“I Can’t Eyeroll Hard Enough”: 35 People Share Rage-Inducing Stories About Their ‘Karen’ Family Members
We’ve all been there. You hear a woman angrily shouting at a cashier or demanding that the “idiots in the kitchen” remake her order because she asked for gluten-free bread! Spotting a Karen in public is always uncomfortable, as you might feel a surge of empathy for whoever has to deal with her and secondhand embarrassment for the woman herself. But what’s even more painful than watching these moments from afar is knowing that it’s your own parent throwing a fit.
Sons, daughters and relatives of Karens have been detailing the most mortifying things their family members have ever done on Reddit, so we’ve gathered their cringiest tales down below. Enjoy this reminder to always be kind, and be sure to upvote the stories that have you feeling grateful that your own parents never acted this way!
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Not my parents, but my grandpa.
We were in the airport to come back from a weekend.
Before getting inside the plane, he sees a black man, and Whispers to me "he's gonna try to get on the plane without a ticket". I was confused and told him that if he went through security, he had to have a ticket.
Then we get in the plane, and there is a woman wearing a hijab in first class.
We go to our seats, and he sees a man getting to his seat, wearing a hoodie, with the hood on, and sunglasses. (The guy probably just slept on the airport's seats)
He calls a flight attendant, and i don't understand.
He tells him that their is a woman wearing a scarf and a hooded man, and that they should be careful about them.
So basically he was afraid the plane was going to be hijacked because of a man in a hoodie and a muslim midle aged woman.
I looked at the flight attendant in a sorry way, and he smiled nicely at me, and told my grandpa that he will take care of it.
Never been that ashamed.
I get the feeling this one is down to the media and how theydeliberately target the elderly with new and shocking fears daily because that how to get them to keep watching and let the government cut more and more of their rights. its a wonder they ever leave the house in 'murica.
My Mom attempting to change my sister’s diaper on the table in a crowded restaurant. Going ballistic when the waitress asked her to used the restroom.
Then having me change her while she argued with the entire restaurant.
I feel like this should be criminal. That is so disgusting I'd just pay the bill and leave when I saw that.
Same, just use the bathroom! It isn’t that hard to just *go* to the restroom and change the diaper, jeez
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There used to be a local cupcake cafe, this woman's dream business, which encouraged parents to use it as a meetup place for coffee and a chat. What actually happened instead was little kids being brought along with lunchboxes instead of actually buying any food and then being allowed to run wild, and MULTIPLE instances of cafe tables being used as nappy changing stations and the dirty nappies left on the tables afterwards. The poor bloody owner shut the place down after less than a year. I'm still angry about it.
That broke my heart. People, I don't get them. They are the worst, and that's why we can't have nice things.
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A friend of mine was potty-training his toddler. They had met some friends for dinner at a national chain pasta restaurant. They had to wait for their table for an hour or so. They finally get seated and place their orders. Salad is delivered, and he realizes the toddler has been very quiet. He asks her "do you have to potty?'. She nods emphatically. He picks her up, and as her feet clear the high chair, the levee breaks. Pee pours out the bottom of her pants leg and is funneled all over the table. He tells a passing waitress "just bring me some cleaning stuff, and I'll clean that up. I don't want staff to have to deal with it." Then he took daughter to the bathroom to change her pants. Awesome dad and friend. He passed a couple years ago. I still miss him.
I've had this happen to me twice (changing their child at the table) as a server and both times these people were so unaware of anything outside of their surroundings, the diaper was left ON the table too. Both times in pretty nice restaurants. Which goes to show that trash-people come in all socioeconomical forms.
As a server, I had this happen to me once. While working at a very nice upscale restaurant. The mother also argued back with me when I said absolutely not. Almost as bad as when an elderly man's colostomy bag opened up while I was bartending at the same restaurant. But, that's a story for another day.
The elderly man probably couldn't help his bag opening up, but a parent can go to a bathroom to change a nappy. All decent places have changing tables. And if not, there is always an alcove or ledge you can use, just AWAY from any food. These parents would probably be the first to complain if anyone else changed their baby's nappy on the next table 🙄🤢😡
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We always went out to our car to change our little ones when needed.
Hope she was barred after this. Major health and safety violation.
Sorry but your mum is a disgusting idiot. Does she change diapers on her dinner table? If so she can keep that typa s**t there!
Most public restrooms have changing tables. I used to have the trunk of my car set up with everything I needed to change diapers. It is possible to change a wet diaper while the child is on your lap. Changing a poopy diaper on a restaurant table is never ok. I hope the manager made a big show of bringing out the bleach and sanitizing the entire table and chairs.
Why would ANYONE think it was ok to change a diaper on a dining table??!!
If I were a patron there I’d ask her, loud enough for the entire restaurant to hear, if she planned to change her pad or tampon at the table as well.
Why didn't she use the bathroom ? Why expose your innocent to oaedophiles ?
It's ok to change a diaper where people are eating, but that lady should be breastfeeding in the rest room? Are we living in Backwards World?
What do you mean? They asked her to change the diaper in the restroom. They didn’t say anything about breastfeeding.
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She complained about the food she got from a free food pantry that she was taking advantage of while she was getting $5k a month in spousal support that she didn't have to report as income.
Nephew of a Karen. Was visiting her and she needed to stop by walgreens. She had newspaper ad that stated that some candles were 50% off so she bought like 10 of them. She got charged full price and flipped out. We're talking like paying a dollar per candle instead of 50 cents. The cashier and I both showed her that she was holding an old newspaper and the add even said that the offer expired a week ago...then she shifted to "well you could have told me more nicely" and kept bi**hing. I just kept telling her we needed to leave. Once I finally got her out into the car I said I had forgotten to grab a pack of gum and went back in and apologized to the poor guy.
My mom almost got us arrested for domestic terrorism once. We were at the Mexico City airport flying to *Juarez* and we were bringing back a bunch of plates and s**t she got while we were there in this huge box. We get to check in counter, guy says she needs to have the box wrapped. My mother is *deeply offended by this*. “WELL IVE NEVER HAD TO DO THAT BEFORE!! I BRING STUFF FROM MEXICO CITY ALL THE TIME AND IVE NEVER HAD TO DO THAT!” She yells, causing some bewildered stares in her direction. Keep in mind, this is a *very* white woman arguing angrily in absolutely *flawless* Spanish, so that’s already intriguing enough as it is. Guy again demands she needs to go get the box tape wrapped, and that’ll be an extra charge of about 200 pesos (around $10). Instead of doing that, she storms off, leaving a massive, unidentified box, fully unattended. Yknow, that thing the airport announcements always tells you NEVER TO DO?! My dad and I had already checked in and made it through security while this was unfolding. Mom joins us at the gate in a huff, regaling to us this slight against her honor. Just as she finishes, 5 security officers walk up to her, AR-15’s at their sides, and asks her is she’s [my moms name]. She says she is, they yank her up and start dragging her away. Dad, a lawyer, has an “oh s**t” moment, and we go running after her. To sum up, dad does lawyer things, she doesn’t get arrested for terroristic threats, we somehow make our flight, and we did get that damn box of f*****g plates back home. I make fun of her every time we use them.
My mom is a Karen. Everytime we go out to dinner with her it's an absolute nightmare. Her fork is bent, this dish wasn't as spicy last time, the waitress doesn't address her first, her food is "cold" (read the physical plate wasn't hot, not the actual food), it's been too long since we've seen our server even though she doesn't actually need anything. Each of these complaints of voiced arrogantly at the server and followed up with "I was a waitress and we never had these issues".
She was a part time waitress in the early 90s at a pizza joint. I can't eyeroll hard enough.
When I was about 9, my dad took my sister and I to McDonald's one evening. At this point he and my mum were separated, so he only saw us once a week (and those visits gradually petered out to my relief).
He ordered a quarter pounder with cheese for himself, took one bite and spat it out into the box. He then stormed up to the counter, ignored the line of people waiting to order and started loudly berating the woman at the check out (who hadn't even served him in the first place).
"I asked for a god damn quarter pounder without cheese, why the hell have you put cheese on my burger? You clearly don't know how to do the most simple of tasks, I want to speak to your manager..."
And on and on it went. I felt such shame and humiliation, and I couldn't even finish my meal.
If that wasn't bad enough, when he finally came back with a fresh meal, I told him in a timid voice that he had in fact ordered one with cheese and he started screaming at me.
Yeah... I wasn't exactly gutted when those little outings with dad ended.
This is decades ago, but my mother used to sneak back to our table and "adjust" whatever tip my dad/myself would leave.
Hint: It was never adjusted upwards.
Not my mother, but my grandmother used to scream and yell at anyone who walked their dog or played basketball or rode their bike past her house during the day. When I came out to get her and reminded her that people had the right to use the city street, she turned on me and screamed, "I pay my goddamn taxes so I can have some peace and quiet, so yes it IS my street and I don't WANT THEM ON IT!"
The level of self absorption and entitlement would have been staggering, except we all knew she was a raging narcissist, so it was par for the course. However, when she was younger, at least, she saved her worst behavior for private episodes of verbal vomiting.
My mom. At the early stages of Covid she was a Pro-Covid (somehow. She was just a douchebag whilst doing it). She was in line at the grocery store and an elderly woman didn’t want to keep a distance in the line, so my moms natural instinct was to cough at her (like on purpose). I was so mad at her, it was so disrespectful. She later turned into an anti-Covid person, claiming that no one had “technically” died from Covid, all the millions that had died just happened to have Covid as well, which is once again extremely disrespectful to all the people that has lost someone.
My dad once got banned from Ford (the only place that his car insurance covered the 3 year late oil change he needed) because they had a vending machine that sold Arizona tea for $1.25 while the can said 99 ¢. He didn't even buy it or want to. He was screaming at the front desk people because of it. The vending machine wasn't owned by Ford and they were most certainly not in control of the prices. I have no idea what he hoped to gain out of the ordeal.
AriZona Beverages is actually pretty insistent on their cans always being 99 cents. Letting them know about the price change in the vending machine would've had their team out and about to get it changed back.
Back in the mid-nineties my mom rented Clerks for the family at the rental store in the Kroger's we used to shop at while having no idea how raunchy the movie is. She was so offended by it that the next day she went back in to scream at the manager at how outrageous it was that they would carry such an offensive movie at a family rental store and demanded that they permanently take it off the shelf, and the goddamned thing of it is they actually obliged her. They never carried Clerks at that location again, so if you ever tried to rent the movie from a Kroger's in Lewisville, Texas back in the mid-nineties and weren't able to, I apologize. It is entirely my mom's fault.
This actually happened today:
For context I’m a Trans male who hasn’t undergone surgery. I have autism, anxiety, and depression.
I went to my autism center to go get my meds refilled and had to ask my doctor about possibly upping the dosage on my medication.
My mother (I’ll just call her K for Karen) started giving me this glare, and said, “This better not be because I told you you couldn’t be a boy”
Me having no idea what she’s talking about looked at her and asked why she would straight out me in front of my doctor.
My doctor begins asking me questions and after a good 20 minutes, she came to the conclusion I had gender dysphoria. My mother did not take that very well, and slammed her hand down on the doctors desk, and started screaming, “SHE IS A GIRL. SHE WILL STAY A GIRL! AND ALWAYS WILL BE!”
My doctor looked up at her, “Ma’am please calm down, it’s not as bad as what you think. He doesn’t have to get the surgery yet but when he is an adult, he will have that choice.”
I was embarrassed, and felt completely uncomfortable with the situation at hand. I didn’t know how to react knowing my mother just yelled at a doctor because of her beliefs that altering my body is wrong and against “gods will”
I went to the bathroom, and refused to look at anyone or even speak after the appointment. I couldn’t even bring myself to apologize to the poor doctor.
My mom is always so rude to servers/retail workers/fast food workers, it’s like she considers them beneath her, and god forbid her order gets messed up in any way, or she’ll be right back in the restaurant demanding free food.
One time at Sonic she got the wrong flavor slushie and she spent 10 minutes holding up the drive thru line arguing with the person in the window because they would only replace her drink and not give her free food in addition.
She does this quite often. And I can’t pretend I don’t know her because usually I’m in the passenger seat or right there next to her so all I can do is give the poor person ‘I’m sorry’ eyes
Oh god, this is my mom to a T! I knew from like the age of 5 that I “didn’t want to be like mama” and be mean to people. So I’ve made it a personal life goal of mine to always be kind to fast food and retail workers. They don’t deserve the miles of shít my mom (and people like OP’s mom) give them. Hopefully the kind people outweigh the mom-Karens.
When I was wedding dress shopping, I invited my mom only because I knew she’d be hurt if I didn’t. My friends still recall almost ten years later how rude and obnoxious she was to the poor staff. Keep in mind, my parents didn’t give us a penny for the wedding so it’s not like she was the one paying for the dress and had a say in anything. She kept talking over me and giving wrong information every time a staff member asked me a question and then she was just horribly negative about everything—the sizes that the store had, dress details (as if something low-cut can’t be altered…if I had *minded* a low-cut dress which I didn’t), etc. All this was loudly in front of the staff and the few other people in the shop. She even tried telling them not to bring dresses I had specifically arranged to try on ahead of time. My aunt (her SIL) started distracting her as much as possible because it was so uncomfortable while my friends tried to lighten things up. I did find my dress and when I went to order it at the cash register, the employee asked if I wanted to open a store credit card and my mom goes, “YES, she does!” I did, but 1) it was not her choice to make and 2) I hadn’t discussed it with her anyway so she had no reason to think I wanted to do it. I think that’s when I finally snapped at her and later apologized to the staff.
Went to some hotel one night for dinner. The hotel had a pool that was clearly only for 'Hotel Guests' as was indicated by dozens of signs surrounding the pool. My mother told my little brother and I we were allowed to use the pool and even had us wear our bathing suits under our clothing so we could easily get changed after dinner. Well, they clearly have employees monitoring this and not long after we jumped in the water security calmly walked over and asked to see our hotel room keys. Since we weren't staying there and didn't have room keys we were politely asked to leave. My mother refuses and insists we were within our rights because we ate dinner there. A screaming match insues, hundreds of people are staring at us, and finally the head of security had to escort us off the property before the police were called.
The Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas has the easiest pool to sneak into. You walk in the door and it's just off to the left. I had been camping in the desert for a week in high Summer with very little food or water. When I jumped in, I swear my skin made a sucking sound. It was better than sex. And they have a swim-up bar where you can get giant cocktails in a plastic football.
As a son of a slight Karen, I don't have too many stories but this one will always stick with me. So one time in the summer (I was about 10-11 years old) my mom, aunt and I all went to this beach that had a restaurant right next to it. After we finished swimming, we got a little hungry so we decided to go to this restaurant.
The place was incredibly packed, people sitting at tables everywhere and there were only a few members of staff who were serving. There was even another section at the back with more tables. We waited for about 20-30 mins before we order. My aunt wasn't with us when we ordered so I was the one listening to her bs the entire time. When we eventually order my mother started shouting at the wait staff.
"Do you know how long we've been waiting for? It's been 30 minutes!"
The poor staff had to explain that they were (obviously) very packed but my mother wasn't having it.
"I don't care! You should hire more staff then!"
At this point I was off to the side, red in the face because I felt so bad for the employees. We order and walk back. I tell my mother that I was very upset with her behavior and that there were many people in the restaurant. She kept on shouting at me, saying "it's not my place to comment" but I just ignored her.
When I went to pick up our food, I immediately said
"Hey I'm really sorry about my mum shouting at you, you guys have so many tables to serve and your doing the best you can."
The guy who took our order was really nice and said something along the lines of "Don't worry kid, thanks for appologising"
So yeah, my mum's a Karen
Friend of mine was a busser at a very very busy theme restaurant (rhymes with "Hard Knock") where the waiting lines sometimes went 2 hours during peak season. While he was cleaning off a table this Karen stopped him, asked if worked there, then proceeded to go on a huge rant about how she had to wait for hours to get in (even though she chose to do so), how they have no right to subject people to that, and that they also need to open up a second (*restaurant name) to handle the crowds. My friend just looked her dead in the eye, and just nonchalantly uttered "......I'll be sure to bring it up at the next board-meeting....", then just turned around and went back to what he was doing.
My dad isn’t usually a Karen/Kevin, but …
We’re from the Uk , but parents really into country music. So one of our summer holidays when I was probably around 13 was 3 weeks driving around Tennessee. Memphis - Pigeon Forge - Chattanooga - Nashville. This would have been around ‘98/‘99 I think.
Did all the usual tourist s**t; Graceland, Sun Studio, Tooties, Grand Ole Opry, stalking Garth Brooks etc.
We visited this one place - it was a museum with some sort of backlot studio tour, and my dad was really excited about visiting it. Except the backlot tour part was closed (think the roads were closed for roadworks). My dad was not happy about this, especially as he only found out after we’d paid and been around the main museum.
So we went to discuss it with the ticket desk. Both sides made some reasonable points (there was a sign on the ticket desk, albeit it was a little small to have spotted etc). My dad was not getting far, and exclaimed “I’ve come all the way from England to visit this *god damn* place.”
Oh dear … using blasphemy against a employee of a country music museum in Memphis (or Nashville; forget which city we were in) absolutely did not have the desired affect.
“We’ll y’know what sir? I was thinking about giving y’all a refund, but I don’t think i want to do that anymore “
At that point my siblings and I all noped out of that one and headed outside.
Never did find out if dad got his refund.
Being from Tennessee, I can't for the life of me think of anywhere that would have a "back lot tour". Anyone know where they are talking about?
Shouted associated profanities at a child with mental disabilities for threatening to harm her “little boy”.
My Ex-Mother-in-law was a Karen, and her name was actually Karen. She worked part time in a diner and was not very good. People would get angry because she would mess the simplest things up by not writing them down and mix them up later. Because of this she believed the only way to fix any inconvenience when eating out was to complain loudly to a Manager. Did she go 2 minutes with an empty glass... "MANAGER!!" Was the steak slightly over\undercooked "MANAGER!!".... She would loudly tell the Manager that she worked at a Diner and would have never made this mistake, and if the Manager did not comp whatever was not perfect she pulled out her phone and started loudly dictating her Yelp review with the Manager standing there.
It was so bad that if I found out she was going to the same place as us, I would just not go. She was such a spiteful, hateful, toxic waste of oxygen.
My dad once got into a screaming match with someone because of the express check in lane at an airport, he couldn’t use it but insisted he could. He then started screaming at me because I told him I don’t think he can use it.
HOW DARE YOU THINK I CANT USE SOMETHING THAT COSTS MONEY AND I DIDNT PAY FOR
Mom was always finding coupons for restaurants and that decided where we'd eat. My family was not poor btw. One day I was like 15 and just me and her had lunch at a tex mex place with a coupon for bogo or whatever. Total bill ended up being like $11. Mom tipped $1. Server ran out to the parking lot and handed it back saying "you must need this more than me"
In reality it was a $22 meal, that they got for $11. So a proper tip would be 3.30 at 15%. So yeah she’s cheap AF
My parents went with me to the UK when I started boarding school, and my mom reserved our seats on the train. Gal was sat at the table, we said hey those are reserved, she apologized and moved across to sit with her family.
My mother then pulls out the tickets and starts screaming at this family about how we reserved the seats. My dad and I tell her to sit down and shut up and it takes some arguing because she turned on us next.
She then screamed at us during dinner (in the hotel restaurant with other people around) for not having her back.
Yeah, I was eager for them to leave when I moved into my dorm
Christmas Eve, I just got my license and was sent out to go get Jack in the Box because no one wanted to cook. I was given cash. The order came out to $75 dollars, the young woman, clearly training and overwhelmed, asked to see my ID before finding out how I was paying. Card purchases over $25 are to be verified with ID ownership of the card because of a rampant thievery issue here.
I get my food apologize about adding to the issue of a horridly long line, and go home and ask my dad
"Hey, why would they need to see my ID for a cash purchase?"
And my dad loses his s**t, how dare the minimum wage worker ask to see my ID, it has my ADDRESS on it! What if she comes to our house and kidnaps me? By god this is the worst crime!
So, he puts me in the car, drives me down to Jack in the box, and starts throwing a s**t fit while I simply stand there. I haven't eaten my food I'm hungry it's way late. I am too tired for this s**t.
The *general manager* not just the shift manager but the general manager of the store is gotten on the phone, gives my dad her personal number and says to give her a call so they can sort this out.
He is given two free meals... And he sends *me* to go get them the next day.
God I felt nasty. I haven't been able to show my face at Jack in the box since.
Wow. I was embarrassed when my dad freaked out at a guy I'd been talking to who asked me for money (I shut him down, but my father decided he needed a bit more of a lesson, and he's big and mean). This would be so much worse. That restaurant made a mild mistake. The dude was trying to scam me for real. This would have been mortifying.
We were having a family dinner where we just decided to order in Chinese food. With around 15 people eating, it was quite a large order. One of the things we ordered were honey garlic chicken balls, which we got 2 orders of. This restaurant delivers these as an order of breaded chicken balls and a side of honey garlic sauce. My dad went to pick up the food, brought it back home, and we unpacked everything, and we saw that we got two orders of the breaded chicken balls, but only one order of the honey garlic sauce.
Now, I get it, this is mildly annoying, but hey, it happens and we still have tons and tons of food, plus a single order of sauce is likely enough for two orders of chicken anyways. My mom was essentially sent into a bloodlust because of this. She was very annoyed we didn’t get the second sauce, and while people were starting to sit down and help themselves to the food, she got on the phone with the restaurant. While I’m sure the restaurant staff was apologizing, she kept insisting that this was b******t and that she expects to get everything she paid for, and that the restaurant had to rectify this. She argued back and forth (while everyone else ate), but eventually got the restaurant to send a delivery driver with just the order or sauce. She of course sat down to eat after this, and just about everyone was already done. Of course by the time the sauce got there, everyone had finished eating, and it wasn’t really missed. She felt so proud of herself getting the restaurant to go to ridiculous lengths over such a trivial thing.
My mom is usually pretty level headed, but when it comes to slight mixups like this on food orders, she needs to go to irrational lengths to make sure she feels complete.
I had a pizza place just 50 meters or so away. They had a signature pizza covered in garlic. When my girlfriend came home early with two pizzas on mine the garlic was missing. We called them and the cook/owner came running (he has a funny waggling run due to short legs and not so tiny belly) in his apron to dump a lot of garlic on my pizza. All good fun.
*My* name is Karen, and my mom freaks out whenever someone uses Karen as an insult because "I NAMED MY DAUGHTER THAT AND SHE IS A VERY NICE YOUNG LADY." When I was like 16, she went on a long rant about it in the middle of a restaurant and I genuinely wanted to die.
Dil of Karen:
She tipped $2 on a $100 bill because she didn't like how the fish was cooked. I got up and handed the waitress $20 and apologized.
She took my kids out to lunch and did it again. I had sent them with cash to tip just in case she did it again.
She walked into a salon with no reservation and then threw a passive aggressive huffing fit because they wouldn't give her a slot right then and there.
These are just a few of many, many similar moments
How sad that OP had to make the kids part of fixing whatever tantrum OP's mom got. I hope it was a one time-thing to include the kids. I have a problematic narcisistic mom and I do my very very best to shield my kids from her sh!t. I want them to love their grandma because she's a loving relative. Not hating her because of all the stuff she says and does. Let me, the adult, deal with the messed up grandma so my kids can enjoy her company and (hopefully) have nice memories of her when she's gone.
My dad can be a bit of a Karen. I’ve made a habit of bringing $10-20 cash whenever we go to a restaurant.
Went to a “concept” place once, where the food was brought out, not all at once, but as it was ready. For a party of 6, nothing came out together. (Kind of a dumb concept, IMO, but whatever).
Dad was PISSED. Complained about it to: the food runner, our waitress, the bartender, another waitress, the manager, and the hostess. Nonstop, from the moment the first dish came out, to our exit from the building.
Slipped the waitress an extra $20 on top of the 5% dad left her. He’s chilled out over the past few years, thank god, but there was a while when I wouldn’t go out to eat with him because of the embarrassment.
My mom used to be a Karen. I can still remember her arguing with the cashier at Zellers when I was a kid over the price of clearance Christmas stuff. It got to the point that the people behind her were yelling at her to stop and hurry up. Sometimes the difference in price was a couple cents. I was so embarrassed and walked away to do something else while this was going on.
And before you ask, no, she isn't a Karen anymore because she became self aware and stopped. She isn't a Karen anymore because she's taken so many damn painkillers over the years that she now lacks the mental ability to be a Karen. She now does this "I'm pathetic and need hand outs" thing. I honestly don't know which is worse
My mom pointing out a group of women having their hair dyed my mom said "it's weird, don't you ever do that to your hair" and they heard my mom say it.
My mother is not exactly a Karen, but she had a very bad Karen-Moment once.
She paid me a visit shortly after I moved to Switzerland. We went shopping for groceries together. Everything in CH is at least twice as expensive. And my mother did let the entire shop know, how overpriced each and every item I put in the cart was. While also insisting that we need to buy bottled water because she couldn't drink tapwater. (She does it at home and switzerland has the better water quality. So I have really no idea why that was a thing in the first place.)
So from everything she complained about, the 12 bucks for 4 bottles of non sparkly water was somehow completely fine.
I never went shopping with her ever again after this.
Oh boy. Waiting for this one.
My mom went and harassed my elementary school, so much over small things and caused such a big fuss, they didn't let my niece, who they knew was my mom's granddaughter, come back. They just didn't wanna deal with her anymore to the point of kicking her out of the school. My sister and I had already left in middle school. Those poor teachers didn't get paid enough.
My mother, who's first name is Karen but she goes by her middle is a literal and figurative Karen
Anyway, sometimes she's okay and lately Ive seen some patience from since I no longer tolerate most of her b******t but the worst in memory happened a few years ago.
I'm in town visiting and she wants to take me for coffee and bagels at a place we'd gone to for years. There's a new lady there and my mother informs she doesn't like this lady much she's kinda slow at things but she understands why. The lady is just trying to make ends meet at a "simple" job since she couldn't focus on her real career while she mourned her recently deceased daughter.
So I think, she can take what time she needs. Losing a daughter is no joke.
We order coffees and these delicious cheddar bagels (10/10 wild cheddar bagels are the bomb diggity). Lady forgets the bagels so my mom asks after a bit of wait and the lady apologizes and puts them in the toaster.
Mom is now irritated tapping her foot and huffing (we had no time commitments).
Bagels get burned. Aww man, I'm disappointed but whatever.
"I paid for these bagels and I want you to replace them."
"Yes of course ma'am let me take care of the customers here first."
Wrong words. Mom gets livid she does t scream but she raising her voice. I finally tell her, it's okay we get food somewhere else. It's just a few bucks I can cover it yadda yadda. And finally get her to leave.
"When I worked in service I'd never treat a customer that way!"
She worked at Taco bell like a year in her 20s. 30 years prior.
So to get food, I just drive us to Starbucks. Not the best option but whatever, I'll pay and she get at least be unhangry.
"They cost how much?!?! That's nuts!"
"That's the price mom, stuff had gone up."
"No, no I don't want anything. My appetite is gone." Huff huff pout pout
She tells me nowadays she's an empathetic person. Yeahhhh right.
A lot of people who are fond of the words "empathy" and "compassion" often seem entirely unaware of what they actually mean.
My mom was totally a karen, but she was still a good mom. We were at a fast food restaurant, I asked for my mega burger without bacon. I'm not allergic, I just don't like it on burgers. My mom asked for the fryer to be heavily sanitized and when they said no, she stormed into the back and tore the place apart.
We went to some theme park when I was a kid and my little sister LOVED cookie monster. It was like 100 degrees outside, and the character actor for cookie monster was taking a break (they have to wear a mascot suit) and told my dad they wouldn’t be able to take a photo with her. He lost his s**t, argued for a bit, and then as we walked away he said “Don’t choke, cookie!” I never understood what the f**k he meant and still cringe when I think about it.
My dad is a male karen. I’m talking arguing with the servers at a restaurant, demands for his coupons to work type of karen. It horrendous and oftentimes embarrassing.
I went to get new shoes at the beginning of a school year several years back and we went to a specific store because he had a coupon. The store was having a sale and the items we got did not match the coupon but he was INSISTENT. Kept arguing with the poor worker for 10-15 minutes. As we were leaving, I whispered “I’m sorry” to the employee and she nodded in appreciation. Dad over heard me and I got chewed out in the car on the way home. This wasn’t the worst thing he did, but it stuck with me because I ended up on the receiving end of his karen attitude.
Though I will say that despite his karen-ness, he has never left less than a ~15% tip (he usually tips 20%+) and I attribute that to my mom working in the food service industry for a decade and him knowing how difficult the job can be.
My mother only gets like that when she's stressed. But one time I was at the pharmacy. There were two people in line in front of me and one person at the register. The woman right in front of me shrieked as loudly as possible that they needed to open a second register. I thought maybe she was in a rush; but when I went to check out next to her I overheard her going over coupons or whatever. It's one of the few times I've run into a dyed in the wool karen in the wild. She even had the haircut.
Of course this has nothing to do with my mother. Except that a couple of months later my mother did the exact same thing while I stood there contemplating if I should have pretended not to know her.
"while I stood there contemplating if I should have pretended not to know her" haha
she isnt always a karen but more just cruel- anyway she - who has also worked as a waitress. decided to yell at a young waiter for giving me saussge patties instead of links. Which i didnt even care in the first place because sausage is sausage & i like all kinds of breakfast foods. i didnt ask for any change . She did this at a forced family dinner and no one stopped her. eventually after progressively getting louder telling her to stop she got quiet and i told the waiter to just not worry about it, because i didnt ask for change. i dont want to wait for new food . and i dont want to stress out the staff because i know its not an easy job nor a fun one.
My dad was a Karen while I was growing up but has gotten better since then. I remember as a kid tho he made a waitress cry at some steakhouse we went to. That was the worst of it and I felt really bad afterwards.
Mom is a Karen ✋🏻. Personally I don't go out with my mother anymore but especially to aldi. I was standing in line when the people infornt said " please stand back there are limits because of covid" and insted of moving back my mom had a full on argument about how she's wearing a mask and this and that- how many showers she takes in the middle on a busy line.
I do my own shopping now.
...Funny enough the opposite thing happened to me at the grocery store, this lady was taking three hundred years to put her card in the card reader and I had to move around to the front of my cart to reach my stuff and put it on the belt. She turned around and snapped at me "SIX FEET!!" like it's my fault I have short arms. Also there was more than six feet of space between us because I moved my cart back before scooting in front of it.
Oh back in the day my mom was a tyrant. Nothing would set her off more than a bunch of employees standing around gabbing when there was a big line of customers waiting…and she would let them know every time.
Now that Im older, I get it. I was in Home Depot last week, there was a huge line and only one checker. Meanwhile they had 3 employees ‘directing’ the line.
I asked one of them, politely, to call another checker up and they did.
…my mom would have torn them all a new one.
When I was a teenager my Mom picked up me and my two best friends from the mall. Driving us home someone cut her off when she was trying to change lanes. She went into total road rage and stated screaming at the the other car and words were coming out of her mouth that would make a sailor blush. She swerved the station wagon so hard it banged into the yellow concrete divider and the tires scraped the side of them and almost went over them. We all didn't say a word on the way to my house. We didn't know whether to laugh or be scared so we kept silent. The next day my dad was about to get in the car to go somewhere and he noticed the tires on one side were yellow. He goes hey who painted the tires yellow? I didn't want to squeal on my Mom so I said boy that's weird- heck if I know.
Maybe would’ve been a good idea to tell dad the truth, he could have possibly pointed out the dangers of road rage to mom and kept his kids out of another similar situation or something worse. Poor kid.
Granddaughter of a Karen:
My grandma complains about everything and always tries to fight with waiters and waitresses, giving like $2 tips for like $50 meals. Saying “they were terrible” and literally they didn’t do anything wrong. And I’d always feel so bad when she’d complain and the waiters would just be like as nice as they could be. Then other times she brags how she ALWAYS tips 20% because they work hard. It’s so infuriating. Now as I’m an adult I always offer to write out the check because she can’t see well and I always give 20% and round up too if she’s been especially rude.
Whenever my mom goes boiling hot to complain on the phone.
She always ends the calls with "I recommend you leave this s****y company so to avoid being screamed at like right now" like the employees there give a damn about her opinion. (She's trying to make the company lose employees)
I can tell they're just like "mhm... Uh huh... Right..." During the entire call.
I loved those calls. Great time to say: "The company isn't s****y at all. It's too bad that some costumers have s****y attitudes. That's okay, it won't dent my day since we're trained to handle those calls and you never know what people are going trough. If they need to take it out on a cs agent I hope it helped." Most of the time that helped. Allerting your coworkers about having a screamer so that they can listen and laugh with you helps too. We're working for peanuts and we're not paid to care. We only care about the nice ones.
I remember I was about 8 years old. My Dad and I went to a pool supply store looking for chemicals for our pool it was 9-10am on a Saturday (typical Dad errand time). The employee was about `15, at most 20 minutes late to open the store, due to another employee calling off last minute. My Dad made sure to let him know that this was his fault, that this is the reason the store will lose good paying customers (first time we've ever been there) and that he as an employee is a bad representation to the entire "pool industry". I remember being completely ashamed in front of the other customers who waited with us.
My dad got out and parked the car just to yell at someone because they were like an inch out of their parking space. We weren’t even shopping there.
Honestly, your dad is doing a public service. An inch over the line means they're parked more than a foot outside their spot. This makes it difficult to park in the open spot, never mind opening the door and exiting your car. If you're over the line, look behind you, back straight out, and try again.
My mother went to the supermarket alone and came back in a rage. She had got into an argument with not one, not two but three people in three separate incidents in one supermarket visit. Don’t know what happened. Of course it was all everybody else’s fault and nothing to do with her, she said.
To be fair some days are like that. Of course I also think that the first AH you deal with lowers your tolerance for future AHs that day. So by the third encounter a funny look might be enough ;)
i went to get my glasses changed. and my mother had walked into the store 10 minutes before closing. she was mad since they wouldnt check my eyesight. and the whole time i was praying we wouldnt get kicked out
Every single time we're checking out and the cashier asks about rounding up the cents, my mother would go in an endless rant about how big of a scam it is. The poor cashier that has absolutely no say in that has to nod and agree with her just to get rid of us, glad I'm nc with her.
The worst one was made by my grandmother, we were paying and she trow a big tantrum bc the cashier "made a face" to her while receiving her card. Poor cashier was new and young, even tho she wasn't arguing she was trying to diffuse the situation and telling my grandmother that she didn't made any bad gesture at her. At some point cashier and I crossed eyes all I could do was give her sorry eyes, grandmother was making a scene but luckily once everything was bagged I just took everything with me and made her follow me . Later I tried to apologise to the cashier but I didn't saw her again.
Encountered the first one before. They interrogate the cashiers on where the money is going and it's like...we just follow the prompts, and it's easier than running out of change to round it up.
My mother did a lot of things. But the one that annoyed me the most was when she sent the same chocolate malt back four times because it wasn't thick enough. I told the waitress just put some ice cream in a glass stir it with a spoon and bring it to her.
My mom used to be a Karen. Worst memory was sometime when I was 5-10 (my memory isn’t the best). She had gotten my brother and I a game system that played original Nintendo and Super Nintendo carts, but the day after it’s 30 day warranty expired, the Super Nintendo port fried. We went back to the game store she got it from, and got into a screaming match with the employee because she couldn’t get it replaced or refunded since the warranty expired the day before.
Granted we weren’t exactly well off in money and I can understand her frustration, but it was incredibly embarrassing and the employee definitely didn’t get paid enough for that.
I can understand her frustration for sure. Not her delivery of course, but those game systems are expensive to some families and quite the luxury.
Half sister of a Karen. I flew across the country to visit her once as a young teen. Was very excited to leave. She wouldn't leave as early as I begged her too. So I was late for my flight. And she yelled at the lady at the check-in desk that "THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE" because they couldn't...rush me through security? To this day, the word unacceptable makes me both laugh and blush.
She also yelled at my dad when she'd invited me and our parents to NY for a visit and our overweight, mentally ill dad had gone out and bought snacks after she'd bought a bunch of "organic" food and lamb and s**t. "I BOUGHT ALL THIS GOOD FOOD AND YOU GO OUT AND BUY...DIPSEY DOODLES?!". And to this day, dipsey doodles is one of my favorite things to say. I've never laughed so hard.
My dad hates mustard. I remember one time he got mad at a lady a lot McDonald’s because there was pickles and mustard and onion and all the topping that he doesn’t like. He started yelling and asking for them to remake his burger. He then proceed to tell them to be careful with taking orders and getting them in correct because some people have mustard allergies like him. He doesn’t haven’t a have mustard allergy 😭💀. I then mouthed from the front seat sorry to the lady then we drove away with the new plain burger.
News flash, the servers at fast food joints aren't the ones prepping the food. Want to get mead? Get mad at the right person. A coworker was at BK. Customer orders a burger. Comes out wrong. Reorder, comes out wrong. 3rd time he took it out of the wrapper and threw it at the cook. Of course between counter and cook it came apart but did hit the cook. It took 3 employees to keep the cook from getting his a** kicked. A Hardees manager asked my son to leave because his cook (after 7 tries) couldn't manage to fix a burger with lettuce and onion only. How stupid do you have to be to not understand lettuce and onion only?
I hate going shopping with my mum, she shoved past everyone because she has no patience. She talks so loudly when a queue is long. She likes to express her impatience and it’s embarrassing.
So, does she shout at people? Does she demand to open a personal checkout for her? What's the Karening here? Because complaining about long waits while in queue is Human, not Karen.
Not my parent but my step grandparent. We went to a thai restaurant and they were severely understaffed because of covid and the food took around 30 minutes to come out. My food didnt come out for another 10 minutes, during those 10 minutes he kept calling over waiters and asking when the food will come and if it doesnt come soon ill give you a 1 star rating. It was pretty funny for me but i also felt bad for the people working there.
It is a bit frustrating. We live 10 minutes away from a sandwich shop that is known for their quick delivery, 45 minutes+ later we've called and been told it's on its way, more waiting and we let the driver know this is a bit ridiculous - didn't the store tell you we're shorthanded - no - we could've picked up ourselves if they just told us
I have a good one,my dirt bike was stolen and the police got wrong the report,so I went with my mother (because I was a minor at the time) and she started a verbal fight with two police officers that were trying to explain to her I told them how I thought it went and they just wrote in their words what I was saying, I was there just looking at the scenes wondering if they were going to arrest her for screaming at a two police officers in a police station
She'll yell at us while in the middle of a call with a sales associate or customer support.
if you know what a customer support voice is you deserve compensation for your entire childhood.
So? I agree that a mother yelling at kids might be stressful, but was she yelling at you, like, to put that gas lighter back immediately while trying to WFH? Info needed, I see a tired mother here, not a Karen.
My dad is a bit of a Karen, but he never gets loud or obnoxious. Just really, really pedantic. He once called Walmart and went into this whole thing about the strawberries being one dollar more expensive than what was advertised. I couldn't believe he went so far over one dollar.
I see his point here, if they were advertised $2 punnet but charged $3 punnet that's a 33% markup on each individual punnet . If you are making a strawberry tart and you use 3 to 5 punnets you are getting over charged $3 to $5. On behalf of EVERY customer being over charged that day, he did the right thing.
One time me, my brother, and my mom were at burger king. I ordered the chicken burger but they gave me a spicy chicken burger. Of course, this pissed off my mom so she went in there and yelled at them.
…the chicken burger was amazing.
Not a daughter of one but I lived in a group home where the lady over us was a Karen. She yelled at a teenage boy working at Chick-fil-a because they got her order slightly wrong. I felt so bad for the guy.
Honestly, it's hard to remember the worst of it when I was a kid, because I'm so trained on her moods that I intervene as soon as my mom gets edgy. I've *been* trained on her moods since I was a young teen. She gets moody with us before she turns on a service worker, and we always try to moderate her and tone her down.
A couple summers ago, we had a big family gathering on a lake, and some of the crew was drinking and hanging around the fire, singing maybe, laughing for sure. She got woken up and *very* angry, yelled at the whole group, and I had a startle as I saw my aunt (her sister) *also* try to moderate and cool her off the same way I was doing. Love you Aunt Barb!!!!!
To start it off I have a pretty serious food allergy that happens to be in quite a few things, one of the most common things it is in would be yellow cheese. So my friend was over for dinner that night at my dad decided to order in from a local place. We made sure my order had no cheese as usual but everyone else is free to have whatever they want. About half an hour passes and out order arrives. I look for like but I can’t find it. Apparently they doubled what my friend got, which you guessed it, has yellow cheese. My dad throws a fit and immediately calls the door dasher that brought it to us. I felt so bad for him, but my dad wasn’t over then. He also decided to call the restaurant and made to sure to explain to them in excruciating detail how allergic I am and they could have killed me all while saying they better be sure I get my order for free and a refund for the trouble. I was so embarrassed I just had this friend over for the first time and I knew my dad was semi worried for my well being but it’s not like we didn’t have food in the pantry I could have grabbed.
Well, my grandma once cried because she asked for chicken not beef well they brought beef in her food she cried demanded the manager. They told her they would refund her and get her what she wanted. She continued to cry and said she didn’t want anything from these people then said she just wanted her food with chicken.
My bio-dad went inside a Sonic Drive-In once...
It's not the most embarrassing thing he's done but I've always felt like that's the quickest way to convey how insufferable he can be in public lol.
My mother went back into the store with her receipt because they forgot to give her one penny back.
This reminds me of a funny thing that happened to me many years ago. I adore sugared almonds and at the time (this was about 20 years ago) they were only available at Christmas. So I’d stock up at Christmas and try to make them last for as long as possible. So I’m in a shop, looking for my almonds and there’s only one box left. Which is fine, one is better than none in my opinion. I go to the till and get told the almonds are 99p. The cashier offers me my penny change and I tell her keep it (my exact words were ‘it’s just a penny, it’s not important’). So I go to another shop and find some more almonds. Again they were 99p. My purse was getting heavy with coins by this point so I count them out, hoping I’ve got the 99p. I have 98p. If I’d kept the penny from the previous shop I’d have had enough. Moral of the story: even a penny can be important.
mom had a fight at an urban outfitters because employee said she wouldnt put the clothes that my sis just tried in back
Talk to the manager in macdonalds bc she got cold fries and didn’t want to wait 10 minutes.
And? Where's the Karen here? Unless it's the post author complaining that people do not accept cold food.
Did you guys know some idiots actually made Karen: The Movie? I've seen the trailer and it's an utterly hilarious parody, which is unfortunate because it's supposed to be a 100% serious thriller about an evil Karen who racistly harasses her black neighbours in a racist fashion racistly, in the most cartoonishly over the top way imaginable. A friend of mine watched it and said it's an absolute scream.
This weird tipping culture ... how is it possible that a self-claimed great country sees it as totally acceptable to have people with a job depending on gifts from strangers, to be able to pay for their living?
Many - possibly most - people here in the US don't see it as acceptable, and we also recognize that our country is overrated and lacking in so many respects. But there's at least a couple main obstacles: 1) we're still living in relative comfort, and this leads to complacency; and when added to 2) the power of the rich/government over everything is strong, and so entrenched, that individually, people feel (and largely are) pretty powerless. Also the US is massive in various ways - size, population, $, military, waistlines, etc. - and it's so much more difficult to affect system-wide change. On a more local level, change is more viable. For instance, a handful of states have better minimum wages for waitstaff, even if they receive tips. But the vast majority don't. For the culture of tipping to really change, we'd need to see a law at the federal level, but that will be blocked or made ineffective by congress members being effectively owned by corporations. It's a quagmire.
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I get a literal nervous breakdown from any public confrontation, I cannot fathom people who make a spectacle of themselves. My ex husband was like this, yelling at people in the street, at staff, bus drivers etc. Awful awful awful, I wanted to die and always felt trapped in the situation
My uncle is a Karen and a thief. He was visiting my mother, and I went to the store and he went, too. This store has a coffee shop with the sugar and stuff on a counter. I went shopping and he caught up to me when he had something he wanted to add to my cart (expensive snacks that I had to pay for). I get done and he is at the coffee shop. I go to check out, and he stays to a get coffee, and I go back to where he was to find him yelling at the barista because there aren't any sweeteners out. She tells him that she is sorry, she filled it up not long ago and will get more. He yells at her because she has to go the back to get them and again when she handed him the sweeteners over the counter rather than filling the rack. He fixes his coffee and grabs a few extra packets. We get to the car and he empties his pocket, he was the one that emptied the rack in the first place and wanted her to refill it so he could steal more. He was so proud of himself and I was mortified.
Just to add - I was so shocked that I didn't know what to do. This man had hundreds of packets of sugar and sweeteners and coffee sticks in his pockets and still yelled at this young woman because he wanted more. I went back when I dropped him and food off and apologized to the girl and asked the manager if I could pay for what he took. He said no and thanked me for the apology and I have never been back to that store.
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Wow, so many commenters here thinking that causing huge drama and treating people like dirt is perfectly fine if your order was messed up!? How can anyone think that kind of behaviour is normal or even ok!?
I like this thread. Because these are REAL Karens. I hate it when middle-aged folks are called Karens because they want to be treated like a human being. When everyone involved knows that an entry-level teenager on a script can't help you with your problem, no, it's not being a Karen to want to talk to someone who has the authority to make a human judgment. And I feel like a lot of talk of Karens is to promote the attitude, "shut up and disappear and become just another cog in the machine." THESE stories, at least the way they're told, are about why being a "Karen" SHOULD be a bad: the Karens here disrespect other people. You can't simultaneously get mad you're not being treated as a human and treat someone else inhumanely.
NOT a Karen: "Excuse me, but this is supposed to be 60% off; that should be $80, not $200." "Look lady, that's what came up when I rang it up." "Yes but it's supposed to be 60% off." "Yeah, that was last week." "The sign is still in the window. It says 'this week'" "That's not my problem." "Yes, I know. can I please speak to your manager?"
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I highly recommend the documentary, "Deconstructing Karen" on Apple TV to everyone. Its provides some really good opportunites for the viewers own circle of family and friends to discuss what "being a Karen" actually means.
I remember my dad was a kevin once, but in a good way. Story time: We were at a hotel and the pool had been closed because there were over 20 kids crammed in a pool and the parents were not watching, and one kid almost drowned. My dad, being upset about how they closed the pool against this, called the staff and manager and told them (if I remember correctly) " They were not watching their kids and being irresponsible, I'm not going to have the pool closed down because of other peoples' stupid decisions!'' ent. I can't remember the rest, but from that, about 20 minutes later when we walked our dogs down to the pet area, when we got back up the manager called, and talked with my dad for like- 10-30 minutes. One hour later from that we were swimming in the pool! And it was opened back up to guests again.
In my experience I have found being nice to staff (in whatever situation) will get you more kudos than any other behaviour. If you treat them as friends, then they will reciprocate. If you asking for a favour, who do you think they will treat better - the fiend or the friend?
My dad once asked if a store had gluten free options. Then got mad when they went to check. Then got mad when they didn’t have any. Then stormed out, loudly informing them that he would find somewhere else to eat. This was what he told me when he got home, in a manner of “can you believe it?! I am outraged!” To anyone who has had to deal with him, I’m so sorry, I wish he would listen to me.
My entire (immediate AND extended) maternal family is just one big nasty, bigoted, belligerent, violent, kleptomaniac, narcissistic ball of Karens. It took me a long while to overcome the guilt tripping from third parties about how humiliating it was to be associated with those people (age 35), and it took me even longer to get the message through the family’s collective thick skull that I would no longer be fraternizing with them (age 40), but I’ve been so happy ever since. I was even able to quit smoking without actually trying. To the young folks out there who are going through this: give up hope that they will ever change for the better.
My Grandpa had an affair with a very, very karen'ish ... well, slud. She was allergic to dustmites, but Grandpa hired her as "an aide in householdery, to relieve Grandma of a bit of it.", and she was naive enough to fall for this quite some time. I think it was 2...5 years or so, but I'm not sure when it started, and cannot ask a dead man. Anyway, Sis and I hated her. She always would scold us for everything, act as if she had any say about like everything and was just a mean, ignorant bidge. When she came over, she rode her bicycle, up there ... hill'ish, stone-tiled area in front of the garage, and then had to cross a little stone wall, much like the border of a sidewalk, aber 5' high. To ease that, there was a flat, but not machined, stone lying where people would enter with their bikes. We broke that stone in order to annoy her, she came, and started ringing her bicycle's bell until Grandpa heard it and came to her rescue. We looked down from the balcony and giggled, as she was standing there, ringing her bell, and looking angry. BRRING-BRRING-BRRING! - Grandpa lifted her bike over the wicked obstacle, and ... very much to our disappointery, she continued to come over until Grandma finally got the clues together and banned her from her house, and threatened her to never come back, or leave with the feet leading (a german sayig - "Mit Füßen zuerst ausm Haus!" meaning being dead and carried in a cadaver-suitcase). She also ruined meals other people had prepared ... pour a dressing over a salad long prior to said salad being eaten, thereby being a mess already, because "it's just a salad". That our Mum prepared, and prepared well, as well as the dressing, and, generally, it was non of her business - but the slightest complaint lead to her leaving the celebration, scream-crying because she "only wanted to help", while the best and most helpful she ever did anywhere was not attending.
Did you guys know some idiots actually made Karen: The Movie? I've seen the trailer and it's an utterly hilarious parody, which is unfortunate because it's supposed to be a 100% serious thriller about an evil Karen who racistly harasses her black neighbours in a racist fashion racistly, in the most cartoonishly over the top way imaginable. A friend of mine watched it and said it's an absolute scream.
This weird tipping culture ... how is it possible that a self-claimed great country sees it as totally acceptable to have people with a job depending on gifts from strangers, to be able to pay for their living?
Many - possibly most - people here in the US don't see it as acceptable, and we also recognize that our country is overrated and lacking in so many respects. But there's at least a couple main obstacles: 1) we're still living in relative comfort, and this leads to complacency; and when added to 2) the power of the rich/government over everything is strong, and so entrenched, that individually, people feel (and largely are) pretty powerless. Also the US is massive in various ways - size, population, $, military, waistlines, etc. - and it's so much more difficult to affect system-wide change. On a more local level, change is more viable. For instance, a handful of states have better minimum wages for waitstaff, even if they receive tips. But the vast majority don't. For the culture of tipping to really change, we'd need to see a law at the federal level, but that will be blocked or made ineffective by congress members being effectively owned by corporations. It's a quagmire.
Load More Replies... I get a literal nervous breakdown from any public confrontation, I cannot fathom people who make a spectacle of themselves. My ex husband was like this, yelling at people in the street, at staff, bus drivers etc. Awful awful awful, I wanted to die and always felt trapped in the situation
My uncle is a Karen and a thief. He was visiting my mother, and I went to the store and he went, too. This store has a coffee shop with the sugar and stuff on a counter. I went shopping and he caught up to me when he had something he wanted to add to my cart (expensive snacks that I had to pay for). I get done and he is at the coffee shop. I go to check out, and he stays to a get coffee, and I go back to where he was to find him yelling at the barista because there aren't any sweeteners out. She tells him that she is sorry, she filled it up not long ago and will get more. He yells at her because she has to go the back to get them and again when she handed him the sweeteners over the counter rather than filling the rack. He fixes his coffee and grabs a few extra packets. We get to the car and he empties his pocket, he was the one that emptied the rack in the first place and wanted her to refill it so he could steal more. He was so proud of himself and I was mortified.
Just to add - I was so shocked that I didn't know what to do. This man had hundreds of packets of sugar and sweeteners and coffee sticks in his pockets and still yelled at this young woman because he wanted more. I went back when I dropped him and food off and apologized to the girl and asked the manager if I could pay for what he took. He said no and thanked me for the apology and I have never been back to that store.
Load More Replies... Wow, so many commenters here thinking that causing huge drama and treating people like dirt is perfectly fine if your order was messed up!? How can anyone think that kind of behaviour is normal or even ok!?
I like this thread. Because these are REAL Karens. I hate it when middle-aged folks are called Karens because they want to be treated like a human being. When everyone involved knows that an entry-level teenager on a script can't help you with your problem, no, it's not being a Karen to want to talk to someone who has the authority to make a human judgment. And I feel like a lot of talk of Karens is to promote the attitude, "shut up and disappear and become just another cog in the machine." THESE stories, at least the way they're told, are about why being a "Karen" SHOULD be a bad: the Karens here disrespect other people. You can't simultaneously get mad you're not being treated as a human and treat someone else inhumanely.
NOT a Karen: "Excuse me, but this is supposed to be 60% off; that should be $80, not $200." "Look lady, that's what came up when I rang it up." "Yes but it's supposed to be 60% off." "Yeah, that was last week." "The sign is still in the window. It says 'this week'" "That's not my problem." "Yes, I know. can I please speak to your manager?"
Load More Replies... I highly recommend the documentary, "Deconstructing Karen" on Apple TV to everyone. Its provides some really good opportunites for the viewers own circle of family and friends to discuss what "being a Karen" actually means.
I remember my dad was a kevin once, but in a good way. Story time: We were at a hotel and the pool had been closed because there were over 20 kids crammed in a pool and the parents were not watching, and one kid almost drowned. My dad, being upset about how they closed the pool against this, called the staff and manager and told them (if I remember correctly) " They were not watching their kids and being irresponsible, I'm not going to have the pool closed down because of other peoples' stupid decisions!'' ent. I can't remember the rest, but from that, about 20 minutes later when we walked our dogs down to the pet area, when we got back up the manager called, and talked with my dad for like- 10-30 minutes. One hour later from that we were swimming in the pool! And it was opened back up to guests again.
In my experience I have found being nice to staff (in whatever situation) will get you more kudos than any other behaviour. If you treat them as friends, then they will reciprocate. If you asking for a favour, who do you think they will treat better - the fiend or the friend?
My dad once asked if a store had gluten free options. Then got mad when they went to check. Then got mad when they didn’t have any. Then stormed out, loudly informing them that he would find somewhere else to eat. This was what he told me when he got home, in a manner of “can you believe it?! I am outraged!” To anyone who has had to deal with him, I’m so sorry, I wish he would listen to me.
My entire (immediate AND extended) maternal family is just one big nasty, bigoted, belligerent, violent, kleptomaniac, narcissistic ball of Karens. It took me a long while to overcome the guilt tripping from third parties about how humiliating it was to be associated with those people (age 35), and it took me even longer to get the message through the family’s collective thick skull that I would no longer be fraternizing with them (age 40), but I’ve been so happy ever since. I was even able to quit smoking without actually trying. To the young folks out there who are going through this: give up hope that they will ever change for the better.
My Grandpa had an affair with a very, very karen'ish ... well, slud. She was allergic to dustmites, but Grandpa hired her as "an aide in householdery, to relieve Grandma of a bit of it.", and she was naive enough to fall for this quite some time. I think it was 2...5 years or so, but I'm not sure when it started, and cannot ask a dead man. Anyway, Sis and I hated her. She always would scold us for everything, act as if she had any say about like everything and was just a mean, ignorant bidge. When she came over, she rode her bicycle, up there ... hill'ish, stone-tiled area in front of the garage, and then had to cross a little stone wall, much like the border of a sidewalk, aber 5' high. To ease that, there was a flat, but not machined, stone lying where people would enter with their bikes. We broke that stone in order to annoy her, she came, and started ringing her bicycle's bell until Grandpa heard it and came to her rescue. We looked down from the balcony and giggled, as she was standing there, ringing her bell, and looking angry. BRRING-BRRING-BRRING! - Grandpa lifted her bike over the wicked obstacle, and ... very much to our disappointery, she continued to come over until Grandma finally got the clues together and banned her from her house, and threatened her to never come back, or leave with the feet leading (a german sayig - "Mit Füßen zuerst ausm Haus!" meaning being dead and carried in a cadaver-suitcase). She also ruined meals other people had prepared ... pour a dressing over a salad long prior to said salad being eaten, thereby being a mess already, because "it's just a salad". That our Mum prepared, and prepared well, as well as the dressing, and, generally, it was non of her business - but the slightest complaint lead to her leaving the celebration, scream-crying because she "only wanted to help", while the best and most helpful she ever did anywhere was not attending.
