Top Stories

The Worst 'Throw Them In The Deep End' Parenting Style Horror Stories

Family camping
Photo by Tegan Mierle on Unsplash

No two people have the same style when it comes to parenting.

Some people have a more nurturing approach, who never force anything on their children, and allow them to develop certain skills, from using the potty to riding a bicycle, in their own time.

Others have a more "tough love" approach.

The sort of people who, as the saying goes, throw their children head first in the deep end and let them figure out how to swim.

No doubt, such a technique will teach their children resilience and determination.

Even though, the chances of some of these situations backfiring is extremely likely.

As are the chances of lasting trauma for the children.


Redditor MynameMB was curious to hear people's firsthand horror stories of when their parents threw them head first in the deep end, leading them to ask:
"What's your worst story from the "throw him in the pool, he'll learn how to swim" parenting style?"

Becoming One With Nature

"I had never gone camping before I was 11, I really wanted to go with my ten-year-old cousin."

"My parents took me to the woods, and handed us the tent and a half-full bag of ranch Doritios , and like a pack of bratwursts, and my seven-year-old sister."

"Then they pulled off, leaving us to camp for the first time alone in the woods with a seven-year-old."

"Not a fun weekend."

"I never went camping again, but it was apparently fine because that's how my dad and uncle learned."

"I'm just grateful for the lack of serial killers, and black bears."- UrDadTxtMe

Out On The Open Road

"My dad, when he decided to give me driving lessons when I was a teenager, which turned out to be a driving lessON, singular."

"He took me to the parking lot across the street from our house, and had me tool around to get used to the steering and pedals for about 15 minutes."

"Then, annoyed that I wasn't catching on fast enough for his taste, he decided we should go on the actual road and I'd learn faster in a more challenging environment."

"Cue him barking orders to 'speed up, slow down, HIT THE BRAKES!' in an increasingly frustrated voice as I tooled along, terrified I was going to hit someone."

"The culmination of our lesson came when he noticed we were low on gas, and told me to pull into the gas station."

"Keep in mind- my sum total of driving experience at this point was about 25 minutes, which did not include parallel parking."

"I pulled into the gas station and came at the pump at something like a 30-degree angle."

"He grabbed the steering wheel to correct and actually yelled at me, 'JESUS CHRIST!! DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE?!'"

"To which I said, 'NO!!! I DON'T!! YOU'RE TEACHING ME, REMEMBER?!'"

"He drove back home silently."

"That was the end of Dad's driving lessons. I signed up with a driving school after that."- SigourneyReaver

Tough Love At It's Toughest

"I got stung by a bee and my mother was convinced I was faking."

"At the point I started to struggle to breathe, she finally irritatingly relented and made me walk to the hospital pushing my baby brother's stroller the entire way."

"When I got there, the staff were horrified, rushed me in to give me an epinephrine shot, and luckily that did the trick."

"Many months later, a bee got into my bedroom, and my father called me a pu**y for coming and getting him to deal with it, instead of dealing with it myself."

"'You have to learn how to deal with these things sometime!'"

"Or, like, you know, I could just ask someone not allergic to bees to come and safely deal with the bee instead of risking hospitalization?"

"My parents were terrible, and abusive for for more than just this one single incident."

"I have been NC for about twenty years because of the way they treated me as a child."

"I have countless incidents like this from both of them, this one just stood out at the time I was replying to this."- ShofieMahowyn

The Only Way To Teach Children How To Swim is by TEACHING THEM HOW TO SWIM!

"Not my story, but my mom's."

"She developed a phobia after she was thrown into a pool to learn how to swim."

"At the age of 70, she still doesn't know how to."

"She's terrified of being on the water, even in a safety vest."

"And then, some fake clairvoyant told her she would die by drowning."

"So we spent our summers in the mountains as far away from being on water."- myuniquenameonreddi

"I was scared of the deep end so my dad threw me in."

"My cousin parked an inflatable mattress in the corner I was in immediately."

"My parents supposedly yelled at him to move, he didn't."

"I don't know how long I was was under the mattress for, but I was spitting up water/choking when I came back up."

"I was maybe 6 at the time?"- Gone_cognito

Some People Really Are That Stubborn...

"My younger cousin, 4 at the time, was a climber and always needed help getting down."

"His dad told his mom to leave him."

"He’ll either learn how to get down himself or stop climbing."

"Cousin ended up climbing onto the roof, fell off and got impaled on a fence pole."

"One very expensive trip to the ER and he now has a cool scar on his thigh."

"He did not stop climbing, he just got better ways to get off the roof."- idontdigdinosaurs

A Baby? Seriously?!?!

"My father in law decided when his first child was born that they, he and his wife, would NOT go to the baby when he started crying in the middle of the night."

"In order to teach him that crying doesn’t get you anything in this world."

"Turns out, newborns need to be fed every two hours."

"So it’s a good thing my mother in law ignored him and went to their newborn son, otherwise he might have died."- ApolloStaples

Surprising As It May Seem, Some Children Do Tell The Truth

"Hurt my arm playing football during morning break at school, was sent home by the school nurse."

"My dad said it was fine, bandaged it and sent me to school the next day only for them to send me home again within an hour."

"My mum made my dad take me to hospital and my arm was broken."

"My wrist had spilt lengthways, it was in casts for 9 months."

"I was secretly buzzing to be honest because, well, that showed him the knob."-Reddit

Pills

"When I was about 5 or 6, I was very sick with a flu. Fever, vomiting, sweating, congestion, it was awful. There was some mixup at the pharmacy, and they thought I was my father and gave him adult medication-basically these giant horse pills."

"Now, normal child medication for things like this are syrups and chewable sh*t for obvious reasons. My dad comes home and tells me I have to take these meds. I have a hard time getting them down, almost choking a few times. My dad got frustrated and literally started shoving these huge pills down my sore throat with his angrily shaking fingers. I started crying, my nose was stuffed so I could only breathe through my mouth. I remember my dad’s wedding ring banging against my teeth, eyes watering, gasping for air while looking at my mom for help."

"Eventually, I coughed it back up, crying and throat on fire. I remember my mom demanding an apology from my dad, who just said 'Well, he’s going to have to learn to take pills like that sometime anyway' and stormed off."

"Damn. I haven’t thought about that story in 20+ years."

heyitsEnricoPallazzo·

Time To Swim Honey

"​My dad and I once witnessed someone who literally did this for a little three-year-old girl. This little girl was just playing at the edge of the pool, happily minding her own business when her dad ran up behind her, picked her up, and tossed her screaming as far as he could into the deep end of the pool while yelling “time to swim honey”.

"At first my dad and I didn’t react, cause my dad has done this to me as a game (I learned to swim first) but we started to notice that she was struggling to surface while he dad just watched. My dad nervously asked, “can she swim?” To which the guy just shrugs and says “she’ll figure it out”.

"I have never seen my dad book it so fast to get it the water as I did that day. He quickly go the kid out of the water and started screaming at the guy about what kind of idiot he was while the girl was just bawling her eyes out. I swear my dad was ready to deck the guy. This was back in the 1990s so we didn’t have a cell phone to call the police, but we never saw them again after. It was the first time in my life I had seen insane parenting and to this day freaks me out that some people will still do this."

Lark1987

Margs

"My stepmom walked us (me, sister, brother 10-12) deep into the woods and left us there to learn 'survival skills'. We thought we were all out on a hike then she distracted us, and ran away. We wandered into camp hours later; we knew how to get back but searched for hours worried that something had happened to her. She was drinking margaritas and smirking."

visviva1

Sink or Swim

"I actually used to be a swim teacher in college teaching private lessons in people's backyards because of parents who had thrown their kids into the pool to sink or swim. It was usually Mom's calling me for help because they heard from a friend of a friend that I was able to teach their kid and get them to like the water again in about a month or less. One kid, he was 7, I had to sit with him on the pool deck the whole first lesson and bring buckets of water to him, his Dad had dunked him multiple times and insisted that his son would just figure it out eventually because "that's how he learned." Needless to say he was never home when I was there."

"The Mom had me come while Dad was at work. Four weeks later she had me come later in the afternoon so he would come home towards the end of the lesson. His Dad saw his son swimming and cried happy tears. He had no idea I had been there three days a week for a month. My favorite student was a 70-year-old man who wanted to do a triathlon but never learned to swim because his Dad threw him in as a child. It took about 3 months total, a lot of hand holding on the steps and shallow end, but he finally achieved his goal and I got to cheer him on at the finish line."

"I still remember how each of my students clung to my arms and clawed at my neck in their first lessons. I never dunked or forced anyone out of their comfort zone. My lessons had to be customized for each student to keep it fun and relaxing. The trauma in their eyes was haunting though. It stayed with me and I NEVER force anything on my kids that they aren't ready to do. It's about trust, not force."

torneen

Rage Stroke

"I was at the beach one time and it was hot out-I could not walk on the sand without sandals on. I heard a cry and looked up to see a little girl standing barefoot on the sand, not more than two, screaming for her dad, 5 feet away, who just told her to ‘stop being such a little pu**y’. Just about had a rage stroke and ran over to pick her up myself, but he eventually did." - ubereddit

Picky Eater

"I was always a picky eater growing up. One time my mom sat me down with a small bowl of almonds and told me I couldn’t get up out of my seat until I finished it. I insisted that I hated them and they were making my mouth itch, she thought I was just being difficult. I just started to swallow the almonds like pills because my mouth was so itchy from chewing on them."

"A couple years later I saw and allergist and discovered I was allergic to tree nuts."

Good Learning Experience?

"This didn't happen to me but to my older brother, so I had a front-row seat to all of it."

"He was looking to purchase a house for cheap that was in a semi-rural area, and wanted at least some acreage near it. His budget was way smaller than it should have been for the houses he wanted, and was looking at the most dilapidated, terrible houses ever. He found one that was just what he wanted: multiple rooms, a basement, 2 acres of woods, and about 15-30 minutes away from nearby cities. It was only about $120,000, and he was sold on it. The problems were abundant however, and I told him not to do it. Our parents loved this idea."

"They pushed and encouraged him, looked at it and took pictures, helped fill out loan paperwork, and even started planning all of the restoration projects it would need. My brother was committed all the way to the point of confirming the loan and moving there immediately. I was mortified. This house was an absolute dump made in the early 1910s and redid once in 1950. It had mold, holes in the roof and walls, old rusted wiring, peeling wallpaper, and crumbling shelves. The only redeemable part was the size of the rooms, which were pretty decent. I begged him not to do it, and it finally made him think twice."

"Finally, he relented and listened to me. He stopped and decided not to do anything. Later, I brought up how bad of an idea that house was and my parents completely agreed. They thought it was garbage, but they wanted him to follow through because it would have been a "good learning experience." I was floored and asked why they would support this then, and they simply responded that it would teach him to be careful with these kinds of things."

"They were literally going to let him go into massive debt and struggle so hard in order to teach him to be more careful of opportunities, and they tried to push it and encourage it instead of just sitting down and explaining all of this!"

"Tldr: Parents were going to let my brother go into massive debt to buy a sh*tty old house in order to teach him a lesson on waiting to find a better house deal after encouraging and nearly forcing him to go through with it." - JJ_Fury97

Everyone needs a little tough love every now and again.

Of course, the important element of tough love is the love, not the toughness.

And one can't help but wonder if parents putting their children in potentially deadly situations are actually acts of love?

Vegans Who Started Eating Meat Again Share Their Experiences

Reddit user Capital_Brain2676 asked: 'Vegans that started eating meat again, what happened?'

Person about to bite into a burger
Szabo Viktor/Unsplash

Most restaurant menus have caught up with the times to offer plenty of options to patrons with various dietary restrictions.

Vegan dishes tend to be a top priority, with gluten-free options being a close second.

Thanks to these options, groups of family and friends can dine together and not be limited by restaurant choices.

But when there's a sudden break in routine on the next outing, it can be jarring when the vegan in your group suddenly orders prime rib or a juicy burger that is not a plant-based patty.

What the whaaat?

Curious to hear from those who did a dietary 180 after routinely nourishing themselves with food grown from the earth's soil, Capital_Brain2676 asked:

"Vegans that started eating meat again, what happened?"

Some people were told what's good for them.

Point Made

"I know someone who was a vegetarian for 13 years simply because someone told them they couldn't do it. I guess he figured 13 years was enough to prove a point and went back to eating meat after."

– ottersandgoats

"I feel like 2-3 years would be enough though??"

– WebBorn2622

On A Dare

"I knew a girl in college who did that. She was dared in middle school to become a vegetarian and... she just stuck with it. More power to them."

– ComplexWest8790

Some people were left with no choice but to ditch veganism.

Thanks, Mickey Ds

"Got cancer. Ate whatever my body would take without throwing up and that just happened to be chicken nuggets."

– BratS94

When Choices Are Limited

"Homeless and pregnant = eat what I was given."

– anon

"I’ve always wondered this actually. If a homeless vegan eats what they’re given. I’ve given homeless people subs in the past because of veggies, protein, and carbs (all necessary things) and wondered if they would eat it if they’re vegan. I’m sorry you’ve been on that road. I hope things are better for you now."

– Saltwater_Heart

The Saying Goes

"There is a reason for the saying 'beggars can’t be choosers,' you give what you can/have and you can’t always accommodate the person you are giving it to, don’t think too hard about it. Also, hope OP is doing better."

– Reikotsu

Certain medical conditions prevented these Redditors from sticking to their restrictive diets.

Cooking For Two

"I still eat mostly vegetarian food and have done all my life. However my husband was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and coeliac which means that a high fibre/lower iron diet is not an option and a lot of the substitutes aren’t gluten free. More often than not when he has meat I’ll leave it or have the veggie equivalent but there are just not enough hours in the day to make 2 separate lasagnes and sauce etc."

– Chanel-Chic

Troublesome Ailment

"As someone who has UC, that's very cool of you to cook a more UC friendly diet. I dated a woman for 6 months who was a pescatarian. Every time I cooked, it was something we both liked and could eat. Every time she cooked, she focused on what she wanted and it didn't seem to matter whether I could eat it or not. She was nuero divergent and had it in her head that veggies = good regardless of what it did to my insides. For anyone who doesn't know, UC is inflammation due to my immune system attacking the lining of my colon. So it's inflamed (unless you're in remission, which a fair amount of people aren't). Large amounts of fiber makes the food sit there longer and get more packed, which hurts like all hell being tight up against inflamed tissue. And certain ones create gas of an unimaginable magnitude and strength."

"Anyway, a fair amount of the time, I had to order delivery or takeout because otherwise, I would have been farting or sh*tting my brains out overnight. So I appreciate what you've done like you wouldn't believe."

– Wishilikedhugs

Bye Bye Veggies

"My gastroparesis diet led me off my vegan diet as well. I can’t handle legumes, leafy greens, and most vegetables. Hard to be a healthy vegan without any of those."

– Jefauver

When Vegan Ingredients Turn On You

"Yup. Crohn’s Disease ended my 17 year vegetarian stretch. I’m in remission now and don’t eat red meat but I am sensitive to several vegan friendly ingredients like garlic, onions, cauliflower family and now I can avoid them without starving."

–friscodayone

Cooking For A Full House

"Back when COVID had everyone in lockedown, myself and my roommate's family would take turns cooking dinner and it was fine. Then my roommate went on the NOOM diet, her daughter was diagnosed with GERD and couldn't have anything acidic, and her husband was diagnosed with celiac. Oh, and another family member disliked potatoes. I finally had to bow out. It was way too much of a pain in the @ss to cook a meal that met all of those restrictions."

– panda388

Sometimes, you just gotta have meat.

Costco Chicken

"Not my story, but a good friend of mine was vegetarian, very nearly vegan for over 10 years. One day she was in Costco and walked past the rotisserie chickens. Without thinking she put it in her cart. When she got home she stood over the sink and ate it with her bare hands. She had no idea what came over her. Her telling me this story is still one of the funniest things I've ever heard. She is still very plant forward in her eating, but she won't hesitate to order a burger or a steak when she wants it now."

– NotAlwaysGifs

Ravenous

"I went on a weekend backpacking trip with a girl who had been religiously vegan for a few years. It was a pretty physically intense trip, and the last day heading back was in pouring rain the whole way, so by the time we got back to our car, we were absolutely exhausted, filthy, and starving."

"There was only one restaurant anywhere nearby, one of those highway diners. We get there and I notice she's got this kind of crazy look in her eyes. I ask if she's okay, and she just says 'I need a steak.' I laugh, but she goes 'I'm serious. I can't help it. I need a big greasy piece of meat right now or I'm going to die.""

"Sure enough, she orders the biggest steak on the menu, and wolfs it down in minutes, and the crazed look goes away. After that, she went right back to being vegan like nothing had happened. The look in her eyes was a little scary to be honest."

– AxelShoes

Unless it's a matter of life or death, there's no way I can survive being a vegan.

I don't have a strong enough will power to avoid eating meat.

So if that day ever comes when I'm forced to make a major change in my diet that won't include red meat and you're around me all the time, apologies in advance for my perpetual state of being hangry.

Ham, Pie, casserole and gravy on a dinner table.
Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash

When getting together for dinner with friends, there isn't a more convenient, economical, or (hopefully) fun way to do it than having a potluck.

That way, one person isn't responsible for cooking everything, not to mention cleaning all the dishes afterward.

And everyone can contribute something they love, be it handmade or store-bought.

Of course, the ongoing risk with potluck meals is that one dish proves to be much less popular than others, possibly even going completely untouched all night. Perhaps the only thing worse than a dish going completely untouched is only one person touching it and then warning others to avoid it.

Redditor aquamarinetangerines was eager to hear about the most disgusting dishes people have ever seen or tasted at a potluck, leading them to ask:

"What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever seen someone bring to a potluck?"

Disgusting AND Lazy...

"Has a guy bring in his 'specialty corn'.”

"It was legit canned corn in a crockpot with spices."

"Thing is, he tells us 'ya, my wife took it to her pot luck on Tuesday, they didn’t eat it so I saved it on low in the crockpot and brought it here'.”

"It was Friday."

"Corn was brown."

"Nobody ate it."

"He kept eating it saying it was so good."

"The following Monday his new name at work was Corn Cob Rob."- ComparisonHonest

"She opened a can of tiny shrimp and poured it out, liquid and all, on top of a block of cream cheese."

"That was it. I guess we were supposed to eat it with crackers."- cherrybounce

Happy Fun GIF by Chopt Creative Salad Co.Giphy

Check The Dates...

"My grandmother-in-law."

"Everything she brings."

"The first time was stale cake in a bowl of syrup(?)."

"It was both cake and soup, while also being neither."

"She has meat in her deep freezer older than some of her grandchildren."

"She’s a depression-era cook, so expiration dates don’t apply to medicine, cupboards, or freezers."

"Once she tried to give my daughter (2yo at the time), cough medicine that expire 9 years before she was even born."- dirtandstarsinmyeyes

"We had a potluck today and someone brought some Doritos."

"People started eating them and complaining that they tasted like dirt."

"We looked at the bag and it had a promo for 'Mockingjay part 1'."

"The chips expired in 2014!"

"This was a mixed department pot luck and we haven’t found the person that brought the 9 year old chips."- Chicken_Scented_Fart

Beef In Place Of Walnuts? Makes Perfect Sense...

"Someone made brownies with ground meat in them to a church potluck."

"My vegetarian friend discovered this when she bit into one."

"She was more confused and horrified about their existence than she was upset about eating meat-."

"It was the concept of this abomination itself that was disturbing and baffling."

"I thought she had to be wrong."

"'You haven't had ground beef in years, you don't know what it tastes like anymore, it's probably something else'."

"I tried them."

"It was beef."

"I was disgusted and really, really, really confused."

"Years later, I found out that apparently this was a thing."

"Someone came up with this-- putting beef in brownies-- as a substitute for walnuts for people with nut allergies."

"While this explains it a little, in theory, I'm still confused about why someone would assume that people who can't eat walnuts would prefer to eat ground beef brownies over just regular nut-free brownies."

"My sister reminded me that she was also there for this and she had tried the brownies first, and that they were actually the reason she stopped wanting to come to church."

"'I started doubting the entire establishment', she says."- Unfey

Hungry Pizza GIF by Papa JohnsGiphy

Honest Mistake? Or Adventurous Experiment?

"Someone brought Deviled eggs and instead of sprinkling paprika on them they used cinnamon."- TinyWifeKiki

Veering From The Recipe Doesn't Always Pay Off...

“'Homemade fried chicken'.”

"Which translated to ‘chicken that I covered in pancake batter and breadcrumbs and dropped into a frypan until the outside looked cooked'."

"It wasn’t even seasoned."- Tying_pyrope

Not Everyone Likes Things Spicy...

"An apple pie, but they didn't have apple pie spices, like clove, cinnamon, or nutmeg, and said they used taco seasoning by accident and expected people to eat it."

"I, a dumb b*tch who likes to torture themselves tried it, and promptly tossed it into the trash when they looked away."- jirohen

Hot GIF by GIPHY Studios 2018Giphy

At A Restaurant No Less!

"A Korean-American coworker brought homemade kimchi, but she admittedly didn't know how to make it and just 'winged it'."

"It was fermented wrong and was covered in mold, which she didn't seem to understand was bad."

"The vegetables were basically half liquified and it smelled like dumpster juice."

"The thing is...half of the chefs at work had learned to make kimchi correctly and safely since various different kimchis used to be on the menu before she was hired."

"So we all instantly knew it was wrong and unsafe, but no one wanted to tell her."- No_Pear_2326

Cross Contamination...

"At my previous job, I had a coworker that would frequently cook food because it was his 'passion' and he would bring it in to share with everyone."

"On a few occasions, someone would get ill after, but infrequently enough that people wrote it off as a coincidence."

"This coworker goes out on PTO and asks another coworker to feed his 12 cats while he is gone/scoop the litter boxes."

"Unfortunately, it was discovered the coworker was cooking/serving us food in the same pans he was also sometimes using as litter boxes for his bushel of cats."

"When confronted, he stated he thought this was fine because he washed them after."

"We never ate his food again."- Kitten_spawn

Surprise Ingredients Rarely Pay Off...

"Casserole with a side of roaches."

"Not even kidding."

"They crawled out of the bag she brought her dish in."

"I stopped participating in potlucks after that."- CanUFeelItMrKrabs

new york cockroach GIFGiphy

Yesterday's Delicacies/Today's Atrocities...

"Grandma's Jello salad, made with cottage cheese and celery."- GoatEatingTroll

No two people share the same taste in food, hence why we shouldn't always be hurt or offended if our contribution to a potluck doesn't prove popular.

There's also nothing wrong with choosing to pop by a supermarket instead of preparing something yourself.

As a store-bought lasagna will always go over better than homemade kimchi covered with mold or ground beef brownies...


A young woman dressed in high fashion attire, carries tons of shopping bags
Photo by freestocks

The way people spend money has always fascinated me.

For many years I waited tables.

I worked in high-end, low-end, and all of the in-betweens.

And what would shock me most (besides all of y'all's BAD behavior) was the waste.

The waste of food, but more importantly the waste of money.

How does someone order a $50 steak, only eat half and toss out the rest?

No doggie bag. No leftover.

It must be nice to have that much coin to toss away.

Redditor StalkSmash wanted to discuss everyone's shopping habits, so they asked:

"What is one thing that you flat out just don’t know how people afford?"

Premium liquor choices always stun me.

When a certain friend can just casually order a $30 martini because of the vodka choice, without blinking, I'm stunned.

Jealous first, then stunned.

Stay Home

Hungry Night Court GIF by LaffGiphy

"People who eat exclusively by ordering takeaways or delivery from restaurants. It's mind-bogglingly expensive."

woke_agenda

Secrets

"Secret hidden families. I can barely afford 1."

judgeeveryonesbiznes

"At my last job, a woman told me her (ex)husband had a secret family. She found out when I guess the mortgage company called to ask about some documents for the new house. No idea what he did for work. Wife, two kids, a house, and whatever the bonus family consisted of."

Tomacxo

"My dad did this. He had started a company in another city within the state, as that was where the industry prospects were better. Aaaaaaaand time rolled on past and I guess he missed having family around, just not ours."

luckycaller13

Bad Upkeep

"Eyelash extensions and the upkeep of them."

CollegeFabulous3535

"I got them. They took 2 hours to put on initially and then you have to go back every two weeks to get them filled or you look like you have mange."

"You also have to brush them every single morning or they will point in every direction, and God help you if you have a cold or allergies where your eyes get even slight build-up. You can't just pick any crusty s**t from your eyelashes because the fake ones are glued on and this acts as a stopper so you can't just slide it off your lash."

"I spent so many mornings standing in front of the mirror cleaning and arranging one f**king eyelash at a time. I couldn't deal."

Purple_Chipmunk_

Overpaying

"I still don't know how we afforded daycare. At one point had two kids in daycare for a year before oldest went to kindergarten."

PJ_lyrics

"We have two kids in full-time daycare, the daycare that we go to is slightly below market rate for the area, we're going to pay around 25k this year. Thank God my oldest goes to kindergarten next fall."

"We overpay on our mortgage because we're trying to pay it off quicker, but if we paid the actual loan amount daycare would cost more than our house."

"And let me be clear, my wife and I are the lucky ones. We waited to have a kid until our late 30s, and I was 40 when kid 2 was born. We both have good careers and make good incomes and it's a serious, serious financial stretch for us to be able to afford it, I honestly don't know how other people do it and there's no way I would have been able to afford two kids even 7 or 8 years ago."

topcide

For Fun

Shark Week Ocean GIF by Pudgy PenguinsGiphy

"A boat or RV (or both)?! I can barely afford to exist much less spend all this money on recreation."

Korashime

Boats have always been an issue.

Just remember the Titanic.

Upkeep

Face Botox GIF by Montreux ComedyGiphy

"Women who keep up with nails, lash extensions, Botox etc. That crap is expensive as f**k!"

GingerMeTimberMate

Up in the Air

Flying Music Video GIFGiphy

"First-class airfare... it’s just so overwhelmingly expensive in comparison to regular seats I can’t imagine anyone ever having that amount to spare unless you’re incredibly wealthy."

Fit-Vanilla-3405

International Worth

"International First Class tickets. I'm going to Japan in a month and was thinking of going in style. I got a nice raise and a bit of vacation time saved and wanted to treat myself. Forget it all. $17k was the cheapest I found. Absolutely insane!"

trapNsagan

"Buy economy than wait. They will send emails out to bid on the business and first-class seats that are not sold. Or you can check on the airline's app for seat upgrades closer to the departure date and upgrade cheaper."

brosiedon7

Special Days

"Multiple-family foreign holidays per year. To be clear, I'm not criticizing anyone on this, and I appreciate that if you leave in mainland Europe, it's easier than here (Scotland)."

"I am just genuinely amused/bemused when I see people on their 2/3/4 foreign holiday of the year on social media."

"We went to Portugal last year (Fantastic country, btw). 2 adults 2 kids (the eldest boy was playing in a football tournament), and it was probably £3.5k and that was done cheaply. We don't go into debt for a holiday ever, though."

MelmanCourt

Getting on in Years

"Eldercare. $300 a day is about typical for most states, and it goes up if they need special care (dementia, etc)."

"3/4 of Americans who live to 21 live to 65, of which 2/3 will need long-term care for an average of 3 years. Maybe not all long-term care is nursing level, but some of it is even more expensive -- memory care, etc. Comes out to roughly $150k per person-- and almost double that if you limit it to those who need any at all. Somewhere between a generous down payment and a new house. Who can afford that -- especially after decades not working?"

Opening_Cellist_1093

First-class has always been an intriguing aspect of mine.

But that extra coin can get crazy.

I'll stick to coach.

retro diner interior

Spencer Davis on Unsplash

I have no aesthetic or emotional issues with getting older as it certainly beats the alternative, so I freely admit I have reached a certain age.

It's the age of sound effects when I get up from a chair and asking younger people to pick things up off the floor for me.

It's the age of having to use Urban Dictionary daily to understand messages I get from younger friends and relatives.

But as much as I don’t understand their language, music or hobbies, there's a lot they'll never understand about my childhood and adolescence.

I was reading an article by writer Eric Chilton who pointed out Gen X—the generation born between 1965 and 1980 of which I'm a part—was the last to live in a world without the internet, cellular phones and social media.

And those are only a few examples of the paradigm shifting innovations in our lifetimes.

Keep reading...Show less