Peeved Parents Divulge The Most Valuable Thing Their Kids Have Broken
[rebelmouse-image 18346341 is_animated_gif=Kids break stuff. It happens. Sometimes, though, children just make really poor choices, like growing pot in an attack, causing the house to burn down. Or losing a piece of jewelry. Or punching a TV while playing video games. The list goes on, but hey, they're kids.
MrsLadyMadonna asked, What's the most valuable thing your kids broke?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
Ouch, talk about a once in a lifetime picture...
[rebelmouse-image 18353661 is_animated_gif=My mother had exactly one picture taken in front of the Berlin Wall a week before it was torn down. I brought it to show and tell when I was 10....and lost it. 21 years later I still hear about it.
Valuable to dad, and completely irreplaceable.
[rebelmouse-image 18353662 is_animated_gif=Not sure if this would have been valuable at all, but back in like.. 2005 or so, my younger sister (about 10 at the time) decided to open up an old case of Coca-Cola she had found in my dad's office. The coke was from 1993 and she was curious about what it would taste like. So she opens the first one, takes a sip, decides she doesn't like it and dumps it down the drain. She repeats this process for 3 more cans. Eventually, she decides that the entire case is no good and proceeds to dump out every can, crushed them, then ripped up the box and threw it in the recycling.
Unfortunately, it was a special 1993 Blue Jays World Series Championship edition of coke or whatever and my dad had gotten some members of the team to sign the box and some of the cans. He was not pleased.
Sometimes kids just do things... but so do adults tbh.
[rebelmouse-image 18353663 is_animated_gif=When my son was about 8 years old he was waiting for me in the car. He pried a small chunk of dried mud from the sole of his shoe and inserted it into the ignition of my car because...well, nobody knows why not even he knows why. After an hour of the car not starting, I happened to glance at him and I saw that look on his face, the look that says, "I am guilty AF." I don't remember what it cost to have the ignition dismantled and cleaned, but I do remember the lesson I learned that day.
When you ask your kid why the hell they did something stupid, and your kid says, "I don't know," sometimes they really don't know.
Sometimes electronics get hungry.
[rebelmouse-image 18353664 is_animated_gif=My kid stuck a block of cheddar cheese in the VCR once and a slice of lunch meat in the DVD player.
A rectangle is a rectangle, right?
[rebelmouse-image 18353665 is_animated_gif=My parents told me that when I was 3 there was this one time when I wanted to help my dad wash our car, but I couldn't find a sponge, so I picked up a brick by the street and "washed" the car with it instead.
Dad's one suit down, thanks to shrinkage.
[rebelmouse-image 18353666 is_animated_gif=My father's nicest suit was a little bit muddy, so I put it in the wash with the rest of my laundry.
My mother said she didn't even get mad at me, because I was trying to help. She just laughed.
This is why you never drive through standing water (even though splashing the sidewalk is fun).
[rebelmouse-image 18353667 is_animated_gif=My son stranded himself and 2 buddies when he drove my car through an approximately 5-foot deep "puddle" and stalled it in the middle.
Ah the joys of other people's kids...
[rebelmouse-image 18353668 is_animated_gif=Not my kids, but my nephew and niece broke both an elliptical machine and the footrest on my recliner during one visit. That was 10 years ago and I still get annoyed as I sit cross-legged on my chair.
How very American of them.
[rebelmouse-image 18353669 is_animated_gif=My dad's friend once gave my brother over a hundred dollars in foreign currency, with my brother immediately responding by feeding it all to the dog.
Little brother was born to torture mom, clearly.
[rebelmouse-image 18353670 is_animated_gif=My mom had several disposable cameras' worth of newborn baby through toddler photos of my youngest sister. My younger brother pulled the film out of all of them one day while he was playing. Mom still talks about it with a sorrowful tone now, twenty years later.
She also had a jewelry box which belonged to my deceased grandma. There were some necklaces that looked like old coins encased in some gold trim. He peeled off all the gold thinking they were those chocolate coins that come in foil.
Lastly, we were fairly poor. She never had nice things for herself, but one year she splurged and got herself a stereo which she loved. Well, my brother cut off the electric plug with a pair of scissors and she never got another one.
He grew up to be a chill adult, though.
Nothing to see here, just shoveling some snow...
[rebelmouse-image 18353671 is_animated_gif=Don't know if this counts as broke, but my brother set my sister's room on fire.
He was about 5 or 6 and had found a bottle of hairspray and matches in my sister's room. One thing leads to another, and when things got out of hand he quietly shut the door and went outside to shovel snow because he was trying to act casual I guess.
My Mom smelled smoke and when she went over to my sister's room and opened the door, she was treated to a raging inferno before slamming the door shut and calling the fire department.
Cut to my sister coming home and she thought she was in trouble because she had no idea why all of her stuff was on the front lawn and burnt to a crisp.
We ended up having to stay in an apartment for a few months while my sister's room was rebuilt, and my brother was court ordered to be enrolled in fire safety classes.
I did this off a roller coaster once... the people below were not happy.
[rebelmouse-image 18353673 is_animated_gif=I did this once after spitting off a sky ride on a field trip in 3rd grade. I got home from the field trip and went straight to folding towels. It didn't keep me from being grounded for weeks and getting spanked within an inch of my life ????
Do warranties cover reckless children?
[rebelmouse-image 18353674 is_animated_gif=This morning my 4-year-old got mad and threw a hot wheels car and shattered the TV screen. I was excited because we bought the extended warranty and were finally going to use it. Extended warranty expired 2 months ago.???????
Maybe it's time the kid spends some time outside.
[rebelmouse-image 18353675 is_animated_gif=My son punched our 60 inch 4k tv playing Fortnite about 2 weeks ago. He is still grounded.
Oh sure, blame it on the dog.
[rebelmouse-image 18350823 is_animated_gif=My mom had a very sentimental lamp from her mother or grandmother and would constantly yell "my lamp!", "Watch the lamp!" Constant source of anxiety.
It survived mine and my brother's childhoods. After we'd both moved out, the dog broke it.
Uh... ouch. Eye stuff is so cringe-worthy.
[rebelmouse-image 18353677 is_animated_gif=Something that I broke when I was little. I was about three my mum was playing this "where are my..." game with me (you know, where is my nose? And I'd point to her nose). She said where are my eyes.
I poked her in the eye.
My little toddler razor fingernail scratched the lens of her eyeball.
It caused permanent damage and she still wears glasses to this day because of it. So that.
I lost my grandmother's diamond ring at a restaurant. Never heard the end of it.
[rebelmouse-image 18353678 is_animated_gif=I broke a vase my mom inherited after her grandma's death.
I didn't know at the time, but I felt horrible when after. (Fun fact, I'm named after her)
At least the kid's heart was in the right place.
[rebelmouse-image 18353679 is_animated_gif=One of my well-intentioned children overheard me say my PC case was dusty inside so I need to clean it out.
When I was out they used our vacuum and cleaned every last bit of dust out of the case, even the fans and power supply. I thanked them for doing such a great job and didn't have the heart to tell them that they fried my motherboard and ram.
600 bucks later I was back up and running, and yes I did sit them down and show them how to properly clean a computer so it never happened again.
"You break it you buy it." Nah, I'll just fix it.
[rebelmouse-image 18353680 is_animated_gif=Not me but my little brother. When we were kids, he was maybe 5 or 6, our mother took us into a store that sold outdoor accessories. My brother was exploring the store and being a bit unruly, and he knocked over a 3' statue of a fox dressed as an English huntsman. The impact broke off the fox's ear. This stupid thing cost in the neighborhood of $300. In today's dollars, it would have been more than $500.
My mother somehow persuaded the store to let her repair it instead of paying for it outright. She took that thing home, glued the fox's ear back on, and returned it to the store. Can't remember if she paid them anything in the end, but the fox looked like its old pretentious self when she was finished with it.
It's highly believed that it is important to learn history as a means to improve our future.
What is often overlooked is that what is taught in history class is going to be very different depending on where you went to school.
And this isn't just internationally, even different regions of the United states will likely have very different lessons on American history.
This frequently results in our learning fascinating, heartbreaking and horrifying historical facts which our middle or high school history teachers neglected to teach us.
Redditor Acherontia_atropos91 was curious to learn things people either wished they had learned, or believe they should have learned, in their school history class, leading them to ask:
What isn’t taught in history class but should be?
The Irish Troubles
"The troubles."
"Too many people in America do not understand why a wall straight through Ireland would be a BAD idea."
"I’m referring to the Brexit referendum and possible outcomes."
"If people were wondering why we were talking about walls through Ireland in the first place."- CLCVS.
Forgotten elements of World War II
"What the Japanese did to the Chinese during WW2."
"Unit 731."- CaptainMcBoogerJew.
"Japan gets off easy for their war crimes in WW2."
"They killed an estimated 16mil Chinese civilians and another 8mil soldiers"
"Also, Pol Pot."
"Didn't know who he was until I was like 25."
"Worst dictator all time (in terms of percentage of population he decimated)".
The truth about the American Revolution
"That the American Revolution was part of a wider cold war type of conflict with France."
"The American Revolution was basically the UK's equivalent of the US version of Vietnam."- vinsant7.
The Dark side of Swedish history.
"As a Swede, I'd like to know more of all the horrible sh*t my country has done throughout history."
"It's a damn shame we're trying to hide our history."
"For example, Swedes killed a metric sh*t ton of all Polish people when we were at our strongest."
"That's the kinda sh*t we don't get to learn."- mogwandayy.
Colonization
"Basically what Belgium did to the Congo."
"A lot of people are telling me that they are taught about this actually."
"I'm glad to hear it because I wasn't taught about this in the USA during my public school days (1995-2008)."- EconArch.
The truth about "heroes".
"While teaching about historical Heroes they should also tell students about the unspeakable things some of them did."
"Many famous figures throughout history who are pillars of morality actually did many terrible things." - User Deleted
Intolerance for Mental Illness
"The dark history of mental illness treatments."
"I think it's worth learning about."- 7dayexcerpt.
Slavic Mythology
"Slavic mythology in Slavic countries."
"Don't get me wrong, I love both Greek & Roman mythology and as a person from the Balkans both of those cultures are part of my country's history and had great influence over not only my region but the entirety of the continent & the western world but I wouldn't mind knowing more about Slavic mythology as well."- ShorsShezzarine.
The truth about the CIA
"How the CIA was made and all the shady things they did over the years."- ALargeChip.
There is a lot about the history of our world, not to mention our own country which shouldn't be ignored.
And it's from learning from our mistakes that we really improve our future.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
So apparently we are in the endemic phase of this nonsense.
We have light at the end of the tunnel.
So what now?
Where do we go from here?
Normal seems like an outdated word.
How do we get back to normal though?
Is it even possible?
What are reaching back to?
Life pre-Covid.
Those were the days.
If only we could bring them back.
Redditor hetravelingsong wanted to discuss our new normal in this hopeful "endemic" phase. So they asked:
"What’s something random you miss about pre-COVID times?"
I miss people being sane. Though that maybe election cycle issues not COVID. We'll never know.
I thought I was Alone...
"Being able to grocery shop after 11 pm."
Reading_Rainboner
"Hell yes. I miss the days where the Walmart across the street was open 24 hours."
Small_Tax_9432
let's just go...
"I miss spontaneity... everything now seems to have a barrier of difficulty."
iidosee
"I live very close to Disneyland so I have an annual pass. My friends and I would just go there after work and hang out and grab a bite to eat."
"Now, we have to reserve a day to go. And most of the time, the days are at 'full' capacity so we couldn't even reserve. I don't want to schedule to hang out at Disneyland for a couple hours for July. So yeah, I definitely miss the 'lets go eat at Disneyland tonight?' texts."
mymymissmai
Not til 24-25
"Functioning global supply chains. Ah, the product you want has got microchips in it? 9 month wait."
richard-king
"Minimum, I'd been saying for a while now that I wouldn't expect a true return to normalcy in terms of electronics prices till 2024-2025. Although Crypto crashing through the floor really took some of the pressure off graphics cards which I really appreciate."
statiiic
WTF?!?!
"How affordable everything was!"
Disastrous_Hour_6776
"Yep. Today I was bagging up my things at the grocery store and I heard the cashier say to the lady behind me 'thats $78.12.' She had -- 2 boxes of Kellogg's corn flakes, a carton of 12 eggs, milk, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, a small cheese cake, English muffins, coffee, and a small whole frozen chicken that could maybe feed 3 people if the meat portioning was small."
SnowyInuk
Sushi
"My favorite sushi place. It was good quality, close by, kid-friendly, and not too expensive."
InannasPocket
All of this... it was a simpler time.
NASTY
"As a retail worker, just how f**king NASTY some people have gotten."
DmitriPetrov*itch
"They applauded you for being an essential worker but won’t vote for policies that’ll raise minimum wage while insisting a wage cap for heavily paid employees."
sketchysketchist
CHANGES your DNA...
"Some of the people closest to me became very bitter and petty over the last 2 years. So many people have the 'crazy eyes' now."
__--__7
"So true and holidays with the family is like who has the biggest tinfoil hat building contest. How many jumps does your brain have to go through to think that the Covid vaccine CHANGES your DNA into the patented DNA so that the government now controls your body."
"So like vaccinated people now have a singular DNA set. I feel like I still have a chunk of my brain just broken off due to that comment alone. I was also told by same family member that I could never donate blood again due to the vaccine. I guess it is so my patented DNA doesn't affect people?? FYI my vaccinated butt just donated today fine and multiple other times after the vaccine."
tyreka13
Homeward Bound
"House prices."
adrianinked
"I'm resigned to never thinking I have a chance on owning property where I live. I'm 30 and just can't imagine it anymore. And I don't want to live anywhere else so, whatever."
Osdab2daf
"That didn’t happen because of the pandemic. That was already happening regardless."
CH11DW
Oh Mickey
"All Day Breakfast at McDonalds."
hutch2522
"It was honestly hell to do, and not very popular. ITs margins aren't anywhere dinner and lunch specials. ON top of that, the temperatures are such that They require its own grill, meaning that if you have 2 grills in shop, you are down 50% of lunch capacity."
Freyas_Follower
Way back when...
"Hanging out with friends. And I mean waaaaaay before Covid. Like 2006 back when I had some friends."
LoocsinatasYT
I miss the old days. Maybe we'll get back there.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
What do you believe?
Is there a GOD in the sky?
Is he guiding us and helping us?
Life is really hard. Why is that is a big entity is up there loving us?
Atheists have taken a lot of heat for what feels like shunning GOD.
What if they've been right all along?
Maybe let's take a listen and see what they really think.
Redditor __Jacob______ wanted to hear from the people who don't really believe all that "God" stuff. They asked:
"Atheists, what do you believe in?"
I'm waffling between G-O-D and nothing. So please give me some education.
911
"We need to look out for each other because help isn't coming."
cknipe
Peace Out
"More than 2 decades ago, a priest was giving a sermon in my church and he said 'our faith requires you to believe without question. Why call it faith if you have to ask questions?' I haven't returned to church. Not until my wedding day but you know what I mean."
asiangontear
Delusion
"When I was young I used to think that after death you would have access to a PC that you could see absolutely anything about your life. Stats, any question you had no matter how obscure, replays of moments, perspectives of others in relation to you. No matter what you wanted to know, if it was relatable to you, you could see it. I know it's silly, but as time goes on I just want it to be real, and I don't think I'd have any issue allowing myself to fall into that delusion."
eggwardpenisglands
I think nothing happens...
"Realistically, I think nothing happens. We literally experience nothing after death. Same thing that we experience before birth. We don't exist, so it's nothing. I think the tenant that we should follow while living is to try to be happy and healthy while minimizing the damage we do to each other."
"What I would LIKE to happen after death is whatever you believe in, exists. I think Christians should get to go to heaven if they truly believe in it, Hindus and Buddhists get reincarnated, and everyone else also gets to experience what they believe they will experience."
"'I would still experience Nothing. Maybe it's one of those things where at the moment of death their brain makes them experience what feels like an infinitely long moment in time where they experience their afterlife. I just think it would be neat for everybody."
Better_Meat_
Shrug
"Best advice I received from a dear senior on their way out. 'You win some, you lose some' shrug. Nothing divine, life is that simple and wonderful, accept it and move on."
Tune_Kindly
It all sounds pretty simple. Why are people so up in arms about Atheists?
Whatever
"I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do."
imCIK
Cool with Empty
"Nothing. [Serious]."
rumblingtummy29
"I feel this way about death. When I was 5, my grandfather died and my cousin simple said, he is dead, that means you are gone forever. Everything ends up dying, even plants and animals. I'm now in my 40's and still have this simplistic view of life and death. People think I'm ambivalent to life and death but it's just what it is."
thepigfish82
puppet-masters...
"I think a lot of religious people struggle with the fact that we are all just swirling units of chaos. There is no grand plan or great orchestrator. I think that’s why people who are prone to religion are also susceptible to things like Q anon and the Cabal and all that. They REALLY want to believe that there is some almighty puppet-master who determines all of humanity’s fate."
Lngtmelrker
“we’re living in a society!”
"Just be a kind and empathetic person not because you’re worried about some cosmic justice, but because it’s the right thing to do. If there is some being that created us there’s no way they actually care about believing in it or adhering to some rules from over 2000 years ago."
"Also a big thing for me is that I find the idea that you need religion or the Bible in order to have morals and ethics pretty dumb. It’s pretty f**king clear that most evangelicals have neither. But my main thing is being a good person simply because, as George Costanza once said we’re living in a society!' If you’re only a good person in order to make it to heaven you probably aren’t actually a good and moral person."
conservative_genius
That's All
"You're born. You live. You die. That's it. After you die you cease to exist, the same as before you were born."
serefina
Believe what you want. We're all here together. So let's focus there.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.
The list of what irritates me is endless.
I mean... breathing too loud or dust can set me off.
I'm a bit unstable, yes.
But I'm not alone.
So let's discuss.
Redditor Aburntbagel6 wanted to hear about all the times many of us just couldn't control our disdain. They asked:
"What never fails to piss you off?"
I feel like this article can go on forever. Let's get some highlights.
Wasted Time
"Meetings that could and should have been an email."
Sirena609
Lotto People
"Getting stuck behind people playing the lottery at a corner store."
thenuggetlover
"I also used to work in a gas station and you’re SO right. I f**king hated the lottery people. Especially since my store had a small staff and there was usually only one of us working at a time, which meant that I couldn’t get any of my other work done as long as they were there."
"And you’re right, it’s also pretty sad to watch. I had one lady who used to come in every day and spent hundreds and HUNDREDS of dollars on scratch tickets. One day, she won $200 after spending probably around $600 and she was so excited and saying she can 'finally pay her bills.'"
i-am-your-god-now
Aware...
"No situational awareness. Job, home, shopping, driving. Think for one minute and go about. OBSERVE!!"
Dizzy-Foundation8122
"My mom is one of those people who leave the shopping cart in the middle of the damn aisle and proceed to walk twenty feet away. After correcting her a million times to no effect I just walk away now so people don’t know I’m with her."
OutrageousEvent
Shut Up!
"Endless barking in the middle of the night, I love animals but that sh*t I can't stand."
Acceptable-Lemon2924
"Endless barking in general drives me up a wall. One of my friends dogs was barking almost an entire gaming session the other day. I wanted to reach through the computer and smack him for letting it go on."
bangersnmash13
Kindness
"People being mean to service workers, especially if the workers are very young."'
scaryboilednoodles
All of these things. I hate them all.
Admit It
"People who never accept fault when they mess something up. Like, why blame a million people when it was clearly you who did it???"
Quirky-Area-8978
From Above
"My upstairs neighbors."
lutzow89
"I had terrible neighbors at my previous apartment. It was a one person studio for students, but her boyfriend was clearly living with her illegally and he was loud."
"One night we knocked n the door at 3 AM because of the loud music and an unknown girl opened the door. I just thought they were having a little party. But the next door I saw the girl living there come home with a suitcase after having been away for the weekend... Her BF was cheating on her in her own apartment."
Th3_Accountant
Move Away
"People who sit directly next to me at the airport, movie theater, any other place where you can choose a seat when there is PLENTY of other seating."
BacardiPardy33
"I can’t YES this enough and the ones who can’t park for crap so they park so close you can’t open doors on one side of the car or the ones who park directly behind when you pulled through so the door won’t open to load groceries."
BacardiPardy33
It's Over
"People who try to restart old drama. Like I'm done with you, just leave me alone."
Tired_Potatos
"Yep, half the reason I've basically quit playing one of my favorite online video games. People keep bringing old crap up or sh*tting on on someone who used to be our friend. I got tired of it so I just ejected the game out of me."
CaucasianHumus
AHHHHH!!!
"People walking too slow in front of me with no way to get around them. It’s even worse if it’s a couple or group taking up the whole sidewalk. HAVE SOME SPATIAL AWARENESS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!"
_-v0x-_
Life in general pisses me off. I'm easy.
Want to "know" more?
Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.
Never miss another big, odd, funny or heartbreaking moment again.