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Students Recount How Their Class Actually Reduced The Teacher To Tears

Can't you kids play nice?

Students Recount How Their Class Actually Reduced The Teacher To Tears
Photo by Tom Pumford on Unsplash

Teaching is one of the most arduous careers on Planet Earth; they are underpaid, overworked and underappreciated. The least we could do for our educators is to treat them with dignity and try to make them not cry. Their stress levels are already at a 10 and beyond, especially in this time of Covid. Maybe we should be checking in on them with compassion and just see if they're having a good day. Who knows when they may blow.

Redditor u/Lawlelle wanted to hear about those times things in class became just a little too much by asking...
Has your class ever made the teacher cry? What happened?

You Need a Hug

Get Well Soon Hug GIF by Robert E BlackmonGiphy

In middle school science, I had a teacher who was always so sweet. She was an older woman, and she always made sure we had materials for her class, often at her own expense. I remember she went out and bought like 20 plastic pencil cases and filled them with pencils, rulers, erasers, everything we would need for the class.

One day, some of the kids decided to throw a few of the pencil cases across the room, they snapped some of the rulers and just generally broke a lot of the things she provided for us while she stepped out for 5 minutes to talk to another teacher.

When she came back, she started crying and I remember feeling so bad for her. She gave the class little pieces of candy after, apologizing for losing control and getting emotional. We were the ones who should have been apologetic. she was so sweet to us even though the class was full of demon children.

elle-noelle

"SHUT UP!"

In 5th grade, we had a psychotic substitute teacher, probably in his late 50s. At the beginning of class, everyone was goofing off and he immediately shut us down by screaming "SHUT UP!" at us, shaking furiously. We all stayed silent after that because he legit freaked us out, but we came to the conclusion that he was hearing voices in his head, because about 20 minutes into class, he stopped talking abruptly, and screamed at us again at the top of his lungs that we would regret being so loud, but no one had uttered a freaking word.

He then stomped over to the desk, violently swept everything off, muttering the entire time to himself, then went to the back of the room and turned all of the lights off. We were all terrified at this point. He silently paced around the back of the room for a while, then went back to the front and slapped the chalkboard. His next words were what I remember the most clearly. He was violently shaking as he yelled, "I'm going to tell your teacher how horrible of a class you all are when she gets back, and I'll make sure she burns you up... To hell with all of you!"

He threw himself back into the teacher's chair, and started sobbing. One of my classmates managed to sneak out and get the principal, he was escorted from the classroom a few minutes later, and we all had to individually go into the principal's office and recount what happened. Apparently he had just gotten a divorce and he had lost it. He was fired that same day. Honestly, I don't think we actually did anything to warrant his initial reaction. He just snapped.

_BlackfirePhoenix_

Couldn't Keep it In

I'm the teacher who cried but I guess I can still share something lol.

My class noticed one morning that I wasn't myself and one kid asked me during recess whether I was okay. Normally I wouldn't share about my personal life but I told my student that my grandma had passed away that morning. At the end of the day before I dismissed the class, the class committee handed me a sympathy card with really sweet condolence messages from every student in my class. I couldn't keep it in and started bawling.

alyssafortmrw

Angry Feelings

Angry tears. Had a history teacher one year, really good teacher. He had had a teenage son who had committed suicide, and after he took some time off, he came back to work. Standard class clown kid started acting up in his class, teach asks him to go into the hallway so he can speak with him privately. We heard their exchange get a little heated, but this kid just cranked it to 11 and insinuated teacher's kid was right to kill themselves with a father like him.

Heard that kid bounce off some lockers about a second after. Teacher came back into the room with angry tears and told one of us to call the school resource officer. It became a big hullabaloo and teacher ended up suspended for the rest of the year. At the time I thought it was crazy he'd shove that kid like that. 15 years later and some real world experience later, I'm surprised that's all he did.

Crab__Juice

Sour Notes

Oh My God Omg GIF by The BachelorGiphy

Elementary music teacher here.

The art teacher next door was having trouble with her classroom behavior management. The assistant principal entered her room while she had a class and completely undermined her. Assistant principal told her she didn't know what she was doing in front of the kids and redirected the class to "show" art teacher how it's done.

Art teacher threw a fit, cursed her out, and left smack dab in the middle of the school day.

Luckily my instincts kicked in and I told my AP to just bring the rest of her classes to me that day, and I had two classes at a time that day.

I get that she needed to fix her management skills, but it's like teacher code... you don't undermine another teacher in front of students.

4-7-3-6-2-5-1

Bad Moments

I'm a college teacher in the UK. Absolutely love my job, love helping the kids I teach and love helping them reach their Uni courses.

Never really had many issues with most of my classes, but I had this one class that was real lazy, never did their work etc. They got a real crap result back one lesson, average mark was like 30%. I said something in passing and a student made a comment about how I shouldn't guilt trip them.

I explained how I felt like I was working harder than they were and I felt like I cared more about their result than they did, despite they would be going to Uni. At the time I was going through a break up and was living in my car for a few days and I cried then in front of that class. Awful moment, professionally speaking.

92-LL

Kids are Mean

Our form tutor was a kindly middle aged Welsh gal, pure as anything, just happy to be doing her job. But teenagers being who they are, it made her a joke to many. She announced to the class she'd be leaving at the end of the term or year etc, and they all cheered and whooped. She left the classroom in tears. Kids can be assholes.

LightSamus

these 2 girls....

I had a french teacher once. We were her first class since becoming a teacher, lovely woman but many of us suspected she has mental health problems, always very quiet and mousey and she always came in looking a bit messy ie. Hair not brushed and makeup a bit smudged. There were these 2 girls who would just torment her, they hid pickled mussels around the classroom and were just these loud obnoxious arseholes.

Long story short, turns out the teachers mum had just died and on top of the stress of managing a class with some real horrible kids she had a nervous breakdown and never came back. About 2 years later I was going to a concert and saw her begging for money outside a train station. Just felt so horrible seeing what she had been reduced to all because of some nasty freaking kids that just pushed her and pushed her.

treesarefriend

In Year Five....

Yes, in Year Five (9-10). We had this small, pretty cool teacher take over our class because our usual teacher was out doing something. One day, we would not shut up (something happened that got us kids all excited) and I was just doodling. looked up to see the teacher just run out the class in floods of tears. I then realized just how little attention the class was given her and how much they cared because it took several minutes for everyone to notice she was gone then went right back to talking.

I felt really bad for that teacher because she was the only teacher in our year who got no respect from the students.

AnotherAnxiousPerson

too cool for school

The Breakfast Club Flirting GIFGiphy

I remember in high school getting a teacher fresh out of uni. He was the best - super passionate about teaching, and would often incorporate music and comedy into his teaching to make it more interesting, almost everyone in the class loved him because of it. There were 3 footy players who would always play up in class though, and the teacher spent extra attention on them, trying to get them just as excited about learning as the rest of the class, but they were simply "too cool" to pay attention in class.

One day they took it too far, I can't remember the exact details, but I do remember that one of the footy players threw a chair "as a joke" - either at another student, or at the teacher himself - and it just broke the poor guy. He lost his crap at the unruly students, and you could see the pure frustration in his face. He just wanted to teach, but these few students were hellbent on ruining it for everyone. He ended up just leaving the classroom in tears, and everyone in the class quickly turned against the kids who threw the chair.

AngeloDeth94

R.I.P

Sad Cartoon GIFGiphy

Teacher here. I was witness to the death of one of my former students (pedestrian hit by a car right outside my apartment). This was pretty common knowledge to my students, and during a Kahoot game one of them put her name as their nickname. Couldn't help tearing up, and I let the waterworks start during my prep period.

ouchyoof

Mrs. Raccoon will get you....

Multiple times, we were a terrible class.

She was our sixth grade teacher. Our school had this odd system where you had a home room teacher for most of the day, but then rotated around to other teachers for just a few classes. Our home room teacher was also the music teacher, and for some reason during music class all hell would break loose.

She went on vacation for a week and came back with a bad sunburn around the eyes, so we would only call her Mrs. Raccoon. It caused her to get more tanning done.

During one music class she really had to go to the washroom, so she left for about 4 seconds and a fight broke out between a boy and a girl. The girl took the boys head and threw it through a snare drum. He got stuck in there. She came back to thinking he was dead.

Eventually she had a mental breakdown mid class and ran out into the hallway crying. The 7th grade teacher saw this and instead of consoling her walked in and just let. us. have. it.

I'll never forget that day, he said we were spoiled fools for treating a teacher who only ever wanted to help us like trash. He screamed that if he had a teacher like her when he was a kid he would do everything he could to keep her. Yelled that if we kept acting this way we were in for a life of disappointment brought on by our own rampant incompetence.

It worked. Some of us cried, but everyone felt horrible and we were all nice to her for the remaining year.

Griffca

Chinese Whispers

In High School we had this terrible RE teacher, one of the activities she would make us do was Chinese Whispers (to this day, I have no idea how this relates to Religious Education). Anyway, one day she told us to get in a circle and sure enough it was a Chinese whispers 'exercise', I can't remember what the phrase was we were supposed to be passing round but when it got to the last kid he just turned, looked her dead in the eye and said "RE is a freaking joke and so are you". She burst into tears and ran out of the classroom, about 10 mins later her husband (also a teacher at the school) showed up and went to town screaming at us all.

Blues_McKoy

Flaged

The whole class knew our teacher loves us so much. On her birthday, we decided to surprise her once she enters the classroom after the flag ceremony. We divided into two groups. Some of us are together with the teacher during flag ceremony and some are waiting for the flag ceremony to end and are trying to hide in certain places in the classroom. The teacher had no clue of what was actually happening and when she arrived together with some of our classmates, we started singing happy birthday to her, she was so shocked you can clearly see her trying to hold her tears. It was the class' most successful birthday surprise.

Edit:For those who are asking what a flag ceremony is: In our country, it is held every Monday at 6:30 in the morning. The whole school gathers in a field or gymnasium to honor our country and sing our National Anthem while facing the flag which will be raised by 3 boy scouts, and after that, is reciting the national pledges. It follows a long process (Starts with praying, ends after announcements, if there's any) and lasts for at least 30 minutes.

And also, thanks for the award, kind stranger ! :DD

louissely

I Hate Everyone

mark wahlberg no GIF by Daddy's HomeGiphy

In 5th grade, my class was always extremely nasty to every substitute teacher that came in. They'd act out, doing and saying stupid crap, and though we never actually saw any of them cry, our regular teacher told us on multiple occasions that we'd left the substitute in tears after class was done. I hated every time there was a substitute because it would always become a crapshow.

Also in middle school we had a teacher that started out extremely chill. She said she didn't believe in yelling at students. Unfortunately though, a lot of the same little morons from my 5th grade class were in this class too, plus new ones. I don't remember what the cause was exactly but one day she just snapped and screamed at us for a good 10 minutes. She definitely believed in yelling at students after that. It's one of the few things from middle school I remember clear as day.

yeetgodmcnechass

Kids are Evil

It wasn't my class but my twin brother's class when we were in grade 7. We went to a public school, which was full of delinquents, but his class was especially bad. They had a substitute teacher take over one of their classes for about a month, and one of the kids thought it would be hilarious if he pretended to be severely intellectually disabled. Looking back on it now it was horrible, but at the time everyone thought it was hilarious. He would moan words, throw books, water, spit on the floor and dribble.

The class played along with it but they would all howl with laughter at him. The substitute kept saying things like he can't control it, stop bullying him. It got to a point where he was being especially bad with his 'disability' and everyone in class kept laughing, she ended up crying in the middle of class and later quit after she found out he had been pretending the entire time.

pirateofdigitalseas

Into the Woods

It was the end of the day and a whole bunch of us 9 year olds were getting ready to go home when this kid who was always trying to make trouble started arguing with the teacher about the next days homework and she made some comment about his mom and then he made a rude joke about the teachers mom and she burst into tears and screamed her mom was dead. Then we sat in silence for like 5 minutes while the teacher cried.

Edit: also that same teacher once came in crying in the morning and when we asked what happened she said one of her past students died of leukemia. The worst thing was that we saw that girl like a week before while the class was taking a walk in the woods and she and her mom mentioned how she was recovering and was feeling so much better.

BeneficialAwareness3

Coach Burt

No but once in chemistry class the teacher Coach Burt stopped writing on the board looked straight ahead and mumbled "I could probably blow my brains all over this chalkboard and y'all wouldn't even notice" the only people that heard him were me and the girl I was talking too. I responded "coach I think that's a dry erase board nobody uses chalk anymore. And he laughed which made me feel slightly less concerned.

UrinatingNinja

The Door Jam

When I was in HS we were misbehaving as a whole group, just making noise and not listening and, messing around and finding just about everything that was happening far too funny, nothing too major.

A few of us got sent out to stand in the corridor until she got a handle on things. When she came out to speak to us, one dude was leaning up against the doorframe with his hand, and upon realizing we couldn't contain our laughter at this point, she decided to leave us out there and stormed back into the class, slamming the door.

It was at this point, the dude screamed with the force of a thousand suns, I hadn't heard anything quite like it. Teacher comes back out instantly, steam bellowing out of her ears ready to completely destroy our childhoods.

She turned to the kid, and noticed the end of his finger hanging off, instantly realizing she'd shut it in the door, her mood changed just as quickly, and she just broke down into tears, I would've felt bad but it just topped off the list of things I shouldn't have been laughing at already.

OGC23

Gargle Please

season 4 episode 6 GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy

Her breath stunk from meters away. We anonymously left a bottle of Listerine on her desk. We thought we were being kind, she thought it was a horrible prank.

These days I can see her point.

thermonuclearmuskrat


Double Standards That Make People Angry

Reddit user Extreme-Minute-4746 asked: 'What double standards make you angry?'

angry girl in black and white striped shirt
Photo by Julien L on Unsplash

Double standards are an unfortunate part of society.

A double standard is when two or more individuals or sets of people are treated differently when they should be treated the same.

A good example is the difference in the way my brother and I are treated when we cook. I'm big on baking and have a natural talent for it. Whenever I bake anything, even something complicated, like cheesecake, I'm given minimal praise, if any at all. This is because I'm a woman, and in my family culture, women are expected to be able to bake.

My brother isn't as good a baker as me and rarely does it, but when he does, he is praised for subpar brownies because he's a man and it's amazing he can even cook as well as he does.

I'm not the only one who has experience with this.

Redditors have identified many double standards in society and are eager to share.

It all started when Redditor Extreme-Minute-4746 asked:

"What double standards make you angry?"

Civil Service

"As a federal government employee, why do I have to follow all kinds of ethics rules, but politicians and judges don’t?"

– mittychix

"F**k, right? I have to spend six weeks reviewing documentation and hearing out dozens of random companies to award a £100k contract but the minister who runs my department can give his mate's company a multi-million£ contract to run ferries without even getting quotes - DESPITE THAT COMPANY NOT HAVING AND FERRIES AND THE PORT IN QUESTION NOT HAVING CAPACITY FOR THEM."

"I left the civil service after that one."

– Disco_is_Death

"This. Yeah I could get in trouble for accepting a gift over $50 (like I have that much influence anyway) but politicians and judges get lobbied millions..it's infuriating."

– gtbeam3r

"Yes. And they get to keep their jobs for being completely dysfunctional, but if I pulled a fraction that garbage, I’d be fired."

– TrekJaneway

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

"That some people expect you to respect their no, whilst they will most definitely not respect yours."

– IvyBloodroot

"On that note, respecting someone as an authority is often equated to respecting someone as an individual."

"Eg. Teachers who say if you don't respect me (as a superior), I won't respect you (as a person), when they're really not the same thing."

– Paperonia

The Bullied

"School bullying."

"The kid getting picked on has essentially no power. Go to a teacher? Get labeled a snitch and tattle tale. Don't do anything? You're just made an easier target. The moment they fight back, they're the ones who end up dealing with detention, suspension, expulsion, etc. You have more power as a bully in the schools than the victim."

– FriskeCrisps

"It's because bullied people are usually rule followers, and the school wants the problem dealt with as quickly as possible. Best way to do that is to expect the rule follower to follow rules, rather than the rule breaker to suddenly change their ways."

"Fairness ends up on the chopping block."

– darsynia

Services Cliff

"I'm 41 years old and have Cerebral Palsy. If I try to find anything related to the disease - how to deal with it, any kind of ongoing care - it is virtually impossible because all the care is just for children with CP. It's like once you turn 18 the world just doesn't care anymore."

– Zechnophobe

"I’m autistic and in the same boat. “How to deal with a child who…” I'M ASKING FOR ME."

– aroaceautistic

A Two-Way Street

"People who are obsessed with the idea of kids being respectful towards adults, but don't treat kids with respect in turn."

"Edit for example: I went to a very old-fashioned school where the rule was that when an adult entered the room, even in the library and break/lunch, every student in the room had to immediately fall silent - mid sentence, mid word, didn't matter - and stand up until we were given permission to sit back down again. If we didn't, we were chewed out and sometimes even given detentions. The argument was that it trained us into respect, but I was also brought up to believe it's rude to interrupt, and it felt like the teachers were constantly interrupting us."

– MerylSquirrel

"My father in law is like that. He’s “kids should be seen and not heard” type of old school."

"But then he wonders why the children in the family all steer clear of him and why they disregard most things he says."

– Macintosh0211

Doctor, Doctor

"This might be a bit controversial, but I’ve come across a couple of doctors who demand special treatment away from work but preach and practice treating all their patients equally."

– kimchi-pancake

"They charge you a fee or cancel if you’re 5 minutes late but have no problem leaving you waiting for hours. I’ve waited an hour in the lobby and another in the actual examination room."

– SadComfort8692

"Same! i can understand if it’s out of their control but i could hear her, clear as day, giggling with her coworkers about her weekend. i waited 20 in the lobby and 20 in the exam room. i love a good gab but, for f**k’s sake, do it later! if i yapped outside for 20 minutes, it would be a $50 fee and another 4 month long wait to be seen again."

"I suddenly had a $50 i-can-hear-you-nattering-through-the-wall fee. she laughed but it’s been collecting interest ever since…"

– manyfeetball

Alcohol Is Alcohol

"Beer drinkers act like they aren’t alcoholics because they don’t drink hard liquor. Ok sir you just drank 25 beers and then looked at me sideways for drinking a g&t at the family reunion."

– Brainfog_shishkabob

"Same goes for the “sophisticated” wine drinkers..."

"Stop judging me for enjoying a drink on the terrace a few times a year, when you empty 1-2 bottles each evening..."

– 2Madam_Mimmm

"That’s definitely the way it is. I’ve got a snotty alcoholic family member, that THINKS she’s sophisticated, because she drinks high dollar wine, out of very expensive glasses."

"Yeah, pissing yourself and passing out, in front of the mailbox, are definitely the traits of a sophisticated person."

– sweathogbrooklyn

Mr. Mom

"Fathers taking care of their kids."

"I take my kids to doctor appointments, dentist appointments, take them to school, and pick them up. I do all that stuff."

"Every single f**king time, it's, “Dad’s babysitting today?” Or some stupid comment like that. No, I’m not babysitting. I’m being a f**king parent!"

"I hate the double standard that dads can’t do stuff like that with their kids."

"I can’t take my daughter to the park without being questioned or looked at funny either."

"People need to give dads more respect. A lot of us bust our a**es too. I work hard. I take care of my kids, I play with my kids. I clean the house. I do laundry. I don’t stop. I don’t rest, I don’t relax."

– moms-sphaghetti

"Give us changing tables in the men's room!"

– Da1UHideFrom

"Nothing bugs me more than when a place only has changing tables in the women's bathroom."

"It's 2023, I take my son to the aquarium by myself sometimes... Looking at you London SeaLife centre 🤨"

– AstonVanilla

Household Split

"The laundry is always a wierd one. My wife is a much better cook than me. And she hates me cooking when she's in the house. So to compensate I do all the laundry, including ironing before someone mentions it, and all the washing of dishes."

"But even at work, this doesn't seem to be understood as possible. I complained my washing machine had broken and the comment was 'Oh no, what's wife's name going to do?'"

"To which the answer was 'Wonder why I haven't done the washing this week.'"

"But it's infuriating."

– RelativeStranger

Justice Is Bought

"The American justice system. You can afford the best and many more lawyers when you have money."

– TooAfraidToAsk814

"Justice is blind, but the b*tch sure can smell money."

– burgher89

Worship

"I am supposed to respect people's religion, but people aren't supposed to respect my non-religion."

"Particularly when their religion instructs them to not respect my non-religion."

– GeebusNZ

"It kinda makes my head spin that there are people who I get along well with who, per their religion, think I deserve to be tortured in agony for all eternity."

Daztur

Yup, me and my non-religious self have personal experience with that last one!

well-dressed woman holding shopping bags
freestocks on Unsplash

Money is tight for many people.

But sometimes paying more is better than pinching pennies.

Keep reading...Show less

People tend to have a lot of opinions about other people's workplaces, whether or not they've ever worked in that industry themselves.

There are some professions, like teaching and retail, where people will assume they know all there is to know, even if they've never set foot in that position, and there are others, like the CIA, where people view these positions as elusive and awe-inspiring.

But there are beliefs that people share that frustrates those who are actually in the industry.

Redditor Madalyn_Robert asked:

"What's a myth about your profession that you want to debunk?"

Veterinarian Secrets

"Veterinary medicine is not a happy-go-lucky career choice where you get to deal with cute animals rather than people. Most of your patients are sick or scared, and every case involves a fraught negotiation with their stressed-out human."

- Drabby

The Truth Behind Anesthesia

"Anesthesiologist: you're not asleep you are anesthetized. When you're asleep and someone stabs you, you wake up."

- Drsuprane

"Even more terrifying, anesthesia doesn’t exactly prevent you from feeling what’s happening, it (in effect) disrupts the timing clock that allows different parts of the brain to talk to each other. You won’t be able to remember it or be conscious to experience it, but somewhere some part of your brain is receiving those pain signals and is trying desperately to tell the rest of your brain what’s happening."

- Steaveee

Preventative > Reactive

"Maintenance is worth doing and is definitely worth paying for."

"People say, 'I don't know why we pay those maintenance guys, nothing ever breaks around here!'"

"The reason Germany and Japan (and South Korea) became and remain such manufacturing powerhouses is because they know the value of maintenence. If you keep everything in clean good working order, you end up with minimum down time. Working maintenance into manufacturing schedules keeps output level, because you have no unexpected downtime."

"It's the same for your car or your home. Setting aside time and resources for maintenance means you won't lose unexpected time and resources when things break. Good maintenance will spot things before they break and switch them out. That's worth paying for."

- TriviaBanal

The Power of a Reboot

"IT. Rebooting is NOT a waste of time and solves a remarkable number of problems."

- gfhggdssgg

"Instead of using shutdown, use restart."

"Modern versions of windows have something called fast startup, which basically hibernates when you shut down. You don't get the benefit of a reboot."

- gerwen

Giant, Flying Puzzles

"Commercial aircraft are built almost entirely by hand. Like 96%. There's very little automation in the process."

- Kalepsis

"Authentic, handcrafted commercial airliners."

- Keyspam102

"Free range, GRASS FED, Authentic, handcrafted commercial airliners!"

- Wiggly96

Doing Library Things

"I am a public librarian. While curating books is still a portion of the job, much of it these days is taken up by database assistance and training, program development and teaching, and public education. It’s much closer to school teaching, but for adults and without grading homework, than it was in the past."

- SmallDarkCloud

Rate the Emergency

"If you go to the ER via ambulance, it does NOT mean you will be seen quicker."

"ERs take the sickest people first, definitely not the ones who come in by ambulance first."

- DoIHaveDementia

Not in Charge

"Teachers have very little say in anything. We advocate the best we can but most of the time, it’s out of our hands, including holding children back who desperately need help."

- chasindreams22

Define "Recycled"

"Print industry. Your paper isn’t as recycled as you think it is."

- mullett

True Lawyers

"That all lawyers make absurd amounts of money. The ones that won't sell their entire life for big bucks tend to make pretty average money."

- dudeblackhawk

"Yes! Some months I barely make enough for all my expenses. Some months I make a lot of money. Some months I make absolutely nothing. Having a private practice in my country means financial instability. The Estate does pay me to represent people who can't afford a lawyer but it pays very bad and takes forever to get that money."

"Also, we're not all like in the movies. Most of us actually care about the people we represent and we try our best to help them."

- ZucchiniAnxious

Not Everything Is Memorized

"I can write code. I cannot debug most of your Windows problems without googling them."

- Resies

Underpaid and Overworked

"School Custodian here and we are NOT overpaid cleaners. What would you pay someone that can paint, Sheetrock, tape/mud, patch concrete/asphalt, operate/repair commercial landscaping/snow removal equipment, operate/repair commercial custodial equipment, restore various types of floors including vct/hardwood/carpet/tile, replace toilets/faucets, air filters, belts, trim/fell trees, shovel roofs, etc?"

"Not all of us are cleaners/janitors, which are vital and underpaid as well. Some of us are Jack/Jill of all trades and you want to pay us peanuts?"

"All employees of a school are important and administrators shouldn't try to balance their budgets on the backs of workers when I've seen an exponential amount of administrative salary and stupid purchasing decisions, not to mention unfunded mandates from the state."

- Nutella_Zamboni

Speech-to-Language Complexity

"There is sooooo much more to the speech-language pathologist scope of practice than working with kids who stutter or can't say their 'r's."

"An entire half of the field is in the adult medical setting working with people who have dementia, swallowing disorders, oral cancer, strokes, Parkinson's disease, and voice disorders, plus some other niche areas like transgender voice or accent modification."

"The pediatric half of the field also works with AAC devices, social skills, literacy development, syntax, executive functioning, writing, feeding, and more."

- bibliophile222

Realistic Therapy

"Therapist here, specifically a couples therapist."

"Therapy is not just about venting or having someone agree with you all the time to make you feel better. Yes, we validate and listen and venting happens at times. But we also challenge you, encourage you to set goals and make change, and sometimes give 'homework.'"

"Therapy is an active process and if you want to see change you have to be willing to make change. I think the media has really warped people's ideas and they expect miracles to happen by showing up without any effort. I wish I could do that for you! But I need you to partner with me to make things happen."

"Also, very few therapists actually have you lay on a couch."

- Dependent-Citron4444

Well, Then.

"Scientist (more specifically, molecular biologist in biotech)."

"I am not hiding the cure for cancer, and I don't know s**t about actual medicine."

- DaOleRazzleDazzle

It's surprising how much we often think we know about other people's professions, and it's probably annoying to them to hear misconceptions day in and day out from the general public.

This is a great reminder of how much we can learn from each other, even just in the workplace.

Person holding two vintage photographs of family portraits
Cheryl Winn-Boujnida/Unsplash

How well did you really know the people who are no longer with us?

Many of us present our best selves to our friends and relatives but do you share with them your deepest, darkest insecurities and secrets?

Maybe you do. But there are plenty of others who take their secrets to the grave.

But those closely guarded secrets or the truest identities can come to light posthumously in many forms, giving a glimpse of who they were to the people they've left behind.

Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor WhoAllIll asked:

"What secret was revealed when cleaning out the home of a deceased family member?"

Not everyone had pure morals or ethics.

Shady Business

"Elderly aunt had a hidden room with staircase to basement area no one knew about. She and her son had a meth lab. This was in the 90’s in Philly. Blew us all away."

– pekepeeps

Here's The Story

"We all knew this one uncle had a second family. We expected drama at the funeral."

"No one was expecting his third family to show up. Wife. Three kids. This new family knew the rest of the family by name from pictures. How we are all related, names, hobbies. That was a wildly bizarre experience."

– z-adventure

Late Discovery

"My dad passed away in 1994 (I was 28). While going through his safe I found some adoption papers. While reading through them I got excited at the prospect I might have a brother out there somewhere (I was raised as an only child) but couldn't understand why my parents never told me that they'd adopted a child but never told me. After rereading them, I realized that they papers were about me. After confronting my family about this turns out everyone - family, close friends, I mean everyone, knew I was adopted. Except me. That was a fun day."

– rolandblais

You never know about a person.

Once Upon A Cash-tress

"Many years ago I went with my dad and aunt to clean out my great uncle’s apartment after he passed away. He was never married, no kids, and lived (we thought) very poor. Tiny apartment with a twin bed, table and chair, a couple of pots and pans, a couple pants& shirts, and that’s basically it."

"As we stripped the bed and moved the mattress, we were shocked. He had hundreds of stacks of 10 dollar bills, wrapped in rubber bands, under his mattress. They were all 10 dollar bills. He lived during the Depression and didn’t trust banks, apparently, but we had no idea he had so much cash. He never spent it on anything. Just bundled it and saved it under his mattress. Some of the bills were so old and yellowed. It equaled thousands of dollars. We had no idea."

– Sostupid246

The Neat Hoarder

"My grandfather, who spoke English as a third language, was a bit of a hoarder. Lots of old sh*t stockpiled in his basement, but well organized. Imagine a generic episode of Hoarders, but with a prepper OCD vibe."

"Everything was sanitized, stacked/nested, and grouped logically. It was like the stock room for a store that wasn't yet sure what products it was selling and wanted to be ready."

"So we find a cylindrical container that was kinda heavy for its size, and it had the label 'OLD PENIS'. It was one of those black plastic film containers."

"Hesitant, but curious, we removed the lid."

"It contained a collection of one-cent pieces which had been minted in the first half of the 20th century."

"Part of me was disappointed, part of me was relieved."

"Edit: I'm glad so many people got a chuckle from the mystery of my grandfather's old penis. It was an innocent typo, but he was a jovial man and would have enjoyed knowing it made so many people laugh."

– funkme1ster

Unpublished

"We knew my originally British, naturalized Canadian great-grandmother had been an enthusiastic amateur historian, who had been fascinated by Britain’s war with Napoleon - not for the least reason because she was herself tangentially related to the Duke of Wellington’s family, via a cousin’s marriage to his son’s nephew, or some connection equally obscure and tenuous."

"What we didn’t know is that, likely in preparation for a book she never wrote, as a young woman she had actually interviewed several dozen elderly English, French and Spanish veterans about their experiences during that war - including three actual survivors of Waterloo (two English, one French), and an aide-de-camp to Spanish General Francisco Javier Castaños, at the time he handed the Napoleonic army its very first defeat in the field, and captured nearly 20,000 French troops at the Battle of Bailen (1808)."

"But there it was, stored in a wooden egg crate under her iron-framed bed, among old calendars, untested recipe clippings and copies of Family Circle magazine: a manuscript with nearly three hundred pages of transcribed military memoirs - all laid out in three languages (in which she was fluent) in her elegant, Spencerian hand."

"My parents donated her manuscript to the Imperial War Museum, where no doubt it will never have human eyes laid on it again."

– theartfulcodger

These Redditors share heartwarming discoveries.

Preparing For The Onward Journey

"My dad was in hospice at home for a couple months before he died of lung cancer, and when I went to clean out his house I found that he had already sorted and packed away most of his personal treasures in couple storage bins. It was heartbreaking all over again thinking of him sitting there packing up his own life knowing it was coming to an end."

– F0regn_Lawns

Messages From Beyond

"When my husband died a few years ago i found several notes/letters he had scattered in various places around our home, written to me in advance (he had terminal cancer & knew he was dying). some were marked 'open when you can't stop crying' 'open when the holidays are too rough' 'open when you have to put one of the cats to sleep'."

"They didn't contain any secrets, but they are heartbreakingly beautiful."

– miss_trixie

Sweet Keepsake

"My dad kept a handwritten note in his wallet containing my mom’s old address, phone number, and directions to her house from when they first started dating in the 70s. He had moved it from wallet to wallet over the years. ❤️ He just died this past March and that was one of the first things we found."

– Jinx5326

Scavenger Hunt

"That my dad hid money all over the house, not huge amounts mind you, but $60 here, $120 there. Felt like a bit of a scavenger hunt when we were cleaning out his stuff. He was always a bit of a sneakily generous guy, always gave me and my brothers a secret handshake with money tucked in his palm when we’d go back to school after a weekend home, etc, so wouldn’t be surprised if he’d done it intentionally. Made us smile every time we found some, iirc I think the final total was somewhere around $800."

– Mzunguman

Photographs are treasures.

When my family cleaned out the house of my father's aunt who lived in America, we found stacks of vintage photographs well before the advent of digital photography.

There were photos of my great aunt in Japan from when she was a teenager to photos of her and her husband at a Japanese internment camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming.

There were no secrets uncovered but it was so profound poring through images capturing decades of her life captured on film.