Puberty is hard enough without all those other people making it tougher. Navigating social circles and cliques can make school "Hard: MODE" when it doesn't need to be. The only thing to make it more complicated? Gender. Girls. Boys. It's all confusing, and some men decided to open up about what was so mind-bending about that time.
Reddit user, u/President_Bella, wanted to hear:
As a teenage boy in middle or high school, what confused you the most about teenage girls?
A Whole Relationship With No Face-to-Face
Giphy
How come I got a call after a dance that a girl liked me, but I hear a week later, while buying lunch tickets that she wanted to break up with me[?]
Tighter Than An NFL Huddle
How they could form a magical, impenetrable barrier with a chatting-circle.
The weird thing is that they often feel the need to include the misfits, they force you to tag along, but when you're actually standing inside the chatting-circle, no one even bothers to talk to you. They just keep chatting without looking at you. And slowly, the circle somehow shrinks in size so you're the one who's standing outside the circle now.
At least that's what happened to me?
Wait...They All Go?
Why did the entirety of their friend group go to the toilet when only ONE of them needed?
Physical Contact = Most Confusing Thing Ever
I can't tell if the relationship they want is platonic or not. Slapped my a-- but then pretended it never happened. Sat on me and then pretends it never happened.
Edit: when she slapped my a-- she actually denied it and blushed when I asked like a moron but everyone else told me it was her
Puberty = EMOTIONS
How they can act super nice, then one thing goes wrong, and they are mortal enemies all of a sudden.
Then they'll talk the maddest sh-t about each other but turn around and be all friendly
It was kinda confusing and amusing watching my ex do this
No One Knows
"You should ask Amy out!"
"She likes me?"
"Totally. She talks about you all the time and you two would be great together."
"Hi Amy want to go out to the movies Friday?"
"Um okay but just so you know I only think of you as a friend."
WTF
Edit: for those speculating, in this scenario the friend instigating is her friend. Generally I find guys know their friends are idiots or douches so we know not to listen to them.
Second as for outcome I declined the "date" because it was clear she wasn't interested and the friend was playing matchmaker drama queen.
Girls Clothes Are An Enigma
I was confused for the longest time on why two-piece swimsuits, top and bottom, were sold separately. Also for like $60 each.
Because what if you need a large bottom piece but a small top piece? And what if your hips are narrow but your boobs are huge? Gotta buy the top and bottom independently
...No One Talks At That Age...
You could be their biggest crush and you may think they don't even know your name.
Try not to follow the bad advice given here, because you don't want to get the results that these guys did.
U/Duckerton375 asked: What's the worst advice someone ever gave you, but you still followed?
The workplace can bring a cornucopia of terrible advice. Don’t follow these unless you want to get fired.
​Bad jobs are usually not worth it.
Stick with a job no matter how bad it is. I stayed with a terrible job working retail, dealing with horrible customers and sexual harassment. I was told I wouldn't find anything better.
"No, no, you misunderstand. I said you wouldn't find anything better at making you feel like complete garbage."
This gets really creepy really fast.
frustrated workplace GIFGiphy"After you put in a job application, you need to call them at least once a day every day until they hire you."
Note: this did not get me hired. It got me called out by the HR person I was calling and forbidden to ever contact their facility again.
I work for a law firm that employees over 1500 people in the home office alone. Once I received a call from the building security saying, "Insert Name is here to speak with the owner." Well we are run by a committee so that's odd. Found out they just applied for a job and wanted to talk directly to the person that would potentially hire them. Told him the firm will contact them to schedule an interview. They refused to leave without "talking to the owner." Had security escort them out of the building.
​This is absolutely not true.
"Sleep is for people who do not want success" great words from my uncle, it almost killed me.
Now I may be oversleeping.
​Interpersonal relationships are also a big breeding ground for terrible advice. Don’t listen to any of these.
Heartbreaking.
My father always tought me and my brother that "having friends is bad and in the end they will never be there for you" so everytime I told my father about my friends he would get kinda mad and give me the advice to stop talking to them.
Now I am afraid of people and have several trust issues, thanks dad.
​This won’t end well.
A Christmas Story GIF by filmeditorGiphyIn the fifth grade my teacher was talking about bullying, then she said "if anyone tries to bully you just agree with them." So the next time I got bullied I agreed with the bully and they bullied me more.
Dude one time I saw an anti bullying video that told the victims to just BE NICE TO THE BULLY. Like the bully was hurling insults and the victim was smiling and complimenting him. My first thought was about how much I hated the mere thought that this would work. My second thought was of how the people who came up with that method had clearly never been bullied.
​Oof.
When I met my now wife at the age of 19, one of my coworkers said that it's very important to start at the bottom with presents and work your way up, she still has the socks I gave her on our first anniversary on the wall over our bed as a reminder...
I'm still trying to teach my boyfriend about good presents and bad presents. Biscuits from the supermarket = bad present. Cheap unbranded laptop battery from China as my only present = bad present (and only lasted 2 months). Anything off my 7-page wishlist = good present. It's literally a list of things I want to receive as presents.
​Can tell you from experience that this is a bad idea.
Had a falling out with some friends. My husband recommended I reach out to an old friend who ghosted me suddenly in a manner that induced some pretty severe abandonment trauma. Went for it anyways because "it's been so long, surely they changed". Am now experiencing the same things as last time.
When you follow bad advice, it can lead to mistakes that you just can’t come back from.​
Buying a house is tricky.
for sale dancing GIF by Lisa VertudachesGiphy"Buy a home now before the prices go up!" -my FIL in 2006.
We bought in 2007 and paid $259,500 for our 1,300 sq ft house (we really couldn't afford it and had an 80/20 so we had 8% interest for one loan and 6% on the other) and in 2008 it was worth $97,000 so refinancing wasn't even an option. We watched all of our neighbors walk away or get foreclosed on but we kept paying our bills and as of this very moment our house is worth $462,000. I'm so happy we stuck it out, we both worked our @sses off and the house will be paid off in 2 years.
It worked out for us, it's a horrible idea. Especially since 1300 sq ft houses are $460+k
My heartbreaks for future generations, I honestly don't know how people are going to afford housing in the future.
It’s there for a reason.
"Never apply for any government assistance."
Cue years of suffering trying to work full-time with a painful disability. Quit a particularly terrible job, and wanted to apply for food aid until I could find another gig; a friend with lots of DHS experience recommended I apply for Social Security "just to get in the system." Turns out my disability was bad enough to get accepted the first time, which I wasn't expecting. Really could've used that support, oh, the 30+ previous years of my life.
Credit is important to have.
I was told to not get a credit card until after college. I was super fortunate to have my college paid for so I had no loans, car paid in cash, no credit card or anything to start building credit. Found myself out in the world at 22 years old with a credit score of 0.
So while a lot of this bad advice came from trusted people, oftentimes they were too misinformed to give that advice in the first place. Don't trust the word of one person--do your research, and make decisions for yourself.
It'll be way better in the long run