Parenting Flops: Tales of Oopsie-Daisy Parenting

Each individual carries a unique set of duties and obligations, which are essential to uphold. Neglecting these tasks can ripple into adverse impacts on others.

These members of the Reddit Community unveiled stories about instances of troublesome conduct by children and their guardians. These tales shed light on the underlying origins of such behavior. Dive in and explore!

1. Party Life

I went to college in the archetypal college town, which means a street dedicated mostly to college bars. 

My friends and I would do bar crawls and would always end the night at this one pub.

Anyway, on this particular occasion, it gets to be that time of night, and we take our table and start talking. I'm telling a story where I happen to say the f-word.

The couple beside me turns to me angrily and says, "Hey! Watch your mouth, lady, there's a child here." For about two seconds, I felt horrible until I realized they were the ones with a three-year-old in a college bar at 11:45 at night.

YouHadMeAtOthello

I was at a stock show. The kid with a sheep in the ring with her dad on the other side of the fence telling her she was showing like crap and berating her.

All of it was for not being able to perform how he'd like her to. She was sobbing in tears in front of about 500 people just in the building.

AND the show was being live-streamed all over the country. I tried to help her from across the ring, but she was too distracted by her piece of crap dad.

[deleted]

18 years old. Standing in line during the summer is a big attraction, and lots of people line up in the bright sun. The big fountain right by the line, the outer ring of which is some kind of black stone, just sucking up light and heat.

We were 30' back, and I happened to look over at the fountain as this woman hoisted her infant (unable to stand/walk under their own strength) onto the black ring. Barefoot.

Poor kid is immediately doing this hopping kind of motion, trying to pull her legs up, which makes mom shake her by the arm she's being held up by.

Mom doesn't look at her because she is trying to do something on her phone. No one is reacting. 

The lady seems to reach someone on the phone and becomes deeply engrossed in conversation while her kid cries in pain.

I quickly walked over and put my hand on the stone and loudly (I didn't mean to, I was just surprised by how hot) said, "Holy crap, it's so hot!"

Everyone nearby turned to look, and the woman immediately pulled her infant away from me when I yelped. I just walked back to my parents in line.

The lady looked back at me for a moment with this "What the heck is your problem?" face before looking back at the fountain.

She touched the stone and yanked her hand back fast, and she turned bright red before facing forward for the rest of the time we were in line.

SkullyKitt

My niece's birthday party. She has a little brother and sister. Little sister gets a balloon ribbon wrapped around her neck, and her father casually glances over, takes note of the situation, and then goes back to looking at his phone.

I had to pull out my knife to get the ribbon off the kid while she cried. Same kids, different story. It's Thanksgiving, and something is burning.

The smoke starts filling the house, and the little ones start coughing. Nobody moved, so I snatched them up and took them outside.

FFS, I don't have kids because I'm not responsible enough, but people who have kids to just be irresponsible with the lives of their children PISS ME OFF.

notastepfordwife

I was walking my dog, and some kid came out from the apartment building. It's a busy street, and the kid is maybe three years old.

I look for the mom, and she's nowhere to be seen. He starts picking some rocks from the ground and suddenly starts running towards the street.

I started instinctively yelling stop (I work with kids) and grabbed him by the arm before he ran under a car. It was so dangerous.  

The best part is that mom came from the building right then with a baby (she must have seen all of this happen) and was like, "Oh, there you are, honey! Let's go to that park now." What is wrong with people.

emmhei

My sister-in-law always threatens to leave a place unless her kid behaves. But she has never followed through on her threat once, so her kid knows nothing will happen.

For example, they'll be at our house, and he won't sit down to eat his supper. She tells him to sit and eat, or they'll leave. She will literally say this 20 times.

She'll even say, "Okay, son's name, I'm getting up, and we're going." Still no reaction. Then, "Son's name, I'm putting on my boots." Still nothing.

Eventually, she gives up. He doesn't eat his supper, and they don't leave.   

This happens every time I see them. So he never behaves, and she has him going to a psychiatrist to figure out why.

I'm the opposite with my kids. There are times they don't even get warnings. We were at a park to watch fireworks a few weeks ago when my six-year-old hit me twice in the groin because she got angry at something.

I packed her up in the car, went home, and put her straight to bed. She missed out on the fireworks while her sister and cousins got to stay up later. Don't make threats if you are not going to follow through on them.

Habsfan1977

My girlfriend, her brother, his wife, and I went to a restaurant, and he misbehaved the whole time. So his mother threatened to go home with him if he didn't stop.

But he knows it's just an empty threat, so after a while (while my face turned red from embarrassment), his father took him by the hand, pulled him into the car, and brought him straight to bed.

Two whole weeks of good behavior.

But then he started to misbehave again, and of course, the mother does nothing. All while saying, "He wasn't like this last year!"

Like, lady, wth? Why does it matter if he behaved last year? He is misbehaving RIGHT NOW! He's a little crybaby too. It was so annoying.

He's eight y/o and shouts so loud if you grab his arm (read as 'grab,' not 'crush') to pull him aside. Of course, the mother then shouts to let him go if you're hurting him.

BugWare

I once had an after-school program with lots of boys. They had free play time and wanted to race paper airplanes. I told them they could.

But the first time someone who wasn't playing got hit with one, all the airplanes went in the trash. Not too long after, a little girl got hit in the arm with a plane.

So, I made the boys line up and throw the planes away. Told them to find another game. Most of them obeyed without complaint, but two or three pitched a huge fit, crying and screaming.

I said, "You knew the rules from the beginning. Throw your plane away quietly and find another game, or you can go sit in timeout."

cold_toast_n_butter

My mom didn't want to discipline my sister because it "might push her away." My sis is effing 35 years old and still barks orders at them over Thanksgiving dinner.

Those orders were like, “Get me the wine, Mom,” etc., because of this. She also constantly makes fun of me because I don't make as much as her.

All of these while telling me my disabled husband is lazy for not "deciding to get better." They say nothing about either. I don't go on holiday anymore if she's going to be there.

[deleted]

My step-niece is eight and wets the bed every night. She clearly needs to see a psychologist, but you can't talk to her dad about it.

Anyway, we're on holiday, and she wet the bed. Her dad says, "If you wet the bed again, I'll take you home." She doesn't wet the bed that night, but the next night, she does.

He doesn't say anything; he just strips her bed to wash the bedding and goes about his business. It's ridiculous. My other niece was playing up before we went.

I said, "If you carry on me, you will stay home and go to bed." She carried on because no one had ever followed through with these threats. So we stay at home, and she goes to bed. Hasn't messed about since.

Chinateapott

When I worked at a grocery store, there was a regular who would come in with her three kids. Usually, the older kids weren't bad and rarely caused a scene, but the youngest (about 3-4 years old) was THE worst.

Whenever she came up to check out, the youngest asked for candy. She told him no and that he needed to eat real food before candy was allowed.

Of course, he would start wailing so loudly that the whole store could hear, and she would ignore him. This would go on for about 2-3 minutes, and then he would beg her for candy again.

She would say no, just like before, but on this particular trip, he started throwing things out of the cart. She smacks him on the hand and tells him to stop behaving that way, and then he hits her back.

She yelled at him and told him that she would spank him if he didn't calm down, and he cried some more for a few minutes. He was insisting.

Once I was done ringing her up, I told her the total and guessed what had happened. She bought the freaking candy bar and gave it to him.

pintsizeturd

When I was a kid, my best friend and I were taken to this arcade park by both of our mothers. At the end of the trip, we counted up our tickets and started picking prizes.

My friend wanted the 50,000-ticket Barbie Guitar and was short about 49,950 tickets. She threw a tantrum, and her mom whipped out her wallet and bought it in cash.

I started to throw a similar fit when I was told I couldn't get the giant teddy bear, and my mother took my tickets out of my hand, handed them to the kid behind me, and walked me out without a single prize. I never tried that trick again.

Caliblair

I was driving behind a small sedan once that was packed: driver, front passenger, and three in the back. We stopped at a red light.

I was just waiting for the light to change back when an infant (~9 months, by my guess) crawled up over the shoulder of the middle passenger into the rear window, looked me in the eye, and smiled.

The light changed soon after, and they drove off with the baby just chilling. I'm still ashamed. I was too stunned to think about getting the license plate number and reporting it to the police.

[deleted]

This one stupid guy, during the Christmas season, was in the store with his 5-year-old, and they were standing next to the ornament tree (like a metal skeleton in the shape of a Christmas tree, but empty on the inside).

His kid crawled under the tree and somehow ended up INSIDE the tree. This tree has a green bin at the bottom because sometimes ornaments will drop if tugged too hard or mishandled, most of which are made of glass, but when it does, they'll fall into this bin to avoid getting glass shards everywhere.

We just have to sweep it up daily. So this kid is like playing in this green bin with glass shards. I only noticed because the kid picked up one of our FULLY GLASS ornaments and dropped it, breaking it immediately.

I rushed over to him and asked if the kid was okay. The dad, looking at his phone the whole time, glanced up towards me and then looked at his kid and mumbled, "Don't touch anything" to his kid.

At the same time, I got his kid out and sternly said, "This is DANGEROUS. Never crawl under there, okay?" and then they walked away.

He just walks without so much apology while his dad is still looking at his phone. I never wanted to kick someone in the face so badly.

Totes_mahgotes

A mom at the doctor's office ignored her little boy, who was acting out for her attention. The less she paid to him, the louder he got.

He was too old for this to be new behavior, and it's likely that he only gets attention when he's extremely misbehaving. That was a red flag.

I felt bad for both of them, to be honest. The little boy for obvious reasons and for the mom because she just couldn't keep up.

Like eventually, the time comes when certain behaviors are reinforced to the point where it's very hard to unwind. She'd clearly just given up because she was just empty.

[deleted]

I was at a game store a while back when there was a mother and her kid (who looked like he had to be about 7-8). He was definitely single digits.

He was misbehaving and moaning about wanting a game. A game that is absolutely not suitable for a little kid, not even just the game itself but the online people that play the game.

I'm not saying the adults who play it are bad, but they are adults, like myself, who swear on a daily basis, and I'm not really going to censor myself when I'm playing a rated M game. 

He was crying and complaining about wanting this game, and of course, the mom got it for him.

Now, not that it doesn't show you the rating of a game, but I felt like telling the mom that this game really isn't appropriate for someone his age, in case she wasn't aware of what that game is. But I didn't. Felt like it would have just fallen on deaf ears.

InspiredBlue

I was a computer teacher at an elementary school, and I had this one kid who spent so much time in my class. The little guy was about eight and just loved talking, and so long as I could see what he was doing on the computer, I didn't care.

Anyway, a few weeks later, I see him and his dad and his dad's girlfriend at a store, and I start talking to him, and he just gets excited, and we talk about his interests, and his dad just tells the kid he can't keep bothering me.

And then said, "You can ignore him if you want. He gets like this and won't shut up about that damn show." And I was just like, "No, it's fine, we talk at school. I like how excited he is about coding and TV shows."

His dad couldn't believe it and just was shocked. I was so pissed. This kid spends his whole day in his room doing nothing and not talking to his family because they can't be bothered to take an interest in his interests.

[deleted]

At my work, we give out flowers to good kids. The kids that don't get a flower have to be displaying some pretty bad behavior.

Well, one little girl who comes in a lot didn't get a flower on one occasion because she was being a right little crap, little crap, threw a tantrum.

Her mum tried to demand I give her a flower, but I said no, flowers are for behaving. Mum bought her flowers. Like a lady, don't reward bad behavior; it is the simplest rule of anything!!!!

holster

I work at a restaurant on Wall Street, so the clientele is ALL business. Keep that in mind. Mom comes in with her son and her friend, and the host seats them on the main level next to the bar, which, as we later found out, was a huge mistake.

The kid, I would say, is around 8 or 9 and is running around everywhere. He's going up to different tables and bothering guests. He's throwing his silverware on the floor.

He pushed his mother's wine glass on her. The manager rushed with napkins to help, and the kid started tearing up the napkins and throwing them everywhere.

We had a bowl full of candy, and he took mostly all of the candy and unwrapped them, throwing the wrappers around and just leaving the candy on the table.

MEANWHILE. MOM. AND. FRIEND. ARE. LAUGHING. The kid was SO RUDE to everyone: server, host, manager, mom, mom's friend.

No respect for anyone. He was yelling at everyone. When he threw all the candy on the floor, the mom continued to drink and laugh.

tarabithia

There is a river in my city. While it is technically illegal for anyone to go swimming in the river within city limits, there are a couple of huge lovely sandbars that people use as beaches in hot weather.

Even when the water is low, the current is not inconsiderable--a decent swimmer could just about hold their place swimming upstream as hard as they could.

A group of us were down on one of the sandbars, wading in the water. A mom was lying on the sandbar sunbathing while her toddler daughter, perhaps eighteen months old, played right by the water's edge.

That's dangerous enough with calm water like a lake. If her kid had ended up in the water, she would have been dozens of yards downstream before the mom even realized she was in trouble.

Then, I saw someone teaching their kid to skateboard on the sidewalk of a steep part of a major traffic corridor in the city. It's too much work to go a block over to the quiet residential street.

GoingViking

About ten years ago, I was working in a mall with a bookstore. As a family walked past me, their son asked if they could go to the bookstore.

Lo and behold, the parents acted like it was some kind of ridiculous request and scolded him. 

Here's this six-year-old kid, probably learning to read, who genuinely wanted to go to the bookstore instead of a game store, and they said no.

At that moment, I decided that when I had a kid, I would always try to say yes when they asked to go to the bookstore, library, museum, historical site, etc.

Ep1cFac3pa1m

I was in a Chinese food restaurant waiting to be seated, so I was by the cashier since we had to pay before we ate, and this couple with their child started to pay.

The lady asked them how old the kid was so they could get the discount, and they said something like six, and the little girl said, “I'm ten, Daddy.” The man just gave her a stare.

Later on, I ended up getting seated next to them, and I overheard the man telling the little girl, “If we have to pay like you're an adult, then you have to eat like one. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet."

So he forced her to do so much even when she started crying that she didn't want anymore, and the little girl ended up barfing.

River_Lea

Last week, actually. I'm a lifeguard at a luxurious country club pool, and last Tuesday, the group of housewives had their weekly meetup with their kids at the pool.

They're there for maybe 20 minutes. Their kids are playing. Everyone's having a great time. All of a sudden, I hear, "OH CRAP!" and one of the moms starts sprinting out of the pool deck.

Of course, I'm curious, so I watch her from the big stand that sees over the wall and watch her sprint all the way to her car, fiddling with her keys nervously for a few seconds.

Lo and behold, she got her baby out of the hot black car that had been sitting in the sun for the last 20 minutes. It's one thing to have a lot of stuff to carry, but what exactly makes you take a lawn chair into the pool rather than your infantile baby???

Gickerific

One time, I was running a race. It was only a 5k (3.1 miles). In the last half mile, I saw this man running with his son, who was maybe 5-7 years old.

Not sure. Anyhow the boy wanted to walk and was saying that he was tired and couldn't run anymore, and the dad kept yelling at him to "suck it up!" And "Be a big boy!"

I'm not sure if kids that age should be able to run that far or not, but that boy was obviously fatigued. I said, "I'll walk with him if you need to keep running?" The dad reluctantly gave in and walked.

SmellsLikeBluberry

At a local store some time ago, I witnessed a mother (mid to late 30s) completely lose it in the ice cream aisle. She was on her knees, begging and pleading and bribing her whining toddler.

She kept on saying, "Please stop. I'll do whatever you want. Do you want popsicles? Ice cream? I'll get ice cream sandwiches. They're right here, look. You want one of these? Mommy's trying, sweetie. Please stop."

And this is when I decided if my kids ever drove me to the point of me even considering begging them, much less on my knees, for god sake.

I'd be crossing that thinly veiled line of discipline vs. abuse once we got home. I don't negotiate with toddler terrorists. Screw that.

BourgeoisBitch

I was sitting in a rather upscale breakfast place with my mother for her birthday. This family walks along with two young children, two women, and one man.

The children were about 4 and 7. The mother of the younger child ordered a plate with poached eggs, potatoes, and other brunch foods and proceeded to put a whole poached egg, pieces of sausage, bacon, and fruit directly onto the white tablecloth in front of the four-year-old.

He ate with his fingers, making an ungodly mess, and started to throw food at my mother. A waiter immediately got to the table and removed them.

But on the way out, the two children both knocked the plates that were on their table onto the floor on the way out of the restaurant. The whole family laughed and continued chatting as if nothing happened.

Hunginthe514

I once saw a 5/6-year-old swinging from the above-head handles of a local train (she had climbed on the back of the chairs to get there).

Both parents were wasted playing on their phones, fosters in hand.   

During the course of the gymnastic display, the kid's foot hit the alarm for wheelchair users.

Because of that, the train stopped so the driver could come to check if there was an emergency. It all made me angry and sad.

dontbelikeyou

I was at the park with the [now] ex-boyfriend, and we were on the park bench when I realized that this little kid was stuck at the top of the monkey bars.

She had been yelling at her grandmother? Aunt? Female relative? to come help her down for a few minutes now, and she just remained engrossed in her book.

I was getting a bit worried after a bit because the kid just couldn't get down, and she might have fallen and hurt herself.

So I went up to her and explained to her how to get herself down safely, and the caretaker got pissy with me because 'she could figure it out herself.' Yeah, sure.

allora_fair

Once, I was waiting at my doctor's office, and there was this woman and her son. He was busy playing around with the toys in the waiting room.

Then he grabbed a Magna doodle. You know that thing. You can draw on that. It works with that little pen. So he was drawing on that thing when suddenly, he turned to his mother to proudly present her with a sun he'd just drawn.

The mother asked him what the drawn thing was meant to be. 

He replied that's a Sun. Her answer was, “What the heck? That's a Sun? It looks nothing like one.”

She " deleted" his picture by sliding that thing from one side to the other. Then she drew a sun herself and said, This is what a Sun looks like.”

And her Boy was instantly sad. The whole conversation between them was sad, and the mother was very annoyed with Tone the whole time. I can still recall the boy's sad face.

[deleted]

A wedding I went to. A little girl, maybe five/six years old, kept running onto the dance floor during the bride and groom's first dance and the father and bride dance.

No, not just running onto the dance floor. She kept physically going in between them to dance and pose for cameras. It was so annoying.

Bride and groom photos? She kept running up to get in the picture. If it had been once or twice while the mother looked embarrassed and apologized, it would have been fine and somewhat endearing.

But nope, she kept edging her on to go up there. The mother was the bride's aunt and craved attention, even if it was vicariously through her daughter. She kept going, "Oh my God, isn't that so cute!"

I was furious for the bride. You could tell she was livid and extremely uncomfortable, but she kept trying to make a happy face about it all.

I could tell she was livid because after the kids all left around the end of the reception, she was getting a bit drunk and said, "I wanted to kick her in the face. But she's my cousin, so that would look bad."

Novaer

When I was a bit younger, I had a very "good" friend who later ended up being my high school bully. In the beginning, she was quite a sweet girl.

However, it was very apparent that she had some attention-seeking issues (later on, she would break into my house, steal my things, and tell false rumors about me, but that’s a story for another time).

She would require so much attention from me that I would start making excuses not to be with her, but my mother found out and told me off.

My mom told me that the girl got very little attention from her parents because they were often away, and that´s probably why she acted like that.

That was true. I had never really talked to or met her parents, not before that one day when one of them actually had a free schedule and proposed to pick her up from school instead of taking the bus.

I was invited to drive with her and her father. The entire twenty minutes of driving, the father did nothing but pick on me.

He would ask his daughter why she had such a chubby friend (to be fair, I was quite chubby back then, and she was really pretty for a 12-year-old), tell me I would never get a boyfriend, and make these fake stories up about me doing embarrassing things and try to humiliate me.

The entire time, I just laughed, as I didn´t realize how wrong it was for another parent to tell me these things back then. I also laughed because my friend thought her dad picking on me was funny.

So dad of my high school bully: Screw you, and I have all the reason to believe that you were a big influence on why I was bullied for years.

[deleted]

Back when I was twelve, my family went on holiday to the Gold Coast with another family. I was sitting in the spa with their youngest daughter (my age), watching this family on the other side of the pool area.

The mother was around her mid to late twenties and was chatting with another lady while drinking some fancy cocktail. Her husband was sitting next to her, trying to control his son, who was around six or seven.

He was crying and screaming and making a big fuss. Neither of them was watching their two-year-old daughter running around the pool.

She didn't have any floaties or anything on, and we were just waiting for her to trip and fall. On her third lap around the pool, she slipped and fell into the spa right in front of us.

When she didn't come back up, I reached under the water, grabbed her, and pulled her up. The lifeguard saw what had happened and came over to help us.

He took her from me and marched right over to her parents and went off at them. The lady took the girl from him and berated the lifeguard. It broke my heart to see something like that

chelc98

Well, this person I used to be friends with still goes to my school. His mom would let him stay at home whenever he wanted and take literally weeks off school just because he couldn't be bothered to get up.

She always gets him so much stuff for no reason. He told me he got a second screen for his PC and 2000 euros last Christmas.

And here's what pisses me off the most. He is so lazy that his mom will pay him to go outside and walk the dog or go to the swimming pool to exercise once a week.

He talks to her with no respect most of the time, and she often lets him. He will scream and even swear in front of her, and she just doesn't care.

Andefir

I am related to someone who puts a meal of chicken nuggets and french fries into a food processor, so her baby can eat it.

Yes, I am telling the truth. It was horrifying. She seemed to think it was funny and perfectly normal since she planned on making all his baby food.

The same girl let her kid play up on the roof at two while it was being repaired. Said it was safe because someone was up there.

He has been giving him his 44 oz fountain sodas since he was one. Let him take a hammer and destroy the new flooring that was just put down.

I could go on and on and on. I finally stopped going around her when her kid put a toy gun to my kid's mouth and threatened to blow his teeth out. Not that my being around her was doing any good anyway.

SurroundedByCrazy789

I was in a fast food chain, and a mother and her 10-11ish daughter sat down close by. I didn't pay them any attention, but the daughter's voice made me notice them. It was quiet and cautious.

The daughter was actually really pretty and, just by appearances, should have been really outgoing. I could tell she wanted to talk to her mom but was scared of her.

The mom just sat there and would give one-word answers and clearly didn't want to talk.

I think the kid used the word "stupid," and that set the mom off.

First, stating the word was inappropriate but quickly transitioned into telling her to shut up during supper so she could eat in silence.

So, she just sat there in silence, and to me, it was kind of heartbreaking to watch. I wanted to say something to the mom or invite the girl to come talk to me, but I was alone, and neither option would have gone over well.

Skippy8898

The lady brought her daughter to traffic court, and she was there talking about a speeding ticket. The naughty kid kept talking and laughing and yelling while the court was in session.

The kid also kept turning around and pointing at and trying to touch the people behind her.

Halfway through, Mom says, 'Hey, you shouldn't be touching those people. You have PINK eyes.'

I mean, yeah, back off, lady. Why the heck would you even bring a kid that poorly behaved to court? Why aren't they kicking you out?

canada_mike

I saw a young boy, maybe six, walking through a very busy/dangerous car park by himself because his mum thought ordering food was more important and didn't give a flying care where her son was.

She was in this fast food chain for 20 minutes (I had to make a statement against her later). Her son walks out in front of a car because he has no idea about car safety, so I snatch him up and try to find his parents.

I found the dad, who, btw isn't even worried about his missing kid, and then threatened to beat me because I was being "nosey." Sir, your child was almost run over.

He's been alone for 20 minutes. Food is not more important. Father then proceeds to shove the crying son into the car roughly.

farmyard_meedy

My neighbors don't teach their children any boundaries whatsoever, don't touch other people's things, and much less respect them.

I've gone out, and they dragged my patio set over to their backyard, all knocked over, destroyed my son's swing set, turned my water hoses on to play in them, and just left the water running.

They throw rocks just for fun, which has damaged my car and others, throw tennis balls at people's houses, and so on.

These aren't malicious kids; they're young and are not trying to hurt anyone. Their moms just don't teach them any boundaries or respect whatsoever.

I've repeatedly said things to them and the kids, but I still go out all the time and see them just sitting there looking on while they tear up someone's flowerbed.

I've even had this neighbor come over to my backyard and get my lawn chairs and table out, which were folded up against the house, and bring her whole family over to my yard for a cookout. And I'm not even friendly with them for obvious reasons, so it's just strange. I've never seen anything like it.

Seriously, I don't understand how you can not care that you're raising your child to be destructive as hell and have no boundaries. See what happens when they pull that crap when they're 16.

sunneye1

My girlfriend and I went to a zoo in DC on a date, and as we were heading out at the end of the day, we were stopped at the maned wolf enclosure admiring these beautiful animals.

Behind us passed a family of what appeared to be a man, a wife, and 2-3 young children. One of them is in a stroller (a pram for UK people). The child in the stroller was shrieking pretty badly, and the parents seemed to be ignoring it.

Sad, but not our problem. 

We tuned out the screams and continued observing the wolves until about 30 seconds later, and maybe 100 feet down the path, we heard the father scream, and I mean, he really screamed at the top of his lungs directly into the child's face in the stroller.

The kid stopped crying, but it probably also shat itself and received hearing damage. It didn't look old enough to be speaking, walking, or doing much of anything yet.

It looked like a potato. Yet this man thought a good way to stop it from crying was to scream at it. I worry for the children of people like that.

Silent_Sky

A man was at a fast food chain when a mom and her 6-year-old son showed up. The kid was screaming up a storm, yelling, "I want a freaking pie!"

The kid kept screaming again and again, and the mother wasn't doing anything about it. 

The man got so fed up that he ordered all 26 pies they had when he got to the counter.

As he walked away with his bounty, he smiled triumphantly at the little brat and his enabling mother. It's the most awesome and justified bit of spiteful behavior I've ever heard of.

rainbowdashtheawesom

My husband and I went out for lunch once and watched in horror as a woman let her young (5-ish) child run around the restaurant.

The kid also ran into the kitchen and out into the parking lot while gorging herself on all-you-can-eat crab legs. We left at around the same time as the woman.

We watched her drive away with the kid in the back, not even wearing a seatbelt, let alone using a car seat/booster. We reported her license plate to the police, but I don't know if anything ever came of it.

Krampage

Years ago, when I was about 12 or 13, the whole family was in the car driving down the road towards our house. We were a few houses away when suddenly my dad slammed the brakes on to avoid hitting a toddler who had just wandered into the road in nothing but a nappy.

Couldn't have been more than 18 months old. Quickly looking around, I saw no one to be seen. My dad got out of the car and picked the kids up, who held their arms out for a total stranger to pick them up.

We knocked on the door of the house from which we suspected the kid. A guy answers, and my dad tells him what just happened.

The guy just says, 'Cheers, mate,' and proceeds to take the kid off him and closes the door. That's the kind of neighborhood I grew up in.

vintage

Back when I was a birthday hostess at a local bowling alley, a mom came in with her son for his birthday. While I was talking to the mom before the party, she told me that her son was a miracle kid.

It was because he survived cancer and was in remission, and the local news team had done a story about him. Later, I went down to talk to the mom about when she wanted the cake brought out, and there she was, standing next to her son, smoking a cigarette. Like, what the heck?

At the same party, while I was talking to the mom about her bill, I looked up and saw a baby crawling out of the lane.

Not just around the start of the lane but actually OUT ON the lane. To the point I had to run down the side covers to get the kid.

And when I got the kid and got back, it took a couple of minutes for me to find the mom. Who the hell puts their baby, who can only crawl, down on the floor of a dark bowling alley (this was during the black light bowling) and lets them wander off?!?!

DaniDoll99

My wife has always been a kid magnet; no matter where we go, little kids tend to gravitate towards her. When we are sitting at a restaurant, all the kids within range will look and smile.

So one night about 25 years ago, we were able to steal away from our own three kids and get a bite to eat while our oldest watched the younger two kids.

We went to an eatery called the "Ground Round," a family-friendly place that served simple dishes quickly. A nearby family allowed their two youngsters to wander around the tables, which was common for this place.

One of the two kids, a boy of about 3, came over to our table (as usual) and started chattering with my wife, telling one story after another.

The wife and I are amused by the precocious tot and laughing that we just can't get away from kids. Then the kid matter-of-factly blurts out, "Mommy says 'Pennywise is going to get me," and just walks back to his area.

Simultaneously, our jaws drop. We look at each other and ask, "Did I just hear that right?" We still talk about it. It was quite odd for us. We heard it without context.

gcatlin

Maybe not the worst, but I saw a mother with her child at a bus stop once. Her child was trying to get her attention for five solid minutes.

All of this is happening while mom was just on the phone talking to her friend about the party this weekend and the drinks she was going to bring.

She said how crazy it was going to get. She never once acknowledged what her child wanted to show her. (and I think I even told her to shut up once).

insanetwit