Parents Break Down The Moment They Realized It Wasn't Hormones, Their Kids Are Just Jerks
I grew up watching Turner Classic Movies. One of my favorites? Mervyn LeRoy's The Bad Seed, one of the top American films of 1956. The film, based on the bestselling novel by William March, is about a fragile housewife who slowly begins to suspect that her precocious eight-year-old daughter is murdering people in town. The film has served as the inspiration for other films about killer kids ranging from 1981's Bloody Birthday to 1993's The Good Son and 2009's Orphan.
But we're not talking about killer kids here... hopefully your own child doesn't grow up to burn someone alive in a basement. What if your child grows up to be, you know, just a jerk, and then maybe, just maybe, far more than that? After Redditor Fred-the-human asked the online community, "Parents, when did you realize it wasn't teenage hormones and your kid is a legitimate butthole?" parents (and others) shared their stories.
"My wife wasn't connecting the dots."
It's my stepson.
My wife wasn't connecting the dots. I finally pointed out that he's 30 which is how old I was when we got married. He's got no skills and no education and no career prospects but he does have a bunch of felonies. That got the wheels spinning but when she was taking our daughter for a walk with some little kids that they were babysitting they found him passed out in a car in the side of the road, obviously coming down from whatever he was on she finally got it. So she kicked him out and he threw a big tantrum and smashed stuff and cussed her out on his way out the door.
I let her know that if she ever tries to move him into the house again, I'm grabbing our daughter and moving out and that it won't be a discussion.
"He only realized it..."
Not me, but my grandfather recently learned the true colors of his narcissistic son (my uncle) after fifty years. He only started realizing after my grandmother passed away this year and my uncle has been a total piece of s*** to my grandfather. It's sad that it took so long and it is now driving a rift between my uncle and my grandfather.
"If his mother won't do what he wants..."
I knew my stepson was lying all the time within a couple of months of his mother and I getting married. My ex-best friend from HS was a lot like him on the lying part.
Couple of years later, he kicks in our back door after going missing for a week (he's 15 at this point), and steals electronics. Cops called, he's apprehended 30 minutes later headed for the pawn shop. My wife still isn't accepting reality at this point. He spends 6 weeks locked up in a boot-camp style facility. Comes back, is like a different person for less than a week. His birthday comes around, he goes off the rails, locked up for 6 months.
He's been in and out of the county jail for the last 7 years. He's a sociopath. He can emulate feelings, but has no real connection to people. He wants what he wants and if he has to take from someone else, so be it. If his mother won't do what he wants, he gets emotionally abusive. Until last summer when he put her in the hospital. I officially disowned him, and she agreed. For about 3 months. She just won't defend herself. I have to be a major ahole about it to try to protect her. She still went over $5K in debt for him and the 3rd baby by the 3rd baby momma. Our relationship rides on a thin razor's edge when it comes to him.
"The middle one is constantly belittling her sister..."
My oldest daughter has a learning disability. My middle daughter is in Pre AP classes. The middle one is constantly belittling her sister fir not knowing certain things. She walks around with this I'm better than you attitude. We didn't raise her that way. My wife will tell her bluntly to stop being terrible to her sister.
"My mother finally cut my brother off..."
My mother finally cut my (47) brother off after 25 years. She gave him 2k a month or more, and still pays his cell bill. I told her if she wanted to tear through every cent she had and then complain that he made no effort to call her (unless the check was late), I was bailing out of the picture. She also realized his unemployed @ss was too busy to help take care of her. I think she knew years ago he was a lazy manipulative person, but he's the baby and she could never say no. Anyway, f*** my family.
"We found out..."
Adding this to stress medical issues: My son was a legitimate butthole for most of his teenage years. Terrorized his younger brother, had to argue about everything! He saw his pediatrician regularly and a psychiatrist. In his late teens, he suffered with depression and anxiety. I asked his new doctor (adult primary care physician) to run thyroid tests. I had depression and anxiety at his age and wasn't tested until I was 24. I found out that I have hypothyroidism.
We found out that although his thyroid was ok, he had a very strange level of testosterone. Very low. Once he started replacement therapy, his attitude, depression, and anxiety all improved!
His doctor told me that she wouldn't have even thought about testing him because of his age but she was glad that I had pushed for it.
"In all honesty..."
In all honesty waaaaaaay before they were even teenagers.
My stepson and daughter are one of the significant reasons that I'm planning to end my relationship with their mother.
They are 10 and 12, I've known them since they were 6 and 8.
I've tried really hard to engage with them and parent them as equally as I do my own children, but they just don't get it.
Their mother treats them like they're little angels whilst they sit on their arses all day glued to screens. They're a couple of years behind the usual in reading and in maths and I'd hoped to use lockdown as an opportunity to get them up to speed but it was thrown back at me with surly behaviour and non-engagement, I received no support from their mother so I ended up giving up as it was pretty obvious I was wasting my time.
I've come to realise two things, you can't educate pork and you can't help those who won't help themselves.
"Watching them figure it out..."
My parents didn't realize until my sister was 30. Watching them figure it out was heartbreaking. For years it was "oh, you all do it to each other" and suddenly it was "oh, this isn't a healthy relationship for any of us" real quick. They realized we hadn't been exaggerating about anything, but she had flat out been lying for years. They stopped putting up with her s***, she chose to cut contact with all of us, got even madder when we all said we'd give her the space she wanted, she wanted us to "fight for her." Mum is the only one who talks to her now. Plus side, my parents, other sister and I have the best familial relationship we've ever had.
"She used her diagnosis..."
My sister would always explode at the drop of a hat, destroy everything, get extremely violent, etc. She'd see things and get increasingly paranoid. Eventually she began to self medicate with drugs and alcohol.
Later in life, I convinced her to get help and she was diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenia. (Duh.) At that point I was like, "oh she really can't help it. Things will get better now!"
Ha. No.
She used her diagnosis to doctor shop and find one who prescribes things to her that get her high, but exacerbate her symptoms. She uses her diagnosis as an excuse to be absolutely awful and abuse people. She's in and out of jail and constantly fighting with someone. Still took me until this year to realize that that's who she is and to give up. Sometimes you just really wanna believe you can love the evil out of someone.
"She doesn't understand..."
My daughter is five and she's stone cold. She doesn't understand the meaning of the words she uses, but she knows the effect they will have on people. We're legit worried about what happens when the hormones show up.
"Not that she did anything terrible..."
My step sister has always been incredibly lazy and worked harder to not do housework than actually help out. She would throw tantrums to not go to school, not wash dishes, and everyone just kind of let it off as hormones. I always ended up doing all her chores.
Not that she did anything terrible like some poeple in this thread, but one thing she did was lie. She lied a lot and one of them split my family apart and drove my step-moms depression and bipolar disorder over the edge. She also just had no opinion or good characteristics. I always say, she is a blank canvas that everyone else paints on. Especially her mother. Her mother thinks she is the most amazing person in the world, better than my brother and I, who both work and have a life of our own.
She wrote a letter to my father years later when he left the house basically blaming him for her depression and everything that went wrong in the family, another lie. Ive known this girl since i was 11. Became my sister and yet she threw us under the bus for nothing. Luckily I have a half sister with much better qualities than her who loves and adores my brother and I.
Fyi. Now she is 23, dropped out of College, no potential, engaged and all she wants to do is sit at home and do nothing.
"She was two years older..."
My sister is a pretty terrible person. We were raised the same way - fairly open. I had absolutely no restrictions: I could have girls in my room, I had absolutely no curfew, my parents even thought I went to one of my friend's house to smoke pot and let me (we actually stayed up all night playing Halo in a cabin, so my eyes were red and I smelled like I tried to cover up any smell using fireplace smoke).
She was two years older and had more restrictions placed on her due to her doing things like sneaking out and driving home drunk.
They probably could have punished her more when we were children. She would always start the fights, and when we were left alone in the house she would sadistically attack me. She would pound on my door for hours, and since I didn't have a lock I needed to sit in front of it holding it shut. I don't really blame them though, as there was no way for them to know..what I wouldn't have gave for a video recording device like every kid has now.
Anyways, I think some people are just going to be bad people, and there's not much you can do about it. She genuinely takes pleasure in other people's pain. It's pretty ironic she became a nurse.
"He managed to convince the doctor..."
My mom says it was when my brother was 3.
It was the mid 80s and he used to beat the s*** out of us whenever we stepped "outta line" so my mom took him to a therapist to have him evaluated. He managed to convince the doctor that my mother was hitting us. She was spanking, but my brother made it sound like she used him as a punching bag, and Child Protective Services had to investigate. Nothing came of it,but my parents yanked him from therapy; my parents have been too afraid to discipline him ever since, and he basically emotionally scarred the hell out of us other 3 siblings.
Now he's a 34 year old ex-Navy hoarder that "remodels reclaimed properties" and lives on his own. He has girlfriends, but eventually he breaks them down so hard they either get smart and run, or they snap and either become alcoholics or try to kill him. The "love of his life" did both.
"The good news is..."
I can't speak for my mom, but I first realized my brother is a s***** person when he kicked her out of her house (he was living with her) on Christmas Eve one year because he was throwing a party he'd been planning "for a long time" (he was 27, if that matters). Mom and my (then-9-year-old) half-brother had plans, but had to cancel because they got sick and wanted to spend a quiet evening at home. Older bro generously booked them a hotel room for the night, which was where she called me from in tears.
He'd always been a self-centered, sensitive ass but that was when it finally dawned on me that he wasn't a good person. The good news is that he's cut me out of his life over a facebook post I made (I complained that I had to buy my own car when our parents bought him three so far because he keeps wrecking them). He sent me an angry text that he doesn't want to speak to me for the rest of my life (he specified my life because I'm a terminal cancer patient) and ignored all my attempts to apologize. I cried for hours, but the next day I realized I'm way better off without him.
"The first time I saw..."
My girlfriend's 5 year old. The first time I saw an extremely friendly dog run from her I raised an eyebrow. Then I got to see her try to control the world and just be a general a-hole. It blows my mind how animals see right through people...
"And then there's the other one."
My aunt has two of the nicest children I've ever met. They're smart, kind, and funny, and love everyone to bits.
And then there's the other one.
My aunt knew her children were ass***** from before they were born. She didn't want a kid... So instead she had 3 with a guy she knew was cheating on her. But she had three and it was done, and now she's a single mom who absolutely hates her kids. She does anything to avoid spending time with them.
As I said, the youngest two are as great as they can be in such a predicament. She despises them the most. I've never seen her speak with either beyond simple commands.
The oldest is a piece of s***. He's the worst person I have ever met. And she ADORES him. He hits his younger sister in the face? Well obviously she was annoying him. He punches every man he meets in the junk? Oh, he's just playing!! He refuses to call any of us by our familiar titles (he won't say "grandma and grandpa", he calls my grandma either by her first name or "toots".... A far cry better than childhood, when he'd call her "sugartits" cause he heard it on TV)
He's abusive, obnoxious, and overall horrible. My aunt has yet to recognize this. We all knew it from the day he was born.
"My aunt realized this..."
My aunt realized this when he punched me in the mouth at 4. He was in his 20s for the record at the time this happened. But my aunt's denial was so strong that she ignored all of the signs of it. Now he's paralyzed from the neck down and she is taking care of him. He still verbally abuses her. I wish he died in that accident instead of being paralyzed.
"I feel a lot of it..."
As the younger brother of someone who is a near constant arsehole to our parents the truth is most decent parents won't admit that their kid turned out a bad person. They just see themselves as the blame, that they did something wrong or try to find explanations such as mental illness (to be fair he's been diagnosed but nothing finite, either way he's still a fully functioning adult, no learning disabilities). I remember him always being a little s***, he hated seeing my parents giving me praise. My parents always describe it misbehaving as a child, pulling fire alarms and destroying shop displays as well.
I feel a lot of it does come from my parents being too lenient on him or not encouraging empathy at least. That's the biggest tell if you ask me, if you can see that your child can't recognise the negative feelings they're producing in others by the age of 8 then you need to get them help. You shouldn't consider it just a phase by that point, children are a lot smarter than most adults give them credit, they have the emotional capacity to recognise emotional pain in others by 8 (baring learning difficulties which in itself requires them getting extra help) ultimately they're not doing so for other reasons and need to understand how it feels to be on the end of the abuse they generate.
People Over 50 Explain How Working Has Changed Since They Were Young
Reddit user LightningStrikes818 asked: 'Redditors who are 50+ years old, what has changed the most about working when you started working vs working nowadays?'
It feels like the workplace is constantly changing, especially since the pandemic, with more people working from home, more systems being automated, and more social pressure for workplaces to evolve.
But it's even more jarring to think of how much the workplace has changed for those who have been in the workforce for many decades and how seemingly every aspect of their work has changed... at least once.
Redditor LightningStrikes818 asked:
"Redditors who are 50 years old or older, what has changed the most about working when you started working vs. working nowadays?"
Dress Codes
"Skirts/dresses and pantyhose required of women in many offices through the 1990s."
- hhhmmm0
"Flipside: suits and ties, buttoned-up shirts. Brutal in summer."
- ridleyfiredome
"Pantyhose were high maintenance. I had to have an extra pair in my desk drawer in case of a major run. I had clear nail polish at home and work to stop any runs above the hemline."
"Pantyhose were expensive, I had nice department store hose for special occasions, and bulk mail order hose for daily wear. They had to be washed in mesh bags and hung to dry."
"In the summer I’d get swamp crotch when it was hot and humid, and heat rash on my thighs where they rubbed."
"Heels had to be polished and the heel tips replaced at the shoe shop. Most office clothes were dry clean only, and it was expensive, and yet another errand. Office clothes were expensive, I didn’t have many clothes, I had to plan what to wear and time the dry cleaning."
"I don’t miss the nightmare of heels and hose from the 80’s."
- phineasminius
Electrical Transfer, Who?
"Having to go to the bank to cash my paycheck."
- Cndngirl
"Oh my god, yes, and we needed to wait until after 3:00 PM to cash it."
- Big-Reflection-104
Work and... Strip Clubs?
"We took a company van with a logo on it to take out-of-town guests to a strip club. I don’t even think I can say that out loud at work today."
- scruffles360
"Strip clubs were standard practice. Especially in sales. Many deals closed in those places over my career."
- YOU_WONT_LIKE_IT
Smoking Spaces
"People smoking indoors. Clouds of smoke everywhere in the office and no way for a nonsmoker to avoid it. That was the norm so you just had to suck it up."
- andBobsyourcat
"Yes, at one stage I had the misfortune of sitting next to someone who used to smoke a pipe. I could barely see my computer screen at times for the clouds of smoke."
"Also, the IT support guy would come over to do something and he always had a cigarette dangling from his lips, dropping ash into my keyboard. Urgh! Different times!"
- MickSturbs
Office Parties of Old
"Man, in state government, all the older employees have similar stories of work parties in the 90s. Booze everywhere, smoking, people dancing, and having fun. Everyone brought their spouses, etc."
"Now you're lucky if you see a Christmas cake. People wonder why everything feels like it's coming apart at the seams and people are so unhappy. That aspect of being a human being fun, even at work is gone."
- t00sl0w
"I'm a millennial in industrial equipment sales, and it genuinely feels like you showed up to a party about an hour after everyone was gone."
"Nowadays, I can't even have a beer with dinner and expect to expense it."
- titsmuhgeeee
"Oh man, the office Christmas parties then, versus now?? Forget about it. Like comparing a wedding to a funeral."
- Schyznik
Safety Precautions
"I'm 42 but feel like I want to chime in."
"Health and safety has changed loads. You wouldn't get away with half the sh*t we did when I was 17."
- section4
Constantly, Always Sitting
"I watched office work go from sedentary to virtually immobile. We used to retrieve paper files, pass memos around, and consult with coworkers in other sections and floors."
"Now everything is available on the screen in front of us, everything can be shared with a few clicks. It’s convenient, but so unhealthy."
- MathematicianWitty23
What's a Pension Again?
"Hardly anybody has a pension anymore."
- whitewolfdogwalker
"That's where I feel really lucky to be in Australia, we have mandatory superannuation (a percentage of your pay plus employer contribution goes into a fund for your retirement) and most people will also qualify for an age care pension in addition to their super."
"The pension isn't really enough for our current seniors who don't have much super (due to the timeline of when it was introduced) but generations after that should be relatively well set up for retirement."
- TheGardenNymph
Work Availability in General
"I'm in the UK."
"It was a great deal easier to find work. You'd get vacancies posted in various places and could go down to the Job Centre, browse vacancies posted on postcards on boards, pick out the jobs you were interested in, and get a member of staff to arrange an interview for you. Just like that."
"Dress codes were more formal and you actually had to go to work. If you worked in an office for the right company work finished Friday lunchtime when you'd go with your colleagues to the pub. You'd go back after the 'liquid' lunch hour and work Friday afternoon, but no sh*t got done and work piled up for Monday."
"You got paid either direct debit, cash or if you were unlucky by cheque. You had to deposit your cheque in the bank or building society and wait for the cheque to clear, usually four days, but sometimes 10 days. If you got paid cash you'd get it in a small brown envelope known as a wage packet which listed all deductions on the outside. It still felt good to tear open the wage packet and take out the cash."
- ElvishMystical
The Value of Employees
"That you chose a career, and you worked for an employee, and they valued your experience. You rose in the ranks of your profession, you became a valued team member, and you stayed until you retired."
"Changing jobs often is frowned on; if you make a job commitment, you follow through on it. People get bothered and quit/move/change really quickly now. That's not necessarily bad, but it has created a gap in expertise; everyone is new all the time, and there isn't any value in having experience."
"If you happen to be an elder in your field with some level of legacy knowledge; it doesn't seem to matter because your boss is likely younger than you and less experienced."
"There used to be jobs what you did to get paid and live, and careers, what you did because you wanted to invest time into being good at something, AND that was how you made a living."
"Moreover, you went to school to be in a career. So you put time and energy into attaining your job, therefore you'd want to stay in it and grow. In theory."
"I'm not sure anyone cares about being in a career anymore. Because we all feel so betrayed by the system; wages not keeping up with COL, inflation, (and inflation subsiding and prices staying high because it's what the market will bear), and when everyone is replaceable, then no one is an expert."
"I'm GenX. I work in healthcare. I work in a broken system that no one actually wants to fix. Those of us working in this system are now just grist for the mill. It's too bad because we spent a lot of time and money going to school to be able to work in our chosen field."
"In contrast, my mom was also a nurse. She had a career. She worked in it until she was 70 and retired. She worked with a team that mostly stayed the same, over decades. I don't work with anyone I started with at my job six years ago."
- bunnehfeet
Business Phones
"People used to answer their business phones."
- BornFree2018
"Oh my god, work landline numbers. I never see those anymore. I don’t even have a phone number in my email signature at work anymore."
"And business cards used to be such a big deal. I used to get really excited to see my name and title in print. I would always send my parents one when I got a new job. What a dork!"
- ptpoa120000
What Work-Life Balance?
"There was a lot more understanding back in the 80's and 90's that each employee had a life outside of work, and work would end at 5:00 PM. You could leave work and go do something that you liked, maybe a martial arts class or some learning workshop somewhere."
"There were no phone calls. Text messages and email hadn't happened yet. Pagers were rare. People were in better shape. They had time to workout and were encouraged by their bosses to go do something to keep in shape."
"These days, it's the opposite. There's no encouragement from your boss or your coworkers other than to just work around the clock. You're never 'off.' Emails, text messages, Slack messages, video calls, and 'tickets' from your company's internal issue tracking system come in at all hours of the day."
"You're tracked in every way possible these days. You're given impossible deadlines. It now takes incredible willpower to break free and 'sneak' away to go workout. You're exhausted all the time, so you lose the desire to workout. You just want sleep."
"Instead of meeting up with friends somewhere for dinner, you are happy to just get home, get something hot to eat from your microwave, and numb yourself by watching YouTube and Reddit."
"What you do now during your downtime is very low quality and is just done to unwind from the stress that follows you no matter where you are. They call this Flex Time, and its purpose is ostensibly to give you the ability to walk away from your work and go enjoy life. Funny."
- mhv64sj
New Measures of Success
"Working for a company for many years was seen as honorable and a sign you were a good worker."
"Now it’s viewed as someone complacent, scared of change, and stupid for not salary hopping."
"I don’t disagree, though; I’ve been at my company for a long time and it’s anything but complacent and always changing."
- MysteryMeat11
"This is why we in-betweeners especially (between gen-x and millennial) have been conflicted and confused about it all. We were raised by older boomers and heard it's best to stay with companies because it looks bad on resumes to not and can even affect your buying things like houses and cars."
"But then when we did, we were let go during times like the recession and cutbacks having to start all over again, on top of not getting raises like the new hires and then confused because we were told staying and being loyal looked good and led to success."
- fidgetypenguin123
A Literal Paper Trail
"Paper. Lots of paper."
"Before email, there were people (secretaries or admins) who would take a memo someone printed out on their computer, make physical copies, and either walk around to every executive’s desk, or put into inter-office mail. This memo could be to a few people, one person, or for a general announcement needed to go to everyone."
"For expediency, these memos would also be posted in public areas (lunchroom, messaging board) if it was a general notice. These memos were often routed from the head manager throughout the department if it was more for general information."
"We once had a wave of new hires (about 20 people in our company of 400) and each got their own announcement. So, 20 people and 50 copies was two reams of paper. Copied. Hand carried or inter-department mailed. For one set of announcements."
"Oh, and each department admin had their own routing slip (small piece of paper with each person in the department’s name) that was stapled to the announcement. When you got the memo, you read it, crossed your name off, and gave it to the next person on the list."
"That’s where 'they must not have gotten the memo' comes from."
- UncleGizmo
It's interesting to look back on how things have changed. While some things have definitely improved, like improved safety precautions and more relaxed attire, other things like a sense of work-life balance have certainly declined.
If people were able to choose their working conditions, it'd be interesting to see if they'd choose today's working conditions or a different work-life balance...
There are countless tropes in movies and books that people love to follow.
From enemies to lovers, to final girls, to certain types of jump scares, there are people who will read a book or watch a movie simply because their favorite trope has been promised to be in there!
A much-loved trope is the strong female main character, or even the strong female sidekick, and fortunately, they're becoming much more commonly represented.
Redditor carlories asked:
"What movie did the 'strong female' trope right?"
Fargo
"She's not a supersleuth like on 'CSI' or 'Criminal Minds.' 'Fargo' is the original 'competence p*rn.'"
"Her relationship with Norm is one of my favorite parts of the movie. Her genuine joy when she finds out he got his duck on the stamp is incredible."
- afriendincanada
"A while back on Twitter, someone asked to name movies that feature a female protagonist who is competent at her job, in an established relationship with a man (the relationship does not start during the events of the film), and her partner does not criticize her work or encourage her to give up."
"The only movie people could name that fully satisfied these requirements was 'Fargo.'"
- Mr_Saturn1
The Silence of the Lambs
"There is so much Clarice had to deal with re men not taking her seriously all through the storyline. Then she figures it out with her bestie."
- ColorfulEgg
"Her bestie Hannibal Lecter."
- pawg730
"It's funny how in his own sick way he was supportive of her and believed in her. He's a monster but not a sexist. Then he somehow talks to that disgusting guy in the jail cell next to him that assaulted her into eating his own tongue."
"I also love the part at the end where they tell her that he escaped and ask if she wants to go into hiding and she says, 'I don't think he will come after me. He would consider it rude.'"
- ClutchReverie
"A major theme of the movie is identity, both self-identity and the identities that society tries to put on people. A sub-theme of that is 'contradictory identities within one person.'"
"For Clarice Starling, she was both a smart badass (recall how she was introduced) and also a little girl (again, the introduction). Hannibal Lecter is both an absolute brute (to the point of being less of a barbarian and more of a wild, rabid animal) but also a highly intelligent, educated, and even courteous modern-day renaissance man."
"I f**king love it. This is one of my favorite movies."
- jeffseadot
Terminator 2
"I love that Arnold has said that she’s the star of the movie, not him."
"Linda reached out to him to help her workout, apparently, so she could be a totally different Sarah Connor in the sequel."
"For that reason, watching those movies back to back is always a great experience! Her voice changes at the end of the first movie as she begins the most insane mission ever, but you can tell she’s just getting started."
"In 'Terminator 2,' she is such a bada**, but also mentally broken. It’s hard to make all of that believable in a single character, but Linda did it!"
- YossiTheWizard
"My favorite part of Linda’s performance is when she sees the Terminator step out of the elevator. Up until this point, she’s been established as a completely different person from who she was in the first film."
"She’s absolutely fearless, ruthless, and can adapt to any situation. Then, she literally sees her worst nightmare slowly walk off the elevator and turn to look at her."
"She falls helplessly to the floor, totally consumed by fear, and then immediately sprints back into the arms of the people who had been abusing her for years."
- thewoodlayer
Alien
"I love this meme about 'Alien.'"
"The writer: 'Sooooo, I have been writing reviews for about ten years. My wife's review of 'Alien' puts everything I have ever written to shame.'"
"The wife: 'Alien is a movie where nobody listens to the smart woman, and then they all die except for the smart woman and her cat. Four stars.'"
- Jmen4Ever
"Sigourney Weaver nailed it at every turn. Today's 'strong females' just don't induce suspension of disbelief for me. Weaver had me utterly convinced that every single thing she did was one hundred percent possible and logical."
- NickDanger3di
Jurassic Park
"Laura Dern in 'Jurassic Park.' Seeing a strong woman in science at such a young age had a profound impact on me, and I truly think it’s one of the reasons I am a scientist today."
- mmert482
"And Lex saved the day with her computer skills."
- RobinReddBreast
X-Files
"'X-Files.' I can't believe I haven't seen that yet. She was highly intelligent with a strong confidence that couldn't be beaten down by the sexists in the early seasons nor the crushing but invisible power of the Syndicate."
- andrewnormoux
"She’s always one of my first thoughts when someone asks this question. She’s smart and doesn’t let anyone make her feel less than them, and she knows who she is."
"She’s kind and patient with others but takes no bulls**t. She doesn’t let being in a boys’ club push her into trying to be 'one of the boys,' nor will she accept any misogyny."
"She’s dedicated to her job and to her partner. Between her and Mulder she’s actually the trigger-happy one!"
"She also of course influenced a lot of young girls to go into STEM fields (see 'The Scully Effect')."
- teddy_vedder
Lilo and Stitch
"Nani is the best female character Disney has ever written. She’s 19, also dealing with the grief of losing her parents, and she’s giving up her dreams and working so she can take care of her little sister. Proper strong."
- hearsesong
"One of the most heartbreaking details I read about the movie is how a corner of Nani’s room has a bunch of trophies, medals, and ribbons, all presumably for surfing. She was likely on her way to becoming a professional athlete when she gave all of that up to step up and take care of Lilo."
- RiceAlicorn
"Bruh, she was just 19, holding down an entire house, raising her little 'off-beat' sister, and then had CPS breathing down her back..."
- Zijoelocks
"That moment you realize there is a very real threat in that movie, and it is NOT the aliens."
- Nepetea33
The Addams Family
"Morticia: 'I'm just like any modern woman trying to have it all. Loving husband, a family. It's just, I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade.'"
- akaioi
"Morticia Addams (from the 1960s series) has been the love of my life since I was six."
- frank-sarno
The Long Kiss Goodnight
"The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) with Geena Davis was great and doesn't seem to get much love."
- CazzaMcSpazza
"'You’re going to die screaming. Am I telling the truth?'"
"She was, in fact, telling the truth."
- KevSmileTime
Better Call Saul
"Not a movie but Kim Wexler in 'Better Call Saul.'"
- Smega-Spread
"I wish I could upvote this more. The Emmys did Rhea Seehorn wrong, her performance in the entire series was incredible."
- come-heroines
The Mummy
"Rachel Weisz playing Evie in 'The Mummy.'"
"'Take that, Bembridge Scholars!'"
- AmoebaGal
"Evelyn: 'Look, I... I may not be an explorer or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am.'"
"Rick: 'And what is that?'"
"Evelyn: 'I... am a librarian.'"
- Carefullyyellow
"This movie and this character was the first time I felt like I could relate to a female character in an action movie. I felt seen. She needs help but she’s not helpless."
"And she is the one who really kills the mummy in the end too. The only one who was educated and studied enough to read the correct passage from the book. Love that movie."
- ecstaticegg
Mulan
"One of my favorite things about Mulan is that she's not the hyper-masculine female lead who's just as good as the men at everything. She was a young woman in the army; no, she was not going to be as physically strong as the men."
"She saved China because she used her strengths to her advantage. I think that that's much more valuable to young girls than some emotionally dead, oversexualized character who has no visible flaws."
- lo_profundo
Legally Blonde
"I love this one because it's a great deconstruction of how more feminine interests and hobbies are perceived."
"A girl can be ultra feminine, be super into stuff like fashion and tiny dogs and carry herself in a certain way, and still be clearly intelligent and capable."
"Oh, and also because she has an actual character arc in the movie too. That's super important. It's not enough to write a character who is just good at stuff. That's easy. Making them a growing and evolving human in a believable way is the hard part."
- sylinmino
"Yesss. It's telling how many of the female characters listed in this thread are tomboyish fighters. People tend to think a strong female character is a woman who shed her femininity to kick some a**."
"This is why I love Elle. She actually reaches her full potential while actively embracing her hyper-femininity, and others are proven wrong for underestimating her due to that femininity."
"Even some of my favorites like 'Mean Girls' unfortunately fall into the trap of associating hyper-femininity with negative traits... I'm hoping the 'Barbie' movie follows in 'Legally Blonde''s footsteps on this front."
- twoshotsofoosquai
Arrival
"Oh man, this movie is so good. I still catch myself thinking about it often. Totally mind-blowing."
- missilefire
Stargate SGI
"Not a movie but... Samantha Carter from 'Stargate SG1.'"
"She's an a**-kicking brainiac super scientist lady who was also kinda goofy at times and still very much in touch with her feminine side."
"What I like the most about her is that not only is she utterly indispensable to the team, but she doesn't overshadow any of the other team members, she never lords over others unless they're being a d**k to her first and in general, is a good person."
"She kicks a**, can take a joke and crack one too."
"What I really liked with her is that they made sure she wasn't the overall brainiac, she was the scientist, the tech guru, and she knew how things worked. But Daniel Jackson was the history/language/culture guy and they often had them working together with Daniel reading the instructions to tech written in alien languages while Sam did the reprogramming."
"She had one 'modern strong female character' moment in episode one, but apparently Amanda Tapping hated that line and they never made her say cringy s**t like that again. She wanted the character to not stand apart from the team because of her gender or have others act like 1980s movie sexist bullies towards her."
"She wanted her character to be a fully realized part of the team and for other characters to act like professional adults around her (except when they were under the influence of mind control but that didn't make them sexist)."
"Cannot recommend her enough."
- FlapJackMicky
While a lot of work still needs to be done to ensure that women receive he representation they deserve across the entertainment industry, it's wonderful to see such a long list of films, ranging from the '80s all the way up to being released this summer.
We've all heard creepy rumors or legends that have made falling to sleep far more challenging than necessary.
Such as ghosts that supposedly haunt old buildings or alligators supposedly lurking in sewer systems.
If there's anything guaranteed to send shivers down the spine of superstitious or panic-stricken individuals, it's learning that the terrifying information they've just been told is fact, and not fiction.
Making one nervous to step out their door in the morning, let alone fall asleep.
Redditor mimiqttt was eager to hear the most utterly spine-tingling facts people knew, leading them to ask:
"What are some creepy facts you know?"
For The Sake Of Transparency...
"Box Jellyfish are not only the most venomous jellies to humans, but they also possess at least 24 functional eyes (of various degree) on its body despite having no centralized brain."
"Four of its eyes always peer up out of the water regardless of the animal's body position."
"Some eyes can make out images, others are more primitive."- Southern_Gator
The Last Thing You'll Ever Hear...
"Hearing is the last sense you lose before dying."- HorrorPusherr
Talk About Keeping You Up At Night...
"Hundreds of people die every year."
"From being strangled by their bedsheets."- bender0x7d1
Sunny Day Bed GIF by VVS FILMSGiphySay Cheese!
"If all bacteria in a cheese decided to move in the same direction the cheese would move quite a distance in a day."- Worldly-Traffic-5503
Deserving Of A Raised Brow...
"Due to human artificial selection, dogs are evolving eyebrows."- Light_of_Niwen
Beyond An Existential Problem...
"There is a condition where you just think you’re dead or don’t exist."
"People who have it sometimes stop eating because they think they’re dead."- BlueCanary434
Sad Halloween GIF by This GIF Is HauntedGiphyAmong The Many Reasons You Should Always Knock...
"One of the most common places to find a dead body is on the toilet."
"Cause when they're alive and not feeling well, the first thing they do is go to the toilet thinking it could be a bowel issue."-pumpkinthighs
Dubious Honor...
"Herculaneum is better preserved than Pompeii, it just hasn't been excavated as much."
"Pompeii was essentially destroyed by falling volcanic rock, it's dead later being buried by ash after rigor had set in."
"Herculaneum was destroyed by pyroclastic flows so hot that the liquids in people's bodies turned to vapor and exploded instantly."
"Currently, the population in the area is so large that the Italian government is having a hard time deciding whether or not it's worth it to warn or evacuate them or not."-Reddit
Can't Say It Ran In The Family
"In a strange and semi creepy coincidence, Robert Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, was saved from falling off a train platform and being run over by Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth."- Infamous-Piece3783
train tracks natgeo channel GIF by National Geographic ChannelGiphyA Job Not Fit For The Human Race.
"Cadaver dogs can smell bodies through waters."
"Lakes , etc."- PlaysTheTriangle
...BWAHAHAHAHAHA...
"If you build something in your yard against HOA rules, then it’s called an unwanted erection."- thecookiesmonster
When Your Body Starts Gaining Up On You...
"Your eyes have their own immune system that works separately from your body’s immune system."
"If your body’s immune system found out it would attack your eyes."
"I read this here and at my last eye appointment I asked if it was true."
"The eye doctor said 'Yeah, it’s kinda weird' and I was like 'kinda?'"- McSmackthe1st
Eyes Blink GIF by Eternal FamilyGiphyPretty And Delicate On The Outside...
"If given access to it, butterflies will happily drink blood."- supermarketblues
The Only Thing Scarier Than One Black Hole...
"During the merger of two black holes, a black holes can occasionally get ejected from the system and get shot out into open space and become a wandering black hole."
"The creepy part for me is that because a large part of the way in which we see black holes is through their interactions with their surroundings we wouldn’t really be able to see it coming towards us."- rflok34
Vanity Is A Sin, After All...
'Everyone who has ever owned the HOPE DIAMOND has met some sort of gruesome, untimely death."- QuietRulrOfEvrything
diamond supply GIFGiphyThe world is a fascinating, often terrifying place.
Perhaps why some people firmly believe ignorance is bliss.
On the other hand, knowledge is power.
So if you see a school of jellyfish, you all now know better than to think they can't also see you...
It's no secret alcohol lowers inhibitions and sometimes messes with people's self-control.
Since I never saw the appeal of passing out, losing my memories of a party, or waking up in a strange place the next morning with nothing but the clothes on my back, I never drank myself past tipsy. That policy, however, enabled me to bear witness and remember the crazy things my friends did while drunk.
When I was in college, my roommate and I liked to cut across the woods to get to places faster. This was before every smartphone came with a built-in flashlight, and when flashlight apps were basically jokes. In order to get through the woods safely at night, we bought small, powerful flashlights at the start of the year.
We cut across those woods to get to a party one night, and my roommate got extremely drunk. There was an unexpected blackout during the party, so in addition to candles and battery-powered lanterns, my roommate turned on her flashlight. She was so drunk, she thought it was a person and fell in love with it. Every time the light shone on her, the flashlight was telling her it loved her too, but every time it shone on someone else, it was cheating on her.
By the end of the night, she was drunk that she dropped and broke the flashlight, and cried because she thought she killed it. I had to surrepticiously throw her flashlight out and replace it with mine, pretending that it had passed out, but wasn't dead. By the time we got back to our dorm, she broke mine too, but had fallen asleep right after, so there was no more crying.
Looking back, maybe it was a good thing this happened when smartphones didn't have built-in flashlights...
I'm not the only one who has witnessed someone doing something ridiculous when they were drunk. Redditors have both done stupid -- and in some cases, really bad -- things, and seen stupid or really bad things, and are eager to share.
It all started when Redditor S4phire34 asked:
"People who have been really drunk, whats the worst thing that you have done?"
Classic
"Had a Christmas party and there was a different party next door that was having an awards type event, I got up on stage and starting singing Jessie’s Girl. Even to this day I am mortified."
– princesssmurfet
"If it makes you feel any better, at least a handful of people at that awards show probably thought it was hysterical."
– TheMilkmanHathCome
"I was in a bar, thought it was open mic. Went on stage with the band (it wasn’t open mic) and sang ‘Brown eyed Girl.’"
– judgymom
Away From Home
"Fell asleep in the alleyway. It was dumb and dangerous. Friend found me."
– hotoatcereal
"Yup! Slept in a parking garage one time."
– Moneyshot_ITF
Nothing Good Happens After 2 AM
"It was a birthday and my friends brought me a shot for every year."
"Unfortunately I got sick on the side of a major highway in Rochester, NY @ 2:00 in the morning. Even worse I wanted them to leave me there to sleep…did I mention that it was in the middle of winter?? Lucky to be typing this post."
"I lost a lot of self respect and the moral high ground in any substance abuse conversation I will ever have with those friends."
– nytocarolina
Speech!
"Telling my girlfriends mother that i couldn't [sleep with] her daughter that evening cause i was too drunk to get a condom on."
– Various-Ostrich-5664
"This would keep me up at night for decades."
– Lukealove
"Wedding toast stuff. Obviously not directly but that deserves an inside joke nod."
– commitpushdrink
Ick!
"Went out drinking with fellow booksellers and got very drunk indeed. Had the brilliant idea to sleep close to the bookshop rather than go home. Walked around and eventually found a little hut near the car park for the attendant to work in during the day. Climbed through the window and slept in his chair."
"At some point in the night I felt very ill and rather than make a mess, I puked in the little drawer in his little desk. Filled it completely to the top, closed it, and went back to sleep. Woke up with a terrible hangover and went straight back to work. Remembered halfway through the day about the puke and have felt terrible about it ever since. Still find it hard to read Goldilocks and the Three Bears with the kids."
– MikeSizemore
Liar, Liar?
"Got arrested after puking on a cops shoes swearing i wasn’t drunk."
– BrushNo1369
"I'm thinking if he already had to have the conversation with a cop that he wasn't drunk, it was probably for whatever started the conversation."
– garbagedisposalpasta
Awkward
"My buddy told me he'd take me home after a night out. He got too drunk and didn't want to drive (good choice), so he called me a cab and got me a hoagie from Wawa."
"The last thing I remember was climbing into the cab. I really wish I could recall the events of the night after that."
"The next morning I woke up in someone's gravel driveway, no hoagie and no phone, I only had my wallet."
"I just hope I didn't ruin that cabbies night but I can almost be assured that I did."
– LeviathanIsI
That's Unfortunate
"I was too drunk to drive so I drove my RC car to the liquor store while walking behind it and it got ran over by a drunk driver. Rip SCX10."
– Car_loapher
"Hold on just the first half of this alone is f**king hilarious. “I’m too drunk to drive, so I’ll walk there. I just need to find a car to take…”"
– IronLusk
"Let me find my keys...er...remote."
– lightningspider97
All By Myself
"Trying to walk in higher heels than usual I fell into a swimming pool at a party where I didn't know the hosts very well. Nobody wanted to fish me out as I was wearing a long maxi dress it was hard to climb out on my own."
– tinkblueyez209
"So, people just straight up watched you struggle to get out while sneaking pics?"
– NottaPattaPoopa
Sound The Alarms
"Walked away from a party, went to my friends garage and slept. Woke up, went back. They had called police and coastal guard becuase they thought I had drowned or went missing."
– Den_dar_Alex
"Nobody checked the garage? Your friends sound like the bust."
– flacobronco
"Well everyone was drunk so no one thought about it. The garage was 2000 metres and owned by his dad. So would've thought to check there."
– Den_dar_Alex
Yikes!
"I came home very drunk one time and my roommate had baked this chocolate lava cake thing with a Betty Crocker mix. I took one look at it and started f**king devouring it with a spoon. He came into the kitchen the next morning and found half of it missing with very obvious spoon marks. I don't even think he got to eat any of it. Needless to say he was pissed."
– disgruntled-capybara
"Did you bake him one in repayment?"
– Beavur
"No, but I bought a replacement box for him."
– disgruntled-capybara
""Here, more work!""
– Tshirt_Addict
"duuuuude this is where you had to buy him a nice cake or give him the box plus his labor so like $20."
– ixlovextoxkiss
Woof, Woof!
"Stole the hosts lunch in their fridge, ate it, then threw it up all over their deck and it froze over in the -30°C weather and they had to hack it off with a shovel."
– HalfChineseJesus
"This is funny because if I didn't know the question I would guess a dog wrote this."
– mro777
"I threw a chicken into a swimming pool once, and then dived in to rescue it. According to my friend, I was so distraught that I took it to bed with me to keep it warm."
"When I woke up the next morning I had no memory of the night before and found a chicken in my shower."
– massive-bafe
"I was hesitant to hit this thread cause I figured it could be really dark but this has to be one the greatest stories I’ve ever heard in my life 😂"
– capnsmirks
"Was it a live chicken?"
– SentientRock123
"Yes. It was my cleaner's pet chicken, who lived in a small pen near the pool (the chicken, not the cleaner)."
– massive-bafe
A Lucky Break
"I was 21, maybe 22. Just transferred to UW-Milwaukee. Every weekend I was going out to the bars/clubs with a bunch of international students I befriended. One weekend, we all went to a frat party where some of the guys asked me to join. I wasn’t interested at the time so politely declined."
"Fast forward a couple of weekends later, me and my buddies are at a club and I got so drunk I realized I just needed to go home. I called a cab (Uber and Lyft wasn’t a thing back then) and (in my drunken stupor) realized I didn’t have any cash on me. The cab driver was so pissed he took me all the way back to the club that he picked me up at and dropped me off."
"I started walking home, fell down and broke my cell phone so I couldn’t call anyone for a ride. While I was walking, a policeman pulled up beside me probably realizing I was completely hammered and maybe needed help."
"Not sure why, but I told the cop I was part of the fraternity that had asked me to join a couple of weeks ago. He said “wait really? I’m an alumni from there. Get in, I’ll drop you off.” Brought me right back to my dorm lol."
– niemzi
If only we were all that lucky!