For many of us, next week, we will be sitting around a large dinner table exchanging passive-aggressive remarks with family members before the tryptophan makes us all fall asleep before 9:00 pm. This is, of course, the most ideal scenario for Thanksgiving. We all know that in practice, something always goes wrong. These wrong outcomes can range from family members bickering over how to get all the dishes prepared and cooked in time to siblings letting old wounds out in the open. Anything can ha…

Spending the holidays with your husband's ex-wife sounds like prime material for a straight-to-streaming holiday-themed romantic comedy, but the reality is that it's not nearly as funny when it is your reality. This stepmother turned to this online community for advice on a complex personal problem she was facing and wondered if she was in the wrong for encouraging her 19-year-old stepdaughter to speak up about ending their joint family holiday gatherings with the stepdaughter's mother, her hus…

Many parents have to beg their children to pick up a book, but some have the exact opposite issue: They can't get their kids to stop reading! When you get really into reading as a child , you want to read all the time. Whether you're reading under the table at dinner time, or sneaking a flashlight into your room to read under the covers, you'll find any scrap of time to read. It's addicting to be engrossed in a fascinating mystery or a horror book. It's also a lot better than playing endless vi…

It's hard to be on the receiving end of questionable parenting habits. When your mom or dad is being ridiculous, frustrating, or just all-around crazy, calling them out on their nonsense does not always help the situation get any better. These Redditors understand that conundrum all too well. Some of these frustrating parenting habits can range from universally annoying ticks to uncharacteristically specific quirks and eccentricities. For instance, we've got plenty of folks discussing their par…

Are you even a real family if you DON'T have at least one argument during Thanksgiving dinner?

It doesn't seem likely that this family will ever recover after this wedding debacle. The groom had been in an 18-year relationship with his fiancée and had previously gotten into hot water after chickening out of their first engagement three years prior to this go-around (talk about commitment issues!). This time, he hadn't shown up to the altar and was nowhere to be found. Three hours passed when finally the groom's sister received a call from her brother-in-law saying they found the groom at…

We can all probably remember those peaceful weekend mornings, sun filtering through the basement playroom windows, curled up on the couch with our favorite bowl of way-too-sugary cereal that we had to beg our parents to buy. That cereal might as well have been gold; we certainly thought it was worth its weight in it. My parents, however, never showed an interest in eating this cereal themselves. Something about stale marshmallows and really overhyped Cheerios just wasn't all that appealing to t…

This older cousin knew exactly what she was doing when she invited her younger relative over to clean each weekend. She was taking advantage of someone younger than her, with less life experience, in order to get a clean house! Having a kid is a messy endeavor---how do they go through so much clothing, leave messes everywhere, and leave toys on every possible surface? It's nearly impossible to have a perfectly clean home when there are toddlers running around messing things up at every opportun…

Eighteen years of age is when the training wheels of life really start to come off. Of course, it depends on your personal situation, but for the first time, you really get the chance to start making your own decisions. Many of us will be fortunate enough to still have the guidance of our parents, mentors, and guardians once we reach this age to hopefully prevent us from making life-altering mistakes that could dictate the rest of our adult lives. But, inevitably, mistakes will happen—we're all…

No one enjoys being cut off, whether that’s being cut off in the middle of a phone conversation or having your electricity cut off. Obviously, one of these scenarios is worse than the other, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do to make a point. Here, we have a 28-year-old daughter who helped support her father financially and recently had to call him about an upcoming electricity payment. However, her attempts to discuss this with her father were thwarted six times because he had th…

Siblings are a difficult part of growing up—even when you're an adult, you're going to be prone to troubles with them. But, during your developmental years, you're going to be constantly compared to them—both by yourself and others. This creates complex psychological interworking and can create complex disorders and issues. And this is just with normal siblings; I can't claim to have one myself, but I can only imagine that with twins, it's a lot harder. No longer are they only similar to you or…

All may be fair in love and war, but when it comes to family board game nights, you can expect the gloves to come off if you go for below-the-belt strategies. Nothing causes family arguments like a competitive board game—heck, even Candy Land games can get heated when someone draws that plum card at the end of a close game—or rockets ahead with a lucky snowflake draw early on. And that's before you get into games that have actual strategy Board games from the beginning of the “Board Game Renais…

If there is one cardinal rule in life, it should be to never mess with a mom. If this story serves as proof of anything, it's this principle. At the very least, one should not try to mess with this particular mother. Her 7-year-old kid was unfairly deemed a bad apple by his first-grade teacher despite the fact that he had done absolutely nothing. It was one of those power-tripping cases where a teacher just wanted to flex her muscles and assert her authority… even if it was over a 7-year-old. O…

Talking about money can be so gauche. It depends on the circumstances. Should you talk to your coworkers about how much they're making? Yes, you absolutely should. But is it the best thing to talk about at a dinner party? Not so much. They say that money talks and wealth whispers, and this is a great example of it. Some people get their paychecks and just have to buy designer clothes, expensive cars, or the best new tech just so they can show it off to everyone around them. It's the kind of per…

In a perfect world, everyone would have to pass a test to prove they are worthy of having children. The fact that anyone can become a parent, without any requirements or supervision, is quite honestly insane. In that perfect world, where parents have to prove their capabilities to become parents, they would actually have a good relationship with their kids. And who wouldn't want to have that? A healthy and happy relationship with their kids? Since we are not living in a perfect world, parents l…

Her money, their problem