30 People Discuss The Worst Parents They Have Ever Encountered, Which Made Them Believe Their Children Were Doomed

Everyone can't be a parent. Infact, everyone should not be a parent.

Maryjane

• Published in Interesting
• March 23, 2023

Not everyone is suited for parenthood. Some people decide to forgo having children so they can devote all of their time to their jobs; others favor dog or cat children; and still, others are aware that their personalities are better suited for the "fun aunt" or "fun uncle" role than the role of the reprimanding parent.

The unfortunate irony is that sometimes those who are most able to have children are also the least prepared to care for them. And sometimes those who are best equipped to be parents are also the ones least able to have their own offspring.

Everyone can't be a parent. In fact, everyone should not be a parent.

Of course, one's ability to parent well cannot be determined solely by economic considerations. Choosing not to have children is always a good decision, but regrettably, the reverse is not always true.

Believe me when I say that these stories are not simple to read, so if you feel the need to reach for some tissues, feel free to do so now. And if you have children of your own, today might be a good time to give them a little extra hug.

So keep scrolling and check out the stories below.

The question has been asked...

1. Everything has a cost

I have an ultra-conservative (distant) family member who’s taken her anti-welfare, personal responsibility, tough love philosophy so far that she’s charging her 5-year-old rent. Apparently she gives the child a list of chores to complete, then pays her a small allowance, then takes all the allowance back to cover the girl's “bills”.

One time the little girl wanted to make some special treats for a party they were going to have at their house (don’t know what it was for), and she (the mom) replied, *“Ok, how are you going to pay for that?”* (I wasn’t there, my cousin told me this.)

I should add that this woman does not struggle financially at all. She has some bank-related corporate job and a very large, nice house. But she will by god make it VERY CLEAR to her small child that every inch of space she occupies and every bite of food she takes has a COST and must be EARNED.

2. Terrible parents

My aunt and uncle are terrible parents. Such awful people that we’ve cut almost all contact with them. Aside from their terrible parenting of their first child, they’ve completely destroyed their second child’s chance at a life.

He was born with water on the brain (I know there’s a proper name for it but I forget). The doctors wanted to put a shunt in to drain the water and avoid damage. The parents refused for some reason, so the kid ended up with some slight brain damage. It probably wouldn’t have been too bad. He’d always be behind his peers and he’d be delayed but he had a good chance of being somewhat independent one day and living an overall happy life.

Of course in order to achieve this, his parents would have to work diligently with him to catch up delayed development, and likely have him in some sort of developmental therapy and the likes (which I know the gov. and my uncles work benefits would’ve helped cover, not that money was an issue anyways). Instead his parents decided to ignore his problems completely. They never spoke to the family about it and we’re all pretty sure they think we don’t notice that the kid is a bit different.

Anyways, he just turned 10 and isn’t potty trained which he absolutely has the ability for, they just never bothered teaching him. He can’t read at all, which again he is technically capable of, just nobody has taught him.

He can’t speak clearly at all, I can’t understand him although I know he is trying to say valuable and competent things. He’s been removed from countless schools because his parents refuse to put him in the special ed classes or get him any extra help. His parents are also super cold.

They never hug or praise their kids. He is extremely violent and never receives any discipline. I can see him becoming a serial killer or something in the future because he loves torture, weapons, and dead animals. It’s probably from the lack of affection his parents gave him but I know whatever happens to him in the future isn’t really his fault. He was never taught anything in life and it’s so sad.

3. Granting permission

I worked with a guy who's about 5 years older than me. I was 20 at the time so he'd have been about 25. Still lived at home with his parents because mom wasn't ready to "let him go." He had a 9pm curfew and ALWAYS had to have permission to "go over to a friend's house."

I was nice to him because I felt bad for him and I guess in his mind, that meant we were friends so I got to know him slightly better than you would a standard coworker. He did have a learning disability (so helicopter mom's got a valid concern) but he wasn't r******d or slow. He was a fully capable adult.

The first time I met his mom I KNEW there was no hope for this guy. She CONSTANTLY controlled his every move. He couldn't eat certain foods because they'd "give you gas" or "I don't think you'd like that anyway," and he wasn't allowed to do ANYTHING without her permission.

He had his license, but she drove him to and from work. She even ended up getting a job in the same building, though a different department, and I suspect it had nothing to do with "carpooling to save gas money."

Last I heard, he FINALLY was able to get his own apartment, but I still see them around town together. I NEVER see him on his own. She'll even go with him to the bathroom at the county fair... And I'm 27 now so he's gotta be around 32ish.

Helicopter mom ruined that guy and he's gonna be so screwed when she kicks it and leaves him behind.

4. One eyed kid

My son's daycare class has a kid in it who's missing an eye. He has an eyelid/lashes/etc, just was born without the tissue used to see with. He's a completely normal looking kid, it just looks like one eye is always closed and instead of the roundness of an eyeball behind is flat since it's missing. There's nothing scary, or weird, or gross about him.

I once watched a mother scream and throw a tantrum at pick up time because the teachers insisted he wouldn't be moved from the class as there's nothing wrong with him being there. She swore up and down that this kid was scaring her child and the daycare teachers should do more to 'protect her baby from people like that' and her child shouldn't have to be around 'freaks' and he should have to go with the special education kids.

Her kid seemed fine with this other kid, but his mother was horrified by him interacting with someone who wasn't her idea of normal and she lost it when the teachers refused to give into her weird demands about it. I can only imagine what f****d up prejudices this kid is going to have thanks that vile woman.

5. This is awful

6. Never good enough

7. Extremely religious people

8. Boy environment

9. Free range parenting

10. Screaming at kids

11. Being held back

12. Terrible Times

13. Conspiracy theories

14. Emotionally and mentally abusive

I try not to think this - I work in child protective services and that means I have to find every possible way I can to reach parents to change behaviors, lifestyles, etc that threaten the safety or wellbeing of their children.

With that being said, the most frustrating for me was a mother who was emotionally and mentally abusive to a daughter who has mental health issues.

The mom, daughter, and brother were all survivors of an extremely physically abusive father (mom's ex), the children at a very young age that very clearly caused them immense trauma that manifested as or exacerbated existing mental health issues (violent outbursts, inability to regulate emotions, several other things all piled together - **I initially had listed ADHD here but several commenters are correct in stating this is not caused by trauma. I apologize for that misinformation. In this situation it was definitely exacerbated by her trauma, both past and ongoing, though - both in terms of not getting proper treatment/help and in terms of added stresses).** I became involved years after that man was out of the picture.

Mom spent the entire time I was involved with the family essentially blaming everything on the daughter's outbursts and as much as said with her daughter present (and old enough to understand) "she was forced on me when he took off his condom" with regards to whether the daughter was planned or an accident. I spent several days working with this family and not once did I hear the mother say anything resembling love, affection, caring, kindness, or understanding towards her daughter and the vast majority of the time the mother was trying to elicit sympathy from other adults in terms of how difficult the kid was to manage. She made multiple disparaging comments about her daughter as if she wasn't present in the room, coldly ignored her for large periods of time while sitting right next to her, etc. She very obviously still had her own trauma from the abusive ex and seemed to transplant all of her negativity towards him into her behavior towards her daughter. We had statements by police officers involved after one of the violent outbursts by the daughter that the mother told them (in front of daughter) "take her away, take her anywhere, I don't care where she goes, just get her the hell out of my house.

The daughter wasn't even a teenager. I have no idea what happened following my involvement (I'm mostly investigative) but yeah...that kid's got a rough future ahead no matter which of several possible scenarios plays out .

15. Helicopter parent

16. That's a lot

17. Non Caring Grandma

I was at a child's birthday party once and was pushing a big group of kids on the merry-go-round. This one or two year old boy, not from the party, started meandering his way toward us with no regard for the large metal spinning disc he was about to walk into. I slowed the merry-go-round (much to the dismay of the kids on it) and went to lead the boy away. He then said something, I don't really remember what, that indicated he was thirsty. I looked over at the lady who had brought him there and waved her over. It took a while to get her attention, since she definitely was not looking our way at all. She eventually got up reluctantly to come toward us and it turned out to be his grandma. Once I told her that he was thirsty, she started to pour her Mountain Dew energy drink down his throat with no hesitation. I stopped her and said I had plenty of bottles of water from our party and I would get some. She shrugged and accepted one, let him drink a little, and then walked away from him again to go back to smoking her cigarette about 10 yards away.

It was pretty upsetting to imagine the possibilities of how that kid's life was going to be. I know it's not a huge deal, and I'm not a parent so I try my best not to judge others, but force feeding a child sugar filled energy drinks on a hot day in replacement of water seems to be the first sign that the guidance in that family isn't going to be the best.

Oh, and on a similar judgmental note, I know a kid whose first words were "Chicken Nugget".

18. Being threatened

19. Jitsu tournaments

Oh god. It's my time to shine.

Kid A: 8th grade girl. She was in honors English but missed almost every day of school due to a "medical issue." Mom got a doctor to sign off that she had some sort of injury that makes her incapable of attending school. Meanwhile, the kid is posting all over her social media about all these just jitsu tournaments she competes in.

Kid eventually was switched to my class after the last teacher refused to accept homework which was clearly done by mom (in mom's handwriting and everything). She has missed every single day of school since being switched to my class. I have never met this kid and she's been enrolled in my class for several months.

The best part? The school and district can't/won't do anything about it because mom sued the school about her son and somehow has the district paying for him to attend a private school. She's threatened to sue over the daughter too, but I don't really see how. Mom also works for my school district and gets a stipend to teach her "sickly" daughter from home.

Kid B: 8th grade boy. Mom has accused every teacher this kid has ever had of being "out to get her son" since kindergarten. I was warned about her and her kid before school began. I was told to never call home without an administrator present and basically that there are no consequences for this kid because he is "special needs" and mom has threatened to sue.

This kid does nothing other than disrupt class. On the few occasions I've gotten him to work, he's been completely competent and fully capable, but there's no punishment for doing nothing, so he chooses to mess around instead. The kid will ask to go to the bathroom and instead spends 20-30 minutes just wandering campus, peeking into classrooms whatever. I've had to have campus supervisors find him and bring him back more times than I can count. Sometimes he wanders out of the room without permission. But legally I can't stop him due to his "needs."

20. Family law

21. Yelling loudly

22. Constantly screaming mom

23. I don't understand

24. Babying adults

25. So unfair

26. Being too lazy

27. No females

28. Oops

29. Getting tattoos

30. Selfish people

When you read these stories and then realize that you have awesome parents, you can't help but feel thankful. We really feel sorry for the kids of such parents, and we wish them all the best too.

Please share the stories that have made you even more grateful for your own loving parents. And also share this post with your loved ones as well.

Maryjane