For a time as a child, you're essentially powerless and beheld to your parents whims and feelings, some of which are not all that charitable.
For example. Your parents are unhappy with the service at a restaurant. They yell at the waitstaff and then demand to speak to a manager. You're forced to sit there while they continue to yell, yell, yell. Yet you can do absolutely nothing.
u/i-am-cheese-1317 asked:
Children of Entitled Parents, what was it like being "that" kid?
Here were some of those answers.
Staying Home
My mom is very I-want-to-talk-to-your-manager. She complains about stuff and treats service workers poorly because she sees them as beneath her. She doesn't demand free stuff, and usually doesn't ask for discounts, but she definitely complains about EVERYTHING. Like she once nearly made a phone store employee cry because the in-store stock was different from the website and my mom tried to argue with the poor girl and asked where she could lodge a formal complaint.
Anyway. Pretty much from a young age I was embarrassed by her behaviour, because I never saw any other adults behave like that and I knew it wasn't okay and wasn't normal. I stopped going places with my mom because I knew she would just be a jerk and I didn't want to be associated with it. By the time I was a teenager I'd try to slip notes to employees apologising for her behaviour.
From Oil Money To Borrowing Money
After losing her job in oil and gas which paid >$150k a year, I got the pleasure of paying her property taxes while she took out a reverse mortgage to "renovate the ($600k) house for sale," which never happened. The end result was her being $150k in debt with an unsellable house.
Then her BMW broke. Then her Jaguar broke. She refused to look for work outside of her industry for 3 years, then finally picked up some minimum-wage work 3 years ago. The catch was, she needed my (paid-off, Japanese, 4-cylinder economy)car to get to work. I haven't lived with her for 15 years and walk to work, so it was feasible.
This year, she's been laid off and expected that I was going to keep paying her property taxes while driving my car. I told her I won't give her a dime and I'm taking my car back if the house isn't on the market. She acted like a bratty teenager and continues to accuse me of "threatening" her.
I'm looking for a lawyer... ideally I'll sue her for the money she's borrowed, but ultimately I just want her out of my life entirely.
An Audience
I'm not the child of an entitled parent, but my boyfriend sure is.
His mom is something else, let me tell you. I think the first time I realized I was not going to get along with her, she had taken me and my children to go get McDonald's for everyone.
I already didn't want to go, because I didn't know her well enough to be alone with her for any lengthy amount of time, in my opinion. But went to make my boyfriend happy.
A trip that should have taken, like, twenty minutes tops (she was getting food for 6 people) wound up taking close to an hour.
When we got there, in the drive through no less, she took her sweet time ordering and asking these people all manner of questions about the food. We had everything picked out beforehand, so she spent an extra ten minutes questioning them for just her order alone.
THEN, we get to the window and her card won't work. They tell her that it's their system, not the card. They always have issues with whatever type of card it was she had tried to use.
Now, this woman has all manner of credit cards in her bag. She also always has at LEAST two hundred dollars cash on her. My point being, she could have used a different method of payment. Instead, she makes them run the card, like, six more times. When that doesn't work (and she's been screaming at the poor drive through person the entire time) she pulls up and parks.
Makes me and my kids get out with her because she's acting like a raving lunatic. Says it's because she'll need our help carrying the bags, but it's because she wants an audience.
We go in, and she then proceeds to degrade the kid at the counter. Calls him names. Tells him she's going to call the owner of this particular store because she KNOWS her card will work here and "someone's doing something funny." The whole time, I'm apologizing.
I told my kids to go play so they wouldn't have to witness it. I even offered to pay for the damn food. But she was making such a scene that they just gave her the whole order for free. Like, refused to take my money (probably because she screamed at me for even offering) and told her she had her food, and to leave.
I have hated her ever since.
Isn't It Exhausting To Be So Negative
My parents are fairly relaxed but my paternal grandmother was what's known now as 'a Karen'. I hated being around her. Anywhere we went, she would find a reason to draw attention to us by loudly complaining or criticising everything she could.
Scoffing at merchandise in various shops, scolding employees for things they had no control over, sending food back multiple times in every restaurant, all of that kind of stuff. I've never been that sort myself and even if I'm upset by something, I make it clear to the poor employee that I know it's not their fault in any way. I learned how NOT to behave from her.
Boy, Was My Face Red
Embarrassing. I rarely went with her because I was always mortified, then when I was old enough I would offer to go for her - that really helped. She'd love the opportunity to stay at home while I did the errands.
But oh my god introducing my partner to her was so embarrassing. We went to a fancy seafood restaurant and she orders Pinot Grigio (this place so fancy that they give you the spit bucket for wine). He comes over with the white and she starts screeching "I didn't order THAT! I ordered RED!" and he kind of stutters and it's obvious this poor lad is about to panic.
I'm like "no mum, you definitely said Grigio" (poor boyfriend has no idea what we're talking about because he's not a wine drinker). After insisting she definitely said grigio (me reasoning that I thought to myself "Oh I don't like white so I won't drink tonight" - a lie, I never drink when out with her so I can drive because she always insists on driving home drunk) she accepts her mistake, but doesn't apologise to the waiter who's been awkwardly standing there while we had this discussion. I apologise to him and my mum later says "You know, it's really embarrassing when you apologise for me. You don't have to apologise to them. It's their job!" but I just reminded her that I work in food service so I understand how it feels to be treated like garbage at work and like to make things easier.
It Backfired
It was the most embarrassing thing. I think it's what partially contributed to my social anxiety because she would just make a scene about every little thing. It made me wanna just dissolve into the floor sometimes, I would just cry sometimes too. Like really?
Now it just makes me angry thinking back on it, but I still hate complaining about anything that I could rightfully complain about in public. I refuse to be that person so much that if you give me something completely incorrect at say a Starbucks I will simply smile and walk away with it as if it was the exact thing I ordered. I literally cannot be assertive about it because memories of what my mom was like just come rushing back to me. Ugh.
Comprehension: Lacking
My mom is fine until she doesn't understand what is going on. She isn't the brightest crayon in the box and will start screaming at the person trying to help her and get really upset. I use to have to call help desks for her cuz if she did it she would yell at them because she didn't understand. I also occasionally had to step in when she got heated. She refuses to believe it's her fault she can't understand simple things. You have to figure out how to phrase it so she understands and the older she gets the worst she gets.
Uncooperative Feelings
Both of my parents fit into this category. Best example (featuring dad for this one) is that they wanted to have dinner on my birthday and suggested I pick the place. I picked the wrong place apparently, so when we got there my dad screamed at all the employees, demanded a manager and told him how awful the service was, then left to get fast food while I was still eating. On my birthday.
Although my mom thinking that my wife should take second place to her when got married was pretty bad too.
As for what it was like, embarrassing, stressful, and sadly impactful on my ability to form healthy relationships. I vacillated between terrified to speak up for my self and extreme anger at people. It really did a number of my dating relationships for a good long while, and my wife is super awesome to both be patient with me and help me learn healthy ways to express what I want in life...she's awesome!
I knew it was wrong growing up, but when that's all you know from multiple angles it can be quite difficult to define "normal" or to build healthy habits for social interaction. You know many things that are wrong, but don't know what to replace hem with and your emotions often are uncooperative.
You're The Freakin' Worst Dad
You'd do your very best to avoid going out with that parent. My very entitled dad who also happens to be a homophobe, misogynist, and a body shamer always ALWAYS tries to intimidate people whenever things don't go in his favor. There was this one time when I went out to the mall with him because I needed to buy a pair of shoes for work (i'm a fresh grad and that's my first job, i'm still dependent) and he needed to renew a membership card.
The guy who assisted him told him that it takes two weeks for the renewal to be processed and he got really pissed and started assuming that the guy was gay. He walked out then went back immediately and tried to intimidate him with questions like, "What's your name? You new here? I know who to talk to. I'll make sure you'll remember me" and I was just there sitting on a chair pretending that I don't know him.
It Turned Around In Our Favor
I always lived nicely middle class growing up. My dad started his own company and really started making money after us kids moved out. We started having to sign trust papers every year but I didn't really get what that meant. I (finally) got married a few years ago at an older age (43) and my mom went nuts with it! My dad recently admitted they spent $53 grand on it! I was stunned! I am very happy we didn't have that kind of money growing up though. Kept us kids grounded and realistic about life; But it sure is nice now.
It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.