parents

Top Stories

People Divulge The Worst Lies They Ever Caught Their Parents Telling

"Reddit user Hackedfaith asked: 'What is the worst lie you caught your parents telling?'"

Perplexed father with his daughter looking at her computer
Photo by sofatutor

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.

The Worst Things A Parent Can Say To Their Child

Reddit user under20letters asked: 'What is the worst thing a parent can say to their child?'

There is not one, correct way to parent.

After all, different children have different needs, and as a result some parents might need to adopt different methods so that their children can learn a lesson.

That being said, if there isn't one right way, there is definitely one wrong way, particularly regarding what some parents might say to their children.

Even though it might not seem like it at the time, all children take in and hear everything their parents tell them.

Some things parents say to their children might have lasting consequences, haunting them for the rest of their lives.

Redditor under20letters was curious to hear people considered the absolute worst thing parents could say to their children, leading them to ask:

Most Likely The Other Way Round

"I literally heard a mother say this to her child in the ER the other day."

"The kid was just talking to his mother about the usual stupid kid sh*t and she shouted 'YOURE RUINING MY LIFE! YOU OPENING YOUR MOUTH RIGHT NOW IS RUINING MY LIFE'."

"He put his head down and said sorry."

"My mom had her bad days but she never said sh*t like that to me."- PearlJamDudeVoice

Makes You Wonder Why They Did In The First Place

"If I could do my life over I'd never have had children."- FrogGob

Hurtful At Any Age

"'I feel like I have to love you because you're my child, but I don't like you at all'."

"My mom said this to me when I was 10 years old."- ATrulyTerriblePerson

So, So Wrong

"Saying that something is wrong with your brain."- Fit-Caterpillar-9729

It's What They Don't Say...

"Nothing, blaming them, not saying I’m proud of your or I love you."- FM_Apollyon

"Absolutely nothing."

"If you don't communicate, ask about their day, if you genuinely do not care about who they are as a person, it's just as damaging as saying the most hurtful things."

"So, if you really want to hurt someone, don't acknowledge them as a human being."- EeerrEeer

"Giving them the silent treatment over some offense (real or imagined)."- kenaisourdough

So Much For It Being The Thought That Counts

"Mine said to me when I was six years old: thanks for the [in school handmade diy] Christmas gift."

"'But you know we never use xyz, so this is useless'."

"'Why would you make that?'“

"Because I didn’t have a choice, and the teacher told us to?!"

"Can’t remember what it was, but this stuck with me."

"Been anxious about gifting them anything ever since."- SnicketyLemon875

As If They Know What That Is

"'Why can't you be normal?'"- Tail_Nom

Words Of Encouragement Are Not So Difficult

“'You just ruin everything'."

"'I hope you never find happiness'."

"'Hope your in-laws make you suffer'."

"'Hope your husband cheats on you'.”- Kindly-Try-7223

Where To Even Begin

"Take your pick, I heard all of these at various points during my childhood:"

"'I put my life on hold for (insert child's age) years for you/so you could exist'."

"From mom when she wanted something from me and I didn't immediately drop everything and come running."

"You don't live in a democracy, you live in a dictatorship, so you don't get a vote'."

"From mom at a young enough age that school hadn't gone over democracies and dicatorships yet, i was probably just trying to share an idea for plans or something."

"'You'd better quit backtalking me/being disrespectful'."

"When in the right during a disagreement with either."

"'Alright, put em up then' and 'you wanna take this outside?'"

"From dad who thinks challenging his 12-13 year old son to a fistfight is the way to deal with anger."

"I'm sure there's more that i haven't unrepressed yet."- kbyyru

And That Falls On Them...

"My parents had this saying: 'children are like pancakes the first one always fails'.”

"I’m the oldest of 2."

"At first I thought they meant it as a joke but after hearing that almost weekly for the past 18 years, I think they actually mean it."- thoyo3

And They're Probably Exhausted Of Not Being Loved.

"I'm so tired of pretending to love you."

"Not mine, read it in a similar post a while back but it stuck with me."

"I can't imagine the trust issues a kid would have hearing that said to them."- nenev

Blaming Them For Everything

"My mum said so much filth to me as a kid, as well as literally making me live in it."

"For better or for worse, til about age 11, I remember hardly anything, my brain has just completely deleted it all."

"But I'll always remember when she told me that she'll die soon from me and the stress I bring her."

"When she said this to me, I was already living my dad full time and only saw her one day a week after school and went home to my dad again in the evening."

"I wasn't even a bad kid, I was so quiet and could entertain myself."

"Little me didn't deserve to hear that."- THEgingerONEhasRISEN

Make no mistake, sometimes children need discipline and need to be spoken to sternly.

But scolding only works if it comes from a place of love.

As long as there's love, children will thrive, and any child who doesn't get the love they deserve is a deprived child.


baby smiling and lying forward
Photo by Jason Sung on Unsplash

Chances are you've heard phrases like "our little miracle" or "bundle of joy" or something in a similar vein.

Those phrases are usually used to refer to babies.

When someone really wants a baby, and has the financial means, emotional support, and maturity to raise said baby, then they should definitely have one. Bringing a life into this world, or taking care of a life that has no one else to care for them, is wonderful.

However, wanting (and being able to support and take care of) a baby is the only good reason to have one.

Not because you think it's what you're supposed to do, or you want to make your parents happy by giving them a grandchild, or because you think it'll keep your marriage together, or any number of other reasons people will give you.

Chances are you've probably also heard the saying "Every child deserves parents, but not all parents deserve children."

That can be very true if you have a child for any other reason than truly wanting one.

Redditors know this all too well and are ready to share what they think are the absolute worst reasons to have a baby.

Keep reading...Show less
Woman sitting alone at the edge of a dock
Photo by Paola Chaaya on Unsplash

There are very few people who haven't found themselves frustrated with their parents at one point in their life.

Whether it be for something they said, did or didn't say or do, sometimes we've found ourselves needing to vent to a friend, or scream into a pillow to let out our frustrations.

For most people, this anger is short-lived, as deep down they still love their parents and will always find a way to forgive them.

Some people, however, have a harder time forgiving their parents for certain actions, and even take the drastic step of cutting them out of their lives entirely.

Keep reading...Show less

People are required to have a license to drive, fish, and have certain jobs.

So it boggles my mind that people aren't required to have a license to have kids.

Some of the cruelest and most vicious things I've ever heard were words uttered by a parent to a child.

As an adult, I was haunted by a few thigs.

I can't imagine the scaring of an adolescent.

Keep reading...Show less