We all have our moments. Some are just little slip-ups that can just be chalked up to word vomit. Other times, it can completely change the course of your life. No matter what, it's always good to think before you act.
bigred6601 asked: What is one moment when you realized you just f---ed up?
At least he wasn't completely lost.
"I invited a friend over for a BBQ. He didn't know anyone and has never been to my house but seemed really eager to go.
So I was a little irritated that he was almost 2 hours late. I was just about to text him when I happened to look over my neighbors fence.
The neighbor was also having a BBQ. It was like it happened in slow motion. I saw my friend in the neighbors yard chatting up some old lady. Our eyes locked. I saw the realization literally hit his face.
I still laugh about it. I swear the guy turned white!"
That sounds like a sh*tty situation.
"Direction driller and locator of 10 years here. Drilling in Miami quite a few years ago and was doing a fairly deep road crossing. Half a rod under the road I felt a pop and proceeded to see a 30' tall shit stream shoot out of the road. I had just drilled into a 12" unmarked force main sewer.
If you have ever seen a 30' stream of raw sewage you will never forget the smell."
FuryWhatWhenOof.
"It's been almost 30 years since this happened and I still have nightmares. Freshman year of college. My first set of college finals. I was totally prepared and ready to take them all. Had almost straight As going into finals.
I go to my last one, which was a throwaway 3 credits of introduction to sociology. I sit down ready to ace it and look up at the board to see "Biology 103". Huh, that's weird. I pull out my calendar. The sociology final was yesterday."
When Truth or Dare gets deadly.
Giphy
"When I climbed my schools roof. Was quite a heavy kid, and I was out and about with my cousin and mates. After running around school my friends dare me to go up on the roof and, as I'm not a wuss, I gotta prove to them that I ain't afraid to go on no roof!
So after a while and much help I got up. Ran around up there and had a bit of fun and then I had to get down.... that's when I knew I f---ed up
Nothing in sight to help me, all I could do was either call someone to help me ( e,g parents or firemen) or jump. Decided to take the risk and jump, tried to do parkour like I saw in videos, jump and roll you know. Ended with f---ing up my foot, calling my parents and driving to the hospital, when questioned said I slipped while playing basketball.
Foot is still f---ed up til this day and my mom think it was because of basketball, lol."
This is why they ended the "thirty minutes or free" deal.
"Not that exciting but it was my first day at me new pizza job and 20 minutes after I cashed out a pickup order I FROZE and realized: I never sliced that pizza."
Oh no!
Giphy
"I was a young software engineer working for a startup in 1998. Wrote about a weeks worth of code, images, and HTML. There was this funny file named ?~ in the directory. I wasn't sure how it got there, but I wanted it gone before I checked everything into CVS. No problem. rm-rf ?*.
I discovered my error a few seconds later when the directory listing contained nothing. No code, images, or HTML.
Turns out ? is a shell wildcard character matching any 1 character. Combined with * all files got deleted.
It was at this moment I knew I f---ed up.
Luckily I was using Linux. E2fs file systems had a utility called debugfs which allowed me to list deleted inodes and dump them to new files. Took the better part of a day to figure it all out since this was before google. I recovered the entire project."
What a horrible Halloween.
"Halloween 2011.
3 men knock on the door all wearing masks. I laugh it off thinking it's some friends being stupid. Unlock the door. Handle flies down, door gets kicked open (realise I messed up) and within seconds I've got my hands and feet bound whilst they begin to trash and rob the place.
I escaped when my feet got loose, slipped my hands over my skinny butt (thank you high metabolism), ran to a window, opened it, climbed out and jumped from the first floor window. Broke a ton of bones in both feet and sprinted to a neighbors house.
I now have f---ed knees and feet and PTSD at Halloween time. Get anxiety when someone knocks on the door regardless of the time of year. Got addicted to pain killers for about 7 years and struggle with alcoholism. Also really f---ing sad that my favourite holiday was ruined."
This one had a happy ending.
Giphy
"New year's Eve 1999 I called a woman I was very good friends with (friends only, I was firmly in the friend zone at that time), she was also my boss. I had way too much to drink and was not in any way considered sober or even slightly so, I was pissed as a fart. I proceeded to tell this woman how I felt about her, what I wished to do with her and how I wanted to do it. I told her this for about 45 minutes. Afterwards I continued to drink.
Several days later back at work she calls me into the office and asked me why I'd called her at New year, I pulled a blank, I honestly could not remember a thing. She also informed me that several minutes into the conversation/monologue she handed the phone over to her mother. I still pulled a blank, in fact I was so convinced that nothing happened I was sure she was winding me up. If anything like that had happened after all why was she still even talking to me let alone letting me continue to work with her. She insisted that I called and I refused to believe her.
It was not until late January when I received my detailed mobile phone bill that showed a 48 minute phone call to her number late on December 31 that I finally had to believe her. The difficult part was facing her mother after my boss and I became an item.
We are now very happily married but even now my MIL still takes the piss out of me over that phone call. My wife however is very happy."
Horrible timing.
"At one point a few years ago, my girlfriend (at the time) texts me and says "huh, I guess surprise pregnancies are a thing."
Then she stopped responding for about half an hour, and I proceeded to have a heart attack.
Turns out her sister got knocked up, but that was the absolute worst 30 minutes of my life."
This got meta.
"I got called into a meeting with my line manager, out of nowhere. He slid a piece of paper across the desk and said "Do you know what Reddit is, and are these comments from your account?"
Took me a moment to figure out the answers to those questions, and soon enough realised... oh boy am I going to have a story for TIFU when this is over.
Sadly, thanks to an NDA, I am not allowed to tell any more of the story."
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-Nine
Giphy
"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."
"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 & Grace
Giphy
"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 Office
Giphy
"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.
