
When People Realized Their Family Wasn't Normal
"I went to a friend's house after school one day, and her mum called us down for dinner. I was astonished that the whole family sat at the table, ate together, chatted, joked, and laughed. They actually seemed to be ENJOYING each other's company. There was no tension, no one was yelling or being sullen, no hint of threat in the air. Just a simple, fun dinner. Apparently, they did that every night! Shocking behavior. I privately thought her family was really weird for that, but once I started making more friends, I began to realize it was MY family that was 'weird.'"
"When I told a funny story about the time my dad was getting ready to give me a belting, but he was so furious he didn't keep a good grip on me, and I dodged the blow, and he whacked himself across the shins...that was at a party in university. I'll never forget how I finished the story with a chuckle, only to be met by a wall of horrified silence. Later, a friend took me aside and kindly informed me that it wasn't funny or normal for a dad to routinely beat their child with a leather belt."
"I entered public school at thirteen and was bullied by the kids, who immediately picked up on my lack of social skills. I was as polite and pleasant to them as I would be to anyone. A month later, once I had established my first-ever friend group, they told me how unusual my inability to be bothered by bullies was, citing my extraordinary ability to be unbothered by verbal abuse. Being taunted for my physical appearance wasn't unusual to me because that's how my parents spoke to me. That's when I knew my parents were different. It had never occurred to me that my parents were different because I had just always known they didn't like me and that being laughed at and called names by them was just how they treated me."
"The first afternoon I spent with my best friend's (and now partner's) family, I was six years old. I fell and scraped my knee, as six-year-olds do. His dad rushed over and helped me up, telling me it'd be okay and that I was okay and that we'd go clean it up inside. I had never had an adult clean my cuts before. No one had ever taken care of me before, not since I was old enough to feed, dress, and bathe myself. I realized then that my parents were supposed to take care of me."
"I spent an afternoon at my friend's house when I was about eight. Her dad randomly asked us if we wanted to do anything fun, and he ended up teaching me how to play Monopoly and how to ride a bicycle. It was then that I realized that spending quality time with their kids is something that normal parents do. In our house, my parents would never do anything with us during their free time outside of going to the mall and eating out."
"When I heard a classmate's mom tell my parents about how much she adored me and how much I lit the room up with my personality, and she said that she was glad I was friends with her daughter. I never heard anyone in my family speak with that level of positivity and depth about anyone, including family. I was confused as to why I could leave an impact on essentially a woman I interacted with in passing, but my parents couldn't even remember what grade I was in."
"I remember being jealous because all my friends had curfews. My parents would never notice if I didn't come home. It felt like such a caring and lovely thought to think a parent expected a kid to be home at a certain time each night and would even sit up and wait for them to return."
"The day my mother insisted I go to the bank with her, I didn't feel like going, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. I was 18. I accidentally slammed my thumb with the car door; it was bleeding, and the nail was coming off, so I got out to take care of it. She was so angry that I wasn't going after all that she burned rubber leaving — no concern about me whatsoever, then or later on. I didn't have my keys, so I was locked out. I had to walk a mile to the neighbor's for help with my thumb. When I told them what happened, the look of horror on their faces told me none of that was normal."
"I went to work as an Au Pair after university. I was shocked that people have family dinners and talk about how their day went and that children's answers were taken seriously and not mocked or dismissed. I was shocked when the kids' dad went out of his study to ask his children, 'How are you?'"
"The big, grown-up Uh-oh realization happened when my mother asked me and my siblings to lie about our identities and claim to be visiting cousins when CPS showed up. Oh, and then when we fled the state. I was nine, definitely old enough to know that was bonkers."
"As an adult, some friends started sharing cute stories about getting mad and 'running away from home' as kids. Their moms would pack them sandwiches and play along until the kids just stopped being mad. I realized that I could never show anger or run away because I didn't think my mom would let me come back."
"When I was eight, my mom let me go to my friend Maria's for sleepovers. Her mom would cook, and Maria said she never had to cook dinner for her family. We got to be silly, talk at Blockbuster, and get candy for the movie we picked. At her house, we could stay up late, and there were no consequences for sleeping in. I always thought their house was messy because her mom didn't make her clean. I realized eventually that normal kids don't have to cook and clean and take care of siblings — that that was actually the parents' job."
"It was shocking to realize none of the other six-year-olds were left at home, alone, all day long with just enough food to survive. I didn't realize this when I was six. I realized it somewhere in middle school when I was explaining this to some classmates, and they were all shocked."
"When everyone else's home smelled like laundry and food, and my home smelled like alcohol and weed."
"When I was 13, I started having to get myself to and from the doctor, though my mom might make an appointment for me. I had a riding accident where I had to go see an OB-GYN after the initial emergency care, and I had to go by myself. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized that's something most people's moms take them to for the first time, no matter how old their female child is."
"When I was at my friend's house, they just grabbed snacks from their pantry. The one at my house was always locked, and we were not allowed to get anything out of it. Things would rot."
"When I was around at my best friend's house and her dad happened to be there, he came in to say hello. My best friend said something mildly cheeky to him, and I held my breath and tensed up, waiting for him to kick off...he just laughed and teased her back. I'd have been about seven. It was revelatory and helped me keep my sanity until I could afford to leave home."
"When I was crying to my mom about my stepbrother choking me to the point of turning red and some bystander had to pull him off of me, and she just shrugged and asked if I had done something to him. I also told my dad, and he got angry at me."
"My college friends called their parents every week, some more often than that. I always dreaded talking to my mother. It wasn't until I started getting to know my ex-husband, and then after I met his mom, that I realized how absolutely off my mother and my household was because of her. I remember being amazed at times that my friends could call their parents at any time about any problems, and their parents would help them, whereas if I had a problem, I knew I'd dang well better solve it myself."
"When my family arrived at my aunt's house, her family went from laughing and jovial to quiet and anxious."
"My mom brought me to an evangelical church multi-media show/'play' that simulated a school shooting (you then watch all the 'heathen' children go to hell after they die) to ensure that I understood the gravity of hell and what not choosing Jesus as my savior meant for me. I was nine. I still have nightmares about it at age 31. Apparently, other parents don't do that. Huh!"
"Thanksgiving 1998. My first memory of my paternal grandmother is her telling me it's okay that my father abuses me because I chose to look like my mother to torment him (mom divorced Mr. Hog that summer). I was only 4, but even I knew it wasn't right. The following Easter, he kicked me out of the car because I refused to stop being sick and drove off. He was abusive daily, frankly. But those actions showed that he felt that he was RIGHT to do it. They genuinely believed that I 'started it.'"
"When I had to get a couple of mandatory vaccines the summer before college because I had never had a single vaccine (anti-vax parents). I spent that entire summer getting one shot in each arm every week because I wanted to get all of them."
"When my little brother was appearing on the scene, and I knew that I had to step up because there weren't enough adults in the house to care for three kids, so the middle child was going to have to put in work to fill the gaps."
"Seeing families hug each other. We're a family that does not touch."
"Whenever my aunt accused her own daughter of sleeping with her husband…who is also her daughter's dad…I'm not sure what compelled her to think my cousin was sleeping with her own father, especially since she was just 16 years old at the time, but man, am I happy I lost contact with that side of the family."
"I got to go over to a few other people's houses and realized that most people's houses really basically do look like the ones on TV. Sure, the furniture may be cheaper, or maybe there's a little clutter (so more in the territory of Married... With Children, or Roseanne). But yeah, all these other houses resembled the houses on TV more than my own. It turns out most parents aren't hoarders."
"When I was probably about 7 or 8, I realized that other families spent time together on vacation…like, they would go do activities together, and their kids didn't just spend time hanging out with staff or locked up in the hotel room. When I was a kid, and we went on vacation, it was clear that it was my parents who were 'on vacation.' We just got the privilege of tagging along. Our job was to spend as much time away from them as possible and not need them for anything."
"When I realized I didn't wanna bring my friends or future partners around them because I was afraid my family would be mean to them."
"When I traveled across the country and spent a few weeks with my partner's family during Christmas. Honestly, it was the fact that when his brother forgot to bring the stuffing to Christmas dinner, everyone reacted appropriately and in proportion to the situation. Nobody died…we just ate more of the potatoes. Sure, there was some gentle teasing towards his brother for forgetting the ONE item he was in charge of, but everything turned out just fine. It was such an appropriate response to such a small problem. In comparison, the preceding year, at my family's Christmas, my uncle KICKED my mother because they had a disagreement (and I don't even remember what it was about)."
"My father had an extremely bad temper. One time, when I was 13 years old, he picked me and my friend up from school, and my dad was in a really bad mood. He started screaming at me for being too dumb to know something or other. I was used to it and totally silent. When I was with my friend later, he was in complete shock. I downplayed it, and I told him it was totally normal. He said, 'No, it's not.' And I never forgot that."
"I was maybe 11, and my friend was supposed to spend the night at my house. I was a bit embarrassed because we could hear my family fighting, but I didn't consider it a bad fight because the walls weren't shaking, and no one was throwing or breaking anything. She told me that if I ever needed somewhere safe to stay, her mom would come get me, and I could stay with them. I knew her mom wasn't the most stable person in the world, but that woman took care of me from 11 to 18 whenever I needed anything. I could probably call her now, even though it's been years since I've last spoken to either of them, and she would still treat me like family."
"I think it was the first time I talked about what my house in California was like when I moved back to Florida as a preteen. Yeah, it turns out living in a handmade shack of plywood and plastic tarps on a manufactured jetty as part of an unhoused colony in Northern California for a year is not a 'typical' thing families do. Oddly enough, chopping up and burning your Christmas tree because it was the only firewood available to you on said jetty four days after Christmas because your parents abandoned their seven-year-old and two toddlers under three to go 'help' your dad's brother with cooking meth is also not a universal experience. Your fifth-grade class and teacher will not think it's a silly, goofy story — they will have the most horrified looks on ALL of their faces. Yeah. My parents did a lot of questionable things while on meth. Like, cook meth."
"Probably around the time my stepmom put a lock on the outside of my door and would lock me in my room with a little bowl of snacks and a TV that only got like three channels. Also, how we went to Sea World, and they just left me in the car (at least the windows were down.)"
When my friends would tell me about the help they would get for things like homework, and when I saw that their parents always showed up to pick them up at school events, parent-teacher conferences, etc. I thought it was very normal for parents to just forget about you because of how busy they were, and as long as I wasn't causing trouble, they had no interest in us. They would repeatedly go on vacation/date nights, leaving me from as young as eight to take care of my sister, then refusing to pick up phone calls and telling me I was being overly dramatic. I remember one night when my sister had a bad tummy ache — I tried to make her a hot water bottle and, by accident, spilled the boiling water over my hand. Of course, nobody answered the phone, so I went to my neighbor, who was shellshocked to see me by myself trying to take care of my burn."
"My middle school friends confronted me about my parents being physically abusive toward me, citing it as why they did not want to come over to my house anymore. I argued that it was a totally normal thing and that they were blowing it out of proportion. They told me none of their parents hit them."
"I realized my family was off when my mom encouraged my brother to get into the street life, not for financial reasons, but genuinely just so that she could brag ... that her son was out there 'running shit.' I only realized it was fucked because of the TV shows and movies I'd seen of the family and friends trying to get the main character to LEAVE the street life, not join it."
When did you realize something about your family was "off"? Let us know in the comments or via this anonymous form.

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Buzz Feed
an hour ago
- Buzz Feed
Beloved Activities Spoiled By Thoughtless Behavior
If you've ever had something ruined because of someone else's thoughtless actions, you're in the right place. Unfortunately, it seems like it happens to all of us. In one Reddit thread (which you can see here), people shared the perfectly good things that have been ruined by a small group of "idiots," and I honestly have second-hand annoyance after reading these. Ahead, I've rounded up 18 different responses – let's see if you can relate to any of these on this list: "Years ago, Long John Silver's would donate their excess food to a local shelter. One idiot tried to get rich by suing the chain, saying the donated food was tampered with, even alleging it was purposeful to kill the homeless population. The case went nowhere, but it made all the local restaurants hesitant to donate, and now none of them donate any food at all." "A few losers in the senior class before us took beer and booze on their senior trip, hiding it in shampoo containers in their luggage. They got drunk and found out, and all senior school trips were cancelled, starting with ours, the class of 1983. Thanks assholes of '82." "I went to see the Godzilla head up close on top of a hotel in Shinjuku, Tokyo. It's been closed indefinitely because some people were climbing on it and causing too many safety issues. One eventually fell, so we could only look through a window instead. Lame. It was still pretty cool, but fuck those guys." –PresidentLink "Thrifting. It used to be a place to find reasonably priced items. Now, too many people use it as a way to flip items." "Thieves and scammers at retail stores. More and more stuff is being locked up, and you have to jump through hoops to return a broken product." "In Japan, a couple of teenage hooligans went to a Kaitenzushi chain (conveyor-belt sushi) and started licking the sushi and condiments while leaving them on the conveyor belt, all the while filming this for TikTok. Now, half of all the Kaitenzushi chains have outright stopped having the sushi on the conveyor belt to be taken." "You have to order it for it to arrive. The whole joy of Kaitenzushi is to take as it comes, so this is MASSIVELY disappointing."–Kosmonavtlar1961 "When I was growing up, the electric company would offer free lightbulbs to customers. A local business complained that he wasn't selling any bulbs as a result, so no more free bulbs for anyone." "In Sweden, one family let their young daughter play freely in a graveyard, including climbing very old headstones, one of which fell and killed her. This resulted in the government starting a project to secure all gravestones nationwide. All registered graveowners had to pay for this. Cost me 3000 Euro." "Going unsupervised to amusement parks as a kid or a teenager. Here in Southern California, Knotts used to allow teenagers and kids to come and hang out as they pleased." "Because of TikTok and a handful of idiot teenagers starting fights and mass panic over a non-existent mass shooter (Literally, kids were yelling that there was an armed shooter as a 'joke'). So now, if you're under 15, you have to have a chaperone looking after you. Honestly, feel bad for the kids who were fine and now can't just hang with friends and ride roller coasters. If my nephew or nieces want to go, I or another family member have to agree to chaperone them. Idk, I just think that sucks."–brokenbeardman "Every single fandom subreddit eventually gets taken over by a small contingent of toxic fans/trolls driving out anyone wanting to have a normal discussion, just by attrition alone. Video game, movie, show, book – it doesn't matter, eventually it turns into this hate echo chamber over the smallest bs, and people have to create separate subreddits just to share normal opinions that aren't regurgitated hate." "Collecting as a hobby. I want to collect Pokémon cards because I like the art and love collecting cards of my favorites. Scalpers completely ruined that." "Vending machines in schools. They used to be in the common areas, end of a hallway, strategically placed outside near eating areas, obviously the cafeteria. They weren't all super junky food; there were some nice bagged salads and healthier drinks than sodas. Our school specifically had ginger tea, honey lemon iced tea, and hibiscus tea." "Some kid in our school decided to blow over $500 on just the sodas one week. His parents complained about how easy it was for the children to rot their teeth with the vending machines. Our school had them all removed, doubly incentivized by the fact that a school nutrition policy change would be active soon. They were gone by the end of the following week."–PhantomIridescence "Bad dog owners. The ones who don't clean up after their dogs. The ones who let their dogs destroy rental properties. The ones that let their dogs bark. The ones that don't train them. Dogs get banned from so many places because of bad dog owners and when people like me, who pick up after their dogs, train them, control them, can't take their dogs to certain parks, or when I was young had trouble finding places to rent because of people who didn't train their dogs." "The Bells Manor in Newport, RI. One of the largest and oldest abandoned mansions in the U.S, it was part of Brenton Point State Park. Three teenagers decided to hop the fence and go exploring on the roof, and to everyone's shock, the roof collapsed and the kids got injured. One of their fathers, presumably named Lucius Malfoy, decided to try to sue the state. So rather than go through that, the state tore down the building entirely." "A lot of archeological tourism sites like the Egyptian pyramids and Machu Picchu. People kept taking pieces as mementos. Now they won't even let you get close to a lot of these." –Makesyoudownvote "The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie sequels. The first movie was incredible, but too many parents complained about the movie being too dark and violent for kids (it isn't), so we got two progressively terrible, slapstick, nonsensical sequels, and no TMNT movie since has ever come close to matching the first one." "The LL Bean slipper exchange policy. I had one pair for ten years, and they finally ripped. I went to exchange them, and they said they don't do that anymore because of the abuse of it." And finally, "The lazy jerks who couldn't stay productive when working from home. They've basically ruined the only positive thing that came out of the pandemic." What else belongs on this list? Let me know in the comments!


Newsweek
5 hours ago
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Man Finds Kitten 'Baking' in Walmart Lot Heat—so He Got To Work
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. What began as a trip to the store for cat litter turned into a rescue mission for Norman Benford, 52, from Altoona, Pennsylvania. When heading to Walmart, Benford heard from his partner that there was a kitten trapped underneath a gazebo at the store, and he knew what to do. "I was heading out to Walmart for cat litter to donate to our local shelter," Benford told Newsweek. "My partner mentioned that somebody had posted in a local pet rescue group earlier in the morning about a possibly feral kitten in distress." Equipped with a carrier, gloves, and a broom, Benford arrived to find several Walmart employees attempting to lure the tiny kitten out. She was buried among garbage and unreachable under the structure when Benford used the broom to clear debris. The cat then bolted toward a row of shopping carts and disappeared into the undercarriage of a truck. Pictures of Benford and the kitten he rescued from the Walmart car park. Pictures of Benford and the kitten he rescued from the Walmart car park. NormanB616/Reddit The driver was quick to assist, kicking the floor from inside the truck and opening the hood to expose the kitten's hiding spot. Fifteen minutes later, he had managed to get hold of the kitten. "I forcefully scruffed her and pulled her out from the truck and plopped her into the carrier. I was not going to let her escape again to die of heat exposure or get crushed by a car in the parking lot," Benford said. The kitten was in a sad condition: overheated, wounded, filthy, and covered in fleas and feces. Benford sprung into action and brought her to Tiny Paws NICU—a local rescue specializing in neonatal kittens. "I had never encountered a kitten this small and in this condition in the wild, and I needed guidance," he said, crediting Adele and Janelle from Tiny Paws for their support. In 2024, approximately 7 million animals entered U.S. shelters and rescues, according to Shelter Animals Count—an increase of nearly 3 percent from 2023. Of animals that entered shelters, 60 percent were stray. Five baths and lots of attention later, the kitten has begun to show signs of comfort and trust. "She is sweet and will sit in my lap on the back porch and relax for extended periods of time," Benford said. "She has a tiny little meow but the biggest purr when she is content and happy." Pictures of the kitten who is now settling well into her new home. Pictures of the kitten who is now settling well into her new home. NormanB616/Reddit Benford shared the story of the kitten rescue on Reddit where the post has over 30,000 views. Here he shared: "So, this little girl was literally baking underneath the employee gazebo at my local Walmart." In the comments, people shared their reactions. "Thank you for saving her," said one Redditor. While another wrote: "You're rad humans! May the universe bring you joy for your kindness." Now approximately eight weeks old, the currently unnamed kitten continues to recover in quarantine with Benford, away from his seven other cats. The hope is to adopt her permanently. "We intend to do everything to make it work. We're very much in love with this adorable little life that the universe put in our care," he said. Benford thanked Tiny Paws NICU for their help with the kitten: "They are a self-funded, registered 501(C)3 non-profit doing financially and emotionally draining work... I have the utmost respect for them and the work they do." Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Yahoo
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Woman Keeps Late Sister's Ring to Remember Her. Then, Brother Uses It to Propose Without Asking
A Reddit user is wondering if she is in the wrong after getting upset at her brother for using their late sister's ring to propose A woman is at odds with her brother after he used their late sister's ring to propose to his girlfriend without asking her. In a recent post on Reddit, the woman explained that the ring was something she considered a prized possession. She explains that her 17-year-old sister died when she was around 6 years old. Due to their age difference, the two weren't close, but the Reddit user remembered "little bits of her," like "her laugh, how she always painted her nails, her posters." When the poster was 12 years old, she found her sister's old silver ring with a small stone in her belongings, and it became something she kept to remember her by. "I didn't wear it loads or flaunt it, just had it in this little box and sometimes I'd look at it when I missed her. It kinda became this one thing that felt like mine, like my piece of her," the Reddit user explains. Fast forward to last weekend, and the poster met up with her family for a group lunch alongside her 27-year-old brother and his girlfriend. "He stands up, does the big speech and pulls out THE ring. my sister's ring. the one i've kept for like 7 years," she writes. "i literally froze. his gf starts crying, ppl are clapping, i'm just sat there like wtf," she adds. "i look at my mum and she just smiles at me like nothing happened." When the poster confronted her mom, the matriarch said that her brother had asked for permission to use the ring to propose, and they said it "was fine." "She said it was sweet and symbolic and my sister would've wanted it passed down or whatever," the Redditor explains. The poster was left stunned, arguing that her brother should have asked her about it, as she had it "for years" and it was "never [his] to give." Still, her mother told her she was being "dramatic" and that it was "just a ring," which caused her to "snap" and tell her brother that she wanted the ring back. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. He laughed her off — until she threatened to tell his girlfriend "where it came from and let her decide." "He got mad said I was ruining his proposal and making it about me like always," the Reddit user writes, noting that she left halfway through the dinner because she was in the bathroom crying. Although she realized that she could have handled the situation better, it still left her with a bad taste in her mouth. "I just felt so blindsided. It's not even about the stupid ring. It's just like they acted like it didn't matter to me. Like I didn't matter," she writes. In a follow-up post, she stated that she had listened to the comments, which suggested that she should explain to her brother's fiancée why she was upset. The two ultimately met up for lunch. "I kinda just stared at the ring and didn't know what to say and I guess she must a noticed because she began apologising a lot saying 'I didn't know I'm sorry' and I finally got 'my' ring back or whoever's ring you wanna call it," the poster explains. However, her brother called her upset afterwards, claiming that she was too young to have had a relationship with their sister, sentiments that her father also echoed. In the comment section, though, readers were still on the Reddit user's side. "They're mad because his fiancée agreed with you. That it was s----y for them to do it. And they are embarrassed. They are going to continue to make you feel like s---. Don't reach out anymore," one comment read. "Your brother didn't pick that ring because it was special, he picked it because it was convenient (and he's probably cheap). If I was the fiancé, I'd sure want to know he's not so thoughtful as he's pretending because that will definitely play out in other ways of a marriage," another added. Read the original article on People Solve the daily Crossword