertsey627
Seeing Red! Or Blue In This Case...
"The blue of the balloons wasn't quite the same as the bridesmaid's sashes."
"Years ago my wife and I attended a wedding."
"It was very low key."
"The dinner was in the dining hall at the university where the couple met, cinder block walls and all."
"It was a Baptist wedding - no booze and very serious."
"The dark blue balloons attempting to liven up the hall were a slightly darker shade of blue than the sashes on the bridesmaid's dresses."
"The bride lost here sh*t and absolutely raved for nearly an hour."
"I can't remember how they finally managed to talk her down."- mechant_papa
south park wedding GIF
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See You In Court!
"Rich neighbors who end up in expensive court battles because they disagree about where a tree can be planted or whether the color of a fence fits in with the street’s 'amenity'."
'These disputes get really heated and rack up huge lawyers’ bills."
"The most pathetic part is after the judgement when they are arguing about who should pay the other party’s costs."
"Lots of affidavits filed citing the 'emotional distress' they had to endure, or painting themselves as brave warriors who were forced to take a stand to fight for 'justice'."
"Also lots of pompous litigants insisting that the judge refer to them by their 'Dr' title."
"An absolutely insane dumpster fire of entitled rich people problems."- ElectrocRaisin
It's Always People With Money Who Don't Want To Pay!
"I work in a public library."
"People will get so so mad if they have to be put on a wait list for a book."
"A popular book that just came out."
"Ok our services are not only free but so are the books."
"You’re welcome, a**holes."- Switchbladekitten
A Warm Butt Is A Happy Butt!
"My own."
"We have a bidet toilet seat (Fabulous! Everyone should have one!) and not only does it wash your bum and blow dry it, but the seat's heated!"
"It's shocking how much a heated toilet seat makes the whole process more agreeable."
"Except: We had a power outage and I went to use the toilet and the seat was cold!"
"Unacceptable!"
"This shall not stand!"
"I was really upset because it didn't feel good."
"Then I stopped and thought: This is the most first-world problem anyone's ever had."
"I was really pissed because my heiny was tepid."
"I got over it."- DeathGrover
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Holy Matrimony!
"Weddings are a gold mine for this question."
"People get so hyped up over their 'most important day of their life'."
"They'll destroy friendships, go into debt, and have crazy expectations."
"It's not always the couple who go crazy, either."
"Sometimes, it's the parents or another family member who feels entitled to control the wedding."
"It's just a party."
"Be considerate of guests, have plenty of food and drinks, and enjoy it."- magicrowantree
When Fast Food Isn't Fast Enough...
"Having to pull off to the side to wait for a drive-thru order to be brought out to you because your food isn't ready and there's a line building up behind you."- demanbmore
In Case You Don't Think Customer Service Employees Are Undervalued...
"I was working the return desk at a Target next to a military base so I have so many stories."
"One of my favorites was a lady who had her baby shower before revealing the gender and was livid that she had received floral newborn diapers when she’s having a boy."
"It was a huge box of super expensive, all organic diapers, that we didn’t carry and therefore could not return."
"I cannot accurately express her fury and disgust."
"How dare either suggest her boy could wear feminine diapers."
"I suggested she donate them if she didn’t want to use them and she instead threw away the entire box."
"When she left we pulled it out and threw it in our donate bin."
"There have also been multiple times where mom’s order massive toys and when we bring them out to the car they get furious that they aren’t wrapped."
"We don’t offer wrapping services."
"Here’s the thing, if you don’t want your kids to see the toys you got them for Christmas or their bit to day DON'T BRING THE CHILD WHEN YOU PICK IT UP."
'I’ve had multiple women scream and curse me out that I had ruined their kids Christmas by bringing the toys they ordered out to the car like they requested."- clever-mermaid-mae
Customer Service Waiting GIF by Juno Calypso
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Happiest Place On Earth!
"I used to work for Disney."
"That in itself should tell you everything."
"However for fun I'll give you two specific stories one form our tech department and one from my wife who worked bookings."
"I specifically worked for their call center to help with technical issues with magic band and the website."
"Suddenly got worse huh?"
"A right of passage call everyone has at least one story of is the 'Dome call'."
"Basically there is a subset of Disney Guest (TM) that believes if it rains at Walt Disney world there is someone that will push a button to encapsulate the whole of Disney property in a dome to keep out the rain."
"I'm not kidding."
"If this button is not pushed they call our tech department to angrily ask why."
"My wife worked booking."
"Pretty much everything including Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique and Pirate's league."
"These two things did roughly the same thing difference being price and theme."
"BBB was expensive did more and was focused on princesses, pirates league did a bit less and focused on mermaids and pirates."
"Lady called up my wife, and got pissed about BBB being booked up (It goes FAAAAST)."
"Karen: 'Im going to give the phone to my daughter and I want you to tell her how you are ruining her vacation by not letting her do BBB'."
"Wife proceeds to explain how pirate's league is so much cooler and how she can be a mermaid or pirate and basically gets the kid to start demanding to their parents about how they want to be a mermaid instead of a princess."- trollsong
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The horror!
Being booked into a junior suite at Disney World instead of an executive suite!
It's almost as bad as having no money for groceries, or no food to feed you children...
Said absolutely no one.