31Kviews
A Netizen Asked “What Has A Parent Said To You That Made You Go, ‘What The Hell?’” And 30 Delivered
Have you ever caught yourself saying something so weird that it kept you up for the next week or two? Well, parents are not an exception – it’s just that they might not realize what kind of impact it had on their offspring.
So, be it something strangely comical or downright inappropriate, here is a list of 39 of the strangest things that moms and dads of the world have ever said to their children!
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
I shaved my head at 21 and kept that hairstyle for the last 28 years.
My dad walked into my room when I was 26 and asked me for a comb!
He looked at me , thought about it for a second and laughed.
Rip dad.I miss you.
After I told my mother that I didn't open up to her or my dad was because I didn't trust them with my emotions, she started screaming that she hated me
Like, girl, this is exactly why I don't tell you things 😂
"Stop twitching, tapping, moving, bopping, clicking. CAN YOU JUST SIT STILL while I'm trying to watch tv and drink [yet another] glass of wine." Me with a private docs diagnoses for ADHD that my parents didn't tell me about because they were embarrassed of me and couldn't bare for the weird church cult they were part of to find out. They went private docs so it wouldn't be on my medical records. And if I talk to any of the GPs as an adult about possible meds, they just think I'm looking for a high and not actual help. A few years later, I got in bad trouble at school due to my ADHD and sensory problems[where a teacher actually shut me in a cupboard because he couldn't handle me.] and I got permanently expelled from that secondary school for hitting the teacher with piece of sports equipment, after he'd shut me in that dark closet for an hour. After that my parents told me "it is your fault that we have lost faith in god, because we prayed for you to ""get better""". But I didn't, infact this was the start of my other sensory issues and anxiety which as an adult was diagnosed as autism. I was misunderstood, mismedicated, and everything felt wrong but I could not describe or even analyze what exactly was provoking my fight or flight. This story ends at 11yo. I have more stories of my s****y childhood. But I'm not sure anyone will read this far down anyway. But I found writing this all down actually helpful and I feel a weight lifted.
Yeah, stay strong and keep learning to grow, as Montanavanna said so aptly. Don't let your happiness be contingent on others' actions and behavior.
The main one that gets the biggest wtf from ppl is when I tell them that during lockdown my mom kept finding my brothers baby clothes (she threw mine away) & kept sending me pics, telling me that she can't wait to be a grandma. I asked if my brother got his gf pregnant, she said she was talking about me, I reminded her I would never give her & my dad grandkids she responded with "don't worry, I'll find someone to r**e you & force you to have the kid"
"If you're like this now I hate to think what you'll be like on your period."
I was huddled in a chair, running a low grade fever and suffering diarrhea. She was angry with me for trying to stay home from school.
One, it's a field trip day, I don't WANT to stay home but hello, a*s pee.
Two, a period is a natural thing, and there are pads/tampons for that. Diarrhea is NOT natural and I can't exactly shove a cork in my colon.
Spoiler: she made me go to school and I shat myself mid fieldtrip.
Oof, happened to me too. (In my mom's defense, I faked being sick waaaayyyy too much, and I think she just gave up believing me unless I was glued to the pot or projectile vomiting 😅 love ya, mom!) We were on a field trip to a docked submarine, my stomach was doing flipflops, and I couldn't contain it any longer. (Thank the gods it was just gas!) Did you know farts echo in a submarine? It took a long time for me to live that down. (My 5th grade teacher was awesome, had been standing nearby and he tried to claim it, apologizing with a joke about military food, but they all knew who it was. They knew.)
"I should have aborted you." When her dryer needed cleaning because *she* didn't check dad's pockets of laundry she was doing and a grease pen melted all over it.
"Just look at you...If I looked like you, I'd [unalive] myself." To chubby 5 or 6yo old me. Like, lady, just give me a salad or some s**t.
my mom told me she wishes i'd just [unalive] myself already once she doesn't remember saying it but it's stuck with me as the most f****d up thing she's ever said
“I wish i never had kids”
You don't tell your kids this. But it's OK to voice this to a therapist, partner, or good friend. There are times it may feel like this. Doesn't mean you're a bad parent or that you always feel this way. Parents need to be able to be honest with how they're feeling and get support.
My old boss said that she got jealous when her husband called their 4 year old daughter beautiful, so she called her daughter ugly and told him to stop inflating her ego. She proudly admitted it to all of us as if it was normal and it baffles me to this day
My mom told me that women pooped babies out of their butt. I believed this until I was 12 or 13. Boy, I got laughed at when I used this as my answer when asked in sex ed.
When I told my mom I didn't want to keep contact with my ex-husband as he had been abusive she told me she knew there had been some hitting in the past but that she'd never witnessed it, and he'd always been very nice to her so she'd like to go have coffee with him. Seriously?! WTF.
If I didn’t go get my dad alcohol he always threatened to ‘ off me ‘.
Once we were at the harbor , I pretended not to hear him so he pushed me , I don’t think he intended to, but I fell in the water between to parked boats.
A man who’s on one of the boats saw this and jumped in to save me ,I was 10 so I wasn’t a strong swimmer yet. My dad just laughed when the man was yelling at him.
I reminded my mom that humans deserve a basic level of respect, and that the fact she considered obedience a form of respect skews her view on how to treat people, and she told me "I don't have to respect you. You're my child." I was an adult at the time.
When I was a kid, my best friends mother was an insufferable snob,and looked down on me because my family was lower middle class. When we were about 9 years old, she took my friend and I to the library to checkout some books, and ran into a friend of hers on the way out. She introduced us to the friend. She said very loudly, that "(insert her daughters name here) is a voracious reader and very very smart, but (insert my name here) is NOT!". I was upset and said "YES I AM!" She then looked at me, then her friend, and they rolled their eyes and laughed. That was nearly 50 years ago, and I remember it as if it were yesterday, and honestly, it had a hugely negative effect on my life, it traumatized me. The only consolation for me (I know this makes me a bad person) was that 10 years later, her very wealthy husband left her for a much younger woman and she was forced to live well below her accustomed means, and was bitter the rest of her days.
I should note I am now a very happy person, in a great relationship, running my own successful business.
Wasn’t my parents but my Grandpa.
“Josh can you take me to see Marge?”
Marge was his long time girlfriend who had Alzheimer’s. My GP was in his 70s at the time and we took away his car because he was a dangerous man behind the wheel to say the least. . “Sure Papa Joe!” That or PJoe was his nickname. Drive him to the place Marge was cared for at. Stop at the front and ask “How long until I come back?” He replied with “Give me an hour. That should be long enough for us to have sex.” I start crying laughing and he leaves with a giant smirk. I could never look at him again without thinking or saying “Almost 80 and still getting after it, WTF”
I needed to take my youngest sister with me to my appointment—as I was taking her somewhere later—and afterwards she gleefully told me how beautiful my therapist was.
I thought that was super adorable, and decided to share that sentiment with my mother.
Her response? “Really? I thought she was black.”
🤦🏻♀️ I still haven’t recovered from that response. Like mom, you’re hispanic, you shouldn’t be like this.
Edit: formatting
A few months ago I had gone to do a surprise visit my grandparents on my dad’s side. While I was driving up their property I saw them walking in their groceries and witnessed seeing my dad for the first time. I had never met my dad in my life but knew my grandparents.
I walked up greeted my grandmother and she ushered me over go talk to my father. As I went to greet him this dude threw his hood on and jumped in his truck and locked the doors and said no words to me. Never in my life have I witnessed a grown man run away like that.
I would often visit the kitchen to watch how my mother cook. One day when my father saw me coming out of the kitchen, he said “you keep visiting kitchen, your d**k and balls are gonna fall off. That’s how girls are made.”
context: I was 7 when he said that to me and we are Korean family
Eating all your vegetables son will make the hair grow on your chest and balls. Well WTF if I don’t want hairy balls mom!
This was a pretty common sentiment for a couple of decades. Not the balls part but the idea that certain things would put hair on your chest. I'm sure some people believed it but it was more an expression to encourage outmoded ideas of masculinity or cajole your male kid into doing things, in this case eating healthy.
Where do I even start?! I've written alot about my mom on Reddit. She was a crazy abusive monster when I was a kid. She was controlling and completely unhinged. A few weeks ago we had the following convo- Her " I just can't imagine hurting an animal. I could never forgive myself." Me "really. I must be thinking of my other mom, but my mom [unalived] my first pair of geckos that I saved a years worth of allowance to buy because she didn't want them in the house. My mom also [unalived] my parrot by putting it out side in the winter where it froze to death." Her " I did that? I would never do that." Pretty sure you did, mom.
"You're a weak person. You should go [unalive] yourself." After I opened up to my dad about my depression six months after my mom passed away.
As a kid I downloaded an app on my Kindle Fire tablet that was supposed to teach me how to play the ukulele. Well I ended up accidentally buying a 1 year subscription for the app that costed around $100 with my parents credit card (still don’t know how this happened as their card wasn’t connected to anything on my tablet). Well my stepdad called the apps customer service and ended up telling them that I had “down syndrome” and that’s why I accidentally bought the subscription. This was all right in front of me btw. The lady on the phone was super nice and probably would’ve given him a refund anyway but like…? Was that really necessary? The best part is, is that my Mom is a SpEd teacher so again…? Why did he think he needed to say that? Idk. I don’t have Down syndrome. Also, another time he told me to get the pizza from the delivery guy on our front doorstep but again, I was really young and got scared so the pizza guy left with our pizza. He called the pizza place and told them I had autism so they’d come back with the pizza. Also had this conversation right in front of me. He thought it was hilarious, like he was “rigging the system”. Still baffles me to this day. Oh also my mom divorced him last year.
Not as bad but I know most parents will say their kid is sick if they need a day off but are unable to get it. My husband has done it more than once. Or that I am sick so he has to stay home to watch the kids. This excuse has long legs since covid happened.
Two things.
1. "[My Aunt] is so stupid! Couldn't even get a full scholarship!" My aunt is going to become a doctor and is extremely good at it. She just couldn't get a scholarship that covered her fully just like so many other people who go to become doctors.
2. "Not to be racist but I think that if people live in America they should be required to speak English." A comment about my aunt's fiancée's family (the same aunt who she called stupid) simply because they didn't speak fluent english.
The United States does NOT have an "official" language. So people that say things like this are just showing their ignorance.
Oof. I hadn’t talked to my dad in 15 years. I decided to reach out (for certain reasons and not to restart a relationship). He asked if he could ask me about my life. I let him. I told him, among other things, I was in a wonderful relationship with a terrific gal. “Is this a real relationship or like the girlfriends I had when I was with your mother.”
I was equally glad I disowned him 15 years ago, disappointed a man and a father would speak like that to his estranged son, and angry that he was the father I was born to. He is just one big joke to me.
That's a great way to both insult OP's mom and distance yourself from any responsibility. Way to immediately show your true colors.
For context, I work with a bunch of children, and I bring them food and drinks and stuff like that as well. When I came down with a bad cold, I stayed home from work, not because I was too tired to go in or anything, but because I obviously didn't want to get like 12 kids and their parents sick. Mum blew up at me, asking why I care about the kids at all, they're not mine after all. Like jeez mum, have some empathy 😅
“You need to stop eating.”
My dad kind of underhandedly waited until he and I were alone away from my mom and brother. He glared pointedly at my belly (admittedly large from weight gain), and said that to me. Not “I’m concerned about your health” or “try to cut back and move more” - just “stop eating.” Stop doing something necessary to live.
I had previously suffered for years from eating disorders and his comment worsened everything. Eight years later, I still actively think about it multiple times every day. My relationship with food and my body is awful; I’ve become a recluse because of my shame over my appearance. Fights over my insecurity have contributed significantly to my crumbling marriage.
The kicker? My dad has been morbidly obese his entire life
Yeah, sounds like an insensitive, older generation way of saying cut back. Probably prompted (hopefully) by concern but definitely should've been worded differently. From modern perspectives, parent/child interactions were pretty heinous in the past...
"[Temnyj] is your mothers favourite."
Said directly to both my younger brother and sister.
Made even worse by the fact that everybody knew my sister was *his* favourite. So. An extra f**k you to my brother, i guess.
There were a lot of pretty s****y nuggets from him, but that one always stuck with me as an exceptionally unnecessary comment that serves no purpose other than f*****g up your kids self worth.
Right before she died, my mom had each of her five children come into her hospital room separately for a last talk. She told each of us, "Don't tell the others, but you were my favorite!" She knew darn well that we'd compare notes after the funeral, and this was her last prank on us. She left the world laughing.
"You were a mistake, and I had planned to abort you."
Yeah... that happened...
When I was about 28 my mom broke the news to me and my siblings that our dad had passed away, and oh ya you have a half brother who is in his 40s. Has a wife and children…still in shock and I’m in my mid 30s now. My dad bailed on us when we were toddlers.
If that ever happened to me, I would never be the same again, and I would be sad too.
Note: this post originally had 39 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Long ago I did two tours (20 months) in VN and 5 months on German Czech border. My family moved during my second VN tour and unbeknownst to me, threw away all my clothes, memorabilia, and car. Got out of army and went to parents’ new home expecting to have some basis for restarting life. There was nothing, not even a T-shirt. Their excuse was that they didn’t have room. However, their new home was in SoCal and they had room for snow blowers, and other c**p. It almost destroyed me as in my 3 yr army term, I spent 25 months deployed, was wounded twice, and had significant PTSD. I had absolutely nothing and was betrayed by my ultra-patriotic a@@hat parents.
My parent told me she wouldn't be surprised if I got pregnant by 16. I was 15 and a virgin, and I'm pretty sure this was just one of the usual lectures on how I didn't do my chores right or my grades not being good enough.
Where did she get that weird correlation between pregnancy and not getting an A on a math test? Her thinking makes sense only if she flunked sex ed and thought that making the bed the next morning was a form of contraception.
Load More Replies...
My momma once threw a hand full of candy at me and told me to eat it and go die, it was my Halloween candy and I asked if I could take some to school. I was 5
Long ago I did two tours (20 months) in VN and 5 months on German Czech border. My family moved during my second VN tour and unbeknownst to me, threw away all my clothes, memorabilia, and car. Got out of army and went to parents’ new home expecting to have some basis for restarting life. There was nothing, not even a T-shirt. Their excuse was that they didn’t have room. However, their new home was in SoCal and they had room for snow blowers, and other c**p. It almost destroyed me as in my 3 yr army term, I spent 25 months deployed, was wounded twice, and had significant PTSD. I had absolutely nothing and was betrayed by my ultra-patriotic a@@hat parents.
My parent told me she wouldn't be surprised if I got pregnant by 16. I was 15 and a virgin, and I'm pretty sure this was just one of the usual lectures on how I didn't do my chores right or my grades not being good enough.
Where did she get that weird correlation between pregnancy and not getting an A on a math test? Her thinking makes sense only if she flunked sex ed and thought that making the bed the next morning was a form of contraception.
Load More Replies... My momma once threw a hand full of candy at me and told me to eat it and go die, it was my Halloween candy and I asked if I could take some to school. I was 5
