Parenting isn't for everyone.
So many people have taken on the role of parent with catastrophic results.
The amount of trauma caused by people who should've never been able to conceive is staggering.
And I'm not the only one out there who has witnessed this truth firsthand.
We've all seen it.
A deleted Redditor wanted everyone to share the stories of when they came in contact with people they knew should never have been parents, so they asked:
"What's the worst case of bad parenting you've seen?"
In exchange for?
"My dad used to let me dog sit at his dealer's house by myself when I was 12."
- SofaKingWeTodIt
Get Out
"My GF's coworker asked if their son could play at my D&D game."
"The kid shows up. 450 pounds, reeks of s**t. Eats all of the snacks, and then tries to have in-game sex with the 80-year-old barkeeper. I had to boot him. I found out later that he doesn't go to school or do much of anything besides make characters on the hero maker website, which he never orders. He recently had to go to the emergency room because he is so heavy he tore his belly button."
"Parents who let a kid get like that should be jailed."
- Educational_Dust_932
Zero-Tolerance
"When I worked at a shelter for several years, there was one woman whose almost 3-year-old was still breastfeeding. She was on meth, and if she stopped nursing her son went into terrible withdrawals. Just inconsolable. And since he was addicted, all he’d eat was sugar, so it’s all she ever gave him. Every single tooth looked like it was rotting out of his head."
"I have empathy for her situation. I’m a recovering alcoholic myself and was secretly in active addiction while working there. But that was really tough to watch. It was unfortunately a zero-tolerance no-drugs shelter, so when she was randomly selected for the routine drug testing the two of them had to be asked to leave. It’s been 6 years but I still think about them often. There are tons of former residents who I still see around town and chat with, but I never saw them again."
- Former-Finish4653
Hey Neighbor
"My neighbors who live behind me. They let their kids run around and scream at all hours of the day and night. Then they got a puppy and all but ignored the poor thing. It just sits outside howling to come in. The kids used to bounce on the trampoline, taunt my dogs, and throw stuff over the fence. When I confronted them about it the parents ignored me. Like they literally just walked away. I finally stopped throwing things back and started popping the balls in front of the kids and letting my dogs chew up whatever other toys they threw."
- ItsMRslash
The Ex
"An old girlfriend of mine had a friend who was incredibly verbally abusive to her kid. This kid was 6 years old, and one night, he pi**ed her off because he wouldn't go to bed. So she went into the room and started threatening to beat him. Then she started saying things like I hope someone comes in here in the middle of the night and kidnaps you because your dad and I won't even try to look for you. And that kind of stuff carried on for 20 minutes until the kid was wailing. It was so bad I started crying and left. Called CPS the next day.
- Writeyourwayout28
Lazy Dad
"My old neighbors had 3 kids all under 10 when I knew them. These kids never got to play outside. Their dad d**ked around on his phone all day while mom worked. I heard the kids asking to go to the park EVERY day and he always said no. The only times the kids went outside it was to go to the corner store and they would come back with giant sodas and a bunch of chips and candy."
"All of the kids were so fat they could barely walk. They certainly couldn't run or ride bikes. Walking across the street to the bodega was almost too much for them."
It was so f**king sad."
- Tryingtodosomethingg
Isn’t It Cute?
"For context: Worked at the theme parks for 5+ years when I lived in Florida. I was a Main Entrance greeter (turnstiles) and we had a crowd of guests waiting at the gates to enter for a ticketed event."
"This girl, who looked like she would’ve been around 6 or 7 years old, was kicking me in the legs and stomping on my feet. Nonstop. As hard as she could. I tried joking with the kid about it to get her to cut it out, but she actually thought that made it funnier and kept going. The mother was watching the whole time and eventually just played it off and said, 'Oh, she does this all the time. She just wants to get your attention. Isn’t it cute?'"
"I actually thought the mother was messing with me for a moment, but no… she was dead a** serious. She just let her kid kick me for about another five minutes until my coordinator had to come over and tell the mother to make the girl stop."
- dark_equus89
Animal Control
"My coworker’s kids! Omg, they’re absolute terrors, always screaming at inappropriate times and interrupting meetings. Then youngest ones constantly interrupt Zoom calls. On one call not long ago, my coworker was speaking, and her youngest son’s head suddenly popped up in the middle of the screen, and everyone jumped lol!"
"He had some purple substance smeared ALL over his face like he had rubbed his hand in a tub of jam and slathered his skin in it! It was so weird tbh lol. Then he started singing, and everyone on the call was groaning but trying to be patient."
"It was incredibly distracting, but the worst part was that my coworker hardly did anything about it! My fiancé was standing in the other room when the child interrupted and was like, 'WTF, someone needs to call animal control on that kid.' I felt bad because he said it loud enough for everyone to hear. Omg.🤦♀️😂."
- ladydiamondreams
I don’t want that!!
"Working in visiting at the jail I’m employed by. Mom brought in a two-week-old baby to meet the father. When she handed the baby to him, he said, 'I don’t want that,' and threw the baby on the floor, not dropped, thrown."
"We had the medical team rush to help and we called an ambulance for the baby. No idea how that kid is now. This was five years ago."
- Stumbling_Corgi
SCREAM
"Yesterday I was at the dermatologist and this lady had two boys around the ages 3 & 5 and the older one hit the younger one and then they both just scream at each other back and forth at the top of their lungs. She never once looked up at them, never said a word just continued to play on her phone. The whole waiting room plus reception were staring open-mouthed at her."
- Wyoming_Okie
That's my girl!
"I was working in Phoenix and went to a gas station in the morning for a donut and some coffee. Two ladies were chatting by the soda fountain, with the creepiest smokers' voices I've ever heard.
"Then an incredibly dirty little girl (as in messed up hair, dirty face, very dirty/stairs clothes) walked up to them with some candy and said she got her breakfast. Neither lady cared."
"Then one opened her jumbo MTN dew mug to fill it, only to find there was stuff still in it. She held it out to the little girl and asked what that was. She took a sip and said 'Mmmm.... orange juice vodka' and both ladies laughed while the one with the mug just cackled 'That's my girl.' She then just filled up the rest of that mug with MTN Dew, not bothering to dump out the old OJ vodka, or more likely her morning breakfast ok vodka."
- Rok-SFG
Users
"Last time I went to Chicago there was a little girl selling something for a school fundraiser. Thanks to the security guard there I quickly learned that parents send their small children (I'm talking 4-10-year-olds) into these huge crowds of people/tourists pretending to be raising funds for school activities when in reality any money they get goes back to the parent and you never receive what you ordered."
"Apparently this has become quite common there at least in touristy areas. Using your kids for your benefit is bad enough parenting. Making your very small child go into a crowd of strangers and having them go up to random people from God knows where is just insane."
- ell_fin
That's All
"Toddlers & Tiaras."
- thatsimsgirl
Scared Toddlers And Tiaras GIFGiphy
So Horrible
"My cousin had a kid, poor little guy, and she just gave him a screen all the damn time. He got to 6 years old and could barely speak. He got so frustrated that he couldn't communicate his feelings he developed really bad anger issues and had to have therapy. That's a side of the family I ignore. So horrible, I hate to think what else went on with him."
- EmmaJuned
These poor kids.
And I'm not really a fan of kids, but this is heartbreaking.
Life lesson?
"If you see something, say something!"
You never know how you could be saving a child.
@lpeterp/Bluesky
@FPWellman/X
@bobsbeatgmail.com5/Threads