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Teachers Reveal The Most Audacious Things Students Have Ever Said To Them

Teachers have to act as parents, therapists, and babysitters for kids who often have no respect for authority. It can get plenty out of hand - teachers need a raise, and more support. There's no future without teachers.

kkunurashima asked their fellow teachers of Reddit: What's something your students have said that required all of your strength to not hit them?

Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.


15. Participation trophy culture.

Refused to do his work, and looked me in the eye and said "you can't fail me."

Which unfortunately given our system policies, is absolutely true.

_reinforce2wei

Why couldn't you fail him?

dbino-6969

Because the school looks bad of a kid fails and it can effect funding, the actual school administration doesn't give a fuck about teachers or students, they just want a 100% pass rate. It's why USA spends something like 75% more of the average per student yet has pretty mediocre results. Education system needs a full rework unfortunately.

MasterRed92

14. Grandparenting ftw.

I'll answer for my mom, who is not a Redditor. One of her students, a 4th grader threatened to stab her about 20 years ago. She worked in a rough district and had no support from her superiors because it couldn't be corroborated.

I went to the sheriff's office and reported it, asked our sheriff how to go about handling it because my mom was afraid of the little shit and about retaliation from her boss/school system. I was only like 15 myself. Turns out the boy was his grandson, different last name.

My mom called me, told me the sheriff came by their house, apologized for his grandson's behavior and brought her and my dad a dinner and flowers. She never had issues again from the boy. His punishment was lovely too. His grandfather brought him over to mow my parent's yard all summer and take care of the clippings. The sheriff humanized my mom to him, talked about how she has a family and how stabbing somebody could hurt or kill them. He eventually apologized to my mom and learned to deal with frustraion.

And he turned out okay. He is an electrician and got married last summer.

Edit- Thanks for the silver! And I've had a few people ask for his name/info etc. I am going to respect his privacy and that of his family. But, if you want to honor him or his style of policing, look at donating to local Shop with a Cop programs or doing the kind of things he championed. Get involved, donate your time and talents to improving your community. Mentor a young person who is struggling. Think twice before raising a hand in violence. Or, look at becoming an officer yourself and working to make your community better.

Galaxine

13. Well then.

At the start of the school year a student walked up to me said (to my face): "I'm a special ed kid and I know all I have to do is show up and not get suspended. I won't be doing any work in your class and you're going to pass me because you have to. Don't bother me and I won't f*ck with you."

Dsgorman

"I'm a special ed kid and I know all I have to do is show up and not get suspended. I won't be doing any work in your class and you're going to pass me because you have to.

I had a kid pull that on me once. I laughed in his face and said, "No, I really don't."

From then on I just documented every time they refused an assignment (on the assignment) and gave them the zero. They changed their tune real fast when report card time came and they had like a 4 in my class.

runaround66

I just love the comments section in my online gradebook when a neglectful parent wants to come at me last minute. Oh, and my gradebook logs how many times the student and parent accounts view the gradebook. Zero times over the marking period and Little Billy's troubles are all my fault? Ha!

BisqueMentioner

12. Just shaddup.

I had a kid call me a bitch and say that I was "targeting" him for telling him not to make noises. This was during a lockdown drill, during which we were required to be silent. I spent the next 15 minutes locked in the room being forced to sit there silently while this kid and one of his friends loudly complained about how awful I was.

Embear10

After being a student in classes where peers have made teachers cry, walk out or straight up quit I have the utmost respect for you all. Having been tempted to enter the profession myself, I don't think I could keep my cool.

_helioalien

It's the students that recognize that their peers are assh*les and don't choose to join in that keep me going.

Embear10

11. And they say kids can't be sociopaths...

One thing that a lot of non-teachers don't realize is that there are plenty of kids who judge themselves based on how they've tormented teachers. Even adults still fondly remember that time they 'made that teacher cry.' Tv shows show the kids teaching that teacher a lesson for doing their job. So these kids get up in the morning planning for how they'll annoy you.

Most kids I taught were fine, but there was one who stood out, we'll call him J. He thought he was the best thing ever to happen to this planet, and he expected teachers to worship him. So to start with he learned my first name, and began shouting it across the playground. Then he'd only do it once id turned the corner. Irritating this was, but easily dealt with. Then the actual torment began. He would steal other students bus passes and slide them underneath my classroom door so I'd have to go and unlock it so they could get home. He tracked my timetable and began doing it when I was teaching in a different room, anything to cause me maximum disruption. He got another teacher to let himself into my classroom saying I'd asked him to get something, he then stole the smallest of my Russian dolls I had on display, and the keys off my keyboard, but only ones which spelled out my name. He set off the fire alarm because he knew I was doing speaking exams and it would disrupt me.

This doesn't include his in class behaviour. Here's where it got crazy.

One day I found him at break time with a glass and s box of matches, he was catching spiders to set fire to them to hear them scream.

The next week as I was leaving the school he stood in front of my car so I couldn't leave, i opened the window to tell him to move and he put his arm through it and held on, again to stop me leaving. Deputy head removed him. But after that I found him inside the school, he'd trapped a bird and was throwing stones at it to kill it. School did nothing.

2 weeks later I was leaving school again, he runs up, opens the door and gets into my car. We had to call the police to remove him. His parents thought it was funny.

I don't know what happened to him but I'd say that was the closest.

Stinktiere

10. Punching the teacher won't end well.

Well, the time the student punched me was a challenge, that's for sure. I guess the other times I've really gotten upset with students, I haven't thought about hitting them, but I'd really love to be able to tell them about themselves, including all the profanity that needs to be leveled at them. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

Teachers are human. Kids can be cruel.

edgarpickle

I had a student send me to the hospital twice. I worked at a therapeutic day school and this kid was my size and in 7th grade. I was a 26-y/o 5'10, 175lb guy at this time two years ago. Since it was therapeutic, we had to restrain students when they became a threat to themselves or others. The first time he sent me to the hospital, he head-butted me in the back of the head in the middle of a restraint. Yellow liquid came out of my nose on numerous occasions between leaving the school and arriving at the hospital. I had to get a CAT scan of my head to make sure it wasn't Cerebrospinal fluid.

The second time, we removed him from the gym because he was playing too rough with other kids. We escorted him to a "cool-down" room and as soon as he set foot in the room, he turned around and clocked me in the face. Like 5 other staff instantly restrained him, so luckily I didn't have to deal with it again. My face swelled up so I decided to go get checked out just to be sure.

Admins didn't really do a whole lot, so I never really felt safe around the kid. Luckily I had two enormous paras that worked in my room to help me, but they didnt switch the kid to another classroom until ESY came around. I left that job at the end of ESY and started teaching in a public school.

reed12321

9. Broooooo...

After one of the school shootings a kid had the audacity to say "oh only 9 people died, so it wasn't even a real one."

Another year my wife had a miscarriage. I was visibly upset and discussed it with them. A week later after getting onto a kid about something he said "that's why your baby died". I have never felt a rage like that before.

crhuble

A kid in my school was in a different woodwork class to me. Halfway through a woodwork project, the teacher takes time off work because his wife miscarried. The class continued with the project with another teacher.

Original teacher came back and stated they would be starting a new project. The kid said "are we building your kid a coffin?"

Still no idea what happened to that kid after class.

daddyhax

8. Divorce sucks.

I had a 14-y/o student who was dealing with some tough issues with his dad. This kid would spend one weekend with his mom, the next with his dad. He always looked forward to the weekends with his mom, and would refuse to go home on Fridays when he'd have to go to his dad's house. He would come in to school after the weekends spent at his dad's house and tell me (and only me) about some of the horrors that went on over the weekend. The things he told me were bad enough that I had to call DCFS three times in the course of two months. I sat with a DCFS officer and outlined what he told me in excruciating detail. I checked in with his school counselor every day. I checked in with him every single morning. I was even requested to appear in court (by his mom) to testify on the kids behalf. I wasn't allowed to go as I was not subpoena'd, but I would have gone if I were allowed to. I literally bent over backwards to make sure this kid would still be alive to come to my class on the Mondays after spending the weekend at his dad's house.

The thing that he said that made me want to smack some sense into him; "You don't care about me."

reed12321

7. Carl, douche.

Middle school kid was throwing hard candy across my room. I mean he was hurling it with the intent of it hurting if it hit you. I calmly said, "Carl get out of my classroom." He said, "no." I repeated myself and he said, "make me". I sent for the assistant principal with the message that I had a situation. When the assistant principal arrived I simply told him to get Carl out of sight. He did. The kid continued to pop off and got sent home for a few days.

Same kid the next week. End of the day, maybe two minutes before the bell was to ring. Another student asked about Carl's cell phone which they are not supposed to have at school. He replied loud enough for the entire class to hear, " My phone is in my mother f*cking pocket." I reported it the following Monday. F*ck that kid.

OleBackseat

6. Nah, class is pointless.

College prof here. I can't tell you how many times I've had a student ask me if we were doing anything important in class.

nezumipi

"No, today I was just planning on wasting everyone's time for an hour or so."

LieutenantArturo

Oh that is something my kids ask like daily, must be something they think they can do when they get older. I don't teach college but I do teach seniors in high school. It's become a meme almost for them to come in and for me to say "Oh absolutely nothing! Just, you know, information in a class you need to graduate."

Bzerker01

5.

Same child, multiple incidences. Second grade.

  1. While ignoring his screams in an attempt to get attention, he pulled his pants down and started humping me half naked.
  2. Punched me in the face at lunch when I went to bend down and help another kid open his pb and j.
  3. (Not the child but his mother and why this makes so much sense) slashed my tires after her son was suspending for punching me in the face.

foundinthewild1

That reminds me when my mom was a substitute teacher in the 80s, she was giving a student trouble for disrupting the class. The student got right in her face and said "my mama said she's gonna slash your fucking tires bitch". The student was so close to her she was spraying my moms face with spit as she spoke. She kicked the kid out of the class only to have the principal show up five minutes later and tell her "you're just a substitute you're not gonna kick any students out of class, become an actual teacher here then you can kick them out". That was the final nail in the coffin for her teaching career, she moved across the country a little while later to start a new profession.

swashchuckle

4. This is why you need the weed.

I'm an art teacher. A good student of mine was wondering about my recycling habit, and asked me how much I make from recycling/what I used it for. I told her that I use it to supplement art supplies, and immediately this jackass from the back of the room pipes up "hah that's totally weed money."

This kid bleeds "look at me I'm a stoner kid I'm so edgy!!" so I'm used to it and he has been disciplined multiple times in my class for comments like this, but this particular one? I could get fired for an accusation like that. F*ck that assh*le.

emblebeeslovehoney

3. Kids are mean.

Six words, said to a quiet kid who'd just returned after a couple weeks out of school.

"No wonder your mom committed suicide."

AZScienceTeacher

Someone said that to me after my dad passed that way. I barely even remembered it because the whole time was a blur. The kid apologized for it a couple years later and that's the only reason why I even know it happened. The kid probably blacked it out.

ExternallyScreaming

2. Middle schoolers are the worst. THE. WORST.

First year teaching at 22 and I taught sixth grade. Two instances come to mind:

One kid told me outright he didnt respect me simply because I was younger than the other sixth grade teachers.

After a year of trying to corral my sixth graders, I took them outside for class for a day after two STAAR tests and we started a novel study on a book I was really excited to share with them (Among the Hidden). They complained the ENTIRE time about how hot it was in the shade, how the book we were reading was boring and that they wanted to go back inside. I took them back in because I couldn't take it anymore and told them honestly how upset I was with their constant complaining the entire year and that I was just trying to do something for them that they had been asking all year to do, when one kid just said in front of the entire class that since I hated them so much and clearly hated my job that I should quit. Because it would make everyone happier. I told him to leave the room and go somewhere, anywhere (I just couldn't look at his face anymore) and then silently started crying at my desk.

Sixth grade was a year in hell.

redassaggiegirl17

Never teach middle school young. That sh*ts like a Battle Royale.

HeyItzMe_

It really was! All of the other teachers were 30 yo minimum, all of them married and most with kids. One of them was married for as long as I've been alive! So they saw fresh meat and pounced. 😂

Luckily for me, the fifth grade class coming up the year after didnt have enough kids, so I was cut from sixth and given to fourth. It has honestly been such a blessing and I would cry if I had to leave fourth grade because I love it so much!! ❤

redassaggiegirl17

1. You are entitled to nothing.

I had a student in a class I TA'd who emailed me wanting to know where his grade on a weekly assignment was. I did not respond to him because the assignment in question was not even due yet, and also because he said something in the email that came off as a little dehumanizing, and I wasn't about to reinforce that behavior with any informative response. Hardly twelve hours later, he goes over my head to the professor. He then proved himself over and over to be the most entitled and rude person in the class.

I feel it might have been an age thing. Not only was he older than me (which is easy, most students at my school are), but he was older than the professor, who he was also rude to.

tanktopped

Old Wives' Tales People Still Believe For Some Reason

"Reddit user the_spring_goddess asked: 'What is an old wives tale that people still believe?'"

Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

lottery tickets
Erik Mclean on Unsplash

A lot of workers daydream about some day winning the lottery and being able to say goodbye to their job.

Far too many workers are unhappy with their job duties, workplace dynamics or company culture.

But with a taste for luxuries like housing and food, they keep plugging away, year after year.

However not everyone feels that way about their job.

So what are these compelling careers?

Keep reading... Show less
Therapist talking during session
Photo by Mark Williams on Unsplash

Some people stand firmly stand behind their beliefs that everyone would benefit from therapy and that therapy is life-changing.

It's because of the totally life-changing truth bombs their therapist had dropped during their sessions.

Curious, Redditor anonymiss0018 asked:

"What is a little bombshell your therapist dropped in one of your sessions that completely changed your outlook?"

Communication Issues

"'If you don’t have these problems with any other person in your life, why do you think you’re the problematic person in this one?'"

- maggiebear

"I love this. I have a 'friend' who I always seem to run into misunderstandings with. Every time we had a conversation, it somehow turned into a debate even if it was me talking about my day. The conversations were never easy."

"I always evaluate myself first and take into consideration his critiques. He was very good at convincing me that I was contradicting myself or wasn't good at communicating my thoughts."

"I NEVER had this issue with ANYONE else in my life. I kept trying to figure out where the miscommunication was coming from. In the end, I just minimized contact and now I don't run into this issue."

- chobani_yo

"I read this quote somewhere once (and probably have it a bit wrong): 'It's a waste of time arguing with someone who is determined to misunderstand you.'"

- Reddit

Emotional Regulation

"'You can’t control your emotions, but you can control what you do with them.'"

"At the time, I was a young adult who had learned zero healthy emotional regulation skills (only suppression and shaming) growing up, so this blew my mind."

- lil_mermaid

Tough Relationships

"'It sounds to me like you are trying to convince yourself to stay with your girlfriend. I'm not so sure it should be so difficult.'"

"At the time he said this, I remember it was like he said, 'The earth is flat.' I thought he was crazy when he suggested relationships don't need to be difficult. But eventually, I started to realize I was trying to change myself to stay with this person rather than just being who I am."

"It took me three more months to finally break up with her but from that day on, I vowed to never again abandon myself just to be with someone I had convinced myself was better than me."

- metric88

High-Stress Situation

"I was at a high-stress time, and I asked her how people live like this."

"She replied, 'Oftentimes they have cardiac events.' She said it as an urging to care for myself as much as possible."

- KittenGr8r

The End of Alcohol

"I was struggling with my alcoholism, and we were discussing how I had been cutting back."

"She asked what I would consider success, with regard to my drinking."

"I said I wanted to get to a point where it wasn't interfering with my daily life. I wanted to just be able to have a glass of wine at holiday dinners or family gatherings."

"She simply asked me why. Why was it important for me to drink at those times?"

"It was as if she'd turned on a light. Alcohol had always been a key ingredient in every family function, for my entire life. When I smell bourbon, I think of my uncle. When I smell vermouth, I think of my dad. Alcohol ran through almost every happy childhood memory."

"But, even more than that, I was very afraid of the explanation I'd have to give when family and friends asked why I wasn't having a drink. I had tried to quit before but failed. What if I admitted my problem, only to fall off the wagon?"

"When she asked why I didn't want to completely quit, it was the first time I saw that last part of the big picture. I'd be willing to drink myself to death in order to avoid being scrutinized, or judged for possible future failures."

"That was the day I quit. I've been sober since May 6th, 2017. 2,407 days."

- sophies_wish

Acceptance vs. Enjoyment

"'Accepting something doesn’t mean you have to like it.'"

"That took away a lot of my inner conflicts about situations because I could accept a situation without expending energy internally fighting against the injustice of it."

- alibelloc

Emotionally Immature Parents

"You are not responsible for your parents' emotional wellbeing. They are independent adults who have been on this earth for many more years than you."

- SmokedPears

Not So Lazy

"'Why do you think you're lazy?' Then she listed off all the things she knows I'm doing for my family, my job, and my life."

"It kind of blew my mind when I struggled to come up with an example."

"She also described family dysfunction as water. Some families are messed up in a way that everyone can see the huge waves across the surface. Others are better at hiding it, but there's still a riptide that you can't see unless you're also in the water."

"It made me realize that trying to keep the surface from ever rippling doesn't erase what is happening underneath."

- flybyknight665

The Harm in People-Pleasing

"'Why do you make people more comfortable when you are uncomfortable?' when talking about people pleasing and fawning."

- ERsandwich

Agree to Disagree

"'Stop trying to get everyone to agree. When you need everyone to agree, the least agreeable person has all the power.'"

This really changed my outlook on planning family events."

- freef

Grieve and Start Anew

"For context, I had a major TBI (traumatic brain injury), seizures, strokes, and all around not a fun brain time when I was 28."

"They said, 'You have to grieve the loss of yourself.'"

"Most people wanted me to go back to how I was. The f**ked up truth is that part of my brain is dead. The person everyone (including myself) knew died. I needed to grieve the loss of myself."

- squeaktoy_la

Multifaceted Identity

"They told me that my job and career is just a way to make money; it's not my life or identity. That took a lot of pressure off me."

- unfairpegasus

Breaking the Cycle

"They validated me."

"'You always talk about not wanting to do to your daughters what your mom did to you. You worry about it so much in every interaction you have ever had with them."

"But your children are 19 and 21 now. They are happy and healthy and they trust you because you’ve never abused them in any way. So I just want to validate for you that you really have broken that cycle of violence."

"You did that. And you should be proud of it. I’m proud of you for it.'"

- puppsmcgee74

The Grieving Process

"I was constantly bringing up how I felt like a completely different person after my mom died... like there was a marked difference between before and after her death."

"But once, she was asking about my hobbies, I got really into describing all the things I loved to do or at least used to do before I got into a deep depression."

"She was like, 'Wow, you seem very passionate.'"

"And I just sat there like, 'Well, I mean, I can't change what I like to do, they're still fun to do.'"

"And it's like she knew when to take a step back, because it was like, wow, I may be super depressed about my mom passing, but I'm still me. I'm still my passions and those don't go away."

"I don't know, maybe it only makes sense to be, but it really started getting me back on track."

- Hannibal680

Sharing the Load

"I've never really had friends. I've had colleagues and classmates and housemates and people who have hung out with me, but I never really felt close to any of them."

"And I did that thing you see on here sometimes; I stopped reaching out to see if I would be reached out to, and I wasn't, which I took as confirmation that they didn't really want me around, or at the very least, that they wouldn't mind my absence."

"I was talking to my therapist about people I'd been close to in college, and she told me to pick one and talk about him. So I did. After I shared some basic stuff like his name and his major etc., and a couple of anecdotes, she asked me what else I knew about him."

"And I couldn't answer. It wasn't really a broadly applicable bombshell, but she said, 'What else?' and I started crying because I realized that for as simple as the question was, my inability to answer spoke volumes."

"I've never had good friends because I've never been a good friend. I'm withdrawn and reserved and I always made others do the work to drag me out, without ever extending my own friendship in a meaningful way in return. If I wanted to have meaningful relationships with other people, I would have to build them."

"I'm still working on this, but I'm trying to make more offers and extend more friendliness to others in my daily life."

- Backupusername

The discoveries in this thread were incredibly touching and profound; it's no wonder these were lasting concepts for these Redditors.

It's important to keep ourselves open to inspiration and insights from others, as we have no idea how their experiences could help us, or how we could help them.

Aerial view of a church in a small town
Sander Weeteling/Unsplash

There's something comforting about living in a small town.

It's characterized by close communities where neighbors know each other by name and there is an abundance of kindness extended to others.

Gift-giving is a commonality, as is the sharing of recipes, and people going out of their way to help each other in a time of need.

The pace of living in small towns is also a striking contradiction to city life, where crowds of people go about their busy lives without much interaction.

Curious to hear more examples of what small town living is like, Redditor official_biz asked:

"What's the most 'small town' thing you've witnessed?"

These are positive examples of a tight-knit community.

Live Updates

"We have a village Facebook page. Every time the ice cream man drives into the village, the entire page goes ballistic. People send live updates of where the van is and which direction he's heading. The ice cream man has started accepting DMs so he knows which streets to go down."

– PyrrhuraMolinae

Brush With The Law

"I’m from a town of less than 2,000 people. When I worked at the grocery store there people would often drop off stuff for my family members because they didn’t want to drive all the way down to our house. I no longer live there but recently got a call from my daughter. She had been stopped for speeding and handed over her license and insurance which happens to be in my mother’s name. The officer goes 'Hey, you’re Donnie’s granddaughter! I ain’t gonna write you a ticket but I’m telling Donnie when I see him tomorrow cause we’re going fishing.' She replied 'I think I’d rather have the ticket.'”

- Reddit

Roadside Catchup

"The traffic on the 'main street' of my town is so sparse, two drivers going opposite directions can stop and talk to each other for a few minutes without causing any problem."

– anon

When things go wrong, people take notice without incident.

Bank Robbery

"A guy robbed a bank and everyone knew immediately who he was and the teller got mad at him."

– AlexRyang

"A local bank was robbed and one of the tellers told the police to bring her a yearbook from about ten years earlier and she would be able to point the robber out. He had been in the grade before hers in school."

– Strict_Condition_632

Wise Woman

"When I worked at the bank in town there was an older lady that had worked there through 5 mergers."

"She knew everyone, there was a young guy yelling at me one day. She walked out of the back and he immediately quieted. She went off about telling his grandmother that he was treating young women like sh*t. She also said that if he didn’t straighten up not one girl in town would ever marry him she would make sure of it."

– ilurvekittens

Intoxicated Local

"Town drunk was paralyzed and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. I was driving home one Saturday night and said town drunk was passed out in his wheelchair doing circles almost directly in the town square. Had to call his brother who came and picked him up on a rollback truck. Strapped him down and drove off into the cold dark night."

– DoodooExplosion

Grazing Over To The Bar

"In my former small town, there was an older guy who'd lost his license after getting a few DUIs. Every day, he would ride his John Deere lawnmower to the corner bar around 3PM and sit around watching TV and sipping his beer well into the night. Then he'd head the couple miles back home on his mower. He even had a little canvass shell he put on when it rained or got too cold."

– brown_pleated_slacks

It's not surprising how small town people behave differently than those who are from metropolitan areas.

Welcoming Committee

"I lived in a small town. When I moved there, people would ask, 'Whose house did you buy?'"

–MoonieNine

"Move to a small town. 30 years later, you are still the new guy."

– impiousdrifter

"I lived in a small town for most of my childhood but I wasn't "from there" because my grandparents weren't from there."

– raisinghellwithtrees

"Worked with an older guy, relative of the owner of the business, he was 73. I asked him if he was a local, he said 'no his parents moved here when he was two.'"

– realneil

A Busy Day

"Lived in a town of about 5,000: A woman walked into the DMV on a Friday, saw that there were 3 people ahead of her and left to come back another time when they weren't so busy."

– KenmoreToast

Who Let The Dogs Out?

"My dogs got out while i was working. the police called my niece's elementary school (she was a 5th grader) to get her to round them up and take them back home."

– mediocrelpn

"There was a small kennel behind the police station for runaways. They called us saying they had our dog, and moments later our dog showed up home. He broke out of jail."

– Worried_Place_917

While life in a small town sounds appealing, I don't know if I can ever live in one.

I'm so used to life in big cities, I think it would be quite unnerving to adjust in a neighborhood where everyone literally knows your business.

I would be paranoid.

And I'm sure the same could be said of life in the big city.

Would you consider making the switch to life in a different setting?