Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Parents Reveal The Worst Mistake They Ever Made Raising Their Kids

Contrary to our beliefs when we were kids, our parents are not perfect. They are just trying their best, just like the rest of us.

So sometimes they make mistakes. And they are aware of the mistakes that they make. Most often, they wish they could take those mistakes back.

The best they can do, though, is learn. Just like the rest of us.


u/jonseh asked:

Parents of reddit, what was your worst parenting mistake?

Here were some of the answers.


Dat Hurt Mummy

Giphy

Put my son, who was about 8 months old at the time, onto our changing table that is about waist high and turned around to grab more diapers. Terrible decision.

Caught him rolling off the table out of the corner of my eye but it was too late...he fell 3 feet, landed directly on his face and did a full scorpion. He's never cried so hard in his life before or after. I held him and just started crying because I felt so guilty hurting him like that.

WhoDat512

Expressions Are Lost On Three Year Olds

3 year old woke up in the middle of the night and came to tell me she had a bad dream. I walked her back to her room and talked to her about her dream. She said she was dreaming there were bugs crawling on the walls and in her bed. I told her that it was just a dream and the bugs only existed in her head.

She didn't get back to sleep for a LONG time after being told she had bugs in her head.

fitcht3ll

They Can Always Roll Over

Five months old:

"He'll be fine. He can't roll over yet." *places baby in middle of king sized bed and proceeds to finish getting ready for work*

THUMP

He could, in fact, roll over.

I'm sure there are more, but that's the one that really, really stands out.

KLWK

My Fear, Your Loss

After my daughter spent all her own money on a skateboard, I relayed to her that I was afraid that one of the times she fell off her board she'd get hit by a car. In less than two days she didn't try anymore. I don't know if she had a scare or just didn't want me to worry, but I feel like I took one of the most physical hobbies she could have had away from her by projecting my own fear. She doesn't gravitate toward physical activity much now as a young adult.

preciousephish

This One, They Were Jerks

Neither of my parents have Reddit but they have told me this has been their biggest mistake with me of all time. I was a kid about 14 and I was riding my bike in the front yard. Anyway, I end up falling over onto the ground on my bike while standing up and not moving. Long story short it feels like I've just been drop kicked in my balls. So I head inside and lay on the couch in pain for a while.

Ask my parents to take me to the hospital and they refused. Told me I was just being a baby and that the pain would go away. About an hour and a half later and many tears they finally agree to take me in. Turns out I had given myself a testicular torsion and the lack of blood to that area of my body meant I was going into emergency surgery. I lost a testicle the same day less then ten minutes later. Never forgave them for it

Alduwin123

No One Should Look Like Ted Cruz

My son is a freshman in college and I thought I covered all my bases but I realized during Thanksgiving that I never taught him how to shave. I probably forgot because I have a beard so I don't really shave all that often, but he definitely is not ready to sport one as well. When he walked in the door, my wife asked me why our son looked like Ted Cruz.

thatnateb*tch

Big.  Old.  Whoops.

Oh man, one time my wife and I took our son on a trip to the harbor since he was now old enough to go with us on these trips. After a fun-filled day we were driving back home and my wife glanced in the backseat and goes "where's our son?" I guess we were not used to having a 3rd person with us when we went out so that's the story of how we almost forgot our child.

rapidnash

Can't Usually Control The Radio

I love listening to music in the car and some of the music obviously features some naughty or dubious words. When I had my young son in the car I would always skip certain songs but occasionally one slipped through the net.

Cue Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon. He got home one day and parroted parts of the song and I was desperately trying to distract him so he would forget it but he didn't.

I had the bright idea of trying to get him to change the word to something else. He was still in the early speaking stage so everything sounded slightly garbled. Anyway I had success with the word 'Shed'

For about a day or so he then just wandered around singing about how his shed was on fire. Then he forgot and moved on to something else and my mortal fear of him saying it at childcare subsided. I have not played that song in my car since and it has been many years.

cardboardshrimp

Scared 'Em More

Not me, but when I was younger, like 6 or 7, I ate some watermelon seeds then got super paranoid that they would rip up my insides. My dad sat me down and told me that my intestines were as strong as this trash bag here, then he proceeded to test the strength of the trash bag and ripped right through it. I cried for, reportedly, 2 hours.

cieluv

The Santa Question

Giphy

My then 8 yr old son asked me if Santa was real, looked me in the eyes and said he wanted the truth and wanted me to swear to him that I was telling him the truth. So I decided he was old enough and that I should come clean with him. He started crying big crocodile tears, and was absolutely devastated. Told me after the fact that some other kids in his class were saying Santa isn't real, so he wanted to make sure he was before he argued with them. This was 3 years ago, and he told me this past Christmas that it was the saddest he's ever been and I better lie to his little sister when she asks. Lesson learned.

thats_my_username


More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Screenshot of Seth Meyers discussing Donald Trump
@MarcoFoster/X

Seth Meyers Responds To Trump's 'Truly Deranged' Personal Attack Against Him With Hilarious Takedown

After President Donald Trump lashed out at late-night host Seth Meyers on Truth Social over the weekend and called him a "truly deranged lunatic," Meyers responded to Trump’s “ranting and raving” about him with a damning supercut on his program.

Trump apparently tuned in to Thursday night’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, where Meyers poked fun at the president’s complaints about Navy aircraft carriers using electromagnetic catapults instead of traditional steam-powered ones. Meyers joked that Trump "spends more time thinking about catapults than Wile E. Coyote."

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @rootednjoyy's TikTok video
@rootednjoyy/TikTok

Girl's Hilarious Reaction To Getting Divisive Candy For Halloween Caught On Doorbell Cam

In the '80s and '90s, kids were raised with the understanding that they got what they got, and they should say, "Thank you," for what they received. This was true for birthdays, holidays, and trick-or-treating on Halloween, even if they got candy they wanted to throw away the instant they turned the corner.

But kids today are much more communicative about what they like and don't like, and they can be brutal in their bluntness.

Keep ReadingShow less
Lauren Boebert
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Lauren Boebert Slammed After Photos Of Her Racist ICE-Theme Halloween Costume Emerge

Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert—one of the most prominent MAGA voices in Congress—has sparked outrage after she and her boyfriend Kyle Pearcy attended a Halloween party dressed as a Mexican woman and an ICE agent.

Boebert wore a sombrero and a traditional Mexican-style dress to a party in Loveland, Colorado, while Pearcy, a realtor, attended dressed as an ICE agent, complete with a uniform and weapon. The event took place amid growing outrage over President Donald Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown that is tearing apart families across the country.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Marjorie Taylor Greene
ABC

MTG Just Admitted The Awkward Truth About The Republican Healthcare Plan On 'The View'

Speaking on The View, Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke about sparring with House Speaker Mike Johnson over healthcare—and revealed that the GOP does not have any replacement for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) despite what Johnson and her fellow congressional conservatives tell the public.

Democrats have continued to reject Republicans’ proposed continuing resolution to keep the government open without considering an extension of the premium tax credit that helps subsidize health insurance for people earning between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level.

Keep ReadingShow less
protest with flat Earth sign
Kajetan Sumila on Unsplash

People Share The Best Ways To Shut Down A Debate With A Flat Earther Family Member

The Flat Earth conspiracy theory is strictly a modern online movement, rumored to have begun as a prank, that gained momentum among people who mistrust authority through the power of social media.

There is a persistent myth that Europeans in the Middle Ages believed the Earth was flat. But that is a 19th-century fabrication to sell Columbus Day, not historical reality.

Keep ReadingShow less