Nostalgic People Who Stayed In Their Childhood Homes Again Reveal What It Was Like
Nostalgic People Who Stayed In Their Childhood Homes Reveal What It Was Like
[rebelmouse-image 18353162 is_animated_gif=When you've lived in a place for a long time, it gets kind of hard to imagine it any other way. For most of us, when we move out of a place, we don't get to go back and see what it's like years later. One Reddit user asked:
Has anyone used AirBnB to stay in a house they used to live in, and how weird was it?
Most hadn't gone the AirBnB route, but tons of people shared their stories of going back to places they used to live. Some went for hookups, plenty of people cried and one person even found a beer they'd hidden years before! Click next to read through some of our favorite stories of people going back to the places they lived before.
Surreal
[rebelmouse-image 18350159 is_animated_gif=Dunno if it counts but i was dating this one girl. First time we go over to her place... It's the exact same apartment i went to to see this other girl 15 years ago. I had even stayed for a couple of months there in the past it was so surreal walking in.
The Epic Party
[rebelmouse-image 18353202 is_animated_gif=I once had an epic day/night of eating, drinking and being merry at various places with various people. There were many highlights of that day, but the relevant part is: around sundown, got a phone call from my sister. She got drunk and was adopted by a friendly group. They invited her back to theirs to keep partying after the main event finished. When she arrived, she realised the house in question was a house I had moved out of a few months earlier. So of course she called to invite me to party at my old house. Who was I to turn down such an invitation?
It ended up being an awesome night. I was stoked to find the new owners had done the very renovations I had planned in my head, only I had been renting so couldn't do them. They were stoked that I taught them the secret to working the fireplace without burning the house down, thus saving them from replacing the fireplace. The new owners were a gay couple, one half of which was a very expensive hairdresser, who gave me a free (drunken) trim and some invaluable hair related advice. Booze was drunk, pizza was ordered, drunken promises of lifelong friendship were made.
My sister and I eventually crashed in their spare room (which had previously been my spare room!) The next morning they made us pancakes. We didn't do numbers though - that night was too perfect, any attempt to continue the relationship would only pale in comparison.
That Place Was Tiny
[rebelmouse-image 18353203 is_animated_gif=We were visiting the Ukrainian village my bro and I grew up in. When we moved, we sold the apartment to some family friends, so when we went back to visit, they let us hang out there.
Damn the place was tiny! I was 10 when we left, and I remember it as "huge" to my childhood mind.
Hidden Beer In The Bathroom
[rebelmouse-image 18353204 is_animated_gif=I hooked up with a girl who lived in an apartment unit I used to. That was cool/weird.
I'd hid a beer in the bathroom fan and found it still there.
Striking Difference
[rebelmouse-image 18353205 is_animated_gif=After my grandma retired, she lived in an expensive vacation place in a cabin for 30 years until she passed away. Like many older folks, she resisted remodeling anything and we really had to pull teeth to get her to even replace the 1970's (orange) shag carpeting in the 00's. So anyway, after she died, my dad and his sibling decided to sell the place because the remodeling would be expensive, and none of the kids/grand kids wanted to maintain the place or live in Vacation Spot.
Fast forward and my cousin is getting married at Vacation Spot and rents Grandma's house for the wedding weekend. The new owner seriously updated the place, and the difference was really striking - it used to be dark woods, small rooms, basic 70s stuff, now the entire top floor had all the walls knocked down so it is one great room with a full wall of sliding glass doors to the massive wraparound deck.
On the other hand, some things had not changed, and it was a trip. The master bedroom patio door still had claw marks from my grandma's dog that died in 2002. The old bedroom where I used to stay when I visited still had the old bedframes. The floor still creaked where there used to be a hallway between the kitchen and living room (now just a weak spot in the open floor plan).
My family agreed, it was nice to visit, but none of us wanted to actually do the work to make it this nice. So, hooray for the new owners! They did a great job with the place.
High School
[rebelmouse-image 18348773 is_animated_gif=My high school building was sold off when they built a new building. The developer that bought it turned it into apartments. When i was in town for a class reunion one of the women I graduated with said she lived in the building so a bunch of us went over there to check it out with her.
The exterior looked mostly the same except for replaced windows and the school name was replaced with the apartment complex name.
The apartments are a few classrooms in a line with the hallway doors removed except for one an apartment.
They took out the bleachers in the gym and put in one of those rubberized tracks aroung the outside edge of the gym.
They left the auditorium intact and actually get local musicians to come play there and will play movies and sporting events in there
The cafeteria is a tiny food court with a Subway and a pizza place.
They redid the weight room and expanded it to have more machines.
The library is laundry room /lounge/business center/management office.
Painting The Room
[rebelmouse-image 18353206 is_animated_gif=I made an online friend and agreed to hang out with and his roommate and help paint a room with them. It turns out he lived in my sister's childhood best friend's house. His roommate had known me since I was about 10.
I had been there to paint that same room the original time.
The Bad Luck House
[rebelmouse-image 18353207 is_animated_gif=I once lived in a house that brought only bad luck to my family. I think it's because my parents used to use an old ouiji board. They both had affairs, got divorced. Sister left home, brother also left; left too. We were all too young really, I was only 16 and homeless.
They sold the house. Not long after, my dad turned mental had to be put into a mental institution and died a few years later of cancer. My brother died, my mom died, my whole family is pretty f^cked up.
I escaped, got married, had 2 kids and tried to move on with my life. I got tooth ache and my wife found me a local dentist. Their office happens to be in that old house. I haven't been back in 40 years and I'm not about to tempt fate and go back now.
I turn down the appointment, had to find another dentist.
Got Busted
[rebelmouse-image 18353209 is_animated_gif=My mom lived next door to her best friend for nearly 18 years before she moved to her college apartment and eventually in with my dad. Mom's parents passed away a few years ago, but her best friends parents still live in that same house. She was over there lately and peeked over the fence out of curiosity. The people who lived there now saw her looking over their fence and she quickly explained herself.
They thought it was so sweet, so they let her walk through and she said it was bizarre. She hasn't lived there in almost 30 years and it has been remodeled 3-4 times since. She said she wouldn't have known it was her house.
The whole thing left her sort of bittersweet.
Half Of My Old Living Room
[rebelmouse-image 18353210 is_animated_gif=I used to live in a very big apartment until I was about fifteen. My parents bought a house in the outskirts of the city, so we moved out and left the place. When I turned 20, I needed a place to rent near to the city and found out the same apartment was divided into 3 smaller apartments and was up for rent. So now I'm living in half of my old living room and my parents bedroom.
It's kind weird, the kitchen is where my old room used to be.
"Boy, Did She Mature Well"
[rebelmouse-image 18348846 is_animated_gif=Story time!
Years ago I got really close to these two girls. We used to do everything together. We would book restaurants and cafes and it was like a mini party every time since there were about 20 of us in this group of friends.
If we were too drunk to drive, we would just crash at someone's place. At some point, I got closer with one of the two girls and I started hanging out more with her but strictly in a friendly capacity. I couldn't see her as anything more.
First it was just crashing on her couch, then i started staying over for coffee and breakfast when i woke up, then for food, then to study and all of a sudden i was kind of staying there. Then she started getting closer and closer until we started sleeping together. Sleeping. Not having sex.
And then she started getting closer and closer until one night she kissed me and tried to turn it into sex. I stopped her saying i didn't want sex to ruin our friendship.
After this happened we drifted apart; I didn't see her for years after. Three or four years ago I saw her at a funeral. Boy did she mature well. She hit the gym hard and everything wrong about her somehow disappeared. She turned into one of those women you see on Snapchat or in the gym and think **"Wow imagine if a woman like this ever came close to me." ** Of course she now had a boyfriend and was travelling the world.
I remember that I had always found it funny that the building her flat was in had her name. Well... Her father, I found out at the funeral, is one of the biggest developers in my country and that building was actually hers as a gift from daddy. Daddy owned another 40-50 buildings in that city and another like 50 in the country.
Fast forward to last year. I have this f^ck buddy and the first time I go to her place, the road seems very familiar but I can't quite figure out why until i see the name of the building.
Out of all the buildings, of course the lived in that one. I call and ask which apartment shes staying in. I go up... And it's the exact same apartment i used to stay in with the girl who owned the building.
Campus Tour
[rebelmouse-image 18353211 is_animated_gif=I lived in a campus house, a BIG campus house. It had four huge bedrooms, two stories, full basement... it was a party house. We are sitting around getting high, drinking and playing guitar hero and we get a knock at the door. I was in the other room, and for some reason my good friends extremely dense brother answers the door (??) while holding a bong (???????).
The knocker was this really amped older guy with like TEN F^CKING KIDS. I think he was giving them a tour of campus, they looked high school age and were all wearing similar colors. He says something along the lines of "Hey! I'm Dan! I used to live here back when I was in college in the 80's! I was hoping I could show these kids what it was like!" and before anyone can stop idiot brother he just blurts out "YA SURE COME ON IN MAN!"
I walked in in the middle of this and didn't have time to stop him, but it ended up being fine aside from a little awkward. This guy (who seemed like a bit of a fuddy duddy at first glance) comes in, doesn't seem to notice any of the drugs or alcohol, the kids shuffle in and stand there awkwardly as he tells them stories like "Oh yeah that's where we set the couch on fire..." and what not. The whole thing was over pretty quickly.
And a house rule was made that no one besides a roommate answers the fucking door.
Naked In Her House
[rebelmouse-image 18353212 is_animated_gif=My ex lived in the house that my family rented when we first moved to the area. The first time she came out to eat with the family, i just haaaaad to mention that we had all been naked in her house. We dated for over a year.
Current Boyfriend
[rebelmouse-image 18348568 is_animated_gif=My current boyfriend lives in the house my childhood best friend lived in. He gave me his address and i knew the street, obviously, but the house number didn't ring any bells. It wasn't until i got outside that I realized he lived in that house. I didn't mention it to him. We had just started seeing each other and I didn't want him to be weirded out. Then I asked to use the bathroom, but didn't ask for where it was just sort of went. When I came back he was confused and asked if I found the bathroom ok. I just went:
"Oh... yeah I used to be in this house a lot as a kid."
Dad Loved Coming To Visit
[rebelmouse-image 18353213 is_animated_gif=This kind of happened to me. I went to the same university as my parents did. They were there in the mid-late 60's while I was there in the early 2000's. I was looking for a place to rent and my dad's old house was listed, so I actually moved in. He LOVED coming to my rental when him and my mom visited because it was still kind of the same set up he knew.
Reduced My Mom To Tears
[rebelmouse-image 18353214 is_animated_gif=My mother grew up on a farm outside of our town. It was a nice place, from her memories, with a lot of land.
I saw a friend who's a realtor now, whose family had bought the place from my grandpa and grandma, listing the property for sale and providing lots of pics and drone footage. The state of the house, which had obviously fallen into severe disrepair over the years since HIS family had left it, reduced my mom to tears.
Heartbreaking
[rebelmouse-image 18353216 is_animated_gif=I toured a house I grew up in. It was a very nice Victorian with beautiful wood features and a grand chandelier. Well they tore all that out, ripped out the secret passage in the back, busted the 10 ft by 7ft window to replace it with cheap Home Depot ones, replaced the grand staircase with a cheapo kit one, and tons of other stuff. Was very heartbreaking.
Experiencing The Remodel
[rebelmouse-image 18353217 is_animated_gif=About 3 years ago, we upgraded out of our apartment. We moved to our home, but maintained ownership of the apartment. So we remodeled the whole thing, and set it up for airBnB.
So about 2 months ago, we decided to try living in the apartment again, just for a week to experience the "new" remodeled apartment...
It felt meh. Kind of nostalgic at first. We quickly remembered all the little nooks and crannies and settled pretty fast. Honestly, we disliked having to be mindful of making noise again. We were glad when we left again.
The Pizza Oven
[rebelmouse-image 18353218 is_animated_gif=A friend of mine moved in to her childhood home about ten years after they left. Her parents had rented the place for 15 years, but the owners were selling it off so they had to move out. Cut to 10 years later. She's now an adult looking for a new place to move into. It showed up on the market for rent. She applied, thinking it would be funny and she got it!
Some renovations had been done and it had been repainted. The pizza oven her dad built was still in the backyard, along with all the graffiti that had been done in the garage over the years they were living there.
Sneaking Was Easy
[rebelmouse-image 18353219 is_animated_gif=I met a girl who lived in my old childhood house, didn't realize why the address was so familiar until I got there. Made sneaking around the house from her parents way easier because I already knew the layout and what parts of the floors make noise????????
H/T: Reddit
People are required to have a license to drive, fish, and have certain jobs.
So it boggles my mind that people aren't required to have a license to have kids.
Some of the cruelest and most vicious things I've ever heard were words uttered by a parent to a child.
As an adult, I was haunted by a few thigs.
I can't imagine the scaring of an adolescent.
Redditor Tight_Anywhere6794 wanted to hear about the things parents have said in the past that haunts everyone still, so they asked:
"What insult have your parents said, that is stuck in your head as an adult?"
I've been blessed with the mother I had.
So I can't speak from experience.
But I've heard parenting horror stories.
Bad Expressions
Sad Kid GIF by 1tvGiphy“'You’re so annoying.' Said to me as a young kid while I was expressing enthusiasm over some new interest. Later my father complains I never tell him anything."
foppishyyy
Mean Spirited
"What did I do to deserve a fat kid?"
Silosolo
"My parents also mocked me for being fat, and outright physically abused me as in forcefully grabbed my fat child manboobs or slapped me while calling me fat-related names."
"A lot of people at school did it too, so obviously I have a lot of self-image issues like I never let anyone see me without clothes these days. The worst part is that I legitimately internalized a lot of hate, I could never care for myself enough to actually get fit."
FoeWithBenefits
What's My Name?
"My parents divorced when I was young and they hate each other. My mom would call me my dad's name when she was really upset. What makes it worse is that I confided in her that I never wanted to be like my dad. She used that ammunition against me."
Discarded_Pariah
"That's awful. You are your own person. You aren't your father."
blksmnr
Unfunny
"'You can't even laugh right.'"
"My mom in a weird moment I thought we were bonding. There's something inherently extra evil when someone tells you your joy is wrong. Told her I'm engaged and hoped she could at least be happy I'm happy and she ghosted everyone to the point the family thought died. She's a mess."
BlindEditor
"I'll never understand parents that are so hard on their own children that they can't even be happy for them. So their sole function is to bring misery to their offspring?"
macabre_irony
Evil
Oh My God Wow GIF by The Roku ChannelGiphy"My little brother was drowning, I tried to save him but also almost drowned, we got rescued by a neighbor. My mom told me that they should've left me in the pond. I haven't spoken to her in many years."
Ilookbetterthanyou
Good Lord. How do people like this exist?
Tragic.
HIM
"She told me I was acting just like my father when I would get upset. I would just get kinda pissy and sulk. He would go on rampages and scream and hit and throw things. He pushed her down the stairs once. I would never lay a finger on my current partner. The worst part is I look just like him. I was wondering if my mother always expected me to turn into my dad. I prove her wrong every day."
rot_grl
10 Years Old
"When I was ~10 years old, my mum once said 'If I could go back in time and make sure I never gave birth to you, I would in a heartbeat.'"
"Never forgot it. Talked to her about it a couple of times years later and her responses ranged from 'That never happened' to 'Oh yeah and I suppose I’m just the worst mother ever' and finally 'Yeah but I didn’t mean it, you know that.'"
"Messed me up tho tbh. Another one was '[older sibling] was the only child we actually planned for, the rest of you were accidents.' I don’t think it was intended as an insult, but being told your entire existence was an accident as a child kinda stung."
SpiderP*bes
Failures
“'You’re the biggest mistake I ever made.' - my mother when I was 5. I’m 32 now and it’s been the undercurrent for our relationship ever since, constantly wondering if anything I’ve achieved or struggled for is something she’s genuinely proud of or just relieved to say I wasn’t a total failure on her part."
thefaehost
Generational Issues
"Not a parent but a grandparent, I was adopted when I was 12 years old (my parents were both drug addicts so I was in and out of foster care most of my life) my adopted mother's father turned to me on Christmas Eve when no one else was around and said 'My daughter should have never adopted you, she should have let you stay on the streets where you belong'… he got nicer as he got older and sicker but I couldn’t find it in myself to forget what he said even almost 10 years later. Went to the funeral for moral support but was indifferent about his passing."
samweather227
Just Me
Sad Kids GIF by Cian DucrotGiphy"I was an only child and lonely. When I asked for a sibling, the response was 'If you want to know why we don't have more kids, go look in the mirror.'"
Responsible_Fly_3565
Some people should never have children.
Awful.
A tough realization that most of us have to process and accept at some point is the fact that our parents lied to us when we were kids.
But the tougher fact to process may not be the lying itself, but some of the lies that were told along the way.
Redditor Fearless-surfur-ee asked:
"What was the biggest lie you believed?"
Adulting 101
"That adults knew what they were doing."
- yukipurple
"Maybe not ALL adults, but I definitely thought that adults with responsible jobs have their s**t together. Then I realized they do not have their s**t together at all."
"Which in turn makes me feel somewhat better about being an adult with a responsible job who does not have their s**t together."
- kjhwkejhkhdsfkjhsdkf
Moving Violations
"It’s illegal to turn on the dome light while the vehicle is moving."
"Nope. Turns out it’s just annoying as h**l."
- OstrichMan975
A Lottery Trick
"When I was a kid, my cousin convinced me for, like, an hour that her mom had won the lottery. I can still feel the loss of millions of dollars two decades later, and that s**t hurts, bro."
"WHY, JESSICA, WHY?!"
- iforgotwhereiparked
That Truth Hurts
"I’ll fill up my car with gas before work tomorrow morning."
- hoangtudude
"I will do stuff like this for my fiancé in a heartbeat, but if I need to fill up my own gas tank to avoid doing it tomorrow? That sounds like a problem for future me."
- robbviously
When That Grief Hits Seven Years Later...
"My mom told me when I was five and my favorite dog died that it doesn't matter that dogs die, because in seven years, they respawn."
"So I was like, 'Oh, fine. See you then, bud, I will be older, and we will play again.'"
- josevilla7
Replacement Pets
"My hamster died while I was in school. Went back home, and I instantly saw he was a little bit different."
"My mum tricked me into thinking it was the same hamster and he hadn't changed a bit."
"Mom told me the truth a few years later. I was so p**sed off."
- changethename7
"My mom has done the same thing with my nephew’s parakeet. One day, Pickles #1 flew into the pantry, somehow got stuck in a case of Diet Coke, and got crushed by a can avalanche."
"He was immediately replaced by Pickles #2. My nephew asked why Pickles was so mean to him now. Pickles #2 is an a**hole."
"I’m suspicious that we are on Pickles #3 now but I don’t want to know for sure."
- Brotox123
"My mother's cousin did that with her little boy's rabbit."
"The new rabbit was a psychopath. Having his previously loving rabbit now hate him and repeatedly attack him was almost certainly more traumatizing than learning about death."
"I always wondered if stories like that were part of the inspiration for 'Pet Sematary.'"
- victoriaj
Just in Case
"The microwave will explode if I put my face too close to it while it’s heating food."
- ezzysalazar
A SUPER Secret Affair
"That my parents were married."
"The truth is, my father was, just not to my mother."
- left_over_croissant
A Creative Story
"That my dad moved out and rented a room in the house of a female friend for tax reasons."
- Eldhannas
Such Good Friends
"Outside of dumb lies your parents tell you as kids, my friend who worked at a gas station with a big food station that has some ground beef items told me they use kangaroo meat for their ground beef because it was cheaper than cow."
"I am gullible with my friends."
- _Goose_
The Lie That Keeps Going
"When I was 15, over my summer break, one day my mom called and said she was gonna pick me up and we were gonna go to my stepdad's for the weekend."
"I didn’t understand why I had to go when she would leave me at home by myself for the weekend all the time. I was old enough that I knew the rules and she could trust me."
"She told me there was a mixup at the electrical company and they seem to think we didn’t pay the bill and so the power was gonna be shut off, so we were gonna go to my stepdad's until that got sorted."
"That was a lie."
"A weekend turned into two weeks, which turned into a month, and then the entire summer. We hadn’t been home in over two months. I kept asking when we could go home and she’d always have an excuse."
"We reached September, she’s driving me from one city to my hometown to register for the following year of school, which started up in a week, and this was the closest I had been to home in two months! After I registered, we bypassed my house and started heading towards the highway to go back to my stepdad’s."
"It was at that moment I snapped and started freaking out! I knew something was wrong."
"She pulled the car over and started crying. Apparently, my brother had been helping her pay the bills and when he moved out, she could no longer afford the place on her own. So my stepdad was trying to help but he had his own house and kids he had to look after, and he couldn’t keep it up. We had been evicted."
"We stayed with my stepdad for the summer while my mom tried to work something out with the landlord, but they couldn’t come to an arrangement. Because she never told me, and in order to buy herself time to work something out, she had to be comfortable with potentially leaving EVERYTHING behind…"
"Well, she couldn’t work it out with the landlord and we lost EVERYTHING. The only thing I got out of that house was the shoes on my feet and a few outfits and pajamas enough for a weekend stay."
"My mother wanted to keep the lie going for as long as she could to buy herself time that she had to leave behind everything to keep it going. She never went back for anything, so eventually I can only assume it was all thrown away."
"So not only did I lose material belongings like my computer, my video games, and all my clothes, but I lost basic things like my own bedroom… and privacy as a teenager! I slept on my stepdad’s couch for almost two years until his daughters moved out and I took over their old room."
"But I also lost sentimental things like childhood pictures/videos, the memory box I started when I was seven, and the porcelain dolls my dad had given me over the years, he bought me two per year (birthday and Christmas,) and now that my dad is dead, those are things I wish I still had."
- Neikitia
An Elaborate Tale
"When I was very young, we had a pet hamster. He got out of his cage, so my dad put the cage in the basement, thinking he might get hungry and get back in."
"One morning I woke up and there was the hamster in his cage in the usual place. I asked my mom how they found him and she told me she opened the door to the cellar and there he was dragging his cage back upstairs."
"It wasn't until I was a teenager and remembered the exchange that it occurred to me she obviously made that up."
- censorized
Too Real
"That acne would only be a problem when I was a teenager."
- McGamers56
"I started breaking out in the third grade and haven't had clear skin since. I'll be 27 pretty soon. This one hits home."
- bayleenator
Part of the Family
"When I was like 16, I found out that one of my sisters wasn’t actually my sister. She was actually just best friends with my oldest sister growing up, and she lived with my family from when she was 12 or 13 through 18 (she and my oldest sister are 15 years older than me)."
"Unfortunately, her parents wouldn’t sign her over for adoption and didn’t contribute anything to my mom raising her for six years."
"The weirdest part is that my family is predominantly fair-skinned, blonde with blue eyes, but the girl I thought was my sister was traditional Hispanic with darker skin, dark hair, and brown eyes. My mom was always very tan and had darker skin and hair throughout my childhood, so I thought that my other two sisters and myself were the odd ones out."
- Schleeeeeem
The Deepest Betrayal of All
"On April Fool's while I was getting ready for school on a cold winter day, my mom told me, 'School is canceled! It's a snow day!'"
"I ran around for a good two minutes celebrating before she told me, 'April Fools!'"
"I've never felt so betrayed in my life."
- samivat
"You better be a mastermind supervillain by now."
- T_WREKX
"Thank you for sharing your Joker origin story, lol (laughing out loud)."
- JulienS2000
These lies have a wide range from the hilarious to the absolutely diabolical, maybe even with a few villain origin stories thrown in.
A common thread throughout most of these was someone telling a lie in order to avoid a tougher conversation, which only led the younger person to have a lot more to process later.
With theaters finally open to those wanting the ultimate entertainment experience that streaming movies at home can't provide, the pandemic that kept many venues closed now feels like a distant memory.
There's nothing like seeing a film up on the big screen the way Hollywood studios intended, and many would argue that experience is worth shelling out the cash for.
That being said, there is no assurance audiences will remain in their seats until the credits roll at the end.
Because not all movies are created equal. Some are just embarrassingly bad and not worth sticking around for.
Curious to hear from dissatisfied moviegoers, Redditor girlcalledmariaaria asked:
"If you have ever walked out of a cinema because the film was so bad, what one was it?"
These Redditors had no idea what they were in for.
Wrong Expectations
"I've not, but when I saw In Bruges, an elderly couple walked out after 20 minutes and I heard the man muttering that this wasn't a film about Belgium at all. It really tickled me."
– Reverend-JT
Regretful Decision
"Holmes & Watson, my family really enjoyed step Brothers and Talladega nights. So I shouted the 5 of us to the movies on Christmas day because for some reason the cinemas were open and it was showing and we don't really do big celebrations. 15 minutes into the movie we all looked at each other like.. wtf is this. I tried to leave.. I went to ask for a refund because their policy said you can get a refund 30 minutes into the movie... But we were 5 minutes late because of the 20 minute trailers.. I'm still seething about spending $100 to basically die of boredom for an hour and a half. I was sitting there embarrassed about suggesting the family outing. My family stuck it out because I'd paid for it and couldn't get a refund even though I told them I didnt care and begged to leave."
– jande425
Plan B
"I've got a story of a film my friends and I refused to leave, actually."
"In 2006 I was turning 14 and was obsessed with Pirates of the Caribbean. My mom threw a pirates-themed birthday party where my friends and I were meant to go to see Dead Man's Chest, which was still in theaters in August when the party was. We dressed up for it and everything."
"Well for some reason the showing we were going to see was packed despite the movie having been out over a month, so there weren't 12 tickets available. My mother (and my friend's mom who came along) made a split second decision to see the next PG-13 rated movie available."
"Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby."
"So a gaggle of 14 year old girls dressed as pirates walked into this theatre to a bunch of weird looks, but we sat down with our popcorn as normal. The next hour-and-a-halfish saw the moms be horrified at the crass nature of the film and keep asking if we wanted to leave. The answer was a HELL NO from the whole group. That movie proceeded to be the basis of our inside jokes for the next 4 years. To this day it's one of our collective favorite grade school memories, even if my mother continues to be embarrassed by it."
– fraxiiinus
Whether it was physical or emotional, these films didn't sit well with Redditors.
Saving Our Necks
"Oh, I remember vividly. It was Battlefield Earth."
"The shot angles kept being tilted this way and that for no reason and I started tilting my head so that things would be level. Then my friend joined in. Then we simultaneously were like 'are we going to cramp our necks for THIS?' And walked out."
– Ahlq802
Punishment For Sneaking In
"I walked out of 28 days later. Not because it was bad. I was 9 years old and snuck in and it was freaking me the f'k out.. watched it years later and enjoyed it."
– OMGi_hafta_poop
Oh, The Horror
"I saw Prometheus twice in theaters. At the second show, a group of 10-year-olds snuck in. The first R-rated scene, which features an alien worm/snake that crawls inside someone's shattered arm, caused these kids to flee the theater in an absolute panic. I imagine they will never forget that day."
– fleur_delyk
Sometimes, it's the theater's fault.
Failed Attempts
"I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy, and they played Rise of the Guardians."
"It took about five minutes to realize it was the wrong movie the first time. They tried to fix it, played Rise again, tried to fix it, played Rise a third time, and the whole theater walked out for refunds."
"Apparently it was a issue at a lot of theaters."
– MandolinMagi
Not A Prank
"I guess this technically counts but when I went to see deadpool 2, the cinema accidentally put the wrong film on and played some Amy Schumer film instead. Everyone in the screen thought it was some meta deadpool joke and out of nowhere he’d appear and shoot Amy Schumer so we were all waiting on that. After about 10 minutes of the film, the staff came into the screen and explained that they had put the wrong film on and couldn’t undo it because of their tight schedule etc but we would all get a refund and were welcome to stay and watch the rest of the Amy Schumer film. Everyone left."
– KMeech1969
Other times, the movie itself doesn't screen well for the audience.
Far From Purr-fect
"I’ve never walked out of a movie and I saw Cats opening weekend."
– Man_Bear_Pig25
"I walked out on it, but then decided I wanted to be back inside. They let me back in, but then I walked out again."
– CatherineOfArrogance
I'm all for supporting the arts.
But if a movie I already paid a non-refundable admission for was absolutely terrible, I'd have no problem forfeiting the cash to spare my sanity and walking out of the theater.
The one time I did just that was when I went to see The Island of Doctor Moreau starring Marlon Brando and Val Kilmer.
I was a kid and I was thrilled to go see a movie all by myself.
Unfortunately, the sci-fi horror film wasn't enough to captivate my short attention span.
I walked out and subsequently called my mom to pick me up from the mall where the movie theater was.
Those were the days...
If there was one good thing to come out of the pandemic, it was that it made us all the more appreciative of all that is good in our lives.
No one ever appreciated the importance of friends or family more, having to be kept apart from each other for months, or the little things which bring us joy, which we made sure to keep doing even as pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Of course, being alone with our thoughts for such a long time also resulted in our reflecting on things in our lives, or in the world in general, which we were less than happy about.
Not to mention the all-important realization that life is short and precious, and we don't have time to waste our thoughts on some things.
"What is something you no longer have patience for?"
Off The Clock Means OFF THE CLOCK!
"Working outside of work hours."
"I used to go above and beyond, now I only put in what is required."
"Life is too short to live only to work."- Chesterfieldcat
"The working world."
"My life doesn’t revolve around working here and it never will."
"It will never be a part of my identity."
"I come in, do the job, make money, go home."
"Don’t expect me to come to all the work happy hours so I can pretend how much I love working here."- nuclearsalt
Some Things Just Don't Get A Free Pass
"Sh*tty people getting a pass 'because they're family'."- cgulash
angry homer simpson GIFGiphySay What You Mean, Not What You Feel
"Having to guess what people REALLY mean by something they said."
"I take everything people say at face value now and don't replay conversations in my head to find out the real meaning anymore."
"Be passive-aggressive if you want to but talk to me like an adult if you really have a problem."- WateredDownSalt
EYES ON THE ROAD!
"People who text and drive."
"You're driving a giant piece of metal propelled by explosive liquid."
"Pay attention."- MasterfulNothasie
The Only Life That Should Concern You Is Your Own
"People and groups of people that only talk about other people."- Turf98
"People who can’t mind their fucking business and are always worried about what other people are doing."
"If it doesn’t effect you, f*ck off."
"It’s literally free."- wackwackwackjpg
GIF by WWEGiphySome People Didn't Mind Social Distancing
"People invading my personal space."- Mighty-Foreskin
Influence Can Be Dangerous
"Anything that has “influencer” in it."- chemistcarpenter
Indoor Voices People...
"Streamers screaming, losing their sh*t, breaking things, and having tantrums."
"I used to think this was so funny now I just can't stand it; I can't even watch a streamer if I notice they're not using their normal talking voice." - Reddit
Fail Oh No GIF by G2 EsportsGiphyTaking Responsibility Is A Sign Of Maturity
"People who constantly blame others for the situation they are in."- SuvenPan
Time Is Precious And Shouldn't Be Wasted
"Waiting on people who are constantly late to plans."
"I will wait 15 minutes then excuse myself."- Dabbles-In-Irony
There's Multi-Tasking, And Then There's Just Being Rude...
"People being on their phone while in a conversation with you."
"Seriously."
"Put your phone away!"- rosieblinkstime
Phone GIF by Poehlmann FitnessGiphyIt Takes So Much More Effort To Be Nasty...
"Bad manners, unkindness and general rudeness."
"It costs nothing to be a nice person and from someone who works in a customer-facing industry, attitudes, sadly, appear to be getting worse."
"It really makes me cross."- Bellamiles85
At Least They're Being Transparent
"Medicine commercials with worse side-effects than the thing being cured."- mrbbrj
Wasting our time and thoughts about things that we know can only bring us down is simply no way to get through life.
It's essential to live our lives by taking the present moment for what it is: a present.