At birth, children are blessed with a blissful innocence that defines their lovable quality. It is this natural element to their personality that keeps them positive, studious, and morally incorruptible...
Already called bull on this? Yeah, we figured.
If there was not enough proof in everyday life that kids are not as perfect as they seem, parents of Reddit took some time to share the moment they realized that the apple fell far from the tree at birth and they, unintentionally, created a monster. These kids make Dennis the Menace look like a Precious Moments doll.
Content has been edited for clarity.
“It’s Better For Everyone If He Stays Away From Our House”
“When my sons were 12 and 13, the older one stole $600 from my wife and I. He gave the younger one half. When they were caught and everything was said and done, the younger son told us that we didn’t have the right to take ‘his’ money from him because he didn’t steal it. At the time, $600 was our bi weekly pay checks. Back then, as soon as the check was deposited, we took out cash and went to buy money orders to pay bills. Spent the rest on groceries and gas. $600 wasn’t just a large chunk to have lying around, it was everything for us to survive on for two weeks. That was when I knew.
My younger son really never stole things because he wanted to portray some other kind of life, he always seemed to steal things because he simply wanted those things for himself and felt that they should belong to him. He would also take things out of spite, such as at 17, stealing change from a young kid’s piggy bank because it wasn’t fair that he had saved that much change.
Now ages 19 and 20, the older son has long grown out of it. The younger one has never stopped stealing and lying. Before moving out, he told me that he has always resented me for locking things up and, I’m quoting him here, ‘not letting me take whatever I want from you.’ It amazes me because we raised all four of our kids the same way and the other two have always been good kids and kind hearted. Oh well.
Sadly, I’m at a point where I can’t really care anymore. I have two younger kids who I have to worry about. I’m not saying we will never reconcile, but it’s just not a priority anymore. It’s so far down on my list of priorities that I will probably never reach it. I know that probably sounds cruel to most people, but I made a choice last year to not have the negativity in our lives anymore and to not live in fear that he will snap again and get violent or live with the fear that any day that I came home everything could be missing from the house or broken.
The lack of remorse, the complete disgust he had whenever he would get caught. Like, how dare we catch him stealing? How dare we be mad about it and how dare we take the money back from him? I just couldn’t take it anymore. It took me a while to realize and admit this but my son is just not a good person at all. But he is excellent at pretending to be. We have come to terms with the fact that he is just a selfish person and it’s better for everyone if he stays away from our house.
Sometimes you’ve just got to let go and realized that you didn’t fail your child. You set them up with everything, they are the ones who failed.”
“They Have Quite Lengthy Police Records”
“I’ll try to keep this short because diving into all of what has happened that lead to us cutting contact would be a novel. When I married my husband, he already had two older children who lived with their mother. My husband and I ended up having two kids of our own. While my oldest was an infant, my step-children moved in with us and that’s when everything started.
They caused SO many problems for us. I’m talking heavy substance abuse, sneaking out, getting arrested, you name it. The older of the two called CPS twice and made up lies about me being abusive. As a new mom, the investigations were terrifying, but in the end, they found their claims to be false. The final straw of them living with us was when we caught wind of them ticking off the wrong crowd and the possibility of our home getting ‘shot up.’ Their dad sent them to live with their mother.
I’m just going to jump to when the actual cut off happened, but keep in mind we had an endless amount of horrible incidents with them over the years and we tried to help them countless times.
They were both in their 20s at this point. Essentially, we discovered they were stealing from my side of the family. They robbed my sister of her fine jewelry, and took what we totaled to be around $25,000 from three family members. Beyond that, they had an illicit substance operation going on in a family member’s summer cottage. The family member didn’t know they were even there as he lived elsewhere most of the time. When confronted by their dad, they blew up. They said some of the most hateful things I’ve ever heard, and spit in his face. That was it for us. They took advantage of people that love them very much and had no remorse for it.
The younger contacted us only once to say that she found Jesus and that I am Satan reincarnate. I’m pretty confident she was high when she left the message. I don’t know much about what has been going on in their lives, but a curious relative tried to find out and discovered they have quite lengthy police records and have spent a lot of time in jail. I know my husband worries about them, but he internalizes everything. Every time I see him staring off in the distance, I wonder if he’s thinking about them, letting it eat him up inside.“
“We Still Think She’s The One That Mutilated The Neighbor’s Cat”
“I have three kids: two daughters and one son. They’re all adults. I got married at 20 and we had them one after another. For years, my wife and I blamed ourselves about how my youngest girl turned out. Being so young, right out of community college, I wasn’t making a lot, so I did the best I could. But we wonder if it was nutrition or the crap hole we stayed in or something that made her be born with severe borderline personality disorder.
We didn’t know what it was at first. She was really difficult. We tried our best to raise her well. By the time we figured out what was wrong with her, she had set in really bad behaviors. We still think she’s the one that mutilated the neighbor’s cat but can’t prove it. As of two years ago, she refused to take her medications, was sleeping around with whoever would shoot her up with smack, stealing money, and generally being really difficult.
We told her to leave and never comeback. We tried to get her into a state mental place, but it wasn’t an option. So, we just closed our doors and moved shortly after. I honestly don’t know what happened to her since. I tell people I only have two kids. My wife is devastated, but I’m just relieved.”
“My Children Refuse To Grow Up”
“My children, ages 36 and 38 respectively, refuse to grow up and still think sleeping on sleeping bags on a living room floor in friends’ houses is neat. They came around to visit as long as I was feeding them, doing their laundry, and giving them spending money, but refused to live with me because it meant getting a job.
I finally cut the proverbial apron strings and said, ‘No more money. If you’re hungry, I’ll feed you. If you’re sick, I’ll get you medicine. If your clothes are dirty, you can wash them here. If you need a shower, you can take it here, but I will NOT give you any more “spending” money.’
I haven’t seen them in 10 years.”
“We Had Two Cop Cars And Three Chemical Units In Our Driveway”
“Our 16-year-old son has been a nightmare for the past months: not coming home, leaving in middle of nights, smoking weed, getting into fights, and drinking. Perhaps normal behavior for some teens, but not how my wife or I were raised, nor how he was brought up. He nearly broke my wife and I emotionally, but now we are stronger for it and just generally over his crap. Our united front is that we will not cover for him and he needs to face the consequences of his actions. I digress…
We had been doing regular clean-ups of his bedroom and checks for weed because we absolutely will not have that in our house with two younger children in the household. A couple of weeks ago my wife found a recipe copied word for word from the internet for ‘shake and bake.’ You can Google it, but it’s basically a recipe on how to make home made crystal.
Subsequent to finding that, there are two hidden Coke bottles in his cupboard with froth on top and bubbling. My wife called me up at work frantic. I said, ‘OK, let’s not overreact. Let me check it out when I get home and we’ll take action from there.’ We did some research on the internet on crystal in meantime.
I got home around 7 pm. After one look, I was on the phone to police, given that if it was crystal, it was highly volatile and could explode. They arrived within 10 minutes. They call their sergeant. He was there in five minutes. Mind you, our son has been coming home around 11 pm, so we had some time before we needed to deal with him. So, we had two cop cars in our driveway. They called for advice from a chemical unit who could not be there for a couple of hours. We put our younger kids in our upstairs bedroom, away from teenage son’s bedroom.
Ten o’clock rolled around. The chemical unit arrived in multiple vehicles. By then, we had two cop cars in our driveway, three chemical units in our driveway (we are on large property), and another two on the nature strip. They were still setting up when our son called to say he was at train station. It was a reverse call in which if he talks quickly, he can leave a quick message (just meant for name) without us needing to accept the call and be charged. So, we know he’s waiting for us to pick him up, but we had not spoken with him. The cops asked if we wanted us or them to pick him up. We said he would probably just run if we said he had to go to police station, so we told them to send a unit around to get him and take him to police station. In the meantime, the chemical unit dude came into house and was horrified we still had children inside and told us to evacuate immediately.
The unit called to say they had arrested our son and he was at the police station, so I went to police station to attend an interview with him. I got a chance to speak to him beforehand (yelling was pointless after seven months of crap), and calmly told him what the situation was and that the penalties for what has been found are extreme and that he needed to tell the police the truth. He insisted that the bottles were homemade adult beverages made from yeast sugar and water. We went through the interview. Police said he wasn’t being held and could go home. It was then 12:30 pm He agreed to come home.
We got home and my wife told me the chemical unit confirmed it was a home made adult beverage and they had left. She cried tears of relief. We spoke with our son and explained that, due to finding a recipe for crystal and the high volatility for it to explode, we had to get cops to investigate. He said his concoction was only two days old and we laughed over how his first of this experiment was a disaster. We explained the seriousness of crystal and we think he may have understood. We went to bed at 2 am and slept peacefully, knowing that our son did not have a crystal lab in his room… this time around anyway.”
He Thought His Son Turned Over A New Leaf
“I had my son early, around 17. The girl I had him with moved away before I met him. Five years later, I got sued for child support. So, I paid and decided to try to take some care of this child.
Fast forward to him in high school. I never got to spend more than the summers with him, due to him living so far away and the fact that his mom is a jerk. I found out that he hasn’t been to school in literally years. So much so that he hadn’t graduated grade 9. Things started to go wrong in my life, too. My ex-wife decided to leave me for some woman and my son showed up at my doorstep saying that his mom kicked him out. I told him that he had to go to school if he was going to live with me.
He finally agreed and I started finding out how terrible his mom did for him in school. He was labeled as severely learning disabled, schizophrenic, and was prescribed anti-psychotics, which I had never seen him take. It turns out he told his mom that he was ‘seeing things’ and after she took him to every doctor in the city (the first few couldn’t find anything wrong with him) she finally got a few diagnoses.
I took him to my doctors and found out that he was playing along so that the school would give him an easier time. I got the school to give him a chance and he finally started honors english, math, etc. and, to everyone’s surprise (except me), he passed with high grades. So much so that he was accepted into college with a minimal of effort.
Figuring he turned over a new leaf, I decided to buy him a car, put a couple of months rent down on his own apartment, and give him a couple thousand dollars to help with tuition, not to mention that I bought him a laptop, a bunch of dishes, pots and pans, etc. He looked so proud when he moved in, and I remember beaming all the way home after helping him move in the week before school started. I saw him for the next couple of weekends to ensure that he was transitioning to his new place well enough. Although he seemed a bit lonely at times, he seemed to be adjusting quite well.
Two weeks after school started, I got a call from the school telling me that my refund was processed. I immediately called my son. Much to my surprise, his cell phone was cut off, even though I was the one who paid for it. I went to his apartment to see if everything was OK and the superintendent told me he moved out the previous week.
I haven’t heard from him since, but, through the grape vine, I found out that a friend of his won a legal battle and got a few hundred thousand dollars, so they pooled ‘their’ money to become ‘big time dealers.’ I have no idea where he is now. I haven’t heard from him. His mom hasn’t. His grandparents haven’t. Nobody has.”
“Ever Seen The Movie ‘Overboard’? Those Are My Kids”
“Have you ever seen the movie Overboard? Those are my kids.
My 4-year-old daughter, my perfect angel, got upset with my wife and bit her. She then said, ‘Mom… you taste like bacon.’
My youngest son constantly torments his older brother and then tries to get him in trouble after he gets annoyed and yells at him.
My second oldest son recently told his teacher that he was being abused because I grounded him from the Xbox One for a week. That was fun. I had just gotten off of a graveyard shift and was about to go to sleep when I got the call. My wife and I had to meet with the school principal, counselor, nurse, and resource officer. We explained the situation and they agreed that it was not abuse, but they still had to report the allegation. We immediately drove over to Health and Welfare to talk to CPS about it. The lady told us that these types of allegations are becoming more common because parents are grounding children from their cell phones and other technologies.
When my oldest son (17) was 8, he destroyed my Warhammer 40k Space Marine army (est $2,000). I boxed everything up and put it in storage. The destruction of my army was horrendous. I may get back into 40k one day, but I just don’t feel that I could keep my army safe with my kids around.
A couple of weeks ago, he got into an argument with my wife because she asked him to put his phone down and to take the trash out. He raised his voice and said that she was being stupid. He then threw his phone on the kitchen table, where it bounced up and hit my wife in the face, breaking her glasses. She started crying and he mumbled something under his breath and stormed off. He did apologize to her once I got home from work, but I’m not entirely sure how sincere the apology was. I don’t believe that he meant to hurt her. What got me angry was him just storming out afterwards.
He has lost his phone and his video games for a month. I explained to him that I have no objections to deleting his Xbox account and all of his saved games if he doesn’t stop his attitude and just accept the punishment. He messed up, he needs to deal with the consequences. His mom wouldn’t let me take them away for any longer. She says that all teenagers go through this phase. I went through it, but only one incident ever occurred between my mother and I. I got heated and called her stupid. The next moment, I was picking myself up off the floor because my grandfather hit me… hard.
I don’t believe that violence against a child or a teenager is ever the answer, but, at that moment… I fully understood my grandfather. It took a lot to hold myself in check.
I really hope that he gets over his angst. He’s been moody and extremely abrupt with us for several months now. He’s been kicked out of two online high schools this year because he chooses not to do the work. His counselor suggested that we take him to a school for troubled teens, but I’m still on the fence about it. It seems a bit harsh to me.”
“I Would Never Tell My Husband He Cannot See His Son, But His Son Is Never Allowed Around My Children”
“My stepson is a mess. My husband and his ex-wife divorced when my stepson was 18 months old and the mom had done whatever she could to cut the dad completely out of his life until he was 8, when she showed up at our door with him in tow and his bags. She said she couldn’t handle him anymore. All he would do was fight with his siblings. So, if we didn’t take him, then she was going to take him to the children’s home. Of course, my husband was excited to finally spend time with his son and he would get to bond with his little half-brother, who was 4 at the time, and stepsister, who was 10.
It became apparent very quickly that my stepson had been fed lie after lie about his dad. He would gleefully share very detailed stories about the ‘abuse’ that he remembered that he and his mom suffered at the hands of my husband. He was in therapy, but really started escalating dangerous behaviors. My daughter would wake up in the middle of the night with him standing over her saying, ‘Next time, you’ll never wake up,’ so we put a lock on her door, which he broke through with ease. We put a deadbolt on her door. He broke the door frame trying to get to her.
His little brother would walk by and he would kick him as hard as he could. He bit him until he would draw blood. The last straw for me was when he barricaded himself in his room with his little brother. I could hear my son screaming. When I finally got in, my stepson was touching him. That for me was the last straw. He needed more help that what his therapist or we could do for him. The next day, child services was contacted and he was removed from our home.
A few weeks later, CPS gave us pages and pages of psychological evaluations that his mom had on him – pages of her blaming his dad for each of his issues, lies that he had beat and touched him inappropriately. Although, there were statements from doctors that had clearly outlined that the mom and her family had some seriously undiagnosed mental issues. There was so much information that would have been helpful before he came to live with us. I would never tell my husband that he cannot see his son, but his son is never allowed around my children. I made that promise to them both and I hate that my husband is in the middle. But, for our safety, I’ve cut off any contact with my stepson.
He’s almost 12 now; he went back to mom’s house. I worked with the social worker to find him a place in a residential program, but his mom refused to sign off on it, saying we were exaggerating. Since then he has been put in week long residential treatment programs where all they do is put him on medications, and don’t address what his real issues are.
I still feel guilty, like we should have done more, but I couldn’t help but feel it was only going to get worse. My son is doing great. It took awhile to get him back to ‘normal,’ but he doesn’t really remember everything. If it does come up, we answer questions honestly, but are also quick to remind him that we promised he won’t have to see him again, and we mean it. For now, it works for him.
It took everyone awhile to readjust, but they’re resilient. I still feel guilty about ‘abandoning’ this child, but his needs far exceeded our abilities and I hate to think how far he would have gone if we had kept in in our home thinking therapy would eventually help.”
“I Miss My Grandchildren, But I Don’t Miss Their Mother”
“My husband’s oldest daughter is not part of our lives at this point. We basically discovered that everything she ever said was a lie.
She got involved with a younger guy who’s a real derelict. He’s horrible to her and her daughters. She called the police on him, kicked him out, said she was never going to see him again. We made it clear that he would not be allowed around us or the other kids for any reason.
She said she was pregnant. His dad blasts them on Facebook for being idiots, pointing out what an irresponsible mother she already is. She went on a rant about how she pays her bills and takes care of her girls. The whole time, I thought, I paid your gas so it wouldn’t get shut off, I am apparently the only one attempting to feed your kids something other than marshmallows, and I’m the only one that ever expects them to behave. Not to mention the million times I’ve cleaned caked on dirt from their feet or necks because she won’t bathe them properly.
She had a miscarriage the next day and wanted some kind of sympathy, even though she had been hoping for a miscarriage until her biological mom convinced her that she needed another grandbaby.
Anyway, a day or two later, she asked for a ride. I asked who/when/where? She wanted us to give her abusive ex that had already moved back in with her a ride to the store. Heck no. We reminded her that were were not doing anything for him ever and pointed out that it was pretty disrespectful of our wishes to try to force him on us. She threw a tantrum. He threw a tantrum. They told us get over it or don’t speak to her and the grandbabies again. I told her I was not having that abusive piece of crap around her siblings. She can either respect that or move on without us.
She chose the abuser. We’ve run into them driving around town a few times. The guy will literally hang out the window of the car screaming, making faces, and flipping us off every time. They act like they’re still 12. I miss my grandchildren, but I don’t miss their mother.
My grandchildren have a father who is working on getting them. It’ll take time, but he knows he has our full support. Grandparents do not and should not automatically have rights. Without substantial evidence of abuse or neglect, family services will not do anything. They can’t remove children from a home just because grandma said so. And when it comes right down to it, money greases the wheels and the dad’s the only one with money to spare.”
She Really Deserved Coal In Her Stocking
“At Christmas a few years ago, I took my 5-year-old to all the relatives’ houses to visit and get a few gifts they had for her. When we got to the last house, she looked at the blanket and cookies my grandma made for her and said, ‘OMG IS THIS IT? Is this EVERYTHING? Ugh!’ She freaking threw her crap on the floor. Jerk.
All of her gifts stayed in my trunk until my dad made me take em out that next summer.
She got to keep the pretend microscope, the rest went to Goodwill. She still surprises me with how cold she can be. I used to blame myself but, I don’t know now.”
“I Still Love Her But Have Done All I Can”
“My daughter refused to leave her second husband who would get wasted and try to kill her. Once, when one of my granddaughters (who happened to be six months pregnant) tried to intervene, he knocked her to the floor. He picked up my daughter by her neck and slammed her head so hard against the wall, it left a hole.
Last time, he pulled out a loaded weapon and pointed it toward my other granddaughter who was trying to get my daughter away from him. He had already shot a hole in the tile in the master bathroom. He was also bullying my 15-year-old grandson on a daily basis. We now have custody of the kiddos. But every time the phone rings, our anxiety hits the roof as we fear that will be the call to say my daughter is dead.
Background: we took her and her first husband in when he wouldn’t work on a regular basis because they had no food, no money, and were being evicted. Once, the first hubby stole my mother’s wedding rings. When I asked him where they were, he said he taken them to a jeweler to be sized for my daughter. I went to the jeweler. Nope, no rings. No record of the rings. I confronted the son-in-law and he finally admitted he pawned them.
Another time, he stole my ATM card out of my purse and helped himself to $300. I had to get the video from the bank to prove to him that he was busted. This was while they lived with us. He pretended he got paid for a job. Once he said he had gotten a job. He didn’t. He left everyday and went who knows where till 6 pm.
All of that through their seven evictions – paid for movers storage and brought them back to our house to live. Oh, and we bailed him out of jail four times. I have bailed my daughter out of jail three times and she was in the mental hospital three times for suicide attempts. My daughter finally left him – Yay! – only to hook up with another abuser.
I still love her, but have done all I can.”