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#3
The "dad" just laughs and says "Boys will be boys. I had it rougher than that, and I turned out fine. Just leave it alone."
I will fully admit that we ALL had been drinking that day. I replied "Boys will be boys?? That sounds like something a bad parent would say, to excuse the bad behavior of his bad kid."
The next three days were... interesting.
A couple of years ago, a thread appeared on the AskReddit community, the author of which, the user u/Captain_Phantasy, asked netizens: "What's one time you accidentally caused drama in your entire family?" It's not that the resulting thread went extremely viral - in fact it's quite the opposite. However, the three hundred stories told are truly worth reading.
Some of the stories we've included here could even qualify for entry into The Cringe Hall of Fame (if such a thing is ever created, of course). Sad and chuckle-worthy, ridiculous and eye-opening - these tales are here for your pure pleasure!
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I told her no because I thought it was ridiculous that she's crying for a divorce now that my uncle is just simply throwing back all the things she did to him. She cheated on my uncle *multiple* times across their whole marriage. She even slept with a male nurse *while her baby was in NICU.* She has also physically beaten him in the past.
I got a lot of backlash from my family over saying no. They were mad because they knew I had that kind of money, but I wouldn't use it to help, "blood." My aunt was related to me by blood, but my uncle not. That uncle did more for me than my aunt ever did. Still does.
Very often, the cause of such an awkward situation is some reckless action on the part of someone. For example, a text intended for one person ends up in a general chat, a direct email becomes a mass mailing, and information completely unintended for the eyes and ears of others still finds its way into their view.
A separate category of stories in our collection is when we’re clearly expected to respond in a predictable way (for example, complimenting our significant other or praising a kid), but we inadvertently say or write something completely different. And yes, sometimes we're completely unaware of our mistake.
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This is especially true when kids are the ones initiating the awkward situation. What can I say, I had something similar happen myself. When I was four or five years old, I really enjoyed a series of children's books about two friends living next door and their adventures. In one story, one boy repeatedly took the other boy's soccer b***s and lost them all.
Eventually, one of the friends straight-up asked another not to take his b***s anymore. He said it directly: "Friendship is friendship, but don't touch my b***s!" I liked that phrase - and one day, when my mom was walking with me in the park and met her colleague, he leaned over and said something like, "So, are we going to be friends, kiddo?" Now, guess what I answered with!
The most interesting thing is that I only realized the outright absurdity of the situation I had created that day years and years later. Needless to say, I never saw that guy again in my entire life.
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"Often, awkward and shameful situations in families occur precisely during major holidays, when all members of the extended family gather in one place, many of whom haven't actually seen each other for years or decades," says Maria Kryvosheeva, a psychologist and NLP coach, whom Bored Panda asked for a comment for this article.
Each of these people has their own moral and ethical guidelines and ideas about what is right and what is wrong. So, when these ideas - sometimes diametrically opposed - clash, all sorts of awkward and strange situations arise.
"However, quite paradoxically, we often remember such cases and stories much better than any moments of our own happiness or triumph. The fact is that shame can sometime evoke far more intense feelings and emotions than joy - so such feelings are better retained in our memory," Maria Kryvosheeva summarizes.
#13
I’m 32 with a full time job, paid off car, no debts outside of student loans. I don’t even have a credit card. All my bills are paid on time every time.
But I MOVED. Therefore I am the worst person in the family lol.
#14
She tried to turn everyone against me and I just wanted to get my over tired and over stimulated kids home. It turned into a week long argument.
I don't go to family functions anymore.
#15
However, no matter how detailed and well-founded the explanations of why and how such stories actually happen, nothing compares to reading the tales yourself. So now, please feel free to read this collection to the very end, and maybe add your own similar tales. If, of course, you've also experienced something like this in your life - and you're not ashamed to share it online.
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My mother got pregnant after going on a date with my father. Unclear how many dates were involved and how much drinking and how much consent. It was fifty years ago and nobody's really talking. She was 25 and still living at home, very old fashioned, very Catholic family. She was an only child, born when my grandparents had given up hope and were looking to adopt, so she was everything to them.
My father was an officer in the military and then he was transferred before I was born. My grandmother wanted me to be given for adoption, so that was the plan and he was fine with it. But there was a 6-week waiting period that I was in foster care and my mother changed her mind. In the meantime, my father had met and fallen in love with his future wife. She prevented him from sending support or having any contact with me at all. Mom had to get the army involved to get child support, which was minimal.
Eventually, when I was nine, dad and his wife had some kind of marital crisis and went to marriage counseling where he recognized the right to see me and tell my younger siblings about me. Also his four sisters, etc. So I was introduced to everybody. One of the aunts said "[my sister] will always be the first grandchild as far as I'm concerned." and that's a pretty good summary for how the next 40 years went.
So pretty good, right? 50 years of drama just because I exist.
#19
I genuinely forgot how much drama that would cause.
#20
I was also friends with his little sister. I didn't think anything of it, but I told her that her drunk brother ate all my M&Ms. Their mom over heard it.
An hour later, while we were having peaceful family time on a Sunday night and watching America's Funniest Home Videos, she knocks on our door and throws the bag of M&Ms she just bought right at my dad. She said that her son would never drink. She brings her son back over and he confessed what I said was true.
Bad thing was that my brother and I were bullied on the school bus, so she had always volunteered to take us to school since her kids also went. This made my parents panic and wonder how they were going to get us to school because they both worked in the morning. Then, it escalated to my parents arguing how each one doesn't do enough for us kids.
My parents and brother turned against me because I ruined everything by "opening my mouth." That night traumatized me to the point where I'm on a dangerous level of minding my own business. This included witnessing a break-in, almost a year later, at another neighbors house and not telling anyone. Yep, got yelled for not saying anything about that too.