People Share The Worst Case Of Parenting They’ve Ever Witnessed

The Cycle Continues

“I’m a waitress at a ‘chain’ restaurant. One day, two overweight women come in with their kids.

When asked what to drink, one of the kids replied with an enthusiastic ‘apple juice!’

The mom looked at her kid and said: ‘No, honey, you just had juice in the car.’ So the kid pouted a second, but then his face brightened and he said: ‘Water!’

The mom looked over at him and said: ‘No, son! You don’t like water! You can have Coke, Sprite, or Dr. Pepper!’

He ordered a sprite. The other kid took his lead and ordered a Dr. Pepper.”

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“A Caricature Of Bad Parenting”

“I was on the bus once, and the top deck was empty apart from me and a man and his daughter (she looked about 7). At first, I was horribly intrigued because he was rolling a joint using the local free newspaper as paper, which was pretty disgusting.

Then he started talking to his daughter – ‘Now remember, when your mummy wants to know why we didn’t get your medicine, you have to tell her the chemists was closed. Did you get that? You DON’T tell her that we went to the bookies. You stand up for your daddy and don’t grass me up. That’s why I still love you, but not your brothers and sisters.’

It was a caricature of bad parenting, I almost couldn’t believe it. I was looking around for the hidden cameras.

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Way To Set Up Your Child For A Life Of Fearing Strangers

“I was on an airplane getting ready for takeoff. Not all of the seats were filled. This mom had what looked to be her 3-year-old with her and was flustered. The kid was being fussy and hyper. She didn’t want to have her kid sit with her, but this airline had rules that children couldn’t be seated alone unless they were 5 years old. Well, the mom wasn’t having that, so she sat down the kid across the airplane and made him repeat over and over again that he was 5 and if the flight attendant asked him he would say he was 5.

The kid did just that, but he was obviously scared to be away from his mom and kept begging to sit with her. People in the plane started to stare as he cried.

The mom said:

‘SHUSH. You better behave. You see that lady?’ Pointing to the flight attendant who was now at the front of the plane, ‘You see her? If you don’t be quiet and behave, she’s going to take you away. She’s going to take you away and you are never going to see me again. That’s what they do to bad little boys.'”

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“I Don’t Know If She Was Actively Trying To Kill Him… But It Made Us Wonder”

“I used to live with a guy who worked with autistic kids. He had this one case with a seriously obese kid who was really high-functioning – he just kind of seemed like a slightly-louder, slightly-more-capacity-for-irritating, pretty normal 10-year-old. Ten years old, five feet tall, and he was edging towards 300 pounds.

The kid’s lunch box, every day, was full of nothing but chips and candy. His mom packed his lunch for him, and she would put two sodas, three packs of Yogos, a Fruit by the Foot, and two packs of Cheetos in there. Every day. My roommate told me that, on home visits, he recorded that the kid’s dinner every night consisted of a family pack of frozen chicken nuggets and a family pack of frozen fries, heated up in the oven and handed to him on a tray, with a bottle of ketchup. His parents would then shut him in his room with his video games and DVDs and go out to eat.

They talked to the woman about packing her son some real food, so she started giving him a plain bagel with half a block of cream cheese pressed in between. Plus the chips and candy.

He worked really hard with the kid to get him to try new foods, vegetables, etc., with a pretty good success rate and got him to go play basketball every day so he could get some exercise. When the kid actually started dropping weight, his mom pulled him out of the program.

I don’t know if she was actively trying to kill him…but it made us wonder.

Sadly, I didn’t have any leverage to report it.

And unfortunately, I don’t think anything would have come out of it, especially since the kid did have special needs. For some foods, it was possible for him to perceive the texture or flavor as pain, so it probably would have been really easy for the mom to argue that she couldn’t give him healthier foods because it would literally hurt him as much as if she’d hit him.”

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What A Depressing Household

“There’s this guy in my hometown who I’ve been friends with for a couple of years. We used to be pretty close, but in recent years, I’ve stopped hanging out with him so much because he had a kid. Not because he doesn’t have time for me, mind you; it’s just because going over to his house is the easiest way I know to get depressed.

My friend is kind of a scumbag, which we always joked about. Well, he conceived his child with a 17-year-old girl on his birthday, which was actually an accident because they didn’t use protection and were being really loud and their brother threw something at the door to shut them up and it surprised him so he couldn’t pull out in time. He revealed that he had gotten this girl (he was 25 at the time) pregnant while we were eating pizza.

They are both incredibly self-centered and horrible people, and basically hate and cheat on each constantly. But as lazy and awful as my friend is, he still cares for his daughter. The girl basically only uses the baby as leverage and dumps her off at the house, then takes the car to go out partying and sleeping with other dudes or whatever. Sometimes she’ll purposely take the car seat to trap my friend at his house with the kid. I’ve pretty much only heard the girl address the child with scorn, usually in the form of ‘SHUT UP!’

The apartment they were living in was a nightmare and should have been condemned because the girl would never try to clean anything and would eat half of a meal then just leave it there perpetually. I think the poor kid would try to get her mom to hold her and she’d just tell her to go away. I remember one time me and another friend were over, and the guy’s girlfriend was sitting on the couch watching TV while the kid had passed out face first on the floor surrounded by toys and old junk food, her face basically embedded in the carpet. I remember thinking this was messed up and she just replied ‘I’m not tucking her in’ before getting up to go use Facebook or whatever. Eventually, my friend just got disgusted and got a blanket for the kid and set her on the couch.”

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This Mom Sounds Like A Piece Of Trash

“I knew a mom who spiked her baby’s bottle with Jack Daniels so she’d go to sleep and the mom could continue partying without interruption.

She also slept all day and left the baby in puke covered clothes and urine and feces-filled diapers in a baby swing for eight to ten hours at a time so she could sleep off her hangover or sleep with random dudes.

She was constantly smoking and drinking around the child. I called DCFS though I’m not sure if it did any good because I hated the mom and spent as little time around her as possible.”

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Where To Begin?

“A couple months ago, these two women came into the store I work at (major grocery chain) and checked out in my line. They had two kids – one about 10 and tubby, and a baby.

Now both these women were extremely hyperactive, extremely thin and stinky. The younger one, the mother of the children, clearly had bruises on the inside of her arm that looked like track marks. The first thing that happened was that they bought a load of fried chicken and fed a couple tiny pieces to the BABY.

Then the older kid went and weighed himself on the scale and he was like 100 pounds and the mom exclaimed: ‘HOLY CRAP, you’re fatter than me!’ to her 10-year-old, and the grandmother agreed, saying the same thing. The kid looked sad. I was not allowed to say anything judgemental, so I just keep my mouth shut and rang up their crap (very unhealthy stuff).

Then as they were leaving the store, the baby vomited on himself and the mom completely ignored this baby drenched in puke and popped out a smoke right outside the door, and they walked off into the distance.

I was stunned.”

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“Eventually, The Police Just Stopped Taking Our Calls”

“My friends and I used to live in a neighborhood full of families who were just… messed up. The family across the street consisted of a huge pregnant 30-year-old woman and her 19-year-old boyfriend, and her two kids – a 3-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy. The family next door consisted of an old black woman, her two grandsons (I assume), approximately 16 and 20, and a random assortment of young thugs who came in and out at all hours. The 16-year-old was mentally ill and would have fights with invisible people in the yard pretty much every day. The 20-year-old was a dealer along with her boyfriend from across the street.

My friend and I called CPS on the family across the street a couple of times because we came home at midnight and found their 3-year-old sitting in the middle of the street in the rain. When my friend picked her up and took her into their house, she found them passed out on the couch, woke them up and let them know that, um, their baby had wandered into the street. They dragged the 6-year-old out of his room and started screaming at him and shaking him: apparently it was his job to watch the baby all night while they partied.

They would scramble into their suspiciously nice new SUV and jump town for a couple of days. Every time we called the cops on them. I witnessed them doing this one time, and it seemed like there was a competition between them to see who could scream the most at the little boy and call him the nastiest names.

‘WHY DIDN’T YOU GET YOUR SISTER’S CAR SEAT, YOU FREAKING IDIOT?! GOD, YOU ARE SO STUPID! GET THE FREAKING CAR SEAT RIGHT NOW, WE GOTTA GO! GET IT NOW BEFORE WE LEAVE YOU HERE YOU FREAKING MORON!’

I cried thinking about how that poor kid probably went to school hungry every day, never got a good night’s sleep, and was being abused. What kind of performance could he possibly have in school? I don’t know why I got so stuck on that, but I did. This kid was going to flunk out or drop out and end up in prison or dead, and there was nothing I could do about it because eventually, the police just stopped taking our calls.”

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Giving A Whole New Meaning To “Helicopter Parent”

“I used to teach a martial arts class for young kids, starting at age 3 (although my boss did once sign up a 2.5-year-old and told me about it later). Mostly, the class consisted of teaching the kids discipline and gross motor skills. We played a lot of games. But they also learned some basic kicks and punches, stuff about strangers, things like that. If they stuck with it long enough, they could graduate into the regular kids’ class and start going through the regular kids’ belt system.

Anyway, once this woman came in with her son who was either 3 or 4. She insisted that he was a perfectly normal kid (we ask them to let us know if they have autism, ADHD, stuff like that so we can be prepared), but she wanted to take the class with him so he didn’t get nervous his first day.

I was a little bummed out by this (I didn’t really like having other adults on the floor because it tended to be distracting to the other kids), but whatever. So she stood behind him through the whole lesson.

Here’s the worst part: she moved the kid’s arms and legs for him! I mean this woman seriously kneeled behind him, held his arms and did punches for him. Then she manipulated his legs and kicked for him. Not one or two punches so he got the idea (I did that once in a while). Literally, every punch or kick we did. I was just dumbfounded. Talk about helicopter parents. She would also talk to him incessantly, repeating things I said in class to him like he was deaf or I was slurring or something.

I observed this kid for two classes and he seemed perfectly normal. He looked excited about the class, had a big grin on his face the whole time, made eye contact with me throughout the class (which is something you don’t always get at that age), and was perfectly capable of moving on his own and comprehending what was going on. After two lessons, she came to me and said that he ‘just wasn’t ready’ for martial arts.

I still think about that kid occasionally and wonder about him. He’s probably 9 or 10 by now. I picture them having a tandem bike together and maybe his mom guiding his hand as he writes essays for school. That poor kid.”

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Who’s In Charge Here?

“A boy was bullying kids on an indoor climbing cave and claimed to his mom (when another boy started crying after he fell) that he slipped and bumped into the other boy by accident. His mom totally believed him and went back to ignoring her son climbing and instead started chatting and drinking lattes with her two friends.

The bully targeted a young girl on the wall and grabbed her leg once he crept up beside her. She managed to kick his arm off and started climbing upward. He went up to follow. What the bully didn’t know was that the girl was a regular climber at our gym.

This was about the time I noticed the two and moved toward them yelling at them to stop. Near the top, the boy lunged at the girl as she pretty deftly maneuvered away from his arm and he lost his balance and took the 15-foot dive to the ground.

There was a pretty massive crack that could be heard along with his wailing in pain. And what did the mother do? She turned to the front desk and screamed at the top of her lungs: ‘I AM GOING TO SUE YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU OWN.’

BRAVO, lady.

I’d like to have pretended that I fist bumped the girl for a job well done, but I was checking in on the bully to make sure he wasn’t going to die.”

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Did This Mother Always Treat Her Kid Like This?

“I used to lifeguard at an indoor public pool throughout high school.

I sounded the five-minute warning whistle that free swim was about to be over. It was starting to thin out but as usual, the kids would groan and the parents would continue to persuade them to get out of the pool.

Occasionally, we would have a few kids who wouldn’t listen, and at the end of the five minutes, they would still be swimming around. I’d sound my whistle and they’d promptly get out.

It was toward the end of the free swim, and we had about seven kids left in the pool, so I sounded my one-minute warning and said: ‘ONE MINUTE’ to let them know it was time to get out. Well, this mother who didn’t speak English took that as a ‘GET OUT NOW’ whistle. The child (about 5) didn’t speak English either, so I didn’t expect her to understand. I walked up to the side of the pool and smiled and spoke to her in my semi-Spanish ‘Time to go.’ I reached out my hand so she could make her way to the steps. She had floaties on, but no one was in the pool with her (her older brother had gotten out and left her there). The mother took that as if she was misbehaving, reached in and proceeded to pull the child by her hair! She then dragged the child a few feet on the rocky rough pebbles that made up the floor around the pool… this stuff ensures that people don’t slip… being dragged on it has got to be excruciating, let alone being dragged by your hair.

Shocked and horrified by this, the kid was so hurt she couldn’t even cry. Tears streaming down her face, mouth open with no sound coming out.

It was AWFUL! I at this point was yelling at the mother for her more than inappropriate reaction (even if the child was misbehaving which she wasn’t…that is WAY out of line).

What ticked me off more than anything, however, is the fact that all the other patrons of the pool (I lived in a predominately Hispanic area) took my anger as racism…and tried to get me fired because I yelled at this awful mother.”

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You See A Lot Of Questionable Things On The Bus

“I take the city bus a lot. I see a lot of bad parenting. This one’s in my head right now, though.

A very young mother is sitting with her friend eating fast food in the back of the bus. She’s holding an infant in her arms. The infant, in turn, is holding a bottle of coca-cola and sucking on it like a bottle. For the record, it wasn’t like a coke bottle filled with milk, I’m talking about a baby drinking an entire bottle of coke.

The kid starts acting up, and the mom sighs and says to her friend, “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He’s so hyper right now. I think it’s ’cause he had some chocolate earlier.’

Her friend freaking nodded in agreement!”

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It’s Like Letting The Inmates Run The Prison

“My mom lets my 11-and-12-year-old sisters do whatever they want.

Firstly the 11-year-old. She’s not morbidly obese, but she’s definitely overweight. She eats stuff like pogos and pizza pops for breakfast and as snacks. She eats about six to seven ‘meals’ a day that I consider heavy enough to be dinner for me. She showers maybe once a month, and she chews mint gum instead of brushing her teeth. She also has VERY bad acne, to the point where her entire face is bumpy… and my mom POPS her zits!

My other sister who’s 12 is thin and is much more hygienic than the other. She definitely has a learning disorder, but my mom can’t be bothered to get he diagnosed. She never does her homework and can hardly read, and my mom doesn’t punish her at all for it, saying it’s the school’s responsibility. She’s also VERY depressed and anti-social and killed her sister’s hamster. She threatens to kill her sister all the time and even threw a knife at her once.

My mom just shrugs it off and says there’s nothing she can do about it.”

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Sure, Let The TV Raise The Child

“I live with my sister who has a baby, so I have a few stories I’ll dabble into.

My sister usually sits on the couch and types away on her phone for an hour or so. For the child, she puts the TV on, expecting it to retain the 18-month-old child’s attention. Anytime her child throws a fit for wanting attention, she gets angry at the baby, as if the baby was in the wrong. The child then rebels by turning the TV on and off, making loud noises, or throwing a fit. From the very beginning, the root of the child’s rebellion was her mother. I often hear her ask others why her baby only rebels to her, and never the babysitter. It’s shocking. I can only say so much before I see her block it out and not listen to another word I say. Therefore the only way I can make a difference is to aid in the child’s development, in other words, fill in the necessary attention the child needs.

It’s amazing how such little things can change a child’s life. For instance: just paying attention, seems easy but I mean truly listening to what they have to say, and in return speak and treat them like they the human beings they are, as if its one of your good friends (Which in my case it is). They respond in ways that will amaze you. Speak English to them and avoid using “baby talk”. Use clear words that hold meaning behind them so they can better understand you, be happy, be sincere. My niece understands what I say even though she can’t say it herself. Simply because I talk to her and show her respect. Interestingly enough, she (at 18 months old) shows me respect when I ask for it. If she has taken my keys and I need them to go bye-bye, I ask her sincerely and she responds to it and 99/100 gives me my keys. She, in turn, is a mature child who is happy and will hopefully be able to step into the big world with a pre-scented sense of what is truly going on.”

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And I Thought The Verbal Abuse Was The Worst Part

“The worst parenting I have ever seen was from my own mother and stepfather. No pity, I’m out of there, but they were still pretty awful.

For example, I was getting bullied every day in middle school. I was incredibly upset about it. My dad suggested, ‘Maybe they’re jealous of you.’ I didn’t believe they were, so I told my mom what he said. She told me, ‘That’s ridiculous. Who could be jealous of you?’

One time, a Japanese 20-something-year-old followed me home when I was 12 years old (yes, I can confirm he was following me, because I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and he stopped, watched me and waited.) My mother and stepfather then yelled at me for being stupid and taking an alternate route instead of going into a store and telling someone.

And then there’s the time my stepfather bashed my head into the stairs because I forgot my keys when I was 11.

So many stories, they were such lovely people.”

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