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Shocking NDAs Revealed

Shocking NDAs Revealed

These People Made HUGE Mistakes

These People Made HUGE Mistakes

These Entitled Jerks Made Us Rage

These Entitled Jerks Made Us Rage

Incredibly Satisfying Revenge Stories

Incredibly Satisfying Revenge Stories

platypus

The Weirdest Animal Facts People Know

Zookeepers Reveal The Most Eerily Human-Like Thing They've Caught An Animal Doing.

Zookeepers Reveal The Most Eerily Human-Like Thing They've Caught An Animal Doing.

1. An orangutan gestured to a guest at the zoo to give him his ice cream. The guest knew he couldn't give his food to the orangutan so gestured back, "no-no" or "I can't/what should I do?" Then, the orangutan gestured to the man to throw an ice cream cone to them over the fence, like it was the most obvious idea ever.

Viktor333

2. I'm not a zookeeper, but my dog once thanked me. He was trying to find a comfortable position on his pallet but it was all wrinkled and folded over itself. So after he grumpily plopped down, I went over and tugged at the corner of it. My dog looked at me and then got up. I fixed it for him and he laid down, so I went to sit down.

A beat later, my dog got up and walked over to me. He licked my knee and went back to lay down.

That's one of the reasons that I consider my dog was a person instead of an animal.

3. I work at the San Diego Zoo and the peacocks LOVE attention. They fan out their feathers at routine times every single day in the same exact spots just for the crowds of people to come and give them attention. They do this with no peahens in sight. Its kinda funny.

mmMangos

4. A chimpanzee saved a piece of newspaper she'd been given for enrichment until keepers showed up the next day. She climbed up to my eye level, held out an ad for Chips Ahoy cookies, then pointed at me. She wanted me to buy them for her.

sarahaasis

5. During penguin nesting season, I once saw a rockhopper couple who had built a nest way up high at the top of a mountain of rocks. The lady of the house decided that she needed to redecorate the home and sent the male to find a suitable rock to add to the decor. As he hopped down the rocks, he was squawked at and pecked at by several other rockhoppers with nests, getting beat up all the way down to the ground where he started looking for pebbles. He finds one he likes and ascends up the mountain to once again brave the very territorial, biting, screeching rockhoppers along the way. She lays the pebble down for his Mrs...

And she slaps the crap out of him. She hates it.

Immediately getting the point, he returns for a third pass at now even more pissed off rockhoppers back to the ground. This time, he's not playin'. He spends a good ten minutes looking for a rock that he likes...and BOOM! There it is!

He tries to pick the rock up and immediately drops it. He tries again...drops it. He tries one final time and it's just too big for him to carry. So his response?

He throws his head back, flails his flippers about and cries to the sky. I did not see him return home for the rest of my shift.

Another good one with birds... The other day our Blue fronted Amazon parrot was pulling my hair a few strands at a time out of my hair tie...and laughing at me as he did it.

Krsst14

6. Not a zookeeper, but I worked in South Africa for a bit last year.

We have four giraffes on the property, one of which was a lovely lady named Camille. One day they were roaming at the fence neighboring the farm next door, where a Kudu named Charles lived. A Kadu is a species of antelope. Camille and Charles absolutely fell in love. For days they stayed at the fence and wouldn't leave. Finally, Charles decided he'd had enough. He proceeded to (Continued)

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He proceeded to jumped the huge fence (a fence large enough for a giraffe) and now spends his days roaming our property with Camille. The people next door were really awesome and let him stay with us.

PensTrain

7. While I'm not officially a zookeeper yet, I'm the girl in charge of scooping poop out of the Komodo Dragon cage and various other reptiles. Mr. Komodo and I have a little tradition. I go into his fine establishment, mop away a basket-ball sized slosh of excrement, and taking a step away, he'll immediately "let it go" in the same spot that I cleaned up. Through this isn't really what can be considered human-like, I am always amused about how the moment I appear Mr. Komodo spreads his legs in preparation. He doesn't lash at me either, which is something he does even at the person who feeds him.

Riadyt

8. Zoo keeper here

Seeing ring tailed lemurs literally laid out flat on their backs on the grass on a sunny day

Also a lemur casually sat on a post with one knee raised and resting his arm on said knee, the other hand was holding onto the mesh. Casual as heck.

Oh and a Mandrill getting pissed off and throwing his toy away when he couldn't figure out how it worked.

vintage-tea

9. Actually a zookeeper, and one of our ocelots will eat anything and everything, even though he has a sensative stomach, and knows he'll puke. His specialty is catching opossums or squirells and eating everything but the head, which he carefully positions in full view of the public next morning.

We also have a family group of gibbons; parents, a subadult, and a baby. In the wild, young adult gibbons stay with their parents for a few years and learn how to take care of their younger sibling, to prepare them for parenthood. Our young male, who is the equivalent if a 12-13 year old human, once tried to grab the baby from Mom, who smacked him upside the head.

She then went back to teaching the toddler to climb by sitting next to the wire of the fence, letting her baby get six inches off the ground, then clutching him back to her chest because that was "high enough."

Athena_Nikephoros

10. I work with exotic animals, though not in a zoo, yet. We have a Marmoset (little monkey) that does lots of little, oddly human things, but her most recent/most creepy thing is her new method of "asking" for food. If you've got something and you aren't sharing, she'll sit in the corner of her enclosure then turn, look over her shoulder, and look up at you with big round eyes until you give in or she gets mad. She looks just like a little girl bribing her father. We aren't really sure where she got it from....

savannahrhayne

12. I'm a zookeeper.

Dolphins are manipulative jerks. They put every new hire through a hazing process. Here's how they do it: (Continued)

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Some dolphins will bait the new trainer into petting them. As soon as the hand gets close enough, they'll swipe their heads over really quick and pretend to try to bite them. Not because they actually want to bite, but because they like to illicit reactions and think the terrified trainer jumping backwards is the greatest thing ever.

Another thing they do is completely ignore new trainers or pretend to misunderstand what behavior the trainer is asking for. Dolphin toys with trainer until it finally decides to cooperate. Exasperated trainer gets excited and 'jackpots' - or showers them with fish. Dolphin laughs and noms fish.

They are smart, finicky little jerks.

Macaws are also jerkwads. When I first started working with scarlets, one butthead decided that if I didn't give him a peanut every time I dared entering his cage, he would attempt to peck the top of my head. It worked for a while. That stupid bird trained ME.

katiecares

13. We kept a wood duck in our butterfly house exhibit at my previous workplace.

When he was in his full glory, with his beautiful colors and feathers, he would be all up in everybody's face and would want attention, attention, attention. But as soon as he molted into his drab colors for the summer, he would sulk and be cranky and hide in his pond.

Shows off when he's pretty, hides out when he's not at his best. Pretty human to me :)

MandaTheRin

14. Former zookeeper here.

I mostly worked in the reptile house and with reptiles and large rodents for educational shows, however I did a bit of work with some mountain lions and a very fat black bear named TJ.

The mountain lions were an absolute trip because, get this, they played HIDE AND SEEK, not even 100% predatory behaviour. They would run behind trees until you "found" them (they are still cats, with the impression that hiding their heads makes them invisible), come out, swat you on the butt and go hide behind something else.

Peccatrice

15. Not a zookeeper, but at a nearby zoo they're teaching theorangutansto use iPads. They even got them to (Continued)

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They even got them to Skype with one of their favourite keepers who was in a different country. Nuts.

16. I know this sounds stupid, but I'm pretty sure my dog went through a grieving process and period of depression when his mom died. She was 7 when she had him, and he was the only puppy to survive. They never spent a day apart until she died aged 15. When she died, I literally think he cried. Like his eyes leaked.. Maybe it was just windy that day or maybe he always does that but I never picked up on it, but it broke my heart.

He's a very very big, energetic springer spaniel, and he is the best dog in the world. He is a ray of sunshine and my best friend. He would never do anything to hurt anybody. He always wants to cuddle and play. But for two or three weeks after his mom died, he didn't want to play, and he had no energy. He only got out of his little bed to eat and drink and poop. He wouldn't even come for walks (again, he's a very big, strong dog so if you put the leash on him, he'd just resist until I gave up) I could hear him whimper every night until I went downstairs and stayed with him until he fell asleep. It was so similar to human loneliness.

I brought him to the vet and she couldn't find anything physically wrong with him, and she put it down to grieving. Thankfully a year on he's the happiest dog in the world again.

iamelvis

17. I think the most human-like thing I've seen a zoo animal do was a baby gorilla teasing its dad. Just swinging around on a vine and stealing little bits of food from in front of its dad. And the dad ended up jerking the vine like, "Stop it, you dumb kid!"

commandrix

18. Polar bears are smart as ef. They will purposely try to deceive you, and even mock you.

You always work protected contact with polar bears - fencing barriers between you and them. There is usually a small gap running along the bottom which is large enough for a bear to get the front part of their paw through so you never stand up close to the stainless steel fencing. The fence is usually some kind of 2x2 holes that you can pass food through, and there are food chutes too.

Mocking me: One time I decided to have a play session with one of the bears. I took bucket lids (which are small enough to slide under the gap I mentioned earlier) and smeared them with peanut butter, honey, and other treats. Then i got on the ground in front of the pen and was zipping the lid back and forth on the ground, just out of reach. The bear was pouncing along and having fun, and finally when I faked him out and he pounced left, I shot the lid under to cage to the right air hockey style. He went bounding after it, ate the treats, and came back with it in his mouth.

This is the mocking part: He sat down in front of me with the lid still in his mouth and just looked at me for a few seconds. Then he dropped the lid to the floor, put a paw on it, and proceeded to (Continued)

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zing it back and forth just out of my reach like I did to him. Bears - 1 Keepers - 0

The deceiving part: One bear I worked with was very sneaky and would try to trick new people. They love it when you act startled, so if you're a jumpy person you might as well paint a giant target on your forehead because they will try to act like they're not paying attention to you, and then Randy Orton-style, OUTTA NOWHERE, leap up at hit the bars at full height and make freak out.

So back when I was new to this bear, I accidentally dropped a fish on my side of the bars. Your instinct is to pick it up, but that is exactly what you should NOT do because that puts you too close to the cage. He tried to stick his paw under and get it, but couldn't quite get it. He tried and tried, made sad puppy sounds, etc, but I ignored the fish on the ground, finished our session, and walked away.

After I got a few paces away I looked back just in time to see him stick his paw under the bars, fully engulf the fish no problem, and pull it back under and eat it.

darlingnikki2245

19. In fifth grade, we went on a school field trip to the zoo and I witnessed the most amazing trolling ever done by a gorilla.

So, all these kids are swarming the glass of the gorilla exhibit and are banging on it because kids suck. Now, this gorilla is sitting there taking it like a damn champ, but then he gets up.

He presses his buttocks to the screen, spreads his butt cheeks and begins to defecate everywhere. It was the most disgusting display I have ever seen, but us ten year olds being ten year olds thought it was hilarious.

Then he begins to lick the poo off of the glass; that's when everyone is grossed out. Of course, the teachers are yelling that we needed to be mature... I'm sure they were disgusted too.

After King Kong here is done licking his crap, he plops back down on the ground and just stares at us. Oh, he knows what he's doing. He begins to masturbate and bares his teeth; literally a "shit-eating" grin.

The teachers dragged us off after that, but we got the message that this guy wanted to be left alone.

[deleted]

20. I want to be a zookeeper. So I did a volunteer thing at the San Diego Safari Park.

Our instructor was an elephant trainer.

She said it's normal for the zookeepers to leave dead elephants in their enclosure for a day or two, so the elephants can mourn the loss of an elephant.

Cries, standing around the body, signs of depression.

IchTanze

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21. My grandfather had a brackish water pond in his backyard. He would go down to fish, and "joe" the alligator would creep to the opposite side of the pond and scare all the fish over to my grandpas side. Then like clockwork after he caught 4 to 5 fish, joe would swim closer to where my gramps was fishing, and wait for gramps to throw him a dead fish. After he ate it he would go back across the pond.

rrw0312

22. I was working with wild monkeys in Thailand that had been taken in for rehab, and we had this one little sneaky one who used to wait till after you'd fed him (throwing food over the fence) then run to the gate, put his hand through the gap, and try and use his finger as a key to open the lock. He had obviously seen us on occasion open the lock to get in and out, and worked out that it was something about our hands and that hole that was linked to his freedom.

Wickedintheheights

Products That Customers Don't Realize Have A Really High Mark Up

Reddit user petrastales asked: 'What product unbeknownst to most people has the highest mark up?'

two filled drinking glasses with beverages
Photo by Monika Grabkowska on Unsplash

When I was in high school, my friends and I went to a pizza place after school nearly every day. In addition to a slice of pizza, we would each buy a soda. The place offered free refills (this was back when not all places did this), and we thought it was really cool. However, I used to wonder why they would do this. Wouldn't it be more profitable to them if they forced us to buy a second drink?

Four years later, I began working in a restaurant and learned that more often than not, the cups we gave out for soda cost more than the syrup that went in the drink. The restaurant offered us free food on days we worked, but we couldn't get drinks for free unless we brought our own cups.

This was shocking to me and put free refills into a whole new perspective. We could sell the soda for more than it cost to make, but no one would buy a soda if we tried to sell it for more than the cup cost. It would cost us less to allow customers to refill the same cup for free than it would be to give or even sell them another cup because it would cost the business a lot to replace each cup.

Soda cups aren't the only things that have a high mark up price, and they're not the only products people were surprised to find had a high mark up. Redditors know of lots of products that they were surprised to find out has a high mark up and are ready to share.

It all started when Redditor petrastales asked:

"What product unbeknownst to most people has the highest mark up?"

​Equality Doesn't Exist

"Back in the early 2000’s I was managing a restaurant - garlic bread was selling for 3.95 and cost 0.07 to make. Not all food items are equal when it comes to margins!"

– leyland_gaunt

"I came here specifically to mention pizza. The profit margins on pizza are nuts, you have to suck at making it to not stay open."

– DreadedChalupacabra

"Yeah, it drives me nuts when you can request add-ons, but it's like $3 for a few pieces of camembert, or $2 for some chopped tomato, when it probably cost $5 for an entire 1kg bag of tomatoes."

– Writerhowell

How Cheesy

"Yeah and like 1.50 of that pizza was the cheese."

"Cheese is the most expensive part of a pizza assuming youre not doing some weird specialty stuff."

– Doomstik

"Can confirm. Worked at a pizza place. An incompetent employee was supposed to fluff a box of cheese but dropped it on the ground by accident. the owner was there. I swear I saw him shed a tear because that box was $120 of pure uncut shredded mozzarella and that was supposed to become like $1,000 in pizzas."

– PM_Sexy_Catgirls_Meo

That's Nuts!

"Yeah I worked at a place that did charcuterie, I apologized to the chef for munching out on the fancy olives all night. He said he didn't give a damn, as long as it kept my hands off the roasted cashews. Big jar of olives was like 15 bucks, the equivalent of cashews was like 200 bucks."

– hudson27

Bamboozled

"Reminds me of the never-ending pasta at Olive Garden. Pasta is dirt cheap and incredibly filling. The chances of you eating enough that it's actually a good deal for you is very slim."

– IBJON

"When I was working at a chain pizza restaurant, the storage manager wanted to get pasta on the menu, because of the profit margins. It's crazy because it cost us $2.10 to make a 17 inch pizza, and we sold them for $14."

– fukreddit73264

Not Worth It

"Flavored seltzers at a brewery. The beer costs 10x as much to make, but they charge almost the same at the tap."

– LocoCracka

"I have a buddy who made seltzers at a brewery in the Bay Area. Some malt liquor, very little flavoring, and a ton of soda water."

"Couldn’t make a cheaper adult beverage if you tried."

– Ikarus_Zer0

Ma, I Can't See!

"Glasses."

"Luxottica owns most major eye wear stores, costs them a few dollars to make and you pay hundreds for them."

– godnrop

"My cousin taught English in China after college in the early 2000s, apparently they had machines in malls where you could look into a pair of holes, do a vision test, get a prescription, and have a pair of glasses automatically ground for you in like 2 minutes for about $5, and the only reason we don't have that in the US is regulations."

"I travel to China frequently for work. I just take the USA prescription for family and friends and they have them made in about an hour or less. Family and friends give me an idea of frames they like and they pop the prescription lenses in. I pay about USD40 for the top-grade lens material that is antifog and anti-scratch."

– i3f8j

"I don’t really object to paying $50 for an eye exam, I object to paying $300 for a pair of frames. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to take the prescription the optometrist gives you, enter the numbers into the machine, and get the same $5 glasses."

– river4823

​Message Received

"Back in the day, text messaging."

– alien109

"That's why I left T-Mobile in 2005. They were charging me for incoming texts but offered no way for me to block them. So basically, someone else had control of my bill."

– CGYOMH

"I remember being young, spending the $20 I worked so hard for so I could get minutes, only for a friend with unlimited minutes to spam me with a few texts and take it all away. What an upsetting time."

– Boopcheese

Ice Ice Baby

"Soft drinks in pubs. Especially the ones from “the tap”. Costs pennies and they charge £3 for a pint of it. Probably the biggest earner in a pub."

– lucky_1979

"Especially when they just cram a glass with ice and then lightly moisten it with the actual drink you ordered."

– jamesmowry

"My work just came out with a policy that we need to completely fill the glass with ice because it "keeps the drink colder for longer".. eyeroll."

– metalbridgebuilder

"The nuts and bolts section at your local big box hardware store is the highest markup isle. 500% or more. If you need more than a few bolts, go shopping at a proper hardware supplier."

– SatanLifeProTips

"Whenever I go through one of these aisles and look at the price for a single bolt or screw, I look at the overall assortment and think: There must be tens of thousands of dollars just for the shelf-price of fasteners I see right here in this aisle alone."

"The markup is crazy, but why do I want to buy a box of 100 screws if I only need two?"

– lemming_follower

Second To One

"The second-cheapest bottle of wine on the menu."

– slocki

"In order to not look cheap, many people will buy the 2nd cheapest item on the menu."

– AprilsMostAmazing

"Wine in restaurants in general. The markup on wine is wild. My boss used to get whatever was “on sale” from the distributor and usually pay $3-4 a bottle and sell it at $10 a glass."

– she_shoots

Pour Some Sugar On Me

"Candy floss / cotton candy. £4.99 for legitimately 10p worth of sugar."

– Tylervdub

"I used to work food service at an amusement park for a summer job."

"A manager told us that the cost of making a bag of cotton candy, including ingredients, labor, etc., was 19 cents...we sold it for $3."

– etm105

Look, Don't Drive

"Those button batteries in store."

"They know you need one asap cause your car won’t unlock so you are stuck."

"Wait 1 day and you can get a dozen from Amazon for same price."

– kindrudekid

Medical Supplies

"As a Diabetic I'm pretty sure it's Insulin."

– PraiseThePun81

"Can’t believe I had to scroll so far to find this."

"I spend over $13k annually on ‘good’ insurance that doesn’t cover half of the things I need as a diabetic. I spend half that again on the insulin and supplies. It’s a racket."

– Nosce_Temet

H2O

"Water."

– ganic-Lie4759

"Bottled water is so highly marked up as to qualify as a scam."

"At no extra cost aside from the bottle (I don’t have a water meter) my water is completely free. It tastes as good or better than bottled."

– 6033624

I didn't know about any of this!

I can hear my wallet crying.

high mark up

The Absolute Worst Things Teachers Have Seen A Student Do

Black and white photo of a teacher pointing his finger toward an unseen student
Photo by Immo Wegmann

Teachers are meant to impart knowledge to the next generation, but they have to get the kids to pay attention first.

Not an easy task.

So many, too many schools are plagued by kids who have no self-control.

Teachers end up playing referee, counselor, and parent in addition to their teaching role.

All of those additional hats don't come with any additional pay.

It's no wonder we're in a teacher shortage.

Redditor _Planet_Mars_ wanted the teachers out there to share some rough student stories, so they asked:

"Teachers, what is the worst thing you've seen a student do?"

I once saw a kid drive their car into the school office.

They were drunk.

Thankfully no one was injured.

POP!

"The was a loud pop and a flash in the back corner of the classroom. I asked the student sitting there what happened. She said it was firecrackers. I sent her to the office. While she was still in the office, I realized the electrical outlets in the room didn’t work. At that point, another student fessed up that the student sent to the office had put a pair of scissors in the outlet. I’m not sure why that student thought it was better to lie and claim she was doing fireworks inside the school?"

mynamelessname

Pain

"When I was teaching preschool, I had a little girl, between 3-4, walk up to another girl who was sitting on the rug reading a book, grab her by the hair and slam her head into the wall. They hadn’t been interacting in any way prior. When I asked her why she did it, she said she 'wanted her to know it hurts.'"

No-Doubt-8748

That Kid

"A different type of bad than most of these."

"I was a teacher at a poor inner-city school. I had a lot of wonderful students but some difficult ones. One was the worst — bright but was always sleeping through class and acting up and never doing homework. I lived about 30 minutes away. One night, I stopped by the local Wawa after a night out with friends. Was at least 11:30 pm and I was already dreading the early morning drive to school. And who should be checking me out but my own 'problem' student."

"He was working late to make money for his family and then getting home at 1:00 am or later before heading into school on 4-5 hours of sleep. He was a smart kid. Really smart. I hope things worked out for him but I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if he’d been allowed to have a childhood and focus on his education."

Low_Cartographer2944

Blame the Heat

Sweating James Mcavoy GIFGiphy

"It gets very hot here in the warmer months and so the school put out those big containers for water for everyone. Well, one student was caught peeing into a bag and dumping it into the containers."

huzzahserrah

Some kids really need some deeper therapy.

Peeing in bags? Seriously?!

From Beneath

"My wife is an elementary teacher and has a kid this year that likes to slip under their desk and lick toes (we live in a warm state) and they all think he will grow up to be a creeper."

CherryManhattan

BOOM

"This was the worst thing I know of that happened at my high school."

"Someone brought a blasting cap to school (OK, that's a bit dumb), and flushed it down the toilet (that's REALLY dumb). Then told a teacher about it, because maybe it wasn't such a good idea (their best idea that day, really)."

"Wound up with that restroom being taken out of service while the fire department x-rayed the plumbing to find and remove the (admittedly tiny) explosive. Took several weeks before it was back in service."

gogstars

Sad

"My favorite teacher in high school was a very kind a lenient man. Do your work, be respectful, and follow the major school rules and you and him would be cool. The one thing that would seem minor, but that he was very strict about was taking any medication in any way shape, or form in his classroom."

"One day, I needed to take some Advil for cramps and asked to take it. He said I needed to go to the nurse for permission. I ended up asking him why he was so strict about it. it turns out, he had a student pass out in class one day at his former school. He tried to wake her up and called the nurse, but she wouldn't wake up. They called 911 and by the time they got there, she had died of an OD on narcotics she took in the bathroom that she had hidden in a Tylenol bottle. I don't know how he went back to teaching after that."

musical-nerd24601

Painful

Moving Season 2 GIF by Paramount+Giphy

"Saw a 4-year-old purposely push a piece of furniture over onto another 4-year-old at preschool. It actually really hurt the other kid, and her parents took the school to court."

MPD1987

Kids are brutal.

No wonder people home school.

teacher

The Debunked Parenting Myths That People Still Somehow Believe

Baby on back in their crib
Photo by Alex Bodini on Unsplash

Some haters will disagree, but parenting is hard. Every parent is going to experience their journey differently from the next parent, and it stands to reason that they're going to make some differing decisions, too.

But some decisions are made based on facts while others are made based on old wives' tales and myths, some of which have long since been debunked.

Because that's how Grandma did it and how Mom did it, some of these myths are trying their best to stand the test of time!

Redditor BITE_AU_CHOCOLAT asked:

"What's a disproven parenting myth that way too many people still believe?"

Allergy Prevention

"To prevent allergies, avoid giving your child these foods until they are much older…"

"It has been proven over and over again that exposing your child to traditionally allergy-prone foods in very small amounts when they are younger drastically reduces allergy potential. Even to the point of doing so in utero."

- UsesCommonSense

Instant Maturity

"Having a kid will cause someone to step up or straighten out or grow up or mature, etc."

- Exploding_Muffin

"I have a family member that tried this. He and his girlfriend were addicts. They specifically decided that they should try to get pregnant as motivation to stop doing drugs. It didn't work."

- HoopOnPoop

Nonverbal, Not Deaf

"That nonverbal kids don’t understand what you say. This one is common in the autism community."

- Kwyjibo68

"I work in dementia care. Lord knows this isn’t the truth for either population."

"A lady I took care of several years ago was thought to be nonverbal and beyond the ability to understand speech. We were changing her one night, and she looked at me and said, 'When does school start back?'"

"Clear as a bell. I was in college at the time."

- bookishkelly1005

No Spoiled Newborns

"You can not spoil a newborn. Their brain is still quite underdeveloped, and actually, by refusing to answer their calls, you can give them self-regulation issues as they develop without that safety in processing new stimuli."

"Edited to Add: I said newborn because I meant newborns. Not babies that need to be practicing lifting their head, etc. There are people who start fussing at parents about this as soon as they bring their newborn home, forgetting that this baby is experiencing everything BRAND NEW, and needs a safety system."

"And also I did raise two humans, and I very much remember being a new mom."

- TinyGreenTurtles

The Power of Multilingualism

"That a child shouldn’t be exposed to a second (or third) language until having mastered their native language. I’ve heard this so many times from people who have no idea about multilingualism."

- lrbdad626

"My sister's first language is English, and her husband's is Spanish. They're both bilingual and speak both languages in their household."

"My sister remembers her daughter noticing when they switched between languages when she was well under a year old. She'd be watching them intently and do a little startle when they switched. Kids' receptive language develops earlier than a lot of people realize."

- dorky2

Dads Are Parents, Too

"Dads are more than babysitters."

"It's been 20+ years since I was a single father, but the attitudes towards men and parenthood haven't changed as much as they should have."

"Don't ask a dad if he is giving mom a break today. Don't assume dad doesn't know how to settle down their child. Don't stare at Dad at the park when Dad is there with his kid(s). And for god's sake, can businesses install a change table in the men's washroom!"

- keiths31

"Oh yeah, this p**ses me off to no end. And no matter how many times we tell the school not to, they will ONLY call my wife if there is some issue during the day. She is 100% unavailable during the day, while I WFH (work from home) and can come deal with anything at a moment's notice."

"Once, my poor kid sat in the infirmary for two hours because they were waiting for mom to return their call. Finally, she herself piped up and said, 'Can you try calling my dad instead?' and I was there five minutes later. You would think they would eventually learn but nope... still happens to this day."

- dcmcderm

Why Is Comfort So Taboo?

"Picking up your baby too much will spoil them. For f**k's sake… pick up a crying child and meet their needs. Sometimes it's just a need for comfort and bonding with their caretaker."

- laurenderson

Disturbing Gender Norms

"Daughters are nightmares and sons are so easy to raise."

"The really disturbing part is women seem to believe this more than men."

- lilymunsterisaqueen

Best Practices, Who?

"That there is anything even remotely approaching a consensus on best practices when it comes to raising a child. I've only been a parent for five months and the sheer volume of confident, authoritative, and completely contradictory advice I've received has been staggering."

"As best as I can tell, just work on keeping them healthy, secure, and loved, and try to muddle your way through as best you can on rest."

- liebkartoffel

Don't Let Regret Run the Show

"I'm an older parent. In my opinion, a lot of who the kids grow up to become is simply them. For the kids who turn out well or don't, people will look back and think, 'If I had only done this more often!' and pass it off as advice."

"Parents shouldn't beat themselves up. Don't traumatize the kids. Don't spoil them. Support them in their interests. Outside of that, just let them become who they will become and enjoy the ride. It's a shorter run than you think at the time."

"At some point, we as a society may find that electronics are bad, something in our food is a problem, lack of interaction is an issue, etc. but as an individual parent, it's really hard to swim against the stream. It's fine to research and take reasonable steps to avoid this but I see too many young parents totally overwhelmed with advice and data."

- fish1900

Breaking the Cycle

"That all parents, specifically mothers, have an instinct that will kick in eventually and your child will be your world."

"Mine told me from a very early age that I wasn't the kid she'd wanted, I was ugly, fat, whatever. I finally ended things completely this year when she told me she's always hated me and never wanted me. I needed the closure."

"She made my life h**l, especially since she had two kids after me that she loves."

"My daughter hasn't ever been shouted at (by that, I mean raising my voice), hurt, or made to feel like less than the wonderful person she is. I suppose I can thank my mother for showing me how not to be."

- earthtomanda

Not the Same AT ALL

​"That love, respect, and fear are the same thing. They're f**king not."

- LaliMaia

"'Is it better to be loved or feared?"

"'I want my kids to be afraid of how much they love me.' from Michael Scott's School of Parenting (on 'The Office')."

- Millerisabast**dMan

Not In Debt

"This destructive myth that we are OWED respect and love from our kids. NOPE!"

"They are attached to us, yes, but love and respect are earned. Fear is not respect; guilt is not love; we chose to have kids, they had no say in the matter. It is incumbent upon us to reach them by mirroring the behaviors we value."

- I_wear_foxgloves

"This goes hand in hand with some parents thinking their kids owe them anything in return for meeting their basic needs. You see this especially when children become adults."

"Parents telling their adult children, 'You owe me X because I fed you and gave you a roof over your head.' It’s utter bulls**t. Your child never signed a contract saying that in order to be born, they owe you something in the future."

"Keeping a child safe, providing food and water, a roof over their head, etc… those are basic needs that your child deserves. If you aren’t prepared to provide those things, don’t become a parent. Your kids don’t owe you anything, not as children and not as adults. Respect is earned and not bought. A child’s relationship with their parent(s) is not transactional."

- CatmoCatmo

Public vs. Private

"That you can tell if a stranger is a good parent by how their kid behaves in a random instance you happen to observe."

- JuniorPomegranate9

Resilience as an Excuse

"Kids are resilient and will get over stuff without it correctly being addressed."

"No, we remember everything In our tiny and impressionable brains."

- Pleasant_Tooth_2488

The misconceptions presented here are truly heartbreaking in some cases and mind-boggling in others.

It's hard to unlearn behaviors and what we thought were facts, yes, but if we want to be better people, and better parents, we absolutely have to figure out how to do it.

parenting mistakes

Homeowners Break Down The Weirdest Things The Previous Owners Left Behind

Old torquoise radio box
Milivoj Kuhar/Unsplash

Buying a home is a daunting task, but it comes with the comfort of finally having a place to call your own after the lengthy process of purchasing.

One of the things new homeowners look forward to is renovating certain areas of their newly acquired domicile.

However, embarking on this next phase of making a home their own can come with some surprises.

For example, doing a gut reno in the basement or tearing down a non-load-bearing wall can unearth unusual relics left from the previous homeowner.

These discoveries can either be treasures, or something very unpleasant.

Curious to hear from new homeonwers, Redditor Oblivious_Dude14 asked:

"People who bought a house. What is the weirdest thing you have found left by the previous owner?"

These will spark curiosity about former occupants.

Hidden Message

"First time I took a hot shower in our new home. The steam covered the mirror, only to reveal the phrase 'HELLO, I SEE YOU' in large finger drawn writing."

"It freaked me out for a second, but made me laugh soon after that."

"It was such an inconspicuous yet obvious thing to leave for the new homeowner (me)."

– Individual-Common-89

A Special Request

"It's not really weird but I think it's kind of a nice story."

"One of the kids' rooms has a shelf going all around the top edge, and when my kid was putting stuff up there they found a letter from the previous kid. The letter welcomed them to the room etc and asked them to take special care of a rose bush in the front yard that was their special rose bush. My kid thought it was really cool to have that connection with the previous kid."

– catsaway9

Instructions

"Not really weird but they left a typed out and printed note about the house and how to take care of it. Detailing all the plant life in the backyard and how to prep for the winter. Described how to take care of the hot tub and gave random tid bits about the electrical."

"They were good people lol."

– pet_zulrah

Theses secret chambers piqued Redditors' curiosity.

Secret Dwelling

"Not my house, but the school my friend worked at."

"A pipe had leaked and ruined a wall in the building, one of the oldest schools in the city. It was a beautiful property. Anyways the pipe leaked so they pulled down the ruined wall and behind the wall found a door."

"A fully furnished apartment was there. Had a coal burning stove to heat it. Early 1900s appliances and decor. It was for the caretaker of the school."

– Used-Stress

Antique Showroom

"My ex-wife's family knocked down a wall in a 400-year-old house in Cornwall, and found a perfectly intact bedroom from the 1800s, still with all the personal effects where they had been left."

"Nobody knows why it was boarded up, or why things weren't taken out of it."

"Oh, and that house always appears in the guides for the most haunted locations in Cornwall, if you believe that kind of stuff."

– ledow

A Medieval Theme

"A basement room that was fully decked out as a 'dungeon.' Faux stone walls, a stocks (like where you lock your head and hands in ala ye olde England), candle scones on the walls, a metal-barred cage in the corner from floor to ceiling. Oh and the closet had a load of toys, some normal, some....not so typical."

– DisIsDaeWae

These Redditors got a glimpse into past lives.

Family Treasure

"Before I met her, my wife got a call from someone she worked with saying they'd just bought an old house and in the city, and in it was a steamer trunk with her family name (not a common one) carved into the woodwork on one end."

"As it turns out, it was the trunk that her great grandfather used when he came over from Germany, and it made the trip to my wife's hometown when he met her great grandmother on a visit, and subsequently moved to her city to marry her. We now have it and it's full of family portraits and albums."

– LateralThinkerer

Vintage Trickster

"My first house purchase in 2005 - bought an old farmhouse that was built in 1923. The basement was FILLED with crap - we told them they needed to clean it all out before closing, but they didn't do it. The realtor asked if we wanted to postpone closing, and we decided no - some of the stuff looked interesting enough. Maybe it will be worthwhile to go through."

"Most of it was just junk. Then, about half way through (we were working our way from one end of the basement to the other, because you could barely walk through), I went to pick up what I thought was a small box, only to quickly realize it weighed at least 75 pounds. Upon further inspection, it wasn't a box, but a wooden square, 4' wide and about 12'x12', with two thin masonite plywood covers on each side. On one edge were two bolts with wires coming off that had been cut."

"Very strange - had no idea what it was, but thought it was interesting. So I put it aside and we kept going. At the very back of the basement once we cleared everything else out, was a rickety gray cabinet, built into the house. Inside, were numerous strange small tools, vials of mercury, vials of a strange powder, and thousands - literally thousands - of dice blanks. Some actual dice, but mostly blanks without the dots. they were all in little boxes labeled 'dice blanks'. Also very strange..."

"Not too long after that, I met a guy and upon learning my address, he said 'can I come over?My best friend grew up in that house'. He came by, and proceeded to tell me stories for an hour and a half about his childhood best friends eccentric father: Someone who was a part of the 'Dixieland Mafia' in the 60s and 70s, and who made a living traveling around the US as a traveling gambler. The enormously heavy box was an electro-magnet. And the dice blanks were for him to make his own loaded dice with a little bit of metal powder under the inlaid dot, so he could set up his own table with the the electromagnet underneath, and turn it on when he wanted to persuade the dice. He told me many other stories, including that there was 'no doubt in his mind that he had killed someone'. Pretty fascinating."

– GIjokinaround

A Soldier's Story

"A diary of an American soldier in WW-II, South Pacific Theater. Found it above a door when remodeling 20+ years ago. My wife and I tried everything we could think of to find a descendant, but to no avail."

"UPDATE: I just posted photos of it with the person's ID info on r/WorldWar2."

"Last Update: Thanks to all the help from this community, and those at r/worldwar2, this diary is now in the hands of its writer's son who came to my office this morning to retrieve it. I am so thrilled to have been able to facilitate this!"

– Factsaretheonlytruth

These folks really hit the jackpot.

Forgotten Stash

"$1200 in cash above the door on the inside the closet. I found it while painting."

– whymetoo

They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

"A glass bowl. It was kind of pretty, with horizontal blue stripes."

"We kept fruit in it. We thought about dropping it off at the local charity shop, but never got around to it."

"Then one day I was at an antique fair and I saw for sale glass bowls that looked almost identical to ours. I went home to get my bowl and brought it to be assessed."

"Turns out it was a vintage Orrefors crystal bowl. The assessor valued it at around $800."

"We no longer keep fruit in it."

– khendron

When my great aunt passed away, our family went over to her and her husband's home in Pomona, CA to clear it out in preparation to sell.

They emigrated from Japan in the late 1930s and brought with them many decorative figurines, sculptures, and wooden carvings from the homeland.

One of the pieces was a kabuki doll on a wooden base. As we were placing the item in a box, a tiny envelope that had been taped underneath the doll's base came loose.

I opened it and found what looked like instructions for something. I kick myself to this day that I didn't keep the letter and never bothered asking my parents what the note said as we were frantically trying to empty the house.

But man, my imagination ran wild. Was it a treasure map? Who knows. I still wonder to this day what the note said and tossing it aside remains one of my life's greatest regrets.

homeowners