Ever had a thought that seems like it's the greatest idea ever? These thoughts can range, from food combos to fashion choices, everyone has had at least one of these. Although, there can be a catch. In hindsight, these ideas might not be the best ideas. Just ask these Redditors.
People on Reddit share their "it seemed like a good idea!" stores. Content has been edited for clarity.
“Dad Never Hears A Word”
“So back in the day, my brothers and I were shooting a bow and arrow behind our house.
We had a proper backstop and a nice target on a bale of hay. After about an hour we were getting bored, and one of my brothers had a stroke of genius. Light one of the arrows on fire.
So there we are wiring rags to arrows and soaking them in gas and shooting stuff. Didn’t take long and half the yard was on fire. We’d shot pretty much every flammable thing we could burn in the yard.
Since we were running short on stuff to shoot, my brother decided to launch one in a 45° arc over the woods behind the house. We all watched soar laughing and giggling.
When it hit the apex, it dawned on us that this was in fact a really stupid freaking idea.
All six of us sprinted off into the woods in the direction it’d been shot. Wasn’t hard to find, because the arrow lit an entire little meadow on fire. So we ran around stomping out fires for an hour.
When we finally got the fire put out, we were sitting by the crick, and my oldest brother looks at us all and says,’Dad never hears a word about this.'”
“What Could Go Wrong?”
“I had been installing a kitchen between Tirau and Tapapa in the mighty Waikato, New Zealand, where the house is situated in a horseshoe like curve of a beautiful clear, very cold stream, not far at all from the famed Blue Springs where our delicious Kiwi Blue water is bottled.
Around lunch time, I’d finished my install and run out of water. Being a fairly warm Autumn day, I was quite thirsty, so I wandered through a gate and down the paddock to where the stream was shallow enough for me to refill my bottle with crisp, cool natural water.
Naturally, I didn’t just fill my bottle and get away to my next job, I had a bit of a wander about and enjoyed the fantastic wee spot that I was lucky enough to be working in, when I spotted a deeper pool with a few fish. Of course I followed upstream through the blackberries, trying my best to not fall in the stream, since I couldn’t see where the edge of the bank was. A few hundred meters upstream, I came across another deep section and spied more trout, doing their fish things, except this time, they looked like a good size.
I haven’t ever eaten trout before, and contemplated whether it was possible to even catch them without a line. I had visions of grandeur along the lines of charging in like a bear at full noise and coming up victorious with a fish in hand. Any rational person would immediately discard this as a bloody stupid idea and just watch the fish, or simply carry on with their day, but not me apparently. What could go wrong?
I spied a likely looking tree hanging out over the water, kinda sturdy, with a fairly easy looking jump to get to where the fish were. Off came my boots and I dangled my feet in to check how cold again, and after deciding it wasn’t bad, I quickly stripped down to my boxers and scaled the tree and edged out to a good spot not far behind the fish. I was maybe two and a half meters above the surface of the water.
If you have ever seen a leopard launch gracefully from a branch down onto unsuspecting prey for the perfect kill, all sinew, muscle and just general lithe furry death, I can tell you with no uncertainty that that is the exact opposite of what happened.
I steadied myself, picked my spot and launched at the poor fish with outstretched arms, fully prepared for a clean catch, as can only be seen on television with the magic of special effects.
What happened in the harshness of reality is, as I leaped off the tree, the precarious purchase my wet feet had, slipped completely and I sprawled out to full stretch, somewhat like a frog that has made a complete hash of its carefully planned leap. This caused me to belly flop quite painfully into the stream that is around eleven degrees at best, which for those who haven’t been in such waters absolutely bone numbing cold, winding myself completely while being swept downstream at rapid pace as I attempted to keep my head above water to get some air into my suddenly abused lungs. Not an easy task.
I managed to get to a shallow area around fifty meters downstream, and proceeded to cough my lungs out only to realise that the only way out was though heavy blackberries and I still needed to get back upstream to where my clothes and boots were safely stashed on the bank with no hope of swimming against the current.
Much swearing and not a few scratches later I got back to my clothes, threw my boots on and trudged, dripping and shivering back to my car to dry off with a towel I had handily kept in the back. I was hoping like mad that no other trades had turned up to do any work as there would likely be questions as to why a thoroughly frozen, drenched bloke with a very pink stomach and looking like a drowned rat was making his way up the hill in his underwear and boots, with the rest of his clothes in hand, and a nice full water bottle.
I’m still not sure why I’m allowed to make my own decisions. I am in no uncertain terms, absolutely not an apex predator, and about as dangerous as a wombat with a mild case of indigestion who’s hunting ability extends as far as inhaling some unsuspecting chocolate biscuits. I may just stick to kitchens for a bit.”
“Of Course He Took This Opportunity”
“In high school, my friend discovered that he was particularly agile at running toward a wall and kicking off of it into a backflip. He would do this all day, every day, before school, at lunch, basically whenever he could.
One day, we were inside a classroom and the teacher had stepped out for a moment. Of course he took this opportunity to try his little trick. He didn’t, however, take into account the fact that drywall might not support his weight as well as the brick and concrete walls he’d tried before.
His leg ended up busting straight through the wall to the other side, into a classroom full of students taking an exam. So I wasn’t actually in the class taking the exam. To this day, I still imagine how strange and hilarious it would be to be sitting in that class then suddenly see a leg burst through the wall. Makes me smile just thinking about it.”
“Everything Went Dark”
“It was gym class, we were playing tennis and I decided to see if I could jump the tennis net with a running start. And, I did it! But no one saw.
So I did it again, and this time the gym teacher saw and shouted at me just as I was taking flight, it distracted me and totally messed me up. Caught my toe on the net, went down hard. Brushed myself off, was helped up by a girl I had never met before in another gym class that had been going on nearby. The teacher was freaked and made me go to the nurse even though I insisted I was fine.
Made it halfway down the path back to the school, everything went dark and I came to 10 minutes later in a wheelchair being pushed by my science teacher. New girl tagged along to ‘make sure I got to the nurse alright this time.’
Naturally, nobody ever believed that I had cleared the darn thing on my first attempt.
Scored myself a broken radial head in my elbow, a sprained wrist, a bruised hip bone, a minor concussion and a new girlfriend.”
“Young, Dumb, Bored As Heck”
“When I was a teenager, my brother, cousin, and a couple of friends and I decided to try to steal a coke vending machine. We were going to tip it over into the back of a Ford Ranger pick up and take off. I was thinking, Well we’ll just put it in our garage and have plenty of soda and will refill it (We had one of those keys for them).
It was two in the morning, and were were all wasted. This was mid 90s mind you, and way out in the country. There was a little store with the machine. We backed up and my brother and I got it rocking back and forth and finally, it fell right into the back of the truck. It lifted the front end of the truck off the ground, and as soon as it landed in the bed my buddy started hauling it. I was still trying to jump into the bed with the vending machine, and my brother hopped on the back of the vending machine riding it like a majestic horse.
But we forgot to unplug it and for some reason it was just long enough that it pulled the machine out the truck with my brother on it and crashed to the ground. We were young, dumb, and bored as heck. But it made perfect sense to me then.”
“Won’t It Be Helpful Of Us?”
“So I was in Uganda with my family, and we see a large (about five feet tall), curled up leaf hanging about eight feet off the ground. We’re told these leaves curl up and fall out of the trees, and they’re pretty heavy, so it can be dangerous to have it fall on you. My dad and I think, Won’t it be helpful of us to get this thing down?
So, we’re there whacking it with sticks, trying to get it down, to no avail, when my dad says ‘Hey, climb up on that wall there, son, and jump! Grab it and then pull it down!’
Well, that sounds like a swell idea, dad! So I do just that… I don’t manage to get it all the way down, but as soon as I hit the ground, I get this burning sensation in my elbow. Turns out there’s a hive of Ugandan Mud Wasps living in this specific leaf, and they do not take kindly to young men trying to tug their home down.
So I’m just sprinting back to the office where the rest of my family is sheltered from the sun, and I practically have two elbows on one arm at this point while, as my dad described it later ‘an army of large, black blots’ give chase. I make it back inside and my arm is numb, except for the searing pain in my elbow. Thankfully, there was no further reaction, the pain lasted only around three hours and the swelling was down by the end of the day. That being said, it was the worst pain I’ve ever felt. Even worse than the time I broke my arm into three pieces while arm wrestling.”
“I Didn’t Know What To Do”
“My little brother and I found a #10 can full of matchbooks. We decided to light a couple matches for fun. Zach (my brother) got burnt, and dropped a match and it fell right in between two boards on our back deck. We kept lighting them and dropping them down under the deck….until we smelled smoke. Then we filled my dads dress shoes with water from the pool to put out the fire. Didn’t work. We were seven and eight at the time.
One summer, Zach and I put up a two man tent next to the pool. Zach and neighbor kid Andy decide to put the tent in the pool…they get in the tent and zip it up. No bid deal its the shallow end…
They then start jumping and bouncing the tent towards the deep end. Slowly ,bounce after bounce, the water level was rising in the tent that was still zipped up and they are laughing and enjoying themselves.
They make it to the deep end and on that last bounce the tent sinks below the surface. It’s now totally submerged and full of water, and they can barely break the surface jumping to breathe – while still zipped into the tent.
They go on swim/flailing and gasping while the weight of water filled tent is pulling them under. I didn’t know what to do besides scream my head off! Andy’s dad heard me over his lawn mower and saved their butts. He pulled the tent to the shallow end and ripped the mesh window freeing them.
It was the summer of 97’ I was 10, they were nine. My mom was sleeping.”
“Hurts Like Heck”
“At a bachelors party last year, we rented a small house in a small town in the middle of nowhere. The second day we are there, we decide to go to a local state park which had a nice swimming hole. As we were getting ready to get out of the water, one of the locals mentioned a rope swing on the other side of the little island in the middle of the lake.
Always being the adventurous person, I decide to swim out with a few of my friends to check it out. There are a couple of locals there and we watch them go first. It is a pretty high swing off a decent drop and the water looks to get pretty deep, pretty quick.
I take the rope swing, go to one of the highest points I could, and launch off. As the swing hits the lowest point, my hands slip just a bit, but it’s enough for me to react by dropping my knees just a bit. As this happens, my feet hit the ground. As that happens, my hands let go of the rope. My left knee smashes into the waters edge, which is much rockier than anticipated. My hands plunge into the water, which is also much rockier than I anticipated. I coast out into the water on my belly and float for a few seconds before regaining my composure and slowly swimming back into shore. My leg is bleeding and my right hand hurts like heck. We go to a local urgent care.
Long story short, I ended up with 12 staples in my left knee to close the gash from the rocks. I had X-rays on my hand after the weekend, and found out that I essentially shattered my right middle finger. I ended up needing surgery and now have three bolts in that finger. It has most of its functionality, but it does hurt like heck from time to time.
But dang if that rope swing didn’t look like a good time.”
“We Couldn’t Stop It In Time”
“When I was working in retail for the first time, I was hired with three other people as seasonal employees for Black Friday and Holiday season. Towards the end of the day, they would send us to go bring in any shopping carts/buggies that were outside. Usually, we would have to push it in ourselves because we didn’t have one of those machines that would push it for you.
One day, someone suggested ‘Why don’t we just make one huge cart line, and push it in instead of having four different lines?’
Everyone agreed so we get everything and lined up about 60-70 something carts. It took three of us to push it as it was so heavy. With the other guy guiding it at the front, we managed to get inside the store and into the cart area. Since the carts were a whole line and heavy as heck, we couldn’t stop it in time. It blew past the rail, and unfortunately on the other side of the cart area is where we kept the dishwashers/refrigerators/TVs that are supposed to be going out for delivery/sold.
We ended up breaking a tv and denting a fridge. Unfortunately the store manager was doing his night rounds around the store and saw the whole thing as he was coming down the main hall. We got yelled at pretty bad and immediately just told us to go home and to see him in his office tomorrow morning. It seemed like a good idea though.”
“One More Swing”
“I had just finished this bike ride with my scout troop and we ended it at the side of a river. So while we were waiting for our parents to pick us up, the boys all go to a rope swing to mess around in the river. It was absurdly shallow, the furthest swing would still land you in three feet of water, average lazy swing was two feet deep or so.
Mom comes, some dad hollers at me that she’s arrived. I run back until I can see her getting out of the car and yell ‘One more swing mom, I’ll be right back.’
She seems in a good mood, says okay, starts chatting with other adults there.
So not two minutes later I walk up to her with a broken arm. I had gone back for that one more swing, messed and planted my wrist into the shallow water, broke my arm, and got out of the water saying bye without telling the kids what I’d done.
Just sorta walked up to my mom, and said ‘Hey I just broke my arm, sorry.’
She was not pleased.
‘Like, seriously? You had to go for one more swing? Come on, let’s go get a cast, you idiot,’ she said as we drove to the hospital.”
“Oh No, It’s Big!”
“In high school my friends and I were lost at night. We pull over to get our bearings and make a plan. I am the driver and decide to make a u-turn. There is a five foot long median that I will need to go over.
My friend, Kevin and I assess the curb from the car, and we are pretty confident that it is a low curb, but there were no street lights. There are cars starting to come from the both directions so I put the medal to the metal it to make the u-turn before it is too late.
As we approach the curb we both realize the curb is not small. It isn’t even medium. It’s taller than most and isn’t the nicely curved type, but the blocky type. But I am only about 10 feet away and closing when I noticed.
I remember hearing Kevin say, ‘Oh no, it’s big it’s big!’
So my instinct is to not stop, but increase my speed. Hopefully the speed will force my car to pop over the curb. The curb was so tall it scraped the bottom of my bumper, the car did make up onto the median but it felt like we hit it hard.
I get my wits about me, and zoom out of there before the oncoming traffic gets to me. The car turned turned out okay, thanks to it being and old heavy Oldsmobile.”
“You Can’t See Me”
“Many years ago, I became absolutely smitten with a young woman. She was friendly, intelligent, funny, and almost painfully attractive, with a list of interests and hobbies that seemed like they were a near-perfect match to my own. Within hours of our first conversation, I had decided that the two of us belonged together… and as a result of that decision, I launched myself into a series of increasingly stupid attempts at seduction.
There are any number of idiotic misadventures that I could describe here, but perhaps the most ridiculous of them happened on the evening before Valentine’s Day. I had purchased my would-be paramour a small potted plant – something which I’d been told she’d appreciate more than flowers or chocolate – and I was intent on leaving it somewhere for her to discover (rather than handing it to her in person). While any sane person would have just placed the gift on her welcome mat, I opted for a much less wise approach, convincing the girl’s flatmate to give me access to their kitchen. My hope was that I could position the present in such a way that it would remain unnoticed until the next morning, at which point it would seem to magically appear in the morning light.
Now, lest you think that I was a complete moron, I should mention that the young woman in question was supposed to be out of the house while I was making my clandestine delivery. Unfortunately for me, she had changed her schedule at the last minute, arriving back at home almost immediately after I had been let in. Her roommate and I exchanged hurried whispers as we discussed a place for me to hide, but since there were only a few seconds to spare, I had to settle for ducking down behind the counter that separated the kitchen from the living room.
Had this been a scene in a romantic comedy, a slapstick series of mad dashes and near-misses would have ensued. Sadly, real life doesn’t work like that, and I was found almost immediately: The girl walked into the living room, asked her roommate who she had been talking to, then made a move to approach the kitchen (which I assumed based on what I could hear). Knowing that I was about to be caught, I huddled as far back into a corner as I could, then held the potted plant up in front of my face.
‘Uh… hi, Max,’ I heard the young woman say.
‘You can’t see me,’ I replied. ‘I’m hiding.’
The good news is that my efforts – despite having thoroughly failed – were more or less appreciated. I semi-sheepishly presented the girl with her gift, wished her a happy Valentine’s Day, then explained why I had been sneaking around in her apartment. She graciously accepted, but (quite reasonably) asked why I had tried such a convoluted way of giving her a present.
All I could say was that it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
“No Clue What His Problem Was”
“Basic training. Just got done with our first Field Training Exercise. Been out in the training area for four days, little sleep, no showers. Overall, not feeling very good.
Anyway, we have mail call at like 8:30 the night we come in. I get a letter from a girl back home and really wanted to read it that night. But, I also wanted to get a hot shower. Here’s the conundrum. There’s 60 dudes in my bay and lights go out at 9pm, meaning we had to be in bed. So, do I read the letter and miss the shower, or get the shower and miss the letter?
Me being me, I figure I can do both. So, as soon as we’re dismissed I’m up the steps five at a time. I’m first in the bay. Hit my locker, grab my shower gear, drop all my clothes and sprint for the showers. Uh oh, there’s a door, gonna have to slow down to open it. OR, I could just do a flying front kick and land on my feet on the other side. Yeah, let’s do that.
What I didn’t account for was that when I jumped up to execute, I was now taller than the doorway. I didn’t realize my folly until I was already committed. I scrunched down as small as I could, but it didn’t matter. Next thing I know, my battle buddy is standing over me puking.
Apparently, he was about five steps behind me and saw this all play out. When I hit the door frame, I laid out horizontal mid air knocked the heck out. I had enough momentum that when I landed in the locker room I slid all the way to the back wall, which is where I came to with him puking next to me.
I had no clue what his problem was. I sat up I felt something warm hit my upper lip. I reached up and found blood. I also had a metallic taste in my mouth. I thought Dang it, I hit my head so hard I gave myself a bloody nose. Well, no. I stood up and walked over to the sink and realized why my buddy was puking. I had peeled back a chuck of my scalp from the top of my head, and it was gushing blood profusely. My entire face was coated in bright red blood so thick it looked like someone had poured paint on my head. Whoops. Oh, and that metal taste? Spinal fluid. How neat is that?
Needless to say, I didn’t shower OR get to read my letter that night.”