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Sometimes, you hear stories and they're too good to be true. But they are true. You often ask yourself, "How did this happen"? History is full of these unbelievable stories. They're baffling, exciting and often incredible!
From insane military campaigns to complicated inventions, these stories are of the most unbelievable events in history. Can you believe these actually happened? Once you hear these stories, you won't be able to forget them.
35. Thank Goodness For Mother Nature
When the British took Washington D.C. in the War of 1812 they burned the White House. The next day they were going to burn the House of Congress.
The clouds began to swirl and the winds kicked up. A tornado formed in the center of the city and headed straight for the British on Capitol Hill. The twister ripped buildings from their foundations and trees up by the roots. British cannons were tossed around by the winds. Several British troops lost their lives because of falling structures and flying debris.
Tornados are exceptionally rare in DC.
34. That's A Coincidence
That two of the authors of the Declaration of Independence (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson) passed away on the exact same day, four hours apart and that day was July 4, 1826. The 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration.
33. It Led To The Middle Class
Yersinia Pestis, more commonly known as the Black Death, killed something north of 75 million people in the mid-14th Century. This was something like one-quarter-and-a-half of the entire human race at the time. Like all cataclysms, it disproportionally affected the poor, resulting in a famine in following years because there was no one to work the fields. Furthermore, the demand for labor meant that skilled peasants had more access to money and education for their kids.
The worst pandemic in history directly led to the emergence of the middle class.
32. They Weren't Shooting At Anything
It's fairly believable but still surprises me that in 1942, The Battle of Los Angeles occurred.
Basically, from a mix of false reports and paranoia, the US military fired artillery rounds in the night sky over LA for hours at imaginary targets thinking there were Japanese military overhead.
Wasn't until it started getting light out that they realized there were no enemy planes and they didn't, in fact, shoot anything down. Some five people passed of heart attacks that night.
31. Thank Goodness For That Typhoon
Maybe the Mongolian invasion of Japan, which was blighted not once but twice, by sheer luck as typhoons (which only strike two or three times a year) wiped out their entire ship fleet. The Mongolians took it as an omen and didn't invade again, a victory which would have been quite easy for them.
30. The Fact That Dinosaurs Existed
I just find it insane that dinosaurs actually existed.
I mean a Tyrannosaurus Rex was 13 feet tall, 45 feet long, nine tons. It had banana-sized teeth and a bite force of 12,800PSI. It had some of the sharpest senses of any animal to ever live (better vision than an eagle, a better sense of smell than almost any other animal, extremely acute hearing), and was packed with muscle from head to toe (even compared to other similarly sized theropods).
Even its relatively small arms could each lift around 400 lbs.
When you describe it like that, it doesn't even sound like a real animal, it sounds like a movie monster. And that thing actually existed.
29. The Fact That Music Was Invented
The invention of music. A universal system and language of something so simple yet that holds so much power. Music has some serious power and it uses math like the rest of the universe but affects us in a totally different way than most anything.
28. How Did They Do It?
That the Mongolian civilization in the 13th Century, armed only with horses, arrows, and steel, managed to sweep through and completely conquer the vast majority of the entire Eurasian landmass in only about ten years, forming the largest contiguous land empire in history. There were over 12 million casualties, a record only surpassed 700 years later in World War II.
27. What Were We Thinking?
I think that humans invented forged metal. Like, how does that even happen? How do you, without knowing that metal is in ore, that ore is distinct from any old rock, and without knowing you can melt it, decide to stuff it in a hole, with coal or some other fuel, in such a way as to generate the heat to melt it, and then from there also make sure the metal pours out in a usable form?
How do you make that series of decisions? It's always seemed so crazy to me.
26. We Went To The Moon
The moon.
We landed on the moon.
THE MOON.
Only 50 years after we built the airplane, we went to the MOON.
25. No One Knows About This
The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 in Boston. A steel vat of molasses ripped apart sending a 15-foot wave of 26 million pounds of molasses tearing down Commercial Street.
The wave moved 35 MPH and ripped houses from foundations and trains from tracks. Twenty-one people were crushed by the impact of the wave or drowned and 150 people were injured. It took 80,000 man-hours and salt water to clean up the mess.
The cause of the explosion? Although officials originally blamed anarchists for planting a weapon (something to do with certain components in molasses being used in government munitions), others thought the molasses fermented, causing the explosion. It turned out to be shoddy workmanship and led to changes in the industry.
So, we never have to worry have this happening again. I don't think the molasses industry requires massive vats anymore and they're not likely in the Boston area. Hmmm. I'll have to check that.
24. The Spanish Flu Should Be Talked About More
I find it absolutely unbelievable that the Spanish flu isn't talked about more.
The disease is a modern-day example of the Plague. The disease, at its peak, infected up to 500 million people worldwide (roughly 25-33% of the world's population or, one in four people were infected) and eradicated 50-100 million people, all within two years, most of which happened in 1918. All of a sudden though, the disease dissipated by sheer luck, and mutated into a less virulent strain because those infected by the more virulent strain had already went on to whatever is next. I can't even imagine what would happen if a disease like that had spread today.
It's completely nutty that we don't talk about this brief episode in history. I don't remember being taught about this in any of my history class (then again, we kind of stop leading up to modern history like the Vietnam War etc).
I honestly only looked back on it recently because there was a Bill Gates interview talking about what he feared most in his lifetime and spoke about infectious disease and antibiotic resistance over nuclear warfare.
23. The Invention Of Language
That some people actually figured out we can assign meaning to our mouth noises, and use them to express complex ideas.
Also amazing, that some people realized you can make the meaning of these mouth noises last forever by drawing symbols that represent the mouth noise you made.
22. The Invention Of Flying
The invention of the airplane and its evolution to today's jets. Can you imagine telling someone 100 years ago that you can go back and forth from Europe to America in eight hours 35,000 feet in the sky? They wouldn't believe it.
I'm never more amazed than when I step off of a long-haul flight. The fact that my body moved that distance at that height in such a short amount of time is just mind-blowing.
21. The Luckiest Man Alive
Bill Morgan survived a car crash that was super close to ending him. The doctors gave him medicine that caused his heart to stop. He was considered dead for about 14 minutes before miraculously coming back to life. In most cases, people who have to be brought back to life might end up being seriously disabled, or even paralyzed.
Bill Morgan ended up in a coma and given how long he'd been dead for, people suggested removing life support twice. Nonetheless, he came out of his coma 12 days later unscathed.
He re-evaluated his life and proposed to his long-time girlfriend. She accepted.
Feeling pretty happy about himself he bought a lottery ticket. Yes, you're right; he won a $23,000 car.
The local news asked him to buy another scratch ticket to re-enact the scene, he happily did so, and scratched the ticket; rather than being excited he just looked at the camera and said:
"I just won $350,000, I'm not joking"!
So yeah, the luckiest man on earth.
20. The Invention Of Fire And Cooking
The discovery of fire and the invention of cooking. Our very evolution has been shaped by this event, and all other aspects of our technology are derived from and made possible by the harnessing of fire. I tend to think of human history as being governed by calories, and every single time we invent a new method of getting more working energy to power ourselves and our technology we take tremendous leaps forward. Fire was the first time we found a way to take stored energy directly from the environment and turn it to our advantage, and without this first step we would never have even evolved beyond a chimpanzee in intelligence (we need fire to unlock calories from raw meat and plant tubers, and without those calories, brains are just too expensive to grow large). After fire there were a few more enormous leaps in our civilization, and all were connected to finding better ways to gain more free energy for our use— the other two big ones were the invention of the wheel (which let us harness the power of mules, wind, and water wheels) and the internal combustion engine. I am excited for the day that we can take the next leap forward, which will happen once we have mastered fusion power and unlock all of the potential energy of hydrogen bonds.
19. We Have Too Much Power
For me, events like the Fukushima nuclear disaster. The atomic weapons. Nothing is more terrifying to me than the total obliteration and long-term effects of this technology we've created. Seeing pictures of the fallout and wasteland of irradiated places bring me to my knees. I can't fathom what it would be like to survive or die at the hands of a nuclear disaster. We literally have the potential to turn ourselves into post-apocalyptic ruin with the press of a button.
18. Everything Changed Overnight
It makes sense from our perspective, but imagine being in the Aztec empire when Hernan Cortez arrived.
I mean, what's the plot of a generic alien movie? Foreign invaders with technology far above ours changed all life as we know it, and enslaved the few they didn't take the lives of. Yeah, that happened already.
The Aztec empire was top dog, the Roman Empire of Central America. They couldn't be stopped, they had massive cities, complex government, and economy, art, music, all of it. They were unmatched in a big way, and probably had the most luxury and opulence of any other society in the Americas.
Then a boat of 300 guys shows up, and destroy everything and everyone, almost overnight.
The empire is gone, the emperor was dead, the city destroyed, and everyone under Spanish rule. That's insane.
17. They Needed Cheap Tea
Britain once got all of China to become addicted to a certain substance just to get cheaper tea. And they needed it cheaper because they bought so much tea it was destroying their economy.
16. Domino Effect
Most amazing thing is Gavrilo Princip, the man that shot Franz Ferdinand. Gavrillo took away the life of Franz Ferdinand causing WWI. The effects of WWI on Germany lead to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, which caused WWII. This one man trying to make a point caused the two most horrific wars the world has ever seen and amassed around 80 million casualties.
15. They Were Peaceful Once
The Christmas truce in 1914. The Great War, which we know as WWI, started in August 1914, and more or less by November it had reached the trench warfare stalemate. There was a series of spontaneous ceasefires, first to allow the retrieval of the dead from the no-man's land, but later on evolving to the fraternization between the enemy sides, singing across the no-man's land, eventually exchanging gifts, and even soccer matches taking place in no-man's land. Where conversation was possible, you saw soldiers on both sides sharing their experiences and their desire for peace.
It was the reversal of the status quo, and one could say a moment of clarity.
This eventually got the military leaders worried that the soldiers would get pacifist tendencies risking order and moral in the front, and the truce had to end, and so it did return to a violent mess as usual.
By 1915 onward, the savagery of the war had left to many resentments for a repeat of the truce.
For me this is surreal. In a few days hated enemies start to sing, come across, and you have a bottom-up peace movement happening, the subversion of the ordinary order: the soldier fights, it is up to the leaders and generals to do the politics. Here, for a few days, it was the soldiers reaching a peace, and some leaders worried that the soldiers would refuse to fight, and a peace had to be agreed, with terms that were not of their choosing or liking.
14. The Fact That The Holocaust Happened
WW2— specifically the Holocaust where we, at this modern age, as an intelligent human being, systematically took away the lives six million people. The treatment of Jews, Gypsies, and the handicapped, experimentation on other human beings— a horrible series of occurrences on an almost unimaginable scale. How could an entire nation agree to this?
13. The Invention Of A Sewer System
I've always been amazed at the water supply and sewer system. I've always felt these two inventions are greatly overlooked, way after electricity.
But if you stop and think about it, I don't believe that, as a species, we would be where we are without moving water to where we want to live and also move out the sewer water (and its contents) away from us.
12. The World Didn't End During The Cuban Missile Crisis
Humanity was not ended on the night of October 28, 1962.
At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Air Force crews on Okinawa were ordered to launch 32 missiles, each carrying a large nuclear warhead. Only caution and the common sense and decisive action of the line personnel receiving those orders prevented the launches— and averted the nuclear war that most likely would have ensued.
According to John Bordne's account:
The second launch officer at that site reported to Bassett that the lieutenant had ordered his crew to proceed with the launch of its missiles! Bassett immediately ordered the other launch officer, as Bordne remembers it, "to send two airmen over with weapons and shoot the [lieutenant] if he tries to launch without [either] verbal authorization from the ‘senior officer in the field' or the upgrade to DEFCON 1 by Missile Operations Center". About 30 yards of underground tunnel separated the two Launch Control Centers.
11. The Tech That Brough Us To Space
In December of 1903, the Wright brothers made the first powered flight in history. In July of 1969, the first human set foot on the moon. These events are separated by less than 66 years, meaning that there were, for a time, a significant number of people who remembered both. In addition, Apollo 11 landed just over eight years after the first manned space flight, which itself was less than four years after the first time we managed to get something into orbit. The fact that we went from hot air balloons and gliders to exploring other celestial bodies in less than a human lifespan just boggles the mind.
Also, bonus fact: the guidance computer for the Apollo missions had a grand total of 4 Kilobytes of RAM and 72 Kilobytes of ROM, all of which was 16-bit. For reference, the original Game Boy had 8 Kilobytes of RAM, not counting the dedicated video RAM, and (depending on the cartridge) between 32 Kilobytes and 8 Megabytes of ROM.
10. The Discovery Of DNA
The discovery of DNA, which happened in my lifetime. Darwin's, On The Origin of Species, taxonomy was the best science could do at the time and was remarkably accurate. Then the breakthrough of DNA comes along and with that and computers, the taxonomy of species evolution is nailed!
And yet people hold a device in their hand that nobody would have believed even possible 20 years ago that connects everyone on earth through satellites in space. After this, people still believe some magic guy we can't see made everything and put two of all the animals on a boat....
9. The "Greek Fire" Saved Constantinople
Maybe not the MOST, but the invention and use of "Greek fire" by the Byzantine Empire. Its use saved Constantinople from falling multiple times and ensured that the Empire survived much longer than it would have without it. It was able to burn on top of the water and was used in early adaptations of a flamethrower. The composition was kept so secret that we still don't even know for certain what it was made of. It is also likely the inspiration for wildfire in Game of Thrones.
8. Working With Plants
How did we learn that certain poisonous plants become edible after preparing them in a certain way? Was there really nothing else to eat so that people starved so bad they went, "Well that guy ate this and his life ended horribly, but I'm gonna boil it and see if it's edible after".
7. One Of The Most Powerful Battles
The battle of Cannae, where Hannibal's men successfully surrounded a force more than twice their own size and proceeded to get rid of up to 80,000 men in a single day.
To give you some context for this event, this was in 216BC (I think) so technology wasn't that advanced. However, no war came close to these numbers relative to time until the Somme, some 2000 years later.
6. World War I Was Worse Than What People Thought
WW1. The things those soldiers had to endure is amazing and without the internet, no one back home really knew the entirety of how bad it was. Even the people not in combat were greatly affected by the war. Women had to take on a lot of the work, civilian air raids, etc. It must have been a scary time
5. He Could Have Changed History
In WW1, a young British soldier saw a retreating and also injured Adolf Hitler. Not only did he see Hitler retreating, but he also was directly in his line of sight. However, the young soldier couldn't pull himself to shoot the young Hitler, allowing him to retreat to safety. In that moment, history could have been changed, and with that action of the British soldier not to shoot, the fate of millions was decided.
4. No One Messed With Napoleon
Napoleon came back from exile in Elba and was met by a firing line that refused to fire on him, multiple times.
The King promptly fled France and most of Europe immediately declared war upon Napoleon's return.
Napoleon as a person is awe-inspiring and unbelievable.
3. They Ruined History
The burning of the great library of Alexandria, hundreds of years of writing and history of ancient Egypt done by the founders of language, mathematics, and science. Gone without a trace due to the Romans being absolute morons. I believe this sole event was what lead to Roman ideology taking over the world essentially.
Who knows the great wealth of knowledge and answers we could've had for many of the great questions of our past that fell under the ashes.
Sciencesource.com
2. How Would It Be Today?
The sheer amount of people who lost their lives due to the Black Plague. Imagine how society would shift if a plague today took away anywhere near that percentage of the population.
Interfoto/Alamy via independent.co.uk
1. An Unlikely President
Donald Trump.
Youtube
Customers can certainly be fickle at times, especially when they're rearing up to lodge a complaint.
To be fair, most of those complaints are valid. They're paying customers, so they deserve to get what they paid for and we all get that.
But sometimes a customer is either looking for a handout or is genuinely out of their mind. If you've ever worked in the service industry, whether in a restaurant, in retail, or any job where customers are involved, you probably have some crazy stories of your own about unreasonable or outright ludicrous complaints.
Here are some customer complaints that prove beyond a doubt that the customer is not always right. Some of these people are definitely in their own special little world. You'll see!
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62. Little Italy
Had a customer come in and start rattling off something angrily in a language I didn't understand for a good few minutes. When my only response was a dumbfounded stare, she exclaimed, furiously: "UGH! You don't speak Italian!"! And then stormed out of the store.
I live in Florida.
61. Hot food is hot!
Working at fast food, this guy comes up to the counter and slams down his hamburger. "This food is too hot!!"!
Wait one minute you idiot. I'm guessing this is his inner monologue:
"I am very important. Way more important than the likes of you. While you are making minimum wage because you're too stupid to do anything with your life, I am literally paid over $60 an hour. Well over $120k a year. You with me so far? Good. This pay literally means a minute of my time wasted is a dollar wasted. And here you are, expecting me to essentially spend an extra dollar, because your incapable self isn't able to understand the temperature I want my food, and ESPECIALLY after the fact that I already gave you MY MONEY to get this garbage you probably eat every day".
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60. Can we keep this concert quiet?
I worked at a concert venue.
I was always careful that our venue isn't loud enough to cause hearing damage for either the performers or the audience, having a few decibel readers throughout the venue. Sure, you can have it loud, but at some point you're just hurting people and the sound isn't any better.
I had this one lady come in, saying that she just had ear surgery, and that she wanted me to keep it WAY down. She said that she could experience permanent damage if I didn't keep the volume down. There was a thousand people in the venue, and she wanted me to keep the noise at a conversational level. I told her to leave, and when she wouldn't, I had her escorted out. There's no way I'm getting sued by someone that stupid.
Photo by Vishnu R Nair from Pexels
59. Do you have a time machine?
I work at a movie theatre. Last week a woman complained that she was disappointed in her last visit. I asked how long ago the visit occurred. She wasn't certain, but she remembered it was when she came and watched I am Legend.
I stifled a laugh.
Pixabay
58. Turn the page
Worked at a call centre many moons ago. Customer called in and couldn't find the second page of his credit card bill.
Before I could say anything, he went on a rant about how he hadn't gotten the second page for months. When he stopped to take a breath I told him to turn the statement over. He hung up.
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57. You get a new bite
If you've ever worked in food service, you'll be familiar with the customer who eats almost their whole meal before deciding they hate it and demanding another serving on the house.
One time, when I was working at an unnamed fast food chain, this dude left literally one bite of their burger and complained to my manager. My manager remade it for him and then cut off a piece the same size and only gave the customer that piece. The kind of stuff I dream about doing.
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56. Grow a pear
I used to work in the produce department.
Guy comes in and picks a pear off the shelf. Takes a huge bite in front of me.
I tell him he can't do that. He says he'll ask the cashier to ring up the core. I say it's by the pound so you seriously can't do that. He gets angry and proclaims, "In my country this food is all free"!
I tell him he can go back there if he wants that but still can't eat the pear for free in this country.
So he just storms off.
He was busted for shoplifting.
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55. Literally grow up
Some of our clients get sent a survey after a meeting with us in order to gauge our customer service skills. I had a guy give me 10s in everything including "was your request completed to the level you expected"? Guy gives me a 7 in his overall rating (which significantly dragged my overall percentage down) because "this request should have been handled by someone older".
Screw me for being in my 20s and being good at what I do.
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54. I shouldn't have to pay for electricity
I worked in a call centre for an electricity company and once got this incredible call.
"Can you see the debt on my account"?
"Yes, it's currently at $2500"
"I know that, I've had a payment plan for over a year now; it was originally $5k".
"OK, so how may I help you"?
"Can you just wipe the rest of it off"?
"You want me to write off $2500 that you owe us? I'm sorry but I can't do that".
"This is ridiculous! You can clearly see that I've been paying it off"!
"Do you mean that you want to pay off the remainder in one lump sum"?
"NO! I don't see why I should have to pay the remainder at all!
"!
"Umm... because you used $5000 of electricity and we gave you the option of a payment plan or a card meter to pay off you debt".
"You don't get it do you?! I can clearly afford to pay you back as I've been doing it for the past year".
"I'm sorry but I don't see the problem here"?
"Look, I can afford to make the payments but I don't see why I should, can't you just accept the fact that I can afford to pay and we'll forget the whole thing"?
"OK, let me get this right. You used $5000 of electricity, have paid back half of it, and now think that you don't have to pay the other half because we are trying to make some kind of point"?
"Exactly"!
"Let me get my manager for you..".
My manager ended up passing it to her manager after another hour of this. I never did find out what happened in the end!
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53. Maybe a biiiiiit of an overreaction
I work at a restaurant that is known for selling all local products (protein, dairy, produce, etc). and we even get our plates and such from local flea markets.
Well I was waiting on a table about a month ago and they ordered a few appetizers.
I brought them some plates and about 10 minutes later they got up and said they needed to leave (without any of their food). It was weird, but sometimes people have emergencies and need to leave... whatever.
The next day my manager gets a call and they complained that the plates I gave them didn't match. NONE of our plates match, that's kind of our gimmick. But instead of asking me for new plates or asking why they didn't match, they were literally so weirded out by the unmatching plates that they got up, left, and called to complain the next day.
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52. The cursed toaster
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay
51. The butterfly effect
Image by mbll from Pixabay
50. The locker room seems like the best place for that
49. No Deals Wanted
At a large shoe store the other day, I overheard an old lady asking an associate if they had a particular slipper in the "non-clearance" area. The old lady had found slippers she liked on clearance, but couldn't find anything like them that weren't discounted. The associate was genuinely confused, and asked if she was trying to use a coupon or something. The old lady got indignant and proclaimed "I don't use coupons and I DON'T buy things on clearance"!
Unsplash
48. The opposite of a golden ticket
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47. Can't teach if they don't want to learn
Pixabay
46. You're on not-so-candid camera
45. Any Brakes Will Do
While working at advance auto, I had a customer come in demanding a set of brake pads. I asked what he drove, he replied, "Doesn't matter, brake pads are brake pads". I said they are vehicle specific. I was than asked if I was stupid and told to stop trying to rip him off. Being the helpful human I am, I obliged his request. Walked down the isle containing hundreds of different brake pads, particular to your vehicle.
Selected a random box, sold random pads to customer.
Two hours later, he attempts to return them stating they don't fit. I refuse the return stating " I cannot return used items". They we're covered in oil and what have you.
44. Out Of Date
We had a customer try to get me fired because I wouldn't provide him an installer and a software key for a software version we no longer supported (all he had was an old box), because I knew for a fact it wouldn't work in his situation anyway. It wouldn't work with either his OS or his hardware. It was so old that the whole software line had been discontinued for years, and this wasn't even the version we had discontinued then, it was one we discontinued and replaced with a major update years before that.
I explained repeatedly that we didn't even have a way to generate keys for that anymore and it simply would not do what he was wanting. It wasn't a policy, we could do whatever to make customers happy, but it was completely pointless - it wouldn't work with what he had, and there was no way to make it work.
I knew the software had essentially no utility in any modern scenario. We had ended support because the software basically had no modern use at all.
Keep in mind this product was less than $30 new, and that was a long time ago, before dollar apps and tons of inexpensive software anywhere. He also said that he had bought the product second-hand and never even had a key to begin with. He just had an old box. Not even a disc.
He screamed at me, called back and got someone else, and lied about what I'd said, said I'd sworn at him and abused him, called me every bad name in the book, and basically demanded that I be fired, he gets the software, etc. or he'd sue us and defame us online. It finally got to the company owner (whose office is in earshot of mine, so he knows damn well I don't abuse customers). The company owner is also head developer so he agreed to go back and generate a serial number for the guy and send him an old installer. As he was doing this, he repeatedly explained that it wouldn't work on his system, but we were doing this to appease him.
The whole time, the guy is going, "It's about the principle, I paid for it, I want it! I demand I have it"! et cetera.
The guy held him on the line without explanation, then started to freak out because -- as we had promised -- it didn't work. The owner said, "That's what I told you would happen". The guy demanded to know how the company compensate him for this huge injustice and waste of his personal time, et cetera, demanded that we MAKE it work no matter the cost, just for him, and the owner said "You got exactly what you asked for, a product that we told you from the first time you spoke to wouldn't work for you anymore. It is too old to work on your new system, but we spent our time getting it to you anyway, because you insisted you have it. Now you do. That's all we are doing. Goodbye".
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43. Take A Tumble
At McDonalds I had a customer who ordered a meal for his family (like a £30 order) to eat in. I began gathering the food and soon I had completed the order. I asked if he wanted help carrying the food over to the table and, offended, he scowled at me and said that he was perfectly capable of carrying a couple of trays.
Upon picking up two trays of food and drink, one in each hand, he stumbled and dropped his entire order to the floor. The man demanded that I re-complete his order or refund him on the grounds that the trays were over-crowded and too heavy. I refused. The fool then pointed his finger at my face and said, "You give me my food or I'll knock your freaking head off". When I apologetically refused him again he called his family to follow him and kicked the door open (of which hit another employee entering the building having taken a park out) and stormed out, loudly saying "What a joke".
42. Cook Your Chicken Before Eating It
One time an older woman returned chicken wings to my store because she said they were "undercooked". I asked to see the package she bought them in and she handed me a package from our meat department. I said, "Ma'am, these are from the meat department, they're raw"! To which she replied, "Oh my, I tried eating a few of them hoping that it was just that part of the wing". I felt really bad and gave her extra money back. Hope she's doing alright.
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41. It's All In Her Head
I used to work at a coffee shop.
A lady ordered a mocha and I forgot to add the mocha syrup. It was a dumb mistake so I fixed it, of course. She put it back on the bar a couple minutes later and said, "It doesn't taste right. I want a new one". Okay, I thought, don't know what else I can do, but sure, I'll make a new one. I get started on it and she goes to the restroom. She gets back from the restroom before I'm done making it but sees her old drink on the bar that I hadn't taken back yet and thinks it's her new one. She looks at and says, "Ah, it looks better already"! takes a big drink and says, "Now see, that's perfect," then leaves before I can tell her I didn't do a thing.
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40. Stop Smiling Already
I was working the night shift at my dad's diner because the busboy got hit by a car. Towards the end of my shift, an older lady complained that my smile was creeping her out, made me call the manager (my dad), and demanded a different busboy forcing him to clean the table (it was only me, him, and the waiter). That was by far the strangest complaint I ever received.
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39. Caught Red-Handed
I was managing a restaurant years ago, and a woman came in complaining that her three prime rib dinners she got from take-out last night, with baked potatoes, etc. were disgusting and made her whole family sick.
The hostess called me over. I verified what she said. Then had to inform her that we have never sold prime rib, or baked potatoes, and I was calling the police.
Never seen someone run that fast in my life.
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38. The Case Of The Missing Logic
Working at a hardware store, I overheard my manager and a little old lady's conversation an aisle over.
Manager: "Can I help you, ma'am"?
Lady: "I hope so, you're all out of my size of air filter"!
Manager:" Which size was that, ma'am"?
Lady: "10x20".
Manager: "Let me see here". Manager looks around the shelf. "Here you go". Hands the lady a 20"x10" air filter.
Lady: "I said I need 10"x20""!
Manager keeps quiet, takes back air filter, holds it out in front of him, rotates it 90 degrees, and hands it back to her with a grin.
Lady leaves in silence, with the 20"x10".
Image by 2694568 from Pixabay
37. Have You Ever Heard Of Manufacturing Stains?
A woman bought a white shirt. She then spilled red soda onto the shirt.
To fix the stain, she used a detergent pen. She rubbed so hard it tore a hole in the fabric. Her husband tried to return it after they stained it and tore the garment, claiming that it must have been a manufacturing problem. No sir, that's not how it works.
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36. The Trials Of Tardiness
I once managed the front desk of a recreational center, and this one parent yelled at me for a class starting without their kid.
They were 15 minutes late.
35. That's Not How It Works, Lady
When I worked at a movie theater, a woman came up demanding a refund for her movie because the person next to her farted. Once.
But it was "really bad".
Of course she had to finish the entire movie before voicing her complaint.
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34. Tax Money Going To Use
I work at a library.
A patron comes in and knocks books off the shelves.
Turns to me and says, "PICK THEM UP! I PAY YOUR SALARY"!
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33. Goldilocks Syndrome
We ran out of medium-sized fountain drink cups at the place I work at, so we were giving out large ones instead for the price of a medium. A lady flipped out and demanded that she get the drink for free since it wasn't the size that she wanted.
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32. But I Didn't Order Mushrooms
I work in a burger joint. One particular evening, I had a table of college kids, pretty standard for a Friday night. Anyway, I take their order. Very simple. Single no tomato, double with cheese add pickle, large fry, a few shakes. Lastly, a blonde girl orders one of our specialty burgers, the "Portobello and Swiss". A while later, I get the food dropped off, and when I'm checking back on them, the blonde, visibly upset, is demanding a different sandwich. I ask if there's something wrong, and she tells me her burger has mushrooms on it.
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31. Pumping Gas Isn't As Easy As It Looks
A woman managed to spill gasoline all over herself at the gas station I worked at and demanded we pay for new clothing.
30. The World Is Out To Get Her
I work in the frozen department of a grocery store, and one time a customer came up to me and asked me where the premade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were, which we had recently moved an aisle over. I showed her where they were and told her we recently moved them, and she just flew off on a rant about how we, as a store, had for some reason decided to specifically target her and were moving around all of the things she comes in to buy and she really doesn't appreciate turning her trip to buy these pre-made sandwiches into a HORRIBLE SCAVENGER HUNT.
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29. Expectations Versus Reality
Server here.
My favorite was when a man sent back his salad two milliseconds after I set it in front of him because he "wasn't expecting it to look like that".
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28. Wrong Store
I was a manager at a retail pharmacy. I had a customer complain and file a report that we didn't carry Walmart brand items.
I thought they were maybe confused, pointed out they were in a CVS (which looks NOTHING like a Walmart, but whatever). But he kept arguing that the customer is always right and we should carry Great Value items.
27. Little-Known Fact About Ice Cream: It Melts
I worked at a local ice cream store in high school and we always had some pretentious customers. One summer afternoon, a lady came up to me and showed me that her ice cream had melted and wanted another one free of charge.
I gave her another one, but this time I made it sugar free. She had it coming.
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26. Diabetic Except For Donuts
I used to work at a cafe when I was in college. We had a guy come in once very angry because we messed up his coffee when he came through the drive-thru. Instead of sweetener, we added sugar. This wouldn't have been a huge issue to fix and generally people are level-headed and realize that mistakes do happen.
However, he was throwing a hissy fit claiming he's a diabetic and that spoonful of sugar would have surely finished him had he ingested more than one gulp of the coffee.
Because he was freaking out like a rabid dog, my manager stepped in and offered him any other item on the menu for free because he wouldn't accept just a redo of the coffee. Buddy decides he wants a dozen donuts. No problem. I pack up the dozen, hand it to him. He then proceeds to eat not one, not two, but THREE lard-sugar-fat glazed donuts in front of my eyeballs even though he just claimed he was severely diabetic. Smacking my head.
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25. Foot In Mouth
I used to work as a bank teller. People who poorly managed their money were always coming into the branch to have fees reversed. You know the type of person -- someone who never takes responsibility for anything. Everything that happens to them is someone else's fault.
Anyway, one guy in particular was always overdrafting his account. He always had some story of how he was wronged and that the overdraft wasn't his fault. One day he came in wanting to have 10+ overdraft fees reversed. All the transactions were for online poker websites.
He said: "None of those transactions are mine. This is fraud! I don't even gamble online!!"!
I said: "Sir, you are wearing a PokerStars t-shirt".
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24. All Atheists Should Be Fired
I worked a 9.5-hour shift on a very very busy overnight at the convenience store. Morning finally arrives, I clock out, grab my keys and head to my car (across the parking lot). I still have my name tag on. An older woman comes up to me and asks me if I'd like to go to church with her. I politely decline, and tell her my wife was waiting for me at home.
She then asks what church I go to (which is not an altogether uncommon question in the South). I tell her that I prefer not to give out information about my life outside of work (even to my coworkers). I then said goodbye and thanked her for her offer (it takes me a bit to get out of customer service mode, which is a bit irritating) and went home.
Three weeks later, at my one-on-one meeting with my manager, he tells me that someone complained to corporate about me, asked if I remembered a customer inviting me to church, and handed me the complaint (which I still have hanging on my fridge);
"Dear [Company],
"I want to express my concern regarding one of your employees. He works Saturday overnight at [Location], and his name tag said [Name].
On August 26, as he was leaving, I met him in the parking lot, and invited him to come with me to church. While he was polite enough, he declined, and then refused to answer me when I asked him which church he attended. It is clear to me that he is an atheist, and I must ask that he be fired. It is a terrible thing to be giving non-believers jobs, when there are plenty of good Christian-folk who do not have them.
"Thank you for your time".
I looked up from reading it, and even my manager was shaking his head at it. The response from my company was something along the lines of offering her a gift card, apologizing for the inconvenience, and dancing around the issue that they could not fire me for not going to church with a customer. My manager's response, "Good job at being called polite in a complaint, and remember not to do that thing again".
"What thing"?
"I have no idea".
Still the most ludicrous complaint I've ever received.
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23. 50 + 50 = Free?
I manage a women's clothing store. We had a big sale one day, offering 50% off everything, which was very unusual. Throughout the store, we placed black signs that said:
"50% off your entire purchase". To signify the clearance section, we used red signs that said 50% off. I had a woman come up the register with arm-loads of clothes. I proceeded to ring her up and give her total, which was ridiculously low for the amount of clothing she was getting (think $50 top reduced to $14.99, plus another 50%). So I finished ringing everything up and gave the woman her total, and she's looking at me dumbfounded. "No, you made a mistake. The clearance items are free". At first I thought she was joking with me, but no... she wanted two discounts of 50% each on all the marked-down stuff. Her logic? The signs are different colors... I should get both colors.
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22. A Library Card Is Not A Form Of Payment
I own a bookstore. A guy came up to the counter with books and gave me his library card. I said, "We're a bookstore, not a library". He yelled, "What am I paying taxes for"?
Clearly, not the schools.
Photo by Filipe Sabino from Pexels
21. When In Canada
I live in Canada. I had a lady pay me in U.S. currency, which was no problem because the exchange rate was pretty much even. But when I gave her Canadian change back, she absolutely lost it.
After I told her I only had Canadian currency in the till, she literally started jumping up and down and screamed, "I hate Canada" like a 5-year-old girl. I was so stunned all I could reply was, "I really like Canada"?
Image by HeatherPaque from Pixabay
20. Humor Over Prejudice
I was standing in line at the gas station and I overheard a woman yelling "I'm an American, I demand to be rung up by an American". The guy ringing her up took off his Kufi and tried his best to sound like a redneck. She threw her things down and stormed off. I have made it a point to give that gas station repeat business because that was one of the funniest things I've seen go down in a while.
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19. Horseproof Cups
A woman comes through the drive-through lane and orders stuff. One of the things is a large diet drink. She pulls around to the window and I look over to see she is driving a full-size van with a live miniature horse in the back. I hand her the diet and she gives it to the horse. I'm thinking, okay that's weird.
I turn away to make sure her order is ready. I turn back around and she is livid. I ask her what's wrong, and she screams at me and throws a broken cup at me.
She tells me off, ranting about how horrible our cups were. Apparently, the horse broke the cup and it spilled everywhere. I'm like really, you gave it to a FREAKING HORSE. What did you think was gonna happen? The cup even had dirt and hay on it when I got it back.
Just one of the many messed up people I've seen during my time as a fast-food employee.
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18. Charge Before Complaining
I sold a woman a laptop. She came in a day later to return it and said it wouldn't turn on. I looked inside the box and the power cord had never been touched. I asked her if she had charged it. The clueless look on her face rearranges into a scowl. "Nobody told me you have to charge it. You can't just assume people know that".
Yes, yes I can.
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17. Ocean View Obstructed By Darkness
I work at a hotel. A guest checks into room.
"This room is supposed to have an ocean view. I can't see the ocean".
"Sir, that's because it is night time. I assure you the ocean is there".
16. Picky About Socks
Military member here. I was with my girlfriend who was sending a check at our Base Exchange, and we were just leaving the customer service lobby when an older man walked in.
He had a bundle of dress socks in hand. He walked to the counter and slammed them down, claiming that he fought Asians for his country, therefore did not want to see socks made in China/Japan/Korea etc. being sold inside of the store.
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15. Not My Job, Not My Problem
I work at a bank inside of a grocery store. The customer was very upset that they couldn't buy their toilet paper and chips at the teller window.
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14. Do The Math, Please
I once had a shareholder complain that they only got their quarterly statement every three months.
13. The Service Was Too Quick
Sub shop worker here. One time a woman complained that we made her sandwich "much too fast" and refused to eat it.
Image by peperompe from Pixabay
12. I'll Have The Cheeseburger Pizza, Please
I worked at an Italian restaurant and received a complaint that we didn't have a burger and fries option on the menu.
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11. That's Because It Is
"This cappuccino feels like it's half foam"!
10. No Internet Emailing
After I launched our new website at work, one of our clients emailed me to complain that you couldn't use the website if you didn't have internet access.
First, I'm pretty sure everything on the internet doesn't work without the internet. Also, what did he want me to do about it?
Print all 900 pages and leave it on his front porch like the freaking phone book? And if he doesn't have internet access, how the hell did he email me?
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9. Food Stamp Payment
A woman was very upset that I wouldn't accept food stamps as payment...
...for her family portraits.
Not cash benefits, straight up food stamps. Ma'am, were you planning to eat the photos?
8. Dinosaurs Went Extinct A Long Time Ago
I worked at a famous zoo for many years. I worked with guest relations for quite a few years and heard plenty of crazy complaints. But the best I heard happened just about a year before I transferred to that department, and is not unbelievable compared to the other things I have heard working there.
Basically, every now and then during summer, the zoo would have animatronic dinosaurs. You know, for kids to come and see. They had done this for years and years off and on, and honestly, it was pretty well-done animatronics. Nothing I would pay to see as an adult really, but really fun for kids.
Anyway, apparently during one of the last summers I know that they had this event, there was a lady from England who came to the guest relations window furious and demanding a refund.
As policy, they try to treat any complaint respectfully and politely, asking what the reason for the refund would be (they are much easier to give a return ticket than a flat refund).
Well, the lady didn't just want her ticket refunded. She wanted her entire trip from England to America refunded as well.
Her complaint: she came to see the dinosaurs, and they weren't real.
7. Wrong Continent
I was holidaying in Kenya in the late nineties and saw a middle-aged couple complaining loudly about something to the hotel rep. Suddenly the the rep just burst out laughing. The couple were complaining that they had been incredibly disappointed by their Safari and were demanding a refund. They had come all this way, spent all this money, and they hadn't seen a single tiger. Kenya is in Africa and tigers come from Asia.
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6. Too Quick For The Job
I once had a customer complain about me because I answered emails too fast. You see, because he got responses within just a couple of minutes every time he'd ask for tech support, he assumed it was a chat session. Even though he was, you know, emailing us, and each ticket sent an autoresponse indicating "Thanks for your email, you'll get a response in 1 business day or less, our hours are X to Y", etc. When we left for the day after sending a response to one of his messages, he was incensed, because he felt I abandoned our "chat session".
When I indicated that this was an email thread and not chat, and we can only respond during our office hours, he said I was maliciously misleading him into thinking we were chatting by intentionally responding to him too quickly (not sure why, I guess out of some perverse pleasure), and therefore we hurt his business and owed him damages when we didn't immediately respond at any time.
Fortunately, my company isn't pants-on-head stupid about this kind of thing, so I didn't have to worry about it.
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5. The Birkenstocks marathon
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4. A New Level Of Nickel And Diming
I used to work at an department store. I'm ringing up a customer and she uses her 20-percent-off any one full-price item coupon that they mailed out when you're on the mailing list (the coupon value is important here).
Next woman comes up with a two dollar thing from clearance and demands that I give her a coupon to use. I try to diffuse it with "if you sign up for the mailing list you'll get them pretty regularly". NO, she wants THAT coupon and she wants it NOW for this item.
I try to explain that I cannot rescan that coupon (or pull it out of the drawer), and she can't use it on her purchase anyway since it's for a regular-priced item, not clearance.
She loses it, starts yelling at me that she's going to get me fired, she'll have everyone in the store out of a job, she's going to have the whole operation shut down (over 40 cents, just let that be known, this is happening because I'm denying her a whopping 40 cents off her two-dollar item).
I try to explain that I can't give her the coupon, I don't have the power to, I'm just a cashier (though I was seriously tempted to just pay for the thing myself if it would make her leave). She is still losing it. Her friend is pretending she doesn't know her. My manager comes over and gives the lady the senior discount of 10 percent, knocking a whopping 20 cents off her massive purchase. She smiles smugly at me and goes "SEE, I always win". Okay lady, you just accosted a minimum wage employee over 20 cents and looked crazy to everyone in a crowded store. Yep, you're the winner here.
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3. Only Purple
I was in the return line a target and I heard a lady complaining to customer service about the color of the boxes in her 3 pack of kleenex brand tissue.
She was saying "I don't want 3 different colors. I want all purple! Why don't you package them in all one color? YOU NEED TO CHANGE THAT". She kept going on and on about it, no matter how many different ways the target employee tried to explain to her that he, nor target, is in charge of how kleenex packages their products.
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
2. Taking High Maintenance To Another Level
I used to work in a music and DVD store in the mall, and we had a tiny employee-only bathroom in the back office. It wasn't available to the public, but every once in a while you'll get someone doing the pee dance that can't make it to the public restroom 200 feet away.
There was a woman that came in and used the restroom, then DEMANDED a discount on her DVDs because, and I quote, "The soap in your bathroom made my hands smell like flowers. I HATE when my hands smell like flowers. You need to offer a citrus soap option to your customers".
I tried explaining that it wasn't a public restroom, we can choose whatever soap we'd like, and that none of this had any bearing on her DVD purchase. She didn't care.
After a half hour of this nonsense, my manager just gave her a 10% discount to get her out of the store for a whopping savings of $3.50.
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1. Counting Is Too Much Of A Chore
While working in retail, a woman who had come in the day before was furious that we had not bagged one of the items she had paid for. She claimed to have paid for four sets of boxers but only three were in the bag. We looked up her receipt on our register and saw that we only charged her for three. We even looked back at the security tape to see that she had only brought three to the register.
After giving her a call back saying that she had only purchased and paid for three, she blew up. Personal attacks, profanity, and threats were made about how we were scamming her. In 20 minutes, she came to the store with her receipt to prove that she paid for four. We counted. One, two, and three. Instead of accepting the facts, she ripped up the receipt and said that she paid for four. She started knocking down clothes on the racks on her way out and demanded her set of boxers. The owner just gave it to her and told her not to come back.
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ShutterstockMothers-in-law can be one of life's biggest blessings or worst nightmares. These women have the power to either make you feel like you're right at home or make your life a living hell. While some are sweet and always check on you, others are out there plotting your demise. And the bad thing is that you probably can't tell you have a monster on your hands until it's too late.
But the people in our stories found out- and they did it the hard way too. Their monsters-in-law offered them everything from unwanted advice to $30, 000 for grandchildren. If you think you've heard some horror stories, we're betting they were nothing like these. Here are some of the craziest things mothers-in-law have ever said.
67. MIL Experiment Went Wrong
My mother-in-law forced me to drink the soup. After six years of trying, I finally got pregnant. So my mother-in-law forced me to eat a healthy diet. "She went straight into the kitchen to prepare soup for me," saying it was good for the baby's health. A few weeks later, my belly got bigger and bigger, and my husband took me to the ER. The doctors were unable to find any clues. Suddenly, my husband's face turned red when he saw a bowl full of soup beside my table. He said, "Did mom ask if this is good for the baby's health". I replied, "Yes". My blood froze when he said, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you". I said, "Why, what happened"? She discussed with me last night that she made a mistake by trying her herbal diet plan on you, which was good for your baby but caused reactions and didn't suit your immune system, and that's the reason you're getting fat.
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66. I Called The Cops On My MIL
My MIL hated me and the feeling was mutual. She was always belittling me. One day she came to dinner, and after a few drinks she passed out. We went to the hospital and after an hour her doctor said "I called the cops, they will explain everything". While I was wondering why, my wife's face was straight, it almost seemed like she knew something. We went into her room and saw two cops guarding her. While my wife was speaking with them, my MIL secretly passed me a paper. It was written "IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN! RUN"! I didn't know what was going on, so I looked at her and whispered to her "Why"? She just pointed to her daugher. Then it dawned on me. My MIL couldn't end up in the hospital because she was drunk, she had like 3 drinks. BUT, one of the drinks was meant for me. OMG, my wife wanted to poison me. I stepped out as fast as I could and one of the cops noticed me. I told him the whole story and he knew what had to be done.
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65. A Punch and A Slap
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When my husband and I were expecting our first child, my MIL demanded that we give her a girl. I explained that there was no possible way for us to guarantee that, but throughout my entire pregnancy, she continued to badger us about how the baby better be a girl.
We did a little reveal at a family party and when we found out we were having a boy, she slapped me, punched my husband, and got rip-roaring drunk. She was so drunk; she barfed all over herself and her bathroom for hours on end.
64. She Makes Cruella Look Sweet
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My mother-in-law took me out to dinner to be told at the end of it that I had a little over a month to move out of the condo I rented from them because "they didn't want to be landlords anymore" and that I had to deal with the taxes and stuff that went with it; she proceeds to hand me a magazine with a list of places for rent.
Not unusual right?
Well, their son, my husband, died almost THREE months before this. I'm crying and she had the nerve to say that my crying made her uncomfortable. She's definitely crazy and terrible!
63. The E-mail
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My MIL wrote her son a letter a week before we got married, telling him to think very carefully about what he was doing, as he needed to be sure he was marrying someone he loved and trusted. (We had been together for six very happy years at this point! )
She later walked out of our wedding in tears, drove home (seven hours away)! without saying anything to anyone and then followed that up by emailing me saying she didn't know what my husband (her son) saw in me. I refused to have anything to do with her until she apologized to me; it was a lovely year of no contact with her at all.
62. MIL With An "F"
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I work in a tech-related field, so I wasn't surprised when one day my mother-in-law asked me for help with her phone. I noticed it was low on memory because of all the pictures on it.
It turns out she had hundreds of nude selfies she was texting to men that were not my father-in-law. I finally asked "Do you want to keep these'"?Well, she answered, "Just the ones on the couch, I think I look really good there, don't you"? I just handed her her phone back.
61. The Permanent Ex-Wife
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My mother-in-law loves my husband's ex and doesn't seem ready to acknowledge the fact that he married someone else. I don't really care that she stays in touch with her, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to respond when she tells us over dinner that his ex is single again and looking for someone special, followed by a meaningful look.
She would also call me by my husband's ex-wife's name, like always! And every time I see her at a family gathering, she would always say, "Oh are you guys still married"? Like hello?! Isn't it obvious?! Can you just please be happy for us?!
60. "I Already Have A Dog"
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Before my husband and I got married, my mother-in-law whined to my family that she was losing her only son and my aunt reminded her she wouldn't be losing anyone, but gaining a daughter. And my MIL said to my whole family, "What do I need a daughter for? I already have a dog".
Then when I was nine months pregnant with my first child, my MIL asked me to stand up and turn around. After I did, she said, "Ew, when I was pregnant you could never tell from the back". Oh really? Okay…
59. Unwanted Assistance
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My mother-in-law was staying with us and my husband just went back to work after us being in the hospital for a week after having our daughter. She continued to tell me about my husband's ex that he has a daughter with also and how she broke his heart and had maybe given him an STD (she hadn't).
She also continued to make me feel horrible about myself by saying, "I'll make you an appointment with a dermatologist to fix your breakouts". I just had a baby and I wasn't even breaking out that bad. She was commenting on losing the baby weight asap, and then continued to say rude things to our newborn like, "Hope that one day you'll be a cute baby".
58. Devil, Devil, Devil
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My son was diagnosed with ADHD. My MIL told me I must not be very smart if I think ADHD is a real thing when really it's the devil causing my son to act that way; she even said that I was poisoning him by giving him medication for it.
And that wasn't all! She also told me that I must have been on illegal substances myself while pregnant to allow the devil into my child.
57. The Gift of Giving
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My mother-in-law gave me a vegetable steamer wrapped in used Christmas paper. She proceeded to tell me, "It's not much of a gift, but as you insist on giving my poor boy frozen vegetables at least you can steam them".
And the best gift ever (Christmas) was when she gave me a pair of G-String underwear which more resembled dental floss.
This though was backed up with my sister-in-law giving a basket of edible body paints, motion lotion, and a vibrating adult toy! Wow, just wow!
56. Stop with The Questions
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When my daughter was still five months old, my mother-in-law told me, "How much do you feed this baby? Is she too fat already? Aren't you worried she'll turn out like… you"? Ugh. There is no such thing as an obese baby.
But the worst is when she told me, "Don't you think the baby needs a helmet? It seems like her head is a weird shape". And then she mentioned it over and over and over until I finally snapped and told her that the pediatrician thinks the baby's head is just fine.
55. Monster-In-Law
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My mother-in-law HATES me with a passion. She has been nothing but vicious and cruel to me at every opportunity during the 22 years I have been married to her son. She is also a self-proclaimed, born-again Christian, so full of love and all that drivel.
I'm adopted and she has always thrown that in my face. I've always heard her say things like "since nobody knows where you came from," to "you have no heritage," to "aren't you afraid of what could be wrong with your baby"? Yes, I have a real winner of a monster-in-law.
54. But, It's Our Baby!
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My mother-in-law lives with my husband and I. He and I have recently been trying to conceive (first child for both of us). We've been talking about turning the spare bedroom into a nursery, and my mother-in-law said that there was no need, as the baby would be sleeping in her room with her. I told her that no, it wouldn't.
She then became angry and said that my husband and I sleep too soundly to hear a baby crying. I said that unless she plans on breastfeeding my baby, there's no way she's keeping the baby in her room. She answered, "Fine! then I'll be the one to pick the baby's name". Um, that's not how this works!
53. An Overbearing In-Law
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The first time I realized that my mother-in-law was overbearing was when she dropped off my husband at work and then slowly drove a bit backward to watch him go safely. Then she turns to me and proudly said, "I always did this when I dropped him off at school".
The one thing that pushed me over the edge was after I had a stillbirth at 33 weeks and she told me I had to get pregnant again and that I owed her grandchildren and that it would be selfish to keep her son and not give him children.
52. She Wants It BIG!
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I was at the grocery store with my husband and his mom. In the check out line, she looks at my husband and says, "Honey, do mommy a favor and go back to the pharmacy aisle and get mommy some rubbers (the contraceptive thing)". We were on the way to her new boyfriend's house. He says, "Ugh. Alright," and starts for the aisle.
Well, when my husband was about six check-out lanes away, she yells his name (in front of many people) and he turns around. She holds her hands about 18 inches apart and yells, "The big ones"! This was a 45-year-old woman.
51. "It's Not Like We Had A Choice"
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Shortly after my engagement, I had to send my ring in to be resized because it was a little too big. My MIL asked me where my ring was and I said it was being resized because it was half a size too big. She answered, "Why make it smaller! You'll get fatter anyways and it'll fit fine"!
And a few years after, I was telling them (my husband's family) how much I appreciated them in my life and my children's lives. My MIL quite spitefully replied, "Well! It's not like we had a choice. We never had a say in who he married"!
50. Never Leave Your Children Alone With The In-Laws
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My MIL comes to stay with us for two weeks when our first baby was born. She sees my son for the first time, waits till my husband leaves the room and says, "How did you convince the doctor to let you carry this baby for so long? He's obviously four months old.
Don't worry, I won't tell my son it's not his baby".
I was like, seriously?! But not just that; while she's there, she decides completely against our wishes and doctor's orders to give him a bottle filled with whole milk and banana cereal. It's something our parents did but is no longer recommended until kids are 4-6 mos old. So since we told her not to do that; she hid the bottle under the couch so that I wouldn't find it and kept feeding him with this dirty bottle. About a week later, I notice my baby had white stuff all up inside his mouth on the inside of his cheeks. We took him to the doctor, and he told us that he has bacteria called thrush from a dirty bottle. We go home, and I freak out! She tells me, "Oh, all my kids had thrush. Just scrape it off the inside of his cheeks with a Brillo pad". Oh, God!
49. The Break-Up Contracts
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My first husband (back when he was my boyfriend) and I were given contracts by his mother (after knowing that I came from a low-income family) spelling out the financial benefits of us breaking up. If we agreed to break up and sign the contracts, he would get his college paid for and a new car and I would get $10,000.
Even after we both refused, she actually came to the house we were sharing and explained that I was an unacceptable girlfriend for her son and offered me additional money and a new contract for $20,000. Yeah. She was my mother-in-law for nine years after that.
48. She's Good At Calling Me Bad Names
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My mother-in-law was the WORST! She would call me Heather or Rachel. My name is Amber. I was with her son for six years. She called my son a mistake.
When I met her, she called me "exotic" because I have dark brown hair, light blue eyes, and olive skin. Apparently, she meant that I looked like a stripper. Not just that, she also said that I'm a gold digger, but hey, your family is not even rich, so how come?
47. "Devil's Spawn"
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My mother-in-law is crazy religious. When I told her I was planning on educating my three boys on all religions when they were old enough and let them decide if they wanted to practice whatever they chose, she called me the devil's spawn and threatened to take my kids away.
She also accused me of stealing her husband's social security check because we were receiving a mail of theirs when they first moved up here. We later found out that they never sent the check in the first place.
I'm still waiting on that apology.
46. She's Putting Words In My Mouth
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Before the wedding, it came to her attention that I'm pro-choice (my in-laws are evangelical Christians who don't believe in birth control and have 12 children) and she tried to persuade my husband to break off the engagement.
When I asked her why, her reason was that, "I believe in abortion and would kill any children we might conceive". As you can imagine my mother-in-law and I don't have much of a relationship!
45. Babies and Money Talk
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My mother-in-law is obsessed with having grand-kids and is in complete denial that my husband and I aren't planning on having any. The last time she visited, she stole one of my birth control pills.
Well, I guess she thinks that I wouldn't notice. And he's not even her only kid! He's just the only boy so his sister's kids wouldn't matter. She recently said she'd pay me $30,000 to have a kid. I say raise it to $100,000 and get back to me.
44. What A Nice Spy Cameras
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My creepy mother-in-law has security cameras all around the outside of her house, but I didn't realize she was doing surveillance inside as well until one day she said, "You keep complaining about how hot my house is".
When I looked surprised, she finished, "I was listening to your conversations through the vent". Um, creepy much?
I freaked out and would only talk to my husband in whispers outside for the rest of that trip!
43. Yearly Diet Pill Supply
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Each Christmas, the whole family (10-15 people at least, plus their guests) would get together and exchange gifts. Each year, I would get the same themed gift from her. I am overweight (just chubby), so she felt the need to emphasize it by doing things like giving me individually wrapped cans of slim fast, or a box of diet pills.
But my most favorite was, one year she gave me one of those neoprene waistband things that are supposed to make you sweat like a goat until you have a slim waist. Like, come on! Is my fat hurting you that you're that bothered by it?
42. Evil On Another Level
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My mother-in-law asked me why couldn't I be normal after having a miscarriage. She went on about how having babies was the most natural thing in the world and there clearly must be something wrong with me.
She also went around telling people she was pregnant on my wedding day. She wasn't. It was the start of menopause. She also constantly made comments about how I was fat and I should wear more make up and fix my hair.
She wasn't particularly nice to me.
41. Healing "Expert"
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My mother-in-law is super into holistic healing stuff. So one day, she grabbed me and looked deeply into my eyes and said: "Your liver is toxic, that's why your eyes are brown".
When I protested that my eyes have been brown since I was born she answered, "Then you were born with toxins and they made your eyes brown. Blue eyes are a sign of a clean liver, like mine". I then asked, "So will detoxing my liver change my eyes from brown to blue"? She grinned and said, "Exactly"! I rolled my brown eyes so hard I think I heard them hit the back of my head.
40. A Total Blabbermouth
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When we were at a family event, I started bleeding very heavily and my mother-in-law was the only person who knew we were pregnant. My husband and I just immediately left and asked her not to say a word and just say I had an emergency in my family and had to go. Instead, she threw herself on the floor in front of the entire family, and friends of, and starting crying that I was having a miscarriage.
Like we didn't even know if I was miscarrying at that point!
And we made her promise not to say anything! Then while I was miscarrying, she kept telling me I had to understand how hard it was for her so I couldn't be mad at her. It's gotten worse from there. She never apologizes for anything she's done.
39. She's "Always Right"
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My wife's mother is a horrible individual. She goes out of her way to belittle me in front of people. She does not like me and has made it very clear. It's gotten to the point now where I just stay away. I'm missing family functions and get-togethers as I hate being around her. She argues with everyone about anything and everything and she's "always right".
My son awhile back was diagnosed with cancer (years ago, he's doing amazing now). She tried to tell me that I don't feel about him like she does because she is his grandmother and I will never understand. As if we were having a who is more sad competition. I just don't know what to do anymore honestly. Talk me off a ledge.
38. "We Had The Dog Put Down"
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We knew that our dog Ruby wasn't able to see any more, and she had fatty tumors all over her, but otherwise, she was a happy dog and could tell when the family was home to visit her. She even knew me by smell and I had only been around a couple of years.
So, one Tuesday night, her mom calls about something inane and just drops it in the conversation like, "Oh! By the way, I bought some cantaloupe, and we had the dog put down". My wife was absolutely crushed. I knew she would be sad when it was the dog's time to go but what the heck? Just call drop this crap on her and leave me with an inconsolable wife. Hey thanks, Ma.
37. Thinking In Advance
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My mother-in-law abused her children verbally their entire life and when my husband and I met, he learned that it is NOT normal for your mom to treat you like you owe her for birthing you and that you are in debt to her for your life.
I gave her chances for years, but she really went too far and said she would call child protective services on us and lied so that she could take our kids away if we did not let them go sleep at her house whenever she wants. We don't even have kids. She was just planning for the future. Crazy!
36. A Moment When You Want To Melt Into The Floor
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My significant other had recently gotten separated. My now soon-to-be MIL wears hearing aids so she frequently talks really loudly. The first time I met her, she yells out, "Can I ask your girlfriend about your wife? Does she know her"?
The looks I got from other people at the restaurant made me want to melt into the floor.
Plus, we were having lunch with some of her friends from church. So much for first impressions.
35. The Mice Ate It
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My mother-in-law has a huge house with plenty of storage room, so she offered to keep my wedding dress in a spare closet for me. Years later when I had daughters, I asked if I could have it back. She informed me that the entire dress had been devoured by mice.
Apparently, the mice didn't touch any other item in the house – only my wedding dress. My sister-in-law later informed me that my mother-in-law got rid of it out of spite. I would have loved to have been able to have some of the material to share in some ways with my daughters. I would have gladly taken the dress back if she no longer wanted to store it. She could have just asked.
34. Disney Disaster
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When I got married my mother-in-law told me I had to pick a favorite cartoon character because all the women in the family had one as their ‘signature thing'. I told her I didn't really like cartoons, so she ‘assigned' me Winnie the Pooh since I have a big tummy.
Now, every year, I get Winnie the Pooh-themed gifts for my birthday and Christmas.
So far I've gotten embroidered overalls, pajama pants, numerous stuffed toys, a stamp set, wall decals, ornaments, earrings, a stencil to use to paint him on my walls, and even a gift certificate to a tattoo parlor to get the ol' bear and his honey jar inked on my skin.
33. Third Time's The Charm
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My husband was married before marrying me. His mother kept their wedding pictures on her living room walls. When asked why, her response was, "We knew her before you and she will always be a part of this family. Isn't she beautiful"? Oh, okay.
During our marriage, my mother-in-law also made sure that her son's ex-wife attended family functions where we were present as well. Needless to say, he remarried again after I divorced him. Third times the charm, right?
32. Seems A Bit Extreme
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I sat around having dinner with my husband's family one night and the father-in-law asks my husband and I if we wanted to have a child. We both said not as of the moment, to which the mother-in-law replies "But what's the point of your marriage? If you don't want children".
I then told her it was because I wanted to commit to her son and spend my life with him. I could tell she totally didn't get it.
After a few minutes of silence, she pipes up with "To be honest, if you're not going to have children, what's the point in being alive"? They're a big part of the reason we're not together anymore.
31. Rudeness Level: 1000
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My mother-in-law didn't allow me to have WiFi or data on my phone and would randomly check my phone to make sure I wasn't talking to boys or sending any nudes. Like, really? As soon as I came out, my husband knew something had happened, so he went back in and asked his mom to not cause any problems today.
When I walk back in past her, she mutters under her breath, "You sneaky brat," I whirl around to get out a "What did you just call me"? As she reaches the front door to start screaming on the front porch, "Oh screw you! I will not have you treat me like this in my son's house. I knew you would take him from me. You brat"! I yelled back, "Don't bother coming back in until you apologize". She then sat in her car for two hours refusing to speak to her son or me while telling everyone else there that day that I had started it all.
30. Just So You Know!
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When I had my daughter, my mother-in-law came to visit us in the hospital. She held my baby for a moment, handed her back to me, and said, "Just so you know, I'm a grandmother, not a baby sitter". I'm pretty sure my jaw was still on the floor when she left five minutes later.
My favorite one is – she would regularly walk around the house in just a bra and thong, even when we're visiting. Since my husband witnessed it growing up, he thought it was normal until I pointed out that it definitely isn't.
29. Am I Not Part Of The Family?
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My mother-in-law always says how cute pictures of my nieces are but never says that about my son. I know. I sound petty. But the difference in her reaction to my nieces and my child is so stark; you can't help but notice it.
This weekend she said my son has "sleepy eyes" and looks like "a cute sleepy Donald Duck". I don't know if she was saying it as a compliment, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't. She also proudly showed me a family photo album, all of the other family members are there, expect my son and me.
28. The Wedding Wrecker
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Less than 10 minutes before we were all supposed to walk down the aisle, my mother-in-law comes rushing back to tell me the toilet paper is out in the ladies' restroom and then asks me to go fill it. Sorry, MIL, I'm already wearing a big white dress.
Also, she recently flagged one of the wedding photos on Facebook as "offensive" because she "never liked how she looked in that photo"… five years after the fact. She also continually insinuates that I'm fancy and she's not good enough.
27. That's A Very Sweet of You, Thanks!
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My mother-in-law told me about how her one good friend passed away and her friend's SO remarried. I said If I were in her friend's shoes, I'd be sad cause I would feel like I was replaced because I hoped to grow old with my SO.
She then said she would hope my SO would find a nice woman to remarry so my toddler would have another "mom" to take care of her grandchild. She said it like it wasn't a big deal. It makes me want to bawl to this day.
26. Stop Talking Already
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Shortly after our wedding, my mother-in-law said, "Are you still on the pill? I hope you are, I'm too young to be a grandma"! Three years later, "Why oh why won't you give me grandchildren"?!
During pregnancy, I received so many weird tips from her and she told me, "It's your fault if something goes wrong". Two days after the baby was born, she said, "Are you sure there isn't another one in there? That belly sure is still big.
Mine went away immediately". And in general, she knows it ALL because "I've seen it on TV".
25. Excuse Me, It's OUR Wedding
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My step-MIL made me cry within the first five minutes of meeting her by instantly challenging me on why our parents were not listed on the wedding announcement. Short answer: both of us have divorced/remarried parents… for a total of eight parents. We kind of wanted OUR names to be the memorable thing on the announcement, not the list of people at the top.
Secondly, we are in our 30's and paid for our own wedding, so it's not like they threw the party. It's not hideous, but it set the tone for our relationship and I've been terrified of her since that first "chat".
24. Too Matchy-Matchy
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My mother-in-law is nice and well-meaning, but kind of crazy and unstable. When we were planning the wedding, she was obsessed with having her pantyhose match the tablecloths at the rehearsal. It didn't matter that I didn't care what color the tablecloths at the rehearsal were or even if there were tablecloths. She just kept asking me what color and I just kept telling her whatever she wanted. Eventually, I just passed it off to my wedding planner.
She also keeps giving me and my husband matching underwear, like Superman boxers for him and then Superman bikinis for me.
I have told her to please not give me underwear anymore but she just keeps doing it; I haven't even told her they are the wrong size because I never wear them. I just think it's really weird she insists on giving me underpants multiple times a year against my wishes.
23. Recycled Gifts
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I am divorced now, but my ex-MIL was a strange bird. For starters, the ex-in-laws liked shopping for gifts months or even years in advance, such that for the first several holidays with my ex, I received gifts that they had picked out for his ex-girlfriend. It didn't go so far as to have her name on the items, but they were very clearly intended for her with her favorite colors and motifs all over everything.
I guess they assumed the items were generic enough that I wouldn't know, and maybe it was my ex's fault for telling me so much about his ex-girlfriend, but I knew these were leftover gifts from his last relationship! I dutifully and diligently wrote polite thank you notes and then either sold, donated, or gave the items to my ex if he found them useful.
22. "So He Could Make Up His Mind"
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A month before our wedding, my MIL offered to pay my husband to leave the country, so that he could "really make his mind up". We didn't have any contact with her for five months after that until our son was born.
Well, suddenly she decided it was just "a lot of misunderstandings," and we should "just leave it in the past and start fresh". Funny what a baby will do to people. And just to clarify, it wasn't a shotgun wedding. We'd been engaged for three years, and got married on our 5th anniversary.
21. "I Know What I'm Doing. It's Much Better This Way"
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We asked her (mother-in-law) to feed the cat while we were on our honeymoon. We returned to discover that she had rearranged (literally moved) the furniture, pictures on the walls, kitchen cabinet, and drawer items, etc.
When I asked her why did she rearranged everything, her answer was "I know what I'm doing. It's much better this way". To clarify, she is now my FORMER in-law. And while reminiscing on this long Thanksgiving weekend, boy am I thankful for that!
20. That's So Rude, Mate!
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My in-laws are the complete opposite of myself and my family. They are brash and don't hold back. When we moved into our home and we had asked for their help. I knew something was off that day, so I was trying to be as polite as possible.
When she entered our house, the first time anyone had been in there, she yelled out from the bathroom, "Oh mate, you forgot the toilet paper, knew you'd forget something"! I walked in and let her know, "It's all good I have some in the car," Her reply: "Look, what's your problem mate? You've had the craps all day". I just shook my head and walked out, not worth the fight.
19. I Was Just Being "Dramatic"
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My husband's parents both said (when I had briefly left the room) that it was stupid how I was upset over my childhood pet dying because he was "just an animal" and that I was clearly just faking sadness to get attention and sympathy from my husband.
They clearly don't understand how hard it can be to lose a pet. I still miss that cat seven years later. I am so glad that my ex's witch of a mother (she controlled the family basically) is way out of my life. I never regret getting divorced because I don't want to be part of their family.
18. The Unwanted Designer
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My MIL did not like some of the things that were on our wedding registry. Since she changed some of it, my mom requested changes too; NOTHING on there was stuff I liked by the end. She bought similar items for her son's birthday just a couple of months before the wedding. She didn't like the couch pillows so she bought different ones. She hated the throw rug, so bought a different one of those too (that was too big for the space we had).
They had keys, so sometimes I would buy stuff only to see it replaced by things they liked more.
My husband said they had always done that, and had always bought things that were like what he asked for but cheaper or a different brand that they liked more. It was completely maddening and overstepped all the boundaries I wanted to have in my home.
17. Crazy Rich Grandma Wanna-Be
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My MIL asked my wife how much my mother makes. This was not a usual topic of conversation, so she made up an arbitrary number of $100K and told this to my MIL. Well, about a month later, my MIL came back to my wife and said: "There is no way that your MIL can make that much money". Apparently, she called my mother's place of employment and asked if anyone made more than $100K. She claims that my mom's work told her that no one makes that much money and it is supposedly impossible for her to make that much. My mother works at a university as an experienced web developer so of course there are people there that make more than $100K and there is no way someone relayed this information.
After this conversation was about finished, she finished by saying that she was glad that my mother didn't make that much because she "wanted to be the rich grandma" and it was her job to spoil the kids. That gets kind of hard when she has no money and doesn't even work!
This woman must be crazy.
16. The Ticket Trap
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My in-laws invited us to go on vacation to visit my husband's extended family on the other side of the country. We politely declined, telling them that we were planning to visit some really good friends for our vacation that year. My MIL asked if we'd made firm travel plans yet, we said no and that we were waiting for our tax return to buy the plane tickets.
Her response was, "Then there's no reason you can't go with us because we bought your tickets to fly out with us"! She legitimately thought it would be okay for us to change our vacation plans just because they'd purchased our tickets without asking us first.
15. Mom Knows Best
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My mother-in-law, I mean ex-MIL, never accepted me and told me that I was taking her baby away (my husband was 30 at that time); she even said that I was "making him" marry me.
She would also send mail to us addressed to me using my maiden name. The worst part is that my husband never defended me or made her respect me, because according to him, "his mom knows what she's doing". When we split, he went back to live with his precious mother.
14. She Managed To Convince Him, Eventually
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My ex-mother-in-law used to give me things to decorate our home with. Then she would come over when we weren't home and take them back when she wanted to redecorate her house.
But the main reason for our divorce was when I found emails where my ex-MIL was trying to convince my husband that I didn't love him and had a mental illness. It worked, eventually!
13. The Makeout Session
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My mother-in-law showed up to my wedding reception inebriated, with cans of brew hidden in her purse. She then proceeded to stumble, slur and make-out with her date for two hours until she was ushered home.
This happened in front of all my extended family, who had reservations about my husband, to begin with. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't terrible, but it was mortifying at the time.
12. No Hearts For Me
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My mother-in-law said I was ruining her son's life at one point. I think the worst thing, though, was last Christmas, when his dad, step-mom, her two sons (with one's wife and one's girlfriend there), my SO and I were there.
They gave us all cards with our names on the front, and mine was the only one without a heart around it. The new girlfriend of her son got this heartfelt message and I just got a "Merry Christmas, love x&x". I've been around the longest and I don't know why that stung so much.
I had to go to the bathroom to cry.
11. What If?
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While I never met my SO's mom because she always refused, the most memorable quote I know that came from her was after she hacked into my significant other's e-mail to discover we were spending a weekend together in New York City.
She forbid us from not only staying in the same room, but from even staying in the same hotel because, "What if your future wife gets upset because she's not the first person you spent a night in a hotel with"?
10. "Privacy" Isn't In Her Vocabulary
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My ex-mother-in-law has a problem with locks. She has a firm belief that family should never have to knock and should be allowed to arrive and walk in uninvited. We do not believe this, and she would nag us about it. So, my significant other was at her house one day and accidentally left her keys there. Luckily, I was in the house, so it didn't really matter. My SO called her mother up, asked the keys and arranged for it to be dropped off. Three days later, the keys arrive.
A week after, we're sitting playing games when our front door swings open and her family walks in. It turns out that my mother-in-law had taken my SO's keys and made copies before giving them back.
This woman doesn't seem to understand what privacy is.
9. Tolerating His Childish Behavior
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When my ex-husband was unemployed, which was often and by choice, my mother-in-law would call every single day. "Is he looking for a job today? Because he needs to be looking for a job"! Meanwhile, she would continue to enable his childish behavior by paying all of our bills and never saying anything to him directly.
During our divorce hearing, she said this about my parenting skills during her deposition, "I found evidence that she kept her child in a cage". The "cage" she's referring to was a playpen. She was clearly delusional and my favorite is something she told my ex-husband when he was a child. She told him not to go near a praying mantis because they would spit acid into his eyes. What the heck is wrong with that woman?
8. Hey You!
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My MIL insisted on being called Mrs. [X] while we were dating. As soon as we got engaged, she sat me down at her kitchen table and said, "Now, we can't have you calling me Mrs. [X] anymore. That's too formal for family. What do you want to call us"? I answered that I would be happy to call them by their first names.
She replied that "the mister and I do not do first names". I then responded that I was uncomfortable calling them "mom" and "dad".
Meanwhile, she introduced herself to my siblings and friends by her first name and never once corrected them. Annoyed by the inconsistency, I called her by her first name. She called my husband and complained I had disrespected her. When we sat down to talk it out, what I thought would be an airing of griefs and reconciliation turned into a huge, heated argument. She finally screamed at me that I needed to "respect the pecking order of the human race"! My husband got involved at one point and asked her what I should call her and she said, "[husband]'s mother'" or "hey you"! and hung up. So, "hey you," it was… until the day I got a divorce!
7. Her Son Is "Perfect"
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My former mother-in-law contributed to her son's magnified sense of self and his firm belief that he was incapable of making mistakes. When we would face certain trials in our marriage, he would turn to her for advice.
Advice that was, unfortunately, given over FaceTime conversations one room over from me. As he relayed the fight of the week, she would cut him off a few sentences in, only to reassure him that he did no wrong.
He was free from all blame. And the problems stemmed from one person — me.
6. The Peeping Tom
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At my rehearsal dinner, my mother-in-law told my mom, dad, sisters, grandma, and grandpa (I was sitting at another table) the story about how she caught me and my husband in bed.
She went into detail. I had to hear from my sister later what happened. Needless to say, I didn't talk to her at all after that.
5. The Drama Queen
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Oh, where to start? She sent a card saying she couldn't come to our wedding, then showed up two hours early. She accepted our invitation for dinner at our new house. I stayed up all night prepping and cooking. I got home from work, and find her leaving — just pulled out of the driveway as I pulled in.
After the birth of my first child, I had complications and was very weak. My husband was concerned for me, naturally so. Angry at the lack of attention directed at her, she pipes in with, "Well I had a heart attack yesterday". At her husband's funeral, she came up to me and said, "Everyone keeps telling me how good I look".
4. How Dare You?!
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I am a photography junkie, so over the course of six months, I took professional quality pictures of her sons and grandsons. I also took one of me, holding my son.
I had them printed, then framed and matted. This was part of her Christmas gift two years ago. She pulled them out of the box, and was just like, "Oh. OK".
Later on, when we were cleaning up the boxes and paper, I found the one picture with me in it stuffed into a trash bag with other refuse from the evening. Needless to say, those are the last pictures she is ever getting from me.
3. She's A Virus
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It's more of an ongoing living nightmare than a story. She moved in with us to downsize and because it made good financial sense, but then blew her nest egg on HSN and cruises. She rearranges all the dishes in the cupboard, dishwasher, and all the food in the cabinets and pantry. She answers the house phone and refuses to pass it off. She downloads viruses on the computer.
She also burns food all the time, stinking up the house and constantly setting off the smoke alarm. She clips her toenails in the living room. She parks her car in the driveway blocking the garage, so I have to ask her to move every morning. It goes on and on.
2. Laundry Time!
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It's a petty thing, but it drives me crazy still. Any time she visits, she insists on doing the laundry.
Laundry is personal to me, even if it's dirty socks, jeans or sweats. Let alone my underwear or husband's boxers.
But when I had to do laundry when she was here, I would give her a basket of black/blue/white socks for her to match up. Wow, it was like giving a kid a tub of Legos. She loved it. But she got no more of our clothes. I just could not handle her touching my personal items.
1. The Game Wrecker
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One Thanksgiving, my husband, son, mother-in-law and I started playing Monopoly. In the middle of it, my mother-in-law says she needs to do something. She doesn't say what, but she just gets up and leaves the dining room. We figure she's gone to the bathroom, so my son continues playing for her. Little did we know, she went and took a nap!
So we are playing for a few more hours, and then mother-in-law returns. She's all, "What are you all doing"?! Well, the fact that we continued to play for her while she disappeared for a couple of hours peeved her off so much that she violently shook the board — sending all the cards, money and pieces flying all over the dining room. I think we were all speechless.
It doesn't matter how sleek we may think we are, no one is safe from running into a potentially embarrassing situation. But there are different levels of awkward. On one hand, there's "I run into my boss at the supermarket" awkward. And then there's "I matched with my best friend's current boyfriend on Tinder" kind of awkward. Yikes!
So whether you accidentally sent a NSFW photo to your work group chat or you tripped and dropped your burger at McDonalds, these cringy real-life moments make us feel a bit better about our own awkwardness.
Torturous Music is in the Works
Facebook
Peter Turik, the front man for a Toronto-based metal band called Witchrot, discovered that the woman he had been in a relationship for seven years had been sleeping with the band's guitarist. Under the circumstances, Turik realized that the show could not go on, at least not for a while anyway. So, he explained why the band was going on hiatus and he didn't hold back. But there's always a silver lining like the fact that his girlfriend's affair and his guitarist's betrayal inspired him to write some serious torturous music. Yikes. Next time, hire a social media manager, man!
The Corpse in the Garbage Bag
Reddit/MahatmaBlondhi
Decorating for Halloween is crazy exciting. Unfortunately, putting everything away isn't as much fun, which is why you might still find an old set of Christmas lights under the living room table, or even a few Jack O' Lanterns hiding in the closet.
But this homeowner got a major incentive to clean up after a fake corpse Halloween decoration he left on the porch attracted the attention of authorities. Bet he'll never take this thing out for Halloween ever again!
Are You Lying to Me?
Pinterest
This woman's self-esteem came crashing to the ground after she posted a poll on social media asking whether people thought she was pretty or if they were just lying to her about her looks. Well, only 20% thought she was genuinely pretty and the other 80% claimed they were lying to her about her good looks. But she can take comfort in knowing that only 150 people voted out of 7.9 billion humans on the planet. That being said, don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to.
Son? Were You Shot?
Pinterest
If there's one thing this son will never be able to accuse his mother of is not being worried about him because she was. When she read that someone in his neighborhood had been shot dead, she immediately panicked. Oddly enough, instead of calling him, she grabbed a pack of cigarettes and started smoking like crazy while she texted and waited to see if he was okay which is all levels of cringe. In her emotional outburst, his own mom forgot how old her son was.
Showing His Family His Pokémon Collection
Reddit
This poor guy! He was so impressed with his Pokémon collection on his Nintendo Switch that he decided to share his enthusiasm with his family over Thanksgiving. But judging from the look on everyone else's faces, it's a safe bet that they weren't particularly proud of him. Can you imagine the pearl-clutching grandparents' reaction if he tells them he threw away all his money on Dogecoin?
You Texted My Dead Husband
Pinterest
No one ever gets over the loss of a loved one, especially when that loved one is a spouse. But there are moments in the grieving process where you might try to forget that the person's gone forever. Sooner or later, something will pop up and remind you of what you've lost. In this case, that reminder came in the form of a text from her dead husband's number neighbor who had no idea that he had passed away. Can you spell awkward?
Rest in Peace, Uno
Pinterest
When this guy posted a photo of a wooden box with the word Uno on it, one of his friends assumed that he was referring to the highly addictive card game of the same name. Unfortunately, he quickly learned that this guy had a dog named Uno who had passed away.
You won't find those fun multi-colored playing cards, but the poor dog's ashes. We're. Just. Speechless.
Desperately Selling Fidget Spinners
Facebook
You've seen it before! That old toy you used to play with in the '80s becomes hot and trendy again and they're suddenly worth thousands. Well, back when fidget spinners were all the rage, this person decided to buy about 6,000 of them hoping they would become a rare commodity worth millions in the future. Unfortunately, his plan failed and now he's desperately looking for a way to dig himself out of the financial hole he's in. A good rule of thumb is to never invest anything you're not willing to lose.
Gary Has 0 Friends
Pinterest
Poor Gary! Social media can be such a cruel world. As if getting no birthday wishes wasn't already bad enough, social media had to rub some salt on his wound and let him know that 0 friends cared about his birthday. But that's okay, because sometimes it's better to celebrate alone with your pets and family than to be surrounded by fake online friends.
Someone Please Fake a Birthday Party
Twitter/Texts with Threatening Auras
This woman wanted to get out of a date so badly that she came up with an elaborate plan and shared it on her private Snapchat. Unfortunately, she had no idea that her date's friend was following her and ratted her out.
She must have had a really awkward conversation with her date after this came to light and it's a safe bet that they didn't live happily ever after... at least not with each other.
Sorry, But You're Not My Type
Imgur/MeatyDogFruit
OUCH. This woman took a selfie only to realize there was a cute guy right behind her. When she realized how attractive the guy was, she took a few more photos, posted them on social media, and asked if anyone knew who the stud was. Well, the mystery man eventually got word that someone was crushing on him. Unfortunately, his response wasn't what she had been expecting. And so, this love story ended before it even began.
He Lost His Job Doing ASMR Videos
Youtube
This dude was making ASMR videos at work and eventually, it came to bite him in the rear. Now, if you've been living under a rock, you might not be familiar with ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) videos. ASMR is a relaxing sensation that starts on the scalp and moves down the body. Well, this guy posted a video claiming he was doing ASMR while working and almost got caught. A few days later, he posted a video explaining that he actually did get caught and sadly for him, it didn't even go viral.
Bummer.
No One Cared that He Was Leaving
Pinterest
This guy overestimated his importance in the lives of his co-workers, but he quickly learned that he wasn't as valuable to the team as he thought when he pulled an April Fool's joke that totally backfired. His coworkers fell for the joke, which let's face it, it wasn't much of a joke, and barely reacted to him leaving the company. Maybe this is a sign from the universe that you need to work somewhere where you're appreciated, man!
It Was the Worst Meal Ever
Pinterest
This may be the best boyfriend ever because he actually did his best to cook a decent dinner for his girlfriend. He even thought he had done a good job until a text popped up on her phone from her mom that revealed how she really felt about it. Everything would have been fine if he hadn't been watching videos on her phone when the all-too-revealing text appeared. Hopefully, his next girlfriend will appreciate his cooking.
The Loneliest Beer Pong Game Ever
Pinterest
Beer pong is a drinking game in which players throw a ping pong ball across a table with the hopes of it landing in a cup of beer on the other end. The game often consists of opposing teams of two or more players per side with about 10 cups set up in a triangle formation on both sides.
But this person shouldn't have bothered to set this game up because judging from the post, no one is coming.
Would You Like to Sell Your Baby?
Reddit/sadcringe
This may be one of the creepiest texts anyone could ever send a mother. It turns out that the anonymous texter had suffered a miscarriage. Whether that's true or not is unknown, but just thinking about getting this text sends shivers down our spine. The texter even went on to reveal that they had been stalking them on Facebook for a bit and even gave the baby a nickname. For all that is good and holy, we're going to assume this text is a bad joke.
She Wanted His Skinny Arms
Pinterest
An anonymous woman on social media posted that all she really wanted in this life "is skinny arms". So, naturally, some random guy assumed she was talking about a guy with skinny arms and he fit the description. So, he took his shirt off, took a selfie and replied to her original comment. But he was undoubtedly disappointed when she told him that she wasn't necessarily looking for skinny arms on a man but rather on herself.
The Polar Opposite of a Tinder Like
Pinterest
Generally, people swipe right when they like someone, but a super like is a feature that a Tinder user can only use once every few hours and it allows the other person to see who super liked them before matching. Unfortunately, Graham was brutally honest and explained to this woman that if there was a "polar opposite of a super like" then he would have pressed that after looking at her profile. Ouch!
Her poor, poor ego!
The Wedding That Never Happened
Imgur/OhMyYoureSexxy
This guy had the next 20 years all planned out, and within that time, he had figured out that he was going to be married by 2018. In fact, he was so sure that he set up a reminder of his wedding on his calendar but totally forgot about it. Then he remembered why he had done this but realized that he was no closer to finding his happily ever after than he was when he saved the date on his calendar.
Her Gift Was on Sale at the Salvation Army
Pinterest
This person saw a decorative glass with a swirling glitter design on the bottom that looked awfully familiar. Then she realized why that was. It turns out that she was the one that had given the glass an artistic makeover and then gifted it to a friend. But whoever said that you can't put a price tag on friendship was lying because that friend donated the glass to the Salvation Army who put a price tag on it of $1.89.
That's Just My Dad
Reddit
This woman went to see a hockey game with a handsome man sitting next to her. But there was something eerie about the photo. At least, that's what the NHL team, the Washington Capitals thought when she uploaded a photo of herself with the guy using the hashtag #CapsSocialNight.
So, the Washington Capitals commented "Great faceswap" on the woman's post. But it turns out that there was a perfectly logical explanation as to why these two looked alike.
Grubhub Driver Got Called Bruh
Pinterest
Valerie, the Grubhub driver doesn't like being called a "bruh" because she is a woman. Of course, there was no way that the guy who placed the order she delivered could have known that until it was too late. By the time he realized his mistake, there was nothing he could do to make things right with Valerie. But he'll definitely think twice before calling anyone else "bruh" ever again... I guess.
Sorry, Right Number!
Pinterest
Cole was heartbroken when he learned that Camryn, the woman he had met at a bar the night before, gave him the wrong number. At least, that's what the person that texted him told him in 2019. But a year later, the person sent Cole another text related to a group project by mistake and she identified herself as Camryn. So, it turns out that the wrong number was actually the right number. Unfortunately, she was definitely not the right person for Cole.
So Sorry for Offending You
Reddit/Bebopcanoo
Grant B had set up a reservation for two at a restaurant. Unfortunately, bad weather forced the restaurant to cancel the reservation.
And when they notified him, he lashed out with a horrible insult. But he didn't think anyone would be hurt by his words because he figured the cancellation message was nothing more than an automated message. Then he discovered he was actually chatting with a flesh and blood human on the other end.
Hold On, My Ex Just Called
Pinterest
This person was having a virtual movie night with a girl. Unfortunately, they had to hit pause on the movie because the other girl's ex called them. They figured the conversation with the ex wouldn't take too long, but 27 minutes passed and the girl never replied to their inquiry to see if everything was okay. But it's a safe bet that movie night was cancelled indefinitely.
The Speed Dating Fail
Reddit/VoidTorcher
Speed dating is a type of matchmaking process which encourages eligible bachelors and bachelorettes to meet a large number of potential partners in a short period of time. This was certainly what the event in this photo was supposed to be about, but unfortunately, no one showed up except for the poor sap that took the photo. Maybe they got the date and time mixed up.
Who Are You?
Twitter/@ladygaga
Ninja, aka Richard Tyler Blevins, is an American Twitch streamer, YouTuber and professional gamer with millions of followers. So, naturally, when singing sensation Lady Gaga asked on Twitter "What's fortnight," referring to the online game Fortnite, Ninja was more than happy to jump in and offer to explain it to her over the phone. Unfortunately, her response stung like acid on skin.
Just Retire Already
Reddit/VoidTorcher
Ryback was a former WWE star, who had been let go. Unsure of what his next move should be, Ryback decided to ask social media for help in figuring things out. So, he set up a poll on Twitter asking if he should return to WWE, go to upstart promotions AEW or Impact or retire. Well, most people voted retire. So, initially Ryback assumed trolls had hit the retire button, but he posted the poll two more times and got the same results. Awkward!
Sorry For Your Loss, Wanna Date?
Pinterest
A guy on social media commented on a woman's social media post, which was a photo of herself with her father. And he called the guy lucky for having such a beautiful girlfriend. But it turns out that the lucky guy was the girl's father who had passed away. And yet that didn't stop the embarrassed guy from taking advantage of the situation and asking her out on a date.
The Knock Knock Joke
Pinterest
Knock knock jokes are often seen as kid's jokes but there are a few adults who still use them. In most cases, the joke begins with knock knock and leads to a funny or lame pun in the end. Well, this guy may have been trying to use it to hit on a girl who seemed to enjoy it or maybe she was just being polite by typing lol.
But her boyfriend didn't seem quite as amused.
The Insecure Man
Pinterest
This woman loves to play XBox, but not by herself. Luckily, she can play in co-op mode with other players online. There's only one major snag. Her boyfriend is extremely insecure and doesn't allow her to play with other guys. And this became a problem when she had to tell an online male friend that she couldn't play with him anymore because of her jealous boyfriend. Ironically, her XBox buddy lives across the country, so her man doesn't really have anything to worry about.
The Not-Invited-To-My-Party List
Pinterest
When this guy was asked by a girl in primary school how to spell his name, he immediately got excited. Those types of questions often indicated that someone might have a crush on him. He figured it was her. Then it turns out that she was making a list for her party, except it wasn't the kind of list he wanted to be on. In fact, it was the kind of list that would make any guy at any age feel utterly gutted.
No Second Date
Pinterest
Sometimes, people go on a first date and feel that they've hit it off. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. It certainly wasn't for this couple.
Well, the guy seemed to have fun and was nice enough to reach out to his date. Sadly, all she did was nag about the fact that he was a Star Wars fan who couldn't shut up about the franchise. But at least the guy apologized for talking too much. And when he asked about the possibility of a second date, her response was more venomous than a cobra bite.
He Made the Girl Cry
Reddit
Being a teenager is tough, just ask this guy who posted on social media how a girl in class reacted when the teacher partnered her up with him on a project. Most teachers like to pair students up with people they don't often socialize with so that they'll open up and socialize with someone new. But after the way that girl reacted, it's a safe bet that these two will be lucky to complete their school project without any drama.
The Cancer Free Controversy
Twitter
One person tweeted that they were cancer free, as in the disease they had fought so hard to get rid off was finally beaten. Unfortunately, one of their followers misunderstood the illness for the zodiac sign and was awfully confused as to how on Earth someone could change their birth sign.
Luckily, they found enlightenment and apologized, but the thing about the internet is that it never lets people forget their slow moments.
The Epic Negotiation Fail
Pinterest
Everyone knows that when people say to put an offer on the table, the word table is just a figure of speech. It's too bad that this person didn't realize that when they tried haggling prices for the washer and dryer. What transpired as a result was one of the most embarrassing, forehead slap moments in negotiation history. But hopefully, they were still able to buy what they wanted at an affordable price.
She Doesn't Know Her Flags
Reddit
The cool thing about social media is that people can add little icons and emojis to their posts. For example, when Kelly wanted to show her support for Donald Trump, she posted what she thought were three American flags in front of the name "TRUMP" and three American flags after it. Unfortunately, the icons were so tiny, that she didn't realize that she had used the flag from another country by mistake. And then someone pointed out her mistake for the whole world to see.
Christian Was His Name
Twitter/@sahar_bear
There's a reason why people should avoid naming their kids after a famous religion. You just don't know when it's going to cause confusion like the time a lab partner introduced himself by saying "I'm Christian". Naturally, his lab partner assumed he was referring to his religion, so she figured she'd share that she was Muslim.
But eventually, she realized much to her embarrassment that Christian was his name.
Cop Crosses the Line
Twitter
This Twitter user asked whether someone was breaking the law if they crossed the white line at a red light. Naturally, the police noticed the tweet and responded to him by saying that yes it was a traffic offense to do this. And the user's response was epic when he posted a photo of a police van doing exactly what the police on Twitter posted that drivers shouldn't do.
The Subway Speech Impediment
Twitter/@BlackwatchPunk
This Twitter user confessed to one of the most embarrassing experiences she ever had at a Subway fast food restaurant. But it had nothing to do with spilled drinks or realizing that she had forgotten to bring her wallet. No sir! It turns out that she had a momentary speech impediment that caused her to pronounce a meatball footlong sub in the most awkward way possible.
She Hit On Her Dad By Mistake
Twitter/@baileyalexaaa
A Twitter user by the name of Alexa thought she was sending a NSFW message to her boyfriend. But as it turns out, she had sent it to the wrong man in her life—her father. Unfortunately, she didn't realize that she had done this until several hours later.
And when she went to check her phone to see why her man hadn't gotten back to her, she discovered why and had to apologize to her father for being such a naughty girl.
The Mystery of the Avocados
Twitter/@MavenofHonor.
For weeks, her friend had been very upset because he felt like he was under attack by someone in the neighborhood. There was no other way to describe what he had discovered in his yard. It seems that the attack had come in the form of avocados which a neighbor had been throwing into their property. But as it turns out, there was no disgruntled neighbor attacking him. In fact, the attack was coming from his own home.
He Passed Gas at the Gym
Reddit/wellthatsucks
It's not uncommon for people to pass gas when they're doing some form of exercise, like leg presses, at the gym. That doesn't make it any less embarrassing though, especially if a beautiful woman happens to be passing by at that exact moment. That's something that most guys hope will never happen to them. Unfortunately, it did happen to this guy, and it's a safe bet that he did not have the courage to ask that woman out afterwards.
She Forgot Her Dog
Twitter/@KlondikeBrat
Generally, when people go to the veterinarian, they remember to bring the most important thing with them—their pet. But that wasn't the case for one lady, according to this Twitter user.
It turns out that this woman got all the way to the front desk at the vet to check in and suddenly realized that she had forgotten to bring her dog with her. Hopefully, she's not as forgetful when it's time to feed her four-legged friend.
Please Keep Me Updated
Reddit
Some people thrive on bad news as long as it has nothing to do with them or someone they love. So when this person received a text about a guy named Jake who got burned in the worst place possible, this person immediately pointed out that they texted the wrong number but were interested in knowing more. And even after the texter apologized, this person kept pushing for more updates.
Strangers Celebrated Their Breakup
Twitter/Nxoyii
This guy learned the hard way that breaking up with someone should be done somewhere private like their place or their girlfriend's place. But that didn't happen. No. He decided to invite her to a fancy restaurant where he could wine and dine her before breaking her heart. But because the restaurant patrons saw her crying, they started celebrating because they thought they were happy tears.
Nice Eyes
Pinterest
This person was on a dating site where she matched with a guy named Michael. Luckily, Michael seemed like a nice guy because he started out by complimenting her on her nice eyes.
Then she fudged it all up and made it weird when she gave him a sarcastic response, apologized for it and then started dissing her own eyesight. Looks like Michael should have swiped left on this one. Oh well! Maybe next time she'll get it right.
The Library Convo Fail
Pinterest
Tripping up on words is a lot more common than people think, and it can lead to some embarrassing moments. Take this person for instance. They took their time to rehearse what they were going to tell the librarian because they had a fine that they needed to pay. And by the time they got to the counter, they messed it all up and said something so embarrassing that they overpaid and decided never to return to that library again.
His Name Was Not Steve
Twitter/@_rachjd
This Twitter user confessed that she had lived next to her neighbor for three years. She even had dinner with him and was invited to his apartment for a chat. She also thought that his name was Steve, but as it turns out, she didn't know him as well as she thought she did. But even though she messed up his name, she wasn't too far off because the guy did live with someone named Steve.
Her Boyfriend Embarrassed Her While Shopping
Twitter/@magsmathes
During a shopping trip, this woman's boyfriend decided to embarrass her by announcing loudly what he intended to do with the undies that she was looking to buy at the store. Naturally, everyone gasped in horror and the woman was admittedly very embarrassed. But then she recovered and served him with a quick witted comeback. Guess who will never try to mess with her ever again?
