Parents are supposed to have our best interests at heart but that is definitely not always the case. From poison ivy sandwiches and forced play dates, to ignoring allergies and forcing kids to watch loved ones suffer, some parents really get it wrong.
burneraccount1000000 asked: What was the genuinely worst experience that you were ever forced into by parents or friends?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
WTAF?!
My mother would read Rodale Press organic living type magazines in the 1960's. And decided that she would try to make her children immune to poison ivy. This involves having us eat poison ivy sandwiches.
"Don't chew it, just swallow."
My 5 year old sister almost died from a swollen throat. Hospital, shots, IV's. The doctor was aghast that anyone could be that insane. Dad was so angry he could not speak.
My older sister and I are still allergic to poison ivy.
I'm glad your sister survived, what a nightmare... Did one of the magazines suggest this idea or was it your own mother's invention?
Magazine article. This sort of bullsh*t was not invented by the new agey yoga moms of the 21st century.
When kids are forced to be friends with you and vice versa.
My mom was more insecure about me not having friends than I was myself. If I didn't have playdate lined up each weekend, she would force me to call kids in my class who I didn't get along with and 9/10 they'd say they were busy. Some would even confront me at school on Monday and say "Why the hell did you call me?"
Being forced into social situations never turn out good.
I was friends with a girl throughout middle and high school whose crazy mother made her "Friend Business Cards" and made her pass them out in 8th grade.
I guess she was struggling to make friends and the business cards had her phone number and a little bio on them. She passed them out because her mom would count them to make sure she gave some away. You could tell she was humiliated to do it.
My stepmother became friends with her mother through church and tried to start the same sh*t. I was new at the school and the first friend I made, my stepmom immediately got on Facebook, found out the girl lived with her grandmother and started asking her unprompted personal questions about my friend, including sh!t like asking why her parents weren't in the picture. I hadn't even added the girl yet and my stepmom Facebook stalked her and harassed her grandmother.
The next day the girl told me I was weird and I got angry at my stepmom who got angry at the grandmother because, "What senior aged adult tells their 8th grade granddaughter about their adult conversations?"
I don't know, probably one that doesn't want her grandchild hanging out with a kid whose parent is a f*cking creep?
Kitties are smart and snakes are awesome.
Parents wanted me to get over my fear of snakes so they made me hold a giant python at an interactive aquatic show in Silver Springs, Florida. Nightmares!
As an adult, my cat Pinky would bring me live garden snakes and gently put them in my hand. That worked.
My husband (boyfriend at the time) thought he could get me over my fear of heights by taking me to a heights themed amusement park. I handled the first ride with only moderate shakes/sweats.
But then I got stuck at the top of a child's rock wall shaking and crying. The seventeen year old park attendant had to climb up and yank me off the wall, the whole time apologizing "I'm so sorry ma'am but it's policy I have to pull you down" (MA'AM. This was recent. I was 29. I still am 29).
He finally understood what I meant when I said "I'm afraid of heights."
Watching a loved one not be allowed to die with dignity.
My grandmother died over the course of a single summer of cancer. By the time the end came it was in her lungs, bones and brain. She was completely bald and was legitimately nothing but skin and bones. She weighed 80 lbs. She was also nearly paralyzed by the pain her body was in and couldn't move on her own. Since there was nothing that could be done for her but keep her on pain-killers, a bed was put in my grandparents living room. Since the cancer was in her brain she gradually lost the ability to effectively communicate and would scream and cry like a newborn when she needing something. Sometimes, she would forget who she was and where she was and she would just scream incoherently because she was scared.
My mother and aunts volunteered to try and care for her as best they could. Instead of finding someone else to watch me over the summer, I spent every day, all day in the living room watching my grandmother die and turn into a shell of a human being. She didn't know who we were most of the time and she started calling me 'the one that wouldn't shut up' whenever she was cognitive enough to speak. I was there when she breathed her last breath at 2 am in the morning and when the funeral director rolled up to take her body out of the house. I was 7. I'd even go so far as to say I am traumatized by that entire experience. Every time I mention that to my parents I get shrugged off. It's one of the reasons I personally agree with physician assisted death - I never want my family to witness me go out like that. That was the worst experience my family ever forced me to endure.
Man, I recently went to visit my grandmother who was a couple days away from dying and was in not much of a better state than what you described. I walked into the room and was so shocked that my heart skipped a beat. I've never seen a person in that kind of condition and it was so difficult to look at her. I turned right around and told my teenage daughter to wait in the other room while I said goodbye to grandma. I didn't want her to see. It was extremely difficult for me to see her like that and I didn't want my daughter having that image in her mind. I can't imagine making my seven year old experience that day after day.
Euthanasia is humane. F*ck anybody who disagrees with me on that one.
Bro, nice.
I am terrified of heights. I can't hardly get up on a chair to change a light without shaking. When I was maybe 10 my friend invited me to 6 flags, which if you haven't heard of it is mostly roller coasters.
I declined but my friend was being taken by her dad who insisted she take a friend and wouldn't take no for an answer. Her parents were divorced and her dad was ultra wealthy so he was one of those "I'll buy my kids from that b!tch of an ex wife" kinda parents.
After a few hours of them going on rides together I guess the dad got fed up that I wasn't having a good time (I never said that) because I wouldn't ride the rides so he forces me into line for some unreasonable roller coaster, where your feet dangle and you flip upside down and all that. And I'm trying to tell him no I don't want to but he just ignores me.
After a while I broke down and just started to cry because I was so scared and upset. I kept yelling I don't wanna go, please don't make me go and he was indifferent to my pleas. Luckily some probably seriously underpaid teenage line attendant in an orange vest stood me against the "you must be this tall to ride" board and decided I was too short. I was tall enough, but the guy knew I was freaking out and did me a solid. Threatened to remove all 3 of us from the park if he didn't leave.
Tldr; friends dad tried to force me on a roller coaster and I cried because I was so scared, so the ride attendant refused to let me on.
Roller coaster attendant was a bro.
Kids are not free labor.
Mom made me hang out with her friends kid that was autistic to hell and back. She said that she would babysit him while her friend went to work, but my mom would just make me watch him. I had to change and feed him even though he was an extremely picky eater, I was 10 and he was 14. She would yell at me if he made a mess or had a meltdown, like I could control it. She was paid $250 a week and I didn't get sh*t but head aches and bruises.
Don't feel bad if you eventually put her in an elderly care home and then can't visit for whatever reason. Sounds like she's cool with outsourcing the care of loved ones.
WTF?
Well, not me, but my sister. Our parents were getting divorced, and we were over at his place for visitation on Sunday. After we went to church, we went amd bought what we thought was a chocolate cake. Now, my little sister has a severe, life threatening peanut allergy. After a few bites of the cake, she said that her throat was itching/swelling. My brother and I immediately told her to stop eating it, but my Dad ACTIVELY ENCOURAGED her to continue eating it. After we had finally convinced her to stop, she should have been taken to the ER immediately. Instead, he gives her Benadryl, and makes her wait for a good 10-15 minutes.
All while she is swelling and itching, and its getting harder to breathe. He finally takes her to the hospital after she throws up (which is a sign of internal swelling,? I think) She almost died, and my Mom was so mad when she came to the hospital. All I remember about that car ride to the hospital was thinking that my little sister was going to die, and basically watching her suffocate in front of me. He also did something similar to my brother, but it wasn't life threatening.
What is it with parents in this thread forcing their kids to eat things that'll kill them? How could anyone think that this kind of ghetto desensibilization with no medical supervision is a good idea?
So much for "Dr. Mom."
Mother acted out her resentment at Dad's allergies by exposing me to all of his allergens after they split up. When I complained about symptoms similar to what he had been going to an allergist to treat, she bellowed You don't have any allergies! I couldn't really protest more because she had never taken me to a doctor to get tested.
Fast forward: the separation turned into divorce, I moved in with Dad, finally got medical treatment and (no surprise) needed prescription medication and allergy shots. Then in my late teens the allergies turn life threatening. I'm stuck for life on a restricted diet because there's no clinical research for treatment of these specific allergies.
There's no way to prove direct cause and effect, but allergies are known to worsen with repeated uncontrolled exposures so it's definitely possible that Mom's decisions are why things got this bad. Incidentally she used to slip allergens into Dad's stuff without his knowledge behind his back and I'm 99% sure she did the same to me whenever I visited her even after Dad got me proper medical treatment. It's an ugly rabbit hole what motivates her to do that, but the bottom line is she can't be trusted. It's one of the reasons I stopped talking to her. If there's a silver lining, it's the experience taught me to stand up for myself whenever ignorant people try to second guess properly trained doctors.
Damn, what are you allergic to to be on a restricted diet for the rest of your life?
I have anaphylactic Oral Allergy Syndrome. It's a rare life threatening manifestation of a type of allergy that's mild in most cases. It's as serious as a peanut allergy except in my case it's caused by a wide variety of fresh fruit.
This isn't covered under federal food labeling law and the FDA chooses not to regulate it (they could require specifying my allergens by name in the fine print but they've chosen not to). So any food that reads natural flavors or natural colorson the label could contain my allergens and cause a medical emergency. My allergens aren't covered in food service allergy safety training either. So I have to make nearly everything I eat from scratch and at home.
It's been a real problem when I check into hospitals for unrelated reasons (sports injury etc.) because this diagnosis isn't taught outside of medical schools: the M.D.s recognize the diganosis and write up appropriate orders, which the kitchen staff and the nurses ignore because their training doesn't cover this and they mistake me for a picky eater. It's resulted in close calls after major surgery when they roll in an off-limits meal while I'm recovering from anesthesia and on morphine.
When you're constantly forced to babysit.
Honestly, it was a series of things my parents did. Any time we went to a function or party I was stuck babysitting not only my little sister but all of my parents' friend group's kids. If I took my eye off them to do something boom pressure point and talk about being responsible. This happened for literally every party they dragged me too. I hate going to parties when small children are there because it feels like I have to always keep an eye on them or else.
This is even more awful, when there is gender stereotyping going on. Like you are the oldest girl cousin, and so you have to watch all the younger ones while the male cousins older than you can enjoy the party.
What a waste of time.
It would have to be the three day 8 hour long church convention while wearing a suit....thankfully my parents soon gave up on trying to make me a Jehovah's Witnesse
Yeah... those were very tiring. All the same information every day, every year. I eventually stopped going.
Oh geez, the three day circuit assemblies. I remember these. So painfully boring... sitting there taking notes and pretending like I wasn't dat dreaming like all the other thousands of people.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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