Parents lie.
But the older we get, the more we realize parents are not just humans telling little white lies.
They can be villains with malicious intent.
Catching a parent in a lie can be soul-crushing.
But it's a part of growing up.
Hopefully we learn how to be better.
Redditor Hackedfaith wanted to hear about the times people realized their parents were hard-fibbing, so they asked:
"What is the worst lie you caught your parents telling?"
My mom told me anything in life was possible.
And cheaters never win.
Yeah sure. Sell me an igloo an Iceland too.
Expelled
Andy Samberg Ugh GIF by The Lonely IslandGiphy"My Dad used to tell me that he learned all of his cool tricks and skills in 'Daddy School.' I'm now 28, married and still have not been enrolled."
AdLive7065
Thief
"That the 2K I earned at my summer job would be safe in my mom's savings account until I wanted to withdraw it later. Never saw that money again."
drillgorg
"I lost money to my mom too. I was a kid, told her I had $50 in change (I don't know where it all came from), and she said I didn't. She counted it and it was gone."
"She stole a good deal of my babysitting money. Hundreds of dollars. She filed my first tax return (without telling me) and kept whatever money I would have got. She told me that the fee to get it done was about as much as I would have gotten back."
Sarhii
A Second Family
"That my mother was schizophrenic. I was 15 and knew she had been battling depression for years. Schizophrenia runs in our family and as an angsty teenager, it was very easy for me to believe... She was completely convinced that my father had a secret second family. She was diagnosed and medicated for years. He did have a second family."
Thationdeas76
"He did have a second family??? That had to have been devastating. 'Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't after you.'"
TwoLittleNeedleMarks
2008
"That they couldn’t afford to pay for college. So I took a job during the day and paid my way through night and weekend school. Turns out I had a decent trust fund from my grandfather. I could have graduated and started working for a higher wage 4 years earlier. I tell myself that graduating in 2008 wouldn’t have been a good idea anyway."
RandomRavenclaw87
Weekends Only
Looney Tunes Rabbit GIFGiphy"Up until I was 8 years old, they told me that daddy was away at college. We would go see him on weekends. Found out later that he was in prison. I wondered why we could only talk to him behind glass on a telephone."
hhairy
The truth about parents can often to difficult to accept.
That's why there is therapy.
Scandal
Shocked Oh No GIF by Yêu LuGiphy"Found out when I was 25 I have a sister one year older than me that they gave up for adoption, I'm 37 and have been searching for her for the past 10 years."
Even_Future2580
'Mom! Mom!'
"One night I went downstairs to ask my mother something. My dad was a light sleeper and would get really pissed if anyone woke him up, so I whispered, 'Mom! Mom!' All of a sudden my dad sat up and yelled at me to get lost. They told me I should never sneak up on them because they had a gun and my dad thought I was an intruder and almost shot me."
"They scared the bejeezus out of me. Sometimes when I tried to get to sleep I'd remember how my dad almost shot me. For years. Even after I moved out. Decades later, I mentioned it to my mom. She started laughing and told me they were having sex. There was no gun."
Sapphyrre
Internal Affairs
"My dad went into the ER with stroke-like symptoms. He ended up having a severe brain bleed that required immediate and major surgery. While he was laying in the ICU, my mother, who opened their computer to get insurance info, found messages on his linked-in page, that he’d left open earlier that morning before I took him to the ER, from a woman he was engaged to in college. They had been having an affair for over a year."
ParanrmlGrl
Still Works
"They told me if I was lying there would be bubbles on my tongue. So when they asked me something and they thought I was lying they'd tell me to stick out my tongue. If I knew I was telling the truth, I'd open my mouth confidently and show off my bubble-free tongue. If I was lying, I'd try to scrape the bubbles off with my teeth. I now use it on my son. Still works."
Obst1994
Tilly
"When I was 4 We had a dog called Tilly, my mom said that she gave her away to a boy who couldn't speak and she died while saving him from drowning in a river Years later when I was around 13, my mom was on the phone with her friends and they were talking about their pets that passed away, turns out that tilly died because my mom was drunk and let her out of the house, she ended up getting hit by a car."
Yogurt2022
Bad Bunny
Easter Bunny Dance GIF by SportsManiasGiphy"When my sibling and I were young, we were tossing toys around that the Easter Bunny had left for us. My mom started yelling at us, 'I did not buy those for you to treat them like that.'"
ExMoIsMyPersonality
Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy... the lies are enormous.
Redditor BasalTripod9684 was eager to hear the most ill-advised financial decisions the Reddit community ever witnessed someone else do, leading them to ask:
"What's the worst financial decision you've seen someone make?"
Did The Wedding Even Happen?
"I knew someone who got a loan for their wedding, but decided to blow it all at a casino."
"Now they have a loan for 20k to pay off and nothing to show for it."- armbar222
Has He Ever Head Of Brita?
"A friend of mine who is very bad with money and his girlfriend bought some sort of water filtration system from a door to door salesman."
"He has to pay something like $300/month for this filtration system."
"He was all stoked because it came with a free set of pots and pans."
'Fast forward a year and his girlfriend has broken up with him, moved out of the house, and he's had to sell his home because he can't afford to live there."
"The water filtration system is now sitting in a storage unit where he still pays $300/month for it because he's on a 2 or 3 year contract (sorry the details are fuzzy)."
"We have great water quality in my area."- Anin1987
Overtime and Salary Are Two Different Things...
"A coworker I used to have worked every second of overtime he could for several years to save up for a house."
"When he applied for the house loan, he based his mortgage payment on all of the overtime he had been working."
"I tried to tell him that wasn't a good idea but he didn't want to hear it."
"He ended up divorced a few years later because his wife got tired of him always working."- rubysundance
No One Is Invincible, Even The Yankees...
"A guy in my fraternity got 30k for an undisclosed reason, I’m guessing a family death or something and he bet it all on the Yankees winning one game."
"They lost."- bulbipicg
Collecting Dust, Right Next To Their Pogs and Tamagotchis...
"A dude who owned a small convenience store in our town spent like $20,000 on fidget spinners."
"He was posting for like a year begging people to buy them as he would lose his business and his marriage was falling apart due to it."- Solid_Internal_9079
Kind Of Amazing This Loan Was Approved...
"My supervisor took out a loan against their 401k to pay their rent because 'their credit cards were maxed'."
"Two weeks later, they bought a brand new 60k Lincoln with basically nothing down because 'her daughter just had a baby and I need a bigger car for that'."- ErraticA09
GIF by Matea RadicGiphyJealousy Isn't A Good Color On Anyone...
"My maternal grandmother bought an 8-plex to avoid capital gains when she sold her large house."
"The apartment complex was in the red and needed a lot of repairs."
"She hired my father to do them and be on-site manager."
"The place started making money."
"My mom (divorced from my dad) was mad that my grandma bought it in the first place, then hired my dad, then was proved wrong because it was making money."
"My grandma was in her 90s and my mom pressured her for years so my grandma finally sold it."
"That place is in a high market area and is now worth millions."
"My mom made a poor financial decision based on petty spite."- Sensitive-Umpire2375
Shopaholics Are Real...
"Ran up credit card debt requiring bankruptcy."
"Once they were able to build credit again (7 years later) they proceeded to run up a massive amount of debt again, but couldn’t go bankrupt again, so they used 'debt consolidation'.”
"The debt didn’t come from sudden expenses."
"They just needed to buy things to feel better."- Left-Star2240
Fashion Shopping GIF by T.J.MaxxGiphyThose Who Keep Running Eventually Get Caught...
"Put everything in his gf's name to hide assets as he owed the IRS, the gf sold his business, cashed out his accounts and ran."- RavenBear2005·
One Can Only Hope He Was Happy...
"Had a co-worker with 5 kids who could all go to USC for free once he has worked there for 15 years (even if he quit)."
"He quit at 14.5 years for a job that barely paid more than he made at USC."
"Cost all 5 kids a free education at a top school since he couldn't wait 6 more months."- theangryburrito
Never Buy Something On Blind Faith...
"My brother's ex fell for a Craig's list scam."
"She found a motorcycle and the guy 'needed money up front to pay bills' before she even saw it."
"We told her don't do it, it's a scam."
"She said she already sent $1000."
"Of course, he was never available to show her the bike and we found out from my brother after they broke up she actually continued sending him money in hopes of getting the motorcycle."
"I think she was out $3,000 by the end."- XCCO
crash fail GIFGiphyWe All Have Our Collections...
"My coworker has 25k in anime figurines."
"He is in mega debt right now."- tankurd
Where To Even Begin?
"My former sister-in-law had a thriving medical practice."
"She got so stressed that she joined the Scientologists and started taking their classes."
"She opened up five-six credit cards without telling my brother, maxed the cards out with hundreds of thousands in cash withdrawals, and gave it to that cult."- AnybodySeeMyKeys
Priorities People!
"My friend bought a used Hellcat Challenger yesterday at 10.5% APR and $380/mo insurance."
"He lives in my other friend’s spare room."- chriss1111
george costanza ladies GIFGiphyHave They Ever Heard Of Leftovers?
"My roommate buys doordash almost every day."
"They’ll maybe cook for themselves once or twice a week but other than that they order food in 5-6 times a week."
"I know how much they make and I have not a clue how they can afford that."- TeHNyboR
It's no lie that life is much easier when you don't have to worry about money.
That being said, it's also possible not to worry about money while still being careful with it.
As one can worry about money a little less when you know you have money to worry about.
Redditor Virtual-Bunch-9131 wanted to hear about the times we all thought someone would get fired but then didn't, so they asked:
"What is the most fireable thing you have seen someone do at work that didn’t get them fired?"
I've been left gobsmacked by the things I've seen co-workers get away with.
Whoops!
truck forklift GIFGiphy"He hit the OSHA inspector with a forklift."
ScarnAndMacklinFBI
"I'm sorry I laughed out loud at this."
solojones1138
"Work drunk. This was in car sales. The dude showed up drunk or heavy hangover constantly. But he sold a lot of cars, somehow, so they didn’t care."
MurtZero1134
"I did this for six months. Couldn’t even remember half the people I sold to but my numbers were great. Eventually, I got sent home for two weeks and told that they’d have to fire me if I drank on the job because the liability was too high. Sadly my sales dropped by about 25% selling sober."
proleterising
Info Drop
"Accidentally send out the entire company's (3,000+ employees) headcount to the company distro. The file contained everyone's salary, birthday, government numbers, etc."
Yead1971
"Ohh this reminds me of when the registrar for my graduate program accidentally sent out an Excel doc with ALL info about the students in the program. They’re GPAs, GRE scores, recruitment priority, disability status, affirmative action status, various notes about them, and a bunch of other stuff."
marmosetohmarmoset
"My boss did this once, on purpose to about 15 folks. He emailed different versions of an unlocked Excel file that had everyone else's information hidden. Right click, unhide, boom, had everyone's salary. Lol. The sad thing is that I was probably the only one that noticed."
jonjon737
Let's Pretend
Working Work From Home GIF by Bare Tree MediaGiphy"The supervisor freaked the f**k out on the sales guy and just clocked out. It was a super busy shipping day and he was just done. He got to the end of the driveway and turned around and clocked back in and they just acted like he didn't tell them to f**k off lol."
GuySaysStuff
I love when supervisor's freak out.
They reap what they sow.
Peace Out
When I worked retail, I once challenged a customer to step outside and fight. The customer - I'll never forget this - said, 'Dude, you're at work,' and walked out, shaking his head. Sometimes the customer is right!"
Brand_Ex2001
"My brother did this to a customer who was verbally berating him. The moment the customer realize this staff member didn’t value their minimum wage job nor was gonna let some idiot insult him, made the decision to calm down and apologize."
sketchysketchist
Just a Joke
"It was me, but I faked a coworker's death by putting a makeshift memorial up in his assigned parking spot on April 1st. It had his picture, flowers, a handful of candles, the whole deal. The head of HR was not amused. Everyone else loved it, though. To make matters worse, this was during peak covid. I had just returned from a small vacation and had no idea my friend I did this to had been out for 3 days due to suspected Covid."
dlebs83
It's a Boy
"In a hospital, the person went out to get a patient and called out in the waiting room, 'Where's my little (insert name of disease the infant had) baby?' Basically just told all the people in the room what disease the baby had and the mother's jaw dropped and was furious. Nothing happened. She ended up quitting on her own 3-4 years later."
Candersx
"They’re incredibly lucky. My roommate in college was nearly kicked out of nursing school because after a birth she told the grandparents sitting in the lobby, 'It’s a boy' for others around to hear. She was a stand-up, grade-A student with no issues in school aside from this. HIPPA violations are some serious stuff."
curious_24
Excess
Kermit The Frog Reaction GIF by Muppet WikiGiphy"Watched a coworker rent an entire big box retail store parking lot to a BMW dealership for cash on the side so they could park excess inventory. Corporate didn't know. He pocketed all the money."
OopsNiceTry
People can really be brazen.
How do you NOT get fired for theft? LOL.
Redditor YellowJellyCube wanted to hear about the jobs we can all do where the pay is good and the solitude is preferred, so they asked:
"What is the highest paying job that requires little to no interaction with other people?"
I write from home.
I avoid people constantly.
It certainly works for me.
Good Company
Well Done Applause GIF by MOODMANGiphy"I’m a data analyst, I talk to my dog more than people most weeks."
random-bot-2
"Sounds like you have good company."
PA_Dietitian
Heavy Objects
"Crane operator. Quarter mill a year to sit by yourself all day, with occasional requests to relocate heavy objects at or near the Earth's surface. But mostly, you sit and contemplate the view from up there."
pullin2
"Guy I used to work with was a retired crane operator. He drove a forklift at a manufacturing facility and all his money went to pay for his grandkid's college. Nicest guy on earth, and just loved every day."
"When he signed his name in the Union book to retire he was the most qualified crane operator IN THE WORLD. His last job was installing new HVAC units on the Empire State Building. The dude was making $500+/hr. 12hr days. 7 days per week (when on a site). That’s over $50k per week. He said it was all waiting and about 2-3 hours of work. Read tons of books. Sat alone all day."
Sometimes_Stutters
"Patent Examiner here. I go days without speaking to someone. And then it's usually only a 30min phone call."
AddendumDifferent719
"Hey, as a patent holder, I’ve interacted with you guys via my attorney. It’s a really strange thing to stretch a debate about a couple of words in a claim over a few weeks but I respect what you do."
porcelainvacation
Pipelines
"My friend makes good money testing pressure for oil pipelines in Alberta. Every morning he gets an email with where to go and run the test. He drives 2-6 hrs each way and plugs a machine on his pickup for a couple of hours, then sends the readings and drives home."
jimbosdayoff
Graveyard Shift
Halloween Skeleton GIF by Squirrel MonkeyGiphy"Graveyard security guard, on the graveyard shift."
Borykua
"They get to talk to lots of people they’re just all dead."
LF_redit
Why work in a graveyard?
At night?
Those are people who don't fear nightmares.
Road Rules
Double Take What GIF by LaffGiphy"Over the road truck driver can pay OK and is good for anti-social folk who want to avoid human contact most of the time."
woolash
"I’ve considered this option many times. Unfortunately, I have a low tolerance for stupid drivers."
Think_Profit4911
It Was Great
"My last job. Data Entry for a private aviation company. I worked in the basement with no windows. Typing. There was no need to talk to anybody. It was the worst, or so I thought at the time."
Squidstir
"I did a job like that. My dad worked for a company that supplied pipes and valves to oil refineries. When they switch a valve out, they had to record it on a paper form. Then someone had to take the papers and input them into Excel or something like that."
"So I used to get hired during my summer break to come in, sit in an empty office and input serial numbers and other info into an Excel spreadsheet. Was so incredibly boring, but I’d just listen to my headphones. It was great. I was also a night janitor at my college, so I’d work in the middle of the night and never had to talk to anyone. Glorious. Now I’m an elementary school teacher and I talk to people for 8 hours a day."
LittleWhiteBoots
3rd Shift
"Aerospace machine operator 3rd shift I see my boss on the last day of the month to discuss what work needs to be done for the following month. I don’t have anyone else that works in my little closed-off department room on my shift. I only see people when I come in as they’re leaving. I started the job 11 years ago at $57/hr I’ve moved up into a more serious department here and now I’m making $98.01/hr and there’s double time for overtime on Sundays."
tatted_gamer_666
From Home
"I used to know a guy who worked for a hedge fund. His job was to review all the accounting laws and make sure the firm was complying with them, as the laws are constantly changing. Pretty sure he made mid-6-figures and didn't have to interact much except for normal office chit-chat. These days you could probably work from home."
PMMeUrHopesNDreams
Back to Woof
"A friend of mine is a full-time dog walker. Been doing it for so long that he has keys to the apartments of people too busy to walk their dogs. Aside from the occasional hello, he mostly talks to dogs and makes close to 80k."
beardcloset
I love dogs.
But dog walking is a lot.
The rest of this list I may try.
Do you have any positions to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.