No matter what age or position in life, snooping rarely ever leads to a good outcome. Now in this day and age parents do need to be on top of their kid's private maters, it's imperative for safety but, then you must be prepared for the fallout. Kids are full of secrets and contradictions and deceit. So before you crack that phone code.... pour a bottle of something and take a deep breath.
Redditor u/kam-pow wanted to see if any parents would be willing to fess up about what uncomfortable things they've found on their children's private screens by asking.... Parents who went through their kids phones, what did you see that you wish you never saw?YouTube Guilty.
Giphy
My stepson (14) searched for "Sexy Starfire Video" and "Sexy teen titans" on my husband's YouTube. We had a good laugh and then told my stepson to use his own YouTube account for that stuff. buttsmcgillicutty
"Hot Girls in Bikinis."
When I was a horny 14 year old boy, I downloaded an app on my iTouch that just had a bunch of pictures of women in bikinis. It was nothing special so I deleted it, but then downloaded it again out of boredom. But then deleted it again after realizing I could just look up real porn on the computer.
What I didn't know was that the App Store on my iTouch was connected to my mom's email, so she got a notification that I had downloaded the app, not once, but twice!
She picked me up from school the day after and asked why I had downloaded this app of "Hot Girls in Bikinis." I fumbled my way through a lie saying how my fingers slipped and I accidentally downloaded it. But then she hit me with the, "But you downloaded it twice." To which I replied, "ya my fingers slipped again causing me to download it after I deleted it." She 100% knew I was lying but, probably not feeling like having the sex talk right then (I never got the talk tbh), she just let it go and my 14 year old naive self felt like I was the best liar ever. babygotdiabetes
A good Girl...
When I was 14 I got caught by my mom reading a large document pasted full of explicit, sexual fanfiction, both straight and gay fanfiction (you can tell I was in high school a long time ago, lol)
I was luckily reading one of the few straight stories when I was caught. I snuck back in before my dad got home and sanitized the document of any homosexual fics.
When they later confronted me, I got weirdly defensive and aggressive about it, like "yeah I was reading porn, what are you gonna do about it?!?" It must have been shocking coming from a previously goodie-two-shoes Baptist girl combined with how I had acted when first caught, but they weren't aware I took away the threat of conversion therapy, lol! Lycoris
Oops. Sorry mom.
I actually had nudes on my phone when I was 16 and my mom was trying to look through my pics so I screamed at her and took it from her, and she got mad, so I decided to come out instead and told her I had bisexual pride flags and stuff and didn't want her to know yet. She brought me cheesecake to apologize.... Oops. Sorry mom. MickeyBear
Be Blunt.
Giphy
When I was 15 my parents found out by going through my messages that I used to smoke weed... So they got angry. But I got angry for going through my messages... Apparently I won that fight, because after that I could just talk to them about the amount I smoked like it was a normal conversation, and they never went through my messages again. rnottaken
Betrayal!!
Not a parent, but my mother once found a notebook (on my DSI, in 5th grade,) explaining in detail how I want to do some guy or something.
Worst part: I didn't write it. It was planted there by my ex-best-friend to get me in trouble. She admitted it to me. Hell, she even had a crush on the guy. My mom never believed me when I said I didn't write it. _Fengo
Mom's Secrets.
Went through a parent's phone... while staying with family, their rental unit's furnace shat the bed. My mom had absentmindedly left her phone on the kitchen counter when running to the store- it rang but I missed the call she was waiting for (from my dad.) Thinking I was getting instructions for when the HVAC appointment was, I opened a text and a voicemail.
Couldn't distinguish the first sentence but all I heard at the end was "blah blah blah heaters getting fixed. That mean I get some muff?"
I cried with laughter and never admitted to anyone what I'd heard. doublepulse
Apple ID....
When I first got my phone my whole family shared an Apple ID account. This allowed us to share purchases off apps or music and game progression wouldn't carry over unless we wanted it to. Normally the worst thing about it was whenever they changed the password I would need it again so I could download any apps. One weird thing about it though was that when you pressed the home button twice, it would show you what other devices were doing.
Usually it was harmless, my sister would be playing a game or my mom would be on Facebook. But once it showed my dad watching porn. I never told anyone in my family that I saw that but I soon after made a new Apple ID and switched over to it citing the password issue. I never listened to iTunes anyways so I didn't lose anything. Voop1121
NOOO!!!!
Giphy
I was going through my son's phone to find something (he asked me to) and saw he had been reading a Fox News article. RealityJaunt
It's Cool.
I feel like going through your kids phone is fine, but it kinda just depends on the child, their age, their maturity and past behavior. Like I will never understand the parents who go through their kids phones like all the time for no reason. -UN-KNOWN-
These Gestures Are Offensive In Other Countries | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
People explain the friendly gestures in one country that are offensive in another. It's imperative to do a little research about the destinations and culture...14 and Stupid....
Giphy
Not a parent but me. When I was about 14, I chatted with an older woman (older being early 20s) online who turned out to live extremely close to me. We exchanged a lot of pics & messages (stuff no parent would want to see of their teenage son) and agreed to meet up. But I left my phone in my mom's bedroom to charge and she discovered everything. In hindsight, it was incredibly stupid, but being a horny teenager I really didn't consider the risk. Probably dodged a bullet. But yeah, I bet she wishes she didn't see my penis pics. Reddit
"make sure to put that stuff away"
Back when I was a freshman in high school and the world wasn't full of kids with cell phones (it was just starting as this was 2001), this meant that we got our jollies other ways. As a budding writer, I took a shine to writing my own smut stories.
One in particular was rather colorful and I left it on my desk one night after writing it. Forgot about it and the next day, went to school.
A storm hit during that day, lots of rain and wind, and my windows were open in my room so during the day, my Ma ran in to close the windows and found a bunch of papers scattered across the floor. Yep, it was my story. hahahaha.
Ma gave me a brief suggestion to "make sure to put that stuff away" as my younger sister was known to go in my room and rifle through my stuff on the daily (usually to bring the Playstation into her room). Ma avoided eye contact the whole time. I elected to not be hungry when it was dinner time that night haha. mangledmatters
She is 11 years old.
My sister-in-law found on my nieces phone a WhatsApp group where her and her friends were talking about having sex with a corpse.
She is 11 years old. My sister-in-law was actually so concerned about what she saw in this chat she told the school (after speaking at length to my niece about it)
She snitched her own daughter and the other 15-16 kids in the group to the headmaster who absolutely destroyed them, they were in hysterics.
They all pointed the finger at one boy who had posted all these pictures into the group. Last I heard the school were arranging to meet up with his parents. MC1787
Mom is Cray..
When I was 14, I accidentally left my laptop unlocked one day and my mom took that fleeting opportunity to install parental spy software on it. For weeks without me knowing, she was reading literally every myspace message I was sending to my friends and then-girlfriend. It's worth noting that I wasn't doing anything "bad", as in I wasn't smoking, doing drugs, or even drinking at this age. Just random conversations and talking sexual with my gf.
My mom printed out a booklet of "evidence" against me, sat me down, and grounded me for 4 months and forced me to break up with my gf. Obviously this had a horrible impact on my social life during a pretty critical time. I lost loads of friends, and while it's been like 13 years since then and I've since repaired my relationship with my mother, I still don't really forgive her for that. Lpunit
Not Our Stuff...
Giphy
We upgraded my teenage son's phone so he didn't have to deal with the busted speakers on his old one. When the social-distancing kicked in my 4yo was going nuts because she didn't have anything to do so I took his old phone that I had held onto and booted it up. I figured I'd factory reset it and install a bunch of kid friendly stuff for the little one. When it came up it looked like he had already wiped it so I was doing a quick glance to make sure and found a bunch of pictures of him using some of the sex toys his mom and I had hidden away in our closet.
I took this as a good opportunity to talk to him discretely about personal space, respecting other people's boundaries and also some sexual health stuff. He was embarrassed at first, but we ended up bonding over it. I apologized for invading his privacy on the phone and he apologized for invading ours with the toys. basedonfacts
Ironing the Kinks....
The wife found her 16yo sons browser history on the family computer, and it was some really really kinky stuff!! She was mortified as she kept scrolling and her eyes were like saucers! I quelled her fears and told her that it was probably just mostly curiosity, and not to worry. When I talked him about what his mother saw, he turned white as ghost. I didn't make a big deal about it I just told him to be sure next time he uses a private browser or delete the history. genxerbear
Being 13....
My mom went through my phone when I was 13, and found sexual conversations and pics of me in my bra I had been having with a boy (same age) when I was spending too much time on my phone. I thought I was gonna die that night. Not just from getting murdered but embarrassment too. My god. Throwawayuser626
OUTED!!!
my mother was suspicious of me doing drugs and as she was looking through my texts she found a chat with my boyfriend (now husband), as she was reading them in tears I walked in and looked at her knowing exactly what had happened. I didn't plan to come out to my parents at the time. LayOffMyEggs
Opposite.....
Opposite. When my dad got a new phone, I was going through his old phone bc it was about to be mine. Saw a facebook account logged in and it wasn't his name. I opened the messages and it was all conversations with different women. Some didn't reply, some are engaged in a flirtatious manner. Didn't tell anyone but I gave him the cold shoulder for essentially cheating on my mom. It was years ago and I really hope he stopped doing it.
Nobody in my family knows what I knew. 21Units
search history....
Giphy
I'm 15, I think the most embarrassing thing my parents could find would be porn on my search history but the most damaging would be finding out about my bisexuality. LIyre
Do you have something to confess to George? Text "Secrets" or "
" to +1 (310) 299-9390 to talk to him about it.
For many childhood memories are overrun by living nightmares.
Yes, children are resilient, but that doesn't mean that the things we see as babes don't follow us forever.
The horrors of the world are no stranger to the young.
Redditor -2sweetcaramel- wanted to see who was willing to share about the worst things we've seen as kids, so they asked:
"What’s the creepiest thing you saw as a kid?"
Serious Danger
"Me and my best friend would explore the drainage tunnels under the Vegas area where we grew up. These were miles long and it was always really cool down there so it was a good way to escape the heat of our scorching hot summers. We went into this one that goes under the Fiesta casino and found a camp with a bunch of homeless people."
"Mind you we are like 11 years old lol. And we just kept going like it was nothing. It wasn’t scary then but when I look back at it we could have been in some serious danger. Our parents had no idea we did this or where we were and we had no cellphones. We could have been kidnapped and never have been found."
oofboof2020
Waiting for Food
"I was at a portillos once when I was 12 and I was waiting with my little brother at a booth while my parents got our food. This guy was standing with his tray kind of watching me then after a couple of minutes he started to walk over really fast not breaking eye contact with me."
"He was 2 feet from the table and my dad came out of nowhere and scared the s**t out of him. He looked so surprised and just said he wanted to see if I’d get scared or not. He left his tray full of food near the door and left. My folks reported him but we never went to that location again since we found a better one closer to home."
nowhereboy1964
Captain Hobo to the Rescue
"When I was a pretty young teen, my friends and I were horsing around in San Francisco and started hanging out to smoke with some homeless guys. Another homeless dude came up and began aggressively trying to shake us down for anything (money, smokes, a ride, drugs- all of it) and wouldn’t take no for an answer."
"We got in over our heads and could tell this guy was now riling the other 2 guys up and they were acting like they wanted to jump us. Some grandfather-looking old homeless man appeared out of nowhere and yelled at us to get the f**k out of here- nice kids like us don’t belong down here at this hour!!"
"Captain Hobo saved our lives that night. My parents sincerely thought we were at a mall all day lol."
FartAttack911
Survival
tsunami GIF
Giphy
"I was 7 and survived the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Witnessed the wave rise way above the already massive palm trees (approx. 40ft?) and my family and I watched/heard the wave crash into the ground from a rooftop."
faithfulpoo
These Tsunami stories are just tragic.
On the Sand
Scared The Launch GIF by CTV
Giphy
"We were a group of kids who went to swim in a local lake. And there was a dead body on the beach with their hands raised and their legs bent unnaturally that local police just took out of the same lake. I've never put my foot in these waters again."
oyloff
Be Clever
"I was walking to school and I was about 5 or 6 years old and some guy pulled up beside me in his car and asked if I would get in. He also offered me sweets to do so. I said no. The creepy bit was when he calmly said ‘clever boy’ to me, then drove off. I’ve never even told my parents or anyone else about this as it would most likely freak them out."
OstneyPiz
Bad Jokes
"Dad's side of the family pranked me by burying a fake body on our back property and had me dig it up to find valuables. Was only allowed to use a lantern for light. They stuffed old clothes with chicken bones. Sheetrock mud where the head was... Random fake jewelry as the treasures... I was like maybe 10 or 11.. I remember digging up the boot first and started gagging because it became real at that point."
Alegan239
YOU
Who Are You Reaction GIF by MOODMAN
Giphy
"Woke up to find my little brother staring at me in the dark, asking, Are you really you?"
PrettyLola2004
Siblings can really be a bunch of creepers.
No one should talk to others in the dark though.
Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.
While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.
Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.
Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.
For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.
Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:
"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"
The Tiny Issue Of Water...
"Absolutely not."
"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649
Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...
"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."
"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."
"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."
"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep
The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...
"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."
"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3
Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap Dierenartsen
Giphy
What Do You Mean Allow?
"I have no choice."
"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412
"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle
Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show
Hug GIF by The BarkPost
Giphy
Who Needs An Alarm Clock?
"I let my two cats sleep with me."
"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."
"And so do I."
"We've all developed a lil routine."
"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_
Whose Bed Is It Anyway?
"Yes."
"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."
"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor
"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."
"Would not come out."
"Got some food and some water in dishes."
"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."
"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."
"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."
"She was too busy eating."
"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."
"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."
"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."
"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."
"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."
"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."
"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."
"She would not go."
"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."
"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588
sleepy kitten GIF
Giphy
Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...
"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."
"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."
"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle
Saying No Just Isn't An Option...
"'Let'."
"Lol."
"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren
Felines Only!
"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz
Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang Official
Giphy
Is That My Hair On That Pillow?
"My dog is perfect."
"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."
"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."
"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester
It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.
Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...