Having a good relationship with your parents is important, but for a lot of people, that just isn’t the case. Sometimes parents will do things that make you think WTF?! People share the most messed-up thing their parents ever did to them. Content has been edited for clarity.
Pet Piggy
“For as long as I can remember, my older sister and I have always wanted a dog while growing up. However, our father consistently refused as he believed we weren’t responsible enough to take care of one. After years of constant badgering and insistence though, we got the next closest thing- a little potbelly piglet. It was the cutest little piggy and had a distinctive black head with a white stripe of bristles that went down from the top of its head to its wiggly nose. We named it Sonic because it would run around the house at lightning speed- especially when my dad was trying to toilet-train her.
Sonic’s miniature size didn’t last long though. Over the months it had grown from a little piglet that we could bathe in our bathroom sink to a 4-foot pig that we kept in our patio area. Its favorite pastime would be to lounge under the dining room table and have us use her as a footrest while we gave her a belly rub with our feet.
After having her for about a year, our apartment was about to get renovated. But there was the issue of Sonic. Since we lived in a metropolitan city in Asia, my father explained that there was nowhere to keep her. But my mom, my sister, and I couldn’t bare to give Sonic away- we loved her. She was part of the family. We tried to find alternatives, one of them being a country club that would allow Sonic to stay there until the renovations of our apartment was complete. My father never signed off on the idea and the issue was ultimately unresolved.
A short while later, my mom, my sister, and I went to Sydney for two weeks to visit my mom’s side of the family. One night, my mom got a phone call from my dad. Since nobody was willing to take the pig, he decided to euthanize it. The three of us stuck in Sydney all wept. My mother was sleepless for days. It was really messed up.”
Temporary New Family
“When I was around 12 months old, my dad left my mom. I grew up not knowing about his existence. My mom never talked about him and I remember the one time I asked, it didn’t go well- my mom just got angry.
Then one day, I was 11 years old at the time, my dad called. Suddenly, he wanted me in his life. He said he loved me before he hung up. So I went to visit to get to know my dad. There was a lot more waiting for me than just him when I arrived. I found out I had three siblings I didn’t know about- two sisters and a brother.
I received a whole new family rather quickly. I got to know all of them and my dad was trying really hard to make me like him by buying me stuff and taking me places a kid my age would enjoy. I started visiting once a year because he lived on the other side of the country, but everytime I visited, I grew more attached to this new family. At the time, it was really nice.
But when I turned 18, I didn’t hear a word. Nothing. I was completely cut off and received no explanation for two years. Then he called saying he was depressed and that’s why I didn’t hear anything from him. Then he told me he loved me before he hung up. I didn’t respond because I didn’t have any expectations anymore. As I suspected I haven’t heard anything from him since.
I’ve heard from a family member on that side that he has told them his relationship with me is just fine, that he calls often etc. This honestly makes me angry and upset when I think about it. I often tried to convince myself that I didn’t have any reason to feel that way, but I can’t deny that anymore. So yeah, I think that is the worst thing my dad has ever done to me.”
Dirt Bag Dad
“My dad never went to college and worked jobs like pizza delivery on and off for a while. Mostly, he was a ‘stay at home’ dad while my mom worked the night shift as a nurse. My mom found out that he was cheating on her about 2 years ago, confronted him, and gave him another chance all without telling my younger sister or me.
She loved him a lot, and she didn’t want me or my sister to go through a divorce. She even allowed him to take a skiing trip ‘with the guys’ even though we’ve always struggled a little bit money-wise. The skiing trip was actually him going to visit the woman he had been texting and sexting with for months, and my mom found out literally a day after he had left by checking the computer history.
When he came back, my mother decided it was over. No more. But she was willing to let him live in the house, mostly in the basement, for the benefit of my sister and me, so we could still have him in our lives. He agreed and everything that had happened was made known to my sister and me and everyone was ‘okay’ with it. My dad promised he’d always be in our lives and that he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon- or that he’d stay nearby even if he moved out.
The next morning, when my mom was out shopping with my sister, and I was still asleep, he packed up his stuff in the car, took our TV and my dog, and came into my room to tell me goodbye while I was half asleep. I woke up an hour later and realized what had happened. He made it so I was the one who had to tell my mom and sister that he was gone. He moved to Arkansas with his new girlfriend and we live in Virginia- so much for staying close.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, during the months following that, I realized just the kind of person my dad was. It turned out that he actually had a really bad marijuana problem which contributed to our already existing financial struggles. He screwed over our credit, and bills, and put us in a mountain of debt.
The thing that bothers me the most is he still pretends to care about me. He even said he was going to be at my graduation even though I told him I didn’t want to see him. My mom just informed me that he never actually came and had lied to me. What a great father he is.”
“Emergency Fund”
“When I was going on a trip to Europe, my parents opened up a credit card in my name ‘for emergencies’ without me knowing. Once I got back, they never canceled it and realized they could use it without a problem. They racked up $6000 worth of debt and then didn’t pay anything for 6 months.
The collection agency found me (I was not living with them) and hounded me day and night to pay up. I opened up a police investigation and we discovered that it was indeed my mom and dad that were using the card. I had the option to charge them with identity theft and sue them for damages, but I gave them the option to pay it off before I did so. They took out a loan against their house and took care of it. However, my credit score is now complete doo doo.”