Whether it's accidentally crashing someone's wedding or mistaking a random car for a taxi, we've all made a complete fool out of ourselves at some point in our lives. And that's why you should stop beating yourself about yours. Even if that moment was so awkward, you wanted the Earth to swallow you. The witnesses of your stupid actions probably forgot all about them since they're too busy obsessing about their own past mistakes.
When Twitter user Andy Ryan posted his most embarrassing story, people immediately started responding to it with their own cringeworthy memories. And I mean responding. Andy's tweet has already received over 80K comments and 559K likes, and the numbers keep growing!
Image credits: itsandyryan
This post may include affiliate links.
One study says there's a (somewhat) quick way to move past life's most terrible moments. The answer: focusing on everything about the memory except the way it made you feel. "Sometimes we dwell on how sad, embarrassed, or hurt we felt during an event, and that makes us feel worse and worse. This is what happens in clinical depression—ruminating on the negative aspects of a memory," lead researcher Florin Dolcos wrote.
But we found that instead of thinking about your emotions during a negative memory, looking away from the worst emotions and thinking about the context, like a friend who was there, what the weather was like, or anything else non-emotional that was part of the memory, will rather effortlessly take your mind away from the unwanted emotions associated with that memory. Once you immerse yourself in other details, your mind will wander to something else entirely, and you won’t be focused on the negative emotions as much." In other terms, you take control of the memory. You shape the way it floats through your thoughts. You diminish it.
It's quite different than suppressing the bad memory, which is usually effective only in short term and increases chances of anxiety and depression in the long run. For a lot of people it might also be simpler than other emotion regulation strategies, such as trying to recast the negative situation into a positive one.
"Looking at the situation differently to see the glass half full can be cognitively demanding," Sanda Dolcos, a co-author on the study said. "The strategy of focusing on non-emotional contextual details of a memory, on the other hand, is as simple as shifting the focus in the mental movie of your memories and then letting your mind wander."
Why would someone dunk someone underwater from behind! So dangerous
"Person of restricted growth"? Why would you call them that? They're just short people or dwarves.
I'm sorry but sometimes I'm really wondering what's happening with people. Of course it can happen, and I'm not judging that, but you stayed a while, you ate, and you were leaving ? And you did not a single time talk about the camp your child was supposed to go to ?
You didn't notice all the other kids were smaller than you? You must have been wondering why there are so many little kids in 5th & 6th grades.
I only realized couple of years ago that one of my relatives was an Xmas tree thief. He never bought Xmas trees and he always explained that it is just easier to go to some forest and cut your own tree. When I was a child I was once with him choosing the best tree. I asked why we went to that forest in the evening when it was dark because in the daylight it would have been much easier to see which tree looks the best. But he just replied that in the day time there was too many other people choosing their Xmas trees so he liked to go in the evening.
I really hate this. My mom used to do it, it is always s****y to do this.
I too fell in a pond once after i thought the algae was grass....
Why? It's just a stump, you didn't steady yourself by putting your hands on his genitals.
We sliced a block of butter up into thin slices to help it soften quicker. Laid them out on the plate like cheese and 3 of my kids came in at different times to steal a slice of cheese. I let them and watched with glee as they ate them and then looked weirdly back at the plate as they walked away. Not one of them figured it out till we sat down for dinner shortly after.
My daughter was running circles around me when she was about 4. Her pigtails were flying as she ran as fast as she could. I reached out to grab one as she flew past to realize it wasn't her - she and another girl with pigtails were both running around me and I'd grabbed another kid's hair! No wonder she was so fast. (insert face-palm here)
Someone left a phone message on my sister's desk to call Myra Maines. When she returned the the call she asked for Myra Maines three times before the guy who answered said "You just don't get it, do you lady? This is a funeral home - Myra Maines - MY REMAINS!!" She was so embarrassed and vowed to get even with whoever put the message on her desk.
My husband has the house decorated like a pub, with flags and such outside too. I'm waiting for the day a random person walks in on game day when crowds of friends are over. Fun part is, we actually made a friend this way - he tagged along with a group of his friends (or so he thought) and walked into our place, was offered free beer and burgers. He's been by a few times now alone and it took us all awhile to figure out who he was. He's a friend of a friend of a friend, so not a complete stranger, lol He's actually a great guy!
I feel like at some point in our childhood we all have done this at least once.
After pondering about it for many years I finally piped up on a car trip and asked why Weighbridge was always closed, and how did that affect the people who lived there? I thought it was a suburb but it turns out it is a weighing station for trucks. I was late twenties then and my family still rib me every time we go past a weighbridge.
My mom has always been so embarrassing that I am practically immune to embarrassment of myself, I used it all up being embarrassed by and for her! For one, she is the LOUDEST whisperer you ever did hear(and you WILL hear her). One time I made the mistake of trying to point out a teacher of mine and she *whispered* "THE BALD ONE OR THE FAT ONE?" I almost died
Then there was the time when me, and my parents had just arrived in England for a vacation. So we had a B+B sorted out, not too far from the airport. We pulled up to this beautiful old place with hollyhocks growing in front. We got our luggage out and proceeded to walk into this gorgeous place just wanting a nap. There was an old man standing in the kitchen in his underwear, calmly making eggs and rashers. "B+B's down the road, my dears," he politely informed us, and showed us out his back door with a calmness only a British gentleman could muster. I am sure this happened all the time to him. We got to the B+B, found our room and promptly slept for a good five hours.
I was grocery shopping and thought I saw my guy friend in the candy aisle standing with his back towards me. I had not seen him or even spoken to him for about a month so upon seeing him like this, all unexpected, I thought I should give him a proper hello. Keep in mind now that this guy had been a VERY good friend of mine (I'm a girl btw) for about 10 years and both him and me knew everything about eatchother..... So I wanted to give him a good and proper and friendly hello. So I walked up to him, got real close, and grabbed his butt as hard as I could while I yelled "Oh how nice to see you and your cute butt here!"..... 😬 Turned out that it was not my friend of many years and I had grabbed a strange mans behind. I left the store and walked home crying and died like 52 times.
I'll never forget working as a bagger in a grocery store and me and my friends would call each other guy names that rhymed with our actual names...why I don't know, guess just being young and stupid. So one day I was calling her by her "guy name" Elijah and I was calling her loudly by that name and even singing it and I'll never forget when this little cute buy walks up to me and with a scared look on his face, tells me" Yes???" and about two of his friends are behind him too wondering what the hell is going on?? HAHAHA
When I was 7 I used to watch ads about work out machines.One day my mom took me to her friends house and I saw a workout machine there so I asked her what happens when we workout she replied our belly becomes small and I immediately replied "tell aunt lysa to work out on this thing".Everyone laughed to their maximum cuz aunt lysa was pregnant that time!!
My husband and I had a joint embarrassing moment. We were at the mall, but had to use the bathroom. The bathrooms there were basically "walk this way for men's, walk that way for women's." We had used a different set of bathrooms earlier that day, so he goes left, I go right. I'm walking in, and I see a male security guard walking through. Thought it was kind of strange, but maybe he was doing a check, and it wasn't that big of a deal if people were in there. I keep walking. Right as I first start to see the back of a man peeing at a urinal, I hear the sound of my husband's horrified voice going, "Babe!" My eyes go wide, I run outside, he runs out, we switch places and run into the proper bathrooms like some kind of comedy skit. Meanwhile, the group of people outside waiting are just chuckling at us. The bathrooms upstairs had female on the right, but figures the bathrooms downstairs had male on the right.
When I was 15 (a LONG time ago) my parents and I attended a family friend's bat mitzva. We were late, so we (fortunately) we sat in the back. After a little while, the rabbi stepped down to allow the Cantor to sing a prayer (that's the job of the Cantor). Well, this guy, sitting at a little electric piano, thinks he's a broadway showman and starts singing in this load, raucous voice. To me, Hebrew prayer should sound very solemn. This guy's hitting it with full on 'Hello Dolly" verve. My mother and I did everything in our power to keep from laughing out loud at how ridiculous this guy sounded. I've never seen my father glare like that before in my life. My mother and I still laugh about today and my father still grumbles when reminded.
If Andy Ryan would have stumbled where my MOM was giving out ice cream he would have left with 2. My mom is a person who will feed anyone regardless if she know them or not.
My mom and I went swimming at a gym. We went into the locker room after to take showers. She got inter shower room before me. I thought we were the only people in there so I chose the stall next to hers. After I got in I said, "is that you mom?" while waving my foot under the stall wall trying to brush her leg with my foot. The lady in the stall hurried away and my mom answered from across the room. I have never even told my therapist this story
I like how BP tries to help diffuse the embarrassment factor by offering coping strategies. What worked for me was to try imagining other people's embarrassments over the years. Know what? There was only one. Made me think few people would remember some of mine. Since then, I now remember only one and then I think of the extenuating factors and realise it's not so bad.
I had a lot of American dollars that were tips from American clients, raning form 100 to 1 (mostly ones) and via Facebook found a girl who needed them and offered to change them into euros. I had counted the damn batch (several times!!), meet her, at a coffeeshop, gave her the dollars, get my Euros, go to the loo, come back and her friend (who'd come along, I guess for safety, since both were young) had seen that one of the 100 bills were 100 Polish zloty. Both bills are green, but I still have no idea how I did not spot that. God, years later and almost 50 I am still cringing over that one. It looked like I had tried to rip of a sweet, young girl. Gaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!
Most embarrassing moment for me was in a water amusement park. Me and some friends were doing the "Crazy River" which is a route with many twist and turns (the river) that you go down with a tube (see it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dDxEU4zGJI). Keep in mind that we were around our 20's, not kids, and we were doing a speed challenge. Now, in this course there are some "slowdown pools" so as not to gain too much speed and get hurt. In these pools it's pretty easy to overturn. So imagine me, going as fast as I could, also spinning, reaching a "slowdown pool" and seeing an older lady that had gone before me (but because of my speed catch up) had just overturned. She got up on her feet from her own fall as I was crushing violently, overturning and falling in the water. I fell short of breath because of the impact force and quickly exited the water gasping for air. I got out right under her legs and got wedged in her buttocks while practically inhaling her bathing suite...
In the 8th Grade for Catholic Confirmation, my religion teacher said that for the upcoming Confirmation Mass someone from our class needed to give a speech about the Bible or something. I said I didn't mind doing it, so she picked me. It's the night of the Mass, the Bishop is there, the whole place packed pew-to-pew w/ hundreds of families and the 50-some other 8th Graders being Confirmed w/ me. We're getting near speech time, but it turns out a beautiful, smart girl from the church's other 8th Grade class is going to speak before me, and at age 14 she's about 5'10, whereas at that time I was about 5'1 (and I'm a guy btw). She goes up to the podium w/ a mic on it, gives an excellent speech, then it's my turn. I go up to the podium right after, and the mic is about a foot above my head. I got on my tiptoes, lowered it as best I could, tried not to get completely red in the face and gave an awkward speech laden w/ unplanned, non-Toastmasters-approved pauses before shuffling away.
I thoroughly embarrassed my mom when I was a kid. She had mentioned to my dad that a lady at church had upset her and that she wasn't a fan of hers. To be fair, the lady my mom spoke about was a busybody. Fast forward to church one Sunday after services, my mom was talking with another lady and the busybody came up in the conversation. My mom said something along the lines of how she liked and appreciated the busybody. That's when 8 yo me pipes up and says, "No mama, you said she was awful and you can't stand her." Complete silence and all I could see was my mom's beet red face.
In college I rode a greyhound bus on a five hour trip. It stopped at a fastfood place and the guy sitting next to me was in line at the same time. He offered for us to order on the same ticket. I ordered and he awkwardly paid for it. Then I realized at the end of the ride he hadn't offered to pay for my meal, he was just offering to order on the same ticket to save time so we wouldn't be late and miss the bus taking off again. By the time I realized this it was too late, he was already gone. I'm still embarrassed almost 20 years later. People who ride the greyhound generally are not stacked with cash. I hope it didn't set him back too much.
About four years ago eleven year old me had this huge huge crush on a kid a grade above me. I'm a really good student = unpopular. In fact if I wasn't a good runner no one would have even noticed me. After overhearing him say "See that short girl? She's pretty" to some of his friends, I assumed that he was talking about me cause I WAS SHORT AND RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. After checking that there was no one behind me, I turned around and said....."Thanks." Turns out he had his phone out and was talking about some freaking anime video game. I could have sunk into the ground with sheer shame.
My really embarrassing moment occurred not long ago. I was on my motorcycle when I had to stop at a pedestrian crossing. I put my foot down as I stopped but because the road was wet and cambered, my foot slipped and I toppled over on the bike with my leg trapped underneath it. My bike weighs about 330kg so there is no way that I can lift it while lying on my side with my leg under it. Thankfully 2 kind guys came over and lifted my bike off me. I felt really silly and embarrassed.
Gosh I have so many! All of them my sons fault! Haha! When he was about 3 I was standing in the que at the supermarket with a huge amount of people behind me. My son was running around chaotically. I called him and told him to quieten down after which he ran up to me and pulled my pants down to my ankles!
We were at a buffet where every meal came with a steak, not one to waste anything, my mom went up to the buffet to get a roll. She cut up the steak, put it on a roll, wrapped it in a napkin and put it in her purse. Her and my grandmother will wrap up any food in a napkin and put it in their purse. Rolls, crackers, and yes steaks.
One time I went to my friend's birthday party and when I was leaving, the mom said "come visit us again". My hearing is really bad so I didn't hear what she said. I assumed she said "lovely meeting you" idk why and I said "yeah you too" and the mother looked so puzzled. After a few secs, his sister says "she said come visit us again". I was so mortified I've never gone back to their house lmao
When I was in fourth grade, in the before school program, me and a couple of kids were hanging around a pay phone (it was the 90s) outside of where we were supposed to be. I actually got one of the younger girls to dial 911 on it. I didn't know that 911 calls were free and didn't need quarters. Thankfully, we just got a small scolding in the principal's office and were talked to by a police officer who taught the drug free program in school.
When my daughters were little (3&5) I would do a Russian accent and tell them I wasn't their mother but a Russian Spy named Natasha. Just joking and being funny. I would do it when they would say Mom a million times, just to be funny. I maybe did the impression 5 or 6 times over a few months. So, I go pick them up from daycare and the lady who runs the place tells me, my oldest told them I was a Russian spy when they talked about their parents jobs. Then my youngest confirmed I was in fact a Russian spy. I've never felt so awkward, judged, or embarrassed. I tried to explain but they probably called the FBI. We laugh about it now but it was crazy embarrassing.
Once, I was alone in my parents' house and got scared because I thought someone was walking across their front yard. Once I calmed down, I realized it was my reflection in the window.
I cringe all the time remembering actions big and little that I found in retrospect absolutely stupid and humiliating. I am 61 and these have been bothering me all my life. I'm on anti-anxiety medication which helps, and have a couple mental therapy things I do, but I could use more help. Anyone got any ideas?
When I was little there was a slide with a lady trafficking the children. There were to people in front of me: a full grown man and an young kid, there were two slides so I figured I could go next. The traffic lady let the two of them go on, so I figured it was my turn, turns out that they were going separately and didn’t know each other at all, long story short I tried to crawl through traffic lady’s legs. It was EXTREMELY embarrassing.
For most of the story, from the receiver perspective, they most likely, a) have a fun conversation topic during that's day dinner, and b) forgotten what had happen in like 3 days. Thinking it like that always make me cringe less.
Most of these aren't that bad. In my mind I think I've done much more embarrassing stuff. I'm hoping this means the embarrassed person makes more of the situation than the witnesses.
In school, we were learning about archaeology, and we had all gathered around our teacher so he didn't have to address the class loudly. He asked us what kind of people could become archaeologists, and a few of us rattled off answers like "old men", "university teachers", etc. I raise my hand, and say "They could be beautiful women!". Teacher looks at me and replies "Funny you should say that...", and points behind me. There were two 20-something women laughing at my answer, which sent the rest of us into hysterics, too, although that wasn't enough to hide my embarrassment.
I deeply deeply regret my most embarrassing moment. I was young, dumb and ignorant. I was at the shops with my mum and brothers. One of my brothers was being silly and was being really annoying. I had a go at him and called him a re**rd. As I said that a mother and her son with Down syndrome walked past. She heard me and gave me the biggest death stare. I wanted crawl into a hole, I was so embarrassed and ashamed. I will forever be sorry for what I said.
A few years back, while out celebrating my birthday at a crowded pub, I felt someone full on grab my a*s while I had been leaned over the bar top ordering another round from the bartender. I quickly spun around where I spotted a this trio of guys standing directly behind me. Shouting above the music & in a slightly inebriated shock, I demanded to know who the culprit was. In sync, 2 of the 3 guys immediately pointed to the one guy in the middle. Without hesitation, I then slapped the accused hard across his face, feeling my own palm sting like fire in response. I indignantly berated the culprit & within moments the "a*s-graber" was being hauled out of the pub by two large bouncers, all the while still cupping the side of his now red & slightly swollen face. I turned back to the bartender feeling satisfied with a righteous smile at the justify punishment that had just taken place. Just then, my brother came running over to me engulfed in a fit of laughter. Between his untethered laughing where he struggled to take breaths while clutching his stomach, he confessed it had been him who had discreetly grabbed my butt & then hid among the crowd where he had watched the whole 'I had just slapped a perfectly innocent stranger in the face' scene play out. Mortified, I ran out of the pub to find the poor guy to apologize. I did, but the victim of my brother's prank was not amused nor feeling sympathetic to my mistake. I still cringe to this day when I replay that whole debacle in my head. My bad?
A friend and I were to play a prank on someone at their wedding. Nothing Ceremony ruining, just dress in scuba gear and slip in at the last minute. (inside joke, not even funny now( We went to the WRONG church. Instead of the Banesville Baptist church, we went to the Banesville Free Baptist Church. I still think of it and cringe
These people were prob all americans. Americans are the rudest people ever.
Started a new job as a teenager, walked in the smoking room (late 90's) and made some horrible, tasteless joke about a large lady i had seen around the office, next thing a senior manager gets up, storms out and slams the door, cue everyone making awkward faces and someone tells me that is his mum, oops.
When i was in highschool some of my friends were at the table talking about tattoos or something, i approached and heard one guy talking about tribals and i was like "what kind of hillbilly moron you have to be to tattoo a tribal like idk what i'll get so give me tribal" turns out he was talking about his father having tribal on his arm..
My mom has always been so embarrassing that I am practically immune to embarrassment of myself, I used it all up being embarrassed by and for her! For one, she is the LOUDEST whisperer you ever did hear(and you WILL hear her). One time I made the mistake of trying to point out a teacher of mine and she *whispered* "THE BALD ONE OR THE FAT ONE?" I almost died
Then there was the time when me, and my parents had just arrived in England for a vacation. So we had a B+B sorted out, not too far from the airport. We pulled up to this beautiful old place with hollyhocks growing in front. We got our luggage out and proceeded to walk into this gorgeous place just wanting a nap. There was an old man standing in the kitchen in his underwear, calmly making eggs and rashers. "B+B's down the road, my dears," he politely informed us, and showed us out his back door with a calmness only a British gentleman could muster. I am sure this happened all the time to him. We got to the B+B, found our room and promptly slept for a good five hours.
I was grocery shopping and thought I saw my guy friend in the candy aisle standing with his back towards me. I had not seen him or even spoken to him for about a month so upon seeing him like this, all unexpected, I thought I should give him a proper hello. Keep in mind now that this guy had been a VERY good friend of mine (I'm a girl btw) for about 10 years and both him and me knew everything about eatchother..... So I wanted to give him a good and proper and friendly hello. So I walked up to him, got real close, and grabbed his butt as hard as I could while I yelled "Oh how nice to see you and your cute butt here!"..... 😬 Turned out that it was not my friend of many years and I had grabbed a strange mans behind. I left the store and walked home crying and died like 52 times.
I'll never forget working as a bagger in a grocery store and me and my friends would call each other guy names that rhymed with our actual names...why I don't know, guess just being young and stupid. So one day I was calling her by her "guy name" Elijah and I was calling her loudly by that name and even singing it and I'll never forget when this little cute buy walks up to me and with a scared look on his face, tells me" Yes???" and about two of his friends are behind him too wondering what the hell is going on?? HAHAHA
When I was 7 I used to watch ads about work out machines.One day my mom took me to her friends house and I saw a workout machine there so I asked her what happens when we workout she replied our belly becomes small and I immediately replied "tell aunt lysa to work out on this thing".Everyone laughed to their maximum cuz aunt lysa was pregnant that time!!
My husband and I had a joint embarrassing moment. We were at the mall, but had to use the bathroom. The bathrooms there were basically "walk this way for men's, walk that way for women's." We had used a different set of bathrooms earlier that day, so he goes left, I go right. I'm walking in, and I see a male security guard walking through. Thought it was kind of strange, but maybe he was doing a check, and it wasn't that big of a deal if people were in there. I keep walking. Right as I first start to see the back of a man peeing at a urinal, I hear the sound of my husband's horrified voice going, "Babe!" My eyes go wide, I run outside, he runs out, we switch places and run into the proper bathrooms like some kind of comedy skit. Meanwhile, the group of people outside waiting are just chuckling at us. The bathrooms upstairs had female on the right, but figures the bathrooms downstairs had male on the right.
When I was 15 (a LONG time ago) my parents and I attended a family friend's bat mitzva. We were late, so we (fortunately) we sat in the back. After a little while, the rabbi stepped down to allow the Cantor to sing a prayer (that's the job of the Cantor). Well, this guy, sitting at a little electric piano, thinks he's a broadway showman and starts singing in this load, raucous voice. To me, Hebrew prayer should sound very solemn. This guy's hitting it with full on 'Hello Dolly" verve. My mother and I did everything in our power to keep from laughing out loud at how ridiculous this guy sounded. I've never seen my father glare like that before in my life. My mother and I still laugh about today and my father still grumbles when reminded.
If Andy Ryan would have stumbled where my MOM was giving out ice cream he would have left with 2. My mom is a person who will feed anyone regardless if she know them or not.
My mom and I went swimming at a gym. We went into the locker room after to take showers. She got inter shower room before me. I thought we were the only people in there so I chose the stall next to hers. After I got in I said, "is that you mom?" while waving my foot under the stall wall trying to brush her leg with my foot. The lady in the stall hurried away and my mom answered from across the room. I have never even told my therapist this story
I like how BP tries to help diffuse the embarrassment factor by offering coping strategies. What worked for me was to try imagining other people's embarrassments over the years. Know what? There was only one. Made me think few people would remember some of mine. Since then, I now remember only one and then I think of the extenuating factors and realise it's not so bad.
I had a lot of American dollars that were tips from American clients, raning form 100 to 1 (mostly ones) and via Facebook found a girl who needed them and offered to change them into euros. I had counted the damn batch (several times!!), meet her, at a coffeeshop, gave her the dollars, get my Euros, go to the loo, come back and her friend (who'd come along, I guess for safety, since both were young) had seen that one of the 100 bills were 100 Polish zloty. Both bills are green, but I still have no idea how I did not spot that. God, years later and almost 50 I am still cringing over that one. It looked like I had tried to rip of a sweet, young girl. Gaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!
Most embarrassing moment for me was in a water amusement park. Me and some friends were doing the "Crazy River" which is a route with many twist and turns (the river) that you go down with a tube (see it here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dDxEU4zGJI). Keep in mind that we were around our 20's, not kids, and we were doing a speed challenge. Now, in this course there are some "slowdown pools" so as not to gain too much speed and get hurt. In these pools it's pretty easy to overturn. So imagine me, going as fast as I could, also spinning, reaching a "slowdown pool" and seeing an older lady that had gone before me (but because of my speed catch up) had just overturned. She got up on her feet from her own fall as I was crushing violently, overturning and falling in the water. I fell short of breath because of the impact force and quickly exited the water gasping for air. I got out right under her legs and got wedged in her buttocks while practically inhaling her bathing suite...
In the 8th Grade for Catholic Confirmation, my religion teacher said that for the upcoming Confirmation Mass someone from our class needed to give a speech about the Bible or something. I said I didn't mind doing it, so she picked me. It's the night of the Mass, the Bishop is there, the whole place packed pew-to-pew w/ hundreds of families and the 50-some other 8th Graders being Confirmed w/ me. We're getting near speech time, but it turns out a beautiful, smart girl from the church's other 8th Grade class is going to speak before me, and at age 14 she's about 5'10, whereas at that time I was about 5'1 (and I'm a guy btw). She goes up to the podium w/ a mic on it, gives an excellent speech, then it's my turn. I go up to the podium right after, and the mic is about a foot above my head. I got on my tiptoes, lowered it as best I could, tried not to get completely red in the face and gave an awkward speech laden w/ unplanned, non-Toastmasters-approved pauses before shuffling away.
I thoroughly embarrassed my mom when I was a kid. She had mentioned to my dad that a lady at church had upset her and that she wasn't a fan of hers. To be fair, the lady my mom spoke about was a busybody. Fast forward to church one Sunday after services, my mom was talking with another lady and the busybody came up in the conversation. My mom said something along the lines of how she liked and appreciated the busybody. That's when 8 yo me pipes up and says, "No mama, you said she was awful and you can't stand her." Complete silence and all I could see was my mom's beet red face.
In college I rode a greyhound bus on a five hour trip. It stopped at a fastfood place and the guy sitting next to me was in line at the same time. He offered for us to order on the same ticket. I ordered and he awkwardly paid for it. Then I realized at the end of the ride he hadn't offered to pay for my meal, he was just offering to order on the same ticket to save time so we wouldn't be late and miss the bus taking off again. By the time I realized this it was too late, he was already gone. I'm still embarrassed almost 20 years later. People who ride the greyhound generally are not stacked with cash. I hope it didn't set him back too much.
About four years ago eleven year old me had this huge huge crush on a kid a grade above me. I'm a really good student = unpopular. In fact if I wasn't a good runner no one would have even noticed me. After overhearing him say "See that short girl? She's pretty" to some of his friends, I assumed that he was talking about me cause I WAS SHORT AND RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM. After checking that there was no one behind me, I turned around and said....."Thanks." Turns out he had his phone out and was talking about some freaking anime video game. I could have sunk into the ground with sheer shame.
My really embarrassing moment occurred not long ago. I was on my motorcycle when I had to stop at a pedestrian crossing. I put my foot down as I stopped but because the road was wet and cambered, my foot slipped and I toppled over on the bike with my leg trapped underneath it. My bike weighs about 330kg so there is no way that I can lift it while lying on my side with my leg under it. Thankfully 2 kind guys came over and lifted my bike off me. I felt really silly and embarrassed.
Gosh I have so many! All of them my sons fault! Haha! When he was about 3 I was standing in the que at the supermarket with a huge amount of people behind me. My son was running around chaotically. I called him and told him to quieten down after which he ran up to me and pulled my pants down to my ankles!
We were at a buffet where every meal came with a steak, not one to waste anything, my mom went up to the buffet to get a roll. She cut up the steak, put it on a roll, wrapped it in a napkin and put it in her purse. Her and my grandmother will wrap up any food in a napkin and put it in their purse. Rolls, crackers, and yes steaks.
One time I went to my friend's birthday party and when I was leaving, the mom said "come visit us again". My hearing is really bad so I didn't hear what she said. I assumed she said "lovely meeting you" idk why and I said "yeah you too" and the mother looked so puzzled. After a few secs, his sister says "she said come visit us again". I was so mortified I've never gone back to their house lmao
When I was in fourth grade, in the before school program, me and a couple of kids were hanging around a pay phone (it was the 90s) outside of where we were supposed to be. I actually got one of the younger girls to dial 911 on it. I didn't know that 911 calls were free and didn't need quarters. Thankfully, we just got a small scolding in the principal's office and were talked to by a police officer who taught the drug free program in school.
When my daughters were little (3&5) I would do a Russian accent and tell them I wasn't their mother but a Russian Spy named Natasha. Just joking and being funny. I would do it when they would say Mom a million times, just to be funny. I maybe did the impression 5 or 6 times over a few months. So, I go pick them up from daycare and the lady who runs the place tells me, my oldest told them I was a Russian spy when they talked about their parents jobs. Then my youngest confirmed I was in fact a Russian spy. I've never felt so awkward, judged, or embarrassed. I tried to explain but they probably called the FBI. We laugh about it now but it was crazy embarrassing.
Once, I was alone in my parents' house and got scared because I thought someone was walking across their front yard. Once I calmed down, I realized it was my reflection in the window.
I cringe all the time remembering actions big and little that I found in retrospect absolutely stupid and humiliating. I am 61 and these have been bothering me all my life. I'm on anti-anxiety medication which helps, and have a couple mental therapy things I do, but I could use more help. Anyone got any ideas?
When I was little there was a slide with a lady trafficking the children. There were to people in front of me: a full grown man and an young kid, there were two slides so I figured I could go next. The traffic lady let the two of them go on, so I figured it was my turn, turns out that they were going separately and didn’t know each other at all, long story short I tried to crawl through traffic lady’s legs. It was EXTREMELY embarrassing.
For most of the story, from the receiver perspective, they most likely, a) have a fun conversation topic during that's day dinner, and b) forgotten what had happen in like 3 days. Thinking it like that always make me cringe less.
Most of these aren't that bad. In my mind I think I've done much more embarrassing stuff. I'm hoping this means the embarrassed person makes more of the situation than the witnesses.
In school, we were learning about archaeology, and we had all gathered around our teacher so he didn't have to address the class loudly. He asked us what kind of people could become archaeologists, and a few of us rattled off answers like "old men", "university teachers", etc. I raise my hand, and say "They could be beautiful women!". Teacher looks at me and replies "Funny you should say that...", and points behind me. There were two 20-something women laughing at my answer, which sent the rest of us into hysterics, too, although that wasn't enough to hide my embarrassment.
I deeply deeply regret my most embarrassing moment. I was young, dumb and ignorant. I was at the shops with my mum and brothers. One of my brothers was being silly and was being really annoying. I had a go at him and called him a re**rd. As I said that a mother and her son with Down syndrome walked past. She heard me and gave me the biggest death stare. I wanted crawl into a hole, I was so embarrassed and ashamed. I will forever be sorry for what I said.
A few years back, while out celebrating my birthday at a crowded pub, I felt someone full on grab my a*s while I had been leaned over the bar top ordering another round from the bartender. I quickly spun around where I spotted a this trio of guys standing directly behind me. Shouting above the music & in a slightly inebriated shock, I demanded to know who the culprit was. In sync, 2 of the 3 guys immediately pointed to the one guy in the middle. Without hesitation, I then slapped the accused hard across his face, feeling my own palm sting like fire in response. I indignantly berated the culprit & within moments the "a*s-graber" was being hauled out of the pub by two large bouncers, all the while still cupping the side of his now red & slightly swollen face. I turned back to the bartender feeling satisfied with a righteous smile at the justify punishment that had just taken place. Just then, my brother came running over to me engulfed in a fit of laughter. Between his untethered laughing where he struggled to take breaths while clutching his stomach, he confessed it had been him who had discreetly grabbed my butt & then hid among the crowd where he had watched the whole 'I had just slapped a perfectly innocent stranger in the face' scene play out. Mortified, I ran out of the pub to find the poor guy to apologize. I did, but the victim of my brother's prank was not amused nor feeling sympathetic to my mistake. I still cringe to this day when I replay that whole debacle in my head. My bad?
A friend and I were to play a prank on someone at their wedding. Nothing Ceremony ruining, just dress in scuba gear and slip in at the last minute. (inside joke, not even funny now( We went to the WRONG church. Instead of the Banesville Baptist church, we went to the Banesville Free Baptist Church. I still think of it and cringe
These people were prob all americans. Americans are the rudest people ever.
Started a new job as a teenager, walked in the smoking room (late 90's) and made some horrible, tasteless joke about a large lady i had seen around the office, next thing a senior manager gets up, storms out and slams the door, cue everyone making awkward faces and someone tells me that is his mum, oops.
When i was in highschool some of my friends were at the table talking about tattoos or something, i approached and heard one guy talking about tribals and i was like "what kind of hillbilly moron you have to be to tattoo a tribal like idk what i'll get so give me tribal" turns out he was talking about his father having tribal on his arm..
