January 30, 2023 | Kaddy Gibson

Awful Kids, Worse Parents


Every parent wants to believe their kid is a perfect little angel—even if that means defending some truly devilish behavior. But when Mom and Dad turn a blind eye to temper tantrums, the rest of the world is left cleaning up the mess that rampaging kids leave in their wake. As these Redditors quickly learned, sometimes, bratty kids are nothing compared to their horrible parents.


1. Cake Day

It was my birthday, and my friends and family were over, which included my distant cousin and her nine-year-old overweight son. We’d just got done with the pizza and were about to go eat the cake when we walked in on the nine-year-old, who I’ll call Jake.

Jake had eaten all the cake and had frosting on his hands and around his mouth. Of course, right then Jake's mom comes in and says stuff like, "It's not his fault", and "why is the cake out anyway?"

Right then, I told her, "Get out, NOW". She said that she wouldn't because, AND I QUOTE, "It's not ONLY your birthday, it's all of ours too".

After that, my mom stepped in and told her she needed to leave. Luckily, we had a second cake and ate that instead. Unluckily for me, it had no frosting. Unluckily for her, she's not getting any Christmas presents.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, moppet65535

2. Nephews Of Mass Destruction

My ex-girlfriend from way back in high school had the worst nephews I've ever seen. They both had BB guns. One time, the older one (eight, I think) got mad over something, so he shot out the side windows in his mom's car.

She took his BB away as punishment, so he grabbed his four-year-old brother's piece and shot some windows in the house. She wouldn't take that one away because "it wouldn't be fair to his brother, he didn't do anything!"

But she did try to send him to his room. His reaction was straight-up chilling: "I'll kill you, you cow!" She felt so bad for "making him hate me" that she just gave up on punishment and gave him ice cream.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, Mindaugas Danys

3. Trouble In The Yard

When I was a preschool teacher (ages 24-30 months), I had a rather unpleasant and "juicy" child. He was not terribly likable and that is pretty tragic when you are only two. Anyway, our outside play area was covered in soft mulch to protect them if they fell—and they fall all the time.

I bent down to retie a child's shoe. Almost instantly, I heard screaming. I looked over just in time to see him pulling his hand away from a little girl's face. He impaled her in the eye with a piece of mulch. Totally unprovoked and he was not acting out.

He just looked at the stick and thought, "Oh, I'll put that here". So, we sent the girl to the ER with her parents and had a conference with his parents. Apparently, they allowed this child to bite, hit, scratch, tackle, punch, and otherwise attack his other family members.

In fact, they encouraged it and congratulated and applauded him. His father and two older brothers (11 and 13) thought it was fantastic. Their defense was "he isn't big enough to hurt anyone and he has so much fun”. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.

They thought teaching him to be a psycho was cute and funny. Listen, morons, your toddler may not be large enough to be a threat to your teenagers, but he is more than capable of putting out the eye of another toddler.

And he will grow in size but not in self-control if you don't start teaching him that random violence is socially unacceptable.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

4. Hands To Yourself

I was sitting on a bus to go into Manhattan and this lil' five-year-old kept tugging on my hair. I asked the mother to please get him to stop in a very polite manner. What does she do? Absolutely nothing.

What do I do? I grabbed his grubby lil' hand the next time he tried to reach for it and threatened to feed it to a hobo. He immediately stopped and the ride was a lot more pleasant.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

5. It’s All Fun And Games Until…

This one time, all us cousins were playing in the backyard having fun, when one cousin (I'll call Sam) decided to grab a full-sized branch and smack another cousin (I'll call Alice) in the face with it.

Not only did it cut her to the point blood soaked her shirt, but she ended up having to get stitches all over her face. It looked like a horror movie. His mother (one of my aunts) didn't even bother getting up to see if Alice was okay even though she was the one watching us.

And when she was confronted by Alice's mother, she merely replied, "Boys will be boys”. Poor Alice carries the scars to this day.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

6. Excuses, Excuses

My aunt and her three kids were usually "accidentally" not told about family gatherings, because she had zero control over the brats. If they ever came to visit, me and my sister would hide our favorite toys, because they'd probably break them.

They were the kind of kids who'd start smashing a toy against a wall "just to see if it would break". Of course, it freaking will! During one of my dad’s birthday celebrations, we'd set out a big buffet table with all kinds of nice food, so people could eat, drink and socialize in our garden.

My cousins went over and took one or two bites out of darn near everything on the table. My mother was so mad she had to be restrained. It fell to my dad to tell my aunt and her kids to leave that day. All the while she's laughing it off, saying "they're just kids", and all the rest. It was so disgraceful.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

7. Vroom, Vroom!

A teen boy and his friends were racing in my neighborhood, took a turn too tight, and broke off the fire hydrant on my lawn. Water was spraying 10 meters (30 feet) into the air. I heard the whole thing and ran out there only to chase after the kid as he backed up, ripping up my lawn in the process, and tried to run off.

His car shut down at the end of the street and one of the neighbors held him while his friends scattered. His father insisted to my face—even though I saw his son run off and told him that—that he wasn't racing and didn't try to run away. He just took a turn too tight and wanted to get away from the water. All this while our neighborhood is getting flooded.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsWikimedia Commons, peasap

8. The Karate Kid

Whenever we'd visit my sister’s godparents in the suburbs, their kids and extended family would pick on me relentlessly. I would tell their parents and mine. They told my mom and dad they were “just playing around".

One time, they all tied me to a tree and hit me with sticks. Another time, they had their dog chase me around—it was a German Shepherd that the family trained as a guard dog. Eventually, my parents signed me up for hapkido classes in the fall and we visited a lot less.

So, summer started and we were visiting weekly, which I hated, so I would always just sit near my parents and play my Gameboy or read. One time, I had made the mistake of bringing my magic cards to build a deck while I was there. I learned that lesson the hard way.

They took my cards while I was in the bathroom and ripped half the cards and set fire to the rest... I was furious at that point and one of the kids said, "What are you gonna do about it?" I didn't wanna start a fight, so I said that I was going to tell his mom and dad.

He got in my way and kept shoving me around. After the third shove to the ground, I’d had enough. So, as he was going to hit me, I swung faster and hit him in the throat then kicked him in the stomach. Some of his cousins tried to get me, too, but I just had to hit them once and they started crying.

Soon, their parents came up to see what the fuss was all about, and they started yelling at me for starting a fight. I tried to say they started it and pointed to the now-ashy pile of magic cards. Still more yelling.

Then, they turned their attention to my parents and asked them what they're going to do about it. My mom and dad got mad at me for "starting a fight" and we left while they were apologizing.

As soon as we got in the car, my mom said, "Thank God you finally taught those little jerks a lesson", and we drove off. We stopped by the store on the way home so they could get me some new cards.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

9. Absolution

My ex-sister-in-law defended her 13-year-old son, after he punched a two-year-old, by saying "He's got anger control issues, it's not his fault!" Granted, she's right that he has issues, but when the two-year-old's mom got angry, she acted like the other mom was crazy.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

10. TV Tantrum

One time, I was trying to help my cousin plug his game cables into the TV. I was untangling the cables while he pulled the TV back to reach the slots. He dropped the TV on my head.

Now here is the messed up part: my cousin starts crying so he can get out of trouble. Mind you, a TV just fell on my freaking head and that really hurt, so I was crying too. His grandma (my aunt) started shushing me, telling me to quit whining and crying. She consoled her grandkid, telling him she would take him out for ice cream.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

11. Her Way Or The Highway

When I was in fourth grade, a mean girl would always coerce people into giving her their things, playing with her at recess, etc. She was never kind and would never take no for an answer. Both of our mothers were teachers there, so at times, I felt obligated to hang out with her, despite that she was mean to my friends and me too.

One day, I decided I'd had enough. I told her to take a hike, the best way a fourth grader knew how. I told her we couldn't play together anymore until she felt like being nice, but until then I wanted to be left alone.

Not two hours later, I'm being pulled out of class by her mother, another teacher, and the evil brat. Her mother stood over me for the next 20 minutes, scolding me for being unkind and picking on her daughter. All the while, the little brat stood in the background snickering at me.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

12. Bullseye!

My friend, my brother, his friend, and I were once at our summerhouse. So, my friend and I were jumping on our trampoline and having a blast, and my brother's friend comes along and picks up a rock, puts it in his ''slingshot'' and shoots it right in her left eye.

So, she is crying, and we both go to my dad, who is talking to my brother's friend's mother. We tell his mother what happened, while my brother and his friend are right beside us, still playing with the slingshot. His mother tells us how it wasn't his fault, that it was an accident and that we were in the way of his slingshot, that it was our fault.

She then proceeds to ask her son if he did it, while still kind of defending him, and he says the most priceless thing I've ever heard: ''Yeah, I shot her in the eye”. His mom is all quiet for a few seconds, and then proceeds to tell us that he's joking.

He's now a criminal.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

13. Playground Punks

I was out at the playground with my own daughter and my ex's three-year-old, who I love like my own. There were these older kids around, maybe seven or eight, and they were running around like little jerks with no regard for any of the other kids around—there was a good helping of little ones around since it was a nice, cool day.

Anyway, they come ripping past and almost mow down my little one, and I say, "Hey! Watch out for the little kids!" I hadn’t really raised my voice...it was like speaking to air, neither one of them even slowed down.

So, I kept an eye on them. After they almost ran into another kid and almost knocked another one over, I actually raised my voice and said, "HEY! YOU TWO! WATCH OUT FOR THE LITTLE KIDS, YOU'RE GOING TO HURT SOMEONE!"

The kid stopped immediately, looked at me, and then walked over to his fat goon of a dad, and said something to him and pointed at me. The dad levered himself up and waddled over to me, all the while turning more red in the face. I expected the worst, but I was still shocked.

He started yelling at me in his strong redneck southern accent before he even got there...all kinds of stuff about how I was a jerk and he oughta kick my butt because I had no place telling his son what to do.

Then his son starts saying stuff like, "You tell him dad! He ain't got no right tellin’ me what to do! He's probably gay!" What did he just say? I’m calmly trying to explain to the dad that his son was possibly going to hurt some of the other kids by running crazy and he responds, "If they get hurt it's their own fault".

Which was when the kid called me a nasty slur that I won’t repeat. Before I even knew what happened, I had pointed right at the kid and snapped in the "dad" voice, "You watch your mouth, little boy. You are in a public place, and nobody wants to hear that trash!"

Now I realize I'm in trouble because I know the very next thing the dad was likely to do was get violent. Sure enough, he shoves me in the chest and says, "What did you just say to my boy? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"

I decide I'm done—the little one has noticed the altercation now, other parents are staring, it's just bad all around. So, I tell her to come along because we're leaving, the dad curses at me some more...and then his little inbred whelp freaking trips my little one.

That’s the last straw, screw it, I don't care anymore. So, I bum-rush the dad, plant my hands on his flabby chest, and shove him super hard. I actually think I knocked the wind out of him...he stumbles back into his little brat and trips over him, they both go sprawling and the dad lands mid-back on the plastic border holding all the mulch in the jungle gym area.

He actually squealed, so I know it hurt. His kid is all scraped up, my daughter is helping her little sister up—she’s fine, just tripped into sand. I decide to get the heck out of dodge since some of the parents are now on their phones and I assume it's with the authorities...but not before I look at the kid and say, "That's why we watch where we're going when little kids are around...didn't feel good getting run over did it?"

I look at the dad, who is doing the whale wobble and moaning, and want to say something. But I’m not about to risk things getting worse, so I basically just pick up the little one and bolt.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, Mike Gifford

14. Hiding In Plain Sight

Back when I taught high school, I was grading tests from the previous period while a class was taking the test. As the bell rang, I had a kid walk up to my desk, turn his test in, then snatch the answer key off my desk right in front of me and run out the door.

I couldn't run after him—I still had to finish collecting tests, etc.—but called the Dean immediately and they caught the kid while he was hiding it in his locker. The mother came in for a parent conference with me and the Dean and denied the whole thing.

She said, "He tells me he didn't do it, and I believe him. He never lies to me”. Let's just say her attitude explained a few things about the kid. Another time, I'd just given the first quiz of the year in my Chem class—it was a lab safety quiz.

I graded it, handed it back to students so we could go over the answers and they could write out the correct answers to every question they missed on a separate piece of paper, then collected everything back. That way, if they broke a lab rule later in the year and hurt themselves, I'd be able to cover my butt by pointing to the quiz/corrections to prove that I'd taught them the rules and correct procedures.

One girl had taken white out and changed her grade at the top, using a different color of pen and not even trying to imitate my handwriting. Her cop dad came in and denied, denied, denied. We showed him the test, and he claimed that there was no whiteout on it. My boss scraped it off right in front of him, revealing the original grade underneath. He insisted I must be trying to frame the girl.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

15. Stranger Danger

I went into a shop where a little kid was running about crazy. I stand in line to ask the staff a question. The boy runs up and kicks me as hard as he can. The mother told me, "It is because you are a stranger".

Yeah, because that absolves your bratty child from being wrong does it? He is a stranger to me, but I never kicked him in the face back, did I?

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFreepik,freepik

16. The Voice Coach

I was in a Walmart buying a frozen pizza for dinner a few weeks ago, and there was this kid, about six or seven, in front of me screaming because he wanted a candy bar. This old man in a wheelchair behind me yelled, "You're singing out of pitch, sing it right or shut up!" It was my greatest moment in Walmart.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

17. The Shame Circle

When I was in fourth grade, I was at a friend's sleepover birthday party. The night before, all of us girls were outside playing on the trampoline, and me and the birthday girl (let's call her Michelle) were in the center playing some kind of game, and I had won.

I turned my back to get off and let someone else on, and she smacked me as hard as she could on the back of the head. As an immediate reaction, I smacked her back on the arm. But definitely not half as hard as she had hit me. Still, the damage was done.

I was a skinny little awkward wimp, and she was massive. She started sobbing, of course, and ran inside to tell her mother. Her mom ran out and asked me to come inside. Her mom took me into her bedroom and told me I was a selfish little witch and that I should never touch her child again.

The memory is definitely fuzzy, but she said so many things to me that were completely out of line. I told her that I was sorry, but I was reacting to how Michelle had smacked me. Somehow, she refused to believe it. She brought me back into the living room and sat down EVERY SINGLE GIRL at the party in a big circle.

She sat us all down and said: "I think we all need to talk about how mean Silverman6 is to everyone, and how she needs to change”. She then proceeded to publicly shame me and humiliate me in front of 12 of my friends for almost two hours and Michelle just sat there smugly.

She then made me apologize to Michelle and then EVERYONE for my behavior. Then, she made everyone go around the circle and say what they could learn about manners from seeing how awful I was. I think back on it now, and even though it would be pointless, I still want to go to that girl's house and lay down the verbal smackdown and tell her what a useless pig she is.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

18. A Hands-On Approach

My wife's older sister doesn't believe in disciplining her kids. I’m not joking, there’s no discipline at all. They can do whatever they want. One time, we were having dinner and the three-year-old daughter is standing on her mom's chair between her legs.

She leans over the table and plants both hands into the salad bowl just as I was going for some. She then just stays in that position with her back bent at 90 degrees. There was a long silence. My wife looked at her sister who did nothing and then walked outside to keep from exploding at her. I excused myself too.

What a waste of a beautiful salad that was.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

19. The Standoff

I worked as a private investigator for a few years, I carry my piece all the time. One night, my cousin comes to visit me with her thirteen-year-old son. So, this little brat gets into my room—after breaking the lock—loads my piece and tries to leave with it. Wrong move punk.

I AM A FREAKING DETECTIVE! I can tell you are acting funny. I ask him what is wrong. My cousin knows me well, so she stops and stands in front of the door. This little jerk draws on me. I draw on him. It's a much bigger gun. He drops the piece.

His mother went crazy: “How can you point that at him?!?!?! He wasn't going to shoot! You shouldn't have guns!" She doesn't visit me anymore because "I am a dangerous man that shoots at children".

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

20. Surprise Chairs Match

One of my brothers was playing around with my friend's older brother. I think he was telling him that a punk band sucked or something. Instead of telling him “screw you" or "you don't know what you're talking about", this older brother took the ottoman from the family room and threw it at my brother's head. WWF style.

This kid's parents were sitting at the dinner table with my parents and instead of getting up to see if my brother was okay or if he had a concussion, they went to him and told him, "Why did you provoke him?".

They tried to justify this to my parents to make them come down on my brother for "provoking" their disgruntled son. My dad kicked them out.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFreepik,master1305

21. Movie Date

I was at a movie theater, sitting in the fourth or fifth row with friends. This was a rated-R movie. Two kids, maybe four and seven years old, are in the audience. They start playing and running back and forth at the front of the theater.

The four-year-old falls and starts to cry, the parent doesn't bother to get up. My friend finally went to console the child after a few minutes. The mother never bothered to leave her seat.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, Julie Falk

22. A New Coat Of Paint

When I was about 10, I was given this gorgeous dollhouse. It was beautiful and huge, with real glass, wood, and hinged doors. One day, my eight-year-old cousin found a toothbrush in the spare room that the dollhouse and my toys were in.

He proceeded to use the toothbrush to grind green Play-Doh into the white wood siding. I was speechless when I saw it. When I found him and started yelling, my uncle came in and told me it was my fault because there was a toothbrush there for him to use.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

23. Game On

My second cousin is a little jerk. He's about seven years old and his mother—my first cousin—has no control over him because of her lack of anything. One day, he's throwing his Wii games that were in the cases around my aunt's house.

I tell him to stop. He throws one and it hits his other cousin in the face. She starts crying, so I go over to her and told the little brat to stop throwing stuff. He flings another one in my direction and when I get up to go after him, he takes off. I'm not proud of what I did next, but I had to.

I picked up a game case and ninja starred it right into the back of his knee. I guess I threw it hard enough at his frail seven-year-old body that it made knee buckle, which in turn made him fall and slam face-first into the door jam.

His mom comes running accusing us of hurting him. I told her he tripped. My cousin whom he hit backed me up.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, akiko yanagawa

24. Retail Rumble

I was working retail one day and this kid of about six to nine years old comes in with his whale of a mother. It was a pretty busy day and we had associates everywhere trying to get work done. Well, this kid comes in and starts picking up things off the shelves, looking and them briefly, and then proceeds to throw them over his shoulder and move on.

I then have to approach them and ask them if they "need any help finding something today". The boy just grunts and keeps moving on throwing things off the shelves. At this point, I go grab my manager and tell them to get him out of the store because it's going to be me that has to clean that up.

When he goes and approaches the woman, she starts yelling, "THIS IS MY RIGHT AND HIS RIGHT, AS CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY, TO DO WHAT WE PLEASE". We had to threaten to call security to get them to leave. Some people...

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, U.S. Department of Agriculture

25. Growing Pains

When I was in junior high school, I was kind of a loser. I had been fat and quiet throughout my childhood, and I had maybe two friends. The rest of my class picked on me pretty much nonstop.

Suddenly, the puberty fairy came, and I grew about a foot and a half with a pretty nice chest and a decent butt, without gaining a pound overall. This guy I knew early on kept telling everyone that my chest grew because I was easy.

He mocked me relentlessly for my perceived intimate indiscretions. I tried to ignore him, but when he tried to pull up my skirt one day in the halls, that was the final straw. I reported him to the teacher and the guidance counselor, and he got in a minimal bit of trouble.

His mom came in to have a little talk with my mom in attendance. She said it was just a case of "boys being boys" so he shouldn't be punished and, from what I've heard from [son's name], everyone's seen it all already anyway”.

Un. Freaking. Believable.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

26. Boys Will Be Boys

It was 1994. When I was four or five, there was a sociopath in my class who bullied me and only me. He'd smack me in the face, scream at me, and threaten me daily. He cut and tore up my projects and put gum in my hair.

The teachers, counselors, and our parents all thought this was just his shy way of showing affection since, y'know, boys will be boys and he obviously doesn't know what he's doing. I was furious but there was nothing I could do. I just sat there and took it.

Then one morning, I walk by him as he's got a pencil in the hand-cranked sharpener. As soon as I pass, he yanks out the pencil and stabs me right in the lower back, driving the thing a good inch under my skin. The pencil tip breaks off and is lodged in my body.

I can't sit down because it drives the thing further in. I'm taken to a hospital by my mother, and I have the pencil shard surgically removed without anesthesia because we don't have insurance. When I return, everyone still thinks it's because this kid likes me and there's no reason to get mad.

A week after this incident we're all seated together to talk about this "problem" that is apparently mutual, and the boy is asked point-blank if he likes me. "No, I hate her”. It was apparently unclear.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

27. Anger Management

My sister Ramona is very protective of her nine-year-old son, Jayce, even though the kid is super shady. My other sister, Shannan, has a five-year-old named Martin. One day, Jayce and Martin were playing DS and Martin beat Jayce on some Mario Kart level.

Jayce thought it was a good idea to grab the decorative sword off the wall and hit Martin in the head with it. Martin is crying and bleeding everywhere—it was a bad scene. When Shannan comes to pick up her kid, Ramona says she shouldn't have brought martin over if she didn't want him to bleed.

She also refuses to talk to the family after we suggested taking the sword away and suggested the kid might need help.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

28. Rotten Rich Kid

This kid lived in my neighborhood. Now, at the time, he was a lot older than me—I was like eleven and he was probably around 17. He and his parents were loaded. They lived in this huge house and the kid drove either a Porsche or a Lamborghini.

The son was a total jerk. He'd blast music insanely loud in his car, drove 80 frigging miles an hour down our little street, almost hit me on my bike (more than once), and then would laugh. He even ran my mother off the road four times.

When she finally confronted him, he told her to "get the heck away from me, you aren't my mother", rolled his window up, and sped off. When my dad found out, he was ticked. So, me, my dad, and my mom drove down to their house to tell his parents.

When we told them all about the incidents, what did they do? Thank us for being concerned parents and informing them before their son hurt himself or others? No. The mom was upset at us, that was clear, but she didn’t really object, until the jerk of a father walked out and told us to "get the heck off his property" and "mind our own frigging business".

He also threatened to have us locked up and said, "There is nothing wrong with my son". My parents got pretty ticked and left, telling them, "just saying", before we went home. Not ten minutes later, what happened?

OFFICERS SHOW UP. The officers came to our front door and let my father know that the dad of the kid called, saying we were threatening him and his son. My dad told his side of the story and the officers agreed to let him off with a warning. The lengths some people will go to defend that their kids are perfect little angels is amazing.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, Thomas Hawk

29. Dinnertime Deception

About six years ago, my father’s side of the family was having a family reunion up in Maine. We decided to have lunch at a restaurant called Governors and my cousin, who was 14 and 350 lbs at the time, would keep eating about 3/4 of his food, then complain to the waiter about how it was undercooked and demanded a new plate.

He did this about ten times. My father and grandfather attempted to make him stop doing that, but my aunt would just end up yelling at them, saying that her son deserved only the best. They eventually just gave up and we just sat there embarrassed while he continued eating massive amounts of food.

Eventually, he finished, my dad let me and my sister get some ice cream, the adults paid and we left. Later, we found out that my aunt was talking behind our backs and telling everyone that me and my sister were spoiled because my dad let us get ice cream. Um…really?

We haven't had any contact with them since that day. Last I heard, he's about 400 lbs, quit his job after a day because it was apparently too much work for him, and is still spoiled rotten. It's a shame really. If only his mother learned to say no to him.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsShutterstock

30. The Golden Child

I used to be best friends with a girl who had a four-year-old son. He was the most spoiled kid I've ever seen, with absolutely no regard to manners or anything. He would demand junk food all of the time, hit his parents, and tell them to screw off.

He would have screaming fits all of the time, and they literally had to move into a bigger house so they could fit all of his toys and belongings. He had a plethora of toys, yet all he wanted to do was play Black Ops and other video games, just like his dad.

Oftentimes, she would tell him no once or twice, and then give in. I never saw him disciplined in any way for his behavior and she would usually say, "Oh, he's like that because my SO's parents spoil him. He's not like that ALL of the time”.

This child is now almost six and has been to Walt Disney World every year for two weeks since he was seven months old.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, Matt Clare

31. Family Ties

We have a small portion of our extended family that once was part of the army and moved to Alaska. Their patriarch was passed while working on an oil field after he retired from the army. So, they sued and received a massive settlement plus his life insurance and his army pension.

Cue the present day and imagine the Palins without ambition, gluttonous beyond mortal comprehension, and ongoing petty malevolent quarrels between them that stretch back decades over money.

At some point around Xmas last year, the grandson of the deceased gained control over the estate of the matriarch after she had a series of strokes from being obese for 20 years. He had been taking care of her, going to college, and taking care of a family on his own.

He asked for help from them but all they were worried about was when she was going to die so they could get more money. So, he cut them all off. That's when things went off the deep end. At the beginning of the summer, after six months or so of rehabilitation, she penned a new will and made it permanent after finding out what happened.

She has five children, and they are all suing her. Her daughters have never had a job, ever. The other two, the brothers, have ran a series of failed businesses into the ground and owe money to the IRS, the State of Alaska, and banks.

So, as it goes, I am a young professional and, beginning next month, me and my fiancée will be taking care of two of the older children as they go to their first semester of college. Their parents have to sell their house to eat and will be living out of an RV, their mom is looking for her first job at 55.

One kid—the girl—is morbidly obese and I was warned by her mother to not leave any sort of cheese, meat, or prepared food in the fridge, or snacks in the pantry, and expect them to be there when I come back from work.

The son I have to make sure never has access to my wallet or he may take my credit card information to buy Korean MMO currency. This is going to be interesting; I may regret this, but they are family.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

32. Trouble On The Horizon

I have an eight-year-old nephew whom we are not allowed to say no to, only positive things. When the lil brat does something wrong, his grandma—who’s had custody since birth and is my sister—will do the sign language for “I love you” and that's it. It's honestly getting really scary.

He is no longer allowed to be alone with other kids or animals because he has hurt them so badly in the past, almost offing his little brother once. He hits anyone he wants, including the balls of random strangers, and will spit, kick, and throw anything he can get his hands on if he doesn't get his way.

He’s been in trouble a lot at school and has been suspended for up to three days, many times. The only way he’s avoided being expelled is because my sister agreed to counseling, but it does no good.

My sister tries to say he’s having seizures and can’t help himself. But after no less than eight scans and three years with the best neurologist St. Louis has, there's no seizures. He’s going to be the next kid to shoot a school up if my sister doesn't take care of things.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

33. The Cookie Monster

One day, I forgot my lunch and had to work a 10-hour shift. Luckily, one of my managers is amazing and she bought me a few cookies, so I could have a snack until my boyfriend could bring me my lunch.

At the counter at work, we have a smaller counter that's a bit lower than the counter, and it's attached at the side. A man and his morbidly obese kid walk in, so I set my cookies down there until after I helped them.

I turned around to get the father's coffee and when I turned back, the kid was climbing on the counter and took one of my cookies. I had no idea what to say. When the father noticed, all he said was, "He has a learning disability”.

I was so shocked, I just had to say what I thought: "HAVING AN IDIOT FOR A PARENT ISN'T A DISABILITY!" My manager insisted he pay for me to have a new cookie, but he said, "No, my son has a learning disability. This is discrimination!"

I hope him and his porker of a kid drowned.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFreepik,freepik

34. Batter Up!

My friend was home one day when he saw a couple of 12– to 13-year-old kids walking down the street and hitting mailboxes with a baseball bat. He went out on his porch and yelled at them while they were still two houses down.

The kids responded with a hearty "Screw you!", so he started walking towards them and they ran. About a half hour later, he gets a knock on his door from the authorities asking if he threatened the two boys. They'd gone to the authorities. They were too stupid to realize their mistake.

The mother of one of the kids was outside pointing and screaming at him, saying he should be locked up because it's not his right to discipline her child. My friend showed the officers the damaged mailboxes, told them he yelled at the kids to stop and the kids’ didn't stop.

The officers thanked him, explained to the mother what happened, and she still was screeching for them to arrest my friend.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPxhere

35. Rugrats Running Wild

My sister's kids are terrible—mostly because she and her husband are terrible. During the holidays, I will actually call her and ask which holiday she's spending at our parents' house to make sure that I come home for the one she will be away for.

I have about a billion stories about them, but here's a few: My sister and her family borrowed my car once when they were here for a visit. Her kids proceeded to rip the fabric lining off of the inside of one of the doors.

If that wasn't bad enough, they got a ticket for parking in a red zone—this happens a lot, since they believe that parenting is so difficult it affords them the right to park in a red zone when loading/unloading their brats. They didn't tell me about the ticket or the damage to the door when they returned the car.

I noticed the door fairly quickly and was a bit peeved that my sister didn't tell me about it or offer to fix it, but whatever, they were just kids. I later got something in the mail about not paying the ticket. I was super confused until I realized the ticket was from when my sister had my car.

I called her and she said they didn't tell me because they planned to fight the ticket. Apparently, it was unfair of the officer to ticket them, as their children "weren't good in the car" and it was much too hard to have them walk a few blocks to where it was parked to load them in.

I told her to please pay it and that she and her children were never allowed anywhere near my car again. They never paid it. After the next warning I received, I paid it to avoid any more late fees or a warrant. Another time, my sister and her family were coming to visit and, since I didn't want them to destroy my house, I suggested we meet at a restaurant.

One of her children sat next to me and, in no particular order, put me in a headlock so that I couldn't eat my food, gouged me in the eye with both a straw and the corner of her menu, got ticked any time I tried to talk to my brother-in-law, demanded that I pay attention to only her, and attempted to shove meat in my mouth even though I explained to her that I am a vegetarian and don't eat meat.

Her parents just sat by through all of this and made no attempt to control their child. Their other child also attempted to talk the waitress' ear off every time she was in range, despite being told that "the nice lady has to work". He eventually resorted to following the waitress around the restaurant, talking to her, making her job extremely difficult.

The waitress was ridiculously kind, and tried her best to be attentive to the kid while also doing her job. At the end of the meal, while my sister and the kids were in the bathroom, my brother-in-law said to me, "It's so weird they acted like that today. People always say that our kids are so well-behaved!"

Having had enough of their nonsense for one day, I simply said, "No one says that”. To his credit, he looked pretty ashamed. I apologized profusely to the restaurant staff on the way out and dropped $20 in their tip jar.

If it seems like I don't stand up for myself or others when I'm around her bratty kids it's because a) they don't listen to anyone and telling them off would do absolutely nothing, and b) I should not have to be responsible for disciplining her bratty kids. I just try my best to tip well and see them as infrequently as I can.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, Joe Shlabotnik

36. Suburban Sniper

My daughter, at the time a freshman in high school, got shot with a BB gun walking home from school one day. It clipped the back of her calf, broke skin, horrible bruising. I called the school, and the school involved the authorities. The next day, the officers were riding the neighborhood, when my daughter hears the BB being fired again.

She runs and grabs the officer around the corner, who proceeds to go door to door. The neighbors direct the officer to the home where the kids are doing it, he even finds their little "stake out" spot, with BBs and stuff all over the ground, and a clear shot to the road where my daughter was hurt.

The mom got LIVID when the officer came to door. Admitted her kids owned a BB but swore her boys would NEVER do something that. She refused to let the officers talk to her boys. Basically, the little jerks got away with aggravated assault. I'm just grateful they only got her leg and not her face.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, WindRanch

37. They Got It From Their Momma

Oh God, this reminds me of my aunt's children. Basically, my aunt has her own issues which has resulted in her kids being treated like they are absolutely perfect. My aunt moved to New York years ago, but she'd come back to Seattle every three or four years to visit.

These visits usually involved her dumping her kids off at either my grandmother—who is an amputee in a wheelchair and can't handle two spoiled little kids—or my parent's homes while she went out and partied with her friends in order to recapture her youth like it was 1989.

On one particular visit, she gave her kids all of our trail mix, and they proceeded to fling it around the house. They spilled juice on the hardwood floors and would hit and punch my baby brother. Her daughter would cry and scream non-stop whenever my aunt left the house, which often meant no one got to bed until three or four in the morning.

My aunt thought it was cute that her daughter threw huge tantrums while she was gone, because it meant her daughter loved her. She didn't apologize or even acknowledge that they were messy and rude, she just would get up and leave the house. They made huge messes and my mom ended up cleaning everything.

However, here's the kicker. One day, my littlest brother, who was about six at the time, and my aunt's son, who was five, were playing with some discarded lotto tickets that my dad was going to throw away. My aunt's son took my littlest brother's lotto tickets and pushed him.

My brother asked for his tickets back, and my aunt's son proceeded to BEAT my brother. My aunt came out of her room and asked her son what happened. He told her that my brother had stolen his ticket toys and then he lied and said my brother had pushed him.

My aunt started YELLING at my baby brother, calling him a liar and a thief, and demanded that he give her son back those tickets all the while swearing profusely. My mom heard the commotion and ran downstairs.

She told my aunt that those lotto tickets were my dad's to begin with, and if my aunt or her children ever did anything to my brother again she would not be welcomed in our home.

Funnily enough, a few years later, my aunt got kicked out of our house after trying to buy weed from my uncle in front of me and my little brother.

After she did it, I asked her if she would ever do anything like that in front of her own children, to which she said no, and I replied, "Then why the heck do you think it's ok to do it in front of your brother's children?"

She begged me not to tell my mother, but I was livid and the first thing I did was go home and tell my parents. Needless to say, she's not welcome in the house.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

38. Go Easy On Him

An acquaintance of mine growing up never had any discipline. His father left him and his mother when he was about two. Naturally, people felt bad for him because this is a small southern town, and few people ever leave their families. I mean, it happens, it just isn't talked about, so people think it doesn't happen.

Anyway, people felt bad for him. Therefore, he was allowed to pretty much do as he wanted. He almost always had the most expensive clothes, the most expensive toys, no curfew, etc. His mother basically sacrificed everything for him. If something didn't go his way, he'd throw a tantrum. He was strong and so kicked a lot of butts but wasn't really a bad guy. He just lost it when he got mad.

Starting with high school, he started to get in trouble with the authorities. Fights, stealing, drinking, etc. For some reason, the officers wouldn't do anything other than take him home. By the end of high school, he was selling dope out in the open, had stolen guns, and was caught driving stolen cars. He got out of all of it and kept doing it.

Finally, someone got him for theft. He loaded up a pickup truck full of stuff from one of his neighbor's houses and sold it all. He got caught and sentenced to a year in prison. It would be six months with good behavior. He gets out in two months.

Not more than a week later, he gets caught driving inebriated with a pocket full of dope and a stolen piece in the car. He did his time for that, less than a year, and is back on the street.

People taught him that he could do as he pleased and get away with it.

His entire life has reinforced it. His mom and family always bailed him out and got him out of trouble. They aren't rich. Meanwhile their daughter gets into trouble and begs to go to rehab, but they're too busy bailing him out.

So now she's out there hustling pills because her parents won't help her. In high school, she drove a ratty, rusty-floored VW with a salvage title. There was no money for her college fund, and she couldn't get loans because her mom made too much money.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

39. The Ugly Truth

I went to a private school. I had a fellow classmate when we were in the 12th grade who was making obscene and terrifyingly violent jokes about a pregnant teacher. Saying things along the lines of, "I hope it dies", and laughing, all because this teacher constantly gave that student well deserved detentions.

He would do it almost in front of her, but not quite. People reported it but the school was too afraid to do anything about it. So finally, the teacher snaps and drags the kid in front of the Dean and the Disciplinary Board for charges of verbal threats. If found guilty, he’d be subjected to expulsion from the school and possibly dropped from the acceptance lists of their colleges.

So, the kid’s dad brings in a top-notch lawyer, who obviously didn't know the whole story and hadn't bothered to go around and ask people who were there when some of this stuff was said. Some things come to light when the Board calls witnesses and whatnot. The kid looks really bad and so does the lawyer.

The kid’s dad spent sooo much money trying to defend him and trying to keep him in the school, despite the fact that other teachers, parents, and students came forward and testified against this kid and his character. I realize that it's not a very cut-and-dry situation, but this was the worst story of a time when I personally saw a parent defend their child to the bitter end, even though we all knew the kid did it, and we all knew he was a bad egg.

He got expelled from the school and dropped from three of his colleges. I don't know what’s become of him, but honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if he was in prison somewhere.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

40. First Come, Fist Serve

I work at the Housing office at my university, and we deal with angry parents and students all the time. Our general process is to give students who currently live on campus first dibs on reserving their same room for the next year, and the vast majority of our communication is done through the university email that each student is given for attending the school.

Two days before the start of this new semester, I received a phone call from a very angry parent who was wondering why her son's room was given away. We have a database that we can check to see any form of communication that we had sent out to students. So, I check and see.

Her son received five emails from us, one each month from the start of when he could reserve his same room, informing him what he needs to do if he wants housing for next year, or to select a different housing option, etc.

At this point, the mother goes off on me, "HOW CAN YOU EXPECT HIM TO BE CHECKING EMAILS!?! HE'S SO BUSY TRYING TO KEEP UP IN CLASSES AND WITH HIS WORK!" Keep in mind this is a college student. The other issue was that since it was so close to the start of the new semester, we were pretty much booked full in terms of housing.

She wanted me to literally move another student who had finished everything correctly and on time out of housing so that her son who apparently cannot even check emails could stay on campus. I honestly never knew that so many college students have such a hard time checking emails…

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

41. Seeing Is Believing

I make eyeglasses, and here's a story from an optometrist I know. This lady brought her daughter in, saying she needs glasses. During the exam, the doctor can tell she's pretending to not be able to see because she's way overdoing it, like she's almost blind.

He left her in the exam room and told the mom that lots of little girls want glasses because their friends have them, and that's what’s going on. She got all mad that he's calling her daughter a liar, so he grabbed a display frame with demo lenses, took them to the exam room and asked the girl to try to read with the glasses on.

She had perfect vision.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

42. Oblivious

A mother let her kid play in the stream of wood chips coming out of a woodchipper and yelled at the guy who was cutting down trees because he told the kid to get away from it. She was on her phone the whole time, there could have been nails and stones in that wood that could have hit the kid. But, nope, it was the bloke’s fault for chipping wood and not letting the kid play in it.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFlickr, USFWS Mountain-Prairie

43. Daddy Knows Best

My sister was worried that her seven-year-old son wasn't at the level as the other kids and considered holding him back a year. My brother-in-law found this development super funny and kept openly mocking his own son until his son started crying his eyes out and needing a hug. I was absolutely horrified that his own father was acting like a school yard jerk.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

44. Speak To Me Nicely

I was in a department store and this couple were shopping with their three kids. The boy child, who looked to be around eight, picked up a hairbrush and smacked his sister, who started crying. The mom said, "Alex, don't do that, that isn't nice".

The boy replied, "Screw you!" The mom, still ignoring her crying daughter, says, "Come on, Alex, don't say that", to which Alex then hits his mother with the hairbrush. The mom bends down and says, "Alex that really isn't nice".

Alex responds by smacking his mother across the face and saying, "Screw you!". The mom simply says, "Alex, that wasn't necessary", and kept on shopping. The dad just watched all of this like it wasn't his problem and eventually just walked away.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

45. A Lesson In Manners

A woman on the bus, told her approximately six-year-old son to tell an approximately 11-year-old girl to move out the way, but referred to the girl as 'that fat cow'. I lost it. I was probably displaying pretty bad parenting skills myself as I was taking my son to school, but I couldn't let it pass.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFreepik, Drazen Zigic

46. Smackdown!

A few weeks ago, I was in an ice cream shop in LA. It was more of a high-end, gourmet place with nice décor. Someone comes in with three young boys, probably all between eight and 10. The boys are kind of loud and rowdy at first.

But then they literally start wrestling on the floor of this crowded shop. Rolling around, screaming, fighting each other. Mind you, this is a small shop—their "parents" couldn't have been more than a few feet away, but they did nothing.

They just acted as though the kids weren't there. The poor girl behind the counter had to kindly ask them to get off the floor, and of course they didn't listen to her. I had to literally step over them to get to the bathroom. There was a dog in the shop at the same time, and it was WAY better behaved than those little brats.

"Parenting" is a verb. You have to DO it.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPicryl

47. Potty Time

My parents have these friends who had a kid late in life, and they let that kid run rampant. He curses, screams, kicks, bites, breaks stuff, etc. One evening, we were all sitting out in their backyard at a BBQ, and this kid drops his trousers on the porch steps and starts to take stuff.

His mom yelled, "BRYCE, GOD DARNIT, GO FURTHER OUT FOR THAT!" So, the kid stops mid-stuff, waddles further out into the yard with his pants still around his ankles, and finishes. When my mom tried to say something about it, the kid's mom got up in arms and said, "What the heck are you expecting from him? He's only five”.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

48. A Really Bad Apple

I’m in a grocery store, and I see a probably five-year-old walk across the apple display, take a bite out each apple on the bottom row, look around, then place the apple back with the bite out of view.

I stood there with my jaw dropped, waiting for her parents to do something. Finally, the woman saw me, looked at the kid and said, "*gasp* Mija, no!!" She then promptly turned around and continued to let her do it.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsFreepik,pvproductions

49. The Runaway

Years ago, my wife and I were eating at a nice restaurant. Three kids at a nearby table were pretty much out of control, running around, yelling, etc. while the parents ignored them. We asked to see the manager, he came out, we told him the kids were ruining our meal.

He went to the table and asked the parents to keep the kids under control—they told him to go screw himself. He told them to pay up and leave immediately. An argument ensued.

As this was happening, one of the kids, sensing that he was not being watched, took off and ran outside the restaurant.

The subsequent hunt took about 15 officers and firefighters, most of the restaurant staff, and some of the patrons—not me, I got to relax and finish my meal. The kid was found in about 30 minutes. Of course, the parents were beside themselves and blaming everyone but themselves.

A news crew shows up, the mother made a fool of herself on local TV and blamed the restaurant. My wife was interviewed as well, made the parents look like fools, complimented the restaurant, etc. The whole thing left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I never went back there. The only redeeming part of that evening was that we got a free meal.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

50. The Joys Of Nature

I have a camp site in the middle of nowhere. Like 30 minutes on a gravel road, 20 minutes on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. So, I invited a few friends out, and one of them brought their girlfriend who had a four-year-old child. The child was just loving it, running around playing in the creek and field etc.

Suddenly, the kid comes running up to us and says, "I HAVE GRAPES!" I instantly grab his hand and pry it open only to find poisonous berries in his grasp, all smashed up because he squeezed them. So. as I am walking him over to the creek to wash his hand, I ask if he had eaten any of them.

He got quite because he thought he was in trouble, so I just said, "You’re not in trouble, I just want to make sure you don't get sick, because if you ate too many, we have to take you to the hospital so you don't get ill and start puking”. Not understanding this, he just continued to clam up.

By the time we get to the creek, and I am washing his hands off and talking to him to try and get more information out of him, his mother comes over, screaming at me, "How dare you touch my child! What are you doing to him? Why are there tears running down his face, WHAT DID YOU DO!?"

I proceed to very calmly explain to her what was going on, She just continued to freak out at me till I told her if she can't calm down she needs to leave, this is a place of peace and tranquility, and I wouldn’t tolerate her attitude.

After about 20 minutes of her ranting, and my cousin calming her down, she finally shut up and kept her kid by her side the rest of the day. She refused to speak to me at all or eat the food I grilled. It was so petty.

Awful Kids, Worse ParentsPexels

 

Sources: ,


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