
*The following article contains discussion of suicide/self-harm.
Most parents only want the best for their children. They also know from experience that as their kids grow older they're going to assert their independence in different ways, including but not limited to dating.
But suppose the parent doesn't approve of whoever their son or daughter is dating? Relationships are bound to be strained—though hopefully not permanently.
People shared their stories after Redditor Morticiar asked the online community:
"Parents of Reddit whose children have dated awful people, who was the worst? Why?"
"The very mentally abusive boyfriend..."
"The very mentally abusive boyfriend who got in her head so badly that he convinced my epilepic daughter that if she stopped taking her meds she wouldn't have epilepsy any more. It was only because she was taking mind altering drugs that she had a problem."
"The car accident was pretty full on but she got out unscathed and no one else was hurt."
Alfredthegiraffe20
Thankfully she walked away from that crash!
This could have gone so differently.
"She started protesting..."
"I have only stepped in once when I saw one of my girls spending a lot of time with someone I didn't approve of."
I work for the happier side of my state's human services agency, but we still share a lot of our agency customers with Child Welfare."
"I have a pretty good memory for names, faces, etc, and within the department, we talk quite a bit, so I will occasionally run into a family about whom I already know an uncomfortable amount of private information, but generally it doesn't affect the decisions I have to make aside from who it gets assigned to next."
"She came home talking about this boy she'd met, and I recognized his first name immediately, because it was uncommon. I asked her, 'Tou're talking about 'Firatname Lastname, right?'"
"She gave me this really confused look and said, '....yeah...?'"
"I told her, 'Ok, kiddo, look. I can't discuss the reasons for this. I know you like this kid, but the answer is absolutely not. You are not to hang out with him or his circle of friends. I need you to trust me on this, because I can't tell you anything about my reasons for it.'"
"She started protesting, and I pointed out, I'd never said anything like that to her before. It wasn't until nearly six years later that she learned about his criminal history as a juvenile, which included rape and a number of other unsavory things."
slice_of_pi
You sound like an excellent parent and you handled this situation tactfully and with class.
"Barely in high school..."
"First guy my daughter dated."
"Barely in high school, already showing attitude problems. Anyone older than him was seen as an annoyance in whatever he wanted to do in life, even at 15. Came from a broken home, turned out he was the third of 10+ kids by one man with as many different women."
"Already started getting suspension in high school because of same disrespect towards teachers. Had unfortunately convinced daughter to skip school a few times with him. Her grades started showing major drop, had to start intervention."
"Took six months and discovery of him trying to date two other girls that finally stopped the relationship. He had gotten one of those girls pregnant by mid ninth grade year. Seeing the relationship end, felt crisis averted."
"A year later as we are at home, daughter comes running into living room saying he is outside her bedroom. Before I can check the back side of house, cop has come up to house. He apparently pushed his mom down a flight of stairs in an argument, took off and could only think to come here. As I am talking to cop, bringing her to back side of house, we hear the gate slam on the other side as he takes off down the road."
"Cop says he is not as much of a threat to spend chasing, puts out an APB for others if they see him. I request a restraining order to clear any controversy I may have. Two years pass. Apparently he got three different girls pregnant in those two years."
"Daughter comes home one day to tell me he has a warrant out. Had pushed his 3rd pregnant girlfriend down a flight of stairs in an argument. She had ended up miscarrying. Local police office actually contacted me later that night about it since I had requested a restraining order on him 2 years prior and they did not know his whereabouts."
"They find him about 40 miles north, charge him with manslaughter, and he has been serving a sentence since he was 17, about 2-3 years ago. I fear for the two other children he had with his other girlfriends each time I think about them."
Lostarchitorture
This is quite the rollercoaster ride.
Thankfully your daughter is away from him at last.
"My son dated a woman..."
"My son dated a woman who would smack him across the face when she would get angry with him. Once in front of me. My ex-husband was very violent and I was always terrified that my boys would take after him. I never considered that they might end up in an abusive situation themselves. They eventually broke up."
sm710
Glad he did!
It could have been much worse.
"He steals a car."
"He's 15. He steals a car, comes to the house to elope with her. She won't go, so he takes off. Police spot him, and he leads them on a chase from Seattle to the Columbia River, at speeds of over 100 mph at times. At the river, he slams into an abutment and is killed instantly."
ikusuzwen
This story took me on a journey.
"My stepson tried to break up with his girlfriend when they were 16. She threatened suicide if he left her. Despite all of our pleas, he was too afraid of her self-harm. It’s been 8 years and he has just become a shell of his former self."
"He’s lost weight (and he was skinny already), he’s got dark under eye circles. It’s so hard to watch, but she’s convinced him that we all hate her and, by extension, we hate him."
Lilliputian0513
This is tragic and we are sorry to hear it.
Hopefully you can get through to him someday.
"He worked hard to separate her..."
"My daughter started dating him in high school. He immediately started separating her from her friends. Get this, one of her friends is quite buxom, and told her she could not hang out with her because of that."
"He worked hard to separate her from family and friends. During her first year of college she ended up pregnant. He joined the Navy, and they left home. He began drinking and became verbally abusive."
"After getting kicked out of the Navy, they came home and my husband helped get him a job. Then another child was born. The drinking continued and the he started on meth and the violence began. She would deny the abuse and stayed with him and had another child."
"Finally, she left him. Then the next loser was also an addict and they had a child. Again violence. CPS took the children due to drugs and abuse. So I had four kids. I kept them for a year and a half and she regained custody."
"That lasted three months, and she lost custody again. We split the kids with other family due to my health issues. I am raising the oldest two."
"Now there is a new guy and a new baby. Yes that makes five."
"I love my daughter dearly but I’m disappointed in her."
629mrsn
The tragedy of this story cannot be underestimated.
A nightmare for any parent.
"My stepdaughter..."
"My step daughter started dating a guy when she was 15, hiding the relationship as only a friendship. Once they started dating officially he started controlling her every move. He didn’t drive or work but she did both."
"The car was a car her mother and I gave her that was ours. He started driving it and all that s**t. He got her strung out on drugs and was abusive to her already weak mental health. He would break her down constantly and make her feel worthless."
"They would rent motel rooms to sell drugs and who knows what else out of. Her father and my wife would never just put their foot down on anything and me being a stepparent, I was not listened to as I feel like I should have been. This s**t continued until 5 months before her 18th birthday when we caught them red handed."
"I took the car away and made it disappear. He was arrested and spent a few months in jail for a s**t ton of drugs and dealing stuff with two of his friends. Before she turned 18, like two months before, she had a real huge mental breakdown while at therapy and they thought she was going to self harm."
"I told her father and her mother and grandparents that she needed to get into a facility for treatment and it was important that they do that before she turned 18. It didn’t happen. She turned 18 and moved to a different state to live with him and that is the situation now."
"It is f**king real sad how this motherf**ker ruined her life by destroying her ambition and self confidence."
Pessimistic_Soviet
Condolences.
Hopefully one day she makes it out.
It can be so difficult for people in abusive situations to see what's happening in front of them.
To reiterate: most parents want the best for their children.
But once they're old enough (and sometimes before that), all bets are off.
Children will evolve into their own people—for better or worse, though this doesn't mean that they are incapable of redemption either.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
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Dating and the search for love and companionship... What a nightmare.
This journey plays out nothing like in the movies.
Every Prince or Princess (or everything in BTW) seems to have a touch of the psycho.
The things people say during what should be simple dinner conversation can leave a dining partner aghast.
Like... do you hear you?
Redditor detroit_michigldan wanted to discuss all the best ways to crash and burn when trying to make a romantic connection. They asked:
"You're on a date and it's going really great. What can another person say to ruin it completely?"
I once had a guy ask me if I was willing to follow him into the woods, depending on the price of the meal.
Yeah. No steak is worth that.
Plans After...
"Thanks for the ride but I have a date with someone else, I figured you wouldn't drive me if you knew I was going on a date with someone else and I really needed a ride."
"Online dating, talked to her for a while, finally got the courage to ask her out and then she said that as we got there."
iareyours
Mirror Image
“'You look just like my wife!'”
catalinachild
"I did have a guy tell me I reminded him of his son. I don’t believe English has a word to adequately describe my feelings at that time."
UnicornMagicRainbow
"That would definitely do it."
chaotica78
Third Wheel
"'Hope you don't mind if my mother joins us.'"
ofsquire
"Actually had a girl do this on a first date because she had anxiety issues. Honestly wasn’t bad except that 90% of the time she was silent and her mom talked over her."
"I didn’t mind that much and wouldn’t have minded trying again when she was more comfortable except that she was let go at the company we worked at and she deleted her social media profiles and she never responded on her number. Ah well."
Seightx
Liar
"'Hey bro aren't you gay? I made out with you last night.'"
"Random dude I've never seen before in front of my (f) date."
JHXC16
Was he lying though?
Filter Issues
"'You looked better on Tinder.'"
waqasnaseem07
"Isn’t it basic knowledge that everybody looks slightly worse than the worst picture you can find?"
no_user_ID_found
The Past
"'My ex used to do that too.'"
xxIvyOF
"Yep. I’ve definitely had two otherwise-decent-guy date-situations sour because the ex-comparisons just would not stop flowing. No woman wants to be seen as interchangeable—I’m not here to perfectly fill that ex-sized hole in your life. Focusing on the present moment and a future we could build together is a courtesy we need to grant each other in earliest dates of dating."
LarkScarlett
Powerless
"'I'm an alpha, you cant handle my top energy.'"
Midnightgay28
"I actually left a dude in the middle of dinner, in part, for saying this. I ordered an Uber under the table while pretending to listen to him. Went to the bathroom, and never came back. That was when I was young. Now I’d just say, 'How about we enjoy this meal in silence, before we head our separate ways.'”
UnicornMagicRainbow
Mommy...
"'Mother says I should be back by 9.'"
"Saying 'mother says' just feels weird."
bunnyrut
"That gives me Norman Bates vibes."
Werewolf_lover20
"'Mother says alligators are aggressive because they have an overabundance of teeth, but lack a toothbrush.'"
sodaextraiceplease
Obvs...
"'If you were going to be murdered, what method would you prefer. Purely hypothetical. Obvs.'"
Specific_Tap7296
If it looks anything like a Dateline NBC episode... RUN!
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Despite the advancement of technology rendering people left to their own devices–literally–to entertain them, there are some leisurely activities that will never go out of style.
Or so you would think.
Do people still knit to pass the time? Are people actively collecting stamps?
It depends on who's asking.
Curious to hear about hobby trends, Redditor gizehgizeh asked:
"What are once popular hobbies that are slowly dying these days?"

Before we've become conditioned to living on our phones, these activities used to keep people occupied.
Before Texting, There Was This
"Letter writing."
– littlekingMT
Literal And Tangible Joy
"Well the internet killed pen pals for sure. I do remember I had a Japanese girl for a penpal maybe back in 2007 or so. I honestly don't remember how it started, pretty sure some website, but that was a fun experience. But now I can just straight up talk to foreign people real time, lol. But yea getting a physical letter that someone took the time to write and mail still is hard to beat feelings wise."
– skyburnsred
Model Trains
"When I was growing up, every town had a model train store in it. Now I have one in region and everything else has to be bought online."
– Hairy_Effective1172
Pretty Rocks
"Don’t see anyone playing marbles anymore, I had an awesome collection in school."
– sheeple85
"I had some marbles as a kid in the 90s. My grandma got them for me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them. I always imagined them as a thing kids in the 40s played with."
– Ryoukugan
People Were Moving Canvases
"Paintball has been dying a slow death since 2006. Sad, really."
– hobo_recycler
Before the general population began hating clutter, collecting was once a "thing."
Precious Coins
"Coin collecting... I'm a silver/gold nut and I'm always hunting for precious metal coins. whenever I go into a shop they get all excited because 'no one under 70 collects coins anymore.'"
– ThatFishySmell99
Post It
"Stamp collecting."
– spooky_scully_mulder
"Collecting in general, really. Of course there are still prominent collectors but it's slipped more into enthusiast and niche territory than being a popular hobby that you might expect anyone to have."
– iuytrefdgh436yujhe2
What A Gem
"Rockhounding was immensely popular back in the 1950's and 1960's. Personally, I think it's a fascinating and fulfilling hobby, but when I go to a meeting at a rock and gem club, I'm usually the youngest one in the room by several decades."
– filthy_lucre
People once enjoyed making things.
Admiring The View
"Stained glass. I learned how to make it from my old man, and my junior high art class teacher also taught it. Very few artisans are still around."
– brobeanzhitler
Metal Vocation
"Black smithing."
– kenworth117
"I bought a forge to try. It’s insanely hard work, and crazy expensive. I still haven’t finished a piece."
– DSentvalue
Scrapbooking
"Yeah. I'm watching the arts and crafts stores around me completely uninstalling their racks for specialty paper. Now the only thing they have is mega packs of repeating colors/images. To boot all the inclusions like papercraft/die-cut things, washi tape, scissors, stickers, etc have gotten so expensive I would rather go buy $5 bags at value village to get an assortment of things versus buying anything new. I really, really miss yard sales for the same reasons."
– Phantasmai
I envy people who have jobs that are basically their hobbies.
Not everyone gets paid doing what they actually enjoy and have a profound level of passion for.
If they do, kudos to them.
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When we first meet someone–whether through mutual friends, at school, or in a new work setting–we generally feel people out to determine if they're worth getting to know.
While the process could take time, some people make our jobs much easier after spotting instant red flags.
Curious to hear about our general radar of people, Redditor xxFluffie asked:
"What is something that makes you immediately dislike someone?"

Some people just think they are absolutely hilarious and never realize they're the only ones laughing.
Next In Line
"They laugh about having screwed someone else over. If you think you're not next, well, you'll learn."
– whiznat
Unfunny
"when you mention you don't like a thing and they immediately do that thing 'as a joke.'"
– wayfinder
Playing Devil's Advocate
"Kneejerk contrarians. People who, no matter what you say you like or believe, just have to dismiss it and say they like or think the opposite."
– BubbhaJebus
People who put others down get slammed here.
Bad Parents
"When they treat their kids sh**ty in public. I don't mean handling tantrums, setting a rule, having to hurry to the train etc. I mean perfectly normal-behaved kids getting in trouble for trailing along peacefully, looking at things, asking questions etc."
"If you don't like tiny humans who learn the world, why have them??"
– raxeira-etterath
Public Humiliation
"Treating people sh**ty in public for laughs. Like being rude to service workers because they think it’s funny. Big red flag."
– Ok_Personality_1080
Simply Uncalled For
"Someone who is a d*ck to other people or animals for no reason."
– xebt1000
Those with ulterior motives rubs people the wrong way.
The Scheme
"If they try to get me to join their MLM scheme."
– spazmcgee1
Hard Sell
"A guy I used to be friends with in high school reached out a couple of years after graduating about a business opportunity he wanted my opinion on because 'you've always been smart', then he set up a Skype call and brought some other dude into the call and they started trying to sell me on what was clearly an MLM scheme. The guy went from friend to 'I'm never talking to you again' in a matter of 10 minutes."
– Mental-Afternoon-164
A Timeline
"Good gawd, this! I've had more than one exposure to this abject bullsh**tery..."
- Back in the late 80's/early 90's I was invited to a meeting of literally the OG "Pyramid" where you're recruited to pay in, and then you go out and recruit others to pay in, and the last in line got f'kall.
- In 1995 I had a coworker try to reel me into Amway, which was a hard no.
- In 2000 it was Pampered Chef, though to be fair they did have useful products.
- In 2009 a coworker tried to get me into some stupid video calling service that was obviously stupid from the description. He even got offended when I called bullsh*t.
– Mystical_Cat
Too much ego is a no-go.
I Can Do Better
"Being a b*tch just to stroke their own ego."
"We get it, you can lift 5lbs more than the 12 year old, you don't have to rub it in their face just because you're slightly better"
– Livia_Pivia
Can't Top This
"Oh, you did <story that's been told>? That's nothing! I did <implausible story>.
"I get the whole empathy through relating common experience, and I'm someone who does that (which drives some people crazy on its own), but there's a big different by empathising through common experience, and one-upmanship."
– Tisarwat
Lacking Conversational Etiquette
"Starting to talk over me when I was already talking."
"Stop it you rude, arrogant jerk."
– R33Gtst
If one or more of these traits sound familiar to you, you're not alone.
We don't have time for braggadocios, pyramid-schemers, and conversation interrupters.
And that's just for starters.
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Children tend to believe just about anything they hear.
That there are monsters under your bed, watching too much TV will make your head explode, and silly faces will be permanent if you make them too often.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to silly things that children will believe.
Some call it naivitée, other's youthful innocence.
But it's hard not to look back with embarrassment on certain things we believed as a child, that today might simply seem dumb.
Redditor Disastrous_Toe_6548 was curious to learn the multitude of silly things people believed when they were children, leading them to ask:
"What's the dumbest thing you believed as a kid?"
Pleading to deaf ears...
"My dad told me he had hearing loss and couldn't hear me if I whined because my pitch would get too high."
"Would completely ignore me until I asked him questions in a normal voice."
"Trusted him implicitly until I was 12 and he yelled at my younger brother for whining."- Tyrion_Stark.
Get it while you can.
"That they took everything off the shelves when the supermarket closed."- fgyfddg.
Silly superstitions.
"My grandfather used to tell me that if I played with the fire, I'd pee the bed."
"I believed him for a while, until I got older."
"I think he was just trying to protect me from the fire."- teddypa1981.
"Rain, rain go away..."
"That if it was raining where I was, it was raining everywhere in the world."- morningshartz.
Age is just a number.
"My parents used to seem really old to me, so much so I believed they grew up like cave people as children, wearing giant leaves for clothes and what not."- Laleena_.
So that's how they're made!
"That smokestacks from the power plant created clouds."- Scaniarix.
An instant cure.
"The sun gives you sunburns, therefore, moonlight should heal them."- velocipeter.
Better safe than sorry.
"Don't drink and drive meant all drinks."
"My dad was super confused when I told him he wasn't allowed to have any soda until we got home."- hulagirlslovetoparty.
Don't believe everything you see on TV.
"There was an episode of Mickey Mouse where Mickey couldn’t reach something at first, so he tried again and somehow his arm was long enough to reach it."
"As a small kid I believed that if I couldn’t reach something, I should just try reaching for it again and my arm would then somehow be long enough to reach it."- That-Dutch-Person.
The miracle of childbirth.
"That babies are pooped out."
"When I was like 7 I was listening to my aunt as she explained that childbirth was pretty intense and painful for her, and I was all solemnly like, 'yeah, sometimes just my poops are painful, I don’t think I could get a baby out' and she went 'um, WHAT?' and her reaction made me realize real quick that I had f*cked up somewhere and I tried to change the subject while my mind was just reeling lol."- thesoundingfurrows.
Oh to be a child again.
And to believe literally everything you're told.
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