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Parents Share The Craziest Thing Their Kid's School Does On A Regular Basis

Parents Share The Craziest Thing Their Kid's School Does On A Regular Basis
Free-Photos / Pixabay

I pulled my first child out of her first school in Kindergarten. I kind of have a "3 strikes and you're out" policy and they hit three pretty quickly.


First, the teacher (not a volunteer, student, etc. - but the person directly responsible for educating) sent home a handwritten note asking me to "complet" and return the "packact" at my "urleest convenyance." English is her first and only language.

Next, the school sent home class pictures with "Kindergarden Class" proudly printed across the bottom. They refused to re-print with correct spelling despite several parent complaints.

The last straw was when the school used funding not to improve the building, upgrade supplies, help teachers, etc - but to install a massive sign at the front of the building. The sign was a picture of a fetus that said "I have a heartbeat at 8 weeks" on it.

The school lost a significant number of students after that stunt - mine was one of them. I'm not the only parent with "WTF" school moments.

One Reddit user asked:

Parents of reddit, What did your child's school do that made you say "you can't be serious..."?

and yeah ... wow.

A Working Lunch

lunch GIFGiphy

Not me, but a coworker was talking about this today.

Her daughter and her schoolmates are being assigned work to do during lunch breaks. They are doing the zoom call classrooms.

She said her daughter is skipping lunch sometimes because she's working on the assignment. The girl is 9.

- mastercotcot

No Excess Running

Our elementary school (same one my wife and I went to) has a nice hill next to the playground that leads down to the outfield of a little league field. Kids for decades have been rolling down that hill during recess. Not allowed to do that anymore. Not allowed to run "excessively" during recess anymore either.

I wish I was making any of this up. Sadly it's true.

- originaljimeez

Probably school policy because parents today get upset about everything. Running too fast could lead to injuries which could lead to angry parents, which teachers and schools want to avoid.

- purpleteapots

Dont blame the school, blame over protective parents and a culture of blaming others for your misfortunes. These kinds of rules are made out of liability fears.

- 19Adrian79

Lefties Don't Deserve Abuse

My mum was furious with my infant and junior school because two of the teachers would not let me write with my left hand, they forced me to write with my right hand...which was impossible. This was in the early 80s.

- StanMarsh02

My mom flipped her sh*t when she came to pick me up from preschool (around 1980) and found my left arm tied behind my back. The teacher thought it perfectly acceptable to force me to use my right hand.

- lil_adk_bird

My mom was left handed, born in the 1950's, USA, they tied her left hand behind her back until she learned to write with her right hand.

- Queenofeveryisland

Academic Awards

Not as a parent, but my high school eliminated academic awards, because it was somehow unfair on the kids who did not get one. They kept athletic awards, of course.

- FrightenedOfSpoons

This happened to me. It was 6 years ago, and I'm still pissed off. Both the other smart kids got awards already, so it was a shoe-in for me.

The academic award was always the biggest f*cking trophy as well. And then they just went "By the way, we aren't doing academic awards this year."

Like WHAT? They literally did *handwriting* awards, but not an academic one. ugh.

- Qwandry_XCI

"Art Show" 

They had an art project which went really well. The kids were really proud of their work and parents were impressed. So did they let the kids take their artwork home to be admired by the family?

Hell no, they decided to put the projects in an "art show" and make parents BUY their children's work from the school as a fundraiser. Bear in mind this hadn't been the deal from the start - they just decided to hold a bunch of 8 year olds' work hostage because it was apparently surprisingly good.

Some parents objected to this on principle and demanded they shouldn't have to pay to enjoy the fruits of their child's labour. Their children's work was not included in the art show, but hung up in the office where children weren't allowed to go, and grudgingly released once all the other works were sold.

Our family had fallen on hard times and couldn't afford to pay $20 for our kids own intellectual property, so had to explain that her art wasn't going to be in the show with all her friends' to show off to their families, but would be hidden away with all the other poor kids' work.

- tahituatara

A Forgotten Five Year Old

danny mcbride bus patrol GIF by Vice Principals Giphy

They forgot my five year old daughter on the bus the second day of kindergarten.

The daycare called (that's where the school bus dropped her off so I could pick her and her sister up together after work) to ask if she was sick because she never got off the bus. I freaked and said no, called the school, they said they didn't know where she was.

They called me back 15 min later saying she had fallen asleep on the bus and didn't get off at her stop - THE BUS HAD GONE BACK TO THE DEPOT AND PARKED.

It was august ... in Georgia.

I was 37 weeks pregnant at the time so how this didn't send me in to preterm labor I will never know. Luckily everyone ended up ok but we promptly took her out of that school.

- Particular_Mistake_2

19th Century Accuracy

I'll never forget how furious my mom was with the school one time.

In eighth grade, so middle school keep that in mind, we had a history project where everyone drew a name of a historical figure out of a hat, you did a report on them. Pretty standard. They asked all of us to dress up as the person we drew and made the costume portion 25% of our grade. Already that's super stupid, obviously putting emphasis on the completely wrong portion for an academic project. Well I drew Harriet Tubman...


I obviously do not own any 19th century clothing, and my family wasn't going to spend a bunch of time tracking some down to go spend money on that I would wear for a five minute report and never again especially since it would be a dress and I'm a dude. So I went to the theater department at school and asked if they had anything that would work, they found some dresses that looked old and I picked one, borrowed some leather boots, and wore a wig.

Not good enough. I got 0/25 points for my costume because it wasn't period accurate enough. Barely missed any marks on any other portion so I got a C purely because in the mid 2000s I did not own a 19th century dress. Plenty of other kids got docked to similar levels for similar reasons. There was an uproar from parents but nothing ever came from it because according to the principal teachers are free to grade however they wish

- JesterShepherd

Bullies In My Home

My mom and I were furious about this.

I was bullied pretty hard for no other reason than being shy in first grade and the sh*t stuck.

In fifth grade 5 people waited for me on the way home from school to beat me. We reported them to the school and police. (We were also angry with the police officer who shrugged off that they said 'We will kill you.' like it was just a joke. Yes 12 year olds. But still not a joke to the kid who hears this. And my school district was a really f*cked up one.)

Our class teacher wanted to suspend them and wrote something like "the parent-teacher-conference has decided to suspend them for 3 days". She got told that she should have written "propose" cause the conference does not decide.


The ONLY thing the school made happen is: They forced me to invite them to my house to make friends with them and lay off our differences.

So, instead of my bullies who beat me bloody getting sanctioned, I was forced by my school to invite them to my private home. Feels like I was punished. Despite all my moms efforts of talking with the school and that woman is a f*cking dragon.

- DasHexxchen

My friend had to do a similar thing, but her mother wasn't having it. She went to our headteacher and said if that kid steps foot in her house he probably won't leave. It seemed to shut the school up.

- LukeB4Ugame

Fatherless Servants

For fathers day the kindergarten had donuts and tea with the dad's if they came in, most of them did.

The kids that didn't have dads (or dads that did not show up) were told they had to act as waiters and take the orders of the kids and dads who showed up.

Oddly enough nobody really said anything. Most of the kids didn't seem to notice how f*cked it was, even the ones serving

- KingOfSheepX

As a teacher, this is the first to make my blood boil. I always make arrangements for kids on Mother's Day and Father's Day who don't have that parent for whatever reason. I've had kids with two moms or dads, a dead parent, or a parent who was a deadbeat and left the mom with her two sons.

- ElderCunningham

A Highly Visible And Distinct Blood Stain

Several years ago my daughter was an 8th grade cheerleader and they were required to wear their uniforms to school on game days whether home game or away game. They traveled to away games directly from school and did not come home first.

Imagine my surprise when I showed up at the away football game at 6pm that evening to find my daughter cheerleading on the sidelines in her uniform with a highly visible and distinct blood stain on her skirt. She had an accident very typical for middle-school girls and had asked the office to call me for a change of clothes --- they did not allow her to call me and she'd been told that she had to wear her uniform and she didn't have a cell phone to call me with (they weren't allowed at school in those days).


The school made no effort to contact me so that I could give her a change of clothes for a class while I washed and dried her skirt ... nor did a teacher dig into the uniform closet to pull out a spare skirt for her to change in to. She was subjected to a level of humiliation that I can only imagine but she showed a brave face and refused to let it break her.

She marched in band for her freshmen through senior years and was not interested in cheerleading after that year. They lost her trust and my respect, and I've been pissed off at that school secretary, principal, and cheerleading coach ever since .... I would have thought that at least one teacher would have intervened.

- LyByChick

Illegal CC's

My public school system sent out an email to all parents who had kids in school in recent years that asked what religion everyone was, what everybody's income was and other nicely illegal things for a school to ask. Because that's a good idea.

No, seriously all the questions asked were illegal for them to demand (and demand they did) answers to.

Better yet they made it all one email with all the parents of the district cc'd so this would have been information given to all of the other families too. They were actually offended when they were ripped into for their actions.

There were certainly other "you can't be serious" moments in that school system but certainly that was the crown jewel.

- AriaDusk22

Merry Christmas

scared merry christmas GIFGiphy

When I enrolled my daughter in 2nd grade, I meticulously filled out a form in triplicate, stating that she is severely allergic to pine. One copy went to the nurse, one to the school files and the last to her teacher.

So imagine my surprise when in December, she got off the school bus, with red, running eyes, puffy face, wheezing, with a stuffy nose and her throat swollen badly enough that she could barely speak.

She refused to say what was wrong in the emergency room until I finally told her "I KNOW you were around pine. What happened?"


Her teacher decided the class was going to make Christmas tree ornaments out of pine cones and pine twigs and told them to keep it a secret because it was a gift for their parents. My daughter didn't want to spoil the secret.

I went to the school the next morning and raised hell. Not ONLY did they knowingly expose my daughter to an allergen that could have killed her, they didn't call me OR send her to the nurse when she reacted.

And to put the icing on the cake, we don't even CELEBRATE Christmas!

She was on medication for a week and the teacher let her make me a card instead. I went to the school board demanding more attention be paid to students medical files, and they updated their policy the next semester.

- whereisyourlavender

Can't Say "It"

When I was in high school, my English teacher decided she hated the word "it." She decided that we students were no longer allowed to use the word "it" in our writing, even as part of a direct quote.

She would dock ten points for every use of the word "it" and she wouldn't stop at zero.

- rhapsody_in_bloo

It Made The Pastor Mad

A social-emotional learning program here got banned because there was a lesson that was about busting gender stereotypes and included the example that boys can play with dolls.

It made a pastor mad and he brought it to the school board.

- turnipgirl21

They Hid The "Worst" Pupils

This will be lost among all the top posts but when she was younger my daughter was having a hard time at school due to her mother leaving home. As such they place her in the ''special'' class. Basically a dumping ground for ''trouble makers'' and special need children. One day all the parents of children in this class were told not to bring their children in on a particular day, as the teachers will be unavailable that day.

Imagine the surprise when we found out after, that this was the day Ofsted [Government School Inspectors] visited and gave the school a outstanding [best] rating.

They literally hid their worse pupils from inspection.

I moved my daughter to a different school soon after and she got proper help for her issues.

- NotReallyMyReal1

The Guidance Counselor Refused To Do Their Job

The guidance counselor who was in charge of making class schedules wouldn't give my middle daughter a math class so she could graduate. Daughter had qualified for a full Gates Grant. Fought with the school for eighteen months. With the principal, vice principal, guidance counselor, superintendent, and school board. My daughter did not graduate.

Fast forward eight years. Same counselor refused to fill out the form the NCAA requires for students to receive athletic scholarships. Here's how this works: student finishes all NCAA requirements and is then given access to a form to give counselor.

From February to the end of May, daughter prints form five times explaining to counselor each time what it's for. Same routine. No one in the school district will force him to do his job. Finally her coach goes to his office and literally stands over his shoulder to make him do his job.

She gets her scholarship, but misses out on all the full ride ones because those colleges wouldn't wait. Two years later the new counselor finds two more offer letters in his desk that my daughter never even saw.

Why did these two things happen?

Poor students in our district are throw-aways. You're poor? You're not going anywhere. Even if the reason you're not going anywhere is their refusal to do their jobs.

- DeadSheepLane


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People Reveal The Weirdest Thing About Themselves

Reddit user Isitjustmedownhere asked: 'Give an example; how weird are you really?'

Let's get one thing straight: no one is normal. We're all weird in our own ways, and that is actually normal.

Of course, that doesn't mean we don't all have that one strange trait or quirk that outweighs all the other weirdness we possess.

For me, it's the fact that I'm almost 30 years old, and I still have an imaginary friend. Her name is Sarah, she has red hair and green eyes, and I strongly believe that, since I lived in India when I created her and there were no actual people with red hair around, she was based on Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.

I also didn't know the name Sarah when I created her, so that came later. I know she's not really there, hence the term 'imaginary friend,' but she's kind of always been around. We all have conversations in our heads; mine are with Sarah. She keeps me on task and efficient.

My mom thinks I'm crazy that I still have an imaginary friend, and writing about her like this makes me think I may actually be crazy, but I don't mind. As I said, we're all weird, and we all have that one trait that outweighs all the other weirdness.

Redditors know this all too well and are eager to share their weird traits.

It all started when Redditor Isitjustmedownhere asked:

"Give an example; how weird are you really?"

Monsters Under My Bed

"My bed doesn't touch any wall."

"Edit: I guess i should clarify im not rich."

– Practical_Eye_3600

"Gosh the monsters can get you from any angle then."

– bikergirlr7

"At first I thought this was a flex on how big your bedroom is, but then I realized you're just a psycho 😁"

– zenOFiniquity8

Can You See Why?

"I bought one of those super-powerful fans to dry a basement carpet. Afterwards, I realized that it can point straight up and that it would be amazing to use on myself post-shower. Now I squeegee my body with my hands, step out of the shower and get blasted by a wide jet of room-temp air. I barely use my towel at all. Wife thinks I'm weird."

– KingBooRadley

Remember

"In 1990 when I was 8 years old and bored on a field trip, I saw a black Oldsmobile Cutlass driving down the street on a hot day to where you could see that mirage like distortion from the heat on the road. I took a “snapshot” by blinking my eyes and told myself “I wonder how long I can remember this image” ….well."

– AquamarineCheetah

"Even before smartphones, I always take "snapshots" by blinking my eyes hoping I'll remember every detail so I can draw it when I get home. Unfortunately, I may have taken so much snapshots that I can no longer remember every detail I want to draw."

"Makes me think my "memory is full.""

– Reasonable-Pirate902

Same, Same

"I have eaten the same lunch every day for the past 4 years and I'm not bored yet."

– OhhGoood

"How f**king big was this lunch when you started?"

– notmyrealnam3

Not Sure Who Was Weirder

"Had a line cook that worked for us for 6 months never said much. My sous chef once told him with no context, "Baw wit da baw daw bang daw bang diggy diggy." The guy smiled, left, and never came back."

– Frostygrunt

Imagination

"I pace around my house for hours listening to music imagining that I have done all the things I simply lack the brain capacity to do, or in some really bizarre scenarios, I can really get immersed in these imaginations sometimes I don't know if this is some form of schizophrenia or what."

– RandomSharinganUser

"I do the same exact thing, sometimes for hours. When I was young it would be a ridiculous amount of time and many years later it’s sort of trickled off into almost nothing (almost). It’s weird but I just thought it’s how my brain processes sh*t."

– Kolkeia

If Only

"Even as an adult I still think that if you are in a car that goes over a cliff; and right as you are about to hit the ground if you jump up you can avoid the damage and will land safely. I know I'm wrong. You shut up. I'm not crying."

– ShotCompetition2593

Pet Food

"As a kid I would snack on my dog's Milkbones."

– drummerskillit

"Haha, I have a clear memory of myself doing this as well. I was around 3 y/o. Needless to say no one was supervising me."

– Isitjustmedownhere

"When I was younger, one of my responsibilities was to feed the pet fish every day. Instead, I would hide under the futon in the spare bedroom and eat the fish food."

– -GateKeep-

My Favorite Subject

"I'm autistic and have always had a thing for insects. My neurotypical best friend and I used to hang out at this local bar to talk to girls, back in the late 90s. One time he claimed that my tendency to circle conversations back to insects was hurting my game. The next time we went to that bar (with a few other friends), he turned and said sternly "No talking about bugs. Or space, or statistics or other bullsh*t but mainly no bugs." I felt like he was losing his mind over nothing."

"It was summer, the bar had its windows open. Our group hit it off with a group of young ladies, We were all chatting and having a good time. I was talking to one of these girls, my buddy was behind her facing away from me talking to a few other people."

"A cloudless sulphur flies in and lands on little thing that holds coasters."

"Cue Jordan Peele sweating gif."

"The girl notices my tension, and asks if I am looking at the leaf. "Actually, that's a lepidoptera called..." I looked at the back of my friend's head, he wasn't looking, "I mean a butterfly..." I poked it and it spread its wings the girl says "oh that's a BUG?!" and I still remember my friend turning around slowly to look at me with chastisement. The ONE thing he told me not to do."

"I was 21, and was completely not aware that I already had a rep for being an oddball. It got worse from there."

– Phormicidae

*Teeth Chatter*

"I bite ice cream sometimes."

RedditbOiiiiiiiiii

"That's how I am with popsicles. My wife shudders every single time."

monobarreller

Never Speak Of This

"I put ice in my milk."

– GTFOakaFOD

"You should keep that kind of thing to yourself. Even when asked."

– We-R-Doomed

"There's some disturbing sh*t in this thread, but this one takes the cake."

– RatonaMuffin

More Than Super Hearing

"I can hear the television while it's on mute."

– Tira13e

"What does it say to you, child?"

– Mama_Skip

Yikes!

"I put mustard on my omelettes."

– Deleted User

"Oh."

– NotCrustOr-filling

Evened Up

"Whenever I say a word and feel like I used a half of my mouth more than the other half, I have to even it out by saying the word again using the other half of my mouth more. If I don't do it correctly, that can go on forever until I feel it's ok."

"I do it silently so I don't creep people out."

– LesPaltaX

"That sounds like a symptom of OCD (I have it myself). Some people with OCD feel like certain actions have to be balanced (like counting or making sure physical movements are even). You should find a therapist who specializes in OCD, because they can help you."

– MoonlightKayla

I totally have the same need for things to be balanced! Guess I'm weird and a little OCD!

Close up face of a woman in bed, staring into the camera
Photo by Jen Theodore

Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.

Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?

But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.

It would be so great to be sure there is something else.

But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.

Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:

"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"

Sensations

Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy

"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."

PeachesnPain

Recovery

"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."

"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."

"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."

good_golly99

Take Me Back

"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."

"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."

rayrayrayray

Free

The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy

"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."

TooReDTooHigh

This is why I hate surgery.

You just never know.

Shocked

Giphy

"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."

Admirable_Buyer6528

The SOB

"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."

"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”

1-cupcake-at-a-time

Colors

"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"

Hannah_LL7

"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"

huntokarrr

The Fog

"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."

"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."

Fluffy-Hotel-5184

Through the Walls

"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."

"She's quite alive and well today."

Hot-Refrigerator6583

Well let's all be happy to be alive.

It seems to be all we have.

Man's waist line
Santhosh Vaithiyanathan/Unsplash

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.