Regretful People Admit The Times Their Parents Were Actually Right
No likes to admit their wrong, but somehow that feeling is magnified more when you're a child and the person you're contesting with is your parent. We all wanted to know more than our parents, perhaps because we wanted to quickly outgrow them, proving we didn't need anyone to take care of us. Or maybe, we would have rather died than giving them the satisfaction of knowing they were right. However, in those rare moments, there are times when we have to admit when they were right, as evidenced by Reddit user r/GteatClips' question:
What was your biggest "s---, my parents were right" moment?
Evergreen Parent Quote
Wish I had correct posture like they kept telling me to do.
That s* catches up to you eventually.
Sometimes Give Them The Whole Tooth
"Wear your retainer." Lost that damn thing a week after I got my braces off and was worried about getting in trouble with my parents, so I never said anything.
Cut to 20 years later and I'm looking into Invisalign because my teeth have become noticeably crooked. That s* is like $4k.
How Do They Know?
This isn't that exciting but when I was 17 I didn't know what I wanted to do after high school. I was a little s* back then. My mom tried to convince me to take the paralegal program at a community college and I was like hell no.
Welp, 8 years later I ended up in the paralegal degree program and loved it. Idk how she knew I'd like it so much. Especially back then.
What's The End Of This Story...?
" you keep trying do do wheelies on your dirt bike your going to break a leg"
You're Waiting For A Train
My mom always said; life is like sitting in a train. And at each stop (milestone/event) in your life people (friends, family or others) will enter your train or leave it.
Made a lot of sense to younger me.
Oh Yeah. Things Cost Money...
"Start saving as soon as you can. You don't have as much money as you think you do."
Told me that when I had a part time job whilst living at home. Thought I was loaded until I moved out and realised how expensive life is.
Didn't They Tell You This In School?
"Don't start smoking, it's addicting and expensive"
Oh I wish I listened to them
I Want You To SHOW Me...
I distinctly remember telling my mom "I don't get why I'm 'too young to know what love is' I'm SIXTEEN I'm not a KID" Looking back on that relationship I'm amazed she didn't laugh in my face
But Mom, It's Different This Time.
It was either that or my mom would guess exactly what my then girlfriend was all about. And I'd try to hit her with the "Mom you don't get it! She's different than the others!"
She was the same.
Don't Be A Mat
"You should stop being friends with them; they're walking right over you." Wow, should have listened sooner...
Long Hair Don't Care
My dad always stressed not giving a s___ what people think about him, and it would always embarrass me as a kid and whatnot.
But more and more recently ive been realizing how right he is, and how much happier it makes you when you just don't give a f---
Nothing Worse Than The Pain Of A Child
After a breakup with my first real boyfriend, my dad told me that there is no greater emotional pain than seeing your child hurting. Damn. A couple of decades later, I realized he's right.
Like Looking In An Awful Mirror
Mom: "When you have kids I hope you have one just like you."
Me: "F--- yeah, I'm awesome!"
I'm an a--hole.
TLDR: Pick Up Your Room
Really almost every little thing that I used to challenge they were right on.
The big one for me was always being told to clean my room. My mum in particular was always on my back about it and at the time I had the mentality of "my room, my space, my mess." I couldn't understand why she would even look in my room if she knew that mess would bother her.
Now I own my own place and the idea of someone constantly messing it up is horrible. I completely see now that my parents worked hard for our house, it was their home long before I was around, and they liked it looking a certain way.
The same goes for putting away my clean washing / ironing. My dad would be furious that he'd iron my school uniform every Sunday and then I'd just toss it on the back of a chair for the week. Again at the time I didn't see it as being a big deal but now that I know how laborious a task washing and ironing is I'd be absolutely heartbroken if some little s--- just tossed it on the floor.
She Never Has To Know
It was cold and I did need a jacket... but I'll be damned if I'm going to admit that to my mom.
The Lesson? Look At The Course Catalogue
I was one of those artsy but also academic kids. I wanted to be a professional artist, but still applied only to liberal arts colleges because I wanted to have "an intellectual experience" or some such naive notion.
While visiting a school, my father sat next to me as I waited for my interview in the admissions office and said, "I don't think you should go here, I looked at the course catalogue and the biology program here is too molecular for you." My father had never said much about any potential career for me, both my parents had their own lives and just had a "whatever makes you happy" attitude. It was a total non sequitur for me and, of course, I completely blew him off. He never mentioned anything like it again.
I did pursue my art career and after two years I left my liberal arts college to go to art school. However, I returned to the original school after realizing I would need a "real" job to support myself while I made my art, likely in an art gallery. Returning started an odd cascade of events that eventually landed me, ten years later, starting my PhD in evolutionary biology. Fifteen years later I am, indeed, an evolutionary biologist with a good career and I do think of this as my "calling." I work with some molecular biologists for the medical part of my research, but it's true that this field feels very foreign to me and not interesting in the way my own is.
I asked my dad one day, "so, you knew it all along, huh?" He said, "yes, but I knew it had to be your decision."
At Least Wear A Shirt With A Collar
My dad used to always say "you never know who you're going to meet" when telling me to dress more professionally when outside the hospital (I'm an MD). I always brushed it off like "yeah, who am I randomly going to bump into that would care".
Turns out the "who" would end up being the head of CDC-Uganda (where I now live) and the head of the NIAID. Touche', dad...touche'.
Grandpa Always Said, "Watch Out For Robots"
When i was a kid my grandfather always told me to get a proper education and do good in school, cause one day a "computer would be doing your job".
Never believed him.
Now with the automated warehouses, self driving cars, robotic machines that can lay Brick and build walls. You were right grandpa. You were so totally right.
I finished high school but All i know to do is general labour. So I'm definitely going to be affected by growing automation. Luckily I'm trying to get back into school now. As I type this I'm on the bus headed to Centennial to do an English Assessment.
Wish me luck.
Anger And Misery Don't Last
"The friends that you have now... The boy that means the world to you right now.... All of that won't matter in about a year when you're out working and living your life on your own. Friendships based off of anger and misery don't last, love."
Flash forward a year later, I'm working a job, out of high school and an Army reservist and I don't talk to any of my high school friends or my ex boyfriend at all. In hindsight, I'm much happier now anyways but I think the thing that stuck with me the most was what my mum said about Friendships.
Friendships based off of anger and misery don't last. That's now become one of my personal mantras. Thanks, mum.
But, Everything Is On A Screen...
My parents pretty much forced me to learn to drive when I was seventeen. I hated it. Hated it. I was terrible at it, none of my friends were learning to drive and I was fine on public transport (even though we lived in the middle of nowhere). It took me four times to pass my test, and I just wanted to give up.
Now I see my friends from home who never learned (by choice, not because they couldn't afford it), and I don't know how they live. My hometown is really in the sticks, and the public transport infrastructure is terrible. Getting around must be a nightmare for them.
Never As Good As Advertised
As a kid, I was always fascinated - obsessed, even - with being an adult. Being college educated, living on my own, making my own money, etc.
My parents always told me, "Don't wish your life away. Adult life isn't as easy and fun as it looks!"
I've since learned that is a severe understatement.
23. And The Winner Is...
Back in college I was on the phone with my mom when I flushed a spider down the sink. I came back into the kitchen about 20 minutes later, and the spider was back, apparently having climbed up the drain.
I told my mom about it, "This freakin' spider survived!" I said.
"Of course," she told me, "don't you remember the nursery rhyme?"
H/T: Reddit
