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“Oh God, I Married The Wrong Person”

“Oh God, I Married The Wrong Person”

These Rude Jerks Got Humbled BIG Time

These Rude Jerks Got Humbled BIG Time

Two women holding up daisies

People Share The Moment They Realized Their Friends Were Actually A-Holes

Person with shocked expression

People Break Down The Most F**ked Up Thing Someone's Ever Said To Them

These Entitled Jerks Made Us Rage

These Entitled Jerks Made Us Rage

Incredibly Satisfying Revenge Stories

Incredibly Satisfying Revenge Stories

People Share The One Question Someone Asked Them That Secretly Broke Their Heart

man covering face using right hand
Adrian Swancar on Unsplash

There are some questions that illustrate such vulnerability, such open tragedy on the part of the asker that we fend off tears while we come up with an appropriate answer.

Sometimes the question comes from someone who's been so steeped in struggle that they need help understanding that another possible reality exists.

Sometimes it's a question that cuts right to our own core with startling efficiency.

Whatever form it takes, it stops us in our tracks and we're likely to remember it for quite awhile after.

Curious to hear examples, Redditor julylovestory asked:

"What question has someone asked you that secretly broke your heart?"

Many Redditors responded by sharing the sad questions uttered by young children.

Kids just have the knack for cutting straight through to the essence of it all.

A Tragic Conscientiousness

"As we passed the toy aisle at the store, 'I know you don't have much money right now, but maybe when you get some we could come back and get a toy?' "

"I was not doing well financially back then and my daughter brought me to tears in the middle of the store."

-- TheCurls

Puzzled and Sad

"First day of preschool for my three year old son. The first time he would ever be away from Mom & Dad at the same time."

"I brought him to the room and expected a meltdown, but instead he confidently strutted, and I do mean strutted into the classroom."

"Three hours later, I picked him up. He was ok until we got to the car when he said, in quiet sad voice 'l thought you were coming with,' followed by an even sadder quieter 'Why did you leave me?' "

-- RelevantNostalgia

If Only

" 'Can I wish for my sister?' - A 10-year-old student of mine whose big sister died 4 years ago. We were working on an activity about dreams and aspirations for their futures."

-- missadinosaur

How Bad Must It Be?

"I was like 22 and it was probably 10pm or so at a Walmart. I was on my way to a party and stopped for beer. The store was fairly empty and as I was in the beer aisle, I see this kid completely by himself."

"He was about 5 and at first I thought it was kind of funny because he was trying to pick up a case of beer. I waited like 30-60 seconds, looking around for this kid's mom/dad to come get him. A couple people walked right by him like it was normal, so then I started getting worried. I picked up my two cases of beer and walked over and kindly asked him if he lost his mom or needed help."

"The kid completely ignored the question and instead was thoroughly impressed that I was strong enough to carry two cases of beer. Eventually an employee noticed and came over as well. I told her everything I knew and she took over and told him that she was going to bring him to find his mom."


"As he was walking away he kept looking back at me and I smiled and said goodbye. The kid stopped and said 'can I just come home with you? I don't like my mom.' "

"I was caught off guard so I just laughed and told him the lady was going to help him. Now I'll never know the full story, or what happened to him but the more I think about it - that kid more than likely had a pretty shi**y childhood."

"I mean, the store wasn't busy and it was late at night on a weekday. It really makes you wonder why he was there in the first place, how he got separated from his mom and why would he ask to go with a complete stranger instead of worrying about where his mom was?"

"It still makes me sad. Hope everything worked out for the little dude."

-- PrometheusAborted

Others talked about the times when they or somebody else realized just how tragic their own circumstances were.

Suddenly Aware

"My ex asked me what I liked to do with my family growing up."

"Made me realize my family never did anything together and I literally had no answer to such a basic question."

-- don_juicy

People Share The 'Dirty Secrets' That Their Bosses Don't Want Customers To Know

Seeing Another Version

"During college, parents took a friend and I out to dinner. Very normal dinner, chit chatted about whatever. After we left and were walking back to my car, he turns to me and says 'Is that what a normal relationship is like?' "

"We talked more after that, I had met his parents a few times and they seemed strict but never seemed to have a terrible relationship. Turned out apparently his dad had cheated on his mom multiple times, dad had zero respect for any of my friends sisters and essentially expected them to do all the housework while the men did 'guy stuff.' "

"Hunting, training for sports, school, etc. Turned out his childhood was pretty fu**ed, dad was never around and he had to essentially be the father figure in the house. As the oldest child, never really saw a normal loving relationship that he could look up to."

"My friend is a really nice guy, still has some messed up views of relationships though. I never realized how 'abnormal' my very normal family/childhood was."

-- Spirited-Cucumber-82

A Better Place

" 'You've never beaten me or told me I couldn't do something. Is that normal?'

"My first girlfriend told me that. I have never felt such a wave of anger, sadness, and heartbreak wash over me like I did when I heard that"

-- justsomerandomguy

Still Raw

" 'Is this your first child/baby?' 'How many live births have you had?' My first child died in infancy. Those kill me."

"So does 'how is your daughter doing?' From people with whom i rarely speak/see. That one is the worst. My second child is currently four weeks. I'm fu**ing terrified."

-- daggerxdarling

And some people discussed the time a question destroyed their social confidence.

Worst Teacher Ever

"I have a stutter, when I was a kid I had to read a page of a book to the class. I stuttered, and the teacher said 'can you even read' and that fu**ing broke my 13 year old heart."

"No one takes stuttering seriously."

-- ape-with-keyboard

There's the Answer

"When I was 19, I hung out with a cute girl from my high school that I never got to hang with when we were in school. Had a great day together, and that night she asked, 'can we be like secret friends or something? I don't really hang out with people like you.' "

"Never hung out again."

-- prstele01

Comparing and Contrasting

" 'Oh, are you the girl with the hot sister ?' " -- JustehOK

"I worked in a department with two Melissas. One day, I was sitting next to one Melissa when we overheard another coworker say to someone, 'have you seen little Melissa?' "

"The other Melissa got kind of a defeated look in her eye and said, 'oh, I'm big Melissa.' " -- EarhornJones

To Be Seen Inaccurately

"I went through some abuse that essentially stopped me from having romantic interest for a while (4 years)."

"A female friend I was very close with at the time had been told by some of her friends who didn't like me that I was probably just pretending to be her friend because I was secretly in love with her."

"She asked me if that was true. It broke my heart since if she could believe that it was like she could also believe I was lying about the abuse or the effects thereof just to get close to her, and it really hurt that she could think me capable of that."

-- Mildly_Opinionated

When the Fears Keep Coming True

"A friend recently asked 'Did you not change your bed sheets?' when they visited. I have been struggling with my mental health for the past few weeks. Adopted a kitten because I thought it would help me with it and it died 4 days later."

"Everything I did within my power to make myself better/happier just seems to backfire. Yes, I did not change my bed sheets."

-- chaoticrudepenguin

Slipping Through Cracks

"Variations on 'What was your name again?' Apparently, I am so forgettable that over the years, literally not one person whom I have known casually and then not seen for like 6 months or more can remember who I am."

"Good friends know me, yes. But I have lost count of the number of people whom I went to school with or lived next door to or who were friends of my friends who knew me for YEARS, if only as an acquaintance, and then cannot remember even my first name."

-- SnooPickles3213

That Playground Cruelty

" 'Are you a boy, or a girl?' This was earnestly asked to me on the playground when I was 13. I was very chubby, and had grown out my hair (my dad had a cool ponytail, and I wanted to be like my dad). But puberty hadn't really kicked in yet, so I guess I looked pretty androgynous."

"I told the girl that asked I was a boy, and she nodded and walked away, returning to a friend who then cheered in triumph, I guess they won the bet."

"That messed with me for a while."

-- ComebackShane

It's a list that's sad enough to leave one wondering about the questions they've received that struck them as particularly hopeless.

Sometimes, though, that vulnerability can be the start of accepting new realities and new possibilities.

Want to "know" more? Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again. Sign up for the Knowable newsletter here.


questions

Men Break Down The Weirdest Things Someone's Ever Said To Them After Sex

"Reddit user ella-es-julia asked: 'Men Break Down The Weirdest Things Someone's Ever Said To Them After Sex'"

white pillows and bed comforter
Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

People say the darndest things after -- and sometimes during -- lovemaking.

Maybe it's the euphoria.

Maybe it's the adrenaline.

Maybe it's the tequila.

It's always good to have a kind-hearted joke on hand or a generic compliment.

Or maybe just grab your belongings and skedaddle.

Redditor ella-es-julia wanted to hear about the craziest pillow talk stories, so they asked:

"Men of Reddit: What's the weirdest thing a girl said to you after sex?"

The weirdest I ever got was... "What city am I in again?"

Geography matters.

Morbid Much?

In Bed Home GIFGiphy

"Met girl, went on date, brought girl home, had the sex, finished the sex, laying there she says 'What would you do if I died right now?' and demanded an actual answer."

Vixxay

Meow

"Not to me, but as she walked over to the bathroom after the deed, she said 'I just did your owner' to my cat. Sexiest thing that ever happened to me."

shlanky369

"My Fiancé and I were about to start going at it when the cat appeared from under the bed and stared at me. I went, 'Babe the cat is here. I don't like how he's staring at my boobs."

"Fiancé grabbed the cat and yeeted him into the hallway with the phrase, 'Get out you weird pervert.'"

"The cat proceeded to (without his claws) smack the door over and over again while screaming for a few minutes straight. Pervert."

Trumpet6789

POP!

"'I need you to take me to the hospital. Something is now bleeding and hurts.'"

"Turns out her ovarian cyst popped. We're still together with the running joke of sex so good it put her in the ER."

DasBatt

"Ah ah ah, 2 hemorrhagic cysts ruptured, I was bleeding internally, but only a little bit. I'm still impressed by how quickly you went from a naked sex stupor to being ready and carrying me to the car. Good times."

"In the ER when they asked me what happened all I could do was shout 'we were f**kin!' through my tears. That memory still makes me laugh."

Straystar-626

Damn it's Good

"We were going at it for some time then her face went instantly from 'damn it's good' to full-on crying. I stop, ask her what's wrong and she tells me 'I can't cheat on my boyfriend, it is wrong.'"

"So this is when I learned that the girl that I met on a dating website and that I started seeing 3 weeks before and that she told me she was single had a boyfriend for over 5 years. Got her to talk more, and she told me she was on the dating website to see if there were guys better than her boyfriend so she could end up with someone better."

"This was like 20 years ago, a coworker I have right now knows her (his girlfriend is like a distant relative of hers) and I learned she had 5 different boyfriends since then, cheated on all of them except the last one (for now). She was also a cam model in secret, one of the boyfriends was a high-paying customer."

draftstone

A Binding Contract

"'Pleasure doing sex business with ya.' We then shook hands."

"Still together 5 years later!"

Tatarstan

It's nice when people who have great sex make great partners.

And it all starts with a handshake.

Sleep on It

“'I don’t usually say this but, yeah, you can stay.'"

lennyukdeejay

"Did you high-five after that? Seems like that statement called for it."

EvilNinjaX24

"This is the best one."

TomKhatacourtmayfind

Tiny Dancer

"Not really weird but I slept with this girl while backpacking Asia, she was also a backpacker. After a bit of chillin'/talking, I got up to get dressed, she looked at my flaccid manhood and said 'You're quite shy when you're not excited.' I thought it was hilarious."

fleetwoodsackk

"That's a much better way to put it. My wife, when we were just dating and had moved in together and eventually saw it flaccid just said 'Aww, it's so little.' Thanks, hun, exactly what every guy wants to hear."

striker180

Fine!

"She said 'If I get pregnant I'm keeping it.' I was dumbfounded and when I didn't respond quickly enough she got really agitated like I had hurt her feelings and yelled 'Fine! You don't have to be involved if you don't want to!'"

"We had just met that night. My condom use skyrocketed after that night."

Fullyme

"When I was a poverty-stricken college student I was banging a girl who said, 'If you get me pregnant I’ll take you for everything you own.' I said, 'All I own is my bicycle. You want that?'”

OrwellWasRight101

Amen

"Best weird compliment I ever got was 'Damn boy, you f**k like the Devil!'"

"I married her, we still goin' at it."

BeBearAwareOK

Well, these certainly created some lasting relationships... or hilarious tales to tell their friends.

Do you have any stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.

sex

The Absolute Weirdest Compliments People Have Ever Received

woman in black pants and red tank top
Jakayla Toney on Unsplash

Giving compliments is pretty easy, although most of us don't do it often enough.

Accepting compliments can be much harder.

Too many of us immediately shift into disclaimers to explain why we don't deserve the praise.

But we just need to say thank you—even if the compliment is a little odd.

Keep reading...Show less
life

Reasons People's Friends Remain Single That They Don't Have The Heart To Tell Them

Woman standing alone in the rain
Neal E. Johnson on Unsplash

We can all agree that, as fun as it's supposed to be, the dating scene can be really, really hard.

Here's the secret: as hard as the dating scene can be to navigate, some of the trouble lies with us. We may not to be able to find a long-term partner or a date at all because of something that we're doing.

But when a friend is in this situation, it can be really hard to tell them the brutal truth about their dating history.

Redditor teekzer asked:

"What is causing your friend to remain single that you don't have the heart to tell them?"

Chasing Deadends

"He keeps hanging on to the past and spending all his time hanging out with ex-girlfriends who are unavailable, or women who like him but he doesn’t romantically like."

- SqueakySnapdragon

Baby Talk

"I always wondered why she couldn't get a date because she is gorgeous until I saw her flirting with someone."

"The first night they met, flirted, and swapped numbers. Then, she was immediately clingy, talking in a baby voice to him, and making baby noises."

- robocop_robocop

Body Odor

"I can smell them. Everyone can smell them."

- not-read-gud

"You should find a way to tell them, it might hurt but they'll appreciate it."

- iciclesnbdayclothes

The Nice Guy Mindset

"He really is not as nice of a person as he thinks he is."

- Rusti3dp

"The ones who claim this rarely are."

- SummerOfMayhem

Impossible Standards

"The people they like aren’t real. They are idealized, cartoonish caricatures. Now my friend himself has a lot to offer in my opinion, but he is looking for a person who doesn’t exist. Hard to find something that’s not there."

- Sufficient-Spell9935

"I have a friend who started dating his flatmate after being really into her for a while, and then after a week or two said something like, 'Dating you doesn't feel as good as I thought it would,' TO HER."

"He basically torpedoed his own potential relationship because of his own ideal fantasy, and to be honest, I don't know if he actually realized he'd created an unrealistic standard in his own head."

"He's been single for the last decade, his mental health has only got worse in the time I've known him despite therapy, and I think he's probably so detached from 'appropriate dating behavior' at this point that he could be single for the rest of his life."

- fish993

Questionable Humor

"Brother-in-law, not friend. But he makes the same jokes about poop and farts all the time. Like, constantly."

"Yes, some women like potty humor, but they usually also want it to be funny."

"He is also very negative; finds insult or something wrong with any situation."

- EatYourCheckers

Living in Fantasy Land

"He lies to himself about almost everything. He lives in fantasy land."

"He thinks he's in the gym five days a week, eats great, climbs mountains, goes camping, and makes loads of money."

"In reality, he's at the pub five days a week, over eats like s??t, went on one hike in January, can't hold a job, and lives paycheck to paycheck..."

"If you were to confront him with this reality, it wouldn't even get through to him."

- Fit_Yogurtcloset_291

Mismatched Attraction

"The type of guys she claims she likes isn't what she's actually attracted to."

"She keeps saying how much she loves shy introverted sensitive guys but when she finds one and dates him suddenly, she's like, 'He's not outgoing enough, doesn't speak his mind enough, and is too shy!'"

"I kind of think she has this 'I can fix him' syndrome and doesn't really acknowledge it. Like, she's attracted to the idea of a typical shy guy but thinks once they're in a relationship they'll suddenly be more open and turn into the guy she actually wants. That's not how it works!"

- Disig

Poor Self-Esteem

"She is so lovely. So kind, so generous, and so beautiful. But her crippling lack of self-esteem is so huge, it's visible from space, and her anxiety (and I'm 99% sure her undiagnosed ADHD) means that when she's at all nervous, she talks at 100 miles an hour in several directions at once."

"It's like being handed eight happy Labrador puppies to try and hold in your arms. I so badly want her to be happy and feel fulfilled but even I find it tiring sometimes."

- butwhatsmyname

The Negative Attitude

"I have two of these."

"One is the most talented, smartest, wonderful person I know and I wish I could pull the gremlins out of their brain so they could be happy."

"The other is self-fulfilling proficiency f**king up their life. He's not unlovable, or ugly, or uncared for, but walking through the world expecting rejection at all turns and living in a fog of negativity is what makes him unattractive to be around."

"So-and-so isn't hotter than you, that's not the reason they're getting more friends and lovers, but they are more positive and interested than you, and people are attracted to that company."

- cool_username_iguess

Just Pure Arrogance

"For my husband’s friend, it’s the selfish arrogance. I want what I want, and the subtext was that he never cared about what his girlfriend wanted."

"He would only go places he wanted to go, which never included her friends or family. He wanted to spend all his money on 'collectibles' related to sci-fi movies, DVDs, figurines etc."

"Engagement rings were a waste of money, investing, or buying a house ditto, no compromises were possible, he said NO, and no discussions were entertained."

"His opinion on every topic was the correct one, and he was not interested in your opinion, or listening to extra facts he did not know that might change his mind."

"He was once young and good-looking, and he thought he could find someone else when she walked when he was 32. They had dated for close to a decade. During the relationship, he had started to stack on the weight and losing his hair and he was not able to find a replacement."

"Now he is 49 and hasn’t had a girlfriend since. He still has not bought a house and they cost double what they did when they were dating, and his rent has tripled. He does have a copy of all his favorite movies in every format: VHS, DVD, AND BlueRay, a whole bedroom is dedicated to storing them, if you can get in there. His house is a hoarder's paradise."

"He says the reason no one wants him is because he is fat and bald, and it does not help, but it’s not the major turnoff."

"As for his ex, I don't really know what happened to her. She left all of us behind when they broke up. I did hear she got married, but no updates after that. She is a sweetheart, I wish all the good things for her."

- vicki153

Impossible to Move Forward

"Summarizing two types of my single friends:"

"Super successful, smart, funny, and good-looking. They also tend to go for folks who leave them on read for days. Their insecurities are their worst enemies and I think are the biggest factor of them chasing after partners who don’t want to be partners."

"Other friends don’t know how to commit to anything, including a job. It almost feels like a 'it’ll happen when it happens' type of ideology and so they don’t even try to make things happen? They act like things will happen on their own? So they’ll meet a person and then that’s it. Meet cute dead in the water."

- thunderkitty_

Too Desperate

"Desperation. From laughing way too hard at mediocre jokes to bringing up marriage on the first date, she reeks of it."

"We have all tried talking to her about it to no avail. The sad thing is that if she was just her regular funny, smart, relaxed self, then men would be falling over themselves trying to get her number."

- Julia_Sugarbaker123

A Want List

"Her standards are excessively too high. She brings nothing to a relationship. She's a walking contradiction, all of which is why she is single."

"I think it's great to have standards and high standards but hers is just a checklist of wants."

- Theunpolitical

Height Insecurities

"He’s convinced women won’t like him because he’s short. I keep telling him I know plenty of guys just as short as him in great relationships, I’ve dated guys as short as him in the past. He just refuses to believe it."

- MichaSound

"I dated a guy who was four feet, nine inches, and I'm five feet, four inches. He had such an amazing strong personality that you never noticed his height."

"I did find kissing standing up weird; the motions are so different when it's swapped."

"The relationship ended for other reasons than his height."

- lonelyronin1

Alternatively, Open to Feedback

"I had a friend who finally did just ask. He came up to the girls in our group and just let us have an open conversation. I'm sure it was awkward and uncomfortable for him, but we gently laid out some issues. He cut his hair, got some new clothes, and (the big one) started therapy."

"A couple of years later, guess who's got a wife and a wonderful child?"

- Stars-in-the-night

It's so disheartening to see the people we care about unable to have something that they would find so fulfilling like a long-term relationship.

But it's even worse when the reasons behind it are things they could work on, if we only had the guts to tell them or if they were open to hearing it.

dating advice

People Share The Craziest Things That Are Somehow Legal In Certain Countries

Person in handcuffs
niu niu/Unsplash

As foreigners who travel, it's easy to be overcome by culture shock while taking in the sights of different countries.

But we may behave in ways that are completely normal for us back home but are not acceptable in the places we're visiting.

Which makes sense.

There are rules and restrictions we should be aware of before we arrive in a foreign country.

Redditor fittingpenguin solicited input from strangers online to weigh in on conflicting international rules by asking:

"What’s the craziest yet still legal thing in your country?

You probably didn't know these were actual rules.

No Complaining

"A direct ancestor/descendant or spouse of an individual cannot file a theft complaint against that individual except if it's essential documents, like an ID."

– ObjectiveMountain900

Who's The Baby Daddy?

"I always thought the paternity test one was worse for France. Your not allowed to perform one even if you've good suspicion the child may not be yours and you could be liable to child support for another person's kid."

– SoloWingPixy88

Bees Take The Lead

"In Germany, you are allowed to enter private property to follow your honey bee swarm if the swarm is escaping and looking for a new hive."

– lizaahunn

"this is actually the case in lots of countries, where I am they can legally enter your yard to come to get them."

– WRA1THLORD

Things get very specific and downright shocking.

Gotta Be Pitch-Perfect

"In Belgium, anybody can sing or play an instrument in the Streets. In the city of Leuven however, you can be fined if you play your instrument off-key."

– Zuid-Dietscher

"To be fair to Leuven, with all the students running around doing it, I don't blame them."

– Blasmere

Careful The Things You Say

"Someone can be found guilty of defamation even if what that person said or wrote is 100 percent true."

– EHonda92m

"Japan. e.g. if you expose someone for having an affair, that person can sue you for defamation. I suppose it's an expectation of privacy. The only exception is if it's in the "public interest" to know this information."

– TheOvy

Everyone's Playground

"You can freely walk, bike or ski in the nature on any private property. As long as it's not counted as a breach of domestic peace or you are not ruining their crop field or something. For example, even though you see a sign 'private property' in the forest. You are free to go pick mushrooms and berries there. Or you can even fish there freely (only with basic worm fishing rod though) if there's a lake on the property. You can even set up a tent on someone's private property for a short time (1-2 nights) as long as you aren't littering or disturbing anyone for example being noisy or on the way. The country is Finland, and these things are in the Finnish constitution as 'every man's/everyone's rights.'"

– RamuPamu1

What happens if you break the law? There doesn't seem to be consequences here.

Prison Break

"I don't know if it's really crazy, I personally think it's good and reasonable, but here in germany it's not punishable to escape from prison."

"Of course in reality they might charge you with other things like property damage or assault etc. if you damage something or someone on the way out but the act of breaking out itself can't prolong your sentence because the need to be free is a fundamental human desire."

– PetrosiliusZwackel

The Warden's Story

"I watched a doc on European prisons some years back and in a Croatian prison they talked to the warden. He told a story about a man who escaped. A week or so after the escape the prison received a package containing the man’s prison uniform."

"Since he had committed no crimes while escaping (just walked out the doors) and while an escapee, the only thing they could have charged him with was stealing his prison uniform. But since he returned it, there was nothing to charge and he just had to finish out his original sentence."

– CornyCornheiser

Leaving Civilly Is Not A Crime

"Basically, the normal rules of society apply. If you punch a guard to get past them, that's still a crime. If they leave you unattended with the door open or you sneak out under a lorry, that isn't a crime. They can still catch you and return you, but you can't be charged with attempted or successful escape, just any crimes committed in the process."

– Death_God_Ryuk

It's The Soldiers' Call

"Also Germany, soldiers are allowed to disobey orders if they think it violates human dignity. There are other nations with similar rules or even obligations regarding human rights and violation of geneva convention, but protecting even their own dignity is unique (I think)"

– f_cysco

This doesn't have legal consequences but slurping noodles at the dinner table is perfectly acceptable in Japan.

As a matter of fact, the Japanese encourage it.

The Japanese believe that eating noodles while they're piping hot is the best way to enjoy them.

Also, what is perceived as rude etiquette in other countries is actually a sign of validation that the cook prepared the dish well.

countries