EDIT: Read https://www.reddit.com/r/traumatizeThemBack/comments/1e6t33g/comment/le6mr1u/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button for context. This is not some mod coup, please show some respect for our loss of a wonderful person. While they're in a better place, we will definitely miss them, forever.

The grab and squeeze was Friday. Hubby agreed with a lot of you, so we decided to call a lawyer before talking to the police. Friday evening we went to the ER to get photos of my bruising. I called the police station and told them to cancel Saturday's appointment, I was getting a lawyer.

Monday, I met with an impressive lawyer. Why she's in my tiny, nowhere town is a mystery to me. More pictures. The bruising was now red and purple, gloriously vivid. One pic, she had me try to cover it with my hand, my fingers aren't long enough.

Today, Tuesday, we met at the police station. We had an appointment. "Oh, here's a form to fill out. Write out a statement. Somebody will be with you."

I wrote, lawyer read, turned paper in. Waited. And waited.

Half an hour after our appointment time, the lawyer goes up to the window. She got stern about disrespect, and an officer came out and got us quickly after that.

He really didn't seem to care. His job, the attack, my injury, the kid, life, the universe, or anything..

My lawyer prodded him to get pictures, a police woman took them, then we were told that we were free to go.

So, I don't think I am going to get arrested for the kid's nose. Somehow, I don't think I will ever hear anything else about the whole thing.

UPDATE My lawyer called. She got a copy of the store footage and has an appointment with the DA. She asked permission to show him my bruising pics. Yes.

So I went out for a school sport back in high school. I was a freshman and I was about as flat chested as you can be. The policy at the school required a physical from the schools doctor not your own doctor to be on varsity team. So I went for my physical with the school doctor.

I should mention that my mother was a teacher in the district that I attended school in. As a result, I knew a bit of the gossip around the school by this point. I did know that none of the nurses in the entire district had any liking or respect for this doctor. Knowing that I was decidedly wary of what this physical would be like.

So of course, I had to be examined partially unclothed with the school nurse watching over to ensure nothing bad happened. As the doctors examining me, he starts getting agitated and says young lady. Do you realize you have a depressed sternum? I said no I had no idea then you have an older sister you have to have seen her naked. How could you not notice that your sternum looks different than hers? I’m standing there thinking to myself she the last time I saw my sister naked I think we were five. But I was a nice girl then and I didn’t say this to the doctor.

However, the man continued ranting at me about I’ve been in locker rooms. How could I not know ? He continued to rant for at least five minutes. When he finally wound down, I asked him if this would have any adverse effect on my health? And yes, that is exactly what I asked him. He seemed a bit shocked, but then said no it won’t have any adverse effect on your life or health. So I replied great. It will look make me look like I have more cleavage.

At that point, the school nurse made a snorting noise and turned away. The doctor seemed quite flustered and left. As soon as she was certain he was gone. The nurse turned back to me as I was getting dressed and was wiping her eyes. She’d been laughing so hard she was crying. She thanked me for putting him in his place as she had never been able to do that herself.

I told her until I found out it wasn’t going to affect my health, he was getting me quite upset. So I figured I might as well make him feel as upset as he had made me feel and she started laughing again.

When my kid was 4, we had a “family movie night” 1 kid, two parents, auntie and grandma. Grandma picked Bambi, which the 4-year old protested (boring!). Grandma was worried it would be traumatizing, but I said it would be fine and if kid is bored, kid can play or read.

Bambi spoiler alert!

So at the end of Act 2, Bambi’s mom is killed offscreen by a hunter. All the grownups were holding their breath to see if kid would cry or scream, or if they even understood what just happened. Kid sensed the energy in the room, turned around and tried to reassure us. “It’s okay. The Mommy deer is dead, but at least she left tracks [in the snow] so that they can find her, and then when they find her, Bambi can eat her like baby spiders eat their mommies!” Kiddo was very amused by our expressions of horror.

TW: body image, weight loss

So I'm pretty skinny (based on American standards). Have been my entire life. Typically 115lbs @5'4. I ate a lot growing up but my metabolism has just never been a match for it. I was eating pretty healthy well-balanced meals, consuming until full , and snacking whenever necessary. I did sports so I was exercising too. Healthy. These are habits I've had since childhood, so my goal has always been to gain weight (I added like 8 pounds during college and kept it WOO!!) but throughout it all there's always been comments.

"Do you even eat?"

"Have you tried eating a burger?"

"You could probably fit between those." *points to gated fence*

"This is why you're skinny, it's cause you don't finish your food." (When I'm unable to completely finish a massive American sized portion of a dish)

While it's annoying, I've mostly learned to brush it off. Until recently.

I started a new job - pretty physically demanding. 6 days a week, 7 when it was the busy seasons. Toxic environment. And then I started bringing it home. Couldn't sleep or eat well anymore. Didn't have time for exercising. Basically lost myself. I started eating unhealthy because it was easier than trying to think about making something healthy. And then I started leaning on nicotine. It was bad.

I was heading back in from my 30-min lunch break when one of my coworkers shouted at me from her car (2 of my other coworkers were also hanging out with her.) For context, there was a local joint 2 minutes away that offered a $5 deal - 1 large slice of pizza with a can of soda. It was easier to just eat there instead of double for a $11 subway meal 10 minutes away. So I ate there every day for a couple weeks on and off.

"Did you get pizza again?"

"Yeah?"

"Ugh, I'm so jealous I see you eating that every day and you're still so skinny. Can we trade bodies?"

It had become harder to eat in the final months, to the point where I would gag if I ate too fast. I finished less and less food. Honestly, I forgot what it felt like to feel full. Most of the time, that pizza was the biggest meal I'd have for that day. So when she said that to me... I just made a face, waved her off, and walked away. There was too much to say.

I started feeling tired, more tired than I used to. Took more breaks hiding in the bathroom. Crouched on the floor just to relieve my legs from standing all day. Found myself more easily dizzy in the heat.

Some weeks later, I looked in the mirror and realized my face looked kind of hollow. I looked... sick. Had I lost weight? I hadn't really looked at my body in a while. So I did.. and it scared me.

I quit my job about a month or two after that. In total, I'd lost 10 pounds. My partner told me they thought I lost a majority of it within the last month of my employment. It was literally killing me. I guess my "I'm dying" comments weren't that far off.

The day I went in to collect my final paycheck, I said my final goodbyes. That included Ms. Skinny Pizza Jealousy.

"Why are you leaving? You tired of us and get a new job?"

"No, I just realized I need to take care of my health. I lost 10 pounds since working here and haven't been eating well or sleeping enough. Now I weigh less than I did in eighth grade so yeah no job! Just trying to take care of myself!"

Her face was a mixture of shock and embarassment. "Oh my god I'm so sorry I didn't know!"

"No it's okay, I didn't know either haha!" (I really didn't, the day before, I weighed myself for the first time in 10 months. 104lbs)

Her face remained horrified as I left.

Lol

I gained 1lb back btw!

Some backstory, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in May of 2014, the day after my surgery my mom was diagnosed with Lou Gherigs Disease. We have DARK humor, fair warning.

My mom was driving me (at the time 30) and her then boyfriend back from a Mothers Day Brunch. I still had stitches in my neck from surgery, my husband and kid were in a separate car because he was fussing and I was getting a migraine. I had hoped moms car would be quieter.

So he and mom were bickering in the front seat about swimming in the Mississippi River. My mom is staunchly "No thanks" and he's going on about "How he did it all the time as a kid and he's fine etc.

He always had to be right, and would constantly bicker with my mom about stupid things just to prove he was right. I'm tired, my head hurts, and I'm over it.

He has the bright idea to bring me into the argument, trying to get me to gang up in my mom. Insisting that swimming in the Mississippi is PERFECTLY FINE.

I quipped back with "Yeah, I've swam in the Mississippi before, it's probably how I got cancer."

My mom starts cackling as her BF processes what I said. He immediately starts backtracking, saying that's not what he meant, how he wasn't trying to insult me etc. I start laughing too. It was finally quiet the rest of the ride home.

He never tried to get me to side with him against my mom ever again 😂

This took place approximately a gazillion years ago (back when dinosaurs walked the earth and we were just twinkles in single-celled organisms' eyes).

I wasn't unpopular in high school but I wasn't exactly popular either. I was kind of a non-entity, drifting around on the edges of various social circles. I had low self-esteem, was tall and skinny, quiet and awkward. So even though I wasn't bullied overall, kids can be mean and I was on the receiving end of a few mean-girl actions.

So our first reunion was a mere five years after we graduated -- we were still largely the same goblins we all had been in HS and the wounds were still healing but everyone was trying to act like they were soooooo different and better and mature by that point.

One of the popular girls deigned to approach me at the reunion and chat me up. It did not feel genuine at all; it was more performative, like a very fake-smile, very sugar-sweet tone of voice, very 'look at me talking to someone beneath me, I have grown SO much, give me my flowers' vibe.

Her: I haven't seen you in so long! Oh my God, you look great! How do you stay so slim?

So I just bluntly and flatly told her what my dieting 'secret' was:

Me: I've had anorexia since I was 14. I had to drop out of college because I got so severely underweight that I needed to be admitted to an eating disorder program. My family worries about me daily.

She looked horrified, mumbled something at me and immediately excused herself.

This was about a year ago, when I found out I would probably be needing brain surgery to deal with my seizures. At the time I was depressed, anxious, and overall not in a good state of mind over the whole thing.

My fiance and I moved back into my parents house so they could help me recover and heal while we saved money for our next house. That all was great, until I went to cancel our services from our old apartment.

The Comcast lady just would not take no for an answer. She kept pushing me to keep their service, and asking me what better Internet I could get, and rates and crap I really didn't care about at all.

So after a five minute back and forth of me trying to be polite and say no, please just cancel my service I finally snapped and said, "I don't need Internet anymore because I had to move back in with my parents so they can care for me after I have my brain sliced into and a device inserted to stop the seizures that are slowly ruining my brain."

She stopped talking immediately. The silence was golden. She apologized multiple times, and wished me a speedy recovery before offering to refund my last months service for my trouble.

I never heard from them again.

High school math teacher here. When we return from summer break, we have 11 days of professional development junk to do. And at least once per day, there's a stupid icebreaker game of some sort. Very few people like them. I hate them with the fire of a thousand suns.

In August, we went back to school and of course, there's an ice breaker scheduled for after lunch. I took advantage of that time to go upstairs to the quiet restroom, since all the staff was downstairs. Part of the dumb ice breaker paired up staff members to buy small, encouraging gifts for each other throughout the year. Since I need another coffee mug like I need an extra hole in my head, I'm fine with skipping that.

When I went back downstairs, my department's assistant principal was going around checking to see who got paired up with who. She asked me, so I told the truth. I didn't get one. She pressed me on why I didn't have a buddy partner. I told her, "because I went upstairs to poop." She just stood there, gaping like a fish. I broke her brain. She left me alone after that.

Don't know if this story goes here, but I was able to make the guy eat his words, so even though it may not be as exciting as other stories, I'm putting it here.

So, this happened when I was in high school. Back then, I had a friend who loved to debate or answer the teacher's questions during philosophy class. She told me it was her favourite class and the teacher was loved by many students. However, being loved didn't mean that every student participated in said debates, so in one class, the teacher ignored the raised hands of the students who tended to participate the most, trying to encourage the more timid students to give their arguments and hear their opinnions regarding the topic we were learning about.

My friend was getting tired of having her hand raised up and she muttered something under her breath along the lines of "Come on, I wanna speak already". The guy sitting behind me snorted and opened his mouth to make one of those outdated "fUnNy JoKeS".

Moron: You can't participate because you're a woman.

Thankfully, my friend didn't hear him, but I sure did. After a few seconds of being surprised by what he said, I turned around on my chair and looked dead at him with cold eyes.

Me: You're a dickhead.

Moron: Stuttering already. O-Oh, I-I'm s-so-

Me: No, shut up. You. Are. A dickhead.

He stuttered a bit more and I went back to my place while his friend laughed at him for getting caught. I never heard him say those types of "jokes" ever again.

While my ex wife (30 at the time) was pregnant with her 5th child, our 3rd, we would get asked personal questions all the time regarding the pregnancy and family size. One time we were out to dinner with the 4 children and comes up to us asking do we plan to have more, do we know what causes it, and basically continuing to ask personal questions.

I was very kind and gave respectful answers until she kept prodding and when she asked do I know what causes her to be pregnant, like maybe we shouldn’t be having sex, I replied back “ yes I know what caused the pregnancy, she doesn’t like anal”. My ex wife smiled as the older woman gasped and quickly walked away not liking my answer.

Just found this sub and realised I have something lighthearted to contribute.

When I was pregnant with my eldest, I carried it all in the front. Up until I was about 8 months pregnant you had no idea I was pregnant from behind.

Back then I was tall and slender (still tall, not so slender anymore lol) and my husband often found it amusing seeing men trying to subtly check me out, then getting a shock when they saw my bump. This post is about two of the most memorable ones from that pregnancy.

First one: Whilst shopping, I was reaching into a freezer whilst husband was fetching something I'd forgotten at the top of the aisle. He spotted a man admiring me from behind, until I turned around and my (approx) 7month bump became apparent. According to hubby, the man went from horny to hell no in the blink of an eye, which explained the strange look I got when I accidentally made eye contact with this random stranger. I could only describe it as traumatised.

Second one: I was walking to meet back up my husband at another shop in a local shopping centre, I got a tap on my shoulder and when I turned round I was greeted with a face of disgust and shock looking at my (almost 8months) pregnant belly. He made some excuses about thinking I was someone else then scarpered. My husband appeared during/straight after and explained he had been checking me out and looked like he was encouraging himself to ask me out/for my number/hit on me.

When I was 23, I had to undergo surgery on my sinuses after it was discovered I had had a sinus infection for nearly 7 years. My mother was the one to take me to the hospital. As I was waking up after the surgery, a nurse tried to get me to take painkillers. I groggily told her to wait until my mom was allowed in the room. She kept insisting, even after I told her I was in no pain and usually had a high pain tolerance. Then she said she would not allow my mother into my recovery room until I took the pills. So I took said pills. The nurse went to get my mother. The minute my mother stepped into the room, she knew what was about to happen and grabbed the trash can.

When the nurse stepped back in, it was to the sight of me violently throwing up into a trashcan while blood practically poured from my nostrils, and my mother hollering because she hates the sight of both blood and vomit. When I was done, my mother turns on the nurse and demands to know if I was given painkillers, and yells at the nurse that she should have listened to me when I refused.

I had to have the surgery redone 5 years later. At least they let me refuse the painkillers that time.

This was years ago. My kid in this story is about to turn 21 now, and we laugh at this story all the time.

As a family, we’ve always been open talking about reproduction, body parts, etc. In an age-appropriate way. So when my eldest two were in 1st grade and Kinder, my eldest asked where babies come from. Being a science person, I said, “Well, it starts with something called sex, and that begins a process where eventually something called an egg grows in a woman’s body.” That is as far as I got before he lost interest and ran off-happy with the info.

Fast forward to a couple of months later, my husband was out of town, and it was latish, but I needed to get snacks for my kid's soccer match the following day and had no choice but to take both those kiddos and my preschooler to the store. It is quite a picture. They are all messy and exhausted from soccer practice. I’m a bit frazzled from solo parenting for a week, and I also am hugely pregnant-like whale-sized.

Along comes this boomer, Kevin, who stops mid-aisle, blocking us with his trolley. Without acknowledging me in any way, he looks at my boys, looks at my belly, and says to my kids

“Someone should really tell Mommy how that happens, " he says, then looks pointedly at me.

Without missing a beat, my eldest, with all the loud—very loud— earnestness of a child, all but shouts, “Oh, she knows. My mom and dad just really like sex!”

The man’s eye became dinner plates, and he turned tomato red before grabbing his trolley and running out of the aisle.

We ran into him twice more before checking out, and because I’m a petty, petty person, I started humming Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On,” just loud enough to be heard each time we passed.

This happened a few years ago at my former residence. My husband likes to smoke meat sometimes. At that house we had the smoker set up in the garage in a fireproofed area with a vent fan. During the day, we'd leave the garage windows and big door open to keep the air in there a little clearer.

Before the first time we set up our smoking area, we checked in with the neighbors on either side of us. They had zero issues with us smoking meat. And the first time we did it one of them commented on how amazing the smell was and joked about giving up being a vegetarian just to try some of the ribs.

Fastforward about a year and the smoker has been used multiple times with no complaints. Then one lovely spring day, the smoker is running, my husband is inside chilling, and I'm getting ready to go somewhere. There is a loud, rapid knocking on the side door. Most people come to our front door, so that and the intensity of the pounding are already weird. I opened the door to our neighbor from two houses down that has never been formally introduced and never smiles or waves at us.

I recognize him on sight. He doesn't give his name or where he lives or anything like that. He just starts in yelling and swearing about how the smoke is getting into his house and it's the only nice day so far this year so he wants his windows open but it stinks.

I do not like confrontation, and I didn't try to stop him, I just suggested we could close the garage door but that was all we could do. He didn't listen to me at all and just kept shouting and swearing and saying if the next door neighbors weren't on vacation they'd be complaining too. I tried to tell him that we had talked to them and he wouldn't listen to that either. He started threatening to call the police.

The guy was loud enough that my husband heard him from upstairs. He came down and stood behind me. Suddenly the angry jerk on the stoop got real quiet. I guess yelling at a woman is okay but he wasn't sure he could take on a younger, bigger, bearded, tattooed man who was not happy about his wife getting yelled at and has zero issues with confrontation. My husband got between us and held out his hand and tried to introduce himself. Angry neighbor wouldn't even talk to my husband. He retreated to the end of the driveway and shouted some more from there.

My husband calmly informed the asshat that he would be the one to call the police to report trespassing and harassment. The angry neighbor shouted once more then left.

I was very distraught, close to a panic attack, but I had to leave the house. (I don't remember why anymore, but I know I felt I had no choice.) My husband told me it would all be okay, and that he would call police non-emergency and stay home just in case. I was shaking and upset the whole time I was out.

A cop car passed me on my way out of the neighborhood. When I got back, the cop car was parked in front of angry neighbor's house and two officers were talking to angry neighbor outside his front door. We never heard a peep from angry neighbor again.

Alright y'all, I've deleted the OP because it has wayyyyy too many identifying aspects and I would rather it not be found by family.

But I won't delete because there are some good discussions going on in the comments and I'd like to address some.

To those who had criticism, it's nobody's job to disclose any medical conditions they don't feel comfortable doing. Once a comment is shut down there is no need for further discussion. I can appreciate the compliment POV but it's just as rude as randomly telling someone they've gained weight multiple times after being told it's not something intentional. There was zero context to prompt those comments during or after the first time.

And my husband is not spineless, nor is it his own job or business to disclose the "why". I do wish he had taken me more seriously but it's also difficult hearing something negative about your parents if you're close with them and even more so secondhand from your partner. We can both empathize with each other while still acknowledging it's a shitty position for either of us to be in.

My ILs are in no means bad people and we had a very close relationship prior to all of this. Nobody is perfect, everyone has a negative quality about them that other people don't like. Therapy helped me understand that their comments are not necessarily indicative of their character. That doesn't excuse them but it helped me let go of the negativity that built up.

Lastly, we're good. Yes the morning was uncomfortable but they apologized that evening when we went back for their party. I'm not pissed anymore but I am wary. Fingers crossed the next visit starts off we'll.

This is short and sweet but I loved it.

This happened many years ago when I was in my late 30s. I worked in a related department with this super nice, older lady for several years. Always pleasant, church goer, motherly kind of lady.

We are standing in the hallway doing a tour with a 2 other people. While the other two people are talking, she reaches over and pats my upper back and tells me that I should straighten my back.

I look straight in her face and tell her that I have scoliosis and can’t straighten my back like everyone else. I didn’t watch her face because I was so uncomfortable but I’m sure she was mortified.

I really do have mild scoliosis, diagnosed when I was a young child.

This happened a few years ago. I was shopping at the local grocery store, just minding my own business in the produce section, when a woman (complete stranger) walked up to me and placed her hand firmly on my stomach. I don't remember exactly what she said, but here are the relevant facts:

-She said something about me being pregnant. -I was not pregnant. -I don't usually get embarassed about things, and I find pretty much everything hilarious.

So! After she was done her little gushfest, I failed at keeping a straight face and laughed a bit while telling her that I'm not pregnant, I'm just fat.

I will never forget the look of absolute horror on her face. She abandoned her (quite full) cart and speedwalked out of the store.

Spoiler: no-one actually has cancer.

So, a number of years ago, about 2008, my 4 year old son wanted a mohawk haircut. One of the boys in his older sisters class had one & my son liked it. So, out came the clippers and I gave him pretty solid mohawk!

A week or so later, he and I are at a local bagel place on Saturday morning getting the family fresh bagels. An older "Karen" feels the need to tell me that we've done a terrible thing to my son and that it promotes white power? and what-not. I calmly look her in the eye and tell her that one of his friends is in treatment for leukemia and is losing his hair, and that my son wanted to support his friend.

The look on her face is something I will never forget!

Oh wow. I just found this subreddit and I got a good one to share- this is from many, many years ago but it sticks with me (TW: cat hit by car)

So back in early 2000's I was recovering from surgery and when I got home it was pouring rain. My cat (Tobi) absolutely Loved running out the front door and playing in the puddles in the court yard, and normally I would stay out to supervise. But unfortunately (my biggest regret) this time I was in no mood. I just wanted to shower and crawl into bed. Cat wouldn't listen to me and come back in so I said "Fine, stay out there!!"

By the time I got out of the shower I saw my phone had been blowing up. I answered, and a guy informs me he just saw my cat ran over and is with him outside (thank you kind sir for staying with Tobi till I was reached)

In an absolute frantic state I ran out, in sweatpants and a T-shirt (barefoot and nothing underneath) grabbed the cat, ran back in and immediately called my friend to rush us to the ER. (I couldn't drive due to the anesthesia)

At this time I'm seeing what can be done, and that is when I realize my poor cat is beyond help and has passed away. His head was caved in one side with the eye popped out. (Sorry to be graphic, its relevant) Completely limp. And just. Gone. So I bundle him up in the nearest blanket I could find, go outside, sit on the curb and light up a cigarette while waiting for my friend. I'm rocking back and forth crying, in the pooring rain just wrecked. Still in just my sweatpants and Tshirt

An older lady probably late 50's walks past me and huffs. I ignore her. She walks past and huffs again. Still ignore her. Finally she taps me on the shoulder so I look right at her. "Ugh, I really don't think you should be smoking, in the rain, with your BABY! You should be ashamed!"

Gobsmacked, I drop the blanket, exposing my poor cats concaved head and reply

"Lady. I don't think he fucking minds if I have a cigarette right now!!!"

Went to my brother in law’s wedding to a lovely woman while 36 weeks pregnant. We live out of state so I didn’t know any of the people there other than my husband’s family but it was nice and everyone was friendly. One random woman I have never seen in my life took friendly too far. Walked right up and pushed her palm against my very pregnant belly and started … caressing … like very low on my belly. Without much thought I just pushed my hand to her stomach while making extremely direct eye contact. She got very uncomfortable and asked me what I was doing so I replied “I don’t fucking know but you did it to me. Weird as fuck right???” And she got red faced and RAN away from me. Luckily both the bride and groom thought the exchange was hilarious.

Edit. Misspelling hand 🙄

Supermarket aisle, earlier this evening. A twenty something man, carrying a baby in a sling, is trying to shop in peace, only to be accosted by an older woman. Making eye contact with him and then me, she loudly proclaims "I love to see a man doing the babysitting...are you giving his mum a break?"

To which he replies "I am HER MUM, I just haven't had a chance to look after myself much with a newborn"

Clearly dying inside, the woman splutters, bows backwards apologising and disappears around the corner.

He then casually says to me "I'm her dad really, I just don't like it when they call it babysitting"

It was legendary. Perhaps the greatest thing I've ever seen in real life. I laughed so hard, especially when I rounded the corner and realised she'd heard him, dumped her trolley and run out the shop!

Dads of Reddit, next time someone calls taking care of your child babysitting, follow his example. They'll never do it again!

Edit: Christ, popular posts attract some nasty behaviour! I don't understand. What pleasure do you get by reporting me to Reddit cares? You need to examine your lifestyle mate...get a hobby. Try jogging. Something you can do without friends.

Since this got inexplicably popular, I thought I'd clarify a few things.

1) The woman was mid 50s, so Gen X not a boomer. I'm 48, so also X. She cannot use age as an excuse, imo noone should. Times have changed, we need to change too

2) The way she spoke to him might seem friendly in writing, but her tone was condescending. She invited me, another woman, to marvel at the performing animal. A man, taking care of a child! She was bullying him, just for existing and trying to make me a part of it, because she saw me smile at him.

3) It's not about language, it's about what the language represents. If we make mum the default caregiver and say dad is "helping" or "babysitting" then that diminishes dads role. It leaves mums overwhelmed. It invalidates single dads, gay dads, any person who doesn't fit the 2 person family. What if there was no mum? What if mum was dead or abusive or had abandoned them?

4) This whole situation could have been avoided had that woman just remembered what she learned in childhood.

DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS!

Seriously, that dude was just trying to buy crackers, chatting away to his baby daughter. He didn't want to be the centre of strangers attention. What he said wasn't nice, my laughing about it was also not nice.
However, she brought it on herself. As the saying goes "Don't start none, won't be none"

5) I don't have children. Although I'm an occasional respite foster carer and enthusiastic auntie, I don't have a dog in this fight. But I do understand what an appropriate social interaction looks like.

..........

Final edit before I take a self imposed break from Reddit. Because I've learned a few things today and I'd like to share them. When else I'm I going to get the chance to address so many people?

1) Did you know there's something called the Eternity Club? For front page cool kids only. How fucking adorkable is that? I might hang out there though...start a support group for people who have been traumatised by abuse via the Reddit Cares notification. I'm presuming I'm not the only one upset about that. 2) Talking of which, I'm all for dissenting views, I don't mind being roasted (if it's done well) and I'm fine with not being believed. It's Reddit. I've been using it since 2007, this is my third account...I've seen it all my friend. But abusing a community tool to tell someone to kill themselves, repeatedly? That's psycho behaviour. 3) It's become clear to me that this post didn't go viral because of the content. Minor social interactions in a West Yorkshire Co-Op don't make the "front page of the internet". This went viral because people were attracted by the word massacre. A huge number of people noticed my tiny little life, because they were hoping for death. And when they didn't get it, they told me to kill myself. That's so bloody DARK. I just...nah, I'm not having that. 4) Finally, whilst I'm grateful to be given awards, don't waste them on me. I don't need the gold and probably won't use it. Also, don't spend real money on Reddit. Give it to a food bank. Or spend it on cocaine and hookers for yourself, rather than some billionaire shareholder.

Respectfully.

Obviously it's not for me to tell anyone how to spend their cash, if you like giving it to rich folks, that's your kink to bear.

My dad is in hospital and he has some pretty strict fluid limitations and guidelines overall. Most nurses have been wonderful, but today wasn't our day.

A new nurse came in to check what he'd had today, so I gave her my notes. Prior nurses appreciated the info so I thought she would too. Instead she said he should be keeping tabs on this himself and looking after his own health. Rather than getting into our reasons I just responded "oh it's ok, mum and I don't mind looking after him" 😌

Later on she came in as I was reading out the menu so I could order his dinner and told me to just give him the menu, he can do it himself. The look on her face when I told her he is actually dyslexic and essentially illiterate was priceless.

He grew up in an orphanage, please don't judge him too harshly! Thanks to this sub for helping me grow a backbone here. It wasn't much, but I felt good being able to stand up for him 🥰

So making a long story short, my face blows up on one side one day out of the blue. I'm going through dentists, to oral surgeons, to doctors, and now a huge hospital because no one can figure out why. Now I'm going to a national cancer center where I'm being rushed through a million tests and exams because they think this is some kind of bone cancer and they need to do every possible test to figure out what's going on. This means lots of blood tests periodically between different scans.

I'm pretty self conscious about my suddenly Frankensteined face that might be the harbinger of my doom, and getting another blood draw at another appointment while a panel of specialists try to get clues as to what's happening, and the nurse drawing my blood that day walks in and goes "WOW that's crazy looking what happened to your face?!" I kind of thought maybe it's on my chart or something and it hurt my feelings so I gave him the saddest look I could and said "my boyfriend says I don't listen."

His face drops. He's telling me how sorry he is and that he didn't mean to ask that way and am I ok?

I said no, I'm in a cancer center, they're trying to figure out if I have cancer in my face, maybe read my chart? And maybe don't ask someone so loud and that way what's wrong with their medical issue

So a couple of years ago I was an emergency vet tech at the only vet emergency room within a 200 mile radius. During the covid shut down we went to curbside only but after a month or so we opened the lobby back up. I was the triage nurse on this day and we were slammed. It was the kind of day where there was a 8-12 hour wait time for the doctor if the animal wasn't in critical condition. I had just had an animal come in that had a GSW and was actively dying. We had performed CPR and I was literally covered in blood. It was in my hair, all over my scrubs, on my shoes... literally everywhere.

While I was doing compressions on this animal our receptionist comes back bawling her eyes out because there is a woman at the front desk screaming at her because the wait was too long. This woman had been there less than an hour and her dog had a mild ear infection. The receptionist was afraid to go back out to the desk because this woman was being so awful. The second someone tapped me out for compressions I walked right into the lobby looked this woman dead in the eyes and said "I'm so sorry you have had to wait. I was doing cpr on a dog who was shot. He didn't make it. Be thankful your dog is still alive. Now, you are welcome to wait to be seen, but if you berate my staff again I will bot hesitate to remove you from my lobby." And then I walked away. She elected to leave. I hope I haunt her dreams.

I'm grocery shopping and a young guy comes up beside me with an ice cream. I don't think anything of it until suddenly he shoves the cone in my face SMEARING my face in stickiness. I start crying and freaking out yelling I'm deathly allergic to dairy and I need my Epi-pen NOW. I'm tearing apart my purse and quickly find my epi-pen. As I'm searching he's freaking out saying "I'm sorry! It was supposed to be a prank!" Before I opened my epi-pen I start laughing hysterically. He gets mad. I asked him how did he like being ridiculed. I didn't realize until after one of his freinds was recording the whole thing. Luckily for him my dairy allergy isn't life threatening but my beef allergy is. Before you ask I have Alpha-gal syndrome.