Sometimes significant others have no filter or accidentally say something they immediately regret. Unfortunately, this can leave an impression on the parents for years to come...
Giving Him Grief For Losing His Wallet…
“This one was me to my now father-in-law, only the second time I met him. I was on break from college and going down to hang out with my then girlfriend at her parents’ house (about an hour drive).
I stopped at an ATM on the way and, in my haste, left my debit card in the machine. Fifteen minutes later, I get a call from the bank and have to go back to retrieve it. I was also supposed to bring down my iPod Touch but forgot to bring that as well.
After I arrived, I hear my now father-in-law proclaim that he had found his wallet. It was under his bed and he had been looking for it for four days. At some point, it comes up that I had forgotten my iPod and left my debit card in the ATM, so he says that I’m ‘not making a very good first impression.’
Without even thinking about it, the following words were out of my mouth:
‘That’s a pretty bold statement coming from a guy that lost his wallet under his bed for four days.’
Thankfully for me, he thought that was hilarious. We get along really well to this day.”
“I Told Him That It Must Be Okay For Me To Beat Him If We’re Following That Logic”
“My fiancé and I started dating when I was in my last year of high school. At this time, my parents were getting really bad in terms of treating me poorly. My mom and dad yelled at me and hit me a lot. They kicked me out a few times.
My mom, dad, and I got into an argument one night. It was winter in Iowa, so it was pretty cold. (I guess it’s worth noting at this point that I have really bad asthma; cold is one of my worst triggers.) I was a supervisor at our local Subway restaurant, and I had to go to the store to get the register some more cash out of the safe. It was a ten-minute trip. I think it was around 9 PM. I even let my parents know what I was doing. When I got home, my mom confronted me and said that I was just ‘fooling around.’ I explained to my mother why that was preposterous. She slapped me, so I finally punched her back. After more physical interactions with my mom and dad, they kicked me out onto the street without a coat, without my phone, and without my meds.
A police officer saw me walking around outside, and he let me use my phone when I asked. I called my fiancé (he was my boyfriend at this time) so he could come pick me up. I told him about what happened, as my face was pretty scratched up, and he was outraged.
My fiancé is a pretty big guy and he’s very intelligent, as well. Finding flaws in arguments and everything else that he hears is a particular strong suit of his. He drove to my parents’ house and knocked on the door. My father answered. I stayed in the car while they talked. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. After what was probably forty-five minutes, my dad went back inside and my fiancé rejoined me in the car.
‘I asked him what happened,’ he told me, ‘and then I asked him what made him think it was okay to hold you down and hit you. He said it was because you were smaller than him, so I told him that it must be okay for me to beat him if we’re following that logic. I don’t think he’s gonna do that to you again.'”
Casually Asking Him A Very Personal Question…
“My parents are retired from the military. Both served during the Vietnam War. About 5 or 6 years ago they invited us to join them for dinner at one of the many restaurants that offer free meals to veterans on Veteran’s Day.
The conversation inevitably turns to the topic of their service in the military. My wife is extremely liberal. She, point blank, asks my father if he ever killed anyone while on the many missions he was a part of during, and after, the war. His duties took him all over the world and put him in potentially dangerous situations.
I was 35 at the time and my Dad and I had engaged in many conversations about his 20+ years of service. He was pretty open and honest with me, but that was the one question that I had intentionally avoided due to the sensitive nature of the topic. If he had killed in the line of duty, I didn’t see any reason to cause him to relive the experience, and I think part of me didn’t want to know because I was afraid it might change how I viewed him. He’s a great father and has always been there for me with love and support.
I sat there wide eyed in disbelief that she would be so bold as to ask him such a tough question. He didn’t bat an eyelash at it, answered her, and then we went on with our evening. I’m still amazed at how ballsy it was for her to question him like that.”
Calling Her Out On Her Mispronunciation Of Ketchup?
“Oh my:
My mother has, for my entire 28-year-life, pronounced ‘ketchup’ as ‘Cats-up’. Now technically it’s an acceptable alternate pronunciation, and my mother is a brilliant woman with a masters degree in English. The reality is though – hearing ‘cats-up’ (at least where we live) just sounds weird and no one pronounces it that way. My entire family has let this slide for 3 decades, intermittently commenting about it behind her back (because we are nice like that) until…
Last year, we had my family over for dinner and as we were sitting down to eat my mom asked if we had any ‘cats-up’ and my wife (after 3.5 years of sitting silently) when she heard this says, ‘Ruth, if I hear ‘cats-up’ one more time, I swear…’ EVERYONE AT THE TABLE FROZE. My wife had immediate and instant regret and went completely pale. Everyone else just stared…mouth agape, waiting for my mother’s reaction.
Now my wife is the kindest person I’ve ever met, everyone loves her because she cares so much for the people around her so much…so this was insanely out of left field. It was honestly just a subconscious thought that she unknowingly blurted out.
A smile slowly appears on my mother’s face as she says, ‘What did I say?’
Turns out for 55 years she had no idea she wasn’t saying ‘ketchup’ when she said ‘catsup’. Literally, the whole hour we were sitting at the table, was spent convincing my mom she has said that all our lives. My dad was explaining how he remembered hearing it pronounced like that for the first time ever when they were dating 30+ years ago. We took videos of her saying it and showed it to her.
It was hilarious and epic to watch the sweetest woman ever accidentally blurt out something at her mother-in-law that everyone at the table had been thinking about for literal decades. The cherry on top was knowing that the smartest woman we know can also be a little dumb.”
Petty Over Nutella?
“My ex from back in high school started drama with my family over Nutella. I will say my family (basically just my step mom and my dad just decided to stay out of it and save himself) were monsters about the situation.
So backstory so it makes sense: I dated a girl my junior year, her senior year. Her parents were great, both as people and as the ideal parents for a typical 17-year-old. They had the ideology of ‘It’s better if they do it here, and she can yell for help if he gets aggressive or she is saying no, than if they were in a car all alone.’ So, from the first month of our relationship on we would spend all our time at her place. They even let me sleep there.
During the summer, I would often spend 3-4 days there, and I would do anything I could to help out around the house in return for the housing and food. Cleaned all the dishes, mowed their lawn, moved things to their storage for them. The whole deal. But keep in mind, they were feeding me all the time.
So one time we end up at my house. Just sitting on the couch watching T.V. She loved Nutella, and we had two tubs so she munched on some with some crackers. My step mom comes in, and goes, ‘Is that our Nutella? with this bratty tone that implied she didn’t want her eating our stuff. We were both mad, but seeing as how I lived there, I was not gonna start more issues.
My girlfriend was angry all week, then she came up with a plan…a passive aggressive plan. She bought three tubs, wrote, ‘Property of (insert her name)’ and then put them in the pantry at my house. My step mom took that as an insult, she just wanted to be able to eat when she visited us. It all ended with me blowing up at my step mom, calling her a brat and reminding her that I had eaten five meals at her house just in that week. She shut the heck up real quick after that.
The other thing that bugged me is we were not broke. We had enough money for three cars and a house in one of the most expensive places in America. Yet she got stingy over a 3 dollar treat.”
His Regretful Response To Her Father’s Request
“One of my college girlfriends; we’d only been together since the start of the spring semester and we were coming up on spring break, so like 2+ months into the relationship. We drove to my parent’s house, as it was on the way to our ultimate destination, on the morning of day 1 of our vacation.
Dad and Mom were both home, to help see us off, and I vividly recall, as we were leaving, my dad waving from the kitchen and saying, ‘Have fun and don’t come back with any grandkids!’ as a clear tongue in cheek joke. And my significant, mind you this was the first time they’d met, shouts back, ‘Don’t worry; we’re just practicing.’
Open mouth stares provided all the silence we needed in order to escape, as my eyes widened at the realization of what she’d said.
My parents left it alone until I got back at which point Dad was ‘elected’ to have a long talk with me about being responsible for my future and all other sorts of semi-naive dad things.”
Saying She’s Underage?
“I started dating my girlfriend when we were both 20, but she is just shy of 5′ tall under 100lbs and looks young. She’s heard it all of her life, short jokes and ‘you look 14.’
So I brought her to my families Thanksgiving dinner with a couple of my buddies. (Large family gatherings, the more the merrier ) it was only a couple months after we started dating, so this was the first time my family had met her.
So everyone is chatting having a good time, and my older brother asks her, ‘So how old are you?’ And she just casually says: ‘I am 14…’
The room goes DEAD silent with my 9 siblings and parents staring at me in this complete disgust. My friends and her die laughing while my family is deciding how to process this information.
I never get embarrassed, I usually don’t care what people think of me, especially my family, but after seeing their faces I realized they did not get the joke, so I shake her a little and say, ‘Tell them the truth!’
She giggles and says, ‘I’m just kidding I am 20.’
And there is the loudest sigh of relief in the room.
Then I married her.”
Telling His Girlfriend’s Mother Off!
“My mother was emotionally abusive towards me my entire childhood, still is, and is very good with guilting people into doing what she wants. My boyfriend at the time (I married him) was staying with us for two weeks on a visit, he lived 2k miles away.
Well, he got sick and tired of her treating me horribly, making me clean the entire house, doing dishes, scrubbing the windows, vacuuming and mopping the 1500sq ft. house alone after being at work all day. While she just sat on her computer or watched tv the whole entire day, doing nothing.
He decided he would do my chores for me one day, because he wanted me to just come home and spend time with him instead of cleaning for hours first, that enraged my mom totally and she started yelling and screaming at me when I came home because, ‘How dare I make a ‘guest’ do my chores, I was a terrible person’ blah blah blah, stuff like that.
He held up a hand and went, ‘Wait right there, I did them because I love her and I know she needs to rest after a lot day at work. She said nothing, didn’t even know I was going to do them.’
My mom spluttered and kept on insisting that I made him, other nonsensical stuff that you can expect. While she was getting madder and madder that her wiles and words weren’t working on him, voice getting louder and louder, he was calm and clear headed with a soft and quiet voice. She demanded, as I stood there crying, that I had to choose between him or her. That -she- was my mother and -he- was just a stupid child, to come to her side right away. He just turned to me and said softly, ‘Go upstairs, you don’t need to see or hear this. Go upstairs and shut the door, it will be okay.’ And gave me such a look of love I had never seen from my mother, so I turned and went upstairs, she went BALLISTIC.
Long story short I ended up getting kicked out, or as my mother told everyone ‘I ran away’, but it all worked out in the end. I moved out to his state, married him, and have been happy ever since.
NOBODY has ever told her off or challenged her like that in her entire life I think. To this day she hates his guts.”
Bitter Over Wedding Photos…
“My dad was as great as a non-custodial parent could be, but he married a horrible woman and became her henchman. He’s now completely written off his entire family including his step son he raised as his own and his only biological child (that’s me). He wrote me off because I angered his wife, by not posting enough photos of her at my wedding to Facebook and I had the gall to post a photo of me with both my parents.
A year and a half after the wedding, she writes me a giant nastygram outlining how I intentionally tried to hurt her by not posting many photos of her and my father to Facebook (my dad doesn’t even have Facebook) and how I’m living in a fantasy world thinking my parents will get back together (They divorced over 20 years ago. Apparently she thinks that me having a photo with my mother and father on my wedding day means I harbor dreams they’ll get back together. Ummm…no).
So my husband reads this nastygram and he’s mad. He texts my father to ask him if he knew Satan sent the email and if he agreed with it. My father writes back some politically correct nonsense, saying he supported what she wrote.
The last thing my husband wrote back was: ‘It’s a shame you don’t know your own daughter well enough to know that’s not her.’ Referring to the character traits the horrible woman assigned me in her nastygram.”
Rude Comments At A Baby Shower?
“My girlfriend and I were at my brother and sister-in-law’s baby shower for their first child.
My sister-in-law is a pretty skinny person, but she put on a TON of weight with the pregnancy. It looked like she had a litter in there, and not just the one kid. So, the baby shower was nautical themed because that’s popular right now and she is a sorority girl. My girlfriend and I were sitting at the table with my brother, and my brother was talking about the theme of the party and asked my girlfriend if she liked it, and without a beat, my girlfriend says: ‘Well, there IS a whale here.’
There was silence, and then my brother started cracking up.
He knew it was just a joke, but he said, ‘Don’t you even hint at that around my wife, or you may never meet your nephew.’
Another story where my girlfriend ‘s dad was the awkward one and it indirectly made me the bold one. I was meeting her entire Dad’s side of the family for the first time at Christmas dinner. Her siblings, step-mom, aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandparents, everyone, and we were doing the secret Santa gift exchange.
Well, it comes around to her, and she opens her gift from her cousin. We are all paying very close attention, and the tradition was when you opened your gift you stood up and told everyone what you got. Well, she opens hers, and it is a book called ‘Yoga-Sutra’ which is essentially ways to do it, while using yoga poses. Her Dad immediately stands up, walks over to her, grabs the book, and reads the front cover while I sit motionless in fear. The tension in palpable in the room, and after what felt like minutes he tosses the book to me and says: ‘Start reading’.”
Judging Her Mother’s Placement For The Wedding Banner
“We’d only been dating about two months and he may have met my mom (thoroughbred hard-headed Scottish woman) once (long distance is fun).
I invited him to my sister’s wedding obviously, I was a bridesmaid so I was doing a lot of bridesmaid duties. He amazingly was fine staying back with my mom to decorate their apartment clubhouse for the rehearsal dinner. I was gone, but apparently, my mom was hanging up some sort of banner and my now fiance just said, ‘That looks bad, we should put it over here.’
Ugh, arguing with my mom over decorating and telling her that her placement is bad. Risky Move. I think my mom liked it though and respected his balls for it. She loves him and their whole relationship is now based off of telling each other how it is.”
Hitting On His Dad On The Ski Trip?
“My girlfriend and I were on a ski trip with my parents, and this was the first time she would be spending an extended amount of time with them. In the morning while getting ready, my dad walks out in his long johns and under-armor top, and overall tight-fitting outfit.
My girlfriend wasn’t really expecting this, and my dad caught her looking his way. And my dad, as always one to put someone on the spot (in a fun way), says, ‘Whatcha looking at?’
Without a moment’s hesitation, my girlfriend goes: ‘Just checking out the older model.’
Needless to say, she was instantly accepted into the family.”
Sometimes You Just Shouldn’t Answer The Phone
“My boyfriend is an amazing man who can hold his tongue very well while around my mother. We were at a restaurant and my mom’s phone rang. She picked it up.
Mom: ‘HELLO?’
Phone person: ‘Yes this is so-and-so from (brother’s school,) and…’
Mom: ‘UM EXCUSE ME, DID YOU EVEN ASK ME IF I HAD TIME TO TALK? HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF I CALLED YOU RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF DINNER WHILE YOU WERE SPENDING TIME WITH YOUR FAMILY? YOU’RE INCREDIBLY RUDE AND I WILL FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE SCHOOL’ (hangs up).
Awkward silence ensues before…
Boyfriend: (stares mom directly in the eye) ‘Well. They PROBABLY assumed that if it was a bad time to talk, then you wouldn’t have answered the freakin’ phone. Wow.'”
Wearing A Tie Dye Shirt Around Her Super Strict Parents
“My parents were super strict on me (I was the firstborn child) and never let me date until my now-husband came along.
They never cussed around me, would get angry when I cussed and were overall over-the-top strict. They once grounded me for an entire year and sold my brand new car because I had lied to them. Yeah, they were insanely strict.
So, we had plans to go to dinner as a family and I was going to bring my boyfriend along so that they could meet him. I told him how strict they were and how judgmental they could be and to PLEASE just PLEASE be on his best behavior, not because he was a loser or anything and not because I wanted him to suppress his personality, but because I knew I wanted to be with him long term and anything could set my mother off.
So, when we all drive to his house to pick him up, he comes out in a tie-dye shirt with The Rolling Stones tongue logo on it and a tablet on the tongue…it was so obvious what it was. I knew very well he did it on purpose, too. My parents ended up not really noticing.
Well, if they did, they didn’t say anything. And, now we are married and they love my husband like he is their own child. They eventually DRASTICALLY loosened up after my younger sisters started getting older. Now, my mother cusses like a sailor (and can drink like one, too). I think she was strict on me because she used to be a huge party animal and got into a lot of trouble and didn’t want me to be like her when she was younger.
I look back on that day and can’t help but smile because I knew that it was a waste of breath telling that man to be on his best behavior. He was gonna be a little turd no matter what I said.”
