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Teachers Reveal What It's Like Working With a Professor All Students Detest

Teachers Reveal What It's Like Working With a Professor All Students Detest

Teachers Reveal What It's Like Working With a Professor All Students Detest

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It's rare that we get a true look inside the inner workings of how teachers relate to each other during school hours. Don't you ever wonder how other teachers related to that teacher who made your sophomore year miserable?

Well, Redditor Reignbringer asked:

School teachers of reddit, how do you feel about the teachers students hate? Does everyone else know who these teachers are? How are they with the other faculty?

Here's a rare look inside.

Pre-Reqs

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I'm no longer a teacher, but my students were very open about which teachers they hated. The hated teachers could be broken into two groups - (1) the excellent teachers with high standards who didn't tolerate any BS and (2) the clueless, narcissistic teachers with no standard or completely arbitrary standards. After a few years, the kids realized that the teachers in group 1 were the heroes all along. At absolute best, group 2 were good for laughs.

Retirement Life

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One of my teachers in high school happened to be retiring the same year that we were graduating, the last class ever he closed the door and we reminisced. One kid asked him which teachers he hated, he went to lock the door and just went off like he had some list in his head of folks he hated. It was glorious.

Toxic Teachers' Lounge

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About 85% of the time I find that I do not get along with the teachers that the students can't stand. Usually this is because they are quick to blame the kids for everything going wrong and they are unwilling to work/communicate with them. It stems from the old mentality "Teaching would be great if it weren't for the students!". Sorry, but if you got into this profession and you absolutely hate kids, I have zero sympathy for you. I've also found that those teachers will complain the most to any other colleagues who will listen about how terrible the students are. This is the main reason that I only go into the teacher's lounge once a week MAX.

Strict Vs. Awful

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Some of my coworkers they hate because they're strict and don't put up with any BS. These teachers I like, and since I'm still a beginner, I often come to them for advice.

I have one coworker that is mutually hated by almost everyone. She's condescending. She power trips. She's nosy. She butts in to conversations. She tells obvious and meaningless lies. I don't let the kids know I can't stand her, but when they talk about her, I go mysteriously deaf.

A different coworker gave a writing assignment. No prompt, just required that they had to demonstrate all the techniques they covered that semester. One of the sweetest kids I've ever taught gave him a three page paper about how the hated teacher was an awful person. He got an A and became a legend in the teacher's lounge.

Closed Doors

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There are a handful of teachers my students couldn't stand. When it was for no real reason I'd let them state their case then try to help them see the value in my co-workers approach. When it was for a very good reason I just made sure the door was closed then let them vent. I wasn't going to waste my credibility with my students sticking up for my racist, sexist, kid hating peers.

Good Apples

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I think one of the unfair realizations you have AFTER being a kid is that it's not true that authority figures care and are even handed and fair. They are just people. Looking back on it, I have been blessed so many of my teachers were good, with only a few bad apples. A few of them have connected with us former students over Facebook and some of the gossip has been funny.

"Do I remember Mrs. Green? Oh, Peggy was the worst. We thought she'd die at any moment with all the cigarettes she smoked in the lounge, but she was too stubborn and mean to die. We felt bad for you kids but she had tenure and we just had to wait for her to retire. When she finally did, I only went to the party for the cake. Carol (Mrs. Walker) brought a hip flask with brandy and we all had our private toast to her finally leaving."

Amazon Life

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I taught at an elementary school with another teacher who I thought was just absolute crap. Even her teaching partner said she spent whole days shopping online while the kids basically did very little. When students complained about her, I didn't say anything, but if parents complained about her, I subtly tried to validate their concerns.

Don't Abuse Your Kids

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In high school my AP US History teacher told us all the time how much she hated us and her job. She would literally stand in front of the class, and whenever someone asked a question that she didnt know the answer to, she would say something along the lines of "All these smartass kids thinking they know more than their teacher is why I hate my job."

One day, there was a fight on the football field during her class (the classroom overlooked the field) and we all got out of our seats to look out the windows, because that type of stuff almost never happened. She started screaming at us to get back in our seats, and when noone moved, she quite literally walked out. She quit during the middle of a class. After she left, a lot of the teachers told us how much she sucked and how much they hated her. That was a weird schoolyear for sure.

Boy, Was My Face Red

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We had a history teacher who was finishing out his last year teaching high school as he'd just been offered a position at a university and one day we were talking about teachers we didn't like- he goes on a rant about an English teacher and how she's such a c u next Tuesday (the only appropriate word to describe this woman). I raised my hand and explained my final with her the previous year was a 10 page report on the tomato... Being me, I talked about cultural uses of the tomato and then focused on ketchup in America and the Heinz- Kerry family and then politics. She failed me saying anything with ketchup and Heinz was unrelated. This dope teacher goes with me to the principal and explains what I'd told him and got my F final (bringing me from an A down to a C) revoked and I got an A in the class along with a promise of never having her again. My brothers had previously had her and she hated both of them.

Different Skill Set

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Not exactly a teacher, but I generally dislike the ones that the kids dislike. You don't get kids to hate you for no good reason, generally. Everyone knows who that person is, and they're absolutely awful with other faculty as well.

They're out of touch with the kids, and think that since they home-schooled their middle-class children, they know how to teach underprivileged at-risk children. Dumb-ss.

Etude Of Hate

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My students hated the music teacher. She was always nice to me, but I understand why they hated her. She was rude to them, yelled at them a lot, and was pretty disrespectful. It probably wasn't the most professional thing I have done, but I told my students that they don't have to like her, but they need to be respectful of her. That was the sad -ss pep talk we had once a week.

Teach

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One thing I've noticed about teachers that students don't like (hate is a strong word) is that they're the teachers who always have to be right and can't admit when they've made a mistake or when a student has a different (and often better) idea than them.

Always A Reason

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Most of the not-so-popular teachers at the school I teach at are not liked because they are impatient, rude, and not in touch with current educational trends/technology. These traits usually make them a poor teacher, and a horrible co-worker to deal with. It's impossible to be an effective teacher if you use the same information and technology you graduated with 10+ years ago. Educators have to be lifelong learners.

Teaching is tough. There is a middle ground that you have to assume that is between trying to be friends with the students, and being a complete hard-ass. It is extremely difficult to balance that for 180 days at a time.

I like to think that I am a more popular teacher, not because I am buddy-buddy with my students, but because I am extremely passionate about the content I teach, as well as education in general.

All that being said, there is usually a legitimate reason that students dislike a teacher. The same issues that make them a bad teacher usually permeate throughout everything they do, making them disliked by just about everyone.

They're Scary

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It's not really "hate," but there's one teacher at my school who is feared by all the students. They always ask if they can leave my class a little early because "I have Mr. X next, and if you're late, he yells at you."

I find this guy a little brusque & bristly myself ... but honestly, I'm jealous of the power he has over the students, and sometimes I dream about being just as rough on them so they'll toe the line better in my class.

Adios Muchacho

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I had this one teacher that always found it irritating and wrong when a kid did something independent. He seemed to have this mentality that he was the teacher, and that he should guide us through the school year. Problem was that he was a terrible teacher, and blamed everything on the students, including our worksheets that he lost. Thankfully, he's retiring, so no one will ever have to deal with his BS ever again.

Tutors Know It

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I've worked at a tutoring center for 8 years, currently employed at a university as a graduate teaching assistant. I've worked with some really amazing individuals, some of which were loved by the students, hated by fellow teachers, and vice versa.

At the tutoring center, we had one employee who was an absolute monster towards the students. And us. It didn't help that she was bipolar, and would suddenly go from a sweet pea to a rotten carrot in a matter of moments. A student coughed too loudly? Student is asked to leave the room and parents called immediately. Student didn't do the homework correctly, 100% the way she wanted (ie. ONE cursive letter is wrong)? Student is verbally chastised in front of the room as well as in the front of the entire tutoring center. Talk about layers of mental and psychological abuse. Children and employees were driven to tears by her. Multiple times. Multiple. This individual was a monster, and she abused everyone. Even her son. And her husband.

All the tutors knew it. We told our boss. The boss did nothing. Employees quit. Boss did nothing. Families left the center. Boss made excuses. Employees banded together, nearly protesting. No avail.

This went on for years until this individual was asked to leave after a verbal altercation while we were open and assisting with kids.

Don't Cross A Line

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My friend is a teacher, and she is fairly liked by her students. There is always the student that thinks she hates them because she won't give them an A on a paper that was not only copied and pasted from the internet, but five other kids used the exact same paper! Seriously, that kind of sh-t.

However, there are always a couple -ssholes. She has one teacher friend that is very religious and cannot help but judge kids by their race, how they dress, how they look, etc. He thinks he's Mr. Wonderful, but he is really very sad and lonely with a horrible life that I won't get into, so he seems to take it out on the students. He will demand a popular class that my wife or another teacher are teaching. The next year he will get it and everyone immediately drops the class, yet he says it is because the counsolor tells the kids not to take it. They just know better.

Also, there is the group of teachers that think they are one of the kids and try to get into the lives of the students. That is dangerous. One teacher thought it was fun to see kids at the bar he went to and rather than leave or report it to the bar, he partied with them. He thought the kids loved him. They did not respect him though.

He would miss weeks of work at a time due to drug use. When he finally burned his last bridge, he messaged all his students to back him up at the board meeting that decided his fate.

Not one kid showed up. Students are not your friends.

Silence In The Library

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We all know who those teachers are, and we hate them too. When I was teaching our librarian was a grumpy dinosaur who loved yelling at kids. My students were all on the autism spectrum, and she yelled at a few of my shyer kids to the point that they were in tears. It was so awkward trying to comfort them without telling them what a b**** she was to yell at them in the first place. Sometimes I would let my students skip library altogether so they didn't have to put up with her verbal abuse.

Luckily, I had a few students with severe behavioral issues who had some epic meltdowns in her library. I like to hope they helped encourage her towards retirement.

Unprofessional

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There's a teacher who's looking at retirement in the next few years - students regularly complain about this teacher. Apparently, the teacher does the following: 1. Sends students to get soda from the teacher lounge (no students are allowed there) 2. Gives zeroes for the day if the student has a prior appointment during the class - these appointments are often made by the school for the students 3. Blathers on about life, children, complaints (think grocery-store line stuff you don't really care about) 4. We are a deaf school. This teacher also will stop signing and continues to verbally speak - then get angry when the hard of hearing students manage to "fill in the blanks" for the more deaf ones.

I know that several students have gone and filed complaints, but thus far nothing seems to have been done. But like I said, this teacher is looking at retirement soon. I'm angry for my students. I always encourage them to file formal complaints against the teacher.

As for how the teacher is with other faculty: In a word, unprofessional. Gets angry at the drop of a hat, verbally abusive, rants about random stuff. Shows up late.

There's two teachers like this - one is (mostly) on time, but is newer. We're all just hoping these two go but I don't know what will happen. The second one is in the third year, and the last "probation" year with the school. Will that one be quietly refused a contract renewal? Don't know.

Prediction

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As a former teacher and admin, I dealt with all sides of this. I would say you can see the kids POV. But depending on the kids complaining you can understand why they dislike that teacher. If you have a teacher all the kids dislike, chances are the other teachers and admin dislike them. If you have a teacher that only the s***head dislike, chances are they are a good teacher. And chances are other teachers like them because they know they are good. However if you get a teacher that the good kids dislike and the s***heads like, it is likely the other teachers dislike them and the admin dislikes them. The thing about teaching or working is that kids are very good judges of character. If there is no discipline involved kids like good teachers and dislike bad teachers. But kids can turn and hold a grudge like no other.

People Divulge The Dumbest Reasons Their Friends Ever Ended Up On The News

Reddit user Miguenzo asked: 'What’s the dumbest reason somebody you know landed on the 6 o’clock news?'

It can be a pleasant and exciting surprise to see a friend or family member show up on the evening news.

Particularly if it is a story showcasing their accomplishments or allowing them to let their voice be heard on an important issue.

Of course, showing up on the news isn't always a joyous occasion.

Indeed, some people tune in to find their friends and family on the news for reasons they might hope people will eventually forget down the line.

Redditor Miguenzo was eager to hear stories of a loved one making the evening news for less than brag-worthy stories, leading them to ask:

"What’s the dumbest reason somebody you know landed on the 6 o’clock news?"

15 Minutes, Or Four Seconds, Of Fame...

"Years back, there was a college scholarship scam going on here."

"These companies would go to high schools and do a presentation, and grift parents into paying a large sum for the company to help get a scholarship."

"My mom took one look at this and was like, 'this is a scam'."

"My uncle bought it hook, line and sinker and paid up."

"And received absolutely nothing."

"So he calls our news program and they do a feature with this company in their 'hall of shame.'"

"My uncle was absolutely THRILLED."

"'They interviewed me for 4 hours!'"

"'It's going to be huge!'"

"We all sit around the TV."

"It's February 2000."

"Boom, there's my uncle!"

"They do the lead-in..and then, there's my uncle saying..."

"'They said, uh, sue 'em'."

"My uncle is screaming."

"'What the Hell?! They were at my house for 4 hours!'"

"We still have it on VHS somewhere."

"My uncle's star moment over in seconds."- JKW1988

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Preserved For Posterity...

"My college roommate got stuck in an infant swing at a public park and firefighters had to use some type of Jaws of Life contraption to cut the swing down and cut her out of it."- Nocomt

Oops!

"I know a guy who was interviewed on camera up in the mountains where there was a forest fire."

"He had been up there fishing with his girlfriend."

"He was married."- Fezig

Close Call

"Dude was swimming laps in a lake after dinner (i.e., around sunset)."

"Predictably, he got bit by an alligator."

"I saw him on the news, shirtless in true Floridaman fashion, with a little bandage over each tooth mark."

"The bandages made a dotted line around his shoulder and chest in the shape of an alligator's mouth, like he was in a cartoon or something."- BigRedRobotNinja

Tiere Bis Unters Dach Swimming GIF by SWR KindernetzGiphy

Unpaid Extra

"There was a park nearby that had no drainage and was bowl shaped."

"So if it rained hard, this baseball park/ football field turned into a mini lake."

"It rained a lot one day and the news did a story just showing how much it rained, and in the background behind the news-woman, from out of frame you see my friend rowing past her in a kayak."- hook_killed_pan

Right Place At The Right Time?

"A fight broke out at a HS football game."

"Turned into a huge brouhaha.'

"They intervened this dumba** friend of mine on the local news, the only bit that made it into the broadcast was him saying 'For the first time in my life I was happy to see cops!'"- KneeDragr

Awww...

"Marrying their pet goldfish in an underwater ceremony, complete with a wedding gown and guests in scuba gear."- Candies-For-You

Illustration Swimming GIF by Ordinary NadeeGiphy

Strike!

'A childhood friend’s dad embezzled money from the local Little League team."- Key-Zebra-4125

How Did He Even Make It To The Freezer?

"An ex boyfriend of my best friend’s sister ended up on the news for breaking into a Checkers through the drive through window and locking himself in the freezer until the cops arrived and arrested him."- pineapple3712·

Ice Cream Snack GIF by My/Mochi Ice CreamGiphy

Setting An Example...

"I got filmed and aired sticking a swab up my nose at drive thru covid testing."

"I had just declined to be interviewed at my car because I was afraid of getting someone sick."

"Test was negative, and my sister got a new pic for my contact profile on her phone."- idiotsavant419

Criminals Don't Ususally Wait In The Check Out Line...

"My friend was going to target with his mom to buy a tv."

"They stopped at Starbucks in the store."

"When the worker asked what the wanted he said “'he money in the register see' like an old timey gangster, then laughed ordered and payed for their coffee and went into target."

"While they were pushing their cart with a tv in it to the check out line the swat team surrounded them and arrested him for armed robbery.. was on the news."

"Got charged and everything."

"The first hearing the barista could not point him out and the judge threw out the case."- MACHOmanJITSU

Returning To The Scene Of The Crime...

"A guy from my high school stole Michael Jackson's glove from the Motown Museum in Detroit MI in early 90s."

"He returned it."

"I knew it had to be him, and yep, it was."

"I remembered him because he dressed like Michael Jackson every single day of school for years."

"He did it really well, too."

"He also didn't talk much."

"So, I was surprised to see him talking to a TV reporter about it."

"I hope he's doing well."- ATK80k

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Some people crave their 15 minutes of fame and embrace it however it may come.

Others only hope that no one they knew happened to be watching their local news that night...

Even though they know deep down that all their friends have it on their DVR and are never planning to erase it...


People say the darndest things after -- and sometimes during -- lovemaking.

Maybe it's the euphoria.

Maybe it's the adrenaline.

Maybe it's the tequila.

It's always good to have a kind-hearted joke on hand or a generic compliment.

Or maybe just grab your belongings and skedaddle.

Redditor ella-es-julia wanted to hear about the craziest pillow talk stories, so they asked:

"Men of Reddit: What's the weirdest thing a girl said to you after sex?"

The weirdest I ever got was... "What city am I in again?"

Geography matters.

Morbid Much?

In Bed Home GIFGiphy

"Met girl, went on date, brought girl home, had the sex, finished the sex, laying there she says 'What would you do if I died right now?' and demanded an actual answer."

Vixxay

Meow

"Not to me, but as she walked over to the bathroom after the deed, she said 'I just did your owner' to my cat. Sexiest thing that ever happened to me."

shlanky369

"My Fiancé and I were about to start going at it when the cat appeared from under the bed and stared at me. I went, 'Babe the cat is here. I don't like how he's staring at my boobs."

"Fiancé grabbed the cat and yeeted him into the hallway with the phrase, 'Get out you weird pervert.'"

"The cat proceeded to (without his claws) smack the door over and over again while screaming for a few minutes straight. Pervert."

Trumpet6789

POP!

"'I need you to take me to the hospital. Something is now bleeding and hurts.'"

"Turns out her ovarian cyst popped. We're still together with the running joke of sex so good it put her in the ER."

DasBatt

"Ah ah ah, 2 hemorrhagic cysts ruptured, I was bleeding internally, but only a little bit. I'm still impressed by how quickly you went from a naked sex stupor to being ready and carrying me to the car. Good times."

"In the ER when they asked me what happened all I could do was shout 'we were f**kin!' through my tears. That memory still makes me laugh."

Straystar-626

Damn it's Good

"We were going at it for some time then her face went instantly from 'damn it's good' to full-on crying. I stop, ask her what's wrong and she tells me 'I can't cheat on my boyfriend, it is wrong.'"

"So this is when I learned that the girl that I met on a dating website and that I started seeing 3 weeks before and that she told me she was single had a boyfriend for over 5 years. Got her to talk more, and she told me she was on the dating website to see if there were guys better than her boyfriend so she could end up with someone better."

"This was like 20 years ago, a coworker I have right now knows her (his girlfriend is like a distant relative of hers) and I learned she had 5 different boyfriends since then, cheated on all of them except the last one (for now). She was also a cam model in secret, one of the boyfriends was a high-paying customer."

draftstone

A Binding Contract

"'Pleasure doing sex business with ya.' We then shook hands."

"Still together 5 years later!"

Tatarstan

It's nice when people who have great sex make great partners.

And it all starts with a handshake.

Sleep on It

“'I don’t usually say this but, yeah, you can stay.'"

lennyukdeejay

"Did you high-five after that? Seems like that statement called for it."

EvilNinjaX24

"This is the best one."

TomKhatacourtmayfind

Tiny Dancer

"Not really weird but I slept with this girl while backpacking Asia, she was also a backpacker. After a bit of chillin'/talking, I got up to get dressed, she looked at my flaccid manhood and said 'You're quite shy when you're not excited.' I thought it was hilarious."

fleetwoodsackk

"That's a much better way to put it. My wife, when we were just dating and had moved in together and eventually saw it flaccid just said 'Aww, it's so little.' Thanks, hun, exactly what every guy wants to hear."

striker180

Fine!

"She said 'If I get pregnant I'm keeping it.' I was dumbfounded and when I didn't respond quickly enough she got really agitated like I had hurt her feelings and yelled 'Fine! You don't have to be involved if you don't want to!'"

"We had just met that night. My condom use skyrocketed after that night."

Fullyme

"When I was a poverty-stricken college student I was banging a girl who said, 'If you get me pregnant I’ll take you for everything you own.' I said, 'All I own is my bicycle. You want that?'”

OrwellWasRight101

Amen

"Best weird compliment I ever got was 'Damn boy, you f**k like the Devil!'"

"I married her, we still goin' at it."

BeBearAwareOK

Well, these certainly created some lasting relationships... or hilarious tales to tell their friends.

Do you have any stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.

woman in black pants and red tank top
Jakayla Toney on Unsplash

Giving compliments is pretty easy, although most of us don't do it often enough.

Accepting compliments can be much harder.

Too many of us immediately shift into disclaimers to explain why we don't deserve the praise.

But we just need to say thank you—even if the compliment is a little odd.

Keep reading...Show less
Woman standing alone in the rain
Neal E. Johnson on Unsplash

We can all agree that, as fun as it's supposed to be, the dating scene can be really, really hard.

Here's the secret: as hard as the dating scene can be to navigate, some of the trouble lies with us. We may not to be able to find a long-term partner or a date at all because of something that we're doing.

But when a friend is in this situation, it can be really hard to tell them the brutal truth about their dating history.

Redditor teekzer asked:

"What is causing your friend to remain single that you don't have the heart to tell them?"

Chasing Deadends

"He keeps hanging on to the past and spending all his time hanging out with ex-girlfriends who are unavailable, or women who like him but he doesn’t romantically like."

- SqueakySnapdragon

Baby Talk

"I always wondered why she couldn't get a date because she is gorgeous until I saw her flirting with someone."

"The first night they met, flirted, and swapped numbers. Then, she was immediately clingy, talking in a baby voice to him, and making baby noises."

- robocop_robocop

Body Odor

"I can smell them. Everyone can smell them."

- not-read-gud

"You should find a way to tell them, it might hurt but they'll appreciate it."

- iciclesnbdayclothes

The Nice Guy Mindset

"He really is not as nice of a person as he thinks he is."

- Rusti3dp

"The ones who claim this rarely are."

- SummerOfMayhem

Impossible Standards

"The people they like aren’t real. They are idealized, cartoonish caricatures. Now my friend himself has a lot to offer in my opinion, but he is looking for a person who doesn’t exist. Hard to find something that’s not there."

- Sufficient-Spell9935

"I have a friend who started dating his flatmate after being really into her for a while, and then after a week or two said something like, 'Dating you doesn't feel as good as I thought it would,' TO HER."

"He basically torpedoed his own potential relationship because of his own ideal fantasy, and to be honest, I don't know if he actually realized he'd created an unrealistic standard in his own head."

"He's been single for the last decade, his mental health has only got worse in the time I've known him despite therapy, and I think he's probably so detached from 'appropriate dating behavior' at this point that he could be single for the rest of his life."

- fish993

Questionable Humor

"Brother-in-law, not friend. But he makes the same jokes about poop and farts all the time. Like, constantly."

"Yes, some women like potty humor, but they usually also want it to be funny."

"He is also very negative; finds insult or something wrong with any situation."

- EatYourCheckers

Living in Fantasy Land

"He lies to himself about almost everything. He lives in fantasy land."

"He thinks he's in the gym five days a week, eats great, climbs mountains, goes camping, and makes loads of money."

"In reality, he's at the pub five days a week, over eats like s??t, went on one hike in January, can't hold a job, and lives paycheck to paycheck..."

"If you were to confront him with this reality, it wouldn't even get through to him."

- Fit_Yogurtcloset_291

Mismatched Attraction

"The type of guys she claims she likes isn't what she's actually attracted to."

"She keeps saying how much she loves shy introverted sensitive guys but when she finds one and dates him suddenly, she's like, 'He's not outgoing enough, doesn't speak his mind enough, and is too shy!'"

"I kind of think she has this 'I can fix him' syndrome and doesn't really acknowledge it. Like, she's attracted to the idea of a typical shy guy but thinks once they're in a relationship they'll suddenly be more open and turn into the guy she actually wants. That's not how it works!"

- Disig

Poor Self-Esteem

"She is so lovely. So kind, so generous, and so beautiful. But her crippling lack of self-esteem is so huge, it's visible from space, and her anxiety (and I'm 99% sure her undiagnosed ADHD) means that when she's at all nervous, she talks at 100 miles an hour in several directions at once."

"It's like being handed eight happy Labrador puppies to try and hold in your arms. I so badly want her to be happy and feel fulfilled but even I find it tiring sometimes."

- butwhatsmyname

The Negative Attitude

"I have two of these."

"One is the most talented, smartest, wonderful person I know and I wish I could pull the gremlins out of their brain so they could be happy."

"The other is self-fulfilling proficiency f**king up their life. He's not unlovable, or ugly, or uncared for, but walking through the world expecting rejection at all turns and living in a fog of negativity is what makes him unattractive to be around."

"So-and-so isn't hotter than you, that's not the reason they're getting more friends and lovers, but they are more positive and interested than you, and people are attracted to that company."

- cool_username_iguess

Just Pure Arrogance

"For my husband’s friend, it’s the selfish arrogance. I want what I want, and the subtext was that he never cared about what his girlfriend wanted."

"He would only go places he wanted to go, which never included her friends or family. He wanted to spend all his money on 'collectibles' related to sci-fi movies, DVDs, figurines etc."

"Engagement rings were a waste of money, investing, or buying a house ditto, no compromises were possible, he said NO, and no discussions were entertained."

"His opinion on every topic was the correct one, and he was not interested in your opinion, or listening to extra facts he did not know that might change his mind."

"He was once young and good-looking, and he thought he could find someone else when she walked when he was 32. They had dated for close to a decade. During the relationship, he had started to stack on the weight and losing his hair and he was not able to find a replacement."

"Now he is 49 and hasn’t had a girlfriend since. He still has not bought a house and they cost double what they did when they were dating, and his rent has tripled. He does have a copy of all his favorite movies in every format: VHS, DVD, AND BlueRay, a whole bedroom is dedicated to storing them, if you can get in there. His house is a hoarder's paradise."

"He says the reason no one wants him is because he is fat and bald, and it does not help, but it’s not the major turnoff."

"As for his ex, I don't really know what happened to her. She left all of us behind when they broke up. I did hear she got married, but no updates after that. She is a sweetheart, I wish all the good things for her."

- vicki153

Impossible to Move Forward

"Summarizing two types of my single friends:"

"Super successful, smart, funny, and good-looking. They also tend to go for folks who leave them on read for days. Their insecurities are their worst enemies and I think are the biggest factor of them chasing after partners who don’t want to be partners."

"Other friends don’t know how to commit to anything, including a job. It almost feels like a 'it’ll happen when it happens' type of ideology and so they don’t even try to make things happen? They act like things will happen on their own? So they’ll meet a person and then that’s it. Meet cute dead in the water."

- thunderkitty_

Too Desperate

"Desperation. From laughing way too hard at mediocre jokes to bringing up marriage on the first date, she reeks of it."

"We have all tried talking to her about it to no avail. The sad thing is that if she was just her regular funny, smart, relaxed self, then men would be falling over themselves trying to get her number."

- Julia_Sugarbaker123

A Want List

"Her standards are excessively too high. She brings nothing to a relationship. She's a walking contradiction, all of which is why she is single."

"I think it's great to have standards and high standards but hers is just a checklist of wants."

- Theunpolitical

Height Insecurities

"He’s convinced women won’t like him because he’s short. I keep telling him I know plenty of guys just as short as him in great relationships, I’ve dated guys as short as him in the past. He just refuses to believe it."

- MichaSound

"I dated a guy who was four feet, nine inches, and I'm five feet, four inches. He had such an amazing strong personality that you never noticed his height."

"I did find kissing standing up weird; the motions are so different when it's swapped."

"The relationship ended for other reasons than his height."

- lonelyronin1

Alternatively, Open to Feedback

"I had a friend who finally did just ask. He came up to the girls in our group and just let us have an open conversation. I'm sure it was awkward and uncomfortable for him, but we gently laid out some issues. He cut his hair, got some new clothes, and (the big one) started therapy."

"A couple of years later, guess who's got a wife and a wonderful child?"

- Stars-in-the-night

It's so disheartening to see the people we care about unable to have something that they would find so fulfilling like a long-term relationship.

But it's even worse when the reasons behind it are things they could work on, if we only had the guts to tell them or if they were open to hearing it.