There are many people who are seen as role models, but that doesn't mean those who inspire others can cause mischief.
And while some bad choices warrant reprimanding, there are other instances where yelling is not really necessary.
Curious to hear examples in which people were berated for inconsequential reasons, Redditor Ratzink asked:
"What is the stupidest thing you've ever been yelled at for?"

Students being disciplined at school is expected. However, there are exceptions.
No Phone Zone
"I was in 8th grade waiting to be picked up from school. I didn't see my mother after awhile, so I got my cell phone out (it was a nokia block phone) and was about to call her to see if she parked somewhere."
"This older woman came over and got in my face. She yelled at me to put my phone away or she would confiscate it, and if I had to make a call, I would have to cross the street and do it."
"A really congested street full of cars with no crosswalk nearby; I would have to leave the pickup zone by myself."
– SarahTheJuneBug
"It was WELL past 3 pm (school was out and I was not breaking any rules) and this hag got pissed by just seeing a block phone that barely did anything beyond calls. I just put my phone away and waited for her to leave."
"Thankfully, Mom showed up not long after that. She was angry when I told her what that lady said. She told me she was a b*tch and that I did nothing wrong, and added that if anyone actually ever confiscated my phone for trying to get in contact with her after school was over that she'd deal with it for me. I also asked a teacher about it the following day; she was just as baffled as I was and agreed I wasn't breaking any rules."
– SarahTheJuneBug
Bitter About The Funeral
"I told my Math teacher I was leaving class in 15 mins to go to a funeral, my friend had just died."
"She said no, and I was like 'thats fine, but I'm still going... its my friends funeral.'"
"And then her face went so red and she shouted in front of the class 'I watched my mother and father die right in front of me, what makes you so special.'"
"I was like woah. The whole class was like woah. The teacher must have been having a bad day but she screamed so loud, and her parents dying was not relevant to me going to a funeral. Was super weird."
– [deleted]
Playing With Food
"I once measured a Fruit by the Foot with a ruler when I was in third grade. Lunch lady accused me of playing with my food and I got in trouble. I genuinely really wanted to just measure it to see if it was actually three feet long."
– TheRealOcsiban
Looking For A Place To Sit
"In 5th grade, I got sent to the principal's office for the first time. I asked the secretary where I could sit and I immediately got scolded, telling me I'm wasting her time for even asking her that question. She even brought the principal over and told me to repeat my question just to further lecture me on how stupid of a question it was and how much it wasted her time. Yea."
– MrJerhomie
People got all in a tizzy with these work-related issues.
The Deal Breaker
"I was dating this girl. She had been looking for jobs for a while with no luck, and I was looking too. My friend offered to pass my resume to their boss for a job in my field after they got one that paid better. I ended up interviewing, then getting the job."
"The first thing that happened after I told the ex was her she yelling at me for getting the job. 'Why did I have to accept a job?' 'Why did you have to take the easy route by getting a job through a friend?' 'Why did you have to apply there?' 'You lied because you didn't want to work with friend.'"
"And no the relationship didn't last much longer after that."
– Responsible_Yak832
Mad Customer
"My absolute favorite: I was working at a bakery, helping out a dude who I could tell was about two seconds away from losing his entire sh*t."
"Nothing due to anything I or the bread were doing; he looked to just be having one of those days and was only barely keeping it contained. After handling the entire interaction like a ticking explosive, I finally ring him out, hand him his stuff, and offer the customer service standard, 'Have a nice day!'"
Which was apparently the thing that sent him over, as he spat out, 'I will NOT!"' spun on his heels, and stomped away like a petulant toddler."
– mus_maximus
People need to be clear about who did what before accusations fly.
Who Hit Who?
"When I was 11, my mother started yelling at me for hitting my 5yo brother. That's understandable, if I had hit him. He had hit me. Literally walked up to me, slapped me in the face, and ran away laughing. Turns out he had run to our mom after fake crying and told her that I hit him. She thought I was lying about it until she realised he had started laughing."
– Hot_Interaction7245
Mistaken For A Menace
"On my local summer swim team when I was maybe 8 years old I had the same first name as some other kid who was a total menace. He’d splash water in girls’ faces and pull on their bathing suits thinking it was flirting, etc."
"One day at practice we’re all hanging out on the edge of the pool and I’m talking to my buddy, and there’s a girl on the other side of me. Suddenly her mom, let’s call her Karen, comes rushing over and says 'HEY! WHAT’S YOUR NAME?' I’m confused and look around me to see if she’s talking to someone else and she says 'YEA YOU!' So I say 'uuuuh… {my name}. Why?'”
"She then grabs my arm yanking me halfway out of the pool and starts yelling at me and I don’t really remember what all she said but it was some mix of 'YOU NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER' (the girl who happened to be next to me) and 'WHERE ARE YOUR PARENTS??' all while spitting as she yelled."
"And I was just a terrified, confused kid who’d been assaulted for no reason by this crazy lady and was trying to ask what she was talking about, who her daughter was, what I had apparently accidentally done, but she wouldn’t let me get a word in."
"Finally her daughter got her attention yelling 'Mom… MOM… MOM!!'”
“WHAT!?!”
“That’s the wrong boy…”
"She dropped me pretty quickly and looked super embarrassed but was probably still just red from yelling. She gave me a quick 'oh sorry' and just walked away."
"When I got picked up and my mom asked how practice was I just said 'fine… some crazy lady yelled at me but it was a mistake.' My mom looked confused, took me home, and that was it."
– DunderMifflinPaper
Embarrassingly, I was the idiot who yelled at someone for a stupid reason.
Years ago, I felt water sprinkles periodically hit my face while watching Jurassic Park in a packed movie theater.
I may have imagined it but I thought I heard giggling following every splash of water I felt. I was so convinced some kid had a water gun and was targeting me throughout the movie.
During the climactic T-Rex scene–where the tension is amplified without a score to accompany the encounter–I snapped and filled the silence with my wrath.
"Knock it off!" I yelled behind me, generally addressing the audience.
The kid sitting next to me leaned over and whispered in my ear, "It's the ceiling. It's leaking from the bad AC unit."
As soon as the credits started rolling I bee-lined it out of there before anyone could match the face to the temperamental, but very daft, moviegoer.
As much as we'd all love to believe that we can brush off unkind words, it's simply not true. There are some things that all the confidence and self-esteem in the universe couldn't protect us from.
Of course, mean words and shocking statements hit hardest when they come from someone we're close with: a friend, a parent, a romantic partner.
And not only do they hit hard in the moment, but they sting for years and years.
A recent Reddit thread asked folks to dredge up the worst of the worst.
Redditor IceMountain10 asked:
"What's the most fu**ed up thing someone has ever said to you?"
Many people talked about the wildly upsetting things their parents have said to them. These statements are enough to leave one wondering just how things got to the point they did.
Inverse Role Model
" 'you're adopted, you don't get to have opinions' "
" 'you're going to end up like your real dad' my real dad was an alcoholic and an addict. He fu**ed up his life and never came back."
-- Panginodon
No Shame
" 'is that the only reason you fu**en came home?' "
"Said by my mother in front of my 8th-grade counselor who had brought me home and explained to my mother that my 40-year-old stepbrother had sexually assaulted me twice. I'll never forget my mother's look of disdain or the look of utter horror on my counselor's face."
Scapegoating
"When I was 7 my mother and step father were having relationship issues. After a fight in which she ended up leaving the house, my step father sat me down. He gave me an extremely longwinded speech about why I was a terrible, bastard child."
"I don't remember much of it, but he ended it by saying, 'It's your fault your mom and I are breaking up. You're rotten and I hate you.' I don't think I'll ever forget that."
Cartoonish In It's Meanness
" 'I dont love you, I never did, and I regret not aborting you. You and your father have ruined my life and I hate you both.' " ~My mother when I was 10.
"I do not regret ending my relationship with her at all."
-- maciver6969
Others talked about the people in positions of authority that demoralized them. It stings so much more when it's someone you'd like to respect.
Joke's On Him
"In college I studied journalism but I had to take a required PR class. We had to keep these journals about our thoughts about news events for some reason, and I was trying to be thought-provoking..."
"...and so I wrote about this theory about why college students tend to be apathetic about the news, it had to do with the insular nature of the college campus. It was probably bullsh**, but I was writing about a theory I had."
"The professor ripped it apart and then ended his scribbling with 'I find it hard to believe you will succeed at anything, much less journalism.' "
"I went on to write for ESPN, so he can kick rocks."
How Not to Motivate a Child
"Not me but this one takes it"
"In high school, one of my classmate's dad died at the start of the year. All the teachers knew as he'd talked about it and been absent over it. Fast forward a few months and the kid handed in 'sloppy' homework as the teacher called it. Then, he made a point of, in front of class, saying 'your dad would be embarrassed' "
"Kid just got up, picked up his things and walked out. Pretty sure we all universally hated that teacher after that"
-- AA005555
People Share Dark Secrets From Their Profession The Public Doesn't Know | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Nice Try
"When my mom got diagnosed with stage IV cancer, my boss at the time said she was excited that I was getting to go through this. She meant it in a 'beat an obstacle that life throws at you' kinda way."
"My mom passed away two years later and there was nothing exciting about watching her deteriorate and having to say goodbye. Who the fu** says that?!"
Finally, some people's peers, be it significant others or close friends, were the ones to deliver the verbal blow.
Enough Was Enough
"I've had leukemia a couple of times and my then wife looked at me during an argument and said these words, 'I hope this cancer eats you from the inside out, and that no one is by your side when you die!' I wad so stunned I just turned around and went to the bedroom and went to sleep."
"The next morning she literally said 'I'm sorry I said those things last night, but you know how angry you get me.' I left the next day and never looked back. It was twelve years of hell with her and I stuck through it to be around my kids, but at that moment I knew this had to be it or I'd never get out."
-- Felicitucky
Turning Their Back
" 'I've decided to remove The Problem (you) from my life since it's affecting me too.' "
"my friend said this to me after he found out that I got sexually assaulted. By his friend."
It All Becomes Clear
"My ex finished our relationship after 15yrs. To me it was out of the blue. 5 days later my best friend told me that 'you should be over it by now' as I'm sobbing my heart out to her."
"To her I should have been able to mourn and grieve my 15 year relationship in just 5 days!! Turns out he was cheating on me with her"
-- namchelukla
And as we end this list all feeling a little sympathetic and maybe even upset about our own examples, let's flip it around: when did you say something so nice to someone they were stunned?
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