Psychologists Break Down The Most Bone-Chilling Thing A Patent Ever Said To Them
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay |
One of the more maligned horror film subgenres is the one featuring escaped mental patients. For every good one (Nightmare in a Damaged Brain, anyone?) there's all sorts of crap that's barely even worth a time slot on the SyFy Channel. These stories can be rather problematic, too, but that's another article in and of itself. But guess what? Psychologists do know what it's like to have an unsettling patient or two. We're certain they occasionally hear things that keep them up at night.
After Redditor dodge_menace asked the online community, "Psychologists, what is the most bone chilling thing a patient has said to you?" people shared their stories.
"I've heard some disturbing stories..."
I work with complex trauma patients. I've heard some disturbing stories that would keep me up at night if I didn't have to take a medication that makes me really drowsy. One that has been on my mind lately is a patient whose dad died (of a heart attack, IIRC) when she was young and her mom didn't tell anyone, instead choosing to keep the body in a spare room. The patient described in detail the last time she saw her dad's body, when it had spent several weeks decomposing.
In general, I'm pretty comfortable letting patients talk through their homicidal fantasies, and that yields some disturbing things. One young man used to talk about how he loved to daydream about cutting abusive family members to pieces, roasting them, and feeding them to the neighbor's dogs. The most disturbing part to me is that he was actually one of the sweetest patients I've ever worked with. Genuinely would never hurt a fly, but just had this really dark daydream he'd carry around.
"He wanted to flay him..."
I had a patient explain to me in detail how he planned to kill his neighbor. He wanted to flay him put him in the ground and cover him with horse manure so he would slowly die of infection. I informed my supervisor. His neighbor was warned and my patient was picked up by the police. Not sure how that case turned out.
"That they liked to watch..."
That they liked to watch videos of babies crying when they felt upset because it made them feel happier and more relaxed.
WHAT.
What did we just read?
Unsettling.
"I work mainly in mental health..."
I work mainly in mental health and I had a client tell me they were going to throw the boiling oil I had been frying chicken with in my face. Then they proceeded to punch me in the back.
That is terrifying.
The fear of being assaulted can be a very real one.
"My recommendation was not to parole him."
Clinical psychologist here. I used to work in a prison and did a parole evaluation for an inmate that was a high-ranking gang member in a national gang. By his account, he was the highest-ranking in the state. In fact he was placed in that prison to hold his "people" accountable and keep the peace. He had a long violent record and was, in my opinion, a genuine psychopath.
Part of the eval is discussing the crime and assessing remorse and whatnot. He was so clinical in his description of how he tortured and left this guy to die over an unpaid debt. "Live by the sword, die by the sword" was his phraseology for the act. Like it was nothing.
He was also very nonchalant about his ability to "take care of his business" while inside. I believed him. He had only spent 18 months of his last 15 years outside of prison.
My recommendation was not to parole him. There were various factors that I gave and in the end, the parole board went with my recommendation.
So the part that actually scared me (this was my first parole eval) was this guy's ability to affect the world outside. He could have sent someone to my house if he wanted to. I had no doubt about that. More experienced psychologists told me not to worry about it. That he knew the score and wouldn't take it personally. I had a hard time buying it.
I was running a long-term offender group a few months later and he was part of it. After the first group, I pulled him aside and asked if we were good. He smiled at me and told me not to worry. I did my job and he didn't blame me for writing what I did because it was true. He went on to be a really insightful and active group member.
To which this person replied:
Criminal defence lawyer here: A lot of those guys basically understand that we exist in the system, but that we're in a different role than they are. So, they might kill a guy for shorting them on cash because he's part of their world, but not be upset at the prosecutor who sends him to jail for a decade because that prosecutor isn't. It's an interesting disconnect.
"Luckily..."
A few people had unpredictable anger and outbursts that could be scary at times, and once a husband brought a gun to a couples therapy session and threatened to kill himself/wife.
Luckily we were able to calm the situation down, but things like that can end badly, and you always have to be aware of that possibility when emotions run high.
"The client had a volatile temper..."
Had a client years ago who had recently gotten out of prison for assaulting a police officer pretty badly. The client had a volatile temper and lived in a violent family growing up. The client never got angry with me, personally. However, while talking about their family and other people in their life the client would get so worked up with anger that I sometimes wondered if I was safe. I started pretending to be on "emergency call" duty in the clinic where I worked so that I had an excuse to carry a walkie-talkie with me during our sessions. Shortly after I began doing that, I terminated the therapeutic relationship and referred the client for a completely different type of treatment than what I provided. The last I heard, the new treatment method was helping the client.
"I've never been afraid..."
Clinical psychologist in training here. I've never been afraid, but my friend had a client once who made her extremely uncomfortable. Without revealing any information that could break confidentiality, I will say that he had issues with masturbating too much (and not doing much else), and at one point asked my friend if they could watch porn together in the next session so he could show her what he does... At another time, he talked about his masturbation habits while touching himself through his pants a bit - totally inappropriate behavior, obviously. This client had lots of other issues, but when these things came up, her supervisor took her off the case because it wasn't suitable for training and my friend didn't feel safe.
"When I started..."
I'm a psychologist now, but, between undergraduate and graduate school, I worked at this facility with male teenage sex offenders for about two years:
https://www.youthvillages.org/services/residential-programs/inner-harbour-campus/
It was the single worst period of my entire life.
When I started, I generally had faith in the staff, and I really wanted to help the kids. It probably wasn't six weeks in before all of the stress got to me. The kids knew that most of the rules were not enforceable, and they could constantly curse at us, threaten us, steal, break rules, manipulate the system, and act out with very few repercussions. I think it was my second day there when I saw a kid break down a steel door with a chair. They would provoke staff. They would provoke each other so they could force staff to intervene and try to get the staff in harm's way. What's worse, I'm a bit of a straightforward and by-the-book guy, and the kids started to learn that I would enforce the rules, and they started to hate me and target me.
I began to have chest pain on the drive to work. I would have trouble falling asleep at night because I would be imagining the threats and restraints the next day that I might be involved in. It does bad things to your psyche when someone can criticize you, make false allegations against you just to get you in trouble, lie to you, demean you, and threaten you for months on end, and you essentially can't defend yourself because you're constrained by your role. You can't hit them back, talk back, show attitude, and the only tiles you can enforce or privileges you can take away, the kids could give a sh!t about. Meanwhile, you are giving them your everything. Basic hygiene, school help, counseling, playing games, talking them through life issues, putting them to bed at night. You're essentially their parent.
But to answer your questions, yeah I was afraid of several of them. I was assaulted three times while I worked there. Two of the assaults were relatively minor, just a single punch to the chest or a single punch to the face, but one of the kids punched me 6 or 7 times in the head.
Well, this was quite the read.
We applaud the psychologists who keep going, continue to care about their patients, and do their best work despite some of the risks. And to those who couldn't, that's okay too. Safeguarding your own mental health is so important.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to share them with us in the comments section below.
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The Moment People Knew Their Partner Was The One
Reddit user KingKerttula asked: 'People of reddit, what was your yep she/he is the one moment?'
Dating can be frustrating, but it definitely has its moments.
There's nothing quite like the moment, however, of realizing that they are with the person they're meant to be with for the rest of their lives.
Redditor KingKerttula asked:
"People of Reddit, what was your 'Yep, she/he is the one' moment?"
Solo Trips... Plus One
"I always enjoyed taking a trip by myself while in a relationship. On the last trip alone, I found myself thinking, 'This would be more fun if she was here,' for the first time. I knew then that she was the one."
- Wisebutt98
A Missed Birthday
"She had a brain injury days before my birthday. She woke up from a coma, and the first thing she did was ask nurses/doctors about me and my birthday even though they had no idea who I was."
"I’ve never had someone care so much about me to be the first thing they think of when waking up after brain surgery."
- SurprisedTissue
Traveling Together
"We'd been dating less than a year when my job transferred me across the country. I went to talk to her, figuring it was going to be a breakup, but instead, she nonchalantly asked, 'When do we leave?'"
- pm_me_ur_cutie_bototy
"When I graduated college, I took a job that would be six hours drive time away from my then-new girlfriend. Shortly thereafter, she just up and moved to my new town without even telling me in advance. (Well, she called me on Thursday and said, 'Can you be here Saturday to help me drive the truck?')."
"Anyhow, we're still together almost 50 years later."
- drebinf
Finally Home
"We were cooking in the kitchen. It just happened. There are no words I know to describe the clarity and joy and peace and comfort that I felt, maybe just, home. It was a moment I won't forget."
- positive_express
The Workplace Romance
"She admitted the reason we were having so many problems with our scanner at work, despite the fact we rarely even used it, is because she was working up the courage to ask me out and thought that bending over in front of my desk on a regular basis would encourage me to do it instead."
"Which it would have done, had I not been deliberately averting my eyes every time she did so she couldn't catch me staring and think I was a pervert."
- strangeismid
Sharing a Coat
"The first moment was our second date."
"I was financially in a deficit when we met. I work in an industry that relies on your passion before you make any kind of decent money."
"It was January, and it's cold where we live. It was -28c on our first date, a few days before (with windchill). It wasn't much better on the second date. I did not have a proper winter coat. I would layer, and usually, with a little Canadian gumption, it was enough to get through the winters."
"He showed up with an older coat of his, really warm, lined, suitable up to -40... and was like, 'I hate to see you so cold.'"
"Now, there have been countless moments when I knew he was the one, but the care for my person so early on really hit a note in my soul."
"We moved in together after six months, have been together 10 years, and married for six. We have two little girls."
- roadfries
No Criticism
"We weren't having sex yet, but we were sleeping in the same bed. I was cuddled up with my head on his shirtless chest. I woke up in a huge pool of my own drool. Mortified, I grabbed a towel that was thankfully right by the bed and started to try to sneakily dab it up. He'll never know."
"I finally look up at his face, to check that he hasn't stirred, and he is very awake, and watching me clean up my drool with an amused look on his face. He wasn't grossed out. He didn't mock me. He slept with me again the next night... didn't judge me. I knew he was a keeper."
- thesamemae
Unconditional Love
"Two answers, really."
"Either the time we had our worst fight ever and my every instinct was to walk away forever, but I realized I just couldn't do it because it would be the stupidest thing I'd ever done in my life, so god d**mit apparently I was going to stay and we were going to talk this s**t out if it took all night. (It didn't... Quite.)"
"Or, if you want the sweeter version: the first time she was laughing so hard she couldn't breathe and instinctively curled into me."
"There are a thousand moments, really. Making her smile is my win condition for life."
- Otherwise_Window
The Kid Connection
"We were long distancing at the time, visiting each other whenever we could. When we knew we were going to be long-term, we met each other's kids."
"One time, the kids and I were playing Phase 10, and my husband video-called me. My oldest said, 'Oh, is that <partner's name>?!?!'"
"My child snatched my phone away and had a 40-minute conversation with my now-husband, showing husband cards, asking opinions on which card he should play, etc. Finally, my kid says, 'Ok, here's mom again. Bye!'"
"When I got the phone back, my husband was a little teary-eyed. The fact that he engaged with my child like that, and that it meant that much to him. I know there were other times, but I think this was where I really just KNEW."
"We also used to stay on the phone when I went to bed. One night, he thought I was asleep already, and he whispered. 'I AM going to marry you.'"
- It_Wasnt_Me79
A Modern-Day Medusa
"For my (now) wife, it was her smile. She looked at me on our first few dates and her smile was utterly hypnotic. Like, medusa-level hypnotic."
"I thought, this is the most beautiful thing I have ever set eyes on in my life, and like 4 days into going out together I said, 'I think I’m falling in love with you.+"
" She absolutely s**t herself. That was 1993, thirty years ago. Her smile is still as beautiful now as it was then."
- 69-is-my-number
Beatles Songs
"There were two moments. On our second date, he busted out his ukulele and played a couple of Beatles songs to impress the lady (me)."
"But instead of anything classic or romantic, he chose 'Honey Pie' and 'Rocky Raccoon.' Not only totally weird song choices, but also two of my absolute favorites. Really, I knew right then, but a second date is a precarious time to decide to marry someone."
"The super real 100% absolute moment was my 30th birthday, first we were together. He took me up to our favorite hiking trail, and less than ten minutes in, it started just pouring rain. I said I didn't mind pushing through some rain, but it would be okay if he'd rather go back."
"He said we should go the first mile to get to the waterfall. Partway up this trail, there's a wonderful waterfall spot with rocks that practically form a bench under/behind it. When we get to the waterfall, rain still pouring, but now we're protected under the waterfall, he magically produces a bottle of my favorite champagne, two plastic dollar store flutes, and a fancy cupcake with a candle."
"We took a bunch of silly absolutely drowned rat-soaked selfies together. Champagne under the waterfall in the rain. Most romantic thing ever, and the most thoughtful birthday I'd ever had."
"We used those silly plastic champagne flutes again on our wedding day."
- thing_m_bob_esquire
No Green Bell Peppers
"A week or so into dating, we were sitting on my living room floor, discussing our food likes and dislikes. At some point, one of us brought up green bell peppers and we both said, 'God, I hate green bell peppers!' at the same time."
"For the both us, we have pinpointed that stupid little moment as the exact second that both 'knew.' We have been married 25 years this past February."
- youngyeoman
Shared Passions
"We were fostering a stray cat who had had kittens. The kittens all had homes lined up with people we knew. The poor mother cat just had health problem after health problem pop up. We were at the vet with her so many times."
"She wasn't in pain, but with the vet bills and the behavior stuff that comes with health issues like these, I knew she was unadoptable and would need significant care."
"I told her (my then girlfriend) that I had to keep the mother cat, even though we both had special needs animals already, and adding more would delay us moving in together."
"She was like, 'Yeah, of course. I love her.' Like she'd never even considered any other options. She was so kind and loving to that cat, who randomly attacked us and peed on the floor throughout her first year and a half with us. She was as all in as I was every single day."
"Our passions and values are the same, and my partner is still the most compassionate person I know. We still have the kitty too, who we adore."
- Acceptable-CatProf
All That Glitters
"I had recently quit my job and moved to another city where my work prospects didn’t really line up properly."
"We’ve been living together a while and things were getting difficult financially. Mountain of debt, difficulty in paying rent etc."
"One night she says, 'I have this gold bangle that we can sell to get rent for the next five months.'"
"I knew. Right then and there that she is the one."
"We never sold the bangle and I was extra motivated to go out and make something of myself."
"We’re getting married in November."
- wouldnt-u-like-2know
In Sickness and In Health
"Not exactly a 'moment," but within a few weeks of us getting together, I found out my dad was terminally ill. He died about four months later. 32 days after my dad passed, my sister and her children died in a house fire."
"I was a broken, angry, wreck of a human, and I was not in any condition to return the love he gave me. But he stayed. I told him he could go, and I wouldn't blame him for leaving this clusterf**k behind."
"But he stood by me when so many other people would have run. The man gave me something to live for, and he held me close so I could heal. There's no one else like him in the world."
- SuzieQuest
All of these stories were not only heartwarming and sweet, but they are absolutely fodder for the perfect sorts of stories people hope to hear on other people's wedding days.
Being part of a rare statistic sounds like a cool, interesting thought.
With 8 billion people in the world, being a number in a very small percentage certainly is unique.
And who doesn't want to be unique.
Different color eyes. Extra organs. Meeting your favorite celebrity.
Plus you'll never run out of chatter at parties.
However, that blessing can be a mixed bag.
There are far too many sad statistics and groups people would never want to be a part of.
Survivors of violence. Disease. Political cults.
It's all in the numbers.
Redditor Haunting-Leg1496 wanted to hear about what small, unique groups not that many of the population are a part of, so they asked:
"What rare statistic are you a part of?"
I wish I had some interesting, rare information about myself.
Alas, I'm just regular.
And you?
Mirrored
shining stanley kubrick GIFGiphy"I’m an identical twin, which by itself isn’t rare but we are bookends. I’m a righty, and he’s a lefty."
Grizzly_treats
"Same for me—actually, my twin and I are mirror twins (lefty/righty, hair whorls opposite directions.)"
leomisty
Number Swap
"I was born on the same date as another guy of the same name, and his mom had the same name as my mom. So the social security dept issued us both the same social security number. It took 18 years to figure out the mistake when I was denied a student loan because the other guy applied first. Also, his tax returns got denied for a while because I always submitted mine first. Also, I got bacterial meningitis when I was 20, which changed my eyes from blue to green."
Fixitsteven
Extra Chompers
"Myself and my dad both have/had 3 sets of teeth. Baby teeth and then two sets of adult teeth. For me, I lost my baby teeth. Adult teeth moved in over time as they do and then I’ve lost many of those over the years. Never had any teeth that needed to be removed surgically or even pulled. I have a vivid memory of when I was about 15-16 and was playing basketball with my dad. He spun around and accidentally elbowed me in the mouth."
"Knocked three teeth out and was devastated that I was going to have a huge gap for the rest of my life. Eventually, more teeth moved in to fill the space. Talked to my dentist about it years after and he confirmed that he could see the others in the X-rays. So I still have a few more to go possibly. He did agree that it was unusual."
"I should also add that the adult teeth that were lost over time didn’t just fall out on their own. I’ve been very clumsy most of my life and have been in many accidents where my mouth hit; the dashboard, and cement curb. Basketball goal pole, baseball bat, bicycle handlebars (which left me physically scared on the chin)."
Ceddy722
Faces
"I have prosopagnosia (face blindness), a mild form. I think this is actually more common than people think, but some people don't know they have it. I didn't figure it out until I was like, 35. You just go through your life thinking you're a dumdum who's not paying attention, or not realizing that other people can recognize faces well. I was also the first woman in the world to do my specific job."
weenertron
Trendy Times
gray hair runway GIF by fashgifGiphy"My hair started going Grey at 13. By the time I was 23, it was completely white."
​Sweaty_Entertainer78
"White hair is so beautiful! And now it’s really trendy too."
Radiance17
My hair is greying and I do NOT approve, for me.
Maybe one day though.
Nobody to Find
Sad Season 2 GIF by FriendsGiphy"Match.com told me I'm in the 1% of the population of people they can't match a partner to. Awesomeness!!"
​Aurixixen
Blessings & Courses
"On a sour note, I have multiple sclerosis. On a sweet note, I'm one of the rare cases where daily treatments have seemed to almost make my brain lesions disappear in my scans now. They went from very large to barely there, and some have even completely gone away. I'll still always have the condition and will still always need to live life on the low and slow/chill so as not to bring on a relapse, but so far I count myself blessed given how things can be with this disease."
Spuzzle91
Grumpy bandit
"False arrest. I got pulled over and arrested for bank robbery, because I happened to be driving away from the area where it just happened, in the same make/model/color vehicle as the robber, wearing the same color hoodie, same age, and description - right down to the level of baldness. The guy was known as the 'grumpy bandit' because apparently, he was more rude than your typical friendly bank robber."
LovableSidekick
Super Rare
"I am. 1 out of 14 people total worldwide who had a super rare form of chronic pulmonary histoplasmosis that tried to spread to my other organs. That was already rare but what only the 14 of us have in common is that we caught it because our T cell counts were low enough to be comparable to an AIDS patient. To this date, there is still not an explanation for our t cell counts even after genetic testing."
"My little brother also has a super rare medical condition. He has a rare unexplained brain cancer that only around 8 male children at the time of his diagnosis had. None lived past the age of five. Got approved for experimental radiation treatment and is down in history as the youngest person in North America to receive radiation treatment. Now he is 20 years old and the oldest living survivor of this cancer."
barbequeersauce
Babies have no concept of time.
They're so inconsiderate.
It seems reasonable enough to assume that most parents would do their best to raise children who would grow up to be kind, contributing adults.
But not every kid will turn out to be the sweetest person, and hindsight can only help so much.
Redditor hurricanehershel asked:
"Parents who tried their best to raise their kids to be good humans but they turned out to be jerks, what do you wish you did differently?"
Dynamic Issues
"I'm speaking as a teacher... but I've seen wildly different siblings. I think parents need to get a handle on that dynamic. A lot of perfectionist older siblings and younger ones who can't achieve at that level and act out instead to find how they can earn attention."
- big_nothing_burger
Individual People
"People need to stop treating kids as carbon copies of their older siblings. And I say this as the eldest child who differs greatly in personality and interests from my younger sibling."
"It’s not fair to anyone, least of all the kid who has to deal with being measured by someone else’s standard."
"Everyone is their own person, including the twins I’ve known had different personalities and interests if one cared to observe."
- UnknownCitizen77
Coparenting Troubles
"Be very careful WHO you have kids with. If I could do it all over again, I would have chosen better. They ended up with one responsible parent who was completely overwhelmed trying to do the job of two people."
- heatherLovesbrandon
Get On Their Level
"I have a son who just turned five, and I can see all the hallmarks of ADHD (which I have, and most people in my family have)."
"He behaves so much like my younger sister did when she was young, and I found myself going through the cycle of bad behavior to punishment to worse behavior to worse punishment, just like my parents did with my sister."
"Recently I’ve been trying to connect with the person who I was when I was younger, when I wasn’t 'in charge,' and my sister would calm down for me and listen to me."
"It’s helping so much. I still need my kid to stop throwing s**t (makes my blood absolutely boil), but we are making progress."
"Kids are f**king exhausting and I hope I don’t end up accidentally raising an a**hole."
- embrielle
Resentful Parents
"In my opinion, the one defining characteristic of bad parents is being resentful of their own children. Resentful that they took some of their freedom, resentful of their youth, resentful of their opportunities, resentful of their intelligence, resentful of their beauty, resentful of their possessions, resentful of their education, resentful of their accomplishments, resentful of their happiness, etc."
"I think this is FAR more common than most people realize. These parents may consciously 'provide' for their kids while they unconsciously sabotage them. The kids pick up on this and end up aspiring to their parents’ unspoken expectations."
"Good parents want their kids to exceed their own achievements and, most importantly, to be happy. Good parents are empathetic to their children. They’re happy when their kids are happy. They’re sad when their kids are sad."
"Resentful parents don’t really want their kids to be happy unless they credit the parents for their happiness. No achievement belongs to the kids, but every failure does."
- scsuhockey
Going No Contact
"I wish I knew that some grandparents shouldn’t be allowed to have a relationship with a vulnerable, easily manipulated child. I wish I knew it was okay to cut people out of your life."
- comeupforairyouweirdo
Good Models and Boundaries
"I worked with youth for a while in a poorer rural part of America and in my anecdotal experience, there are two types of kids that can turn into bad humans."
"One, they've just had tough lives and no good role models. If you get to know them, you realize they are just normal kids that have never been given the tools, opportunity, or encouragement to act any differently. If no one figures out how to intervene, it becomes a pattern of life for them that spirals out of control."
"Two, kids that never suffer the consequences of their actions. They tend to have really 'nice' caregivers who have a knack for getting their kids out of trouble. When I say they don't suffer consequences, I mean literally. Their parents do their homework, their parents lie for them, their parents don't ever tell them 'no.' Their caregivers also don't supervise them but whenever anything happens, they are easily manipulated by their child and take whatever their child says as gospel truth without question."
"And although the parents don't supervise their children, they seem all too willing to give them everything their child asks for (within the confines of their economic class). The caregivers are somehow both emotionally neglectful but also always there to help their child out of a jam. In a way that feels like they want to be manipulated by their child."
"Kids in the first category will do something bad and you go, 'How could they be so stupid?'"
"When kids in the second category do something bad, your reaction is, 'It's only a matter of time before they kill someone.'"
"I knew a lot of young adults that got in trouble with the law, but it was only people from category two that got tried for murder and manslaughter."
- JamesVogner
Practice What You Preach
"Generally speaking, If you try to teach your kid something and ARE NOT the example, you might as well not have wasted your time."
- forex__1911
"'The best field anthropologist in the world is a kid watching the grownups.'"
- BobMacActual
Giving Up Control
"Ugh. We talked to our son about everything under the sun. We had an open forum. We talked extensively about money management, sexuality, dating, how to treat other people, drug use, alcoholism, and its consequences."
"He and I also watched a ton of documentaries together on all of the above topics. I have a thing for shows like 'Underground Inc,' 'Drugs Inc,' 'Broken,' and mini-series like 'Dopesick.'"
"Once he turned 18, he began to do literally everything we advised against. It's been a hard few years. After losing his girlfriend, losing his job, and spending some time in jail, I think he's starting to listen."
"He's been doing a very good job lately. We love him and we support him despite how hard it's been. I feel bad even typing this..."
"It's really tough to look back and legitimately say what could have been done differently. What I can say to upcoming parents is:"
"Don't give up on your kid."
"Do the best you can."
"You can't control everything."
- YamahaRyoko
The Confidence of a King
"I have one child, the youngest, who I'm starting to worry about. He's tall, athletic, attractive, and very charismatic. I feel like it's a constant battle between teaching him respect and humility and the worship he gets at school."
"At his age, he's not prepared to deal with all these peers who want his attention, tell him how great he is, and the girls lining up to talk to him."
"Yeah, don't we all wish we had this problem as teens? Anyway, it's a struggle. He's gotten cocky and thinks life will just keep on treating him like a king."
"And maybe it will, he's got the type of personality that makes people want him around. But he needs to treat others with the same respect he expects for himself. Confidence is good but it needs to be combined with kindness."
"Our other children are very level-headed and what we feel are good people. I hope we get to properly teach this to our youngest and that he takes it to heart and chooses to be a good person."
- KelvinGauss
Letting Them Fail
"We wanted our kids to be happy so I think we coddled and spoiled them. They aren’t ready to function independently in the adult world."
"In retrospect, I think learning some hard lessons growing up helps prepare them and is less damaging than learning those lessons as adults."
"Edit: to clarify, they aren’t jerks, just not ready to be adults."
- albygolfer
Keep Teaching Them
"The only thing you can really do is teach them. They will become who they will become eventually."
"Also, when I say 'teach them,' I don’t just mean to preach things. Lead by example. Do you want to teach them to be kind and generous? Then do those things YOURSELVES. If they watch you serve others in need and get joy from that or love those around you, they may grow up wanting that joy themselves."
"You want them to be responsible with alcohol? SHOW them how to be responsible."
"Do you want them to learn from their mistakes? Then when you make a mistake, own up to it and apologize. Show them no one should be too prideful to admit they were wrong and do better the next time."
"If you preach kindness and such, but your actions show otherwise, it will come off as hypocritical. Kids know when you are sincere."
- -You-know-it-
Equal Treatment
"My mom once told me that she wishes she treated my brother the way she treated me. I was the oldest and her first so she pushed me and gave me high benchmarks, but she realized too late that because she was the youngest and her baby she forgave him too easily and let him do anything he wanted."
"That by the time she realized that he was an entitled jerk, it was too late (his mid-20s). 'It’s my fault he’s a narcissist. I gave him everything he wanted and made him believe he deserved it because he was my precious little boy.'"
- SeattleTrashPanda
Good Humans Raise Good Humans
"The idea of 'tried their best' is so subjective. Every circumstance is so different. You get the full spectrum of what 'trying' is defined as."
"Some parents say how hard they work and how good of a parent they were, but then you find out they were abusive thinking that it was good parenting. Or vice versa. Parents who say they failed and their kids are all good kids."
"The bottom line, with so many factors and external variables, it's hard to know what the true formula is. My only advice is to try and be a good human and your kids will most likely follow suit."
- Forward_While_4411
While all of these parents wished they had known or done something sooner, at least these are actions they can continue to improve on during their relationship with their children or adult children.
And hopefully parents reading these insights can avoid making the same mistakes.
There's nothing more thrilling than going to see a movie inside a theater for the first time.
The anticipation builds as the lights dim, all the previews are finished, and the production company and studio distributor titles appear–signaling the movie you've been waiting for so long to see is about to begin.
Is going to be awesome? Will it tank? Who cares?
It's all about taking in the moment and experiencing the story unfolding without knowing what happens next.
That is the magic of cinema.
Curious to hear from moviegoers, Redditor ambitchious70 asked:
"What movie blew your mind the 1st time you watched it?"
People were invested in these movies.
The First Reality Show
"The Truman show. I actually heard about this movie and the plot years before watching it, but I never watched it because I assumed it would be boring and hard to get through. So wrong. I already knew the plot and yet I was still in a trance while watching it unfold."
– Working-Still-2881
"I'll Be Back"
"T2 judgement day."
– rhb4n8
"Came here looking for this. Was then and still is the best sci-fi action movie of all time. Nothing else comes close except Aliens."
– Ltimbo
One Of Christopher Nolan's Best
"Memento probably was the only movie I ever watched then immediately watched again and even enjoyed it better the second."
– kdubstep
Audiences were riveted by the following commercial box office successes.
Total KO
"Fight Club. In 1999, I had never seen anything else like that movie."
– yeahwellokay
Action And Tension
"Snatch. By far my favorite heist movie."
"The intricately woven story made my young adolescent self appreciate chaotic filmic storytelling."
– RaccoonaMatata42
Welcome To Jurassic Park
"Jurassic Park, but can you blame me? I was like, four."
– Casca_In_Red
"The effects. I saw it in theatres and seeing the dinosaurs for the first time walking across the field was AMAZING. Then. THEN. THE T-REX. Plus all the characters were fantastic."
– MaximumGooser
Revisiting these never gets old.
Long, Long Ago...
"The opening scene of Star Wars in the theater in 1977, mind blown."
– Tac0Tuesday
"I was 7 in 77 and I will never forget. What an opening scene. Pan. First ship goes over. Damn. Second one just keeps coming and coming and coming. Brain melts."
– PlaMa2541
A Tarantino Classic
"Pulp Fiction. It was just so different from anything else when it came out.. the bouncing around between stories, the caliber of actors, all seen in a way we'd never seen them before, the number of shocking moments that were also humorous in a sick way. I remember coming out of the theater thinking how much I loved that movie but I wasn't really sure what the hell was going on."
– Realistic_Fact_3778
You can only really enjoy a shocking ending once.
The Twist Revelation
"The Arrival third act reveal is a moment I wish I could experience again..."
– DeathisLaughing
"Arrival was the first movie that gave me a real 'oh sh*t' moment. It does a great job of keeping you just confused enough about what’s going on to want to know more, and then the pin drops."
– FishInferno
A Parent's Worst Nightmare
"The Mist, that f'king ending. I don't wanna watch that again in my life."
– Maso_TGN
"Dude. I only first saw this a couple months ago because it was on Netflix and I didn’t have any background. That movie stuck with me for weeks. I haven’t experienced that since I was a kid. And the funny thing is, there is no one element that is really spectacular. The effects were mediocre for the time and barely serviceable now. The writing isn’t great. The actors are all second rate. But man, the way it all comes together is a stroke of genius. One of the biggest surprises I’ve seen In Years."
– Ltimbo
I was blown away after seeing the movie 1917 in theaters.
I heard about the British war film being composed of two extended tracking shots, and I initially thought the movie was going to capitalize on the apparent gimmick.
But as I got immersed in the story, I became less interested in looking for possible film cuts and clumsy transitions and was more engrossed in the two soldiers on their important mission–making me feel I was right there with them.
What an incredible feat effortlessly pulled off by director/co-writer Sam Mendes.
When it was all over, I was in tears and I was slackjawed at the impressive cinematic masterpiece I had just witnessed.