The Most Unrealistic Things That Happen In Movies According To Cinephiles
In real life, it’s basically impossible to get shot at 50 times and not get hit at least once. However, in movies, it happens all the time.
In real life, powerful criminals who are posing as good guys and have things to hide don’t use their pet’s name as their computer password. Again, in movies, it happens all the time.
Movies are great. They are a wonderful source of entertainment and a great way to bring talented people into the limelight. Watching a movie is a perfect activity for a date, a sleepover, or even a rainy day. However, movies are highly unrealistic.
I’m not just talking about fantasy movies, either. For example, Superman is invulnerable, so he gets a pass when he gets thrown into a building and gets right back up again. But how is it possible that the average Joe gets shot in the leg and just keeps moving? It’s not just unbelievable, but irritating too!
Redditors agree with this sentiment, as they were all too happy to share what they think are the most unrealistic -- and therefore annoying -- things that happen in movies.
The ball got rolling when a Redditor asked:
“What Unrealistic Things In Movies Annoys The Hell Out Of You?”
Bulletproof
"Car door? Bulletproof. Dude's sword? Bulletproof. Every part of the body that isn't skin and muscle? You guessed it."
– obscureferences
No Need To Be A Hacktivist
""We gotta crack this password.""
""Nope.""
""Nope.""
""I'm in!""
– xilog
"This is the worst. And they always guess it after seeing a picture of a pet or something near the desk."
– PilkyOhOne
"Did you try "guest"?"
– joeysober
"password"
"password1"
"Password1"
– Tudpool
I'm Okay!
"When the main character of an action movie can just crash a motorcycle or a car and be more or less fine to keep going."
"I’ve been in a moderate car crash and I’ve crashed off a longboard at around 45mph. The longboard crash nearly killed me and the car crash had me confused and hurting real bad."
"I know that not every crash or accident is the same and everyone gets hurt differently to an extent and adrenaline is one hell of a drug but damn, action movie protagonists are indestructible and sometimes it’s just really dumb to me"
– like5or6
Respect The Map
"Map stabbers. You know how in a fantasy or historical movie all the generals and lieutenants are in a tent hunched over a table looking at a map and making plans? Then some character makes a dramatic speech and punctuates it by stabbing his knife into the map. Like dude, that's a hand drawn map. Paper is rare in this world and that thing is expensive. Some monk who took a vow of celibacy spent months making that and you go and stab it just to make a dramatic point? D*ck move."
– alanmooresbarber
"I'd hesitate to use pins on a real map because of the damage, let alone a weapon designed to make a big hole."
– obscureferences
One Extreme Or The Other
"Action movies: car gets shot 100 time and still runs Horror movie: runs over a pebble and breaks down"
"No in-between"
– crockredit
An Accident Waiting To Happen
"In a car when the driver is looking at the passenger for way too long and there’s no consequence for not looking at the road."
– 5hrs4hrs3hrs2hrs1mor
"I always sit there screaming, "KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!!! LOOK WHERE YOU'RE GOING!""
– cheesy-hot-rice
A Long Stretch Of Silence
"People holding their conversation until the next scene. As if they just stay silent all the way up to wherever they are going to be next"
– TassDingo
""There's only one person who can help us...""
"*Flies from LA to Paris *"
""...Pierre Delacourt, master thief.""
""Holy fu**k dude, I've been waiting for 24 hours for this. Your silence made the flight really awkward.""
– _Steven_Seagal_
Unrealistic Engines
"Do horror movies still use the trope of the killer chasing the victim and the victim rushing into their car, only having to crank the engine 10 times before it starts? It is the 21st century, the car looks relatively new and in otherwise good shape."
– Rainbear508
"Its even that they have time to crank the car 10 times when the killer is maybe 2 meters behind them. Slowmo only exists for the killer"
– CinematicGalaxy
The Jargon
"Every person working in a remotely technical job (IT, scientists, etc) speaks in ridiculous long-winded techno-babble instead of plain English."
– MisterMarcus
"Also every person working in science knows literally everything about every field of science - from anthropology to quantum physics."
– Berserker-Hamster
Bit Of A Time Waster
"There's always time for kisses and farewell speeches."
– wai2kit
That last one is especially annoying if one of them dies. If they hadn’t taken the time to do the farewell speech and kiss each other, they might’ve had the time to, I don’t know, ensure both their survival?
But I digress. Maybe it’s better to just enjoy the fantastical.
Everyone needs a job and hopefully a career down the line, but we shouldn't have to achieve these life requirements through desperation.
Too many places of employment are riddled with secrets.
There are reasons places are constantly in need of staff.
THEY CAN'T KEEP ANY!!
When we're interviewing, we have to read between the lines and do company research.
Redditor KnownNormie wanted to hear about the times when people went looking for a job, and then went running away because of a few hints that things maybe a little "off the rails," while in the interview process, so they asked:
"What’s the biggest red flag during an employment interview?"
I was once in an interview and the manager cried due to the understaffing.
I didn't even leave a tissue as I ran away.
May the Odds...
"30 people in the lobby, 'Some of you will be lucky enough to be chosen.'"
gobigred3562
Hunger Games Student GIFGiphyLet's Talk
"An employee offered to walk me out of the building after my interview and took the opportunity to basically warn me (in not so many words) about what the job really entailed. He was super-friendly and diplomatic, just like he was making small-talk, shooting the sh*t with me, then 'did they mention you’d get to do X?'"
"'Because if you’ve got your heart set on that, you might be disappointed with the reality of the role,' that kinda thing. Especially when he heard I was fresh out of college and would have had to move country for the job."
"Basically the job ad was complete BS, and he was making sure I knew. I will be forever grateful to people like him."
ididitforcheese
Evaluations
"When I mentioned a company's dismal Glassdoor evaluations, they became so enraged that they ended the interview. Well. I suppose I escaped that danger."
Even_Beginndsasws
"On the other hand -- I've had some good luck bringing up a company's positive Glassdoor and Indeed reviews when the scores are considerably higher than expected. It's exceptionally rare for companies to post above a 4.0 without serious vote manipulation."
"And I've run across some companies with 4.8/5 and higher. Asking how the company managed to end up with such a high employee satisfaction score gets them talking about what people like about working there, and you can easily tell if they're bullshi**ing you."
Chastain86
History Lessons
"Not being clear about why the position opened."
Earth-Rat
"Sometimes it really is a liability to discuss. I knew a guy that was fired for embezzling, in the aftermath the company really couldn't discuss it. It is very annoying to be silent on something, but it is necessary from time to time."
snowgorilla13
I conduct job interviews as part of my job. This is something that I cannot reveal to prospects due to confidentiality; two of the last three people I hired were hired to replace others who had been fired."
BobBelcher2021
Hey Lisa
"Being a nanny you get some bizarre ones. It’s not HR or a business owner. It’s Lisa the 27-year-old first-time mother. Who hasn’t done anything in her life. The biggest red flag was probably when she asked if I’d be interested in inducing lactation to nurse her baby."
Onlyfansnanny
Home Video Baby GIF by Apple TV+GiphyI don't know how anyone likes to babysit.
Kids are stressful to care for. Then you add parents. Oof.
TMI... thank you
"My recent interview with what I thought would be a dream job went like this:"
"'You know you're the 6th person we've tried to make this position work for and we're starting to think it's us.'"
Seedinthethorns
Seth Meyers Lol GIF by Late Night with Seth MeyersGiphyDownhill
"Group interviews are a giant red flag. I remember being recruited for a 'sales job' selling textbooks door to door and having to go to whatever state they sent you to in the summer. At first, they had 20 of us meet in a local Mexican restaurant and then when I had my one on one in college hall or somewhere, it went downhill."
JuniorsEyes90
Where's the Fun?
"The office has a break room with games, pool table, etc, that looks like no one has touched it in months."
WorriedlyFretful
"Funny thing is I work for a small family own company, we have a Ping pong table but it's because the family is obsessed with it. like they play each other at lunch or will stay after work to play a round. it's all in good fun and you better believe most days at 5pm sharp there is a mad dash to get the hell out of there by everyone."
glucoseintolerant
I See You
"I've posted on this before, but one I don't see mentioned a lot is the eyes of the interviewers. I'm not talking about do they seem shifty or whatever, I mean, do the people you're talking to seem chill and well-rested? Or are their eyes bloodshot, dark circles under them, and they seem exhausted?"
"It's harder to tell in a Zoom interview, but you can look for it once you start to notice it. I've said no to companies based on this alone. If everyone in a company looks tired, it's because they are stressed out and/or working extra hours all the time."
"Big red flag."
jseego
Not even a DVD?
"In 2017 I interviewed to teach at a small community college. It was a day-long affair and they showed me a video on the history of the school. The video was on VHS. Did I say it was in 2017?"
discostud1515
Animated GIFGiphyWhen interviewing for a job... always follow your gut.
If it says run... RUN!!
There are many jobs I know I'm not built for, but could possibly pull off.
But I do have a certainty about a few.
Security.
I know I am out of my league there, as are many of us.
Security jobs are no safer than law enforcement.
Especially jobs in jails, hospitals and asylums.
I don't even know how much they make but I KNOW it's nowhere near enough.
Redditor KapyBaraAI wanted to hear from the people who work security jobs and are left riddled with nightmares, so they asked:
"Security Guards, What's Your Creepiest/Scariest Story?"
My hat is off to anybody who works security jobs.
Underpaid and life threatening.
Not a fun combo.
Slow Crawl
"Once we had a seemingly homeless guy crawl into a crawl space trying to hide in our casino. He suffocated and we found his body 5 days later after a smell and bio matter had appeared on one side of the wall."
GhostLandsTramp
Something out of a zombie movie...
"Used to work at a hospital that was mainly used for mental health. It had fully secured floors and it was our job to control combative patients. Many patients were waiting for felony trials, so lots of stories."
"The worst was we did a welfare check on a vehicle in our ER parking lot. They had been sitting there around an hour or so. The guy inside the car wasn't responding to our attempts to get his attention."
"Open his car door up and he was trying to dig his own foot off with a flat head screwdriver. He had gotten all the way down to the ankle bones on one whole side."
"We had to wrestle him into the ER as he was on a ton of meth. Seeing the ankle like that and the guy's almost feral-like state was like something out of a zombie movie."
Youfooool10772
In the Dark
"I was a security guard at an old folks' home that was essentially 2 buildings with a smaller building between them that acted as a lobby. One building was for assisted living and the other was palliative care."
"I was in charge of doing a security check of every floor, including the boiler room and basement. One night, I took the elevator down to the basement and hit the light switch, walking down the hall toward the boiler room."
"About halfway there, the lights started shutting off at the ballast, one after the other."
"Now normally I'm not in any way afraid of the dark, but on this particular night, I started on a mad dash back to the elevator before the lights went off completely because there were no windows in this basement, it would have been too dark to see."
"In the process of running, I realized that the elevator had lost power as well, so I got to just stand there in pitch black darkness until someone upstairs got everything back on again."
"All in all, I spent 23 minutes down there in the dark. 0/10, would not recommend."
DeusEx-Machinist
Voices
"Apart from the usual 'voices' you hear, shades you see, light cracks, creepy ol' buildings etc..
"One night I was passing by a playground park at around 3 am and spotted an adult male and what appeared to be a kid 5-6 years of ages both swinging in total silence on them swings you have for children. It was cold/rainy and both of them were poorly clothed for this type of year and especially weather. (Didn't seem homeless though)."
"Pretty unusual stuff to do at 3AM with a kid you would say."
"I had lots of different things cross my mind that moment so decided to take a closer look since I thought I was tripping.
"As soon as I got close enough for them to see me (still far from them) they just stared at me for a brief second & started running as fast they could, again without a single word spoken or voice/sound being made. Not sure where they ran because I had to scratch my eyes for a second time to check if I was asleep or not."
"It isn't 'creepy/scary' as the other stories in the comments but it was definitely a 'What the f**k bruh?' moment for me."
DavidKr98
In the Stall
"Got a call on the radio about something happening in the bathroom of our main building as there was a crowd forming. My brother and I approached the scene on foot since we were a walking distance away. We walked into the bathroom and I could see two very pale, blue veined legs in one of the stalls."
"A man died on the toilet. His wife and kids were there and apparently the last thing the woman said to her husband was 'Could you hurry it up you’re slowing us down.' It was one thing to see the body and another to see the look on the kids faces when they found out."
I will never not see these stories when I close my eyes.
On Patrol
"So I did patrols for a business district in my city. 4 buildings about 20 floors or so each. You have one partner at the desk watching cctv and one who patrols all buildings then they switch. Anyways it was like 3am, I'm on patrol. All buildings are basically locked tight."
I check to make sure each door on each floor is locked, then check the stairwell, can be really spooky since it's late, dark, and you're alone."
"Anyways I was on the like 12th floor or something, open the stairwell door and there's just a dude there. Didn't look homeless, he had a sleeping bag. I escort him out of the building, no fuss, but he also didn't say a word. No idea how he got in. My partner told me he ran into him in the same way once before."
uzasno
Staring Back
"I was doing security in a hospital at the time, decided to do the basement patrol with a flashlight for funsies, I was sweeping the light into the offices when I saw a semi-transparent man staring back at me from inside on of the rooms. Well I nearly shit myself before I realized I had caught my own reflection in the glass because of the flashlight."
Matt_East
Talons
"My dad used to work security guard jobs after he retired because he could. He was on-site overnight shift at a paper mill here in Oregon that's part of a small town and is at the edge of the Cascades."
"He noticed over the course of about three nights that all of a sudden all of the little critters he was used to seeing in the lumber yard were just... gone."
"It was weird, and quiet, and he was about to set out on his rounds when something made him pause and take a big step backwards into the cover of the guard shack."
"It's a good thing, too, because the Great Horned Owl's talons missed his head by about six inches. Those birds are f**king big, and they're territorial as hell. Dad said they stuck around just long enough to kill every living thing under about 30lbs in the area, and then they moved on."
slice_of_pi
The Ambush
"I used to patrol at night for a school district and one night we got a call from dispatch that there were some kids at the school that called them saying they were there and that they should send a guard. It seemed off since why would they self incriminate that they were trespassing."
"Regardless they told me to go check. While about halfway there my supervisor tells me over the radio to not go and that he’ll take my call."
"I stop into a gas station for some snacks and and am sitting the car when he gives me a update. My supervisor contacted the police and arrived with them."
"They found the kids hiding in the bushes with knives ready to ambush me. They were arrested but I couldn’t help but think what could’ve happened had my supervisor not intervened and it was shortly after that I decided to pursue a new line of work."
The_Galactic_Hunter
Watch the Cameras
"Guy told me he was going to use my glasses to stab out my eyes and that I should be careful dealing with guys like him because you never see them coming."
"Went to save the footage on our camera system and the cameras were in fact down due to an unrelated reason, so he coulda just murdered me and nobody would have seen that crap."
SadGruffman
Some jobs are the stuff of nightmares.
Good luck to y'all.
Given enough time, we all change as we get older.
But sometimes the ways we change can surprise us, including things we no longer like or which now annoy us.
Redditor HumanlyCapable asked:
"What are you starting to dislike more as you get older?"
It's Hard Out Here
"For me, I'm 47, it was coming to accept and understand that life is really f**king difficult. It's difficult for everyone."
"We do what we do, say what we say, and think what we think as a way of coping with and navigating those difficulties. Some are better at it than others, and we all consistently slip up and fail."
"Given this, really internalizing how much I struggle myself, moves me towards compassion for others going through the same. The fact that other people are here means that they are still trying. I'm not going to beat them down for that, and maybe I can find ways to help them do better. I love people because we're going through the same things and we need each other for support, even a**hole strangers, and Becky."
- Oliver_DeNom
Better Late Than Never
"I’m in my 70s and it’s the best time of my life. Almost everything I used to dislike, I can easily avoid now."
- Gorf_the_Magnificent
Faith in Humanity
"In my thirties, there was an epiphany when I realized how many people are traumatized before 18. And it doesn't even have to be anything in particular. Just the whole childhood is bad."
"And this seems to be fairly common for lower socioeconomic groups. They're traumatized, made stupid not just ignorant, and with no value for trust or reputation."
"It's difficult to hate criminals and a**holes for who they are when I know they're hurt. I'm not saying it excuses the behavior, but there's so much cruel nuance there."
- BitterLeif
Age Brackets
"Realizing I'm the oldest person in a group."
- bundlebundle
"I'm 29 and work in construction. About a year ago, I started to notice, 'Hey, there's one or two people here younger than me.' I recognized right then that that realization was going to occur more and more often."
"I still feel like a kid, and have no plans of changing that, but I can see that my 'young' years are almost over."
- stfleming1
Time Perspective
"The 80s will forever be 20 years ago."
- ListenItWillIHear
"I felt shocked when I realized you could be born after 2000 and be old enough to buy alcohol."
- Universeintheflesh
Truly Unsettling
"I was in healthcare a long time, and saw more and more patients die with birthdates in the 1940s and '50s, thinking, 'Oh, d**n, that's so young.'"
"Nope, that's my parent's age, and those people are in their 70s and 80s. They die from falling, or from other minor accidents. It's a hard thing to adjust to."
- DwarfDrugar
Retirement Status
"I’m 62 and retired, and my wife and I are living comfortably on my retirement pension. Once you are guaranteed that check, I say you’ve reached the 'f**k you' status in your life. You no longer have to put up with bulls**t demands from an employer. If you don’t like a certain situation, usually you are in a position to just say fuck this and walk away."
- wyoflyboy68
Ads and Paywalls
"Everything slowly 'evolving' into a subscription service. Even heated seats are getting those, for f**k's sake."
- AchyBrakeyHeart
"My wife thinks I'm nuts because I'm transitioning back to physical media. Keeps insisting that everything I want to watch is on streaming and then gets surprised when it isn't or was and they took it off."
- thugloofio
"My wife wanted me to get rid of all my DVDs and Blu Rays. I have some obscure s**t in that collection along with a ton of stuff you can find anywhere. But I compromised and moved them all to a massive but cheap Amazon essentials case."
"I needed a few extra cases too, but no way am I losing those. Like another person said, soon enough some of them will only be available behind a paywall or with ads every 10 minutes. Hard pass."
- afoz345
The Dating Scene
"Dating. When I was 20, it was fun. Take 10 minutes to get ready and have a good time. Now that I’m older, it’s a whole ordeal and feels more like a job interview."
- RedditorChristopher
Aging Parents
"That my parents are also getting older and the fear of losing them soon terrifies me."
- Maso_TGN
"I’ve lost one. It sucks. It’s one of those events that rocks the foundations of your life."
"BUT…"
"I accidentally had a conversation with my father after he had to have urgent surgery they had some scary moments. I wasn’t able to be with him but talked to him about my feelings and wondering if I was going to lose him."
"He told me that he had a great life and he was proud of my brother and I. He told me when the time comes, to think kindly of him and keep on going."
"About a decade later he died. I was in a hotel room with him and he died in his sleep. It sucked, but that conversation I had with him a decade before about his own mortality really got me through it."
"Why am I telling you this? Sit down with your parents and have the hard conversation. Ask them what they want done with their body when they die. Discuss medical decisions and DNRs. Let them know you love them and you’re scared. When the time comes, you’ll be glad you had that talk."
- slider728
Lack of Motivation
"Myself but more specifically the lack of motivation to do things anymore. I find myself always exhausted and unfulfilled by just everything around me and I can't seem to do anything about it."
- FaultFinal5248
"I'm the same way. I hate that no matter how hard I try, I just can't bring myself to do the things that I need to do. I can't even do the things I enjoy doing."
- point50tracer
Cleaning Woes
"Dust, it just never goes away. Tips would be appreciated."
- Sinister-Kid
"My pro tip for dust is when I finish drying my dishes, I wipe over my kitchen with the wet towel. Top of the fridge, benches, etc. Walk towards the laundry to put the towel in the basket, wiping all surfaces on the way. It means I never actually have to 'dust' those areas when I'm dusting."
- working_class_tired
People Are Just Too Peopley
"People. Nobody knows what respect is."
"My one friend who repeatedly says they don’t care about people shows me more respect than almost anyone else. They don’t care about people and even they know how to not be unnecessarily rude and judgemental. I don't know why it’s so hard for most people."
- I_Am_My_Truth
"I can even look past the rudeness and judgy behavior because I honestly don't freaking care anymore. What really gets me is the lack of social awareness, like is it really cool to be up in someone's 'personal bubble,' should I maybe not block an entire supermarket aisle with my cart, maybe not everyone in my vicinity wants to know about my son's wife."
"Can we just run our errands and live our lives without inadvertently being intrusive or obstructive? I hate people. Respect has done died."
- Sinfullymad
Poor Priorities
"I know someone who died of pancreatic cancer at age 35."
"In the same week, I hear of drama from a separate group of people surrounding the f**king stupidest s**t (high school level of pettiness)."
"Someone just a few years older than us f**king died and the rest of us are having a fit about how Bethany didn't invite Melinda to a BBQ because she's a b***h."
"I couldn't express how astoundingly meaningless 99% of our problems seemed from that point on."
"I wasn't even that close to the person who passed away, but it was one of the rudest wake-up calls in my life. He had a lot of things he wanted to do. I think about it a lot."
- octoriceball
Former Pastimes
"Concerts. My feet hurt, the music is too loud, I've become very sensitive to the strobe light effects most of them use, the fees to buy tickets are outrageous plus parking... and frankly, I get bored. It could be the greatest show on earth and I still get bored after an hour or so."
- toomanycats21
As we age, we know that certain aspects of our lives are going to change, but we don't always think about how our perspectives and priorities might change as the time passes.
If this thread taught us anything, it's to prioritize the important things over the drama, and to make those time-sucking tasks as easy as possible, so we can spend more time on the things that matter.
People Break Down The Most Ridiculous Rules They've Ever Seen Enforced In Someone's House
We've all heard the phrase, "their house, their rules," and in general, we tend to respect that concept and follow the rules when we're visiting someone.
But even if we're being respectful, sometimes it's still surprising how some people decide to run their homes.
Redditor SalMinellaOnYouTube asked:
"What's the most ridiculous rule you've heard someone have for their house/family/children?"
Possible Munchausen by Proxy
"I had a friend in fifth grade and her mother was legitimately insane. She wouldn’t let her daughter come to my house because we had carpeting."
"I think she had some Munchausen by Proxy because she was convinced her child was allergic to everything, including dust mites/any innocuous dirt in carpeting."
"The girl also developed an eating disorder. She was a dancer when we were kids, and her mother apparently monitored what she ate extremely closely. I felt so badly for her."
- j4321g4321
'Troll' Translates to... 'Troll'
"When I was a kid, we used to play a game called 'Tunnels and Trolls' (it was basically a cheap 'Dungeons and Dragons' ripoff), and one of our friends with ultra-religious parents wouldn't let him play because 'troll' is Swedish for 'devil.'"
"To this day, I have no idea whether that's even true."
- Schwann-Port
Early to Bed
"I went to visit a college roommate's family, and everyone had to go to bed at 8 PM because that was the youngest daughter's bedtime. The kid was eight or nine years old."
"I laughed because I thought they were joking, but the kid threw a tantrum that I wasn't going to bed. They weren't kidding. I did, obviously, but what the f**k?"
"The next day, the parents told me it would be best if I just headed on back to college a day early. Yeah, no kidding, bye!"
"My roommate thought I was the a**hole."
"I laughed at her, too."
- AhFFSImTooOldForThis
The No-Sitting Room
"When I was a kid, my friend's mom was a little nuts. She had a sitting room with a couch and a love seat that nobody was ever allowed to sit on. You had to walk through that room to get to the rest of the house, and it led to the kitchen and then the living room."
"If you sat on the furniture in the sitting room, she'd throw a fit. I always felt like it was such a waste, to have such a nice room and never use it. It would have been a perfect study room or reading room."
"She also had other crazy rules, like punishing my friend when his little sister did anything wrong. As if he was responsible for her actions and looking out for her."
- Samisoy001
"A friend of mine in high school had a room like that in her house. It was basically a second living room, but nobody was allowed to walk into it or sit on the furniture."
"I always thought it was weird. Why have a room with nice furniture in it that you never use? Her mom was nice, but she was a major clean freak."
- MeowMeNot
"We had that room. It was the 'living room,' and the other room we actually sat in was the 'family room.'"
"The living room always had lines in the carpet from the vacuum, and no footprints because we weren't allowed in there. Maybe on Christmas. Maybe."
"It was a clean but tense house."
"In my house, we use every room."
- GloomyCamel6050
The Houseguest Price
"That guests have to pay for their stay."
"They invited me for dinner and then calculated how many minutes I was over, charged for my portion of food, drink, electricity, and water usage. Yes, they also counted toilet flushing and timed me on hand washing."
"This happened over a decade ago. I was pretty new to the mainland US at the time (I came from Guam), and I didn't know how out of left field being charged was until I told more people about it over the years."
"I think my friend's stepdad was just a super cheap guy. But I could never do this to anyone."
- khalavaster
Sore Loser, Much?
"A friend's parents had a pool table. His mom decided to play with us one day and gave us the house rules."
"She said, 'When it's someone's turn to shoot, I tell them. If someone gets ahead of me, they lose their turn. Everyone plays very hard, and in the end, I win.'"
- CrediblyHandsome
Gross... or Strange?
"Family friend wasn't allowed to say the word 'gross' because it was his mom's maiden name; I'm guessing she'd been teased as a kid and hated it."
" My brother said it in front of him at our house once and the kid freaked out and told my mom he'd said a really bad word. That mom was just making her kid weirder with that one."
- EnvironmentalSkin488
That's Awkward
"Had a friend who was very much into computer gaming in the late '90s/early 2000s. Voodoo video cards were very much in vogue, but his parents forbade him from using the term, 'voodoo,' even in reference to the card."
"They suggested they he instead call it the 'V-card.' The hilarity of the situation was lost on them."
- staggerb
Kicked Out
"When we were 13, a friend of mine was kicked out of the house by his parents for a week because he stacked things wrong in the freezer, and some bread got squished."
"He spent the week staying at different friends' houses each night until his parents let him come back home."
"The mom was super religious and tended to be pretty strict, but tried, unsuccessfully, to hide it when any of our group were at their house. The stepdad wasn't allowed to have much input when it came to any punishments because he wasn't the bio dad."
"My friend and his sister were always punished pretty much immediately by the mom, and the stepdad would just kinda disappear. Regardless of the error made, the punishments would build until she would snap and say something like, 'Get out of my house, I don't want to see your face!'"
"She was definitely verbally and emotionally abusive, but I never saw signs of physical abuse."
"There were multiple occurrences of me or other friends going to spend the night and being sent back home shortly after because she was in a bad mood and my friend didn't have his room clean enough for her liking, like a plate and fork on the dresser from breakfast or a couple of clothing items on the floor."
- Disastrous-Manager95
A Clean Yard
"I was five and at a friend’s house. We were playing in the leaves outside. There was a box of leaves I wanted to move closer to his box of leaves. My box had no bottom, so the leaves spilled out into a small pile."
"He went and told his mother, and she came out and spanked me, quite hard."
"I ran home crying to my Mom, partly because it hurt and partly because of the injustice."
"She comforted me but didn’t do much else (or so I thought). I learned, decades later, my Mom called up the spanker and told her to never lay a hand on any of her children ever again."
- Utterlybored
Proactive Healthcare
"My stepmom had a totally bonkers rule about feet. She was irrationally afraid of plantar warts and, according to her, anyone she didn't know intimately had plantar warts. As a family, we had a second home/beach house that was basically a small bungalow and only had one restroom with one stall shower."
"Nobody, no friends, relatives, could use that shower after the beach because they'll get their plantar wart all over the floor and then she'll take a shower and she'll get plantar warts."
"We also had a swimming pool and she would make new people, including children, WEAR SOCKS IN THE SWIMMING POOL. And as far as I know, nobody living in our house including her ever had plantar warts so... unreasonable? Sure. Effective? Sure."
- Sister_Christina
Water Limit
"When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time at my best friend’s house. Her mom wouldn’t let us drink more than one glass of water in the afternoon because she thought it would dilute the nutrients in our bodies. Instead, she gave us 7-up if we were thirsty."
"I ended up secretly drinking water out of the bathroom faucet every time I used the bathroom when I was thirsty at her house."
- SeaStarless
No Snacks
"My kid had a friend over recently (high school) and we offered him a snack. He said maybe, is that allowed? Then he mentioned getting an A on a test so we said, then you deserve an extra special after-school snack."
"We offered several options like cereal, goldfish crackers, etc. He cried because no one had ever offered an after-school snack, much less said good job on an A. So sad."
- FloridaParalegal
No Alcohol Allowed
"My wife once had a friend over for a sleepover when she was little. Suddenly, their mum showed up to take them home."
"Apparently, the friend had seen beer in the fridge and called her mum crying because of it. They were not allowed to look at, talk about, think about, and especially drink, beer."
"It scared her so much that she called her mum to come to get her."
- Thecell1990
Welcome Home
"Whenever I had friends over as a kid, my mom would say something like, 'We’ll probably forget to offer you anything, but please help yourself to anything in the fridge or pantry if you get hungry' (she would still offer, though, if she was making something for herself later or it was lunch time)."
"I didn’t think much of it at the time. Honestly, I thought it seemed a little overboard sometimes, but now I know she did that because you never really know what someone’s situation is at home."
"Maybe they struggle to afford enough food, or maybe there’s abuse or neglect going on. Kids in those situations may have also been taught not to ask or accept things from other people or might have shame or guilt around them."
"She wanted to make sure that if anyone was hungry in our house that they got fed and knew they didn’t have to feel bad about it."
- CumulativeHazard
If this thread taught us anything, it's that there's no telling what's really going on behind closed doors and what someone else is going through. Remember to show others kindness, especially when you invite them into your home.