People Describe The Weirdest Thing They've Ever Witnessed At A Friend's House

Growing up, I wasn't really allowed to have friends outside of my cousins, and people who my parents went to church with. Since I have a ridiculous number of cousins (seriously... can we stop, fam? There's sooooo many of us already!) it wasn't really a major thing that even crossed my mind.
I didn't really spend any time at "friends" places til I was almost done with high school, and when I tell you it was straight up culture shock ... I just ... woo!
My family is multi-racial and massive. So imagine my shock walking into a house where people are just one color and there's only 3 of them and like ... that's it?
Three? Where is everyone else? My dad has nine siblings. Most of them have 5 and 6 kids and even more grandkids. Moms side of the family is just as big.
One Reddit user asked:
What's the weirdest thing you've seen happen at a friend's house that they thought was normal?
For me, the weirdest thing by far was just the total lack of people. Friend's houses felt like post-apocalyptic desolate wastelands for the first few visits until I started to understand that it was *ME* who was the one living in an unusual situation.
Let's see what these people discovered.
The Musty Smell
"Was on a date with a guy who was cooking dinner for me and his dog took a giant horse pee in the living room. I jumped up, a bit panicked, trying to get the guy's attention to what just happened."
"The guy didn't even look up when he said 'Oh yeah, she does that sometimes' ... and that was it."
"I asked him if there was a towel and disinfectant I could use to help clean it up and the guy says 'I'll just throw some Febreeze on it after dinner.' "
"I suddenly realized the musty smell I noticed earlier wasn't from his cool and rustic cabin being under a canopy of trees, or that the floor in the same location that bowed when you stepped over it was because it was old."
"Ate dinner at a table that was couple feet away from the dog toilet. Left."
"Fcking gross." - Revolutionarysugar6
The Daycare Bartender
"Here's an 'I was that family' story. My Godmother (who was practically an aunt) ran a fairly successful daycare out of her home in the 90s."
"She was a first generation immigrant to the US, whose parents came to the New England area from Ireland. My two younger brothers and I spent a lot of time at her home and I was generally the oldest child there."
"When I was about 8 years old, she started to have me make her her favorite drink. Gin and tonic. She drank these ALL DAY, while running her home daycare."
"At age 8 I knew...how to mix cocktails, that forks were better for stirring than spoons, and that large plastic bottles of gin were cheap and low quality."
"This went on for years, on pretty much a daily basis, until my family moved out west. My Godmother kept her daycare running until she died (I'm sure of health problems relating to alcohol.) "
"I was 15 when she passed and I'm in my 30's now. I honestly went most of my life thinking NOTHING of it until I became a father a couple of years ago. At which point I was like... 'How the f*ck did anyone let her have a daycare?' "
"Side note, I drink but would consider myself an average drinker, if not below average. With that being said, I could never stomach the thought of gin and didn't try gin until I was 30. "
"This was because I once licked my finger, early in my daycare bartending career, after a couple of drops of gin splashed on my hand as I was pouring. That plastic-half-gallon quality gin was the worst thing I'd ever had in my life and I had no idea how my Godmother liked it so much. Complete ruined my taste for gin...at 8." - academic_bar9792
The Hoarders
"I had a friend in High School - we're still friends today actually - whose mom was a hoarder."
"There were little pathways throughout the house but it was filled, from floor to ceiling, with junk. In the hallway to the bedrooms, she had stacked every newspaper she ever got. They were tied up in bundles."
"When you walked in that hallway he would caution to not touch the papers because if a row fell, it would take a couple hours to dig yourself out." - ferrariguy1970
"Not really weird I guess, but first time in my husband's parent's house (just a friend at the time), I got to see what a hoarder house looked like."
"It wasn't even a well-known term/condition back then, so it just really shocked me seeing the giant mounds of stuff everywhere and having to navigate through it all. His room was clean, the rest of the house, not so much." - ArtsySAHM
Cool
"I babysat for a family on occasion and the kids would always ask for a 'cool cup' and I had no clue what it was. They asked for them constantly but were too little to really describe them enough for me to understand."
"I mentioned it to the mom in passing one day and she started laughing hysterically. She then showed me the cool cups by cutting the tops off of some bell peppers, taking out the seeds, and then filling the peppers with tap water."
"The kids went nuts over them like there were treats. It was really weird to me that drinking water out of bell peppers was a thing to beg for on the regular." - Kikabennet
"One of my friends has a 3 year old that was wanting some sort of like yogurt drink or something. He'd already had one so answer was no."
"He asked a couple more times and so my bud asked him in an excited tone, 'Do you want a cool drink!?' "
"Of course kid got excited and said yes."
"My friend put ice and water in a blender and made a shredded ice drink. Kid drank 3 of them and was jazzed about it. Lol" - ConstipatedUnicorn
The Documentarian
"Went to a sleepover at this girls house and her mom was obsessively taking pictures of us all night."
"At one point, we were watching a movie and my friend passed out and her mom , I sh*t you not, pulls out a huge newscast-type heavy duty camera and starts recording her daughter sleeping for a solid 5 minutes."
"I have trouble sleeping and so that night when us kids were in the bedroom to sleep, I was on the floor, just staring at the wall in the dark. I was facing away from the door, laying on my side."
"I hear the door creak...some footsteps and then the darkness of the room lit with a sudden flash."
"I got up just in time to see the door close. I know it was her mom taking pics of us. The weirdest part to me is that it was about 3am when that happened - meaning the girl's mom either had an alarm or just stayed up that late in wait..."
"It wasn't explained and the mother also took like 20 pics of us eating dinner and breakfast the next morning. Also, we were in high school."
"I found out later her mom is just like that. We had a school science fair and her mom came and was taking pictures of EVERYTHING, even the carpet." - TraditionalEye4686
"My grandmother lost her first child in a tragic accident. She was like this with my dad. Maybe she had something like that in her past." - robbysaur
The Best 'Actually, You're Speaking To The Boss' Experience | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
There are a few experiences as frustrating as dealing with an entitled customer. But there's absolutely nothing quite like dealing with someone who doesn't r...House Cows
"Had a friend who's family lived on a huge property and kept cows for the property tax exemption. Not odd around the area."
"He told me to come by. When I got there he invited me in to meet his parents and I swear to God there was a full size cow chilling on one of their couches in the living room." - Veg305
"Growing up we had some goats and land but no cows."
"My brother decided to go to the livestock auction with one of his friends and saw a baby cow being sold for meat. I guess he just couldn't stand the thought of this poor little cow being sold to be eaten so he won the auction for it."
"He then walked it home somehow and didn't put it in the pasture, nor the backyard, but INSIDE THE HOUSE INSTEAD."
"My mom came home from work and was like 'excuse me everyone, why is there a cow in the hallway?'"
"Lmao he got in so much trouble. Loved that cow though, he thought he was a goat." - bunnykitten94
The Doctors House
"My house - but looking back it's unusual."
"My Dad was a doctor and it was not uncommon for him to take a patient's blood on the way home and store it in the fridge next to the orange juice overnight. Then take it to work the next morning."
"Can't do that these days of course but the 70s was pretty wild." - Ozdiva
"My grandparents were doctors and this is the least weird story in this thread for me. Living with a doctor is an educational adventure." - ChasingSplashes
"Almost same but my brother. He is a veterinarian but during his study, he'd bring all sorts of animal cadavers in the house. Lol" - Adonis_X
The Bears Couch
"One of the first times I met my husband's family, I was over at their house and husband gestured for me to sit down and be comfortable."
"Their house was really very cluttered. Not quite hoarder cluttered, but close. They had a couple of couches facing each other and then some other chairs."
"Not knowing the 'rules,' I sat on one of the couches, which had a lot of stuffed teddy bears on it. OMG, you would think I had sat down on live bears."
"There were probably 20-30 small - medium stuffed bears on this couch. Husband's mother and twin brother both visibly reacted as if I had damaged the bears. (Not antique bears either)."
"That was when I was told that the couch was for the bears, and only for the bears and that no one was allowed to sit on the bears' couch. Just the bears."
"The bears all had little beaded necklaces with their names on them to tell them apart because they were all the same brand and style." - floridianreader
The Dog's Room
"Friend of mine had a German Shepherd. I never once seen it outside, always in the house."
"I only ever went up the stairs once and there was a spare bedroom with just a carpet down and piles and piles of dog sh*t everywhere." - ProbationInTheMaking
Distinct Sound Of A Shot Gun
"In high school a friend and I went to a later movie then planned to sleep over at her house. The movie got done around 10pm ish."
"The house was dark as her parents were early to bed."
"As we walked in her back door there was a distinct sound of a shot gun being racked and her father saying "who's there?" My friend just calmly says "oh its just us" and that was that."
"One and only time I've had a gun pulled on me." - dstone1985
The McChicken Stash
"Use to hang at my one bro's parents houses. He stayed in the basement, had a low paying job, whatever, he makes dough now."
"Anyway we would get cheap food from McDonald's usually. It was when the McChicken first came out and the dollar menu, around when subway came out with the 5 dollar footlong."
"But we use to drink beers and get hungry and subway was always closed by this time so one of us would run to McDonald's and get like 6 McChickens. Well he would always only eat 2 and put one in his sock drawer."
"Thought maybe he had an elf to feed when I left or something."
"Nope he was eating it later or the next day. He even would stash one under the seat in his car, when he drove to grab them. Long story short he got diverticulitis after doing this for years."
"Neither of us eat McDonald's anymore." - moonshotmercury
Keep it weird, my friends. Keep it reaaaaaal weird.
Just ... ya know ... not when company is over. Keep it weird on your own time. lol.
- Tall People Share The Weirdest Things They've Seen Stashed On ... ›
- Window Cleaners Share The Weirdest Things They've Ever Seen ... ›
- People Describe The Most 'American' Thing They've Ever Seen - George Takei ›
- People Break Down The Strangest Thing They 'Have A Guy' For - George Takei ›
- People Break Down Which Common Things Have Never Actually Happened To Them - George Takei ›
- People Divulge The Weirdest Advice They've Heard That Was Surprisingly Effective - George Takei ›
- People Break Down The Strangest Thing About Europe That Europeans Don't Notice - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Strangest Thing They've Seen In The Woods That They Can't Explain - George Takei ›
- People Share The Most Bizarre Thing They've Seen In Someone Else's Home - George Takei ›
- People Explain Who They Could Never Be Friends With Under Any Circumstances - George Takei ›
- Americans Break Down The Weirdest Things About Europe - George Takei ›
- People Explain Which Things Are Considered Normal Around The World But Weird In America - George Takei ›
- People Describe The Creepiest Thing They've Ever Experienced At Home - George Takei ›
- The Absolute Worst Pet Names According To Veterinarians - George Takei ›
Doctors Explain How A Patient Went From Nothing Serious To Life-Threatening In An Instant
One Redditor asked: 'Doctors of Reddit - what is your craziest story where a patient present with mild symptoms thinking it was nothing and it turned out to be a serious life or death situation?'
Generally speaking, if we have a cough, headache, or runny nose, we assume it's nothing to worry about in the long run and don't bother seeing a doctor.
Most of the time, this proves to be the case, as our ailments and symptoms tend to go away after a few days.
Other times, however, what we thought was a minor illness ended up being more serious than we could have possibly imagined.
In some cases, had we gone to the doctor any later, we might not have lived to tell the tale.
Redditor mothermurder88 reached out to the Doctors of Reddit to hear shocking stories of minor illnesses that turned out to be far more serious, leading them to ask:
"Doctors of Reddit - what is your craziest story where a patient present with mild symptoms thinking it was nothing and it turned out to be a serious life or death situation?"
The Cause Of Severe Back Pain...
"My dad woke up with severe back pain one morning after not doing anything strenuous the weeks/days leading up to it."
"My mom flipped her sh*t and finally put her foot down that he had to go to the doctor after him putting off going to a doctor for years even for a routine check-up."
"That appointment showed a broken rib from a huge tumor on his spine, along with tumors around his buttocks/pelvis and upper back."
"Diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer."
"5 years and 100 treatments later he’s still kicking it."- vulpesvulpex
An Antacid Won't Cut It...
"Saw a patient with minor cardiovascular symptoms and a slight pain in his upper back."
"The senior debated back and forth whether it would make sense to run a CT to rule out anything more serious."
"She finally decided to do it and it turned out he had a massive aortic dissection and was basically wheeled right into the OR."- Beneficial-Bee7765
A Parent's Worst Nightmare
"My son."
"6 weeks old."
"He was also 6 weeks premature."
"Only symptoms at the time of me bringing him to the ER was inconsolable crying and wouldn’t drink his breast milk."
"Was told by others that I was just being a paranoid first time mom…he probably has gas or was colic."
"My instincts just told me otherwise."
"Brought him to the ER."
"Triage asks me what my concerns are."
"I told them he won’t stop crying and I can get him to eat."
"A couple hours later my 6 week old baby coded blue and went into respiratory failure."
“'Code blue pediatrics' will forever be the most haunting thing I ever heard."
"Since he was so tiny they were having incredibly difficulty intubating him."
"Was being kept alive in between attempts with that bag thingy (unsure what it’s called) and compressions."
"His diagnosis was late on set group b strep, sepsis, and bacterial meningitis."
"Had I not brought him in when I did and waited, my son would not be alive today."
"So yea…listen to your instincts, you have them for a reason."- PokemomOnTheGo
Mints Won't Cut It...
"A man came to the hospital because his wife always complained about his bad breath."
"Long story short, I met him because they consulted my department when the tissue biopsy came back as esophageal cancer."- TeamMiserable
Never Underestimate The Importance Of A Check Up
"I'm a dentist."
"New pt came in with what he thought was a mild ache in his teeth."
"Thought it was a toothache."
"Hadn't seen a dentist in years."
"Took a radiograph and the jaw bone around the teeth looked strange."
"Had him see an oral surgeon that day."
"Turned out was a very aggressive metastatic bone cancer and died a few weeks later."- jakeology_101
A Second Opinion Never Hurts
"I’m a nurse, not a doctor, but we had a guy come in years ago asking for a medication to 'help him stop sweating'.”
"He said he had had a sore throat for about a week, went to a walk in clinic, was diagnosed with strep throat and put on antibiotics, but he was so sweaty and just wanted a break from it."
"He looked pale and was indeed sweaty, so we took him back and ran some blood tests."
"His white blood count was the highest I’ve ever seen and he was diagnosed with leukaemia."
"We sent him to another hospital for immediate treatment, but we were informed he died literally hours after arriving. Incredibly sad, I couldn’t believe it."- madicoolcat
"I am a nurse, so naturally my mother called me one day when she had strange symptoms."
""'Earlier today, I had this feeling like there was a squirrel running around in my belly'."
"I reassured her that it was probably gas."
"It happened again a few days later when she was in the car with me."
"Something made me take her right to the emergency room."
"The doctor evaluated her and basically accused her of making things up."
"I asked for a different doctor, because she is not a complainer or a drug seeker."
"Turns out it was a malignant brain tumor (glioblastoma) that was manifesting itself as abdominal seizures."
"They said she had 1-2 years to live."
"It is now 7 years since surgery, chemo, and radiation and she is still alive."- feistynurse50
Some Things Need To Be Seen
"Patient’s wife called."
"Patient had a temperature of 98.6."
"No other symptoms."
"I explained that was a normal temperature but the wife said 'that’s a fever for him'.”
"She said she felt like something was wrong, despite no other symptoms."
"I told her that I respect that and that if she feels something is wrong she should get him checked out in the ER."
"The ER doctor called four hours later and said they did all they could do for him but he died of sepsis."
"He appeared to be normal when he got there but rapidly declined."
"That gave me a new appreciation that we truly can’t evaluate someone thoroughly over a telephone."- DisastrousNet9121
The Cause is More Important Than The Symptom
"8 year old girl gets brought in complaining about back pain she'd had for 3 months, several different doctors had given her painkillers to no avail."
"After about 5 minutes I asked her if she had any problems going to the toilet, she says it's 'foamy' when she pees."
"Bone cancer."
"She made a full recovery, and from what I know is in her 20s now, but to this day I hate how she'd been suffering for 3 months and no other doctor had bothered to even ask any more questions as to why an 8 year old girl was getting severe back pain."- PalpitationAdorable2
Never Fault A Doctor For Being Thorough
"Still in school and I was not present for this patient’s initial admission but rather her clinic follow up."
"However, patient was healthy 50-something year old who had an extended nosebleed after a long hike."
"It wouldn’t stop so they went to ER to get it cauterized/impacted (happens all the time)."
"Anyway, they did a CT scan as protocol and discovered she had a 20+ cm tumor on her uterus that was wrapping around her right kidney."
"She was immediately referred to a serious academic hospital and had a specialized oncology surgeon remove it."
"Amazingly, They got it completely removed without even having to damage the kidney."
"She had an amazing outcome and about a half a foot scar running around her abdomen from the surgery."
"I do not believe the CT scan was due to the nosebleed itself but rather I imagine as they looked further into her blood work and coagulation studies they found something that warranted further work up."- KocoaFlakes
Most of the time, a cold is just a cold, and an achy foot is just an achy foot.
Even so, should you have even the slightest bit of doubt, there is no shame in consulting your doctor about it.
As doing so may turn out to be a literally life-saving decision.
When it comes to romantic relationships, it's a lot harder to maintain a relationship than it is to start one. And unfortunately, it's all too easy to end that relationship.
A lot of things can end a relationship, and sometimes, it could be as simple as a single comment. Sometimes it's so hilariously stupid that you can't fathom being with the person any longer. Other times, the person says something so cruel that you know it's time to run. And sometimes, the comment isn't even necessarily bad -- just ill-timed.
Redditors know all about this and are ready to share.
It all started when Redditor AdditionalDentist100 asked:
"What's something you confessed to your partner that ended your relationship?"
Faking It
"Not me, but someone I know was finally told that her husband was faking his English heritage, background/upbringing in England and fake accent. Dude kept it up for years, eventually admitted that it was all a lie and that he grew up on West Coast."
– NE_Golf
"I would think that was a lie but there are people who have faked being a 9/11 survivor. Apparently this type of stuff happens more frequently then I'd imagine."
– jdefr
Oh, The Humanity
"That I didn't rinse off the Mac and cheese noodles. This isn't even a joke it's a true story."
"They were done cooking and I didn't rinse them off. And yes this was a break up waiting to happen I guess lol."
– Ohlookavulture
"It says right on the box not to rinse them."
– Strong-Solution-7492
"The starch is good for the sauce. Dodged a bullet, I'd rather die alone than eat sh*tty mac & cheese."
– pleachchapel
The Past Is Not The Past
"Didn't happen to me, but a guy I knew married a girl I knew (both a bit older than me) and everything seemed great. However, they were at a party and someone mentioned that the guy used to smoke weed in high school (he admitted it, didn't think it was a big deal). She divorced him a month later, claiming that she couldn't forgive him for smoking weed. 😳"
– bomland10
"There had to be something else going on with her because this is so ridiculous. It's not even something he was currently doing."
– woodenmittens
But Faaaamily
"I didn’t want us to move in together with 6 other relatives."
– Ne0nGalax-E
Three Words, Eight Letters
"I believe it was "I love you.""
– AssistantManagerMan
"How f**king dare you!"
– Illustrious_Cancel83
"Oh yeah, I was out of line."
– AssistantManagerMan
And She Communicated
"I wanted better communication sooo she broke up with me."
– Plus-Bunch-4265
"I mean….."
– Outrageous_Egg6340
"Loud and clear."
– EchtGeenSpanjool
Run!
"I said, while crying because he got angry with me at a restaurant, that “I am sometimes afraid to tell you how I feel because I’m afraid of how you’ll react.” And he said, “well, thats f**king pathetic.”"
– internetgoth
"My partner had a habit of starting a convo by asking how I felt about something, then would criticize me for feeling what I felt. It always ended up being a debate about why I felt the way I did. It was never okay for me to feel sad, worried, scared, etc."
"Over time I started to feel anxious when he’d ask questions, and purposely responded vaguely, or just straight up said that I didn’t feel comfortable sharing (which would incite anger or more judgment)."
"Eventually my response became exactly that. A teary “I don’t know if I want to share because I’m worried about how you’ll react/respond” and his responses were along the lines of “that’s stupid” “you’re ridiculous” “don’t be an idiot” “seriously?”"
"I don’t know if it’s because I got so used to it, or from being distracted by all the other bigger things in the relationship…but for some reason I didn’t even notice that this was another bad thing until reading this comment. It was just…normal."
– alexanteros
Looks Always Matter
"It’s not necessarily what I confessed, but I showed him my picture from 8th grade and he couldn’t handle that I used to look like I did in 8th grade."
"If I knew that I had to peak in middle school I would have at least plucked my eyebrows 🥴"
– aero_love
""Sorry babe, you just weren't hot as a middle schooler. Gotta end it here.""
– bobbitdobbit
Happy Ending
"True story. I confessed that I wanted to do more for her. I thought I was neglecting her and working too much."
"That next week, she sat me down and told me that I was threatening her independence and that she needed a week to think about us. The week after that, she broke up with me."
"I later got the real reason from her former best friend. She never had a guy who wanted “all in” like I did and panicked."
"At the time I was destroyed. LOL I thought I was going to marry that woman. Turns out I was one woman off and my next relationship would turn into my current family. So all’s well that ends well."
– Salty-Technology8912
Better This Way
"Broke down crying during a more realistic war movie. She told me to suck it up."
"After she confronted me for drinking too much I finally sought VA disability. Diagnosed with depression, PTSD, anxiety, among other things. Bills started pouring in and I told her we can’t afford certain luxury things because I was the sole breadwinner. I said I felt like I was drowning and my head is slowly slipping under the surface. She told me to “figure it out.”"
""So, I did. We divorced. And I’m much more happy and no longer on the train of “be a man and tighten your boot straps.” I got help and know that it’s okay to do so."
– NyetRifleIsFine47
"So much easier to keep your head above water without the anchor around your neck."
– Probably_Not_Evil
The Cards Don't Lie
"That I didn’t believe in astrology and tarot cards. She then said her tarot cards told her to break up with me. Sure dodged a bullet there."
– Zenith_21
"The tarot cards were right! And still you don’t believe!"
– TDLMTH
Let's Hear It For The Boy
"I didn’t confess, I just went to a couple bars with her to dance. She left me because “YOU CAN’T DANCE!” Of all the things that she could’ve said that was the weirdest reason ever. Like, I had no response. I was 28. I’m happily married for 22 years now to someone who I constantly do bad dancing for because she thinks it’s hilarious. I mean, since I was told I can’t dance, I developed a habit of dancing badly when celebrating ANYTHING. It’s a real crowd pleaser. I am loved for my bad dancing now."
– generic230
I can't dance either! But this is exactly why we all need to find someone who loves us for our quirks, not despite them.
I have been left utterly bewildered by what some people believe is acceptable thought, conversation, and behavior.
Like... "Do YOU hear you?"
It shows when a person lacks life experience and/or brain cells.
Words expose everything.
And sometimes shock is all that is left to grapple with.
Redditor nlwfty wanted to hear about all the things people have overheard that left them utterly stunned, so they asked:
"What's the most out-of-touch thing you've heard someone say?"
I once a friend's friend moan about how she and her husband were nearly destitute.
Almost penniless.
All while she was straightening up the house for the new au pair they had just gotten from Columbia.
The Who?
"My boss once told me to have 'the maid' drop my car at the shop. WTF!!"
amboomernotkaren
Be Happy
"'You won't be happier at work if we pay you more, but we need to figure out why workplace happiness is so low.' This coming from a guy that made 10x what I did and was born into old money."
Dirac_comb
"I had a job that was paying below market rates and 'expected' daily overtime (unpaid, natch) and was trying to figure out how to improve morale. They were considering bringing in consoles and having video game nights after work... as if we weren't stuck there too long already."
"I did have the fun of leaving, then being asked to come back as a contractor to help out, and taking advantage of being on a short-term contract and giving no f**ks to suggest that maybe they should consider at least TRACKING the overtime people were working, even if they weren't going to pay for it since there was probably a whole extra job's worth of hours in there and maybe hiring another person might improve morale and reduce the risk of the kind of errors tired people make."
"Didn't stay long as a temp. Apparently telling the truth and discussing facts with your co-workers isn't good for morale >_< They told everyone I was leaving because I got a better offer (!), but I told everyone exactly what was really happening when they asked XD."
princess_ferocious
It hasn't?
"My dad (who is now the Director of Accounting for the school district I teach for) was talking about how my starting pay was way more than his starting pay."
"I said, 'Well, yeah... The cost of living has increased a ton since then.' This motherf**ker straight up said, 'No it hasn't.'"
"He started working there in 1992. This conversation happened in like 2017 (about a year after I started working there). Again, he is the director of accounting."
pjsans
Move On
"'You seem sad.'"
"My mother to my sister, at her husband's funeral."
blarg-zilla
"My sister's son was murdered. Two weeks later my mom asked her if she was over it yet."
NeverCallMeFifi
"One of my sons was murdered 12 years ago. Many people started telling me that I needed to 'move on' after 4-6 weeks. My brother refuses to say my son's name, so I no longer speak to him. Sending my deepest condolences to your family from a mom who understands losing a child to homicide."
PDXer328
Good Idea!
“'I don’t know why people get big mortgages. Just save up for a few months and pay cash for a starter home!'"
Hopeful-Moose87
People with money always seem to have a plan, unless the plan is sharing.
FInd the Treasure
"When people were complaining about not being able to afford housing/food/living in general, one of the Dutch ministers (I think he was a minister or at least the leader of a party) said something along the line of 'well, find a rich boyfriend then'. ah, yes, that will solve the crisis!"
pastelchannl
Dumbfounded
"I went to an Ivy League college with lots of children of extraordinarily wealthy families. When discussing inequality and its effects on housing, my professor briefly mentioned how mortgages are out of reach for a growing number of Americans. The girl next to me stopped the class, and with a confused face asked the professor why people don’t just buy their homes in cash outright because 'surely the interest means it will cost them more over time.' The professor was dumbfounded. I found out later that she is the heiress to a major luxury brand that you have all heard of."
wildblue2
The Increase
"My former landlord and his wife dropped by to tell me and my financially struggling 20-something roommates that they were raising the rent, by nearly 25%. They said, 'We noticed on Craigslist that neighbors had higher rent so we’re doing the same.' The wife then earnestly reminded us that we’ve been great tenants but maybe we just needed to find some higher-paying jobs. 🙃."
agingcatmom
Not Me
"I was waxing a woman’s eyebrows once and she was complaining that sometimes after she gets a massage the pillow leaves a circular indent on her face and she can’t go out to lunch after. She then asked me if that ever happened to me? I was like ma'am I wax people for eleven bucks an hour; I’m not going out to lunch lol, let alone getting massages."
lomi08
Investments
"Something like: Give a rich person $500 and they will invest it into $1000. Give it to a poor person and they will spend it in a week."
"Yeah exactly give it to someone who’s needs are met and they can save… give it to someone who needs to eat/pay rent etc they will spend it to survive!"
ExaminationLucky6082
You need money to make money.
One of life's biggest lessons apparently.
So someone give me some money.
When we thing of something being gross, or nasty, or cruel, there are certain examples that we can all think of, like bullying or an uncleaned bathroom.
But there are other things in our lives that are actually much nastier than we would expect them to be, and we can only really uncover the truth by taking a closer look at them.
Cringing already, Redditor Strawberry_no_cake asked:
"What is nastier than people realize?"
Not So Sweet Now
"Ice machines in restaurants."
- Goodygumdrops
"I worked at a golf course after I lost my law firm internship during the pandemic. I basically just cooked people easy food (burgers, hot dogs, fries, BLTs, etc.) and tended bar in the clubhouse."
"I can confirm that the ice machine can get gross. I’d always do a quick wipe down clean if I saw anything on the ice, but it was typically on parts of the machine that never touched the actual ice we’d use."
- S**tfacedGrizzlyBear
Unexpected, but Makes Sense
"RN here: Hospital floors!"
"Seems obvious, but apparently it isn’t. I can’t believe how many folks will allow their CHILDREN to sit or play on the floors, or just generally treat them like they are sterile. I don’t even wear my work shoes into my own house."
"The other day I spilled a few drops of tea on the floor where I work… gave it a very light wipe with a cloth and the cloth was BLACK."
"I think people assume that since it’s a hospital the floors are in mint condition… absolutely no way, lol (laughing out loud)."
- gracebloome
Secondary Symptoms in Autoimmune Diseases
"Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis."
"Thanks to drug company ads, most people think it's just about going to the bathroom a few times a day. There's never any mention of fissures, fistulas, fevers, extreme pain, extreme fatigue, depression, anemia, drug side effects, joint pain, painful and horrific surgeries, mouth sores, skin disorders, etc."
- reddy_kil0watt
Our Enemies Don't Even Deserve This
"Dementia, especially advanced dementia. It's not just quirky memory problems, your brain controls every bodily function."
- youngboomergal
Carer Fatigue is Real
"Being a caregiver. Again, people know it might be nasty, but I think they still overlook the awful experience it is for people who are caring for an elder."
"My mom took care of my bedridden grandmother for three years. The amount of s**t everywhere (she had chronic diarrhea, and I don't know if it's just me, but old people's s**t smells like something of another realm), awful body odor (even when we were cleaning her constantly), the difficulty of changing diapers/sheets/covers as constantly as she needed (at least two times during the night)."
"So what I meant is that sometimes people think is 'nice' of a certain daughter/son to take care of their old parents (at least in my country where putting your parents in facilities is not common). But it's just such an intense, nerve-wracking, hard, and disgusting job, with no breaks, with little rewards (because at least my grandma was not in her right mind), and almost no social recognition that it blows my mind how underappreciated it is."
- FuelSelect
One Word: Cancer
"Cancer. People know it’s nasty. People know it’s nasty as all h**l. But here’s the thing. Going through it myself, I could have never imagined how nasty it truly is."
"I watched my mom fight stage four ovarian cancer 18 years ago (I’m 40 right now for reference). She was so far along, and so riddled with the cancer that she was given weeks to live, and sent away from three oncologists who told her to check into hospice and prepare for the end."
"Thankfully she found an oncologist (who is mine now) who took her in, and went to war with her. They cut her open from the chest down, and spent hours plucking tumors out of her while rearranging her internal organs. Taking out the bad stuff and building what he could with what was left. Then two long rounds of chemo. Hospital visits. Illness left and right. Side effects. Recovery. It was h**l for her, but she beat the odds and lived."
"Watching this, I understood what I could. I saw the pain, but now, going through it myself, couldn’t possibly comprehend how bad it truly was. I saw the illness, the nausea, the neuropathy, all the stupid side effects that hit you for no reason at all."
"So yeah, cancer. Everyone knows it’s nasty, but man is it even worse than that!"
- jdizzle161
Travel Luggage
"Luggage. It gets rolled throughout the world, often in gross airport bathrooms where floors are literally wet with pee, and then when people get to their destination, the first thing they do is toss it on the bed to unpack."
"Come to think of it, this also makes hotel comforters that never get washed even more disgusting."
- jgilbs
That One Article of Clothing
"Your belt. Think about it, it´s basically the only piece of clothing you never wash. And you always have to touch it after you pooped and before you wash your hands."
- KeplerFinn
Dusty Keyboard Keys
"Your keyboard."
"Seriously man, wash that thing. I can see the dirt from your window!"
- BowlOfJello___
A World of Germs in Your Pocket
"Phones."
"One time I was in line at a food service place, think Chipotle style where you tell them what you want and they make it behind the counter."
"There was this sweaty Door Dasher guy who couldn’t really articulate the order so he handed his phone to the kid behind the counter. The kid proceeds to take his phone, starts swiping and touching it WITHOUT GLOVES ON, and goes right back to touching people’s food."
"Disgusting."
- white_cyclosa
Where Has That Been?
"The top of a soda can. People buy them from a store and put it right onto their mouth without hesitation."
- fuzzynavel5
Far Beyond the Stereotypes
"OCD. It's not some goofy personality quirk. It's h**l on earth."
- MERT-x123
"'Oh, you have OCD? Well, how come your house is a mess?'"
"Oh, I dunno, maybe because I'm so consumed with intrusive thoughts I can't function?"
"'lol (laughing out loud), I get those too! They're normal, just ignore them.'"
"ha-ha-ha-ha sob."
- SerakTheRegallian
What We Wear Everywhere
"Shoes. They are filled with sweaty feet and go everywhere. Think about the gas station and airport bathrooms. The bathrooms you can feel the ick in."
- golamas1992
Also, Watch Straps
"Your watch strap: mine is white and the notches for the buckle go all the way around and every week I have to clean out all the lint and build up to stop it going funky. Makes me shudder at the idea of other watch straps where it may not be as obvious."
- durkbot
Kids Who Don't Know Better
"Speaking as a teacher of four- to five-year-olds:"
"Kids with colds who do not know how to blow their noses or cover their coughs and sneezes. Sometimes they just leave the snot on their faces, or wipe it on their clothes. They can produce a mind-boggling amount of snot!"
"The awful gross things kids will willingly put in their mouths, and then share with others!"
"I love them regardless!"
- CreepyCandidate4449
We're absolutely squirming at the thought of all of these situations, mostly because we haven't thought about them to this degree before, or perhaps even considered it (we're looking at you, belts).
Take this as a reminder to clean the things you haven't in a while, and perhaps take some extra health precautions in public spaces where other people may not be.