"Keep looking up… that’s the secret of life."
-Charlie Brown
Get your laugh on with these utterly random and hilarious memes. Laughter is the best medicine, so read these memes and live forever.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
British royal and son of the queen Prince Andrew gave an interview about his friendship with now deceased billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein this weekend. It did not go well.
Prince Andrew is the third son of Queen Elizabeth II and, by all accounts, her "favorite" child. When Jeffrey Epstein was alive, the prince was frequently photographed with him, even though Epstein had been steadily accused of various sex offenses dating back to 2005. In 2010, Epstein served 13 months in jail on charges related to human trafficking — and the prince was photographed with him even after his jail sentence, which was widely publicized.
What's more, Virginia Roberts claims she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew three times when she was just 17. He has denied ever having slept with Roberts.
Because of all this, there's been a steady drumbeat of questions surrounding Prince Andrew's friendship with Epstein, especially since Epstein faced more charges this year and ended up dying in prison. Prince Andrew has still never been questioned under oath about his friendship with Epstein or the allegations made against him by Roberts, as far as the public knows.
Prince Andrew decided to sit for an interview about all this with the BBC on Saturday night, Nov. 16. The interview was a dismal failure by most accounts, with the prince failing to express sympathy for any of Epstein's victims, while making excuses for his own continued contact with Epstein after the billionaire was convicted of sex crimes.
The worst, most viral moment had to have been this one, when Andrew minimized Epstein's actions as "unbecoming."
But the full interview contains plenty of other cringeworthy moments, too. Read on to find out what people are talking about.
A woman found herself in the middle of every bride's worst nightmare when a traffic jam almost ruined her wedding day — but the Los Angeles County Fire Department saved the day.
The bride found her limo stranded in L.A. after a car crash caused traffic back in March, according to the fire department's Instagram post.
A group of firefighters were on the scene of the accident, which blocked both lanes of Topanga Boulevard, according to the department, when they saw something unusual: a bride and two bridesmaids hoisting up their skirts and walking along the highway.
From the post:
Obviously curious the Captain asked if they could help? They explained their limo was stuck in traffic and they were late for the the wedding. Without haste the Bride and Bridesmaids were loaded into the Fire Engine and given a code 3 escort to the wedding venue just in the nick of time. This picture showed up at the Fire Station a few weeks later. 👰🏼.
The newly married bride and groom mailed the department the photo below, with the message, "Thanks for saving our wedding."
The department posted the photo on their Instagram page. A representative from the fire department told Yahoo Style, “That’s sort of the point of the Instagram page. There’s so many cool things we do that never make it out there.”
Followers are praising the firefighters for saving the woman's wedding.
Still, some are saying it was an improper use of resources, especially since the fire department used its lights and sirens to bypass traffic for the bride.
Still, many are praising the firefighters as the story goes viral.
Unfortunately for most kids, it's about presents. If you're between the ages of 3 and 12, the more presents you get to open Christmas morning, the more successful that Christmas was. While it's never a good idea to spoil your children, it's fun to reward them for their good behavior all year by checking off a few items on their wishlist.
When a dad posted his 10-year-old daughter's completely over-the-top, next-level extra Christmas list on Twitter, parents everywhere were there the empathize.
There is so much gold in this Christmas list I think this little girl should be a candidate for 2020. $4,000? So specific! What do 10-year-olds do with $4,000? Let's also take a moment to appreciate that she's a child who knows what essential oils are, but spelled it "asenchal."
A true Apple product loyalist, she asks for an iPhone 11, airpods AND a new Macbook Air. Later on, she asks for a bunny and then clothes for the bunny. Not a cage or food--just clothes. Everyone knows, of course, that bunnies need clothes...
Needless to say, her list went viral and people were inspired.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
Good luck on all your Christmas dreams coming true
Looking out for your adult children requires a delicate balance between swooping in with loving support, and sitting back to let them make their own decisions.
Run-ins that would have surely merited a conversation when they were a teenager aren't clear-cut when they've reached adulthood, and the lines between genuine concern and helicopter parenting can feel easily blurred.
As with most parenting quandaries, there is no one-size-fits-all method for checking in with an adult child, as the nature of your relationship and personality types greatly factors into the bigger picture.
WIBTA if I asked my 20 year old daughter if she is prostituting herself?
This is really weird thing to ask, I know. I am 41, my daughter is 20. She goes to college nearby, and has an apartment only 7 blocks away, so I see her around.
The first one went down when OP spotted her daughter accompanying a PDA heavy 50-year-old man outside a bar.
There are two, arguably three, major instances which make me think this. I drove by and saw her outside of a bar, with a MUCH older man having his arm around her shoulder and she had her head on his shoulder. He was maybe late 50s. She didn't see me at all watching her. After a bit, he leaned in for a kiss. At that point I thought it was just weird that she was hooking up with a guy that old, not anything other than that.
The motel was super close to their daughter's apartment, which made the run-in seem strange.
Another instance was that my ex husband (divorced 4 years ago, he lives in another state but comes by every once in a while) said she ran into my daughter right outside of a motel nearby. She lives so close, why would she be at a motel?
This time, the man was closer to her age - roughly a decade older than her, but OP's daughter seemed deeply uncomfortable with his behavior, and even more so when she saw her mom.
I went with my friend to a bar, and we ran into my daughter there. The guy she was with was maybe... 29-30? But he was just so sleazy and weird looking and was acting unbelievably strange to her. My daughter is a very attractive girl, and this guy... was really, really not attractive, very much the opposite. And she was just giggling and laughing at everything he said. Also when she saw us it looked like her heart jumped out of her chest, and she right away seemed intensely uncomfortable. We barely even said hi to each other because she looked horrified at me being there, and so we left right after. My friend who I was with also noticed how weird she seemed with him, and how weird she was acting after she saw us.
OP shared that she knows money is tight for her daughter, but she is concerned about her potential safety.
Am I the 'a*shole' for asking my daughter if she is prostituting herself? There is no easy way to ask this question to her. I feel like if I am going to ask it, I kind of *have* to be blunt about it otherwise she will say something else. She has had money problems for a while now, her job is terrible and she doesn't make a lot of money at it... and these three situations I mentioned make me highly suspicious.
Jesus Christ this sub. No OP, you're NTA for caring if your 20yo daughter (which is still crazy young btw, to all the younger kids in the comments) is turning to prostitution and all the health and safety risks that entails, because of money troubles.
Ask. Be blunt. But emphasize that you're there to help, not judge.
It depends on how you ask her. If it's like 'excuse me daughter, are you a prostitute' then of course that's not fine. If you ask her whether she's having financial issues, how she's resolving them etc. Perhaps even offer help, then it sounds like the sort of question a parent should ask. Maybe bring up the encounter at the bar and mention how she seemed uncomfortable with the guy after you turned up etc and ask her whether she feels pressured to date him because of her financial situation.
In short, tact is everything.
NAH for caring about your daughter..but you might want to ask if she is in any sort of financial problems or needs support somehow? Not necessarily ask if she is prostituting herself...remind her you are there for her if she needs anything..or if she just wants to talk...tell her she has options if things are getting difficult.
NAH.
My guess is that she has several sugar baby arrangements or she wouldn't be wasting her time going out with these men. She's probably selling "the girlfriend experience" rather than doing straight-up prostitution, even though fundamentally they're fairly close. But she's probably not being paid per transaction, but offered free rent, "gifts," etc.
You can obviously ask her, as long as you do it tactfully and don't judge her choices. There's a difference between people who do this out of sheer desperation, to keep a roof above their heads, and people who are willing to put themselves through some discomfort in order to have things they might not otherwise be able to afford. Your goal here is to figure out which category she falls in, in case she is being exploited. If it's the former, offering her some assistance would be helpful. I suspect it's the latter, though.
The latter know that they don't have to do it if they don't want to (no one *needs* designer bags), so they can afford to choose their clients. The men you saw her with might not be what you want your daughter to bring home, but they probably treat her decently and pay her regularly. I can't imagine what "acting unbelievably strangely" may have involved in a public space and you don't provide details. If he was being affectionate towards her and she was accepting it, it's not unbelievably strange, but part of the arrangement.
There are, of course, risks, but it's preposterous and patronizing to explain to a 20-year old doing s*x work how to use a condom or that some men are dangerous. She knows. They all know. Also, she's not working truck stops. There's no law preventing a person from casually dating other persons who buy them nice things or enforcing true feelings or attraction between partners. A sugar baby is an honest gold-digger.
A very important discussion, if she's open to it, would be about how she is managing her money. This is not a long-term gig. If she's making a lot of money right now, it's important she saves for college or training of some sort so she can transition to a regular job. It will not be easy, though. Most respectable jobs don't pay anywhere near what she might be making, even with advanced degrees and years of experience. And some escorts enjoy their job because there's often a counseling aspect to it. What she'll need help with is finding a field she enjoys and investing her money wisely.
If you don't think you can have a non-judgmental discussion with her, don't do it. Just try to be closer to her and make it clear that you're there if she needs assistance or just someone to talk to.
Hopefully the two are able to have a loving and supportive conversation as adults, regardless of what OP's daughter is pursuing in her work or romantic life.
Gen Z created the "Ok, boomer" meme that has gone viral in many different ways. Gen Z has made it clear that while they're appreciative for the work millennials are doing to create change (AOC), but they're also incredibly fed up (Greta Thunberg).
Of course, a big part of getting older is reminding the younger generations that you used to have to walk up three hills in the snow "just to get to school." Millennials like to romanticize the days when you had to dial up to use to the internet, but Baby Boomers didn't even live in a world with the internet. The technolgy boom has changed the way we communicate and the way we live, and Gen Z is definitely along for the ride.
So, when a recent reddit user asked the younger generation, "what are some ways that millennials are already out of touch?" youths were prepared to roast millennials. (Warning: a massive amount of these complaints were about millennials not understanding how to make and share memes. Apparently Gen Z's biggest platform is memes.)
The fact that millennials refers to ages 23 to 38 and not just everyone young.
How different they think we are from them. I was born in 2000, and like seriously, I know what a VHS is!!! All of my favorite movies as a kid was on a damn VHS. Yes we had those stupid old projectors they would write on with marker in school, we had those butt scooters in gym, we lived very similar lives as the 90's kids, it's hilarious to hear them talk! We all had flip phones and rubber poppers and all the same toys XD But I still love all you millennials!!
The fact that they're already making fun of the younger generation. I'm sure I'll end up like that someday with whatever generation is below me, because that's how it's always been. But the fact that there is a younger generation and they choose to make fun of it, shows that they are no longer the young pure generation.
They are already on that "back in my day" bs where they romanticize older tv shows and talk shit about the "kids these days", they truly don't see the irony and often bully younger kids for liking popular video games and contemporary singers when they've technically had the worst generational scandals
Bullying in schools. I don't know how accurate those 90's high school movies were, but they are very different that my school experience. I was born in 2004, and I'm in grade 10. So far, I've attended 4 different school, and none of them had any real bullying going on. Of course there was teasing and mean kids in younger grades, but that pretty much all stopped in grade 4. Even in high school, I've never seen anyone get bullied. The most violent act in my Canadian high school that I've seen so far was this mob of grade 12s that went and yelled at this kid for stealing a grade 9s shoes. That's it.
I mean this could be just my opinion, but I think millenials are still trying to make change happen. Im gen z and kind of have just accepted how shitty everything is and how broken systems are. Everything is kind of a whatever and just go with it. I mean I would like to f Reform the US healthcare system but is it actually very going to happen, no). Most of the kids I go to school with have just accepted school shootings and shit and just don't really care about when they happen now. Its just like well if I die being shot at school, whatever I guess. (I don't know this is just my 2 cents)
Man they already act so stuck up like boomers. 'Anyone born after 199X is stupid' and stuff like that. I once saw a 90s kid in YouTube comments unironically complain about how kids nowadays won't understand the 'pain' of rolling up a car window with a handle instead of a button. Seriously. I call them 90s boomers.
I think millenials talk shit but don't try to make change. I think they're also forgetting what they supposedly went through because of "boomers". I'm really smack dab in the middle of millenial and gen z. When I told my friends they're probably also gen z, they cringed and whined about being like the "tick tock generation" but they loved vine so what's the actual difference here?
Saying that they're music is better than ours. I mean our music isn't the greatest but I'd much rather listen to Blueface than the Black-Eyed Peas. We have good songs, and you have good songs. Saying our music is bad doesn't make your's any better. Another thing is that we don't go outside. That's a lie. My friends and I go to the park everyday after school where a bunch of other kids go as well. Millenials, Gen X, and Boomers are complaining about how back in their day everything was better. It wasn't. It's not your day anymore. You might have to accept that the 5 year old in the store has an iPad to play games. Times have changed. Stop complaining. You're embarrassing yourself
Using "funny" memes with the specific intent to look cool with the younger generation. If you just like memes then that's something different, but if you're specifically doing it to look cool to young people then it's sort of equivalent to Grandma mailing you Minion memes and saying "I thought you would find this funny dear. I don't really understand it but I know you younger folk like this stuff."
The fact that millennials (mostly older ones) believe everything they see on social media and Facebook is usually their news source.
Millennials can be called old now
Some of them claim credit for creating the phrase "ok boomer." Millenials had nothing to do with that. Us gen z coined that phrase. You can use it, but don't claim that you created it.
They spoke so much about not wanting to be hated on my older generations and are really out here hating on all of gen z.
We don't care what you did when you were our age. Like, at all. Things change, get over it.
When you're on the job hunt each interview can feel like a nerve-wracking event. On the other side of the desk sits a person with the power to give you a regular paycheck and a newfound sense of stability, and so much of it relies on making a good first impression.
However, not all job interviews are created equal. While it normally feels like the power lies with the interviewer, there are times when the workplace red flags are so glaring it's not even worth considering the job.
In these situations, noping out is the best way to avoid wasting anyone's time, and it gives you more time to focus on an opportunity that feels like a real fit.
1. elcasaurus was too good at math to accept the job.
It was a sales position at a air filter company. He liked me enough to start talking salary which is where I noped out. Basically it was a ridiculously complicated system where I could make UP TO a certain amount, but really realistically I'd be making less than minimum wage. He kind of got red faced and bitchy when I kept saying "but wait, this means I'll be making like $5/hour. I must not be understanding this right because you advertised this position as $40k/year. Can you explain? Am I missing something?"
Basically he would rope people in with bad math and false promises and when they didn't make any money, they'd basically agreed to it by accident. They'd quit and the cycle began again.
Once this became clear, I politely declined and left.
The owner of the company told me she’d come to my house and cut off all my hair if I ever shared any information with her competitors.
I never shared any info about the company, but you better believe I told everyone what she had said to me.
As a young teacher I interviewed for a school closer to home and when I went in the staff room on the 'tour' I noticed that all the staff seemed to be limp, grey and completely washed out. Eavesdropping conversations uncovered a few of the reasons, high staff turnover, lots of long term sickness and the majority of teacher's non contact time was being taken to cover lessons with no staff; all the time.
This showed me that the staff were not respected by the students nor valued by management. I didn't disrespect the interview by leaving but did say 'no' when I was asked if I was still interested in the position at the end of the interview. They didn't bother to ask for feedback, they knew why lol.
I was in an interview to be a math teacher at a school with 7 openings. Just a continual mass exodus at an awful school. It was a 5 minute drive from home, though, so I decided to check it out.
The first question I am asked is what I do if a student has a cell phone out in class. I said that I usually take the phone and give it back after class, but if the school has another policy I would be glad to follow it. The interviewer's immediate response was that she didn't think I would be able to build relationships with their students with that kind of mindset, so she would be fine with concluding the interview at that point. I agreed and walked out, completely blown away. No wonder why they can't keep teachers.
I already had a contract with another school, so it was whatever to me.
They asked me to pay for "administrative fee". It's a giant red flag.
"We won't give you a contract until you've bought your uniform and paid for your training"
Yeah, no.
I waited 30 minutes for the manager to show up to interview me and then I left. I decided if she was doing this at the interview, it was likely indicative of how she’d be at the regular job.
Ten minutes of driving later, she called me and said, “I’m here, you can come back now if you want.” I said, no, thank you.
When I asked how much they’d pay me and the response was “you can make as much as you want”
I went to a job interview for a security guard that turned out to be a scam, they just wanted people to do free labor for them. In the interview they asked me generic questions like name, age, hobbies but nothing else a legitimate business would ask so that was the first alarm bell. Then they asked me to follow them to the warehouse where I thought they we going to show me the security work I would be doing but instead they informed me they needed me to move boxes in the warehouse for the next 4 hours. Yeah 4 hours!!!
That's when it dawned on me there was no job they were just looking to take advantage of gullible people who thought they were getting a job. At first I wanted to give them a mouthful for wasting my time but then I thought its probably better to get the f*ck out of there as quickly as possible so I said ok, I am just going to go and get a bottle of water out of my car before I start, walked back to my car got in it and left.
I was interviewing for a customer service position at a company I'd never heard of but thought "hey, maybe it's a start-up". I got up and excused myself when the interviewer mentioned door to door sales for commission. I told her "I'm sorry, the online posting said customer service. Not sales. I don't appreciate having my time wasted, and I'm sure you don't either. Next time be honest In what you're looking for."
The one I should have quit... My appt was at 1pm for a temp company signup. You know...WHMIS policies, govt work regs...and apparently they expected people to make themselves familiar with the contents of a 4”ring binder and sign off that I understood various sections. Half of what I had to sign off on wasn’t even in the binder.
The 1:30 appt showed up and still no interviewer. So I went to the desk and said yadda yadda let’s go. They asked me to wait a few more minutes. I did.
A back office door opened a few minutes later and a woman who had obviously just finished crying stepped out and called the 1:30 over. She explained that her Grandmother had passed away and she’d like to reschedule.
Then she turned to me with a fake smile and started leading me to an interview room. I protested, saying I could come back and that she was in no condition to work, but she brushed me off saying her family would be a while picking her up yet.
I don’t know why I didn’t leave. It was awful. She stared at the computer monitor the whole time, robotically asked me the standard questions and typed answers...the only thing I could do was read the ‘what to do in case of a bomb threat’ poster on the wall behind her head.
The company was doing open interviews and they were going over different company policies. One of the policies regarding scheduling was that it was always done in order by the last 4 digits of your social.
So, a 0000 would always get first choice and a 9999 would always get last choice. I raised my hand and asked for clarification on the policy. When they uncomfortably agreed with my synopsis I got up and left. So did a few others.
I went for an interview at a "sales company" whatever that means. I was 17 and just wanted an easy job, thought it would be a door to door thing. When I got there I was surrounded by business men in suits, all looking really panicked. I got into the interview and the guy looked really shocked to see me, but I instantly smelled something fishy. Worked out pretty quickly it was a (very polished looking) pyramid scheme.
When he started to explain the emphasis on getting results and how the pay worked I stood up, told him he clearly didn't pay attention when sorting through the CVs and that it wasn't for me. Shook his hand and walked out. On the bus home I figured out that my shirt was on inside out the whole time. Total professionalism on both sides!
A driving job advertised as paying $16 an hour plus tips. During the interview they clarified it's actually $9 an hour but the tips would bring the average up to $16 an hour. No thanks. Maybe don't word it like your wage will be $16 and the tips will be added to that. They knew what they were doing, I could tell the interviewer noticed my change in demeanor when she told me the truth. Borderline bait and switch.
Yes, I'm a teacher and had a demo lesson at a charter school. They had asked me to come in the day before Memorial Day Weekend began.
When I got there, the individual who was supposed to interview me had called out so I was placed with another recruiter who had seemingly seen my resume for the first time 5 minutes before I arrived. Knew nothing about me or my qualifications. First red flag.
I was also told the principal was out too. I guess she had decided to enjoy an extended weekend as well. Apparently meeting a potential new teacher was not a priority for her. Second red flag.
As I was waiting in the office, I overheard teachers and admin making fun of a sub (calling her itty bitty t*tty committee). Third red flag.
As we were walking to the classroom, the DEAN OF DISCIPLINE (who was apparently standing in for he principal now) saw a student meandering the halls. He asked why he wasn't in class and told him to return to his class. The student completely ignored him and proceeded to walk away from his classroom. Nothing more was done. Fourth red flag.
The lesson was a disaster, the kids were out of control and completely defiant. I know that part of a demo-lesson is classroom management, but given the fact the interviewee does not know the kids, it's also up to the classroom teacher and admin to make sure the kids are minimally compliant so that the lesson can actually be carried out. I have conducted and observed several demo lessons and kids are usually on their best behavior, given that 1) there are several teachers and admin in the room and 2) they are generally somewhat sensitive to the fact that this random person had been put in an extremely stressful and awkwardly contrived situation. Not these kids...
Classroom teacher sat there looking completely defeated the whole time.
The recruiter and dean (who were observing me) sat in the back on their laptops the whole time, not even paying attention to me or the lesson that I had worked on for weeks.
I actually cut the lesson short because it was actually to the point of humiliation.
At the end, back in the office where we were supposed to be wrapping up, I said, "I think we all know that this school is not a good fit for me. Thank you for your time."
That was it. I still feel my face getting hot when I think about it to this day.
The staff member who started the interview noticeably changed to very guarded/self protected when the manager walked in. I had a gut feeling and watched her interact with him I knew he must be an a*s. I turned down the job and left.
She told me that the job would be using a computer program that I had no experience in that was 10 years out of date and don’t even think about asking for an upgraded system because it won’t happen. And the entire department would be her and me and they’ve been completely overwhelmed and the last person in the position quit after 6 months so when can I start?
Umm. No thanks. I told her it didn’t seem to be the right fit for me and they emailed me two weeks later with a “Sorry, we went with another candidate.”
I was told that I would have to sign aircraft off for return to service even if I wasn't the one doing the work or inspection.
I worked hard to earn my certification and am not risking someone else's mistakes going on my record.
My first question before the interview really even started was concerning their intended wage range and when they told me, I thanked them for their time and then got up and left.
I hate when places waste everyone’s time by not putting wages out in front.
I’m in the middle of job hunting right now, and I just went to the most ridiculous interview of my life 2 days ago. So first, I got called for a phone interview that lasted 40 minutes. The interviewer, who I later found out was the owner of the company, was obviously just reading a long list of standard questions from a script, which was odd because a lot of those questions were completely irrelevant to the position. But I gave my answers and was invited back for an in-person interview at their corporate office.
I drove an hour to get to this office, which looks like a run-down warehouse in a sketchy part of town. I’m not feeling great about this, but right now I’m trying to change careers and break into a new industry, so I’m not in a position to be super picky about my job prospects. I go in for my interview with the owner, and he proceeds to ask me the exact. same. questions. as the day before, right from the script, in the exact same order, because he had obviously not bothered to take notes the first time around. I’m feeling annoyed but I still want to see where this will go.
THEN he starts talking about the culture of the office, which sounds super toxic and negative, and asks me if I’m a resilient person because I’ll be getting yelled at by managers and supervisors when I make mistakes. THEN he asked my salary expectations, completely dismissed them, and told me this would be a minimum wage position. Awesome, so I won’t even be getting paid a living wage to get abused and scapegoated by my superiors.
But the icing on the cake was when he told me that to be seriously considered for the position, I would need to submit to a reference check, background check, rental history check, and credit check. For an ENTRY LEVEL RECEPTIONIST POSITION. I have been in charge of hiring at one of my previous jobs, and I know that in my state, you absolutely cannot request a credit check from an employee unless the job deals with financial transactions or money management, which was not at all the case here.
So I asked him why a credit check was relevant for this position and he said, super casually, “oh, you know, if you have some loans out in your credit history, we know you’ve made bad choices and won’t hire you.” This is beyond illegal, and so ludicrously invasive for an entry level position, and he didn’t even bat an eye. I thanked him for his time and declined the job and practically ran out of the building.
Then I went home and googled the company to discover they have a 1-star review on yelp and a record of several lawsuits from both clients and former employees. Bullet dodged!
I've got to start eating at home more.-Jeffrey Dahmer
True crime junkies unite. These memes are not only hilariously true, but they also nail what it's like for those of us with a dark habit of watching, listening, and reading everything about murders. Share this with anyone who's totally obsessed with true crime and needs a laugh today.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
Living life constantly surrounded by people and plugged into the internet can cause major sensory overload. Even the most extroverted city-dwellers among us have likely daydreamed of running away to the woods and living off the land. But few have the initiative (or survival skills) to pick up and make a life off the grid happen.
So, when people truly have the gumption to break a lease and go live on a boat, or pack up their things and pitch a small tent in the wilderness, it's equal parts fascinating and inspiring for the rest of us.
I spent the first six years of my life aboard a 31' sailboat. My dad was in the military and bought the boat rather than living on-base. When he and my mom got together it was easier for my mom to move aboard than it was for him to sell the boat. Then I was born, my parents moored in the Bay Area of California, and the rest was history.
Growing up I had basically the same experiences as everyone else, just in a slightly different way. Most kids had a swing in their backyard. My swing was mounted to the mast and swung out over the ocean. I had to wear a life jacket every time I used it, and never while we were underway. I had the same toys as everyone else, just fewer of them, because my 'room' was the V-berth in the boat's bow and space was at a premium. My mom still had to wrestle me into the bathtub on the regular, though my 'bathtub' was a plastic bucket filled from the galley sink.
Of course, living aboard I had some experiences most folks never got to. Our marina was fairly deep and fairly quiet, meaning wildlife encounters were a nearly-daily occurrence. Most were the usual beach wildlife, sandpipers and grebes and herons and the like, but every now and again we'd get an eagle ray, or a starfish wider than I was tall, or dolphins or porpoises or one very lost ocean sunfish. Whenever my parents got restless they'd bring some extra groceries aboard and cast off for a long weekend underway. I learned early how to keep my balance when the waves got up, and to this day seem immune to seasickness. (I wasn't as a kid, but that's another story.)
It's been twenty years now since I lived aboard, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
I don't live in it anymore but I moved out of my parents house and into a buddy's van when I was 23. Drove around, had a great time, eventually spent all my money by the time we hit Georgia so I got a job and a normal place and... Now I live in Georgia. He's still out riding that van, somewhere.
It all started about 3 years ago, when my husband and I couldn't bear the thought of living in the Phoenix area for another summer. Friends of ours mentioned moving up to the Portland area, so we thought we'd take a road trip in a rented motorhome and stay long enough to check out properties. However, after calculating the cost of the rental, plus gas, plus a "pet deposit" for our 3 dogs, it would have been close to $7k for a month's worth of travel. We then thought that if we were going to spend 7k, why not just buy our own RV? Problem was, the 7k RV's were old, needed a lot of repairs, and had no extended warranties... so why not buy newer?
So, we bought a 2 year old, 30 foot Thor Ace, the monthly cost was about what a small mortgage would be, so we considered it our "cabin on wheels". We took longer and longer distance road trips as our confidence levels grew, but then realized we could escape the heat by just driving 3 hours north of Phoenix, and boondocking on BLM land, or National Forests.
We really fell in love with the Flagstaff and Williams area, kept going back there and staying in the woods for a week, then 2, then a month. Problem was, on long weekends and holidays, our favorite spots would get taken before we could get there. We decided to find our own land, where we would always have our spot. We bought 40 acres for $50k. At first, we were going to going to put in a slab, build a cabin, put in septic to empty our black tanks into, a cistern for water, run electricity in from nearby power lines. But, we found that we really liked camping in different locations each time and didn't want to lock ourselves into one spot.
We recently took out the RV's factory installed toilet, put in a composting toilet (no more black tank dump runs!), installed an inverter and battery bank for solar panels, so we can watch TV, power our laptops and monitors for work. If we need to turn on the generator for the AC, it's only for an hour or 2 during the heat of the day. We have water delivered at the beginning of the summer, lasts us 4 months.
Maybe once a week, we'll go into Williams or Flagstaff to buy groceries, refill our gas container, or eat at a restaurant with some of our new friends and neighbors, but 99% we just hang out on the property. I never thought I would be an off-the-grid kind of person. But turns out, this is my heaven on earth, and the best thing we have ever done for our health, happiness and mental sanity.
Edit: damn bare thoughts Edit 2: started an instagram, check out Earzapoppin
I lived in a teeny cabin 12' by 20' off grid because my best friends and I wanted to live in that part of the country and we don't like most people and the land was cheap and had a spring for our water. Now you would never know our homes are off grid except for the solar panels out back...
I'm currently hiking the PCT, a 2,650 mile trail from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. So, I sleep in my tent most nights. Just passed the 1,500 mile mark today actually!
I lived in a small city house in Atlanta that was completely off the grid for 5 years. We had solar energy, all rain water system that filtered and pumped into the house, composting toilet, bees, chickens, and we grew our own food. We built two tiny houses on the property (more like sheds) as well.
It was a great adventure but man the summers were brutal without AC, and the winters were dark because our solar energy system wasn’t the best. I remember many nights of eating dinner cooked on our camping stove to the light of a kerosene lantern, and being able to look out the window at our neighbors who had city power, AC, and all their fucking lights on. And winter we would have to heat up our water on the stove and take bucket baths in the bathtub since not having city water meant no hot water either. Our definition of luxury dramatically shifted in that time, and to this day I am in awe of hot water from a tap.
At the same time it wasn’t all bad at all. We chose to live that way, and I would do it all over again for sure. I remember so many warm summer nights sitting among our organic veggie garden - collards almost as tall as me - watching the lightning bugs come out. Our chickens laid the best damn eggs of my life. And I developed a real deep appreciation for the pace of the earth when forced to live so closely to the schedule of the plants and sun.
Edited to Add More Details: At the time I was living there, I was dirt poor so everything was engineered out of found/low-cost objects. I would build everything better the next time around particularly since now that I’ve got a lot of experience building systems AND a much better income! My job is now portable so I’m currently doing some long term travel (living out of my car and couch surfing) which I just started two months ago. My goal is to determine where and how I want to live tiny by January. Tiny house on a foundation? Tiny house on wheels? Van life? Boat life? RV? We will see!
My husband and I live in a 16x16 foot military tent out in the Montana wilderness. We are in the process of building a house and will most likely be in the tent till oct when it starts getting really cold! I hope we can dry in the house before that. Just got our foundation walls poured, working on adding raiding floor heating before the slab goes in. It’s been quite the journey so far.
Let’s see...we have a solar powered well pump, a solar shower bag for “warm” showers but mostly we bathe in the river. We also have solar powered internet! We stream the mariners every night with a projector. Shoutout to r/MLBstreams
Anyway, I love living and cooking outside. Today it’s 80 degrees and I can hear the birds and the river. We have a bear that comes through every now and then if we forget to put the dog food in our Jeep. He really likes dog food. Haven’t seen him in person yet...but I’ve woken in the middle of the night when our dog barks and know he’s out there being a bastard.
Edit: thanks for the interest. For anyone who cares, here are some pics of our tent setup! https://imgur.com/a/9C6tlp4
I did it for about six months this year in my old VW ('70) camper. My partner and I had moved to a new city, but I couldn't find work there. I got a job 4hrs away, so started in February, staying in a pub car park and keeping warm using the burners. Moved into the woods in March and stopped there for 5 months.
Best part was watching the sun go down through the trees, learning to juggle and smoking a doob. Worst bit was being made homeless by hornets on 2 seperate occasions. Oh, and shitting in a bag.
I lived on a 27' Erickson for about 3 years. I was living in LA and a production manager I worked for lived on a boat and it seemed like a cool idea. Got lucky with a find on craigslist and saved a few thousand because the motor didnt work and the guy needed to sell it. Had a friend fix it for under $100 and some beer. Saved a ton of money not paying LA rent and went sailing every weekend. One of the best times of my life. Ended up selling it after making a few upgrades for way more and went backpacking in South America for a year with the money.
Currently building a 2017 Tacoma and thinking about living out of it.
I lived on a 37 ft sailboat in a swamp (connected to the ocean, not sure what the exact term is) in Florida. Only one really interesting story. I lived at the very end of the dock, probably a quarter mile from shore, and the boat was in a state of advanced disrepair. No sails or rigging, engine disconnected, plumbing and wall panels removed, green moss covering the deck and windows, heaps of oily engine parts all over the inside, and most critically (remember this part): no internal source of power. None of my electronics would function unless the boat was connected to shore power from a terminal on the dock, which it always was. That said, I did have satellite TV. Weird set-up.
So, somehow I missed the news that a tropical depression was on it's way. Given that this was Florida, it makes sense. Anything less than a Cat 2 hurricane is basically nothing to us. The night before, I smoked a tremendous amount of weed and passed out with the television on. I awoke the next morning to some pretty hard rain on the windows, and water streaming in from several places in the ceiling. I swung my feet of my bunk and into about six inches of water. That was not unusual. My bilge pump was broken and the bilge typically overflowed when it rained hard. It takes about an hour to bail out the water when it gets this high.
I then made a trip to the piss jug and started a pot of coffee. As I was drinking my coffee, an emergency alert starts up on the television. It said something like this:
"This is an emergency alert. A tropical storm has landed in your area. Winds exceeding XX mph. Do not leave your home. If you are in a vehicle, seek shelter immediately. Extreme danger of tornadoes and flying debris. Emergency services are significantly hampered by present conditions."
I don't know if that was the exact wording, but basically the theme was "You are in extreme danger right now, and no one can help you."
I decided to assess the situation. I noticed that my boat was rocking pretty intensely and spray was slamming against the windows. Between the spray, the tint of the window, and the green moss on the outside I couldn't see shit. I make my way to the cabin hatch. I slide the hatch open and stick my head out and I am immediately hit in the face by stinging cold needles of rain being blasted by sixty-some odd mph wind. Between my nearly-closed eyelids I didn't see shit. Not the dock, not the only other boat at my end of the dock, not my dock lines, and definitely not the fucking shoreline. It was just a dense wall of gray rain in every direction.
I retreat back into the cabin and begin to wonder what this means. I quickly reach the conclusion that my shitty mold-eaten docklines have snapped and I am now adrift. I look for my cellphone to call one of my land-dwelling buddies to get down to the dock and see if he can find my boat. After a quick search I locate my phone in the water, which has risen a couple inches. Not working.
At this point I am on the verge of panicking. I can't see the shore, I can't see any other boats, I had smoked a little more weed with my coffee, and my phone isn't working. I assess the situation: a half gallon of water (I didn't think to fill the jug with rain water), a few grams of cannabis, half a pack of smokes, a few cup-of-soup, and no flares or life raft or even lifejackets. I remember that I have a radio. I'm not quite sure how to work it, but I turn it on.
I am rapidly cycling through the channels, repeating the same message: Vessel in distress! Vessel in distress! This is (my name), Captain of the (boat's name). My vessel is disabled and I believe I am adrift. Last known location: (the address of the dock I lived at), last confirmed time: around midnight. Requesting immediate assistance!
Finally, after repeating this message several times across several channels, I get a response. The reply is incredibly staticky and patchy, so it's near impossible to hear the guy. But after asking him to repeat himself multiple times, the static suddenly clears out and I can hear him clearly. He's an older guy, and he sounds pretty sure of himself. He has been saying, no shit, "You forgot to say over!"
Seriously. I am adrift in a disabled vessel in the middle of a tropical storm desperately seeking help and this guy wants to play technicalities. Fine, whatever. I repeat my message and end it with "over" this time.
The guy replies, telling me to remain calm. The storm is passing and the weather should be relatively decent soon. I am in a high traffic area where lots of commercial boats and pleasure boats are docked and there will be quite a few people out on the shoreline when the storm clears. He has a pretty large fishing boat and can be out in about an hour to help me. He's familiar with the area, and the lagoon I was in is relatively sheltered and I should probably be running aground soon anyway, but just in case, he says, I need to go outside and look for landmarks on the shoreline. Over.
I tell him I can't do that because the rain and wind is still very intense and will destroy my eyes, over.
He asks if I have any diving goggles, or even a clear glass bowl I can use to cover my eyes, over.
I find a semi-translucent Tupperware container and tell him I'm going outside, over.
The Tupperware container was not effective, I still couldn't see anything. Over.
Alright, he says. What is the status of your vessel, precisely? Over.
Sails missing, engine disconnected. The water is coming in through the ceiling and from the bilge and is almost halfway to my knee. Over.
Don't you have a bilge pump? Over.
Yes, but it's broken. Over.
Okay, he says, what about your batteries? How much power do you estimate you have left? Over.
I have no batteries. Over.
There was a long pause.
How is your radio working? Over.
I reply instinctively.
It must be shore power. Over.
There was another long silence.
Are you sure you're adrift? Over.
Now that I think about it, my TV and coffee maker are still on. I am using the radio. There is no way this would be possible if I had been blown loose from the dock.
No, I guess not. Over.
There was another long silence. When he speaks again, it is clear that he is attempting to restrain his laughter.
Do you need any further assistance? Over.
No, that should be good. Over.
Have a good day. Over.
You too. Over.
About ten minutes later the rain cleared and I went outside. The storm surge had completely covered the dock but sure enough I was still securely connected to my slip. All in all, this experience lasted about half an hour.
Edit: To answer some questions: I wanted to take it easy for a while and a friend of mine had purchased a sailboat for cheap that he intended to fix up. He never did and since nobody wanted to buy it, he eventually moved it to the cheapest, most run-down mosquito infested marina he could find, which was wedged in a corner of the bayou in between some kind of commercial fishing operation and a much nicer marina.
The marina consisted of one dock and a hose where I got my water and bathed. It was owned by some rich dude, and of the seven or eight boats there, five of them were his. I can't find a good image to convey what the area looked like, there was a lot of spanish moss in the trees and algae in the water but the ground was pretty firm.
My friend offered to let me live there if I paid the moorage fee, which was a fraction of the cost of an apartment. Although I only had to work part-time, living there was certainly not "taking it easy."
The bilge pump didn't work so it was not unusual for water to build up on the floor when it rained. I now live in a normal house and I still routinely smoke weed with my breakfast and in fact had done just that moments before typing this story. After this incident, I watched television for a while, bailed out the water, and then waded ashore (dock was still submerged) to go to work.
I get to comment! I live in a 1984 dodge b250 camper van. Purely by choice i should add. I was sick and tired of paying 1200 or so towards rent every month and not getting anything out of it at the end. So I searched and searched for something that would fit my needs and the van hits the spot. It's not exactly classy.
It's a woodpaneled ocean liner with shag carpet but it's home. My beer is always within arm reach. I can move whenever I please and it's easy to clean also my job pays me to live on my worksite with it so It works out.
I've lived on some type of rubber for about 4 and a half years. Love the freedom and the lifestyle. My dog has seen more of North America than most people I know. It's by choice and I can't see it ending anytime soon.
I've been living in a travel trailer for the last 4 years. Started working on pipelines 6 years ago and was always on the road and decided it wasn't worth paying rent on a place I only saw an average of 4 days a month. Now I can live where I'm working and bank more LOA vs staying in hotels and I go wherever I want when I have time off.
I've minimized what I own and waste less money on non-essential things due to a limit of storage space which further saves money. Sometimes i do get myself a nice hotel room for a long, hot shower that last longer than 8 minutes, good wifi and cable though to spoil myself. I could have wifi and satellite in my trailer, but I just really don't miss it that much. You learn that YouTube is just a waste of time because it kills your data.
I live in a 1997 Ford e350 at the moment and I must say I’m loving it. I was medically released from the Canadian armed forces and knew that I’d be moving to Winnipeg for me next job. I knew I didn’t want to rent and throw my money away and mortgages are far too expensive so I figured the hell with it. I’ll live in a bus. I gotta say I don’t imagine anything better for me.
I don't live in a tent anymore but I used to in the Everglades. I was just young and I couldn't find anyone that would rent to me. Ended up in a tent in a ranch and just took care of the animals in exchange of living on the property. Which was really cool because I love animals but the owner of the property was a massive piece of sh*t.
I grew up on a 100 year old wooden tallship with my Father. Currently I'm working on a 172ft white yacht that fishes in Alaska and Costa Rica. I have a guitar, clothes, and my Nintendo switch. I'm happy.
I lived in an RV for 9 years with my husband. Started out in a 23 foot motor home for 3 years, then a 35ft 5th wheel after we had our first kid.
If that's the kind of story you are looking for, I can share more details.
EDIT Full story
I was 18, fresh out of high school. He was 17, just got his GED. We lived in a small travel trailer (unbeknownst to his family) for a few months to get a feel for living together, on our own, away from family.
He got an employment opportunity out of state. His grandparents and uncles were willing to help him. His parents would only let him go if I went with him, and his grandparents wouldn't help us live together unless we were married.
So we got hitched. My dads wedding gift to us was a 1983 Southwind motorhome. Hubby's grandparents found us an RV lot to park it on, and his parents drove it up there for us.
We paid $300/month, all utilities included, in a small park in NM. It was a friendly place, and we got along well with our neighbors and landlords. At one point, we tried renting a house. We didnt like all the upkeep required, and went back to the motorhome. We had 2 medium sized dogs and a cat.
About 2 years later, we found out I was pregnant. All the apartments in this little town were section 8 housing with a 2 year wait. We were getting homesick and knew we didn't want to buy a house.
Once again his grandparents swooped in to save us. They cosigned on a 2000 35 foot Nash 5th wheel. $15,000 and 1.5% interest. We sold the Southwind for the downpayment, and the company that towed it away delivered the 5th wheel the same day.
We stayed in the same RV spot, and we loved it. We took the dinette out to make room for a crib, and it was perfect. We had a little garden out back, dog had the run of the park, and all the residents were built in babysitters and helpers.
But we missed our families. So when my daughter was 7 months old we packed everything up and had the trailer towed back home. We parked on his parents property with full hook ups.
A year later, I'm pregnant again. Hubby was a stay at home dad, I worked at a gas station. He did car and yard work for his parents to pay our rent. We couldn't afford to move out.
So we got 2 recliners from a thrift store for $20, removed the built in couch/futon, and put a mini crib and 1 chair where the couch was, the other chair went next to the mini crib
When daughter 2 outgrew the mini crib, hubs built a bunkbed where the dinette originally was. They loved it. We spent a lot of time outside and with family, since the inside was so cramped.
We didnt have many amenities. A TV and ps3 bought before either kid was born, and the built in radio. But we had each other. The kids had a dedicated room in Papa's house, a 2 minute walk away, where they were welcome at any time.
We got the apartment 1 week before my oldest girls 6th birthday.
The kids learned early that they had to put every toy away as soon as they were done playing with it. The floor had to be cleaned up before bed and nap time every day. They love being outside, and going on long drives. The understand the importance of keeping your living space clean and tidy. They are very close, and are excellent helpers.
Uh, so yeah. That's our story. If you have questions or need clarification, feel free to ask.
Ever since i was in elementary school and read the Little House on the Prairie series i wanted to be a homsteader. I remember telling my family when i was 11ish that i planned to join the amish one day.
Years later, im in my mid 20's with a husband and two boys under 4. My husband had always known i wanted to go off grid but wasnt into it. Anyways he's in school, moneys really tight, he's getting ei but he owes money to the government, so now their also taking a large portion of his ei. Im not working other than babysitting at this point, as daycare costs more than i was making waitressing. Were not going to be able to pay rent soon.
I look online and immediately find an add for free rent. Its a place about an hour out of the city. It's this old farmers family homestead. It has three seperate houses on it all fenced off with flower gardens on 230? acres of land. One is the original house he grew up in, the two others he brought to the property later on, the rest is farmland he rents out to other farmers.
Basically the deal was we mowed the three lawns and took care of his late mothers flowers. In the summer he would have some mamma cows and their babys dropped off to keep the grass down in the rest of fenced off part of the property. So we would walk the fence every other day or when there was a storm, clear and or repair the fence. We would also check on his elderly brother who lived on the other side of the property, and bring him groceries once a week. Take out his garbage.
The house we lived in was an old schoolhouse built in 1907 with an addition added onto it. We did have power and phone but no running water or gas. We had a huge potbelly stove which we cut wood for on the property, but we also burnt coal in the winter as it gets to -40.(Alberta Canada) We used an outhouse, but also had a wooden box setup with a bucket for the kids in the bathroom. We would heat water and shower with a shower bag hanging over the tub. The kids were small enough i would bathe them... lol... in a big vegetable drawer from an old fridge. That is untill we had our third child and I upgraded to an actual baby bathtub.
We hauled our water from a well in buckets, on sleds in the winter and a wagon in the summer. In the summer i would do laundry by the well in an old wringer washing machine. I had gardens and chickens and my kids played in the dirt. I loved it. For quite abit of that time my husband was only home weekends when he was in school or if he got a job he would be out of town doing 24 and 4 shifts. So when he was home we had to make sure i had enough wood to last till he got back. But i still f*cking loved it.
As of now i have 3 teenagers who would not be impressed with living off grid. So i get my fix by keeping a year round campsite with a little 1970's trailer, and living out there as much as i can in the summer 😁💓 Or throwing a mattress into the back of my Suv and going on an adventure with my dog when my now ex husband has the kids for the weekend.
I live in a Van that I turned into an RV. I rather live rent free then constantly have to worry about bills. I live in Texas right now so the heat is pretty bad during the day but at night it's livable. I've got basically a full kitchen and I sleep in a hammock so I'm not missing out on much. Plus it's an interesting talking point once people find out.
There's a few things that you really have to adjust too though, the main one is showering at the gym or using public restrooms if the need comes up. Both can be included if you get a big enough van/ are willing to sacrifice other aspects of you're living space.
If anyone has questions just ask I'm an open book when it comes to this stuff :) been living in it for about 4 months now.
I got an offer to work at my buddy's business as a heavy equipment operator but work is seasonal and I didn't want to rent or buy a house in the area. Not a problem for someone who has always dreamed of living in a motorhome...(I have strange dreams, lol). So I flew across the country and bought one of the biggest and heaviest motorhomes I could find, a widebody Blue Bird Wanderlodge. 40 feet and 45,000 pounds of '90s luxury. I love the beast and the two-stroke turbocharged and supercharged diesel engine sounds like sex.
Leather interior, fully air conditioned, hydronic heating with electric resistive heating as a backup, spot for a washer/dryer, convection microwave combo, extra basement fridge/freezer, 40" tv, 15kw diesel generator to power all the hungry appliances when not connected to shore power... I call it my rolling condo.
I'm staying on my friend's property and working for him till winter then I'm going to travel around the US and visit friends and family till spring when work picks up again. I didn't know if I'd adjust to this lifestyle so different than what I was used to but I honestly love it.
Here is a picture of Sylvia in all her glory
I live in an 8'x12' house I built myself in the desert. I've got solar panels, but I haul water in from town as needed. Today I picked up 5 gallons on the way home from work. I'm sitting in air conditioned comfort playing video games, watching tv, and watching my dog nap. I liked the area, land was cheap, and I thought building a house would be fun. It took me a month or so to build it, and it's got everything I need. A well would be nice, but I can buy water for the next 30 years for the same price as a well.
A few years ago I quit my job, sold my home, ans rode my bicycle around the world. After living that lifestyle for over a year an apartment was just too much space for me when I got home. I slept on the couch in the living room most nights and hardly used the bedroom. So I downsized to living out of my car for a year or so. But I'd missed having a kitchen while on my bike trip, and I still missed it in the car. I watched land sales for a few months until I found something in my price range that I liked, and then got building. I'm pretty happy with what I have now. I can do neat things like build a solar powered heater for the house, or shoot trap in my backyard. Not having neighbors nearby is great.
I quit my job a few weeks ago and joined the circus. I now work for Cirque Italia as a tent crew member and a part of the pre-show. I now live in a bunk that's pulled around by a semi.
Even the most amicable of break ups are emotionally painful and can cause a ripple effect among your mutual friend group. So naturally, when there's bitterness or bad blood between exes, the situation can quickly escalate into a battle of the perspectives, with friendship casualties on both sides.
The public square of social media can make messy break-ups even messier, with subtweets and call-out posts fueling the fires of raw feelings. In theory, the best route to healthy healing is to stay away from broadcasting or engaging in the drama, but there are times when your whole reputation is at stake.
AITA for outing my ex as gay after she told everyone that I cheated on her?
I know the title sounds absolutely terrible.
My ex and I were together for 5 years. I decided to propose, but she rejected me. The next day, we had a talk. She realized that she was gay, since "I've been trying too hard to please myself from men". We broke up.
The very next day, I get bombarded with text messages. My friends asked if this was true, and they linked me to a post. It was a Facebook (who uses Facebook) post (exposing me) about me cheating. She said that's why we broke up. Now I usually am not evil, but this pissed me off.
She was destroying my reputation, for god knows why. I simply commented that the real reason that we broke up was because she is gay. People didn't believe me, until my ex literally screamed at me for outing her. Then a lot of people started to call her out for her lies. I know I'm probably a huge a*shole. Though I feel like she deserves it.
Given how sensitive the coming out process is, OP is not sure whether he did the right thing.
But alas, AITA?
No. I did not cheat on her.
Yes. I did have s*x with someone the day that we broke up. But it was after.
NTA, this wasn't revenge. She was telling lies about why you two broke up, you simply corrected them. Your reputation was being destroyed; just denying it wouldn't have been convincing so outing her was necessary.
Also, she did deserve it.
NTA, that was key info about your break up which clears your reputation of being accused of cheating.
NTA. I understand everyone saying everyone sucks but honestly what the f*ck was she expecting? She could have AT LEAST ran it by you first. You two could have collaborated on a way for her to stay in the closet while also coming up with a decent, non-blaming reason why y'all split.
So while I understand the every sucks votes, I think they're wrong. She tried to save face and ruin your reputation. All you did was defend yourself.
NTA I was going to go with ESH because I think outing someone is a horrible thing to do, but I can't. She attempted to ruin your reputation to hide her sexuality. That really isn't fair. Should you have outed her? Absolutely not. But she opened that can of worms. Why not just say "we broke up." Even divorce agreements have the "irreconcilable differences" option.
While this is certainly not the ideal way to end a relationship of five years, for anyone involved, hopefully OP is able to move on and heal, and his ex is able to own her sexuality in a healthy and open way.
"I saw the sign and it opened up my eyes. I saw the sign."
-Ace of Base
Signs are just memes you can look at while driving. We saved you the time and gas money of driving all over America to find the funniest signs. They're all right here. Shout out to all of the sign makers with a sense of humor who make our daily commutes a little less depressing.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
We've all heard of overly controlling brides, but this mother of the groom would make any bridezilla look chill.
A bridesmaid has sought the advice of the internet after her friend's soon-to-be-mother-in-law tried to impose some frankly racist rules onto her appearance.
The bride in question is pretty laid back, the friend says, so her mother, mother-in-law, fiancé and maid of honor have made most of the aesthetic choices for the wedding:
As a result, her MIL chose the wedding colors, and her maid of honor chose the dresses, shoes and hairstyles for the bridesmaids. We are all excited because the color and dresses are gorgeous!
Everyone in the wedding is white/chinese and I’m Nigerian. Up until now, that was not a problem because I can style my own hair and do my own make up. Recently, though, I got into a car accident which makes it hard for me to use my right arm/shoulder, so I can not style my hair the way everyone else is.
I told the bride I would wear my hair in curls and she didn’t care as usual. Well, I guess she (or the maid of honor) told her MIL because her MIL messaged me on Facebook asking me to get my hair done with the stylist doing the other girls’ hair. I politely refused because I don’t trust the stylist with my hair texture, and don’t want to straighten my hair. (We met the stylist a few weeks ago and she didn’t have any make up in my skin shade, and when she got to my hair for consult she said it was like the “green part of the sponge.”)
That sponge comment: wow.
And yes, the groom's mom messaged her on Facebook to tell her that her plan for her hair was unacceptable. She wants the bridesmaid to go along with whatever the brides' stylist does. But the bridesmaid doesn't think that stylist will be able to handle her curl pattern, especially after she admitted she didn't have a diverse range of foundation shades.
Her MIL got upset and said that she was paying for the stylist and paying for everything else, and accused me of being selfish and ungrateful. I messaged the bride again about my hair and she hasn’t answered in two days (usually she would answer in an hour or less).
Her question: would she be the a-hole if she continues to refuse the mother-in-law's hair advances? Or should she just bite the bullet and do what the groom's mom wants?
"It’s your hair!" writes usertakensorry. "And besides, it isn’t even the bride who objects—it’s the mother of the groom! Ignore her and have your hair however you’d like."
Another user, aardvarkmom, says it might be a bad sign that the bride has stopped answering... but that the bridesmaid should still do what she wants:
It’s weird that the bride hasn’t replied to you, but she seems pretty checked-out in general with this whole wedding. So maybe it’s not that she’s ignoring YOU specifically, she’s just like, whatever. You should do what you need to do to protect your hair and your shoulder.
Also NTA. If the MIL wanted you to have your hair done, she could have found a proper stylist for your hair, instead of someone who’s clueless and racist. MIL is the AH.
IChoseYouSnorlax agreed that the mother-in-law has no right to insist on how the bridesmaid does her hair:
Nooooo girl do NOT let that woman do your hair! She has no idea how to do it and I guarantee she will fuck it up.
Ignore the MIL. If she makes it a huge issue, you're just going to have to explain that you're not damaging your hair by having someone who doesn't have a clue how to deal with your texture hair. Period.
Hopefully she will back down. And I would be insulted trying to get make-up and hair done from someone who was ignorant enough to compare my hair to a sponge.
And UndeadGearHead put it succinctly:
If you don't trust someone with your hair, don't let them touch it. Oh man. Especially after the sponge comment. That's super nasty.
They can just deal. Don't risk your hair.
The bridesmaid responded to comments saying she now plans to stay strong and insist on not letting that lady near her hair:
"I’m going to mention the [sponge] comment to the bride’s MIL again and try to get her to understand," she added.
A woman who was seeking a men's haircut has called out the barber who refused to do it for her — but now she's wondering if she went too far in "shaming" his small business.
The woman posted on Reddit's "Am I the A**hole?" section about her dilemma.
"I am a woman in my 20s who has very short hair," she writes. "It isn't just short, it is straight up a men's cut, as I am very masculine/butch looking in general."
She's been getting her hair cut at a barber for several years, she says, "since it's cheaper and they never try to push me to have a more feminine pixie cut."
Her barber moved away, so she tried to find someone new:
At the recommendation of my male friend, I found a place that looked good. I walked in and requested a haircut, and the barber looked at me strangely. He said they don't do women's haircuts. I clarified that I just wanted a men's barber haircut, but still he refused, telling me to go to a salon. I was shocked, since this is a big diverse city and short hair on women isn't THAT uncommon.
She felt that the barber kicked her out, so she spread the word that this might not be the best barber's shop for women seeking men's haircuts:
After he kicked me out, I felt embarrassed and shocked. I went on the LGBT Facebook page for my city and made a post that said "gender non-conforming women, don't bother with this barber. He doesn't serve us."
Word spread quickly — more quickly than she thought it would — and now she's having second thoughts about exposing the barber.
The post went kind of viral in the group, getting thousands of comments and likes. One of my friends saw the post and told me it was too much, and that I could seriously hurt a small business. I thought it was appropriate but as the post gets bigger I'm having doubts. AITA?
"You left an accurate review based on them denying service," wobblebase writes.
"You know what hurts a small business? Turning away customers," wrote Chartreuse_Chimay.
SoupBucketeer points out that the guy has only himself to blame:
The dude made a bad business choice. Instead of giving someone a haircut he told you to go to a competitor. Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to pick up more loyal clientele he effectively insured the opposite. He made the choice to drive away a potential customer. It's entirely on him as a barber to catch heat for turning away prospective clients. You were just communicating that non-conforming folks with short hair clearly aren't welcome at that establishment. NTA.
And kckaaaate pointed out that the man missed a huge opportunity:
I have a friend who's a hairdresser. A few years back a butch lady came in and asked for what is clearly a mens cut, so he charged her for a mens cut. She was SO used to being charged for a woman's cut despite clearly getting men's cuts, that she told ALL her butch friends. His business BLEW up because of it, and he went from having a handful of loyal customers to having basically the whole butch community of our city going to him. Make decisions, live with the outcome!
Longandsour, however, had a different point of view. She speculated that the man may have refused her service because he genuinely didn't understand or didn't think he could do a good job.
Hear me out. I am also a woman with very short hair who hates going to salons, mostly because they are grossly overpriced for maintaining short hair and simply because I can just do my hair at home so why pay someone... But I’m going with YTA. Your review makes the whole situation political. You made your review focused on “gender non conforming” people. You implied that this barber refused to provide a service to you based on your identity. With the current ‘cancel culture’ and bigot brigading you shamed this man and his business based on perceived discrimination. It’s possible that he was not comfortable cutting a woman’s hair, simply because he had never done it before. He wasn’t confident enough to cut you hair in a way that made you leave a happy customer. Perhaps he was uncomfortable with touching a woman. After all women can refuse to provide services to men because they are not properly trained or they are not comfortable touching a man. It should be no different for a man to exercise that right.
This does not necessarily mean that he is personally against gender non conforming people and refusing services based solely on gender identity. Hell I’ve been refused by barbers and paid $80 to a salon that literally cut 1 inch of hair. It inspired me to buy clippers and cut my own hair in the future. There was no need to make this an LBTQ+ issue, because it probably wasn’t.
Still, FattestRaccoon points out that whether the barber intended to discriminate against gender-non-conforming women or not, that's what they did — and other women deserve to know not to waste their time at his shop.
Except she didn't say that he wouldn't serve her because she was gender non-conforming she just said that he wouldn't serve GNC women. Which is true no matter his reason. All her review did was warn other GNC women not to waste their time, and if he wasn't going serve them anyway then what's the problem?
Toesno agrees:
He told you he wouldn’t serve you and recommended a salon, essentially telling you you didn’t “belong” because of what he assumed your gender to be. You told other people who look and identify similarly about your experience so they could avoid experiencing the same. If he wouldn’t serve you, chances are he wouldn’t serve them. I think you were quite helpful.
"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter."
-Mark Twain
Sometimes laughter is all you need to change the mood of your entire day. These memes will definitely crack you up, even if you're grumpy as hell in the mornings.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
In theory, a gathering with co-workers to celebrate and honor all the work that was done over the year is a great idea. More often than not, though, alcohol can bring out a slew of complaints about the workplace. If you're wondering if it's a good idea to berate your boss while chugging champagne and wearing a Santa suit, save it for the workday. Nothing will come from that except a hangover and a possible firing...
Of course, the drama can definitely be entertaining if you're not directly involved in it. Watching co-workers flirt and the boss make a 20 minute long drunken speech about how the company is his or her "family" is always a good time. So, when a recent Reddit user asked, "what's your work holiday party 'sh*t show' story?"
We went to the races for a Christmas party, one of the girls got on pingas, pissed herself on the members balcony then pulled her drenched underwear down and threw it off the balcony into the crowd. She never came back to work after that lol
It was hosted at a really nice restaurant and there was an open bar. We all arrived, had a drink, started chatting and joking around.
Then the CEO arrived and promptly called us all to attention. We assumed he would just be congratulating us on a great year and wishing us a happy holidays, but instead he announced that we would not be receiving bonuses that year and that there would be layoffs in the near future. People were PISSED.
There was basically a mad dash to the open bar and we all said “No bonuses? Fuck it, I’m drinking my bonus this year then.”
The next several hours were an absolute shit show. More rounds of shots of top-shelf liquor than I can remember. The receptionist vomited onto her plate of filet mignon. Two coworkers had sex in the bathroom. The CEO’s wife ended up passed out drunk in a chair next to the coat rack and had to be carried out.
It was glorious.
Edit: Also literally half the company called in sick the next day, and those of us who actually came in just spent the day taking turns puking in the bathroom.
We had our Holiday party on a barge whose top floor was rented out to a different company. There was only one male and female toilet per floor and one of the female party goers from that party had had way to much to drink before the meal was even served. Between dinner and dessert she stumbled down the flight of stairs pee running down her leg and falls into the men’s toilet. Does her thing and falls up the stairs back up to her party. Next thing you know we hear her screaming fine then, I’ll just go, and she jumps overboard into waters we all know are shark infested. Her date, knowing there is no way she can survive given how drunk she is (not even considering the sharks), empties his pockets and jumps in after her.
They had to stop the barge, call the police and end the trip for the rest of us. No idea what happened to the jumpers and I didn’t get any dessert, but at least I have a good story to tell!
They hired out a members club so I thought it would be at least a decent standard facility. The bar was staffed by one rather grumpy older lady, someone brought a punch bowl and someone else spiked it and my friend went outside and vomited blood all over the place.
Six guys wouldn't leave me alone the entire evening because they wanted to know how I had "kept that on a tight leash" because they found my wife attractive. There was a karaoke that only one person did and they wouldn't stop doing it. Two people not married to each other got caught in the toilets together.
Oh and someone got drunk and tried to fight the boss, for the third year in a row. Different boss each year.
Walked into the next-day board meeting to do a quick BSing on how the IT department was gonna schedule the switchover to our new clearing firm, which nobody would have paid attention to. As I went through the glass door to the conference room, one of our senior portfolio managers yelled out "LOOK AT THIS GUY!" and everyone started laughing. Comments like "Aeeeyyyy you made it!" and "Look at this, he showed up all clean, washed and sober!" were made.
Still to this day, I have no clue what the fuck I said or did, the night before. All my boss would tell me was "You had no clue who you were talking to, last night, did you?"
Big boss kept asking much lower level subordinates to sit on his lap while his wife sat nearby and scowled at him. He "retired" soon after. This was 20 years ago - hopefully this wouldn't fly today.
At the last company i worked for, one of the owners decided that it was not appropriate to spend company money on alcohol for employees. This rule covered the holiday party which was held at a hotel. Cue the entire company hanging out in the hotel bar and ditching the planed festivities.
Apparently one of the temps at my old work got completely wasted at the work Christmas party, then showed up the next morning at 8am (right on time), downed half a bottle of champagne in a single hit, said to nobody in particular "fuck you all. I never liked working here anyway." and left.
Nobody ever heard from her again and her contract still had three weeks left. HR made a tactical decision to leave it for a few days until they could declare she had "abandoned" her job and then got another temp in, who never heard how her predecessor left.
Probably the time I was in my early 20s grinding up on an older lady on the dance floor to L.L. Cool J.'s "Doin' it" song. I'd say at least 50 coworkers were cheering it on. Next day, I learned that was the wife of one of the Chairmen of the Board. Thankfully, he took it in stride, and was like "She really appreciated you giving her the time of day, you should've taken her upstairs afterward". I'll admit that conversation was awkward to me, but I later learned they were swingers, so it was all good.
We had a white elephant gift exchange. Pretty much every gift was a bottle of alcohol or a gift card. One person selected their gift and opened it and it was just a 4 pack of toilet paper. He tried to laugh but was obviously annoyed. Acted like a brat every gift opening after. Someone gets a gift card, a sarcastic " Ohhh, wanna trade? ", or " Lucky you... ". The last gift is opened and he just goes on a rant about how unfair it is everyone got a decent gift and he's stuck with toilet paper. Demanded to know who the cheapskate was who couldn't be bothered enough to buy a decent gift but was gladly going home with something someone else bought. A shy girl from another department raised her hand and quietly said " I brought the gift, did you look on the bottom? ". Sure enough he flips the toilet paper over and there's 2 tickets to an NBA game taped to the bottom. The guy turned red, quietly apologized, and sat down. He left like 2 minutes later without a goodbye to anyone.
Intern at a law firm christmas party. One of the lead attorneys gathered me and all the paralegals to take tequila shots with him. The top-billing attorneys, a husband and wife team, both got hammered, took off their shoes, and began chasing each other in the ballroom shooting nerf guns at each other and the paras. Someone gave firm-branded hazmat suits as a gag gift and two other attorneys put them on and began fighting with foam swords.This was pre-Uber, so the firm paid for cabs for everyone to get home if they'd been drinking.
Big boss (as in, senior VP) shows up at party with his girlfriend. Since he was married with kids at the time this was considered in poor taste at best. It angered a number of mid-level managers who started looking into things.
It turned out that he had engineered a no-show job for her at $95k a year and her primary function was flying with him - on the company plane - to conferences and such, even to investor meetings where the wives of the big investors took a very dim view of the proceedings. One of the managers leaked all this to the local newspaper.
End result? He was fired, along with several director-level flunkies who had been keeping this all under wraps. Eventually even the CEO was forced to step down when it became apparent he was complacent about the no-show job.
And it was a dull party to begin with, he could have easily skipped it. But he had to flaunt his girlfriend in front of us peons.
One year, one of the sales managers got drunk and tried to fight the DJ because he wouldn't play his song. To make matters worse/funnier, the DJ egged him on and was like, "come at me bro!"
Our company is banned from a bunch of venues because the same sales manager has kicked in bathroom doors, broken chairs, threatened venue staff over the years. He makes a lot of money for the company so the higher ups tolerate his Christmas holiday party antics.
In 2012, a woman I worked with decided to celebrate an abortion she had, during our Christmas night out
To say people were angry would be an understatement
At my wife's Christmas Party a few years back, it was at a hotel and had 250-300 people. Most people got rooms in the hotel so they could party. At some point during the night, I noticed the line to the men's bathroom started to get really long. Turns out, the hot receptionist in her early 20s got so drunk she started giving blow jobs to the guys in the bathroom. Word got out and one of the wives there broke it up and the girl was fired on the spot. All bets were off at that point and she was telling people her room number and bringing several up at a time. Several of the guys in line were there with their wife and that started a few arguments. Thankfully, nothing physical. Needless to say, I didn't leave my wife's side all night. haha
When I was 18 I worked for a very high end chocolate shop in San Francisco. We had our holiday party at a German restaurant nearby work. Since the entire restaurant was being used for corporate holiday parties they were not checking ID on drinks. My boss sees this, shrugs, and tells me to go nuts. This is not the first time I’ve drank at this job (half of my job description involved tastings and attending food shows) so I feel confident ordering a Midori Sour. It arrives in what I can only describe as a medium sized fish bowl but whatever, I drink it. When I’m in the bathroom my coworkers order me a second one, so I come back to find a refill I’m too polite to waste. Right around then I hit my perfect level of buzzed- happy, comfortable, in that sweet spot between drunk and wasted. Then we do our Secret Santa. Everyone gets fun little gifts and the boss hands out gift cards. I assume the evening is coming to an end. Oh no. The boss pulls out a large box of truffles and gleefully informs us we’re going to do a tasting right here and now. He puts six HUGE truffles in front of each of us and tells us to eat one in one bite. We oblige and it’s immediately apparent why they have to be eaten that way: each one has half a shot of straight alcohol in it. You bit the chocolate and it burst to reveal liquor. Each one had a different type of alcohol, ranging from rum to vodka to fucking Everclear. At six truffles that was three more shots I just did on top of my two fishbowls. I officially went from “drunk” to “completely fucking hammered” in the span of a minute. I tried my best to hold it together. I don’t remember much about the rest of the evening (my coworker later told me that I mostly sat in silence occasionally saying “keep it together” out loud) but I do remember my cab ride back to my dorm. My cab driver asked me what I did for work and I just whispered “I’m a connoisseur” and started crying.
In theory, weddings are supposed to be joyful parties where you celebrate your love with your partner and family and friends. But in reality, the mechanics of weddings can bring out people's true colors - more specifically, which people prioritize and value your friendship.
Even the most low maintenance weddings require a village of people to keep things running, and a pile of cash to book a venue and feed all the guests. Bridal party members are traditionally expected to pay for their dresses and travel, as well as any party shenanigans that will go down. This is all to say, being part of a wedding is an expensive and time consuming commitment for everyone close, so if you don't truly love your friend getting married, it can feel like too much.
Of course, in a perfect world, we'd all be forthright about the nature of our friendships and how they often drift apart. But relationships aren't that cut and dry, and the ebbs and flows of close friendship are complex.
However, even with all of this in mind, if you're a maid of honor and you bail on someone's wedding, that's a huge friendship fail.
AITA for cutting my maid of honor out of my life after she missed my wedding?
My husband and I had an unconventional wedding process, we had our ceremony, went on our honey moon for two weeks and came back and had our reception. My maid of honor/best friend of 10 years missed both the ceremony and reception. Let’s call her Iz
The series of missed events was kicked off when Iz missed OP's day of dress shopping because she had a cold.
The first time I went dress shopping I had invited a few friends and family. Iz couldn’t make it because she had a cold. I went with just her in my city (She lives 2 hours away) we had made plans to have lunch and make a day out of it. She called me the night before and said she was broke. I got mad because she chooses to be a musician and that is her only income, she works maybe 2 or 3 nights a week and refuses to get a day job. Her and her bf had to borrow money from his family many times to make rent. I told her she needs to get a real job. She called me back and said she was able to get money. The next day we go dress shopping and she’s still upset I told her to get a real job and we hashed it out on the way to the bridal shop.
We have our ceremony planned for a Saturday. Iz insisted on going when we told her it would be just family. I considered her family so it was fine, after all having my best friend there meant a lot to me. She calls me a couple days before my ceremony and says her bf can’t make it, he will be out of town and that she can’t make it because she has to be up early to take him to LAX and that she is just going to stay in town for her drummer’s gf’s bday. Then I find out on Instagram that she did indeed travel out of town the day of my ceremony, she just went an hour and a half east to a house party instead.
Our honeymoon comes and goes, we get in back in town and prepare for the reception. She calls me, telling me she can’t afford a hotel room like originally planned. I had been planning his event for 9 months. She decides a month ago that she wants to take her entire family on vacation the weekend before my party. We regroup and she decides to stay at my house that weekend to help. So the night before my party She calls me to see what I’m doing for the night, I tell her that I’m stopping by a bday party for my friends after a whole day of preparing for the reception.
She says she can’t party two nights in a row and decided not to come down (even tho I only had one drink at the party and stayed for maybe 2 hours). The day of our party arrives and no Iz. I call her at 1 pm, she’s still in bed and had stayed up late the night before making music (aka drinking w/ band). The party starts at 6pm. I get a text at 3:30 saying she’s starting to feel sick. I get a call while I’m getting my hair and make up done at 4pm saying she hasn’t left yet (she lives 2 hours away).i get a call at 5:30 saying she’s vomiting and can’t make it.
AITA for never speaking to this person again?
NTA. Ditch this girl. You are obviously not high on her priority list.
I hope you enjoyed your wedding & honeymoon nonetheless, congrats!
NTA. While it’s her prerogative to have a low-paying job and it’s a little icky to highlight that in this story (we could have gotten the idea without your judgments on her job situation), she committed to coming and is your very close friend.
She gave a lot of bad reasons for not coming and it seems like she just didn’t care enough to make these events a priority. A real friend follows through on being there for your milestones. I personally wouldn’t make much of an effort with her anymore.
NTA but I will say the way you approach her life choices and career seems mighty judgemental and I can see why she’s not super excited to spend time with you. If you’re not the one paying her rent you don’t really get to shame her for how it gets paid. I left my well paying job for something that pays much less but brings me more happiness, I’m not in a place to travel for friends weddings and my real friends have been very supportive of this and not gotten angry at me for being less able to attend things.
Any friends that have been saucy or judgmental and suggest I should have kept my old job I’ve honestly avoided. I don’t condone her being flakey but when I read the comment about her job it struck me as something some of my old friends would say that would make me wanna avoid them. Just a little insight, not saying you’re the asshole.
ESH. She is inconsiderate, but the way you wrote doesn’t seem like you respect her at all as a person.
NTA- sounds like the friendship has run its course and it’s actually not that unusual for wedding party stuff to bring this kind of clarity.
ESH. She doesn't prioritize your friendship, but you seriously told her she needs to het a "real job," because she doesn't have a lot of extra money to spend on your wedding? You both sound pretty self centered.
At the end of the day, this situation sounds awful all around and it seems like the friendship was ultimately doomed with this behavior in the mix.
There is absolutely no sure fire way to prepare for parenting. You could babysit for years, get a degree in childhood education, take on aunt or uncle duties, and devour all of the books available, but nothing can compete with getting your hands dirty raising your own kids.
Still, despite the fact that parenting is the type of experience nothing can prepare you for, there are plenty of people out in the world ready to dole out well-meaning advice about how you can know if you're "ready" to have kids.
She wrote:
How to prepare for children:
Buy bananas, buy five f*cking bunches. Eat them all. Whatever. Just make them disappear in a day.
Then buy more bananas the next day. The same amount if not more...and watch them go mouldy. Slowly. Say out loud “why doesn’t anyone want the bananas now?”
Cry.
Play baby shark on repeat for 68 hours.
Every time you pick up a phone, ask someone to ask you “can you play baby shark?”Watch obscure things on YouTube like freaky cartoons with catchy songs in between baby shark. Always go back to baby shark.
Bring a bull into a supermarket with you. Let it go and apologise to people as it runs pass them, bucking. “He gets angry when not fed and hates movement”
Buy 4 pairs of huge underwear that come up to your neck, poke holes in them, wear them interchangeably
Ask your whole street for their washing, and begin doing their laundry. Ask them to wear and dirty it as soon as it’s folded.
Bite all the apples in your fruit bowl and put them back.
Clean the house, disinfect it, then smear yoghurt on the floor
Ask someone to cough in your eyeball.
Poo with the door open. FaceTime your friends and get them to ask you about your day while you strain.
Cover yourself in sour milk.
Try to unwrap a lollipop in 3 seconds flat. Set a loud timer that screams at you if you fail.
Buckle up an octopus in a car seat.
Get three monkeys and drive around with them. Give them popcorn and honey.
Make a snack every 7 minutes.
Go to bed
Get up again
Go back
Get up... go back, get up, go back, get up. Smash your toe into something really hard.
Pee yourself.
And now you’re 10% ready.
The moral of the story?! Parenting is tough as hell and jumping in is the only way to find out if you can handle it.
Sooner or later we all get knocked down by the realities of life—even those of us born with silver spoons in our mouths and millions of dollars in our bank accounts. The difference is when rich kids get hit by reality, they have farther to fall and more of a lesson to learn. Someone recently asked Reddit: "What was the best moment you've seen where the real world hit a spoiled rich kid?"
Here are 27 stories of spoiled, rich kids getting a cold, hard dose of reality. Yes, one of them is about Justin Bieber.
1.) From Oakwood2317:
I saw Justin Bieber throw a shit fit and end up not getting what he wanted.
We have quarterly teambuilding exercises at my company where you basically go and play minigolf or some other activity capped at $25/person. Sometime between 2009 and 2011 (I really can't remember exactly) my group just decided to go for a fancy lunch in Downtown Portland. After lunch we took one of our coworkers to the semi-famous Nike store which was a couple of blocks away and that was the day Justin Bieber happened to show up.
When he and his entourage arrived he said something somewhat loudly along the lines of "Y'all are going to have to leave for a bit 'cause I'm here to do some shopping" and some of his people acted like they were going to try and politely force the already-present customers out of the store so Bieber could shop alone but the Nike employees even more politely told him that was not possible. At that point Bieber lost it-I mean he threw a total tantrum because they wouldn't shut down the store for him. The tantrum didn't work and he and his folks left in a huff.
That's really my only "celebrity in the wild" encounter and it's freaking lame.
2.) From Galemianah:
Spoiled rich kid showed up to school in a $325,000 sports car. He was showing off, lost control of the car, and drove it through a brick wall and totalled it.
3.) From Ajj360:
Knew a rich kid whose parents bought a car for and he treated it like absolute garbage. Purposely driving it really hard and generally abusing it, confident in the notion that his parents would buy him the one he wanted after he destroyed the one they got him. Well they didn't buy him another one, ever. He rode the city bus and bummed rides off of friends after that. He was the most entitled fucker I'd ever met, if he was over at your house he would just help himself to whatever was in the fridge like it was some sort of paid buffet.
4.) From the_planes_walker:
Saw a college guy with a ridiculously expensive car (can't remember the model) rear-end this woman who drove an absolute beater. Her car was definitely totalled and his wasn't looking that hot either. He got out and started screaming at this woman. She was in tears. He kept telling her that she was going to pay for this.
When the cops came, I saw each of them give their statements. After that, me and like 10 people came forward and gave our witness statements. It sounded like each and every one of us put complete fault on him (which was the truth). When the cops went back to him, I saw his face just sink. He probably told them it was her fault and just found out that two handfuls of people just confirmed that he's full of shit.
I've never seen that many witnesses stick around for a simple traffic accident. I think the other people felt the same way I did: that kid was a douche and should be punished for what he did.
5.) From theoriginalalexa:
Local business owner puts son through college and more. When kid graduates with multiple degrees dad decides to retire and turn over business to son. Son brings college cronies on board, has management all wear white cowboy hats and drive white pickups, begins revamping business. Dad comes out of retirement pronto, gets rid of son and cronies. Years later bankrolls son's run for state rep. The son lost. Dad dies and leaves business to daughter.
6.) From theoriginalalexa:
Here's a switch....highly successful local doctor/politician expects son to attend medical school and become doctor. Son opts out, gets job with new company called Costco, pumping gas. He's been with that company ever since, just his regular pay raises and bonus checks give him a good life. He just didn't want the high stress life his dad had.
7.) From cjmadson:
Rich scummy injury lawyer’s kid was in my class in HS. Goes to college (mid size school in the Midwest) and gets plastered drunk (parents bought him and his friends alcohol since freshman year so nothing new) and RA says he has to write him up for alcohol in the dorms. Punches 2 RAs, then gets cops called on him and knocks a cop’s tooth out. Long story short his parents have to drive back 6-7 hours after one day to get him and he’s not even allowed to leave the state until his hearing. Last I heard he’s working at a fast food establishment.
8.) From little--stitious:
This is not the best, as it’s pretty sad and frankly undeserved but a good example of the question asked.
I went to a very expensive private elementary school. A friend of mine grew up very wealthy, her father a surgeon and mother a stay at home wife. They were very controlling of her and quite honestly, a little scary. They sheltered her to the extreme and she frequently repeated insane things they said verbatim because that was all she knew. If she was told to clean her room but left an item out upon her parents’ inspection, they would throw the item out, no matter what it was. Once it was something very sentimental to her (can’t remember what it was) and when she told me and I expressed sympathy, she said something like, “Oh no it’s okay, it’s my fault. If I told my children to clean their rooms but they didn’t and had their friends come over, their friends would go home and tell their parents about how much of a slob my family is and that can’t happen.” This was her concern at 10 years old.
When it came time for college, they sent her to an expensive, hard-to-get-into school and told her that her sole purpose there was to find a husband (specifically a doctor or an engineer) to keep her as a stay at home wife. She flat out told me this was her only purpose, which broke my heart because she is a smart person who was able to get into said-school to begin with and her parents should have been encouraging different goals for her.
Well, she found a boyfriend but at the end of her four years of undergrad, he turned out to be a cheating narcissistic douchebag (the narcissistic douchebag part was obvious to me from the get-go but she had no idea what a healthy relationship looked like, however the cheating was obvious enough to be a deal-breaker).
So instead of going straight to marriage (which disappointed her parents and they kicked her out of the house), she suddenly had to become solely independent, find a job and an apartment and is doing well for herself. She’s a totally different person now and has come a really long way.
9.) From _TheOneYouTrust_:
Somewhat distant relative spent all of his university years and twenties partying hard with the ~100-120K allowance his rich company owning father gave him each year. He'd travel the world each year going to Bali, Thailand, Europe, every year Oktoberfest, just rampaging.
At 32 or so he decided to settle an upscale ski resort area of the US and open a business with his hot gold digger fiance. When he went to transfer his money to his US bank account he noticed it only came to a few thousand dollars. He angrily asked the bank worker why she hadn't transferred the entire amount only to be told that that was the entire amount. His father had cut him off without saying anything and he just hadn't noticed.
Absolute flatline.
10.) From aj_ramone:
About 10 years ago I was having a pint with a friend of mine. His family shit gold I swear. I mentioned I was struggling with rent and bills while in College and he just said "get your mum to pay for it then mate?". She's disabled and we've never had real money.
He instantly realized what he said and did feel bad about it. I think it was the first time he really understood that not everyone has their parents to lean on financially.
11.) From woogychuck:
A kid from my high school came from a well known family that was very involved in politics. He slacked off in school and was mostly a condescending ass for years. After graduation, he didn't really do anything, but eventually decided to run for office as he had the same name as his father. He won easily, because people didn't realize it was the kid.
As a state rep, he posted on Facebook about "Enjoying his women battered rather than plain" and asking to join the black caucus because he like hip hop. He also dropped a loaded gun on the floor in the middle of a session after fighting for the right to carry a gun in the state house as a "responsible gun owner". He kept getting elected despite these issues because his family was well-connected and he had a dedicated following from some political groups.
After 6 years in office, he gets busted for soliciting sex from a minor over the internet. When they arrest him for that, they also discover he's been dealing drugs. The worst part is that his family is actually super nice and genuinely made the community a better place, but now they have to deal with all the issues from him. He was an apple that fell very far from the tree. :(
12.) From 77w0:
In a country with high alcohol taxation. Rich kids enter pub, like 10-12 of them, throw card at bartender, demanding shots.
"What would y'all like?"
"Whatever lol, dad is paying lmao."
Bartender pours double J.W. Blues for all the brats and some randoms that they treated.
Brat with card had tears in his eyes when the tab came in.
"Dad's going to kill me.."
I did enjoy the free whisky though.
13.) From wafflesareforever:
All throughout high school, for alphabetical reasons, my locker was right next to the son of the owner of a 200-store chain of convenience stores in our region. He was incredibly socially inept. I felt bad for him. We developed kind of a weird little friendship where we only ever talked at our lockers, but we had these little two-minute deep conversations. Mostly focused on him getting bullied, and me advising him to just chill out and stop running his mouth so much because that was why it was happening. He was obnoxious to classmates and teachers alike, and he reveled in it. He'd brag about his family's money and just generally play the part of a spoiled rich kid, almost like he felt like he had to. He liked being hated/envied, to some extent, but he also hated being an outcast.
He did listen when I told him about the stuff that was bothering me (I was shy and felt ignored and excluded all the time). There was absolutely a kernel of a good human being in him. He was actually an important person to me in a way... I never told anyone else about that stuff back then.
His behavior came back to bite him the week after the Columbine massacre. He decided to purchase and wear a black trenchcoat to school in the style of the school shooters. After a few days of him wearing that throughout the day, just to be a dick, he got cornered by some kids and absolutely pummeled. They broke his nose, he was fucked up. He'd been basically asking for it, so I'm not sure what he expected.
14.) From sarcasm_hurts:
Freshman year of college - the guy across the hall from me is a spoiled rich kid from a big southern city. Old money clearly coming out his ass. A couple weeks into the second semester he and a buddy found a checkbook on the sidewalk. Stupid fuckers decided to write themselves a check and cash it in the bank that the account is in. The teller immediately called the cops and they both got arrested.
We talked the night he got arrested and he laughed and said his dad would "take care of it" and everything would be fine. That weekend we met his dad as they moved everything out of the dorms since his dumb ass got expelled. Guess daddy didn't take care of it.
15. From paganbreed:
I knew one who apparently couldn't fathom how people live on a budget.
We used to hang out a lot at her insistence but she liked to eat at expensive places whereas I'd have no issue having my meals somewhere cheaper.
However, she kept pouting and insisting I stay. I said I couldn't unless she wanted to spot me. She didn't.
I then walked her through the math and showed her that the cost of my meals with her, everyday, totaled my entire wage for the month.
She didn't stop pouting but from then on I could eat by myself in peace.
16.) From _xargonsfury:
This is nowhere near as dark as most of these, but one of my acquaintances in college was dating a woman from a relatively privileged background. For reference, almost 90% of the people at this college, including myself, were from similar backgrounds, but most of us had some kind of idea as to what the real world was like. Most of us were in the range of "parents have a house and an off grid hunting camp, been to Disney World at least once, had a Nintendo when it first came out, parents chipped in our our first beater Corolla" rich, and some people were really out there.
This girl had no idea how to use most common household appliances because in her home, she had maids and servants for that. She clogged all the common room laundry machines with feather boas on a regular basis. She had no idea how to cook pretty much anything. It was all fun and games until she figured a dryer and a microwave were basically the same appliance, microwaved all her clothes and burned the entire dorm down. Nobody was hurt but it was a major "what the fuck" moment and many people had to find temporary housing.
17.) From suspect309:
My best moment was when I got hired by a pair of Woodside, CA parents to transition their horrible 18 year old into the realities of "real life", something that evaded both of them. My first action was to take away his platinum, limitless, credit cards. He threw a tantrum that lasted several days. "Where am I going to get money? " Get a job. "My parents will fire you." They didn't. When he realized that boundaries & budgets had been set in stone, and that he not only had to pay the bills, the rent, but taxes too, he headed straight to college to wait out the next 4 years. He is still a little jerk, but at least he has a job and an education now.
18.) From unnaturalorder:
Used to be a counselor at a pretty nice summer camp and a lot of the kids that went there came from families that were rich enough to own a lake house on a very nice lake. Average price would be $2-3 million for a second home.
Most of the rich kids were pretty nice honestly, but I remember one kid who was the son of some retired NBA player who tried to use his status as a way of winning at blob wars. For people who don't know, a blob is basically a giant bag of air that sits in the water and you can jump on one end and send someone flying off the other. Blob wars was where you would climb onto the blob and try to knock other people in.
So the kid was popular and he would form an alliance with other kids so they'd end up getting knocked off before him. I watched for awhile and then hopped on, got the usual "hey, let's form an alliance" thing from him and said nope. He went on to say his dad was rich and paid a lot to send him there, so I got to tell him being thrown off the blob in blob wars was part of the camp experience.
He ended up being pretty relaxed after a couple days and having fun. Was an enjoyable gig.
19.) From Xercister:
No joke here. Back in high school(90's) this kid got a brand new Chevy Camaro. I had an old ass 80's Pontiac Phoenix that had the straight six. It was by far not a racing car but this tool was just looking to brag at what he got compared to the busted cars we got. About 2 days later, while we were waiting at a stop light this idiot tries to race us as I am in my car and I pull up with my friends. He does starts by revving it really loud and tries to do a burnout. Mind you the light was red and the roads were not wet. So he managed to get a tiny burnout going, some smoke and what not...When his tires did catch traction, he went barreling into the intersection and smashed the car of the wife of one of the VERY FEW cops in my small city. Needless to say, that didn't work out for him very well.
20.) From Mp10e:
I had a roommate my freshman year of college that came from an incredibly rich oil family from the Middle East. I remember him having the hardest time adjusting to not having someone else prepare him food. I remember waking up one morning and going to the kitchen and seeing him try to eat eggs and toast he had just prepared himself. He asked me how I normally prepare fried eggs because his tasted really crunchy. Turns out he had just cracked the egg whole into the pan and prepared it shell and all. I couldn’t stop laughing but felt really bad for the dude.
21.) From Pumkinbread717Fan:
There was a kid in my school/class who was a trust fund baby and he acted like it.
He was picking on people one day just talking unnecessary shit and he called a girl a cow (she was overweight) He then got punched by a special education kid in class. And then when he contemplated retaliating against the special education kid, he then got punched by another student who was not special needs. He did not contemplating punching him.
22.) From Finito-1994:
When I was a teenager my sister and I saw through our windows that there were two guys getting into her car. We ran downstairs as fast as possible and caught them in the act. One managed to run away but the other one froze and didn’t run away. He couldn’t have been much older than me.
My sister called the cops and the kid kept looking at us and trying to find a way to escape. My sister said “run if you want. My brother will catch you.”
The cops came and so did his parents. His mom drove a fucking amazing car and the lady looked furious and sad. She was dressed really nice and looked like she was pretty successful. As soon as she got out she began yelling “Why?! We give you everything! You have everything! Why would you try and steal?! Don’t we give you enough?!”
The kid just seemed to shrink and get smaller.
I don’t get it. Fucking asshole.
I hope he turned his life around and began to be around better people.
23.) From Beefy_Bureaucrat:
I knew a guy in high school who bragged that he didn’t have to pay attention in school because (get this) his grandfather was a Vice President of the corporation that supplied the cardboard for cereal boxes for General Mills. Real gravy train, ya know.
Last I checked (since deleted Facebook) he was still working at Best Buy five years after high school, same job he had in high school.
24.) From peteski99:
One of my college roommates told his parents the trip we were planning (that they were paying for) was 400$ more expensive than it was so he could buy a really nice bong. In addition, they basically paid for everything he wanted - he had their credit card and ordered food on it at least once daily. He also would make 50$ purchases off the card pretty regularly.
Long story short they found out he lied about the cost of the trip. For whatever reason they still paid and let him go, but after the trip he could not use their card anymore. This dude acted like he lived the hardest life of all time afterwards, but eventually sucked it up. He actually acts way less entitled now, it ended up having a lasting positive effect for him (even though he wouldn’t admit it).
25.) From Slappy_Hamster:
For a couple of years in high school I went to this super expensive American private school in Switzerland. The company my Dad worked for paid for almost all the tuition, so it was an amazing opportunity for me. Most of the kids in this school were either State Department or from American families living in Saudi (Saudi provided expat kids with school up until 10th grade, so you had to go to a school abroad to finish HS). There were however, a few Saudi kids that were there, mostly so that they would be able to speak flawless English to help out their future careers. One of these kids, who I will call The Prince, was somewhere in the line of Saudi succession, but honestly, he was like 1,455th in line for the throne. Not a real contender for King, but his family was rich. Like rich in a way that most of us can't even imagine.
This school had some rules, like you couldn't have a car as a student, even if you were old enough to get a license Switzerland. This rule was a real buzz kill for The Prince, but he made it through the year somehow. Over the summer after his Junior year, he drove back to the school from Geneva in his Lambo, probably just because he could do it outside the school year. On his way up the mountain (the road is like a endless series of hairpin turns) he managed to flip his Lambo into vineyard while trying to navigate one of those hair pin tuns. I'm guessing a Lambo has a lot of power, and he took it to hard.
His parents, furious at what he had done, decided to punish him by replacing his Lamborghini with a Porsche. And The Prince was SOOOO angry. He complained about it bitterly when the school year started up again. The rest of us kind of just looked at each other in amazement. Same planet, different worlds I guess.
26.) From billbapapa:
I'm trying to be a better man and not take delight in anyone's misfortune but...
Rich kid in my high school totalled his pickup truck. Got pissed when parents wouldn't replace it, so purposefully crashed his twin brother's pickup truck cause if he couldn't have one neither could the brother... not to mention all the legal stuff that I'm sure was fall out from doing that.
Anyways, kid disappeared. I assumed he went to jail or some equivalent.
Found out recently that no, he didn't actually, his parents literally disowned him, like with the paperwork and everything and sent him on his way to fend for himself. And I have no idea how life turned out.
27.) From jonahvsthewhale:
I knew this rich kid from high school that went off to college and partied every single night. His parents found out that he was failing basically all of his classes, so they secretly drove up early one Saturday morning with the spare set of keys to the car they had bought him and just drove off with the car.
Marriage is (supposed to be) forever. While the divorce rate is at an all time high and many people choose polyamory or open relationships as opposed to a traditional monogamous marriage, it's still good to know as much as possible about the person you say "I do" to.
How do they behave in restaurants? Which side of the bed do they prefer? Do they clean up after themselves or leave dishes with food stuck to them in the sink for days on end? Small domestic annoyances can add up and it's important to remember that people usually don't change their habits. Plus, of course there's the whole "are they cheating on me with a secret family and potentially a serial killer?" Always good to know...
So, when a recent Reddit user asked, "Married people of Reddit, what’s one thing you didn’t learn about your spouse until after your wedding day?" people were ready to submit their secrets about their partners...
That she sneezes like she trying to scare the shit out of you (scream sneeze). I’m still not used to it now (ten years later). Fuck, it’s loud as hell. Our poor daughter gets scared and says mommy you’re too loud. But in public she “can hold it back.”
Not me, but my mom She found out that my dad already had a kid when they got married.
Been together 20 years. Married for 17.
I’ve been telling the same “dad joke” since I was about 17. Whenever someone says something was “intense” I always respond with “like the circus?”. My wife has been rolling her eyes at it for nearly 20 years...until about 6 months ago.
I gave my lame response to her, but instead of rolling her eyes at me they got really big, like I saw the lightbulb go off, then she chuckled.
She never got the joke until then.
She’s always leaving the lids on everything un-screwed, and guess who is always breaking jars because he always picks everything thing up using the lid?
His addiction to cars. I never knew how much he really enjoyed until after we got married. Also his obsessions with speed and how he wants his cars to go faster and faster.
My mom found out my dad was a compulsive liar when his twin sister didn't show up to their wedding. When questioned about it he said she must have imagined the dozens of stories he had told about his twin sister. He is an only child.
She's a great swimmer. One day, after we'd be married for about seven years, we joined a gym with a swimming pool. She challenged me to a race. Ok, I thought, I'm a pretty good swimmer. I was surprised when she offered me a half-length head start - and then doubly surprised when despite my massive head start she beat me easily. Apparently she used to be a competition swimmer at school. She's basically half-dolphin. But she'd never happened to mention it before.
My husband completely undresses from the waist down to go #2. He says he needs the freedom.
I discovered my wife is a hoarder, and doesn't want to throw anything away. She's gotten better over the years, but it's still an issue.
That he lives and breathes sports. I knew he liked sports when we were dating, but I didn't realize that's all he liked. I didn't know he would rather watch football games on Sundays than go to family dinners or anywhere else. I didn't realize he wouldn't want to watch anything but sports on tv. I didn't know that he would want to play or watch basketball/football/baseball/golf every waking moment.
I Didn't Know He Would Prefer Sports to Sex. I was gobsmacked.
My wife is allergic to all artificial sweeteners.
During the second night of our honeymoon we decided to stay in and get some takeout. My beverage of choice at the time was Crystal Light Raspberry Ice which contains aspartame. While we were eating she wasn't thinking and she asked for a sip. About 5 minutes later she became extremely ill and started having issues breathing. After a few minutes she read the ingredients on my beverage and yelled at me "I AM ALLERGIC TO ASPARTAME!!!". Me...being the loving new husband I am yelled back "SINCE WHEN!? YOU NEVER TOLD ME THAT!" She never bothered to tell me because she grew up in a household with no artificial sweeteners because she was allergic.
My husband and I dated for 3 years before we got married. After more than a year of marriage, he let slip that he is lactose intolerant. He knew that I absolutely love ice cream and we would frequently get ice cream on our dates. But he never wanted me to know about the lactose intolerance so that I could be happy with my ice cream.
My wife cannot read an analog watch / clock for time. Married 4 years, been together 7 years total, and somehow that came up only a month ago when I asked for the time off a watch during a power outage.
I don't give her a hard time about it, but that was a fun fact to learn
Just how much she REALLY loves Christmas.
We lived together before we were married, and it wasn't that bad. But the moment we said "I Do"...It changed. Now, she starts the Christmas train in fucking October. I'm talking the tree, garland and god damn Michael Buble. When I asked her about this, she said "Oh, we're married now. So you have to like this too." Purely joking but damn.
Even in 2019, when it comes to haircuts, the gender binary often prevails. Hair salons tend to cater to women, while barbers tend to cater to men. And while women with "male" haircuts and men with "female" haircuts are starting to bridge this divide, they sometimes receive pushback from the establishments themselves.
A woman in her 20's with "very short hair" who describes herself as "very masculine/butch looking" shared on Reddit what happened when a barber refused to serve her because of her gender.
I am a woman in my 20s who has very short hair. It isn't just short, it is straight up a men's cut, as I am very masculine/butch looking in general. For the past couple years I have been getting my hair cut at a barber, since it's cheaper and they never try to push me to have a more feminine pixie cut.
She says she was shocked since she lives in a "big diverse city" and also women having short hair is not uncommon.
My barber moved away recently, so I have been looking for someone new. At the recommendation of my male friend, I found a place that looked good. I walked in and requested a haircut, and the barber looked at me strangely. He said they don't do women's haircuts. I clarified that I just wanted a men's barber haircut, but still he refused, telling me to go to a salon. I was shocked, since this is a big diverse city and short hair on women isn't THAT uncommon.
After he kicked me out, I felt embarrassed and shocked. I went on the LGBT Facebook page for my city and made a post that said "gender non-conforming women, don't bother with this barber. He doesn't serve us."
The post went kind of viral in the group, getting thousands of comments and likes. One of my friends saw the post and told me it was too much, and that I could seriously hurt a small business. I thought it was appropriate but as the post gets bigger I'm having doubts. AITA?
wobblebase writes:
NTA. You left an accurate review based on them denying service.
SoupBucketeer adds that it's the barber's fault for making a "bad business choice":
The dude made a bad business choice. Instead of giving someone a haircut he told you to go to a competitor. Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to pick up more loyal clientele he effectively insured the opposite. He made the choice to drive away a potential customer. It's entirely on him as a barber to catch heat for turning away prospective clients. You were just communicating that non-conforming folks with short hair clearly aren't welcome at that establishment. NTA.
And chartreuse_chimay writes:
You know what hurts a small business? Turning away customers.
People are sharing stories about why more barbershops should give "men's" haircuts to women (and charge them the same).
kckaaaate writes:
THIS. I have a friend who's a hairdresser. A few years back a butch lady came in and asked for what is clearly a mens cut, so he charged her for a mens cut. She was SO used to being charged for a woman's cut despite clearly getting men's cuts, that she told ALL her butch friends. His business BLEW up because of it, and he went from having a handful of loyal customers to having basically the whole butch community of our city going to him. Make decisions, live with the outcome!
And Trania86 agrees, writing:
More hairdressers should do this. Or at least - have prices depending on the cut and length. I understand them charging more for long hair that needs a lot of product and more time vs. a pixie cut. But I don't like being charged more because of my gender - there are lots of men out there with longer hair.
Seems fair to me! There's no reason that a person's gender or sex should determine how much they pay for a haircut. What do you think?
