Being a parent is hard. Sometimes it's utter insanity, especially if you're the parent of some particularly "spirited" children. Take comfort, all you frazzled parents out there. I know it may feel like you're out on your own in the fringes of some alien universe sometimes ... but there are others out here with you. You're not alone. We all sometimes want to bash our heads in when it comes to the wee ones.
Reddit user @RatigatorStew asked:
Some of these are kind of hilarious after-the-fact ... but some are totally heartbreaking. Brace yourselves, you're in for a wild ride.
50. EWWWWWWWWWWWW
GiphyMy son at the time was 2 and was being potty trained. We were doing really well, not one accident in weeks. I was preparing dinner and he came walking into the kitchen with brown hands, face, and clothing.
I asked him what it was and long story short he had covered my entire sitting room, bathroom, bedroom and his bedroom in poop. I could have had a breakdown at the time scrubbing it off the doors bedding and my couch but now looking back at it it just makes me laugh.
But never again am I having another child 😁
49. No Party
I'm not a parent, but my siblings did it, and my parents were furious about it.
We had a good day, movies, restaurant, and anything that would make any day good, but we needed to go to the store for tomorrow, and it was for a friends birthday party, and so when we came in, my siblings (around 8 and 10, also built like literal tanks) charged the front door, and bolted off, we thought nothing of it, until we saw a small girl (around 3 1/2 years old) right in the door, where there trajectory was. At the last second, her mom pulled her out of the way, if not, they would have seriously hurt or killed.
48. In The Other's Shoes
Role reversal, I had run through my house with my car, and the first thing my father said upon seeing it was simply "you've got to be kidding me."
They probably wished I didn't exist at the time
47. Thank Goodness No One Heard
Obligatory not a parent, but according to my mom, this was a particularly embarrassing moment in her life as a parent. Apparently when I was around 5 years old, I was waiting in checkout at the grocery store with my mom, and we were behind some obese black lady. She was taking her sweet time so my obvious reaction was to say, "Move it or lose it fat*ss." Fortunately, I had said it quietly enough that nobody had heard or noticed.
46. Thank Goodness
Not a parent but sitting at my doctors office and a little girl who is maybe 4 just yelled out "I don't eat newborn babies!!!!" And her mom just sat there turning red and said "I should hope not." I'm willing to bet she is feeling a little of that "can I just stop being a parent now"
45. Hey Kid No Drinking Weed
Well I'm the kid here. They caught me growing herb. The funny thing was that their reaction was simply "cut it down otherwise it looks cool". But they are actually pretty strict parents, never understood that reaction.
44. I Just Want To Sleep
He is only a little over 2 so he hasn't done that many bad things but once, at about 1 and 10 months, he cried and shouted for 5 hours straight in the middle of the night.. We did everything we could but he wouldn't be quiet. There and then I wished I could put him outside and sleep.
43. EWWWWW SQUARED
He would take a water bottle to bed every night. And would fill it back up again during the night. With urine. And would never throw the damn bottles out. Cleaning his room I found over 30 bottles filled to some degree. I'm still in shock.
42. I Have No Answers. Just More Questions
My son woke up middle of the night with croup, cool can't breathe, so we head to the ER. Get in the waiting room and sit down and this messed up meth head comes in. Sits down about 6 chairs away from us.
Kid starts.
"Dad. Dad. Daaad"
"What [redacted]?"
"Can I ask you question?" He's loud talking at this point.
"Sure man, what?"
"Why's that woman soooooo UGLY!"
Luckily they call me back as soon as he says this but in that 10 seconds I just looked at him and though "why?" Lol
41. You Tried, Honey. You Tried
Painted my Harley with white latex paint. They thought they were making my bike "pretty" for Dad. Instead of freaking out I hugged them both, knowing that I could wash the paint off.
40. The Secondhand Anger
GiphyMy youngest had a tough time learning to read, and he hated writing. So second grade was pretty tough for him. He also has ADHD, so there was just way too much sitting down in school. One day he was mad at his (wonderful, patient) teacher for I've forgotten what, and he went to the bathroom and wrote "MrsTeacherName is a b word." He was eight. There was no doubt who wrote it. Another kid told on him, but he also signed it. I have had many calls from the principal, but that was the worst feeling because this teacher had really been going above and beyond to try to help him.
39. No Thoughts For Others
Not a parent but I witnessed this 4 year old cousin and me and my aunt are at a drive through and the attendant is trans. My little cousin VERY LOUDLY SAYS " Mommy, is that a man or a girl?" So much sigh
38. The Worst Alarm Clock
Not my son's fault at all but jesus was I pissed... My 3 year old crawled into bed with us in the middle of the night last week, woke me up by saying daddy daddy daddy right in front of my face and as soon as I open my eyes he puked all over me. All over the new comforter and sheets, and all over the carpet. So much stomach capacity in a 3 year old.
37. But Why
My then 8-year-old son stole $200 from my husband's wallet one night. When he overheard us talking about where the money went, he shredded it in the shredder to hide the evidence. He confessed a week later to me in tears. We were seriously broke at the time, so $200 was basically our grocery and gas money for the month.
We laugh about it now, but at the time I really was fed up.
36. A Taste Of A World Unneeded
I had been working for like 15 hours and came home and fell asleep with her on my chest. I woke up to her scraping her hand across my teeth after she had put it in her poopy diaper.
35. A Big Fan Of Fixing Things
Covered two rooms in Vicks Vapor Rub. The smell is what woke me from "our" nap. She clearly wasn't napping.
Rub desitin all over the TV because the DVD she was watching started to skip. Mommy TV had boo boo, its okay I fixed it.
34. Daddy's Daddy But Not In My Pretend World
When I was a kid my mum always picked me up from nursery. One day my dad showed up instead and apparently I screamed that I didn't know him and grabbed on to a table like he was trying to kidnap me. Queue a bunch of parents looking on in horror as a 6"4 man tried to drag a screaming 3 year old out by her ankles. In the end I think someone called my mum who had to come out of work early to confirm who he was.
33. It's All Kids
I was reading through my grandma's letters to my grandpa. In one letter she talks about spending hours getting the bathroom super clean, polishing everything in it and waxing the floor several times. Then in the middle of the night, my mom, then 3 years old, grabbed the Comet powder and shook the entire bottle out over everything. When Grandma woke the next morning and discovered this, she cried.
When I read this, I exclaimed, "ok, it isn't just my kids!"
32. Kids Don't Mix With Shopping Apps
My daughter figured out how to leave the kids' part of the amazon tablet and enter the regular amazon app. Where she proceeded to spend enough money to empty our bank account, put us $600 in the hole AND she had another $3,000 of merchandise in the amazon cart that wouldn't go through.
It took me some time to undo all of that.
31. Teenagers Can Be Even Worse
When my daughter was 13, she stayed with Grandma while her Mom and I went to a Van Halen concert. She was supposed to stay the night. We got home about 12:00 or so and listened to the phone messages. ( this was the 80's,before cell phones). It seems she waited for Grandma to go to bed, found her car keys, stole her car and crashed it into a tree down the street. No real injuries and police were not involved, but I realized then and there that I did not want anymore kids!
30. Roving Destruction Machines
GiphySomewhere between the time I discovered that it was my children who had scratched giant "X"s into the side of my year old lease car with a ball point pen, or the time I had woken up from a nap (turns out I had severe bipolar depression and I should not have been asleep because they were very young at the time but I literally couldn't stay awake) and they had found my nail polish and opened every bottle and painted my bathroom and carpeted closet with it.
29. Nom Nom Nom
Not parent but the kid, when i was maybe 3 we went to Door County, Wis. and bought a bag or 2 of expensive apples to bring home, a 7 to 7.5 hour drive. So when we get home I ask for an apple which my parents give me. Then they go upstairs for idk use your imagination and left me on my own.
So I grab the bag of apples and take a single bite out of EACH APPLE b/c to my 3 year old brain 1 bite of 15 apples is equivalent to 1 apple and line up each and everyone in a shelf and sit contently in the chair until about half an hour later my parents reappear and look in horror and shock at the row of apples with 3 year old sized bites in each one.
28. A Shattered Relic
My dad taught Kung fu for about 30 years. When I was young I tried to chop a stick with his favorite sword (didn't know that when I was 7) that was supposedly blessed by some monk or some famous martial artist. Needless to say, I shattered the sword. He still talks about that sword and it's been almost 20 years.
27. The Drug Store
My daughter, at age 4, accompanied me on some errands. First, the drugstore, the nursery, the bank and then the grocery. After checking out, the cashier says, "Miss, don't forget your change." My daughter turns around and says, "Don't give that to her--she'll just spend it on drugs!" That's when we started referring to it as 'Walgreens.'
26. Tweet Tweet Tweet
So I'll share that when I was real young (2-3?) my mom was carrying me to our hotel room and without any warning as she's walking past a fire alarm I stick my hand out and pull it. Then I look at her and go "Mommy listen to the birds!"
I don't remember any of this, but my mom reminds me of it frequently over twenty years later now.
25. A SAINT, An ANGEL
Not a parent, but a kid. Once when i was around 5-7 my angelic father was taking a nap and i had the bright idea to clean his ear with a Q-tip. Of course this startled him and his first reaction was to quickly bring his hand up to his ear, effectively shoving it clean through his eardrum. He was confused for a second as the blood began pouring down the side of his head and i quickly explained what happened. He sighed, got me in the truck, and we went to ER without him getting angry at me.
24. The Ebb And Flow
My 2 year old fed my 5 year old a carpet tack, and she swallowed it. This was the same day I found out I had melanoma. That was an expensive month. We're all fine now.
23. Just Look What You're Heading Toward
My 4yo son asked an obviously pregnant woman if there was "a baby in there". When she responded in the affirmative he shouted "Sucker!"
The look the woman shot me was enough to shiver me timbers.
22. A Dramatic Way To Solve The Problem
She threw herself down in the airport and screamed WHY DID YOU THROW ME ON THE GROUND MAMA?! WHY. In the midst of crowds trying to get to their terminals. She did this because we were carrying all the bags and she didn't want to walk the last 60 feet to our gate. I wasn't even touching her when she did this I have no clue why this was her response.
21. Freshly Buttered
My kids buttered our dog. You ever try to catch a freshly buttered chihuahua?
20. The Newborn Slap
My 4yr old daughter (at the time) slapped a 3wk old newborn across the face immediately upon meeting her.
19. Headbutting
I'm 15 weeks pregnant and have a 15 month old. For those who haven't been pregnant before, the first trimester is brutal for exhaustion. With my first, I slept 10 hours a night and took a 2 hour nap every day. These days I'm incredibly lucky if I get 7 hours a night, and definitely no nap.
So one day about a month ago I barely slept because I had insomnia at night and my kid relentlessly wakes up between 5:30AM and 6:30AM. I was dead on my feet, so I decided to try and lie down on the couch and maybe catch a cat nap while my kid played. He saw me lying on the couch, walked up to me and head butted me as hard as he could right in the bridge of the nose. I heard a crunch and could have sworn it was broken it hurt so badly. In that moment, I regretted every life decision that had led me to that point. My very mature adult response was to burst into hysterical tears and ask him why he's so mean to me. I think that freaked him out more than yelling would have.
18. Praying For The Goblin King
GiphyMy then 2 year old puked, which landed in my open mouth. I wished the Goblin King would come for him then.
16. "Down Boobies" Come With Age
When my then 3 or 4 year old daughter asked me very loudly why I don't have "down boobies" like the older lady in the swimming pool change room that was standing right next to us getting dressed
She actually laughed and said to enjoy my "up boobies" while I still had them but I was still dying inside...
15. "He's Not My Parent"
I had to take my wife to the emergency room early one morning for intense stomach pain. Our kids were 2 and 3, and it was about 1am so they went with us. I packed a bag with snacks and toys, and loaded everyone up. It was the middle of the night when we got there, but we still had to park a significant distance from the ER entrance.
When wife was back with the doc my son (2 years old) was running around and playing. He hit his bumped his his head lightly and started shrieking an ungodly banshee wail. I decided we would wait in the car and maybe drive around a little, and they'd hopefully go to sleep.
So I'm carrying the bag and two struggling angry demon-preschoolers the quarter mile to the car. At this point my son isn't shrieking, but he's not happy. We encountered an elderly couple and my daughter (3 years old) looks them dead in the face and says, "hey, he's not my parent." I was exhausted and frustrated and my arms were tired from carrying them. I didn't want to stop and have the conversation... and I panicked a little. I sped up, got to the car, loaded them up and left in a hurry. I didn't get arrested, though... I was glad at the time, now I'm kinda pissed that the old folks just let me go.
You had the look of a frustrated parent who has someone in the ER, not the look of a panicked kidnapper and your daughter's voice probably didn't sound sincere. So don't blame the old people.
You probably made a grimace and they instantly recognized it as "only a parent could be that annoyed by a comment and only their own kid would know exactly what to say to make them that annoyed"
TBH, I had never even considered that. I always just thought of it as the time I got away with kidnapping my own kids in 2007.
That does make me feel a little better about the role the elderly couple played in the worst morning of my life. Thank you.
14. Bride of Chucky
GiphyIt was early morning, and I was sleeping in my bed. My two year old woke up before me, and decided that she was going to wake me as well. She climbed out of her bed, went into the kitchen, made a set of stairs to get the kitchen knives, grabbed a knife, and headed to my bed. She climbed into my bed, and stabbed me an inch below my eye. I woke with her holding said knife over my head, and her giggling like the bride of chucky.
- dce42
A two year old!?!? Wtf aren't they still essentially rugrats?
Two year olds can walk, climb, talk, (sorta) and attempt both murder and suicide all in like the same thirty seconds.
Parenting a particularly wild one is a lot like spending twelve hours trying to dress a badger in a leotard.
13. Sandwiches
3 dozen half eaten sandwiches hidden around her bedroom.
If she'd told us she didn't like them, that would have been fine. but to hide them? Holy smokes.
12. Outlets
My son was about 7. He discovered my wireless hot glue gun from my craft room. I was using it that afternoon and stopped to make dinner. I didn't shut off the gun.
Of course I didn't get to my craft space till much.later and noticed it wasn't there. Turns out my son took it and hot glued all the electrical outlets he could find. I mean, ALL of them.
11. Shake? Shake.
My now-husband and I had been officially together for maybe a week (known each other for years, tho). I was driving his immaculately maintained and detailed truck. It was hot, so I went through sonic and got the 3yr old a small milkshake. I handed it to him. He asked "shake?", I confirmed "shake."
He shook it.
Ice cream everywhere in 90+ degree heat. The truck smelled like spoiled dairy for weeks regardless of how much cleaning we did.
10. Trying To Get Suspended
My son had severe separation anxiety when he was in kindergarten, which was only made worse by a fall at school that caused head trauma (concussion followed by a seizure.)
That entire year was full of multiple parent teacher conference about behavior. He is a smart kid, so he started to purposefully try to get suspended so he could be home with us. He took the smallest girl in his class and push her head into a brick wall. The school figured out his game tho and gave him in-school suspensions.
Several therapists, medication, therapeutic mentor, an IEP, Neuro psych testing, a "big" from big brothers big sisters and two years later and he is doing much better but is still a challenge. It's the most tiring thing ever but I love him and he is continuing to improve so hopefully in a few years he is fully in control of himself.
9. Power Rangers
GiphySo I'm the oldest of 6, with the youngest one being 2 and me being 18.
My six year old sister walked up to me and my mom in the living room the other day with one of those "I'm up to no good" faces. Her hands are behind her back and she starts laughing before she even has a chance to start talking.
Then, she brings forth her hands, displaying the battery, and proceeds to try and "stick them up mom's butt"
We asked why and she said, "If you stick a battery up your butt you become a power ranger."
It was hilarious the first couple times, but now we have to watch our backs as we never know when she is going to try and turn us into power rangers.
8. $200
My then 8-year-old son stole $200 from my husband's wallet one night. When he overheard us talking about where the money went, he shredded it in the shredder to hide the evidence. He confessed a week later to me in tears. We were seriously broke at the time, so $200 was basically our grocery and gas money for the month.
We laugh about it now, but at the time I really was fed up.
- landho54
7. The Raw Chicken Incident
When my daughter was 3 or so, the wife and I were cooking dinner and had some raw chicken out on the cutting board waiting to be prepped. We turn back to see our daughter moving her hand from the chicken to her mouth, but we were to late, and she licks her fingers.
Now, she turns out fine, so stay with me.
She ends ups projectile vomiting, with explosive diarrhea all through the night. Of course she wanted to sleep with us since she didn't feel good.
We ended up changing the sheets at least 4 times. Whats worse/better? She was laughing about it most of time, cause she got to stay up late.
She still laughs when we tell her about it. She is 15 now.
6. The Drug Store
My daughter, at age 4, accompanied me on some errands. First, the drug store, the nursery, the bank and then the grocery. After checking out, the cashier says, "Miss, don't forget your change." My daughter turns around and says, "Don't give that to her--she'll just spend it on drugs!" That's when we started referring to it as 'Walgreens' instead of the 'drug store.'
5. Amazon
She got a hold of a paint can during church... when we walked out of mass into the courtyard we found out what a good 'artist' she was becoming.
4. The Pot Luck Dinner
We had a lady at the church I used to go to that was severely obese - she had topped 500lbs. She also had the incredibly rude habit of pushing people out of the way with her motor scooter during any of the pot luck meals put on by the church.
My oldest is autistic (aspergers) and his filter when younger was... yeah let's be honest. There wasn't one.
So one Sunday at the dinner she, of course, pushes past people in her scooter cutting in line. My son frustratedly says "Hey don't eat all the food PLEASE!"
I was kind of stunned like....did that....did that come FROM HIM. She complained to the pastor later, but honestly I think pastor was kind of done with her and her rude family too. I honestly don't think my son meant it from a place of shaming and most likely didn't even notice her weight. He is just so damn blunt at times. If anything the cutting in line was more of a trigger then anything else.
- HKfukIt
3. Hot Mushroom Cleavage
During a wedding feast, my then 4 year-old brother tried to use chopsticks to pick up a "burning hot" mushroom and accidentally threw it directly to the cleavage of my mum (who was wearing a low cut dress). I'm never having kids.
2. The Risky Fart
Lost a bet on a risky fart and pooped the bed. We didn't find out until about a week and a half later. She'd just been sleeping in the bed like nothing was wrong the whole time. She said she forgot, but...it was very obvious and not something you would or could overlook. And it's not like my kids get in trouble for things like that and she was afraid. My wife is a nurse and handles stuff like that with pure compassionate-mom professionalism.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.
When we're intoxicated, or even the slightest bit tipsy from having a little too much to drink, our immediate perspective on things is hazy.
But there's nothing like a bit of alarming news or a jarring incident to snap us out of the fog and focus on the moment.
Sometimes alcohol isn't always to blame for our impairment.
It can be a state of mind, like a perpetual numbness from being complacent in life, and all it takes is one shocking moment to rattle us back to our senses.
Curious to hear from strangers online about this type of scenario, Redditor Known_Challenge_7150 asked:
"What’s one thing that sobered you up real quick?"
These individuals were witness to shocking events that sobered them up right quick.
Bleeding Out
"Got out of a taxi and found a naked man profusely bleeding from his head crawling up the driveway in my condo. Called him an ambulance completely forgot I was absolutely wasted until 45 minutes later when I'd helped him translate and in to an amublance and stepped in my front door."
"Later a few days later learned he'd slipped in the tub and literally crawled out for help. Poor dude. He was fine but I genuinely thought he was going to die there."
– DongLaiCha
Tragic News
"At a bachelor party and we got a phone call that the groom’s father had suddenly passed."
– accountnameredacted
Bottom Of The Barrel
"I went to visit my parents back in July. I was homeless and deep into fentanyl addiction so I lost a lot of weight. My folks could see it. They knew something was up. Anyway, I spent the night and I was getting ready to leave in the morning and I looked at myself in the mirror for a good long time. I finally had enough and told them everything. They took me to detox, from there I went to rehab. Graduated in August and been living with them ever since then. I have 160 days clean and sober."
– Crotch-Monster
A reality check can be enough for some people to snap out of it.
Like Father, Like Son
"Was driving a drunk friend home, he had been on a bender again and was smart enough to call me for a lift rather than try and drive. As I helped in to his house his mother came down the stairs and said 'your as drunk as your father' and went back upstairs. I haven't seen him drunk since then, he still drinks but the thought of turning into his dad scared him out of hard drinking."
– psycospaz
Busted
"Flashing blue lights."
– FiddleOfGold
"This sobered me up just thinking about it."
– redmaple_syrup
Losing Sight
"Woke up to no sight in one eye. I had cataract surgery so just thought one of the lenses had slipped and it was an easy fix. Eye doc says nope, you had a stroke. I loved soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and salty food, which caused high blood pressure, which caused retina damage. Over six months was able to get most of my eyesight back with medication, and all back within a year. Trying to navigate life with one eye was very sobering. Started taking HBP much more seriously."
– MissHibernia
Quitting The Bottle
"Looked up someone I went to highschool with who was an awesome guy. Found out he had been dead for 3 years from alcoholism, at age 33. I made an overnight change. I hadn't started drinking that night yet, 10 months ago. Haven't touched it again since."
– omgtater
These disturbing moments were enough for Redditors to immediately come to their senses.
Unplanned House Guests
"Me and a buddy Woke up in someone’s living room, realized neither one of us knew the people, they were just nice and let 2 drunk guys sleep on their living room floor. We didn’t even say goodbye."
– Oneinsevenbillion75
Serious Health Warning
"Elevated liver enzymes."
"And the knowledge that this sh** was gonna kill me and I just couldn't orphan my family over it."
"So I opted for recovery, instead."
"Clean and sober since June 5, 2009."
– Far_Meal8674
The Joyride
"Grew up in a rural area. The little town hosted dances at the hockey arena, everyone (adults and kids) went and they overserved everyone, regardless of age. I was maybe 16 or 17 and was absolutely sh*tfaced, and jumped in the back of someone's truck with about 8 other people to go back to someone's cottage for after dance drinking. The driver (still don't know who it was) started racing one of his buddies and we whipped around small dirt roads, flying around blind corners on the wrong side of the road, going god knows how fast. It was basically a disaster waiting to happen. It was crazy scary and I was sober and thankful to be alive when we finally arrived."
– foxfood9116
The human psyche is a fascinating thing, isn't it?
How we can automatically focus on something urgent at a crucial time, even after getting buzzed from drinking too much alcohol.
But as we're in the thick of the holidays, it's a good reminder to drink responsibly and stay off the roads if you drive to your celebratory destination.
Cheers. Stay safe. And happy holidays.