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People Describe The Absolute Creepiest Thing They've Ever Experienced

People Describe The Absolute Creepiest Thing They've Ever Experienced
Magwood_photography/pixabay

Creepy experiences? This writer has one. I used to get terrible nightmares. Not sure why, probably reading too many mystery and horror novels. This also didn't help my vivid imagination. My dreams were often extremely real, like being trapped in a movie.

One night in my young adult years I stayed the night over to my moms house. She liked Victorian style items and dolls especially. Well this one creepy porcelain-faced doll she usually had sitting on the top of the couch. Not a big deal. Except I slept on the couch that night…



I had a horrible vivid nightmare that night where some "The Ring" style creepy young lady was holding me underwater with her face against mine saying "I'm going to eat your soul". I must have thrashed hard in my sleep because I woke up and the HECKIN DEMON DOLL had fallen onto my face eye to eye with me.

When I say freaked out! To this day I do not want to be in the same room as that doll.

One Redditor asked a serious question wanting to know real-life instances where people were uneasy.

OnlyAnAverageUser asked:

"What's the creepiest thing that you've witnessed or experienced?

The accounts shared might just keep you up at night…

“A couple years ago I was on a ferry leaving a small island off the coast of RI, about an hour long ride in total. It was a cloudy day with some fog but as soon as the ferry departed to take us back the the fog intensified to where we could only see about 50 - 75 yards in front of us."

“I went down to the stern with my dad, we had got some cigars on our trip and the only area where smoking was allowed was down around by the propellers. So we're standing around smoking our cigars, drinkin a beer when we see a guy riding a jet ski in the wake of the ferry."

“Me and my dad both looked at each other in disbelief - why someone would EVER ride a jet ski through open ocean on a day with heavy fog is beyond me. We're watching him dodge through our wake, hitting waves and catching some air, weave in between some of the heavier swells…then all of a sudden he hits a wake at an awkward angle and immediately the jet ski goes one way and he goes another, both disappearing almost instantly into the fog."

“We ran up to go get someone from the crew but apparently they had been watching the guy as well, so as soon as he lost control the crew alerted the captain. The ferry laid on its horn and did a complete 180 turn in order to look for this missing jet skier."

“The fog was still thick but the boat turned around about 1 minute after he fell…we searched for about a half an hour with no sign of either the jet ski or the unfortunate man who was riding it. Eventually the captain announced that we had to go back and the coast guard would continue the search.”

“We made it back to shore and for the next few days/weeks I was constantly checking the local news for anything related to this story however there was nothing…it still keeps me up wondering about the man on the jet ski.”

“Just imaging the horror of being 5 miles from either shore, the panic of trying to look for the jet ski while you're in 3 foot swells, knowing that if you do not find it immediately the current will take it and you are stranded in the middle of the open ocean.”

“But even if you did get lucky and find that jet ski the fog is so thick how would you even know that you're heading in the right direction? You could get back on a ride off into the Atlantic until the jet ski ran out of gas…the open ocean is beautiful but unforgiving and I just hope this guy didn't experience anything like the scenarios I can't stop imagining." odfr

Thank God for their diligent Grandpa…

“When I was about 6 years old, I was at my grandparents house for the weekend. They had a massive garden that I would play in for hours at a time. One day I was out there, out of view of my grandparents and a man climbed over the fence and crouched down behind some planters and was staring at me.”

“I was frozen; because he could see me and he knew I could see him and he just stared at me whilst crouching. He looked scruffy and unhinged and he was scratching his arms. He kissed towards me a few times too and was mumbling to himself.”

“My Grandpa happened to come over, saw me stood there like a statue and then saw the man. He jumped cos it caught him off guard but to my amazement he just sprinted towards the man and tackled him down to the ground. I screamed and my grandma ran outside, and ran back in to call the police.”

“The whole time he was looking at me, literally wouldn't stop staring at me to the point where my grandpa was getting very angry and looked like he was close to choking him or something. The police came super quick and that was that. I'm 30 and it still creeps me the f**k outkicksjoysharkness

A different type of Spidey-sense…

Spider-Man Movie GIF by Spider-Man: Into The Spider-VerseGiphy

“I worked with woman, who was severely frightened of dogs. She could tell if a dog was around before she could see them. It wasn't super obvious, but once you looked for it you could see it. She would turn around, and stare. A second, or three, a dog would appear.”

“This was all the time. I would see here do that looking, then a dog would be there. Funny dogs didn't like her either. They would be walking along, then freeze when when they seen her. She was twenty two at the time. The dogs always left.” Jmonroe_tenn

​We would have done the same.

“Went hiking up the woods on a highly trafficked trail, but due to being end of winter there was still some snow towards the end that didn't get used much. Being a strong hiker and having my husky, I figured we'd plow through anyways to reach the peak overlook and head down after that."

“As we were approaching the big bend to the view point, my dog started to stop and trying to turn around. I kept going a little bit, but she kept resisting and her hackles when up."

“ As soon as that happened my heart dropped and I started to get freaked out and as soon as I turned around to walk the other way my dog growled and started to run the way we came, and you bet I followed. Not sure what was out there, or if she,(being the weirdo she is), just wanted to turn around, but I haven't been that scared in a long time, and I hike with my pistol." mrdrjrl

A midnight intruder or a ghostly surprise?

“Mine is actually super funny but at the time it scared the sh*t out of me. I was working as a live-in companion for an elderly woman, helping with her errands and some medical needs. Mostly she just shouldn't be living alone but she refused to go into a nursing home so her kids paid me to spend a few hours with her at night keeping her company and then sleeping in the guest bedroom and being there when she woke."

“Easy job. Hurricane Matthew hits us and the power goes out. I get up to pee, the hallway is pitch-black, lightening is flashing, I'm trying not to let my irrational mind flare up. I'm about halfway down the hallway when I hear a female voice talking very fast just down the hall at the darkest end."

“I scream and run into the bathroom and lock the door. I don't know what I was thinking because a lock isn't going to keep a ghost out and if it were an intruder then they'd know I was awake and where I was and that I knew they were there. Either way, I was convinced locking myself in the bathroom was the smartest thing to do."

“First thing I do after I lock the door is pee because I practically wet myself when the voice started. And then I called the name of the old lady but she didn't answer because she's hard of hearing. So, I was basically all alone with either a ghost or a fast-talking lady robber and locked in the damn bathroom."

“I must have stayed in the bathroom for half an hour waiting for something to happen, hearing nothing outside but the sound of wind and thunder and rain. I was convinced there was something or someone standing on the other side of the door waiting to strike. I was also so sleepy and just wanted to go back to bed."

The spooky saga continued…

The old lady never had guests because her kids all lived within a few miles of her house so the bathroom didn't have anything decorative, just a ceramic soap dispenser so I picked it up and braced it as a bludgeon and opened the door. I ran as fast as I could back to my room and shut myself in, clutching the soap dispenser and waiting for whoever had been talking to come and get me."

Ten minutes later I hear the creak of a door down the hall and the sound of shuffling footsteps getting closer and I just prepared myself to hurtle that damn soap dispenser at whatever dared come into my room. The knob turns, the door starts to creep open, a strange yellow light flooding in. I screamed like the little b*tch I was and started begging not to die."

“It was the old lady with a flash light. She'd woken up to pee and noticed the power was off so she wanted to check on me and make sure I was okay. We both just collapsed on the bed laughing our @sses off. When we'd calmed down I told her I'd been terrified for the last hour because I heard a woman talking somewhere near her bedroom right after the power went off."

“The old lady started laughing again and told me that was her LifeAlert Home Security System letting her know the power had gone off and if she needed assistance to use her Alert necklace to summon police, fire, or medical. And, I was going to kill it with a soap dispenser in the shape of a f**king fish." carmelacorleone

These Actors Seemed Miscast But Absolutely Nailed The Role | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

The Actors Who Seemed Miscast But Absolutely Nailed The RoleFew people bought into the idea of Bryan Cranston in the role of Walter White before Breaking Bad...

Laughter from the dead…

“2am very distinctly could hear my grandad (86) and mum (48) who have both passed away in 2019 laughing happily from the front room and talking, I couldn't afford to have them buried so their urns are both in the front room. I am not the only one to feel activity since I brought urns home."

“Don't get me wrong it is nice to think of them pain-free together again and happy and hearing them was nice but at 2am in the dark going to the toilet it did make me jump." CursedFamilyTree

Grandmother came to them in a dream…

“Sleepwalking - sort of. One night I had a very vivid dream about my grandmother. I cannot remember all the details (I was 10), but the lasting image I have is of her sitting in ‘her’ chair in our living room, with her favourite cup of tea and a digestive biscuit.”

“She only spoke to say ‘Don't worry George. All is well’. I woke up crying and was found by mum standing in the living room, alone, having sleepwalked there I guess.”

“Needless to say, next morning during breakfast mum received the obvious phone call and whilst talking on the phone I just blurted out ‘It's okay mum, Grandma's happy’. She had died in the night of course.”

“You hear stories like this a lot, so they've become a bit of a tired old cliché - but I experienced it personally and it makes me wonder just how such cliché's come about in the first place!” VorlonKing

The creepiest part is that any point someone could have said something!

“Former hotel maid here. Worked at kind of mid nice place in the northeast. In summertime, all tourists and families on vacation, kids playing in pool, happy fun times. In winter, mostly business men on conferences, and women who um, provide them companionship. Sometimes a sex worker would have her own room rented and would work out of it.. we always put them at the end of a hall near exits so we didn't have to see their clients come through the lobby."

“As long as they were discreet and stripped their own sheets none of us staff had a problem with it. One winter there is a girl working out of the floor above me. I see her a few times. She's petite and quiet, probably 30ish, sad looking thing really. A few days into her stay I hear her in the stairwell crying and blubbering something like 'I don't have it, he never gave it to me, no I don't have it!'"

“So I popped my head over the stairwell and say 'hon are you okay, do you need to be let into your room?' She says no and she's sorry, goes outside through the exit. I continue on my cleaning. There was a family staying on my floor, mom and three teenagers, and I was refreshing the linens for them a day or so later."

“The mom is sobbing and wiping her face when I come in. 'I can't stop thinking about that poor girl up there! They worked her over so bad..' apparently she saw the girl that morning and her face was all beaten up and swollen. Broke this sweet momma's heart. I hugged her and I promised to try to leave that girl some numbers for DV resources or something and encourage her to call the cops."

“I didn't see her again though. Few days after that I finished up my floor early and went up to make a few beds for the maid on upper floor. The girls room was a check out, the maid had already been through and gathered the trash and pulled the sheets. But holy f**k, the whole room smiled strongly of bleach. We didn't use bleach, wasn't on our carts at all. But I see three gallons of off-brand bleach sitting with the trash collection."

"The bathroom is streaky with the stuff, and the mattress is wet. The whole mattress. That's sketchy as sh*t and I said as much to the maid I was helping, who just shrugged. She was kinda sketchy herself and definitely wouldn't report anything that would have her talking to management or the police. But I couldn't let it go."

"I asked the front desk when the girl left and they looked up the time. It was super easy to access the security video from the computers so we looked at the lobby video. A woman in a hoodie, sunglasses, and a big rolling suit case. Just judging her height from the counter she stood at, I don't think it was the sex worker. Too tall, and body too wide even in a hoodie. I have no proof of this but I'm literally convinced they chopped that girl up in the room, cleaned with bleach, and put her in that ridiculously huge suitcase." - user deleted

We both said a quiet prayer on our own and it stopped."

“A couple years ago when my wife and I had just started dating, I got her a vinyl album of one of her favorite artists for her birthday and we listened to it on her record player that used to belong to her grandmother that passed away a few years prior to us meeting."

“A couple nights later my at the time girlfriend(now wife) woke up and said that she could hear music. I couldn't hear anything but just brushed it off and said it's probably just somebody out in their car playing their music really loud or something like that, but she said that it was coming from the living room and it sounded like country music. I tried as hard as I could but I couldn't hear any music and I started to feel like I was in a horror movie where the wife always hears and sees stuff but the husband doesn't."

“We walked out to the living room and she said that now it sounded like the music is coming from the bedroom and I was really starting to get scared at this point. We go back in the bedroom and then I could faintly hear music playing and I told her I could hear it too and we both we were so scared about wtf was going on. We both said a quiet prayer on our own and it stopped."

“Sometime after this we looked at the record player that belonged to her grandmother, it was a multifunctional one that played records; cd's; radio; and auxiliary, and we opened the CD player and there was a country music CD in there, I can't remember what singer it was though. The weird thing is, is that the record player was off and we had it on the record player mode so it wouldn't have been playing the CD anyway. We're still not sure what exactly happened but we think maybe it was her grandmother trying to say hello. Either way we have not used the record player since then." BlueShoe15

Nothing to see here…

“I know this is late and will get buried but when I was 8 my parents rented a cabin in the woods. On one of the days, I and my brother are playing a game or something in the rain. At one point in the game, my brother points towards what appears to be a figure dragging a bag through the woods. As we're watching this, he turns and looks. We don't break eye contact for a good 30 seconds. He continues dragging the bag."

“After we can't see him anymore, we both ran back into the cabin. We were both too young to understand. I realized what it was a couple of years later. This was 11 years ago. I asked my brother when I was writing this and he doesn't even remember. I try not to think about it cause it creeps me the f**k out and I wish I realized what was happening back then" Wild-Ad-3471

Creepy but also funny. Thought it might make you all laugh. My BF at the time (now husband) and I had not long moved in together and been burgled we were staying in the rented house still till we could move back in with my folks (stayed one night, as the landlord said they'd fix the door that day but didn't and we ended up with a piece of ply over the door screwed into a post )."

“He wakes me up in the middle of the night ashen faceted telling me I was "writhing on the bed yelling that someone was in the house". He goes on to explain "you didn't sound like you". I have no recollection, shrug it off as him having a bad dream. Move back into my folks house with my OH and I wake up to the bath taps running and a pillow in the bath about a month later - Weird but I shrug it off as some sort of drunken thing as my OH had been to a stag do that night and returned home after I fell asleep."

“A few months after that my mum wakes up to the gas hob on and a pan of water boiling on it. (She didn't tell me this till later).She starts locking the doors at night again, something she didn't do for a while - "just in case". Nothing else happens for about four years.​“

​“We buy our own place and move in. OH wakes up to me kneeling by the side of the bed shaking from side to side with my hands clasped in front of me on the bed as if I am praying. He asks me what I'm doing. In a deep gravelly voice I reply "spinning". So he tells me to "Go back to sleep spinning is finished"."

“I climb back into bed and start talking gibberish. He grabs his phone a tries to record me as he knows I won't believe him. My eyes snap open and snap at him "Don't record me!" He stops, rolls over and tries to sleep all with me still staring until I star snoring about 5 mins later."

Here's the thing, up until the last one I never recalled even dreaming and so never believed him. He tells me what happened and shows me the brief video and my mum who's round for tea wets herself laughing. Apparently I used to sleep walk when I was little but it stopped when I was about 10."

I've always talked in my sleep and it's "always been a little demonic sounding, which is why the kids at school stopped inviting me to sleep overs" - cheers. The thing is, I remember my dream from that night, I dreamt I was at the gym doing a spin class and that had to leave to do the round ball balance things (you can tell I'm not a guy goer) as in my dream the press were following me!"

“After that I told some.old friends, who laughed and said "we thought you knew, you slept walked a couple of times at uni". So yeah, creepy demonic style sleep walking is my thing." cpb21

No one wants to be next to the haunted room…

“I used to live in a house that I am 100% sure was haunted. All the creepy things that happened in that house were centered around the guest bedroom. Can you guess who's room it was right next to?"

“One night (I think I was 13 or 14 when this happened), I was awoken in the middle of the night to a sound I couldn't entirely discern the origin of. It took me a moment of waking up to realize it was the sound of a small child crying. And it was coming from the guest bedroom."

“It went on for a few minutes before I just couldn't stay awake any longer and just passed out. Nobody believes me when I say that this house was haunted, but I knew what I heard. And this wasn't the only incident either."Faulty_Cyanide

Not an ok choice…

​“When I was in first grade (I'm 27 now), for some reason the teacher put on… like a documentary or something. I don't know why she would have done this, but I distinctly remember it was about some tribe of people, I can't remember where."

“All I can remember is the scene that really haunted me. A woman in the tribe had cheated on her husband, and was sentenced her to death for it. I can specifically remember they wrapped a rope around her neck & pulled on both sides until she died, and then lowered her body into the ground in a sh*tty wooden box."

Every time I bring it up I'm told that "there's no way a teacher in the first grade would've shown something like that to you" and that I'm "probably misremembering things." And maybe they're right, I mean, why would a first grade teacher show her students something like that? But… I remember it so clearly. So vividly. They choked that poor woman to death on camera." PineappleLubricant

​Who’s voice was it?

“While I was in the shower talking to myself, I said something along the lines of "who would even break into my house?". Then I heard a voice saying "hello". And that made me freak out. Once I was out of the shower I went to every room were I thought I heard the voice from. But I found nothing, I didn't think of the voice I heard the voice. So that is my creepy experience with a voice."​MainStaffMan

​A barn poltergeist perhaps?

“Was helping my grandpa throw some small square bales as a 10 year old the stack shifted and it fell with me I fell between the bale spikes on the bed of the truck and was pinned for about 5 minutes while he dug me out it fell perfect where I wasn't crushed suffocated or impelled. That was the first time I ever actually saw my grandpa in a sheer panic it was creepy it was like the barn pushed the bales I always had an eerie feeling in that barn after that few years later it burned to the ground we never could figure out how it fell in the way it did." j-twoxd

How about you? What's the creepiest thing you've ever experienced. Let us know in the comments.

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Jobs That Seem Easy But Are Actually Incredibly Challenging

Reddit user CeleryLover4U asked: 'What's a job or profession that seems easy, but is incredibly challenging?'

Woman stressed at work
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

When we hear about other people's jobs, we've surely all done that thing where we make assumptions about the work they do and maybe even judge them for having such an easy or unimportant job.

But some jobs are much harder than they look.

Redditor CeleryLover4U asked:

"What's a job or profession that seems easy but is incredibly challenging?"

Customer Service

"Anything customer-facing. The public is dumb and horrendous."

- gwarrior5

"My go-to explanation is, 'Anyone can do it, but few can do it for long.'"

- Conscious_Camel4830

"The further I get in my corporate career, the less I believe I will ever again be capable of working a public-facing job. I don’t know how I did it in the past. I couldn’t handle it in the present."

"I know people are only getting worse about how they treat workers. It is disturbing, embarrassing, and draining for everyone."

- First-Combination-12

High Stakes

"A pharmacist."

"You face the public. Your mistake can literally kill someone."

- VaeSapiens

"Yes, Pharmacist. So many people think their job is essentially the same as any other kind of retail worker and they just prepare prescriptions written by a doctor without having to know anything about them."

"They are very highly trained in, well, pharmacology; and it's not uncommon for a pharmacist to notice things like potentially dangerous drug interactions that the doctor hadn't."

- Worth_University_884

Teaching Woes

"Two nuggets of wisdom from my mentor teacher when I was younger:"

"'Teaching is the easiest job to do poorly and the hardest job to do well,' and 'You get to choose two of the following three: Friends, family, or being a good teacher. You don't have enough time to do all three.'"

"We all know colleagues or remember teachers who were lazy and chose the easy route, but any teacher who is trying to be a good teacher has probably sacrificed their friends and their sleep for little pay and a stressful work environment. There's a reason something like half quit the profession within the first five years."

- bq87

Creativity Is "Easy"

"Some creative professions, such as designers, are often perceived as 'easy' due to their creative nature. However, they may face the constant need to find inspiration, deal with criticism, and meet deadlines."

- rubberduckyis

"EVERYBODY thinks they are a designer, up until the point of having to do the work. But come critique time, mysteriously, EVERYBODY IS A F**KING DESIGNER AGAIN."

"The most important skill to have as a designer is THICK SKIN."

- whitepepper

Care Fatigue Is Real

"Care work."

"I wish it could be taken for granted that no one thinks it's easy. But unfortunately, many people still see it as an unskilled job and have no idea of the many emotional complexities, or of how much empathy, all the time, is needed to form the sorts of relationships with service users that they really need."

- MangoMatiLemonMelon

Physical Labor Generally Wins

"I’m going to say most types of unskilled labor and that’s because there’s such little (visible) reward and such a huge amount of bulls**t. I’ve done customer service, barista, sales, serving, etc; and it was all much harder than my cushy desk job that actually can be considered life or death."

- anachronistika

Their Memory Banks Must Be Wild

"I don't know if I'd call it incredibly challenging, but being one of those old school taxi drivers who know the city like the back of his hand and can literally just drive wherever being told nothing but an address is pretty impressively skilled."

"Not sure if it's still like this, but British cabbies used to be legendary for this. I'm 40 and I don't think most young people appreciate how much the quality of cab service has gone down since the advent of things like Uber."

"Nowadays it's just kind of expected that a rideshare/cab driver doesn't know exactly where you're trying to get and has to rely on GPS directions that they often f up. Back when I was in college, cabbies were complete experts on their city."

"More even than knowing how to get somewhere, they could also give you advice. You could just generally describe a type of bar/club/business you're looking for, and they'll take you right to one that was spot on. Especially in really big cities like NYC."

- Yak-Mak-5000

Professional Cooking

"Being a chef."

- Canadian_bro7

"I would love to meet the person who thinks being a chef is easy! I cook my own food and it’s not only OK to eat but I make a batch of it so I have some for later. So, to make food that is above good and portion it correctly many times a day and do it consistently with minimal wastage (so they make a profit), strikes me as extremely difficult."

- ChuckDeBongo

Team Leading, Oof

"Anything that involves a lot of people skills and socializing. I thought these positions were just the bulls**t of sitting in meetings all day and not a lot of work happening but having to be the one leading those meetings and doing public speaking is taxing in a way I didn’t realize."

- Counterboudd

Not a Pet Sitter At All

"Veterinary Technician."

"Do the job of an RN, anesthesiology tech, dental hygienist, radiology tech, phlebotomist, lab tech, and CNA, but probably don’t make a living wage and have people undervalue your career because you 'play with puppies and kittens all day.'"

- forthegoddessathena

Harder Than It Looks!

"Sometimes, when my brain is fried from thinking and my ego is shot from not fixing the problem, I want to be a garbage man... not a ton of thinking, just put the trash in the truck, and a lot of them have trucks that do it for you!"

"But if the robot either doesn't work or you don't have one on your truck, it smells really bad, the pay isn't what it used to be, you might find a dead body and certainly find dead animal carcasses... and people are id**ts, overfilling their bags, just to have them fall apart before you get to the truck, not putting their trash out and then blaming you, making you come back out."

"Your body probably is sore every day, and you have to take two baths before you can kiss your wife..."

"Ehh, maybe things are not so bad where I am."

- Joebroni1414

Twiddling Thumbs and Listening

"Therapist here. I’ve always said that it’s pretty easy to be an okay therapist—as in, it’s not that hard to listen to people’s problems and say, 'Oh wow, that’s so hard, poor you.'"

"But to be a good therapist? To know when your client is getting stuck in the same patterns, or to notice what your client isn’t saying? To realize that they’re only ever saying how amazing their spouse is, and to think, 'Hmm, nobody’s marriage is perfect, something’s going on there'?"

"To be able to ask questions like, 'Hey, we’ve been talking a lot about your job, but what’s going on with your family?' And then to be able to call them on their s**t, but with kindness and empathy? Balancing that s**t is hard."

"Anybody can have empathy, but knowing when to use empathy and when and how to challenge someone is so much harder. And that’s only one dimension of what makes being a therapist challenging."

- mylovelanguageiswine

Constant Updates

​"For the most part, my job is really easy (marketing tech). But having to constantly stay on top of new platforms, new tech, updates, etc etc is exhausting and overwhelming and I really hate it."

"Also, the constant responsibility to locate and execute opportunities to optimize things and increase value for higher-ups. Nobody in corporate roles can ever just reach a point of being 'good enough.' More and better is always required."

"Just some of the big reasons I’m considering a career change."

- GlizzyMcGuire_

Performing Is Not Easy

"Performing arts and other types of art. People think it’s a cakewalk or 'not a real job,' not realizing the literal lifetime of training, rejection, and perseverance that it takes to reach a professional level and how insanely competitive those spaces are."

- ThrowRA1r3a5

All About Perception

"I suspect everything fits this. Consider that someone whose job is stacking boxes in a warehouse has to know how to lift boxes, how many can be stacked, know if certain ones must be easily accessible, know how to use any equipment that is used to move boxes around."

"Not to mention if some have hazardous or fragile materials inside, if some HAVE to be stacked on the bottom, if a mistake is made and all the boxes have to be restacked, etc."

"But everyone else is like, 'They're just stacking boxes.'"

- DrHugh

It's easy to make assumptions about someone else's work and responsibilities when we haven't lived with performing those tasks ourselves.

This gave us some things to think about, and it certainly reminded us that nothing good comes of making assumptions, especially when it minimizes someone else's experiences.

Left-handed person holding a Sharpie
Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash

Many of us who are right-handed never even think about how the world is designed to cater to us.

It probably doesn't even cross your mind that 10% of the world's population is left-handed.

Because of this, there tends to be a stigma for being left-handed since society tends to associate the left with negative things.

For example, the phrase "two left feet" applies to those who are clumsy and therefore, incapable of dancing.

Curious to hear more about the challenges facing those with the other dominant hand, Redditor johnnyportillo95 asked:

"What’s something left-handed people have to deal with that right-handed people wouldn’t even think about?"

If only manufacturers appealed to an ambidextrous world.

Furniture Obstacle

"Those desks or couch chairs that have a small desk attached. They do make left handed/sided ones but they are few and far between."

– Prussian__Princess

"And they’re only on one side of the lecture hall, and it’s never a good seat. There is ONE front row, lefty desk in the entire room and it’s in the far corner, obscured by an ancient overhead projector."

– earwighoney

Everyday Objects For Everyday People

"as a left-handed person myself, one thing we often deal with is finding left-handed tools or equipment. many everyday objects, like scissors or can openers, are designed with right-handed people in mind, which can make certain tasks a bit more challenging for us lefties. we also have to adapt to a right-handed world when it comes to writing on whiteboards or using certain computer mice."

– J0rdan_24

Dangerous Tools

"The biggest risk is power tools. I taught myself to use all power tools right handed because of risks using them left handed."

"Trivial, I love dry boards but they are super hard to write on."

– diegojones4

It's hard to play when you're born with a physical disadvantage.

Sports Disadvantage

"Allright, Sports when you are young. Every demonstration from PE teachers are right handed. You cant just copy the movements they teach you you need to flip them and your tiny brain struggoes to process it. As well, 98% of the cheap sports equipment the school uses is right handed."

– AjCheeze

No Future In Softball

"I tried to bat right handed for so long in gym class growing up because the gym teacher never asked me what my dominant side was and the thought never occurred to me as a child to mention it! Needless to say I never became a softball star."

– Leftover-Cheese

Find A Glove That Fits

"In softball and baseball we need a specific glove for our right hand that's often impossible to find unless you own one, and we have to bat on the other side of the plate."

– BowlerSea1569

"I was one of two left-handers in a 4-team Little League in the 1980s. Nobody could pitch to me. I got a lot of "hit by pitch" walks out of it."

– Jef_Wheaton

These examples are understandably annoying.

Shocking Observation

"Having right handed people make comments whenever they see us write, like we’re some kind of alien."

– UsefulIdiot85

"'Woah! You're left-handed????'"

"I find myself noticing when someone is a lefty, and sometimes I comment on it, but I try not to. I'm primarily left-handed (im a right handed wroter but do everything else left), and every single time I go to eat with my family, someone says, "Oh hey, give SilverGladiolus22 the left hand spot, they're left-handed," and inevitably someone says, 'Wait, really?' Lol."

– SilverGladiolus22

Can't Admire The Mug

"We never get to look at the cute graphics on coffee mugs while we’re drinking from them."

– vanetti

"I just realized…I always thought the graphics were made so someone else could read them while you drink. Hmmm."

– Bubbly-Anteater7345

"I'm right-handed and I often wondered why the graphics were turned towards the drinker instead of out for others to see."

– Material-Imagination

The Writing On The Wall

"Writing on whiteboards is a nightmare. I have to float my hand, which tires out my arm quickly, and I can't see what I've already written to keep the line straight."

– darkjedi39

"Also as a teacher, it means I'm standing to the left of where I'm writing, so I'm blocking everything I write. I have to frequently finish writing, then step out of the way so people can see, instead of just being able to stand on the right side the whole time."

– dancingbanana123

Immeasurable

"Rulers."

"How the f'k is no one talking about rulers? It's from 30cm to 0 cm to me, or I have to twist my arms to know the measure I want to trace over it."

– fourangers

Just Can't Win

"EVERYTHING. The world has always been based around people being right handed. As a Chef, my knife skills SUCKED until I worked with a Left Handed Chef. Then it all made sense."

"Literally, everything we do must be observed, then flipped around in our heads, then executed. This is why Lefties die sooner, on average, than Righties."

"I had to learn how to be ambidextrous, just to complete basic tasks (sports, driving a manual, using scissors, etc). I am used to it now, and do many things right handed out of necessity, as wall as parents and teachers 'forcing' it upon me."

"But, at least we are not put to death anymore, simply for using the wrong hand (look it up, it happened)."

"Ole Righty, always keeping us down."

– igenus44

The world doesn't need another demographic to feel "othered" for being different.

But if you're right-handed and tend to make assumptions about left-handed people, you may want to observe the following.

Ronald Yeo, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Texas-Austin told CNN:

"We shouldn’t assume much about people’s personalities or health just because of the hand they write with."
"And we certainly shouldn’t worry about lefties’ chances of success: After all (as of 2015), five of our last seven U.S. presidents have been either left- or mixed-handed."

Word.

Dog lying down on a bed
Photo by Conner Baker on Unsplash

Not all pet owners have the same relationship with their pets.

While anyone who decides to become a pet owner, or pet parent as some say, love their pets equally, some never ever let them leave their side.

Taking their pet with them to work, running errands, even on vacations.

Many pet parents even allow their pets to share their bed with them when going to sleep.

For others though, this is where a line is finally drawn.

Redditor Piggythelavasurfer was curious to hear whether pet owners allowed their pets to share their bed with them, as well as the reasons why they do/don't, leading them to ask:

"Do you let your pet sleep in your bed? Why/why not?"

The Tiny Issue Of Water...

"Absolutely not."

"I have fish."- Senior-Meal3649

Everyone Gets Lonely Eventually...

"I adopted an eleven year old cat the day before Halloween."

"She has mostly lived in my closet since I got her, and she hasn’t been too interested in coming out."

"Last night, she came out of my closet and jumped up on my bed, and crawled under my covers and curled up by my feet to sleep."

"I was so happy!"- YellowBeastJeep

The Comforting Reminder That You're Not Alone...

"I recently lost my Greyhound but I used to let him sleep on my bed with me."

"The company was nice and he was no trouble to have on my bed."- HoodedMenace3

Hungry Cookie GIF by De Graafschap DierenartsenGiphy

What Do You Mean Allow?

"I have no choice."

"She is a cat, cats do whatever they want."- Small_cat1412

"He lets me sleep in my bed."- Poorly-Drawn-Beagle

Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way

"I carry my old boy upstairs to bed every night."- worst_in_show

Hug GIF by The BarkPostGiphy

Who Needs An Alarm Clock?

"I let my two cats sleep with me."

"They're so full of love and just want cuddles all the time."

"And so do I."

"We've all developed a lil routine."

"Get to bed, oldest sleeps on my feet to keep them warm, youngest lies in my arm while I lie on my side (she the little spoon), then when I snooze my alarm for work in the morning the youngest paws at my face and meeps loudly to wake me up."- GhostofaFlea_

Whose Bed Is It Anyway?

"Yes."

"They're also kind enough to let me squeeze into whatever space they've left for me."

"Although I do get a few dirty looks off them."- Therealkaylor

"I found this tiny kitten screaming her head off under a car."

"Would not come out."

"Got some food and some water in dishes."

"I stood by the tire so she couldn't see my feet."

"She got curious about the food and water and started gobbling it down."

"I thought she would bolt when I squatted down."

"She was too busy eating."

"I grabbed her by the nape of the neck and all four legs went straight out and she tried to scratch me to death."

"I got her in the door and tossed her toward the couch."

"She ricocheted off the couch as if she was a ping pong off a table and I lost sight of her."

"I put out food and water and a sandbox and did not see that kitten for three days."

"On the third day, I came home and she was on my bed pillow."

"I thought she would bolt when I came near, but she didn't."

"I wanted to sleep so I tried to scoot her little butt off my pillow."

"She would not go."

"I put my head down to sleep and that is the way it was from then on."

"She ran the roost."- Logical_Cherry_7588

sleepy kitten GIFGiphy

Sleeping Is A Prerequisite...

"No, he's a cat and he cannot keep still during the night."

"He walks across the headboard, opens the closet doors, jumps into the windows and rustles the blinds, etc."

"If he would sleep he could stay, but alas, he's a ramblin' man."- Spong_Durnflungle

Saying No Just Isn't An Option...

"'Let'."

"Lol."

"It's a cat's world and I'm happy to be on her good side."- milaren

Felines Only!

"The cat does, the dog doesn't and the horse certainly does not either."- Xcrowzz

Angry Tom And Jerry GIF by Boomerang OfficialGiphy

Is That My Hair On That Pillow?

"My dog is perfect."

"She comes up, cuddles til we start to fall asleep, then gets down to sleep on her bed so she doesn't get too hot."

"Jumps back up in the early morning for wake up cuddles."

"The hair everywhere is the only downside but she is so cozy, what can you do."- HoodieWinchester

It is easy to understand how some people are able to fall asleep more easily knowing their friend and protector is there, in bed, with them.

Though we can't blame others who don't want to run the risk of being scratched or bitten in the middle of the night either...


Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-NineGiphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & GraceGiphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The OfficeGiphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.