You can predict a lot about a parent from a kid.
[rebelmouse-image 18348500 is_animated_gif=And teachers often have to deal with both in a very concentrated fashion. Unfortunately teachers tend to get the brunt of the blame, always. And user u/TheLegend1125 asked Reddit to share their own horror stories:
Teachers, what was the worst parent/teacher interview you've ever had to sit through?
Here were some of the craziest horror stories.
When The Dog Bites
[rebelmouse-image 18348501 is_animated_gif=Pre-school teacher here. My first year as a lead teacher I had a student who bit, scratched, pulled hair, slapped and punched both students and teachers, including myself. Every day we were essentially beaten up by this 4 year old. Leading up to the conference my boss advised me to keep a log of everything this child was doing, each time he slapped or bit someone, each time he yelled out a cuss word, etc.
The entire conference was this child's mom going through my behaviour log of her child and laughing. She told me that he had never exhibited that kind of behaviour and was a perfect angel. She told me she had never even seen him angry. She laughed in our faces.
Minutes later, the child's grandmother, whom the parent and child lived with, called the school and told me all the things she knew her daughter wouldn't, which included the child giving the grandmother bruises, banging her head into her headboard, dropping books on her feet, biting, scratching, pulling, and punching both his mom and the grandmother.
Poor Thing
[rebelmouse-image 18348502 is_animated_gif=I was senior management at a private school and we had some insane helicopter parents who insisted their 4 year old daughter was a genius. They wanted her fast tracked THREE grades ahead. Nobody could reason with them and they carried this big binder of 'tests' they'd paid for to prove their case. Now, she was a sweet kid but very shy and _seriously _afraid of failure. Huge red flags to be honest. They were at the point of suing us and I drew the short straw for talking them off the ledge. It was last day of the school year, my own kids were waiting for us to start the holidays (they went to the same school) and I was stuck for two hours with them, trying to persuade that them that they were damaging their child and that moving an already nervy little kid away from the few playmates she had would be catastrophic. I went through every test paper, used every tactic I could think of and eventually called the meeting to a close on an 'agree to disagree' basis - but refusing to move her higher up.
The next day, first day of the holidays, my Director got an entire transcript of the conversation which they'd secretly recorded and a demand to have me fired. They must have stayed up all night as it was before auto transcribe tech was available.
My Director called in the lawyers and I had to forward all the slanderous emails they kept sending me in case of court action. We had an internal tribunal with them when school opened after the holidays and they lost their case. We never saw them again as they moved out of the area. I often think about that little girl and hope she's doing ok. :(
Abuse Begets Abuse
[rebelmouse-image 18345581 is_animated_gif=I remember as a kid I went to a parent-teacher conference with my dad for my older brother. He went to a pretty bad high school in a rough area. So for one of the classes, the mother ahead of us goes with her son. Her son was this big, scary looking, gangster kid (this is the mid nineties in NYC). The teacher looks up at them and says, "I'm sorry I have no idea who he is. He's never shown up to class and cuts everyday."
The mom turns her head and looks at the son and I see him go from having this smug, nonchalant attitude to having the fear of God suddenly on his face. The mom takes an umbrella and starts beating the kid right in front of the teacher. The teacher gets immediately flustered, but has no idea what to do. The kid starts apologizing profusely to his mom and to the teacher. His mom then grabs him by the ear (she's at least a couple inches shorter than him) and drags him out of the classroom. The whole time the kid is just saying he's sorry.
Expensive Conflict
[rebelmouse-image 18348503 is_animated_gif=I was a teacher at a private tutoring company that catered to children with Autism and dyslexia who had major problems with reading. It was expensive, like $140 an hour, and children were required to do at least 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. It comes out to like $2k a week. Anyway, I was sitting in one of the p/t conferences with some of the admins, and the conference turned from their child's progress to how they were going to pay for it. It was horrifying to hear, that these parents are planning on taking a second mortgage out on their house, that they've sold some jewelry...this damned company was driving people into the ground, financially. I quit about two weeks later.
Difficulty
[rebelmouse-image 18346830 is_animated_gif=My wife's first teaching job was at a rural high school. Most of the parents couldn't be located or contacted, so it was a miracle when they would show up for parent/teacher conferences.
One student, the oldest of 6, had not turned in any work and failed every test. It took several attempts, but his parents were finally able to come in. My wife met with them and her principal joined her as I guess this family had a history in the town.
My wife expressed her concern for the kid's future and his goals beyond school. The parents screamed at her and the principal saying they were successful with out a high school diploma and didn't believe their kid needed to be here. The only reason they were making him go was because CPS had threatened to take him away from them.
Kids Don't Always Take After Their Folks
[rebelmouse-image 18348504 is_animated_gif=I had a model student conference after two really tough conferences, so I was looking for a breath of fresh air and assumed his parents were as awesome as their child. I was wrong. They had decided to get a divorce right before conferences. They spent the entire conference arguing over who would have to take their child. More than once in my career I wanted to adopt a child, and this tops the list. I saw him a few years later and he was the same confident, thoughtful, intelligent kid.
College Moms
[rebelmouse-image 18348505 is_animated_gif=I had to inform them that it wasn't in fact a parent/teacher conference.
Student asked to meet to discuss his recent exam grade. Cool. He shows up basically being dragged in by his mom, who proceeds to rant at me for a solid 5 minutes about how unfair the test must be because "her special little guy" (her words) couldn't possibly deserve a C.
He was a junior in college and I was his TA.
When she finally let me speak, I informed her that I didn't meet with parents and it was actually against regulations for me to discuss his grades with her, and asked her to leave. She hit the roof, started screaming and tearing up his exam, and was eventually escorted out by campus security.
How?
[rebelmouse-image 18348506 is_animated_gif=Lets see, there are 3 that come to mind.
First, it was heavily implied I was racist (I'm black, and was teaching at an all black school), and the parent said "God would get me for my behavior"
There was the one where I basically offered almost irrefutable proof this kid cheated on a test. (It was a math test, he showed no work, had all the right answers to a different version of the test, and you couldn't even get those answers with the numbers provided). She said quote "You say he cheated, he says he didn't, I don't know who to believe"
Finally, and this was both bad and good. A mom basically was blaming me for her kids bad grades (as happens fairly often). I actually really liked the kid, he was just lazy. He jumped in the conversation and said "Mom, don't blame Mr. Illini02, you never make me do any homework at home". That pissed her off, but she couldn't really say much more.
Isn't It True That...
[rebelmouse-image 18345618 is_animated_gif=Parent was a lawyer and wanted to grill me as if I were on the witness stand. Based on that encounter, I'm not sure they were a very good lawyer.
Complaints
[rebelmouse-image 18348507 is_animated_gif=Kid refused to do any work or take tests. She was failing, obviously. Said the work was too hard (it was a third year Spanish honors course for those going onto dual enrollment college course senior year).
Her father was insistent that he come in to learn the material that he would then teach his daughter. I was really thrown by that one. Took about twenty minutes to convince him that the arrangement would be unsustainable.
English Kla$$
[rebelmouse-image 18348509 is_animated_gif=I used to teach senior English for ten years. It was pretty much the only class anyone had to absolutely take senior year, unless they were behind on their 3 math or science courses. The course was specifically British Literature and I tried to make it as interesting as possible for students. I tried to challenge students and prepare them for college-level work, but I also allowed students to turn in late assignments for points off (my district also unofficially required us to accept late work, as failed students=less funding.)
I posted all assignments on the class website for all students to access in the event of an absence, held tutorial once a week, updated my online grades weekly, and contacted parents when students were failing. I did all of this, because in the event a student fails, you have to provide supporting documentation that you tried to help them.
Every year, I had two or three male students (I don't know why it was usually guys) who wouldn't complete any assignments. These kids usually had overbearing mothers who would constantly harass me and find every excuse in the book to present some fault of mine to my principal as reasoning their son shouldn't be failing. These parents' usual excuse was that they "didn't know" their kid was failing, despite the access to online grades, my phone calls, letters home, etc.
On one such occasion I was called into a meeting with a mother a month prior to graduation. Her son had failed first semester and I was a bit surprised to see her, because she had been fairly nonchalant in our previous phone calls, saying things like, "If he fails, that's on him." Well, this lady pulled out the big guns for this Hail Mary meeting.
She first said I never called her and she didn't know her son was failing. I presented my documentation on our phone calls and quoted what she said, word for word. She then stated that I was too tough on students and wanted to fail her son. I reminded her that I hold weekly tutorial for students, post all assignments online AND give students time to work on assignments in class.
Then, she went on about not knowing her son failed first semester until it was "Too late," because his report card was sent to the wrong address. My principal pulled up their information and read back the address. She commented, "Yeah, that's my sister's house." My principal asked her for her current address and she gave it. He paused, then said, "Ma'am, your address is outside of our attendance zone."
Realizing the mistake she made, the lady got quiet for a moment then snapped, "(My son) will make up all of the work he owes for your class and attend every tutorial for the remainder of the year," and he did.
Illiterate Fashion
[rebelmouse-image 18344987 is_animated_gif=I work in public school education with a nonprofit organization. Sitting in a parent-teacher conference with the principal of the school, mom, and the kid. The kid is in 5th grade. The principal tells the mom point blank that her child can't read, which is true. The kid could barely write his own name and couldn't read anything except basic sight words. The mom laughed and said "my kid doesn't need to know how to read, he wears Polo."
I was speechless. I had no idea a parent could be that ignorant. I still think about that kid every few days and how hard his mom is making his life.
Kelvin Ain't Just A Temp
[rebelmouse-image 18345539 is_animated_gif=Was grading tests for a teacher while there was a parent/teacher conference going on (the teacher asked the parents beforehand if I could be there as the kid was three years younger than me and I didn't know him) They are talking for a bit and I start to notice the teacher pronouncing it "Kevin" and the parents are adding an "L", "kelvin", but I assume ya an accent or something. The parents start to become very dramatic, going on and on about how the teacher needed to go to the kid outside of class to make sure they were doing their homework (ugh) and such, and at the end the teacher stands up to show the parents a piece of writing from the student. Parents take it and read, look at each other and say to the teacher "this is someone named Kevin, our son is KeLvin", then proceed to get very upset with the teacher because he wasn't their child's actual teacher, when THEY were the ones who came into HIS classroom to talk about their son. It nearly made me pass out repressing my laughter before they left
F For Flirting
[rebelmouse-image 18348510 is_animated_gif=I was a substitute teacher then. Special needs class, so there was more meetings with parents than normally. Normally I just saw the mom, she would pick up her kid on Fridays. She was a little bit demanding and stuck up, but nothing I couldn't handle. Talked really badly about her husband when we had parent teacher meeting and when I called to tell what happened during the day (some people think these meetings/phone calls are their therapy sessions. Once she talked for 1.5 hours... I just didn't have the courage to make her stop). So her husband, child's father starts picking him up on Fridays. Okay, nothing unusual. Then he comes to the parent teacher meeting and starts asking what I do on my free time, am I seeing someone etc, just made me uncomfortable even though he didn't actually say anything rude or offensive. All this time his wife was sitting next to him!
Accidentally met him in a bar after that... He tried to buy me drinks and flirted with me. At that moment I realised he tried to flirt with me when his wife was sitting next to him in a parent teacher meeting.
B For Bad
[rebelmouse-image 18348511 is_animated_gif=High School teacher here ...
Had a parent teacher conference with two parents and their daughter. She had been achieving a steady "B" average in my course through her own efforts and hard work. She had long been a "classified" student, with a number of small issues that had caused her to struggle academically - until she matured and found ways of better managing her issues. I had her a a junior, and she was doing well in my challenging course - and seem proud of it. Then came the meeting. Her parents clearly had used the system as a way of providing their daughter with every academic advantage they could, bullying school staff along the way to create an academic plan that made it nearly impossible for the girl to not score a 95% or better in all her courses. I have never seen a plan so designed for academic success, with no intention whatsoever of helping the student develop the skills needed to survive in the world outside of school. I tried to make clear to them that she was doing very well in the course without the various supports in place, and that she was quite pleased with her accomplishments, but they could not care less. All they could focus on was the final grade being below their 95% expectation. We went back and forth for a while, with them presenting very angrily and with veiled threats. I did not back down, and the parents finally had her removed from my course. Luckily, my administration backed me - even complimenting on my willingness to stand against them as many had not before. The girl ended up taking the course over the summer in a far easier setting.
It was very disturbing to see parents so bent on their version of her success that they ignored the real progress she had made. They viewed the district as an enemy - an obstacle to navigate instead of an opportunity. I can only hope that the girl found her own path as she became an adult, but I can assure you that her parents hindered her growth and failed to give her the future they imagined for her.
Thanks, Obama
[rebelmouse-image 18348512 is_animated_gif=A student claimed bias in grading. She and her father later emailed me, the principal, the board of education, and Barack Obama. Obama was president at the time, but no, he didn't reply. Thanks, Obama.
Learned Behavior
[rebelmouse-image 18348513 is_animated_gif=I had a parent storm out of an IEP meeting because we wouldn't agree to put an aggressive student back in to a public school setting. We also had issues with the student running out of the school building and angrily stalking around the neighborhood when the slightest thing upset him. The parent just started crying and stormed out, yelling at us that he wouldn't be able to experience prom.
We all just looked at each other in realization that our student 100% had learned this behavior from his parent.
Displays Of Unkindness
[rebelmouse-image 18348514 is_animated_gif=As a student teacher, I was placed in a multi-age gifted & talented classroom (fifth and sixth grades.). My mentor teacher was phenomenal, loved by all and incredible at her job.
One little girl in our class just could not keep up. She was simply not at the level of advancement that the other kids were. She was a happy, mellow kid who didn't really care, but her mother pushed her super hard and refused to believe she wasn't the height of giftedness. At the conference, I witnessed this mother berate and blame this incredible teacher, including telling her all the other parents were taking about how bad she was (lies.) It ended with my mentor teacher having tears in her eyes. This woman did it all in front of her 11-year-old daughter, who was silently miserable the whole time.
Sacré Bleu
[rebelmouse-image 18348515 is_animated_gif=I used to teach year 4 (8-9 year olds) in London. There's a lot of immigrant families in the area I taught at and it made for a very interesting classroom. Unfortunately, due to the British curriculum, I had to teach a foreign language to my class and the school had chosen French as the language. Good for me, I speak it reasonably well and definitely well enough to teach 8 year olds how to say where they live and what they do at the weekend, not well enough to do parent-teacher meetings in French to all the Congolese parents from my class. Several of the children went home and told their parents how I spoke French. One dad in particular decided that he would only speak French to me and I had to try and tell him why his daughter wasn't doing as well as he expected in a language I don't speak fluently.
People Describe The Times They've Seen A Normally Calm Personal Absolutely Snap On Someone
Everyone has a breaking point.
Even the person who seems to be the calmest has that moment when their patience has run thin, and all it takes is a little more prodding and antagonizing to set them off.
Curious to hear examples of when strangers online were surprised by what they witnessed, Redditor Specktakles88 asked:
"Have you ever seen a normally calm person completely lose their sh*t? What happened?"

A triggering moment unleashed wild behavior.
The Dude Who Had It Coming
"I was chilling at a friend’s house as a kid. His dad was the chillest, nicest guy. That day, my friend’s mom (also super nice) was across the street talking to the neighbor about something that I can no longer recall. Neighbor was one of those guys who never respected common etiquette: music blaring, parking his sh**ty boat in front of other people’s house, cars parked on the lawn. The neighbor started screaming at the mom and we all went out on the stoop to see what was happening. As soon as we got outside, the guy called my friend’s mom a c*nt. Well, my friend’s dad heard that and went full Hulk mode. He ran SCREAMING across the street and just f'king decked the guy and crouched over him shouting warnings and threats. Took a while for his wife to calm him down. I don’t think any of them had ever seen him react to something in that way, maybe even the dad himself."
– Corporation_tshirt
Hot Kitchen
"I worked as a line cook with a chef who I became really good friends with. Really chill dude, easy going, and actually super fun to cook with. He taught me most of what I know about cooking and I owe him a lot for my success. Never really saw him get mad until one day, we were getting slammed during busy night and one of the servers said something that really ticked him off, not sure if I ever heard what it was, but next thing I knew he had sent the deep fryer basket flying at Mach 1 across the kitchen, nearly missing the dish kid and shattering a light bulb. He stormed off and 5 minutes later after a smoke break, came back and casually continued cooking as if nothing had happened."
"He apologized about it the next day and we never talked about it again. The restaurant industry is a stressful place."
– Nexteri
Thing About Grandpa
"When I was in my late teens I was financially irresponsible and borrowed money from my grandparents to move out of my mom's house. We made a plan on how I would pay it back in installments and I only missed two payments, with each one I called my granddad and asked if it was okay. He was always cool about it. One day I got a call from him and he was LIVID. Screaming at me on the phone and I could hear my grandmother crying in the background. He was the angriest I’ve ever heard anyone in my life and I was terrified. He wanted to know why I hadn’t made the payment that month, but I was sure I had. It turns out I had accidentally set the automated payment to be drawn from the wrong account and it hadn’t done it. It was an honest mistake on my part, and I explained that to him. I transferred the money immediately and he instantly calmed down. I later found out he had become an alcoholic after he quit smoking, and he would talk to my grandmother like that regularly when no one was around."
– kamaikaja
Awakening The Beast
"This is not my story but my dads. Growing up his best friend Leif was a quiet, shy guy that was a bit socially awkward. In school he wasn't physically bullied but this one kid teased him constantly. This would have been late 50's, early 60's so kids were expected to just tough it out. My dad would usually confront the kid but one day a girl runs up to him and says that Leif and the kid are fighting."
"My dad runs over to save Leif but when he breaks through the circle he finds the bully flat on his back, Leif sitting on his chest, holding him by the ears and smashing his head into the pavement over and over. My dad tackles him, wrestles him to the ground and screams at him, asking what he's doing. The thing that stayed with me from that story was how he described it, 'it was like there was nothing in there, I felt like I could see the back of his skull through his eyes.'"
"Luckily they were kids so the damage was serious but limited, the bully escaped with stitches and a concussion and Leif had to talk to the school psychologist. My dad and Leif stayed best friends and when I met him as an adult he was still quiet but less shy and awkward."
– Kenail_Rintoon
Work-related stresses really brought out the fury in these people.
The Beginning
"I had a friend who was in his 60's, a functioning alcoholic but he was the most calm and composed guy I have ever known. He never used to raise his voice or swear. Everything was done with meticulous precision."
"He once explained to me that if you use vulgar language and shout all the time, then you will have nowhere to go when you really do get angry."
"I had worked with him for about 3 years, never heard him raise his voice or swear before. The week before he had been shafted on his pay and the manager promised to get it sorted by Friday. Friday rolled around and it had not been sorted. So when my friend walked up to the manager in the open office and declared loudly 'Where the f'k is my money? You promised this would be resolved.' The whole office went silent and the look of dread on the manager's face was haunting. The money was in his account by the end of the day."
"That was him losing his sh*t."
– LinktoApop
Parting Words
"I used to see this woman in my building every day. Very friendly. We always checked on each other’s lives. We had lunch a few times over the years. It was friendly to a certain degree. A couple years passed. She was much older than me. One day, riding the elevator, she told me that she was saying goodbye. I said I was sorry to see her go and asked why. She said she was retiring that day. I asked if her office was throwing a party or if she was celebrated. She turned to me and her face contorted into an image of rage. She clenched her teeth and said she didn’t tell anyone in her office, including her bosses. She only told the HR person last week. This was her last day and she was never returning to see or talk to anyone in her office again."
– darthsnakeeyes
The Gentle Giant
"I used to do seasonal work sorting tax returns. Like, 500 people in a warehouse size room sorting through returns, stacking them in boxes, etc. This one guy on my team, huge dude, a gentle giant, really nice. Suddenly one day he smashes the table he's working at, then flips a big box full of paperwork. It flew over my head and twenty feet away. He threw the table out of his way them stormed out. Turns out he was getting his paycheck garnished for something or other."
– TheBelhade
Rambunctious behavior really set these people off, but it also restored peace.
The Teacher Who Had Enough
"One of my teachers in high school was THE calmest dude. Never yelled, never told kids off, would just laugh and smile and wait for us all to calm down and then continue with his teaching. One day we must have been particularly rowdy and we weren’t calming down like we usually did. He couldn’t get a word in edge ways. I could see him getting increasingly frustrated and eventually he just bellowed SHUUUUTTT UPPPPP And the entire class was shocked into silence. He never had to do it again lmao"
– shyaussiegirl26
Too Angry To Hold A Knife
"It takes a lot to make my mom yell. On the rare occasion she did yell, it still felt like she had self control. Like she yelled on purpose, because there was a reason to yell (like she needed to be that loud for us to hear us, or one of the kids needed to learn to never run into traffic again.)"
"But one morning when we were teenagers, my brother was being really, really difficult."
"And my very sweet, soft-spoken mother yelled 'GOD DAMN IT SHAWN' and threw a butter knife down so hard it stuck, 1/4 inch deep, in oak hardwood floor. Against the grain. I can still hear the noise it made."
"We were all very, very well behaved for the rest of the day."
"I did eventually ask my mom why she did that. Her explanation was that she felt she was too angry to hold a knife, even a butter knife, and was trying to get it out of her hand before she did something stupid."
– _Green_Kyanite_
Granny's Mean Streak
"Man my grandma has a similar thing. This boy was a couple years older than she was and he was constantly picking on her. He's riding his bike home from school one day and he rides past her and he's shouting at her and she knocks him right off his bike and beat the sh*t out of him. My sweet lil granny. The neighbor that saw it said he was proud as sh*t that she beat the snot out of this shitty kid lol. I think it was the start of my grandma's bad b*tch streak because not much later, she started street racing. She was allegedly a sweet little girl, but man I think she must have had a mean streak in her."
– Unsd
"Jerry Springer Christmas"
"My mom. We had what we now refer to as the 'Jerry Springer Christmas' when I was 7 or so. One aunt hated her sister in law and started screaming at her, then shoving started, husband's got involved, then it just continued to devolve from there. My mom went straight into mediator mode and tried to calm everyone down but it wasn't working. She decided to come check on us kids and found my cousin and me holding each other and sobbing because we were scared. The next thing I hear is her scary mom voice screaming over everyone 'listen here you motherf'kers. My kid is in there crying on Christmas because her family can't keep their sh*t together for one the one day a year we all see each other. You're gonna march your a**es into that room single file and apologize to each kid individually, then you're going to shut the hell up until I get them out of here. We're going to go find look at lights and this family better be the picture of goddam Christmas joy by the time we get back.' My mom never really cussed in front of me and only ever used gd when things were really bad. That side of the family didn't celebrate Christmas for a few years after that."
"Edit: thank you for the awards and kind words! Ma is tickled pink at all of the comments about how wonderful she is. I tell her every day how lucky I am to have her."
– thatspookyb*tch
Rage is something that exists in all of us.
Some people are good at letting small things run off their back, while others have no patience for the smallest of grievances.
The lesson to be learned here is, never underestimate the calmest people. They might be the ones to really look out for. You don't want to be the reason for them to break their patience streak and unleash all of their built-up fury on you.
Be kind to others, and just don't be a prick.
Songwriters base many of their songs on love because the relatable emotion makes it easier for artists to connect with their audiences.
Whether that applies or doesn't apply in our own lives, we listen to the songs conveying these experiences to take us back so we may relive these affirmative moments from the past.
Curious to hear what's on the moody playlist of strangers online, Redditor udontknowmegurl asked:
"What is the saddest song you've ever heard?"

These iconic artists really touched the hearts of many people through their music.
Dolly's Love Anthem
"I will Always Love You by Dolly Parton, you can really tell she f'king lived that song."
– scruntyboon
When Mom Went To Heaven
"The night my mama died, my dad sang Elvis' Can't Help Falling in Love to her in the back seat of the car on the way to the ER. She died of fully metastitized pancreatic cancer 18 days after diagnosis."
– AmazonEllie
It Gets Deeper With Age
“'Landslide' by Fleetwood Mac I find that the older I get, the more meaning this song has."
– Rare_Matter
Leave it to Disney to have us reaching for the tissue box.
Touching Score
"That song from UP makes me cry every time and it doesn’t even have lyrics."
– TheDaughterOfFlynn
When She Loved Me
"That one Jesse sings in Toy Story 2"
– TheWholeEffinJoe
And let's not forget these emotional tunes that resonated with many Redditors.
Irish Folk Song
"‘Danny boy’ at a friends funeral 10 years ago. He, his sister and his gf all passed away in a house fire all in their early 20s. It was an Irish wake and the mix of grief and whiskey joy was something else."
– Flamingoez88
When Love Moves On
"Into Dust by Mazzy Star gets me."
– d*ckem52
When You Want To "Disappear"
"How to disappear completely by Radiohead. Haunting instrumental, depression dripping through everyline of lyrics 'im not here, this isnt happening.'"
– Bradyceneme
Ray Of Light In The Darkness
"You Are My Sunshine"
"Everything but the chorus is heartbreaking. Few people know anything but the chorus though."
– lolly_lolly_lolly
From A Powerful Album
"Sylvia - The Antlers"
"Actually that whole album, Hospice, breaks me but this song in particular just leaves me in a mess every time."
– recoverelapse
When Love Fades
"The Night We Met by Lord Huron."
"No matter where I am, if I’m happy, who I’m with, etc. I’ll bawl my eyes out if that song plays. It’s so painful and true because one day they’re there and they’re your everything and then they start slipping until they’re gone and you wished you could go back to before you met them so you wouldn’t have to go through the pain of losing them. Just the lyrics 'I had all and then most of you, some and now none of you' hit this. People falling out of love in relationships, growing apart with friends, family members passing, etc. is what this hits for me and it hits hard."
– beepbeepboopbop2
One of the saddest songs I've heard is not connected to a personal experience, but the story being told is heartbreaking.
It's called "The Queen and the Soldier" by Suzanne Vega. The song is basically about a lonely, repressed virgin queen who keeps her heart closely guarded.
When a soldier enters her domain and challenges her internalized emotions, it's too much for her and has the soldier executed.
The song has continued haunting me ever since I first heard it.
An almost guaranteed phase of entering adulthood is unintentionally making it clear how much older you are than some present company.
This could be by the way you dress, talking about seeing a movie in its initial release when the person you're talking to wasn't born yet, or more than likely, by the way you talk.
When you say a slang term or phrase which was common place when you were a child, but today would likely be met by looks of confusion, or even disgust, should you use a term which is not only outdated but now considered offensive.
But then, shaking these old fashioned, or just plain old, terms and phrases might be a difficult task, so engrained are they in our vocabulary.
Redditor InfiniteDrafts was curious to hear what phrases people continue to use, despite knowing how quickly it will date them, leading them to ask:
What slang do you use regularly that is totally outdated?
Maybe rethink alternative words for "awesome"...
"I called a taco 'the Shizznit' a few days ago."
"I instantly felt 90 years old."- fattydad075
Not as "radical" as it once was...
"Rad."- AvatarofBro
Language is eternal!
"None of MY slang is outdated, it's today's youth that are wrong!"- hotasphalt
How long have you got?
"I say things are the bees knees on the regular."
"Is 'on the regular' dated?"
"I also call the ocean 'the drink' for whatever reason."
"Picked that up at some point."- Paradigm6790
"This sub is making me extremely paranoid about my words now bc I say pretty much all of these words still."- jjjjjjj30
Charming once, vulgar now...
"HAULIN’ A**."- f*ck_korean_air
Nah, come closer.
"Far out."- PaulClifford
A bit off
"Right on."- bombaderogato
Does anyone still even eat popsicles?
"When I'm ready to leave I say 'Let's blow this Popsicle stand."
"To be honest I'm not even sure what a posicle stand is."- B-Sdetector69
It's hard not to feel self conscious around the younger generations who might laugh at your dated vocabulary.
But one should just remember, in 10 years or so, they'll likely find themselves in the exact same position.
And won't feel as "groovy" as they once did.
Who doesn't love a theme party?
When you not only get to dress up in something completely over the top, but also get to bear witness to everyone else's zany outfits in-keeping with the party's theme.
Be it Regency era, glam rock, or fairy tale villains.
Or what if the challenge is just to be blatantly inappropriate?
A theme which got the imagination of Redditor StockD0ctorStockD0ctor running wild, resulting in their taking to Reddit to ask:
"You are going to a party. The theme is dress inappropriately. Who or what do you dress as?"
And not on your foot, one imagines...
"Nothing but a tube sock."- Sanguiniutron
Reverse Psychology
"Dress normally, because if the theme is to dress inappropriately, and you dress appropriately, technically you're the one being inappropriate for the occasion."- GoAwayImHereForMemes
"I've actually been in a completely opposite situation."
"Was invited to a art exhibition, came in well dressed. It was basically porn but the person I went with forgot to mention that."
"I felt very malplace standing around people wearing next to nothing."
"So I would probably do that again because what's more inappropriate than being appropriate at an inappropriate event?"- cccantyousee
"I mean, if dressing inappropriately is the appropriate attire, then dressing appropriately would be inappropriate for the party, thus, making it appropriate."
"Now that I think about it, it's an unsolvable paradox."
"You could never appropriately dress inappropriately."- MUNKIESS
It's all in the details
"A suit."
"With the pants cuffs rolled up, wearing tevas with gym socks."- BitPoet
And they say you can only wear it once...
"Bridal gown."- fromhelley
Depends on your surroundings...
"Imma wear a parka."
"In South Texas."
"In August."- Ahshalon_Tenisk
The question is, what aren't you wearing...
"Nothing I'd just show up in lingerie."- cloboehobo
Wrong on so many levels...
"A two sizes to small wrestling singlet, and crocs."- thirdtimer_2020
There's little more fun than facing the challenge of dressing to impress.
Or, in this instance, un-dressing to impress.
And if you are greeted by a round of shocked expressions, you know your choice of outfit was a success.