Some parents think the world should revolve around them and their kids. Newsflash: that's never the case.
People on Reddit and Quora reveal the time they stood up to an entitled parent. Content has been edited for clarity.
She Tried To Play It Off
“I’m really into cycling and have been for many years. I bought my dream bike, a Cervelo Caledonia 5 with Dura Ace Di2 electronic gear shifters. This bike cost me almost $11,000.
A couple of months ago, I heard of an event running around 50 miles away where a company were launching a few of their new bikes. I decided to spin over and have a look just out of interest, and set off. It was a great ride over and when I arrived, there were a few other riders I knew and we set off looking round the bikes on show. I locked my bike onto one of the rocks and took one of the newly launched bikes out for a quick circuit, had a chat with the tech guy from the company and then unlocked my bike. Cue the Entitled Mom (EM) and her entitled spotty teenager.
EM: ‘Hello, can my son have his turn on that bike now?’
Me: ‘What?’
EM: ‘Yes, you’ve had your time on it and my son wants his ride on it, he really likes it.’
Me: ‘Sorry, he can’t ride this, perhaps look at some bikes the company have brought.’
EM: ‘No, we saw you have your ride on this bike now he wants a turn. You can’t monopolize the bikes.’
Her son then made a grab for my bike and pulled it from my hands and tried to ride off. Now, his first mistake was not realizing that I have very specific lipless pedals and without the correct cleats, you’re not going to get far. Second, I had left the bike in a very high gear, it’s a café stop thing, it’s almost impossible to set off quickly and is one of my ruses to help avoid a snatch and grab theft of the bike.
I grabbed the little git and pulled him off my bike and just stopped it falling to the floor. One of the team running the demo came over to see what was going on and EM went off in true form.
EM: ‘This man has just pushed my kid off your bike when it was my kid’s turn to ride it. I want my son to have his ride on this bike now!’
Bike guy: ‘This isn’t one of our bikes, our bikes are all over there, this is the visitor’s bike park area.’
EM: ‘Why is he riding this bike then?’
Me: ‘Because I’m the one who owns this bike.’
You could see the cogs turning as she realized what was going on. The fake smile broke out.
EM: ‘Oh, I’m really sorry, I thought it was one of the demo bikes.’
I pointed to the manufacturers flags all round the demo session, and I pointed to the name on my bike.
Me: ‘Does this look like it was made by the company running this session?’
EM (Playing dumb): ‘I’m sorry, I really didn’t realize. It’s a nice bike though and my son is thinking of buying one, can he try yours out?’
Me: ‘I very much doubt he would be buying one of these, but I’m going to need your contact information.’
EM: ‘Why?’
Me: ‘Well your son, supported by you, snatched a bike worth $11,000 out of my hands and tried to ride off on it. I’m going to need to know who to send the repair bill to for any damage he caused.’
She went white. Then tried to argue that there was nothing on the bike that could cost that much. The bike guy from the company assured here that there certainly was. We called a PCSO who was at the event over and explained everything that had happened. He obtained the EM’s contact details and passed them to me. I told her I would be in touch later and then had a ride back home. No damage was done to the bike, but I did sting her for a full service at my local bike shop.”
He Put Her In Her Place
“My mother, sister, and I had wanted to go to a non-specific water park today. We went, and my sister took her baby girl (two and a half years old) with her because she is a stay-at-home mom, and a very good mom at that. However, this day was more of a relaxing day for my mother and my sister. Honestly, they deserved it. They hadn’t gotten any for a while. I was going to spend most of my day in the lazy river anyway. Also, I take care of Katy (fake name) sometimes, so it wouldn’t be too much for me because I’ve done days before and it wasn’t much considering how many times I’ve watched after her beforehand. After most of the day had gone, she expectedly got tired and we still had about an hour left and since the trees covered all of the walking paths, I decided to put her in the wagon we brought specifically for her because we expected her to get tired before we really decided to leave. I started to walk around with her in the wagon and she eventually fell asleep.
This lady with the thickest fake tan I have ever seen in person was walking along the path with her little boy, who was no older than seven, and I assumed she would just walk past me. However, she stopped in her tracks and lowered her too-big-for-her-own-head sunglasses to look me up and down. Me, being an awkward 16-year-old boy, stopped in my tracks too and I looked at her with a slightly scared look on my face, and at that moment I realized that I made a mistake even stopping to acknowledge her. I remembered all-too-late that Karens can sense fear in their victims.
Woman: ‘So. How old are ya?’
Me: ‘Sixteen. Why?’
Woman: ‘What kind of examples do you think you’re setting for the kids here?’
Me, being completely oblivious to what she meant and giving more attitude than I meant to: ‘I beg your pardon?’
The woman, I am assuming, was only taken aback because I used one of her common lines against her, with as much disrespect that she gives when delivering it: ‘Excuse me?!’
I realized at that moment what she meant. At that point, I was just looking to get out of the situation and I started to walk with Katy, who at this point was almost awake because that situation lasted about as long as a stand-off in a western movie. I heard her loud steps behind me and I started to walk faster and faster to the point it was almost a run, which Katy took no notice to. Until, however I ended up slipping and falling to the ground, onto my face and I didn’t get up very quickly.
As I got up but I realized, in awe, she was attempting to take MY baby niece, not really mumbling about how she could do better than all these early parents. Before she really got her hands under Katy’s arms, I shoved her off, knocking herto the ground, which didn’t disturb Katy much. I screamed at the lady, so intensely that I started to cry, which unfortunately did disturb Katy’s sleep.
‘How could you ever put your hands on someone else’s child, regardless of how old their parents are?! I hope your child doesn’t grow up to be as horrible as you! I know I am not even half as old as you are, but I would be three times the parent you will ever be!’ I roared at her.
Once the ringing in my ears faded and I actually was able to acknowledge the fact Katy was waking up and started to cry, I readjusted her little pillow and started to walk off from her, to not be followed by the lady any further. I resisted the urge to look back, but I imagine her being flabbergasted and walking off with her son in such a huff that she walked too fast for him to keep up.
Katy got to have the rest of her nap.”
Not Part Of A Life Guard’s Job
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“At the last place where I was a lifeguard, they offered birthday parties there, including pool time.
You get one hour of pool time. Now, the kicker is, if you’re supposed to be down there at the pool at 1:00…time starts at 1:00 regardless if you’re there or not. If you get there at 1:30, well, you’ve wasted half your swim time.
So this party gets down there, and the kid is turning five or six. So, they all stay in the baby pool.
Now at this particular facility, it’s a one-guard pool, which is so unsafe. However, with a birthday party, there’s a second guard.
So I’ve got one guard watching the lap swimmers and I’m watching the little ones (while still scanning the lappers). There were about six to ten kids in the baby pool, all aged five to about seven.
Directly next to the baby pool, there were several pool noodles that we allow the kids to play with. Most of the kids were next to the steps leading into the pool, which was about two steps from the pool.
I was on the other side of the baby pool (about six-ten feet from the stairs), standing where the shallow water of the baby pool becomes deeper in case any of the little ones went too far.
There was one adult with this party who was standing across from me, but on the same end of the baby pool, I was.
She looked at me and goes, ‘Can you get my kids the noodles?’
Now again, they are literally two steps away from the noodles once they get out. I look over there, look at the kids and lappers and glance back at her (continuous scanning) and say, ‘No, but they can get them.’
‘Why can’t you get them?’ Very attitudinal…
Now, one thing to know about me; I don’t give two flying ducks who anyone thinks they are. I do not and will not let someone disrespect me, but since I was at work, I attempted to hold back.
I say, ‘Ma’am if they want to play with the noodles, they can grab them. They’re right there.’
‘Well, I want you to get them!’ She yelled this. My other guards, who knows me well enough and had seen me not back down from horrible customers, turned and looked over at me.
I smiled in an irritated sort of way, and I said,'”Ma’am. I’m a lifeguard. I’m here to make sure these kids and everyone else here stays alive. I am not a toy distribution center. If they want to play with the noodles, they can get out of the pool and get them themselves. I have bigger responsibilities to tend to.’
At this point, they’d been in the pool about half an hour. And this really lit a fire under this woman’s butt because she got all huffy and made all the kids leave. All while she was screaming and cussing about how this facility is the worst, and blah blah freaking blah.
And the other guards and I enjoyed the next half an hour until they left in peaceful quiet, minus the lappers.
After that day, whenever a party came down to the pool, I put up the noodles. I wasn’t doing that nonsense again.”
A (Not-So) Reasonable Response
“So at the place where The Village People love to stay, after my guarding shift, there would be swim lessons. Which I also taught. I taught ages 6-12 in the group lessons.
Now, how the lessons work is like this: there were, at the time, eight weeks sets. They later moved to six weeks. So after the eight weeks, you have to resign up for lessons. At the resign, most kids go up to the next level of swim instruction.
Now, what sometimes happens is that when a kid misses a day somewhere in those eight weeks, the parents think that they can just stick their kid in the first new lesson to ‘make it up.’ It doesn’t work that way. If you want to make it up, you have see the instructor (me) and set up a time and date to privately make up the lesson.
Now, as an instructor, I’m not told who has paid for the lesson. I have a sheet with a roster, but they’re not accurate because we have kids signing up last minute if there are spots available.
So I don’t ask. I just teach the kids.
Well, it came out one day at this first day of a new session that these two kids (that I had had in the last session) had not signed up for the new sessions.
The kids themselves were very well-behaved kids. Very polite. Not rowdy. And very good swimmers.
When my boss explained to the mother that the kids couldn’t just hang out and get a free lesson, the mother flipped. She started screaming and cussing at my boss. The lesson had just started and there are people everywhere dropping off kids.
My boss, not one to just let people get away with nonsense, told her that that just isn’t the way it works. It’s a new session. She had to pay for the lesson(s).
The lady called the kids and they left. Well, a bit later when the lesson was over, a parent walked up to my boss and told her that someone (an adult by the size of it) had taken a poop on the floor next to the door that leads to the pool.
Yep. You guessed it. That mother took a dump in the girl’s (kids) locker room because she had to pay for swim lessons.”
No Means No, Lady
“I’ve got a pet cockatiel named Pikachu. I take him for ‘walks’ in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. I’ve got a little harness and a leash, it’s adorable, and he doesn’t seem to mind wearing it. He and I enjoy the fresh air and warm summer weather. I try to avoid crowds because he gets nervous, and when he gets nervous, he begins to fly off of my arm, being restrained only by the leash, which is wrapped around my watch for extra security.
Anyway, I was approaching Bulldog Pub one day when a woman walked up and asked me a few questions.
‘What type of bird is it?’, ‘Is it expensive to take care of?’ You know, typical questions for somebody who might aspire to own a bird one day.
Then, in this flurry of conversation, she asks me if she could have my bird. I got confused, and say no, of course. She then goes on to explain that her fifteen-year-old daughter got ‘honor roll in school this marking period, she’s always wanted a bird, etc.’
I said no, he’s mine, I’ve had him for a year. She got a frustrated look on her face, and said she’ll get the bird herself, and began digging into her purse. I began to walk away, when I noticed her coming at me with miniature scissors and, get this, begins to cut the leash. Pikachu got startled by the rapid movements and tried to fly away from the strange woman. I pushed her away, gently restrained Pikachu, and ran back to my house. She didn’t follow me, probably in the fear that I’ll call the police. Anyway, Pikachu was shaken, but he’s alright.”
Why Couldn’t He Use The Other Stations?
“I was walking out of the store after prepaying for gas. I also wanted an energy drink and had one in my hand when I walked out, but that added a whole 10 seconds to the transaction as there was no line in the store. I also usually prepay because I commonly get complacent when I only want to put a specific amount of miney in my tank and accidentally let it go way over my intended amount. I was driving a larger SUV at the time, so this was pretty easy to do. It was a day or two away from payday, so doing my best to not go negative for the week. I’m pretty sure most gas pumps in the states make you ‘see attendant’ now with debit cards they can’t temporarily hit for $100, and I didn’t have that much in my account anyway. So I would’ve needed to prepay if I didn’t want to do the ‘run as credit’ cheat. I got to my car and selected the grade I wanted to pump. I notice this guy (ED) and his son (PK) in my peripheral, waiting in their car behind me. This didn’t make sense initially as there were two other pumps open (about 12 pumps total at the station) so I thought it very weirds behavior. I quickly found out why:
ED: from his car ‘Hey! Hey!’
Me: ‘How can I help you, sir? (genuinely confused)’
ED: ‘You can’t do that. What makes you think you can go in the store and keep me waiting to get gas?’
Me: ‘What?”
PK: continuing to look down at his phone. Looked to be about early teens, maybe.
ED: feels the need to get out of his car to scream at me ‘You’ve kept me waiting while you took your sweet time in the store to get a drink. That’s incredibly rude. We’re in a hurry!’
Me: (now incredibly annoyed) ‘Look, buddy. If you’re so desperately in a hurry, there’s a pump there, and another pump there. I suggest you look into that (pointed to the 2 vacant pumps I mentioned earlier).”
ED: ‘You’re lucky I don’t call the cops! You’re holding us up. It’s ridiculous how inconsiderate you are! Typical millennial!’
Me: ‘Buddy, I had to prepay to get this gas. You were going to wait no matter what. Did you see me put a debit card into the pump when I walked up? Didn’t think so.’
PK: still looking at his phone. Didn’t focus on him much, but assumed he probably felt very uncomfortable right about now.
ED: “Forget you! You’re a piece of trash.
At this point, I was literally pushing both of my hands down and inhaling/exhaling deeply to calm myself down. I was so mad, I felt the need to walk over and put my fist in the dude’s face. I couldn’t believe how rude and inconsiderate he was (ironic, he called me inconsiderate). He clearly wasn’t in a hurry whatsoever, and just wanted to use the moment to ‘lecture’ an individual he knew nothing about.
He decided to get back in his car after calling me a human trash (might’ve recognized the ‘me getting very angry part’). PK the whole time, was still deep into the phone. ED had nothing else to say to me after that. I think it finally clicked in his pea-brain that I did indeed prepay for the gas and that he was being a complete d-bag. Once I’m done at this point, there four or five vacant pumps now and he’s still behind my car), I turn to him and hit him with one of the best petty comebacks I’ve had in recent memory.
Me: ‘You know, I’m half your age, and I’m the one telling you to grow up. Best of luck with that, sir.’
I do feel bad for PK. If that was my dad, I’d be plugged into my phone constantly too.”
She Should Have Just Let Her Have The Seat
“This happened about 2 years ago when my pregnant wife and I were going back from a hospital checkup in London. Since it was around the time work finished, the London Underground was packed, but my wife got to use the specialized chairs for disabled/pregnant. Then an Entitled Mom (EM) and EK get on.
EK was about 12 years old and was walking behind (EK stands for ’embarrassed kid,’ not entitled). His Mum looked around, saw no vacant seats, so she started bothering people to get up for her.
I was fine with this, apart from the noise, until she came to my wife.
Cast:
Me: Me, W: Wife, EM: Entitled Mother, KM: Kind Man.
EM: ‘Can I have your seat?’
W: ‘Sorry, I can’t, I’m not supposed to stand up, I might get knocked over and hurt the baby.’
EM: ‘Baby? My son deserves a seat way more than you! You are an adult! Be kind to the youth!’
W: ‘I’m pregnant! I’m not supposed to!’
EM, Obviously angry: ‘Pregnant? You aren’t pregnant! You’re just fat! Stop pretending to be pregnant and give up the seat for someone who needs it!’
Everyone in the carriage looked over, to see EM trying to pry my (heavily) pregnant wife out of the seat. Her kid was really embarrassed and tried to tell his mum that he could stand, but she wouldn’t listen. A man from the crowd stepped out.
KM: ‘Stop! You might end up harming her, and you would get arrested!’
EM:’Arrested? You can’t arrest me for trying to get my son a seat!’
The kind man tries to loosen her grip on my wife’s arm, and I tried to help, but she pushed both of us away.
KM: ‘That is enough! You are under arrest for attempted assault and attacking a police officer!’
The EM stood dumbfounded, and three stations later, she was taken off by two other police officers.”
Sir, Not Everything In Life Is Free
“Years ago, my family took a trip to Miami. The people on the trip were my mom, my brother, my dad, and me.
My dad and my brother decided to go out and get Burger King for everyone, while my mom and I checked out the beach next to the hotel. We got down to the beach and saw there were no open beach chairs. Luckily, after searching for about five minutes, we found one open beach chair, among the hundreds of used ones. We put all of our stuff on the chair and decided to go for a swim. After swimming for a bit, we noticed someone was lying on our beach chair.
We quickly got out of the water and walked over to see a man using our sunscreen, and a kid right next to him playing with my toys and drinking my Caprisun (I was about 10 or 11 at the time). My mom tried to calmly explain to the dad the things he and his kid were using were ours.
He then replied with, ‘What? No, they aren’t! These are complimentary, now run along and stop trying to steal our things.’
I’d always been shy and tried my best to avoid conversation, so in the nicest tone possible I said, ‘I’m sorry, please leave, those are our things. They aren’t complimentary.’
The dad then rudely replied, ‘Yes they are complimentary, I come here all the time. I’m good friends with the manager and if you don’t leave he will arrest you.’
I tried to reach for the toys, but the son aggressively slapped my hand, causing me to begin to cry.
EP then with a face of disgust looks us up and down and said, ‘Why are you idiots still here?’
Overall, my mom is a very kind person, but if someone is that rude she will pop off. My mom proceeded to loudly yell at them, cursing and telling them to get the heck away from her and her kids. The son (who I must mention was around 12 or 13) and the dad stared in absolute horror. They both rapidly got off of the chair as fast as they could, leaving our items behind. They sprinted as fast as they possibly could away, and we never saw them again.”
That’s A Little Extreme
“I work for my cities park’s and rec pool as a lifeguard.
This story starts after staff training. We do staff training every Friday and we have a 45-minute break so, my coworkers and I went to get food. When we got back, my manager was talking to some mother. We walked in and headed into the office to sign back in and we heard this
EM: (entitled mother) ‘What do I have to pay $5 to get into the pool? My daughter is on the swim team.’
M1: (manger 1 F) ‘everyone has to pay $5 no matter what, and the only people who don’t have to pay are our employees.’
EM: ‘Well isn’t there like a discount we can get so I don’t have to pay?’
M2: ‘Well there is a family discount but they still have to pay $5; they just get the ability to have a few events discounted. is you have a problem, my manager (the district manager who hired all of us) is in the office next to the pool.’
EM: ‘Fine.’
She leaves. A bit late,r I went to my manager to ask what ended up happening to her. Apparently, she has done this before and almost went to STATE COURT. Because they didn’t want to pay $5 they ended up being kicked out of the pool and maybe off the swim team but I don’t know.
Lesson: don’t try to sue a place where it only takes $5 to get in and not realize that that pool is supported by the county.”
The Parents Had Absolutely No Respect For The Doctor
“I (24 male) am half deaf on my left side due to a birth defect. I also have a misshaped ear due to a combination of birth defects and surgeries to repair it. When I got a bit older, I started wearing a prosthetic ear on that side to cover it up. It wasn’t perfect, but it looked better than what I originally had. Unfortunately, though, these types of prosthetics don’t last forever and have to be replaced every so often as the colors begin to fade and it tears around the edges (it is removable). I was due for a new one and was just waiting on my insurance to approve it before the prosthetist would send it to me.
I was working in a pediatric emergency room at the time and had just received an order to perform an EKG on a roughly 8-10-year-old patient. When I walked into the room and began to introduce myself to the family (mom, dad, and the patient), the mother looked up at me and gasped. I was taken aback and asked her what was wrong.
She told me, ‘Your ear is really freaking me out, is it supposed to be some kind of Halloween costume or something? It seems inappropriate for a children’s hospital.’
Mind you, it was only October second or third. I explained to her that I had a disability, for which I wear a prosthetic. She then asked me to take it off because it is making her uncomfortable. I politely declined because it’s held on by medical glue, and not so easy to take on and off.
I proceeded to do my job and perform the EKG but throughout the procedure, the father decided to repeatedly probe me for personal information.
Asking me things like, ‘Are you sure you’re qualified to do this?’ and ‘How long did you go to school before this job?’
I answered his questions, but could very obviously tell that he was insinuating I was mentally disabled and shouldn’t be working in this field.
I finished the procedure as quickly as I could and left, not saying anything to the parents, but did wish the child well. I gave the report to the bedside nurse and asked her not to call me for this patient unless they absolutely needed to. I kept my mouth shut at the time, but in retrospect, I wish I had spoken up for myself more. Some people just have no respect for those with disabilities.”