Stories are a part of our everyday lives. They can be heartwarming, funny, full of advice, among many other things. The following stories from AskReddit fit the bill on this and more.
Comments have been edited for clarity. The source can be found at the end of the article.
Reposted but a favorite of mine for sure:
A few years ago an OB patient came in to see me for her routine visit. She was 35 weeks pregnant, always really bright and happy, but was looking really down. I asked her what was wrong and she broke out into tears and said that she had spent all day Sunday cooking, cleaning, and setting up for her baby shower. She didn’t have any family in town, but had invited some friends. NO ONE showed up and no one called to let her know. Ugh. It was awful.
While sitting at lunch that day, I told my nurseand clinic manager about the patient and how sad she had been. Fast forward aweek later for her next OB visit: We booked her appointment at the lunch hour,decorated an exam room, everyone brought presents and, ignoring OSHA policy, acake too. Everyone was so excited when we brought her back! Somehow she didn’tnotice half the clinic sneaking up behind her. Finally, when my nurse openedthe exam room door and she saw her baby shower … well, there honestly wasn’ta dry eye in the house.
Miaow73
When I was around seven or eight years old, I got a brand new puppy. She was a cockapoo, but a fairly big one–white, fluffy, and extremely adorable. Her name was Clara (I was big into the Nutcracker for some reason), but my parents had taken to calling her a polar bear lately.
It occurred to me, on Christmas Eve, that polar bears live in the North Pole, and that Santa might get confused and try to steal my puppy with misplaced good intentions.
So, naturally, next to the plate of milk and cookies, I left a heartfelt letter begging Santa not to steal my puppy. Clara also had to endure a sign on her collar that said, “NOT A POLAR BEAR” in bigm kid-writing letters.
My grandfather, bless him, left me a note from Santa assuring me that Clara was safe, thanking me for the clarification. He promised he’d make a note of it for next year.
I was pleased with the results and had no further anxiety over the matter.
AlexPenname
My mom always went to bed way before my sister and I did. If we happened to be upstairs in our rooms, she would just yell, “Goodnight! I love you!” before she went to bed.
Anyway, one night she yells, “Goodnight [me] I love you! Goodnight [sister] I like you! … WAIT NO!”
She didn’t mean it, she was just very tired. And it was the best night of my life.
shannaconda
I worked front desk at a hotel awhileback. I see a mom and son walking up, screaming at each other. I take a deepbreath as I see them heading in my direction, knowing that Im about to have avery pleasant interaction.
The mom proceeds to explain to me that, while she was in theshower and her son in the bedroom, a burglar climbed in their window, tookall of the living room furniture (an armchair, an end table, and a coffeetable), and threw them off the balcony. The son, about ten, appeared like hewas going to embarrass himself out of fear.
Mind you, they were on the third floor, and the layout of the hotel was impossible to climb, had this been true. Now, considering the flaws in the sons fib, not to mention the fact that he was quite large and the furniture was not heavy, I assumed the mom knew it was actually her son that did it, and that the burglar didnt exist. I thought she was trying to teach him a lesson by taking him up front to see if he would confess. The son was still adamant about the burglar fairytale, and the mom asked to see security footage.
Im trying not to embarrassmyself in the back room explaining the situation to security, which ends upfinding the footage. I sit with mom and son to watch it. Youll never guess whodid it!
Mom looked absolutely flabbergasted that her son would this, andit finally hits me that shed believed it was a burglar after all. Now Iveseen dumb people before, but this lady had really outdone herself.
When we informed her that shed be charged for damages to thefurniture, she got angry. She kept trying to convince us that it wasnt her sonin the video, that the camera wasnt clear enough. She tried to blame us forscamming her, and tried to refuse to pay. She didnt have a case, though.
casuallyreddit
I was around three; a cute, blonde little girl who looked like an angel (according to my mother). My father had just grounded me for something and sent me to my room. Five minutes later, I showed up in the living room. My fists clenched, my face stern and angry.
My father screamed, Didnt I just send you to your room?
I didnt even reply. Just stood there, angry.
Dont make me go over there. Go to your room.
Nothing. When my father started moving in my direction, I turned around, pulled my underwear down and farted.
Turns out, my face wasnt angry. I had been concentrating on getting the gas out.
My father laughed so much I got rid of punishment.
lthomazini
Myfavorite story is how I got a job in quality assurance in a chocolate factory.
I was on time for the interview, theinterviewer was late. All the way through the standard questions, they weremildly dismissive of my answers, or would make note on how little experience Ihad (fresh out of university, only 2 years experience in the industry). As aresult, I figured I didn’t have the job, so I started messing around.
This question comes up: “Why do you wantto work here?”
My answer? “Well, when I was young Iwatched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I really wanted to grow up to be anOompa Loompa. I think this job can help me achieve my life’s goal”
I had the job offered to me thatafternoon.
3inchesshorter
People seem to like the story of how myboyfriend (now of three years) and I met.
We grew up in the same small town, went to separate schools(private versus public), but he dated someone from my high school. She was insimilar dance and drama classes as me, and we all went to the same high schoolfootball games, plays, and events. We joke I may have sat next to or near himat any of those extracurricular activities. We never once met.
We went to the same college and had thesame groups of friends to the separation of about 2 degrees. People who haveseen us together in the last three years are awestruck they never thought tointroduce us to each other. We never once met.
We worked in the same shopping center in the summer intervals betweencollege years – him, at grocery store and me, at the restaurant next door. Iwas a waitress who used to run to the grocery store when I needed lunch or wewere out of bread. He was a produce boy. We never once met.
I went through a “find myself” phase after college. I ended up finally moving back home, 3 years later, and in with one of my good college friends. He was going out one night and said, “Hey, I’m getting ready to meet my friend, Mike, at the bar. Want to join?”
We get out of the car and, of all things, tell the same joke at the same time. We look at each other and smile. We play a feisty game of Foosball and the rest is, as they say, history.
And that’s the moment, when the parallellines of life wed been dancing around, finally crossed and we looked at eachother as if to say, “Oh, hey. There you are.”
His parents currently live down the road from my sister because, of course they do. My old roommates have asked me multiple times where hesbeen all this time, and we always joke, Waiting until the absolutely rightmoment.”
butterymermaid
When I was a kid, we didn’t have a lot ofmoney. We often shopped at thrift stores. What I loved about that was that youcould get 10 books for a dollar. So, I would plant myself in front of the booksection and make piles of which ones I wanted. Then, decided which ones to getafter I’d gone through them all.
One day, an older lady saw me sitting with my piles and asked ifI liked to read. I told her I did and showed her a few of the books I foundthat I liked. She smiled and pulled a dollar out of her purse.
She handed it to me and said,”Promise me that you’ll keep reading.” I was so happy and immediatelystood up and said that I would. She smiled, walked away, and I went back to mypiles, able to pick out an extra 10 books to take home.
It was just a small act of kindness for her. But for me, havinga random stranger encourage my love of reading and making me promise to neverstop, definitely had a lot to do with my continued love of reading. This wasprobably over 20 years ago, but I still think of her whenever I buy a new book.
-eDgAR-
At one time, my boss told me his favorite characters were Thor and Wonder Woman. So, for his birthday, I got him a LARP (Live Action Role Play) Thor hammer and a bedazzling blue mini skirt.
His wife made him wear the skirt for the rest of the party.
woe2thepubliceye
This one is about my old best friend / former roommate.
He comes rushing home one day. “Dude, guess what?”
Me- “What?”
Him- “I finished reading my first book!” (He was 23 at the time.)
Me- “Hey man, that’s awesome. What book?”
Him- “Harry Potter!”
Me- “Dude, that’s a big book. I’m so proud of you!”
Him- “Yeah, audio books are awesome.”
Fongua
The time I missed a Thursday.
I just slept through it. Getting to school was confusing. Nobody told me it was Friday until like 3rd period. There was a test and I was expecting there to be another day for review…
O_Apples
I went to boarding school, and one time on Saturday this kid woke up not realizing it was the weekend. He dressed up in dress code and everything, ate breakfast early, and went to the student lounge before school wondering why everyone was wearing jeans. We just let him believe it was a dress-down Friday until he figured it out.
spaghatta111
That I was basically paralyzed in a hospital bed with a certain illness. I promised myself that if I got over it and recovered, I would try to join the Royal Marines. Usually this illness can take up to a year to recover from. I took 6 weeks. 8 months later of hard training I passed Marines selection and got in (17 of 60 of us made it).
Moldy_crumpet
A few years ago, I had to take a greyhound bus from Texas to Illinois, so about a day and a half trip. I was sitting down, and this guy in his late 40’s decided to sit with me. He smelled like donuts. That’s fine. Whatever. The first thing he says to me was something along the lines of “I’m sure you’d rather have me sit with you than some of these other weirdos. My name is (insert random name).” Okay… So he starts telling me his life story, showing me these random scars he’s gotten because he’s a welder, kept telling me I was beautiful, but constantly reassuring me he wasn’t hitting on me because he has a daughter about my age, etc.
On the second stop,about four hours into the trip, I was going crazy because he talked non-stopand I didn’t have the heart to tell him to be quiet. So I bought some medicinefrom a fellow bus passenger and took half of it to fall asleep. As I was tryingto relax, the guy offers me his MP3. I said yes because I figured, if I’mlistening to music, I won’t have to listen to him talk anymore.
The MP3 was filled withthe discography of one particular band, nothing else. It was either listen tohim talk, or listen to this band. I gave it back to him and we eventuallyparted ways in Tennessee or some other state, I forgot. He tried to hug me andsaid he was so happy to have met me even though I barely contributed to theconversations. Then he gave me a pack of cigarettes and I never saw him again.
CumquatMeBaby
When I was four, I went to the doctors for a checkup. The doctor pulled out a stethoscope and said “We’re going to listen to your heart, what do you think about that?” I proceeded to pull down my pants, showed her my penis, and asked “What do you think about that?”
cobaltcollapse
My friends and I were walking to the local grocery store, about half a mile away. We had scrounged up enough change to buy a two liter and a bag of chips and were gonna go buy some, then come back and play video games. Well, we come across an older man struggling to change his flat tire. We didnt really know what we were doing, but we were strong enough and he told us what to do. He started crying and thanked us. Somehow, someway, we ended up at the same grocery store. We were walking in and he was walking out. He handed us a $100 (5 $20s). We were so excited! There were only four of us, so we each took a $20 and spent the rest on our snacks. Remember being kind pays off.
sbashe5
Ever since dad brought a CDwith the game Half-Life 2 home (he borrowed it from a friend, so it wasn’tours) I was hooked. I was fascinated by everything related to this game.Problem was I loved it so much, I wouldn’t stop talking about it, doodling itand so on. (Forgot to mention I was 5.)
So my dad just banned the thing one day from our household. Justlike that. Claimed I was obsessed with the game. A few years later, when I was7 or 8, I saw a physical copy in a PC store while shopping around with dad. Theprice was good too so I just begged him to buy it. Fat chance.
A week later, my uncle comesto visit my grandpa. The three of us decide to go to the mall where the PC storewas, because I had a plan: I would have grandpa buy it, and then, I would playit on his computer without my parents knowing. Things were so simple when I was8.
Both of them were down with the idea, so we did just that. Wegot back from the store and I sat down to install the game, which was whenSteam asked for an internet connection. I had no idea what Steam was at thattime. And my grandpa didn’t have Internet.
A week later, my uncle comesto visit my grandpa. The three of us decide to go to the mall where the PC storewas, because I had a plan: I would have grandpa buy it, and then, I would playit on his computer without my parents knowing. Things were so simple when I was8.
Both of them were down with the idea, so we did just that. Wegot back from the store and I sat down to install the game, which was whenSteam asked for an internet connection. I had no idea what Steam was at thattime. And my grandpa didn’t have Internet.
So, being 8 and implicitly apoor liar, my parents found out about it. I had lost the receipt too, by theway, so there was no way I could return it. And then, the impossible happened. Mydad surprisingly caves in, takes the game to our house, installs it, and I getto play it as much as I want from then on.
To this day, it remains my all-time favorite video game.
dylanbyrd
I was atwork one day changing the specials when an old lady enters the store. I turn toher and ask her how I can help her, to which she replies that she was coming topick up an order that she had placed over the phone. Well, now that posed aproblem, because I was the one in charge of answering the phone and I had nothad any phone orders. Still, I asked the servers to see if maybe they hadanswered the phone while I was doing something else.
No one had,so I did what I always do in this situation: I informed her that we did nothave her order and that she likely called the wrong location. If she rememberedwhere she called, we could point her in the right direction. She didnt likethat. She began to yell about how she knew this was the right location, how wemessed up, and so on. It was so bad, my manager ran upfront to see what theproblem was. I explain to him what happened while shes still yelling about howridiculous this is. My manager tries to smooth things over, but shes STILLyelling. Then, suddenly, she stops, looks around her and says, This isnt (thechain restaurant next door), promptly turns around, and leaves.
Stormyknights64
Well, just today we had a UPS guy walk right into the window next to our office door. The funniest thing is, the same exact guy did the same exact thing yesterday. I can’t understand how he did it two days in a row, but I suspect Ill be telling that story for awhile.
TwentyNineNeiboltSt
My dad was home alone one night watching T.V.in his pajamas (underwear and tank top) when he heard a loud bang outside. He gotup to investigate, and heard another loud bang as he approached the front door.Kids were taking out all the mailboxes in our neighborhood. He looked at oursad broken mailbox laying in our front yard as the rage began to build, andthen, the car full of teens turned into a cul-de-sac. I got them, my dadmuttered with a tone of justice. I got them now.
He banked on them turningback toward our house after nailing all of the mailboxes in the cul-de-sac. Sobare feet and in his underwear, he rushed outside, picked up our mailbox, andbooked it down the street. Sure enough, the car pulled out headed toward ourhouse, only to be greeted by a 50 year old man in his underwear breathingheavy, holding a mailbox.
He chucked the mailbox withall of his might. The car hood thudded as the teens threw that white DodgeShadow in reverse, disappearing into the night forever.
My father grinned on that dark Wednesday evening, knowing that althoughhe had lost the mailbox, he had scared a teenager.
huffingtoncoast
He banked on them turningback toward our house after nailing all of the mailboxes in the cul-de-sac. Sobare feet and in his underwear, he rushed outside, picked up our mailbox, andbooked it down the street. Sure enough, the car pulled out headed toward ourhouse, only to be greeted by a 50 year old man in his underwear breathingheavy, holding a mailbox.
He chucked the mailbox withall of his might. The car hood thudded as the teens threw that white DodgeShadow in reverse, disappearing into the night forever.
My father grinned on that dark Wednesday evening, knowing that althoughhe had lost the mailbox, he had scared a teenager.
huffingtoncoast
When my sister was about 6, we went to a restaurant and got some noodles to go. My sister and I babysat the noodles while my parents paid. To prevent abandoning the noodles, my sister started saying “noodles” over and over again while pretending to be a t-Rex (we just saw Jurassic Park). Suddenly, she screamed “NOODLES,” which caused a whole restaurant to turn around and stare at her.
punkterminator
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