Despite the Trump administration's best efforts to simply pray the corona away, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage on and the United States now has the most cases out of every country in the world.
The European Union has officially banned American travelers from entering, and these snapshots of stubborn "COVIDiots" explain why.
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Most of us have felt tempted to pack up our lives and run away, at one point or another. The idea of leaving behind all your problems to start fresh in a new place can be equal parts romantic and terrifying, and the results of actually doing it can truly run the gamut from life-affirming to destructive.
I did this in my mid 20's. I traded a motorcycle for a slide in camper, drove from New Hampshire to Alaska and have made Alaska my home.
I did this as a single person between jobs. Now I have a family and a great job. I don't plan on moving out of Alaska until after retirement from this job.
I did something like this several times in my twenties. If you need to get away from a bad environment or establish independence it may not be a bad move.
When you establish yourself somewhere else, you have nothing but your own resources. Moving forces you to find a job, a place to live, and other resources and new people to deal with.
There is no need to break off relationships in most cases. If you weren't getting along with your parents before, for example, you will have a better chance from another city, not too close and not too far.
I haven't, but it is my alternate plan instead of suicide if I ever get that far gone. A change, not an end. You can always make another change.
I took a job offer in a state I'd never set foot in (1,000 miles away) at 24. Rented a house online. First time I saw the place in person was when I moved in. Fiancee was supposed to follow six months later, when she finished university, but we drifted apart in the interim.
The job was supposed to be local, but morphed into a new position that required a lot of travel. I worked in 30+ countries over the next 15 years. The startup I worked for got bought by a Fortune 500. Built a nice career. The past few years I was only traveling in the US and Canada.
Got married, had a child, got divorced. Made a lot of money. Lost a lot of money.
Was it a good decision? F*ck if I know. I might have been happier if I just married my HS sweetheart and stayed where I started, but I doubt it. I had wanderlust and I probably would have screwed it up if I stayed there. That small town was dying and doesn't look much different now than it did when I left 20 years ago (except now they have meth). I live in one of the largest cities in the US.
Before covid, I probably would have said it was a good decision. Now I don't know. My whole industry has shut down and I live in one of the states that's "spiking". I'm furloughed and don't know when I can get back to work. Life's pretty lame right now.
My advice would be, "Don't ask yourself what you're willing to live with. Ask yourself what you're not willing to regret. Then make your choices accordingly."
You only get one path. Every door you walk through closes countless other timelines. But you still have to walk through doors. Good luck.
Sort of.
Graduated high school, got a boyfriend. We met in Alaska, he moved to Washington state. A month later I moved to Washington with him. A month later I moved back to Alaska. A month after he moved to Alaska with me.
Three months later we decided, f*ck it, New York? Lived in Washington for a two month visit. Then drove to New York. We lived in a dilapidated trailer while I got my bachelor's degree. He's now half way through his, I'm working on my Masters. Then I'm off to law school. We are renting a house until we build a shipping container home. Its been a giant adventure. I've loved almost every minute of it.
I packed a bag, bought a one-way ticket across the country, became homeless, got the help I needed, found a job and that was about 8 years ago. It was exactly what I needed to do.
I got rid of most of stuff, quit my HR job and moved to Asia to teach English. Very few cons: it’s always intense moving to a new country where you don’t speak the language. Pros: I’m now a minimalist.
Now I look at sh*t I used to spend money on and think “that was so unnecessary”. I just own practical stuff mostly. Clothes, some electronics (iPhone, laptop). Also I’ve learned that, apart from some small cultural differences, people are basically the same. I’ve lived in Thailand, South Korea and China. People like to laugh, they like good food, they have varying tastes in music...people are really the same all over the world. It’s humbling.
Moved from Midwest to Big Island of Hawaii almost 5 years ago. I had lived in my hometown all of my life basically, and wanted to see how I’d fair where I knew almost no one.
It has its ups and downs but I am housed, fed, clothed and have curated a wonderful friend group and reputation among locals and neighbors. Pretty sure I found my forever home.
I moved from Indiana to Oregon in a Volkswagen with my dog about 45 years ago. I had a job before I moved. The pros are, mountains, desert, retired young, and a great family. The con is that I miss my sisters in Indiana.
I moved from Australia to the United States when I was 18 for a change of scenery. I admit I moved from one coastal town to another but the differences were extreme. Having left Sydney, I ended up in a quiet village on the Oregon coast, which is sparsely populated, misty, and cold. Breathtakingly beautiful, but cold.
The change in climate was shocking, but the change in culture is what hit me hardest. Coming from a place where people respect one another to a place where people think only of themselves is a hard adjustment.
Listen, moving long distance is hard, but if you have the right motivation and enough money to do it, it CAN be a positive experience. Would recommend.
Went to the other side of the world as a young adult, first time away from home. Back then, no internet, phone too expensive (1 phone call home in two years), letters took 2-3 weeks to arrive. It was an immensely maturing rewarding frightening experience in cold turkey self-sufficiency. 10/10 would recommend.
When I was 26, I came back from a job overseas to my home state of California. I didn't want to stay cause I never really liked the lifestyle there, wasn't really close with my folks and didn't have a job to hold me there. I had a nice little nest egg so I decided to throw a dart at a map.
It landed in the pacific ocean. I decided to up and move to Seattle sight unseen and go to school there.
Packed everything up in my car, bought a blow up mattress and 2 days later arrived in Washington. I stayed in motels while I searched Craigslist for places to stay and signed up for college. Eventually found a house with 2 other roomies in West Seattle, got enrolled for college and the rest is kinda history. That was 2016 and I've been here ever since.
Would I do it again? Yes. 100/100 times it was worth it for me. I've met awesome people, had heartbreaks, a lot of frustration and a lot of reasons to celebrate, all stemming from that one decision.
Cons? I didn't know anyone coming here and that's some uniquely scary and lonely sh*t. Even for a guy. I'm also not naturally a people person and the Seattle freeze is a real thing so I was playing life on hard mode. Still, it made the people I did meet even more valuable to me.
I’ve done this twice.
Many years ago, I found out I got a job near the in-laws. We packed everything and was gone within 4 days.
Luckily, the move coincided with our lease ending.
A few years later, decided the in-laws are dangerously toxic. I got a job 1500 miles away. Got the job on Wednesday, was gone by Friday.
Again, it coincided perfectly with the lease ending.
The first time we moved, I hired movers. Who showed up to my new place with only the driver and no helpers. Then he tried to hold my stuff hostage.
The second time, we sold / gave away / trashed everything that didn’t fit in a medium-size Uhaul trailer.
Starting completely over might have been more fun if we had more money. “Didn’t we have a...I threw that away.”
I didn't exactly pack the car, I just left with what was on my back and in my pocket. Once to get away from s*itty/abusive parents. Which worked out nicely. It was just me and myself.
The second time was to escape the hell that is Kansas City, Missouri and the evil family "justice" system that does serious harm. My special needs son was living in a group home. The son got burned on his back with cigarettes by a social worker and raped while in state run group home. I reported it and the state got involved. It then when I learned that DFAS was a mob and they literally F***K anybody who stands against them. They went after me and the wife for having the audacity to report a rape in group home they ran. They placed protective custody on my girls but allowed my son to stay with the rapist.
When I got my girls free of state intervention, we buckled them into the car, the wife got in the car and I looked at her, she looked at me we drove west into the sunset. Never went back. We had house, furniture, fridge full of food, possessions. We just abandoned it all and left.
We lived out of the car for three months. I did odd jobs until I had enough for a place to live.
I learned that after three months, my house was still technically mine. Every time returned to court for our son, and the wife and I raided it once in the middle of the night and took some of the more cherished possessions. We made a total of 4 raids, each time taking and selling what we left in the house. The lending agency finally cleaned the house out of what we couldn't take. On the last raid, we took all the appliances, light bulbs, water heater, toilets, sinks, and furnace, because I paid for them. House was still mine. (NOTE the lending agency cleaned out my house two months before they foreclosed. The pointed out to the judge I took everything I could out of the house. Judge told them it was mine and I could do what I like with it until after the foreclosure. )
One year after we left I eventually got my son free and clear of the state sanctioned kidnapping. It took ALL of the judges on the appeal level to tell Missouri to stop acting illegally. The court gave back my kid. We took him out of state ASAP and traveled incognito.
When we left, we didn't pay any bill. No the power, not the sewer, not even the lawyer. It was close to $165K worth of debt I walked away from . We had to rent house for 7 years after the foreclosure because of SUPER bad credit. I had to find landlords that didn't do a credit check. There was really nothing notable about that time frame. 8 years after we left the hell hole that pass off as Kansas City. We got out own place again.
If you are wondering, One of the social workers involved was shot by her husband for domestic abuse. Two of the social workers are still in prison. The child rapist and his eldest daughter were found to have been making child porn with special needs kids, both committed suicide. And Kansas City, Jackson county, and Missouri can suck the cold diarrhea out of a dead man's backside.
Moved to Chicago from TN with just a backpack. No friends, no family, never even went there before then. And under a new identity, too.
It, ah, did not turn out so well, but that's for many different reasons.
I've done it twice now! And another coming soon. It's amazing. It's great. It's everything you make of it, but it will all be on you to plan and execute everything. The good news is you get everything exactly the way you want it. The bad news is you get everything you plan for and nothing else.
I lasted 4 months in first place (bad job situation, overall bad idea and poorly executed to boot) and 5 years at the 2nd. Plan for the next location is 1-3 years, and then re-evaluate. Keep coming back "home" for family, but the kids we came back to be close to are in college now and the old folks are going or gone. Carpe Diem!
Not quite this, but currently in the process of converting and moving into a van full-time. I realized about a year ago that I needed to just do my own thing. So, I finished my degree, bought a beater van, got a puppy, sold all my stuff, downsized to a 70 sq ft van. Already so refreshing. My boyfriend of 3.5 years said he wouldn’t do long distance. But I wanted to do this for me, so I left him behind along with a city I loved. Ready for new adventures with me and my pup.
I've done this like 3 times. The best one was when I lived in Austin for a year. It takes a lot of balls and/or no thought process. You can only depend on you. You make a lot of different friends. You have s lot of different experiences. Overall I'd say it's good. But there are tough lonely times.
I kind of did this. Went on a "one week" trip to visit my bf in another state and just never went home. I was 24. I set out with every intention of going back, and only brought one suitcase of clothes, barely said goodbye to my parents, left my dog and all my stuff behind. The day came that I was supposed to drive home, and I just...didn't. I hated my retail job and I was bored with my tiny hometown. I kept putting off going home, until finally everyone realized that it just wasn't happening. I went back to school in my new state, after dropping out of college years earlier, and got a new job.
I don't know if I recommend it. It was a learning experience but I regret putting my family through that. I didn't come home for a year, although I talked to them by phone almost daily. But by the time I saw my parents in person again, my mom was dying. She'd just been diagnosed with cancer and only lived for one month. So if your heart is set on leaving, I'm not saying don't take the leap, but try not to hurt anyone who loves you in the process. Missing my mom's final year of life, her last birthday, her last Christmas etc, just to run off on a whim is the biggest regret of my life.
I did this multiple times actually.
Had an argument with my folks after not starting my second year of community college. I didn't enjoy the courses and decided working for a bit was better than doing a program I didn't enjoy.
They were worried I wasn't going anywhere so I packed a bag and got on a train to a much larger University town where my friends were studying. Within 3 days I had a job and a place to live. I used that working experience to begin an apprenticeship with paid college opportunities. I met some amazing people and worked in some great places all over my country. I'm debt free thanks to my apprenticeship and I'm still employed during this economic crisis thanks to an in demand trade.
Another time I took a job in a remote village in the Rockies and then went even further west after that to the coast and worked some high grade locations and built my resume more. I returned to Ontario for a better pay and benefits.
CONS: Expensive at times, lonely, uncertain feeling, some people f*cking suck and actually want you to fail, sometimes you do fail. Sometimes you get there and realize it's nothing as advertised
PROS: You become very independent and the self reflection is great. When I didn't know anyone I became perfectly content keeping my own company. You meet some amazing people and see some wonderful things and if you're the right kind of person who works hard then you will have unlimited opportunities.
You must expand your horizons if you're being stifled. There's a huge world of opportunities out there. Take educated risks geared towards your happiness and don't be afraid to dive into something new.
While the goal of an office is to provide a productive work environment, people who spend over forty hours a week together are bound to sometimes clash in personality, opinion, or how many drinks to chug at the holiday party. However, it is never ok to take advantage of someone's disability or to talk badly about someone behind their back regardless of whether or not you work together. Everyone in an office is entitled to a safe and healthy workplace and sometimes an awkward confrontation is the best solution to a personal problem.
So, when a recent Reddit user with hearing loss consulted the internet's moral compass (Am I the As*hole) to ask about a conflict with a co-worker who didn't know she could read lips, people were quick to weigh in on the issue...
This happened pre COVID btw.
I've had hearing loss for most of my life , but it was diagnosed when I was about 7 years old. So I learned to read lips at the same time I was learning to speak. I'm very proficient in reading lips.
Whenever I work with someone new, I make sure to let them know that I have hearing loss and to make sure that they are facing me and I'm aware they're talking to me.
I've never actually mentioned to any co-workers that I could read lips & but I'm pretty sure most of them at least suspect it strongly.
A new co-worker started and I did my customary introduction and disclaimer about my hearing.
I don't think she believed me because she got very offended when I ignored her. The problem being she was trying to get my attention from behind me and I genuinely did not hear her. Once someone got my attention I apologize to her and pointed out that I did have hearing loss and I wasn't aware that she was talking to me.
A few days later she was venting to a mutual coworker. The only problem was she was facing me and I could read her lips perfectly.
After a few minutes I approached her and let her know that if she was going to s*** talk someone she needed to make sure they couldn't understand her and that I was reading her lips the entire time.
I told her I was upset that she wouldn't just come to me, and that I did tell her twice that I was partially deaf and couldn't hear her. She freaked out because apparently I was being rude by reading her lips when she was facing me
also suffer from partial hearing loss and read lips. I tell coworkers I am hearing impaired for the same reason, and some people did think I was purposely ignoring them before I started. I feel like everyone already knows I read lips because I work behind a loud bar and will look at peoples lips while they speak. But it’s not some super power lol and it’s not rude to do. Don’t talk sh*t if you don’t want them to find out 🤷🏼♀️ - sassyappalachian
You aren't obligated to tell anyone you can read lips, and she was being incredibly rude for taking advantage of your lack of hearing and talking in front of you thinking you wouldn't notice. - telusey
Sounds like you taught her a very important lesson and she was embarrassed. Glad you called her out and stuck up for yourself. - abis7
Your coworker is the kind of person that talks shit about people in other languages thinking they can't understand her, and is then surprised that they were "eavesdropping" on her when she's called out.
Also, I hate people that talk about other people behind their backs and poison the work/class/team/group atmosphere. Who does she think she is, Regina George? - DancingCatflower
I would report her for harassment. Everyone else in your company is on board and accommodating, she has instantly made this a hostile environment for you and that's not ok. - Taliasimmy69
The general opinion is that she is definitely not in the wrong for calling out her co-worker for talking about her behind her back, even if she was just "venting." Don't act like you're in middle school at the office and good luck, everyone!
As much fun as it is to watch a movie from the comfort of your own home, nothing compares to sitting in a movie theater full of strangers with a gigantic bucket of butter-soaked popcorn on your lap. Going to the movies isone of the things I miss most about pre-virus life, and apparently I'm not the only one.
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Watching Wonder Woman: during the establishing scene of Diana as a little girl watching the Amazonians train & mimicking their fight moves; in that moment, a little girl in our row leapt out of her seat & minicked young Diana mimicking the women, & my wife & I burst into tears. pic.twitter.com/ujENQ8gQj1
— Samuel Snoek-Brown (@SnoekBrown) June 26, 2020
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1977, the opening shot of “Star Wars.” Crude by today’s standards, but when you’re sitting in a dark theater watching that Imperial battle cruiser looming over you … wow! pic.twitter.com/NfVnh4uT4j
— Bill Hirschi ⚖️ Kamala 4 Veep ⚖️ (@WJHirschi) June 26, 2020
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LISTEN. When I tell y’all drinks and popcorn FLEW. pic.twitter.com/twazTBmgcF
— A.K (@LePhilozophe) June 26, 2020
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This. The whole theatre audibly gasped, but the men next to me screamed and leapt fully out of their seats. pic.twitter.com/KZvAKTxUdS
— Mulder, it’s me... (@DanaMUA) June 26, 2020
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“Reality continues to ruin my life.”
-Bill Watterson
The reality of 2020 has straight-up ruined everyone's plans to have the best summer ever. At least we can still find things to laugh about. These memes perfectly illustrate how we all feel about this dumpster-fire year. Wash your hands, wear your mask, and giggle at the ridiculousness of it all.
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"I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life."
-Maya Angelou
Being a woman has its challenges, but it's also pretty dang great. These memes expertly illustrate all the ups and downs we ladies face daily. Any woman who loves to laugh will appreciate this funny and relatable list.
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Weddings can be incredibly stressful to plan, particularly when you're navigating the drastically different personalities and extended family.
Sometimes, the most efficient way to avoid a scene at the wedding, is to lay down the law ahead of time, and warn family members they won't be invited if they don't respect basic boundaries.
WIBTA for threatening to disinvite my parents from my wedding for their behaviour regarding my autistic soon-to-be niece?
I'm getting married next year and we want my fiancé's 6-year-old niece to be our flower girl. She is autistic and when she's excited or there's a lot going on she often fidgets, chews on things, flaps her hands, picks at things, and jumps. She also occasionally makes humming and popping noises. She doesn't have huge problems with social situations, and her parents and therapist are confident she won't get overwhelmed. She's extremely excited for the wedding and for being a flower girl. Every time we see her she talks about it.
These include some arm flapping, fidgeting, and noises.
When my family met her for the first time my parents took me aside and quietly suggested she might be overwhelmed by the wedding and we should reconsider her being a flower girl or even attending. I told them big social events haven't been a problem for her before, and her parents and therapist believe she'll be fine, but that there's a small lounge she can go to if necessary. They then admitted they were worried about her bothering or distracting people with her movements or noises. The words my mum used were "annoying" and "weird."
At one point, this escalated in a conversation where OP's parents used an ableist slur when talking about the child.
Later it turned out my dad had also mentioned their concerns to her parents, her dad had snapped at him, and my dad got mad and using a slur to refer to her behaviour. He apologized immediately and said he was just stressed and angry and blurted it out, but I'm appalled he would even think to say that, especially about a child.
I told them off for it and they haven't said much about it since, apart from the occasional "we do think you should reconsider". However, her parents are very involved in helping us plan so we see her a lot, and whenever she starts making noise my parents tell her to try and do it quieter, and I've caught my mum telling her not to flap her hands. They try to justify it by saying they want my wedding to be perfect and they don't want people to be distracted. In one conversation we were talking about our colour scheme and I mentioned that the flowers we'd chosen for her to carry would match nicely with the chewable dinosaur necklace she wears, and in front of her my dad said she couldn't wear the necklace because it was ugly and she'd look ridiculous, which made her cry.
Her doctors, therapists, etc have all said that her behaviours shouldn't be discouraged. Even though I've explained to my parents that messing with her ways of emotional regulation is likely to cause an outright meltdown, they won't stop discouraging her behaviours.
We're considering giving them the ultimatum that if they don't stop I'll disinvite them. It's a drastic thing to do as I really do want my parents there and they're exited to see their only child get married. They're pretty stubborn people and might attempt to continue doing it anyway but less obviously, at which point I'd have to actually disinvite them. WIBTA?
NTA, your parents are actively ignoring therapists and think they know better than the therapist and her parents. They are actively harmful to the child as you mentioned discouraging her emotional regulation.
If someone's grandmother had an air tank would they suggest she not use it at a wedding because it's ugly? They can f*ck right off.
Additionally, They are too focused on what's "proper" and not on family and what you all want for the wedding. It's your wedding and you get to decide what ruins it.and it's definitely not your flower girl. It's your parents ignorance and unwillingness to learn and be accepting that will ruin the wedding.
I imagine a scenario that your parents will be the ones to overwhelm the child, and they will look at you and say "see we told you so"
And also. If she does have something happen at the wedding, does it matter? It doesn't.
NTA. Whose wedding is it? Yours. Are you bothered by it? No. Tell them you'll be sure she's not at either of their future weddings. I personally have Tourette's and have trouble controlling my movements sometimes. I had issues in all of my sister's weddings and nobody said a d*mn thing, and nobody thought I ruined anything. I know, not the same thing, but involuntary movements are something a lot of people deal with. If they had a heart and a soul they would see that.
NTA. Tell them they need to keep their mouths shut. It's your day, not theirs.
I canceled all of my wedding plans, disinvited every single person from both my family and my wife's, and went and got married on a beach by ourselves due to frankly sh*ttier behavior.
It's been 10 years we've been married now, and tell ya what. They all got over it.
Keep your day for yourself however you need to, and don't let anyone ruin it.
NTA, I'm autistic and you are doing everything right here.
If the child was going to have a meltdown, and that meltdown would be disruptive and physically destructive, I would understand if you didn't change the entire wedding to accommodate her. (I mention this because there are some parents of autistic kids who do absolutely nothing to help the child with sensory overload because they say 'there is nothing wrong with my child', and if anyone else has a problem and isn't prepared to take responsibility for this behaviour, they say it's bigotry.)
But that's totally irrelevant here, it sounds like she fits right in. Your niece's parents have accepted her and got her support (which isn't saying that there is anything wrong with her) and they have communicated that clearly to you rather than just expect people to know what she needs. There will be someone responsible for her who is educated about what gives her sensory overload and how to manage that and help her handle the excitement of the event.
Your parents are being close-minded and mean. It's not like she is disrupting the wedding at all, she's just being slightly different. Even if they just kept moaning at you, it would be horrible, but trying to discipline someone else's child? Let alone an autistic one who is regulating her meltdowns with approved treatments? Way way way out of line. This sounds really entitled - I'm sorry, they're your parents and you love them, but it does make me wonder what they'd be like if you had an autistic child, or one who was gay, or anything else they don't find fits their image. You've done your best to reason with them, if their presence is going to damage a child's safety they have to face the consequences.
Bravo for taking a stand and I wish you the best day ever. Matching a bouquet to a dinosaur necklace? A+++. I would have the table decorations as dinosaurs just to make a point but I'm petty like that ;)
UPDATE because it won't fit in the post:
First, a couple of clarifications: My parents aren't paying for the wedding, we didn't want them to think they had any say over our wedding because I knew they'd push for a really traditional wedding which is not what we want, we're after a semi-traditional vibe. In terms of the fact that we let them around her enough to behave like that, as soon as we realized they were trying to change my fiancé's niece's behaviour we only let them around her under constant supervision, but we realized that wasn't enough after the dinosaur incident and they haven't seen her since. We only plan to let them see her again if we're confident they can change their behaviour.
Also, thank you all for your responses, especially to the autistic adults who commented. You've all been so helpful and you helped me figure out a game plan for confronting my parents.
So here's what's happened: I called my dad and basically told him that my wedding would be perfect if someone falls over while walking down the aisle. My wedding will be perfect if someone has a coughing fit during a toast. My wedding will be perfect if my niece-to-be flaps her way down the aisle and hums through my vows. My wedding will not be perfect if my parents decide to bully an autistic child. I said they know there will be other children there, and the fact they're only picking on her shows me they don't care if kids cause distractions, they care if those distractions are obviously autistic and "not normal".
I said I'm taking this extremely seriously, and that they'd made me feel ashamed to be their daughter and the way they're treating this child is not only against medical advice, it is cruel. Someone in here mentioned it was like asking a person not to smile, so I used that analogy. I asked him if he thought he could go my entire wedding without smiling once, and how he would feel if every time he smiled someone told him to stop because it was embarrassing. I let him know that if I thought their presence at my wedding would be harmful to my niece-to-be, they would not be welcome at my wedding because I don't want people who can't be kind to children there.
I said I expected them to apologize to her parents and to her and tell her they were wrong to discourage her stims, and I said they would need to show they had changed their behaviour if they wanted to be included at my wedding, which would include being actively positive towards her about her stims. I said if he had any questions about stimming I could try and answer them or ask my soon-to-be siblings in law.
He apologized profusely to me and he really did seem embarrassed. He said he would apologize and get mum to apologize too, and that if it was what I wanted for my wedding they would be positive about her stimming. My mum texted me an apology afterwards and also promised to be nice about the stimming. We're going to monitor their behaviour around her to make sure.
My niece-to-be's parents have unfortunately noticed she's been tucking her necklace under her shirt since my dad's comment, which is heartbreaking, and I'm furious he got to her like that. So we've ordered different coloured chewable dinosaur necklaces for her parents, my fiancé, my fiancé's other sibling, her grandparents, and I to wear around her, especially in public, so she can see there's nothing embarrassing about wearing one. We also ordered a couple of spares and I'm going to strongly encourage my parents to wear them at least once in front of her, because they're the ones who did the damage.
If your sibling gets engaged and you can tell the ring is a fake, is honesty the best policy or should you just shut up and congratulate them?
A woman recently posted on Reddit asking this question. She called out her sister's fiancé for buying a relatively inexpensive ring, and there's now a rift in the family. She's wondering whether she was in the wrong.
This is an ongoing mess that continues to haunt me, my 22 f sister hannah 25 f is newly engaged to her bf of many years ben 25 m.
Ben and hannah are high school sweethearts, he's the only boyfriend she's ever had so she tends to take his word as the gospel truth but I've always been suspicious of ben, as I tend to be of all people to be fair.
Hannah and I have very different world views, I've had quite a few boyfriends and one girlfriend, I believe is sexual freedom and exploring yourself and your sexuality, hannah only knows ben....
Anyway we had a small gathering of family round at my sisters house for a bbq in the garden. During the bbq ben got down on one knee and proposed.
At first I was super excited for them but then I saw the ring....and ide seen this ring before, call it divine intervention but ide seen this ring a few months back on etsy!
Hannah had hinted that her and ben were discussing tying the knot, and we discussed rings at length.
I went online to search for the type of rings she said she was interested in and happened across a very unique and pretty ring on etsy but it had a fake middle stone, I.e lab created diamond set between two tiny opal coloured stones.
The band was really dainty but kind of intertwined around in a teeny rope.
So as soon as I saw the ring i recognised it, the going rule for engagement rings as everyone knows is that they are supposed to last forever and be atleast 3 to 4 months pay.
Ben works a good paying job but brings in slightly less than hannah, 4 months wages for him would be atleast 8 to 10 k at an estimate.
I know for a fact this particular ring is $450 !
I wanted until the proposal was over and asked ben and hannah for a quiet word but this has the opposite effect as I was overhead by other family so I decided to just come out with it.
I told hannah that I had seen her ring online and that it wasn't a real diamond or even expensive, I accused ben of trying to cheap out on one of the most important gifts of her entire life.
And this was a huge mistake, hannah burst in to tears and informed me that she had given ben a maximum budget of $400 and that she didn't want a real diamond.
I was completely shocked that she would request this and was pretty certain she was just covering for Ben.
But she doubled down and said that she has so far lost every single piece of jewelry she's bought and that she wanted to buy something that won't be a devastating loss if she loses it.
She also claimed that they both wanted a long and expensive honeymoon instead of a big wedding
By this point Hannah was crying loudly and I decided I best leave, I thought I was doing my sister a sisterly duty by pointing out the fake ring and my entire family have in turn called me an a**hole but I honestly think I was just trying to help her. [Am I the a-hole?]
Momjamoms pointed out that expensive engagement rings are a scam:
Your sister and her fiance sound like reasonable people. The idea of spending several months' pay on a wedding ring is a marketing scheme created by the companies selling the rings to get gullible idiots to buy more expensive jewelry. Most people don't fall for it.
TutuDinosaur says her little intervention was unwarranted because Ben didn't try to pass off the ring as expensive anyway:
You should never have said anything unless Ben tried saying it was a super expensive real diamond. In which case you should have talked to her completely one on one away from all family.
And firetheficus keeps it simple:
She got the exact ring she wanted and you called her fiancé cheap in front of the whole family. You ruined such a special moment for her.
_alcappuccino takes issue with her calling the ring "fake":
The ring wasn’t “fake,” it was an economical, humane, and environmentally ethical alternative to a diamond. Just because it doesn’t satisfy your standards doesn’t mean it’s not acceptable for and cherished by your sister. What a hurtful experience for her when it should have been a moment of celebration and support.
And candiedapplecrisp says the sister should butt out:
4 months salary? In this economy? Hard pass. This has absolutely nothing to do with you. Your opinion wasn't warranted or asked for. Just because you're materialistic doesn't mean she has to be. If she likes the ring, she likes the ring. It doesn't matter what it costs.
If someone's ring isn't up to your standards... keep it to yourself!
Celebrities, especially those named Kardashian, are continuing to prove their inability to read the room during a pandemic and widespread social unrest.
Newly minted billionaire (well, according to Kanye...) Kim Kardashian West decided to tweet a photo of her seven-year-old daughter's extremely fancy-looking Friesian horse, and inform the world that the Kardashian-Wests have a whopping 14 of the things at their Wyoming ranch.
The horses are worth up to $30,000 each.
People immediately started responding to Kim's tweet with their own money woes.
The difference in wealth between Kim and regular people is staggering.
Many couldn't believe Kim picked this particular moment to reveal her menagerie of curly-haired steeds.
Others compared her situation to their own.
One follower calculated that Kim's horse collection could feed two families of four for a year.
People are also pointing out the contrast between the Kardashian lifestyle and the lifestyle of those they employ. A writer alleges that she was so underpaid while working for the Kardashians, she had to shop at the 99 Cents store.
Another said he still hasn't been paid for a collaboration with Kim that happened six years ago..
Many were amused that Kim spelled Friesian wrong in her tweet.
And legions of horse girls were also VERY not amused.
And one person pulled up the perfect gif for the occasion:
So if you're a celeb who's thinking about unveiling their horse collection to the common folk right now... maybe wait a few months!
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
-Albert Einstein
Keep moving and keep laughing. It's the secret for making it through life. These memes will absolutely tickle your funny bone and bring some sunshine to your day.
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Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, died in the middle of the night on March 13th when she was shot 8 times by Louisville police officers who entered her home through a no-knock warrant. Black Lives Matter protesters fighting against police brutality in the aftermath of George Floyd's death have also been demanding the arrest of the officers who killed Breonna Taylor, as the cops involved have yet to face any serious consequences. However, in the fight to not let Taylor's name be forgotten, people turned her legacy into a meme many people find offensive.
Money, and all of its evil and allure, is a relatively abstract concept to most children.
What seems like an everyday object to an adult, may represent an idealized marker of wealth to a child who is piecing together how the world works. While many children draw legitimate comparisons between their lives and others to figure out who the have and have-nots are, kid logic can lead to some fascinating theories along the way.
Trampolines. You rich, bouncy motherf*ckers.
There was this girl whose dad always dropped her off at the bus stop, almost always in a different car. We dubbed him "man of many cars." I thought he was really rich and had a car for every day of the week.
Turns out he just owns a small used car dealership.
Friends who got the most current gaming consoles when they first came out.
Kids who had the giant box of Crayola crayons with the built in sharpener.
Having a house. I lived in apartments my entire life.
Kids bringing lunch from home. They could bring anything they wanted where the rest of us had only what the school was serving.
Kids who went on vacations other than just visiting relatives out of town. We’d always go visit my grandparents, and we went camping sometimes, but we never took an actual vacation.
Also, people who flew on planes to visit relatives instead of just driving 10+ hours each way.
Having a cleaning lady.
Houses, I didn't realize you could rent a house or own an apartment. Cars too.
As far as I remember, my great grandmother was kinda poor and she had this very old set of kitchenware including metal plates. She wasn't worried at all when my clumsy 5-year-old self accidentally dropped the plates on the floor since they couldn't break (unlike my parents that we're kinda pissed off when I destroyed a couple of ceramic plates at home). So my very young mind came to the conclusion that great grandma is some sort of rich lady who doesn't bother if her plates might break :)
A top hat and monocle.
I always thought that working at a bank meant you were rich.
Cars that had working air conditioning.
Those shoes with lights on them when you stepped. If you wore those in my school then you were instantly the best, most popular and richest kid.
Kid Logic I guess. 😂
Eating dinner every night.
Buying new clothes from Walmart, instead of thrift stores, dollar stores, and $1 bins at grocery stores.
Getting more than 1 pair of shoes a year.
Having birthday parties. Hell, having cake on your actual birthday.
I always thought people with a bunch of keys on their key rings had a lot of money. I guess cause if you have a bunch of keys it means you have lots of keys and lots of houses. Kid logic.
We always carried around those shitty fold-up umbrellas that you'd get for peanuts but that would also break during the slightest breeze.
I always thought that people with those large umbrellas with long wooden handles were rich and wanted to own one too some day.
Refrigerators that had the ice/water in the front door. Going to Disney.
If people had Tropicana in the fridge.
Going out to restaurants, like actual ones and not just like a Denny's.
There's never been an easier time to help save lives. You don't need to be an essential worker (but if you are, we salute you!!!), you just simply have to put some fabric on your face when you go out.
While face coverings are a simple (and even fashionable) solution to help slow the spread of a deadly disease, many people remain stubborn. Shopowners and neighbors have taken to creative and catchy ways to remind people to hide their mouths and noses away.
Just printed these off and put em up the road no lie pic.twitter.com/v2c4dGTGHK
— cole (@colinberner) June 30, 2020
Terry Crews is beloved for his charm and humor on-screen, but off-screen he's known to create a stir with his unorthodox opinions. Now the Brooklyn 99 star is facing criticism for a controversial tweet about the Black Lives Matter movement. The anti-racist movement arose in response to police brutality disproportionately targeting Black people, but Terry Crews is apparently concerned that it's about something else.
"If you are a child of God, you are my brother and sister," he wrote. "I have family of every race, creed and ideology. We must ensure #blacklivesmatter doesn't morph into #blacklivesbetter"
Terry. what in the actual hell? this is the very definition of a strawman argument. why would you suggest a movement created to advocate for the prosecution of cops/citizens responsible for racially motivated killings could some how morph into “we’re better” pic.twitter.com/VmPbHiryAe
— Franchesca Ramsey (@chescaleigh) June 30, 2020
So it’s been like...5 minutes and already...this is who you’re talking to and catering to when you say this in case you were confused @terrycrewspic.twitter.com/ZHWRilwq4W
— Daria Renee (@DariaReneee) June 30, 2020
King explained the importance of the "Black Lives Matter" movement and protest slogan, adding: "justice is not a competition."
Lizzo for President!
Shout out to the teacher I had in high school who would give us detentions for "talking" and then dump a box of markers on the floor and tell us to pick them up, keeping us just long enough after school that we would miss the bus home. Or, lunch detentions? Those were pretty evil in hindsight to punish kids during the twenty minute break they have in a day jam-packed with stressful math tests, group presentations, and then having to change clothes to sweat and run a mile during the day and then go dissect a dead, bloated frog. School can be strange, but the way teachers punish students sometimes seriously misses the mark.
So, when a recent Reddit user asked, "What’s the dumbest thing you got in trouble for in school?" people were ready to share the unfair and silly reasons they got punished for as kids that still keep them up at night well into adulthood. We don't forgive you, second period sophomore year social studies teacher! You know who you are!
one time back in elementary school I asked to use the bathroom and the teacher said no so I just left class to use the bathroom - Gabefinn
Almost our whole year got a lunch time detention cause we weren't wearing school approved footwear for sports (had to be completely white). - kweenbumblebee
Cutting the bus seats open and putting yogurt and odd things inside of them.
Wasn’t me though, it was the dude sitting next to me - bspazzed
Some kid stealing MY lunch - genericfishstick
Reading a book.
I started to read a Reading Olympics book (annual reading competition my school participated in) while I waited for the rest of my class to complete the individual classwork. Teacher yelled at me so I put it away and started playing games on my calculator. Teacher had no problem with that. - starspeckleguineapig
A kid stole my holographic Charizard Pokémon card and told the teacher he saw me try to steal it from his backpack so that I couldn’t claim he stole it. The teacher believed him because he said that my family was too poor to buy me toys. Which was basically the truth... - BobbyDean14
Literally got ran into the halls. Turns out it was my fault for not seeing the kid. He ran into me from behind and came around the corner. The teacher says “I got in his way” apparently just the direction that we were walking told her nothing - TheRealMushroomBoii
Gave a kid spicy Asian candies in like 3rd grade bc he said he could handle spicy... kid had to go to the nurses and I had to go to the principals office lol - oh_0h
Shouting "RAWR" in the bathroom in second grade
I got a referral - bashfulsmile935
Carrying a keychain in the shape of an anime sword. They said it was a knife. - keikochama
Picking mulberries and throwing them at squirrels. - maskghostwolf
Didn’t bring white socks - Sir_Zanzibar
Wearing a sweatshirt that said GUESS on it. Apparently it meant I wanted the boys to guess my bra size. - _leica_
Got expelled for ditching on senior ditch day. - gurishag
Catholic school. Priest drank the rest of the wine in the chalice around the end of mass and I told my classmates he was going to get drunk. Friend told on me because he thought god would punish him if he didn’t. Had to go to confession and my hippy mum had to have a meeting with the priest and the teachers. Went surprisingly well.Priest was cool teachers were butt hurt. I was like 13. Surprisingly I was left un butt hurt - Curry_Farts
Putting two pencils in my nostrils.
The teacher called me out and everyone laughed. I was so embarrassed that day. - star_crystals
I went to a Catholic grade school and one day while doing a project in class I accidentally said “orgasm” when I meant to say “organism”. The two nun teachers looked incredibly disgusted and shocked then banned me from the computer lab for the rest of the week. It was literally an innocent mistake. Still pisses me off and this was 25 years ago. - opinionsarecoolmaaan
One time my friend yelled HETEROSEXUAL in the cafeteria and then got a talking to and a warning for using “inappropriate language” from one of the admins who was in charge of watching over the cafeteria. - Cheshire_Cat8888
If there's one thing I've learned from following parents on Twitter, it's that raising kids is pure chaos. And that's before the global pandemic. And yet, even with the world in crisis, parents are being funnier than ever online. Probably because humor is the best coping mechanism for the madness of parenting in 2020 (also, it's low-cal, free, and pairs well with wine and sweatpants).
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Don't judge someone until you've walked a mile in their sanitary pad.
A mom wrote into "Am I The A**hole?" asking if it was indeed a**holeish of her to make her son wear a sanitary pad as a punishment for teasing his sister for having a period.
Is there a fine line between parenting and frat hazing? His therapist seems to think so.
The mom wrote:
I am a single mother of two wonderful children the girl is 15 the boy is 17. There father died just over 10 years ago.
My son over the last few months has started making fun of his sister for having a period. He calls her breeder and blood monster. I have taken away his game system and computer but he wont stop. I have spoken to him and even asked his therapist to address it with him. Both kids have separate therapist since there dad died they go as often as they like.
She made accommodations around her 17-year-old son's immaturity/periodphobia, but he was still bloody nasty about the existence of the menstrual cycle.
I have tried to help my daughter hid her period from him by having her share my bathroom instead of the kids sharing one. But he always seems to know. He will even start sniffing hard around her saying " is breeders time again".
I know she doesnt smell cause if I let her the poor girl would live in the shower during that time of the month. Plus she love perfume so she smells like a lotion store most days. She is really upset when the time comes cause of her brother making rude comments.
Fed up, the mom resorted to Pledge Week tactics.
I finally had enough if he wont stop he can be embarrassed. I went to the store and bought some very unflattering pads. The next time he made a comment I brought them out and told him he had to wear them. It was the weekend so no one saw. But he stopped entirely.
The truce was short-lived, and the son's therapist said that she did some serious damage.
He went to his therapist recently and I came to pick him up and was asked to come in by my son for the last part. Well the therapist is telling me I have hurt my son and damaged his confidence. I tried to explain but [they] just told never to do that again.
Now my son is back to the breeder talk and keeps calling me an a**hole.
AITA for my punishment?
People in the Reddit jury went with rulings of Everyone Sucks Here... including the therapist.
"ESH (Everyone Sucks Here). Your son is an a**hole and hiding your daughter’s cycles plus having him wear the pad to embarrass him just reinforces that it’s something shameful," DTCarter ruled. "I would get a new psychiatrist for the son because he’s damaging his sisters confidence for sure but the psychiatrist doesn’t seem to be addressing that."
"Yeah wow, undermining the Mom and enabling the bullying was not a very good therapist move," RickyNixon commented.
PeachyNOLA was sympathetic to the mom.
"NTA (Not The A**hole). So according to the therapist, you were wrong cause you hurt his feelings & confidence. What about the fact that he's doing the exact same thing to his younger sister?" they asked.
They also declared themselves to be pro-hazing. "Maybe I'm the ass too, they said, "but I think that was an extremely funny/clever way to handle it & like you said, it was on the weekend so he didn't have to leave the house."
Redditors, themselves versed in shadowy corners of the internet, warned the mom to look into which sites her son is frequenting. Mocking women as "breeders" might not only be an immaturity thing, but is also the language of toxic incel and male supremacist forums.
"It sounds like he's been on some incel sites if he's being so overt with his abuse and use of 'breeder.' It's so gross. Get him a new therapist and go through his computer," rinnerchickendinner warned. "Those sites are dangerous, hell, that community empowered an incel to shoot up a yoga studio. You need a therapist who is going to shut that down."
A lot of kids waffle between looking up to their parents as heroes, and viewing them as embarrassing older people who are out of touch and constantly bossing them around. This type of binary thinking can make it downright shocking for a child to see their parent exhibit bravery or skills not normally needed.
While parents are just people who had whole lives before raising families, it's easy for kids to forget that, so when mom or dad show off their ability to break up a fight or handle a crisis, it can be downright awe inspiring.
My Dad was driving me to his office when I was about 10. There was a group of 5 people outside of the library kicking the sh*t out of this guy's face. My Dad just calmly parked the car, got out, and started pulling these dudes off this other guy like it wasn't even a thing. Someone called the police while my Dad held them all off.
When I asked him why he did it be said "I was having a sh*tty day, and I could tell that guy was too." He's a lawyer in a relatively small town, and it turns out the guy he helped had actually got sent to jail because of him 3 years previously. He was still insanely thankful and sends us a Christmas card every year.
TL;DR Thought my Dad was some type of superhero after breaking up a bada*s fight by himself.
Dad pulled two unconscious women off the bottom of a hotel pool. Alternated CPR on both and revived them.
My family was on vacation when I was about 12 and we went to the beach. The water was pretty rough that day and there was one area full of all these jagged rocks. Well my dad was teaching me how to surf that day and he'd already warned me not to go near the rocks because a rip was forming over there. So there we are, out in the middle of the ocean, amidst all the other tourists when my dad goes "stay on the board and stay here" and swims away.
I hadn't been paying attention but apparently my dad had noticed these teenagers swimming near the rocks and one of them got caught in the rip. He had managed to grab onto a rock so he wasn't being pulled any deeper but the waves were crashing over him and it was clear he wasn't going to be able to hold on much longer. As I watched my dad swam over and managed to pull the kid to safety, avoiding the rocks and waves and fighting back against the rip.
He then proceeded to lecture the kid about ocean safety because, ya know, he's a dad.
You know that game at the fair where you try and run against the bungee cord for a prize? When I was a kid we went to a fair and a big firefighter tried that game, and didn't win it. Then a marine home on leave tried it, and didn't get it. Then my 42-year-old dad gave it a go, and won. The carnies were super confused, because they only had the one prize and they didn't have a backup in case someone won. But they had to give it to us. It was awesome. Also he burst all the blood vessels in his face and looked like a monster for a week. But still, awesome.
This was in Sweden during the 90s. My mom was waiting in line at the bus stop when she notice a couple of skinheads harrassing a couple of immigrant kids so she screams at them: 'you dickheads (kukhuven) are supposed to love everything Swedish, a real Swede waits in line and shuts the f*ck up' which they did immediately.
My dad was fetching my sister at her primary school when some thieves on motorbike snatched a lady's purse off. He dropped my sister down, asked her to wait, chased after the thieves on his motorbike, kicked the thieves down and then proceeded to beat the sh*t out of both of them and handed them to the police.
Some days later the police called him up to the station to get some kind of awards, but he refused because he didn't want any publications. in his words "I didn't want the thieves to remember my face - it might endanger your sister since the thievery occurred near her school".
My dad went from aging alcoholic after my brother died to sober over night.
Going from 36 cans of beer a day to nothing the next morning is still one of the strongest things I've ever seen.
Edit: My brother died from Leukemia.
It seems like a small thing overall in light of these stories but it still seems bada*s to me - my 70 year old grandfather (World War 2 veteran) while dying of lung cancer and on an unsuccessful round of chemotherapy rebuilt an external staircase on the side of his house. Everything was level, straight, and perfect.
When we cleaned out their house 5 years later I had to take a rail off that stair to get something out...by "I" I mean it took 3 of us.
My dad has always been a big physically impressive guy (6'3", about 220 pounds, getting portlier in his old age, but used to be pretty fit too), so he's always been a towering figure to me, seemingly physically unstoppable, but what really set him apart for me was his charisma
So he took me, my brother, and our two best friends to Cedar Point (for those unfamiliar, Cedar Point is probably one of America's most famous amusement parks, known for being home to a number of record setting roller coasters) for a weekend trip. When we arrived, it turns out that the hotel (The Breakers) had erroneously overbooked, we were told that our rooms had been given to other guests, and after a lengthy discussion with management, that with apologies, were basically SoL.
Now my mom has always been a very uptight, by the book, what you see is what you get kind of person, and I kinda took after her in that regard. I was ready to admit defeat. My dad, however, told us kids to wait in a nearby, and he'd fix this. I idolized him, but I wasn't sure how he planned to get us into a full hotel. He popped into a nearby gift shop, walked up to reception with a flower in hand, and after a wave of smiles and giggling on the part of the clerk up front, twenty minutes later we were escorted to the hotel's premium suites, for free, no less (we were given vouchers for another stay, and then were allowed to pay the rate for the suites for which we'd originally booked), and my jaw dropped.
Now that I'm an adult, I've had more experience in the idea that just being kind and talking to someone rarely if ever hurts your chances, so I can understand better that it wasn't magic, just being nice, but to ten year old me, it was like wizardry. It was just so effortless! Everyone liked my dad! He could talk his way out of anything! To a kid that still stammered nervously when forced to order his own food in public because I was so afraid of strangers, it really made him larger than life.
My dad got involved in a strange love triangle when I was about 12.
He dated this woman for awhile but she was crazy, broke up got nasty and she eventually told her new boyfriend a few weeks later that my dad had been trying to come over to have sex,
Well the guy didn't like that so much. So he knocked on my father's door for an hour or so, my dad didn't want to talk to him.
My dad walked outside and the guy pulled a gun on him. It was absolutely horrifying to see my father about to be shot by some nutcase. I was looking on through the window, I was so scared and only 12, I ran to call the police.
Half way through the police phone call I hear my dad yell.
"THAT'S RIGHT B*TCH PULL A GUN ON A MOTHERF*CKER LIKE ME AGAIN."
Apparently my dad had disarmed him and pistol whipped his skull so hard the guy couldn't stand.
I should also mention my dad served 3 years in prison before I was born for a felony. On another note. He is the most wonderful father a person could ever ask for.
Sleeping at my cabin once with my family (immediate family and G parents). Wake up to my Grandma screaming at my Grandpa in the middle of the night. Look out the window and see my Grandpa butt a*s naked holding a 9mm staring down a black bear. Apparently he got up to go to the bathroom and saw a black bear trying to climb in his bedroom window. Still not sure how he got a gun out so fast....
My uncle was a cameraman for Fox during the Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl riots in 93.
He noticed a group of men beating the hell out somebody across the street. Nobody was doing anything about it so he decided to take matters into his own hands. He was wielding one of those giant news cameras since he was supposed to be filming the parade.
He ran across the street and started swinging the behemoth of a camera at the group of people. They all scrambled out of the way but didn't leave. My uncle stood over the beaten man while swinging his camera at anyone that came near. The police showed up and took over from there.
There is a video of this somewhere. They interviewed my uncle and showed some clips of him standing over the man. I wish I could find it...I'm surprised it's not on Youtube.
When I was a kid, I watched my dad lasso a rattlesnake with a shoestring.
He was a park ranger, and he's always been very into wildlife. He was getting ready for a yearly presentation that his organization would take around to the area elementary schools about local wildlife and ecology. So of course, he needed a rattlesnake. We went out driving one afternoon and happened to see one across the road, so he stopped to catch it. He had a glass box for it in the back of his truck (who doesn't drive around with a snake box?), but he didn't have the stick he'd usually use to capture it. So he pulls off his sneaker and takes the shoelace out, and after a couple of tries proceeds to lasso the f*cking thing, put it in the box, and take it home. My dad is f*cking awesome.
Basically, I didn't know my dad was a Jujitsu Black-belt. One day, my dad his friend from university and I went somewhere, I'm not sure where anymore. I was dozing in the back of the car because it was quite late. When all of a sudden my dad stops the car, puts it in reverse, drives backwards for 15 meters or so and says:"Lets go Raj."
Raj, unlike my dad, was a very tall and buff Indian that could not be brought down easily. My dad on the other hand is about 1.83 meters tall, which is quite average.
Anyway, they take of their seat-belts, and get out, walking down an alley. I get out and see that there is a commotion at the end of the alley. I hear my dad say something, and repeating the same thing, over and over. After about one minute, he stops talking and Raj, and him disappear into the kerfuffle. 30 seconds later, everyone is on the floor, except for my dad and Raj, and 3 women. They walk back to the car, and my dad said:"Get in the boot Onionbag! We have some ladies that we need to escort to their homes."
Tl;Dr Black-belt dad and angry Indian save they day, and return with 3 women. OP turns into animal to be sat in the boot of car.
My dad fought off a bunch of guys that jumped him in the middle of the street by blocking off his car. They wanted to steal the car; he threw the keys onto the sidewalk and proceeded to kicking their a*ses. They had some sort of makeshift weapons (don't remember now, but it was sticks or batons), and they f*cked his back up with them pretty bad. Basically, they were a bunch of p*ssies who were used to scaring people into submission, and they ran the f*ck away as soon as he put up a fight and knocked some teeth out.
He came back home a bit bruised up, but nowhere near as bad as you'd imagine...except for his knuckles. Godd*mnit, his knuckles were f*cking RAW. I did think he was f*cking bada*s after that, but mostly I was really pissed off about what happened and that I wasn't there.
My dad ended the Cold War.
He was studying over in Russia during the late 80s, right around the end of the war. One day him and some of his friends from the States went on a huge party boat with some Russians. A local news crew was there and they interviewed him; Russian women in either arm, of course.
He said something along the lines of "us Americans don't want to keep this feud going, we love the Russians. We want to be allies and partners!" Apparently Gorbachov was watching this live feed and later wrote in him memoirs "I saw American and Russian students getting along, having a good time and being friends. I then decided to call Reagan and begin talks of peace."
So now my dad likes to tell people he ended the Cold War.
My grandpa came upon a waking black bear and punched him in the nose so the black bear ran away.
While on a humanitarian trip to Africa with my mother and a few others, a few guys started yelling at us at around 6 in the morning while we waited for our bus and started getting closer and closer. She basically let off a pterodactyl scream and told them to f*ck off. They did indeed, f*ck off. I was very proud.
I'm 25, and my dad is 45.
I was playing around with my 3 year brother on the trampoline this summer. My dad walked up to us and asked if I still knew how to do a back flip. Sure I said, and proceeded to do a shabby back flip, barely landing on my feet. The old man laughed mockingly, adding "That was the worst back flip I've ever seen". He then stepped onto the trampoline, and proceeded to perform a perfect double back flip, then walked back to the house and popped a beer.
My Dad's a Vietnam vet. When my sister and I were little, he took us into Chicago on Chinese New Year to watch the parade in Chinatown. The day was wonderful, everything was magical so on and so forth, and while we were walking to the nearest subway station, some homeless guy who was obviously tweaking out on something got in my dad's face. He started screaming that my dad was a liar and a fraud, he'd never been a soldier, he'd never seen war etc (my father always used to wear his army jacket) and my dad just ignored him and moved us to his side away from the crazy dude.
The hobo didn't approve and got in my older sister's face (she was 8 or 9, I think) and started to scream at her "YOUR DADDY'S A FRAUD!" and that sort of thing, really scary and threatening. We both started to cry, and my dad just kinda shoved us back and then roundhouse kicked that motherfucker right in the face. He went down like a sack of potatoes and my dad picked me up, grabbed my sister's hand and we pretty much ran down the street.
I remember watching the hobo over my dad's shoulder just laying on the ground, holding his head and wailing at the top of his lungs. I had no idea that my dad knew any sort of martial arts (I was in little kid karate, so I kinda had an understanding of what he did, even though I wouldn't know the name for it until I was a lot older) and I've never to this day seen him do anything remotely close to that.
tl;dr My dad roundhouse kicked a hobo in Chicago after he threatened me and my sister as little kids.
Most parents enforce some kinds of rules on their kids as a means of preparing them for life and keeping them healthy and safe. But some parents take this too far by making their kids follow rules that are unnecessarily strict, or weird, or both. In my house, for example, I was not allowed to stare into the microwave (shout out to #6!), wear deodorant, or watch more than a half-hour of TV. I now rebel by doing all of those things every single day. Take that, mom and dad!
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Overbearing mother-in-laws are often a stereotype in romantic comedy movies, but they can also unfortunately be very real villains dead-set on destroying your happiness, one "neg" at a time. The over-protective, judgmental, "never good enough for my kid," personality can be enough of nightmare to drive a serious wedge in some relationships if you're not careful.
So, when a soon-to-be-married woman decided to consult Reddit's "Am I the As*hole" to ask about an awkward situation with her future mother-in-law regarding her secret financial stability, people were ready to chime in with their advice.
I recently got engaged to my boyfriend of 3 years. For background, he’s an oncologist, his parents divorced when he was 5, MIL never remarried or had more kids but FIL did and so Fiancé has a younger half-brother and a step mom.
I have a BA and MBA from decent schools, but I quit my conventional office job to be a yoga teacher and eventually opened my own yoga studio. MIL was not outwardly hostile towards me, more like polite but very cold. She told Fiancé it was because a yoga teacher wasn’t good enough for him. Why couldn’t he find a nice “lady doctor” or nurse at work, etc. Fiancé told me this because we don’t keep secrets but I never mentioned it to MIL, I just stopped trying so hard. She would periodically warn fiancé I was out for his money, because he’s a doctor, he needs someone “on the same level.”
What MIL did not learn until after we were engaged is that, through my grandfather, I have a substantial trust fund. I have zero student loans, a paid off home, car, and own my studio with no debt. I keep this information private from most people because I don’t want to be judged for it. I didn’t tell fiancé until about 15 months into our relationship.
When we got engaged she was telling fiancé he needs a pre-nup and that’s when he told her about my finances. She lost her mind. Told him he and I should not have withheld that information, we were disrespectful, deceitful, manipulative, etc. She then started trying to act like my best friend. I maintained a polite distance.
She asked fiancé why and he told her that I knew he didn’t like me because a “yoga teacher isn’t good enough.” Y’all, she turned on the waterworks, tears, sobs, said he should not have told me and that he ruined her relationship with her future DIL.
I think she’s full of it. His father and step-mom have been kind, accepting, warm and loving to me since the day we met. It didn’t matter that I’m just a yoga teacher. His mother insists I and my fiancé are cruel and deceitful. I think people like her are the reason I am right to hide my financial situation. Fiancé thinks we should apologize just to smooth things over and clean the slate. I have no interest in doing so. AITA?
Edit: For those asking - My Fiancé would defend me when she insulted me. She did know I owned the studio but assumed that I financed with loans. He did not have my explicit permission to share my finances with her but was so sick of her harping about a pre-nup he “wanted to shut her up.” As for all the advice about the pre-nup - that was always the plan, which my fiancé is obviously fine with. She’s probably going to lose her mind. I’ve poked around on JNMIL and I think my fiancé is what is people refer to as a “surrogate spouse” to his mother. Another incident comes to mind where she started crying when he wanted to spend his birthday dinner on the day of his birthday with me instead of her and offered her the day before or after. That’s clearly not healthy.
Keep on eye on how much fiancé wants to placate his mother. That he thinks you should apologize for her bad behavior just to keep the peace is worrisome. Your finances as a single person & the finances of both of you as a married couple are none of her concern. She was wrong to ask about them & she was wrong to try to tell her son what to do. Any truthful apology that I can think of would probably not suit. “I am sorry for thinking that you meant it when you said a yoga teacher wasn’t good enough for your son.” “I apologize for not realizing how interested you are in things that are none of your business like my finances.” - YMMV-But
Her son loving you wasn’t good enough for her, she basically has stated that she thinks she only has to be kind to people in her life if they meet her standards of “good enough.”
Also - anyone who uses the phrase “lady doctor” in a serious way needs to take a time machine back to 1953. - MrsAjd
Do not apologize.
If fiance tries to force you to apologize, reconsider the marriage. - zippy_zaboo
I've learned from many years of personal experience to keep my finances private from EVERYONE but my wife; particularly in-laws. The same goes for you and your fiance/husband. Absolute code of silence on that. - YorkPepperMintPaddy
Sounds like the mother in law wants to be financially dependent on her son in retirement. And your finances have absolutely zero things in common with either of your in laws. You don’t need to apologize for her being condescending, assuming, and nosy. - FlacidWatermelon
Not only are your finances none of her business, regardless of her relation to you, but she only wanted to be your friend after you were deemed "worthy" in her eyes. She COULD have been kind and accepting from the very beginning, but acted like a snob instead. She should be apologizing to you, not the other way around. - embraceyourfreak
Most people agree that she is not in the wrong at all for keeping her financial situation private, as it isn't any of her future mother-in-law's business. Don't judge people by their careers and good luck, everyone!
