Family Christmas dinners are either the event you most look forward to OR the event that you are wholeheartedly dreading every day of the year until December, by which time you accept your fate. One daughter-in-law, who for the sake of this story, we will call OP, feared the latter, as she was no longer with her spouse, and did not take a liking to his family at all. The mother-in-law, who we will call Karen, liked to scowl, drink, complain, and do things her way. She never went out of her way…

What does 'being neighborly' mean to you? Does it mean you actually become friends with your neighbors, or is it just a pretend friendship to keep things cordial, as you're forced to live next to each other for the unforeseeable future? I guess it depends on the kind of neighbors you get stuck with. Well, this couple thought they were actually becoming close friends with their new neighbors until they received this unexpected blow right before their annual Christmas party.

People think they deserve charity for simply existing as if that entitles them to free stuff and a pat on the back. This woman reportedly drove '3 hours just for her kids to be disappointed', but the real disappointment here is that she, as a mother, booked a hotel room she knew she couldn't afford. And not by a bit… by a LOT. But before I get ahead of myself, let's start at the beginning. OP was working as a front desk clerk at an expensive, high-end resort. A woman who had booked a $600 hotel…

We will always be affected by favoritism. Parents make an effort to convince us that there is no such thing as favoritism and that people evaluate us based on our qualifications or lack thereof. As someone who has worked at over a dozen jobs, attended roughly six different schools during her life, and is one of twenty grandkids, I can vouch for the fact that favorites exist. The story below is of a strong single mother who is having a hard time providing for her kid. OP is a hard-working waitre…

This must've been the craziest day on the job for one group of construction workers . At every job, there will come a day that is so outrageous that it turns into a legend. Maybe someone gets in a public screaming match with the boss and tells them off in front of everyone. Or perhaps the serial food thief finally gets caught. Or maybe one employee flips out on a client. Days like these don't happen all the time, and when they do, it certainly breaks up the monotony. One group of construction w…

'First come, first serve' has been the mantra of many over the decades– in particular, siblings fighting over the shower, kids vying for toys at recess, and cousins loading up their plates at the family buffet. Generally, people tend to respect this little rule we've made for society, but apparently, some folks feel entitled to whatever they want in the world, ignoring the laws that separate humanity from that of the animals.

Families and tradition are synonymous with one another; it might be as simple as some small silly thing that you do together every year during the holidays, or it might be a serious, all-encompassing system of decorum that members must abide by. As most of us aren't part of some pseudo-royalty billionaire trust or vying for the succession of our father's multinational mass media company—chances are, more often than not, that most of our family traditions land towards the sillier end of the spec…

One of the huge downsides of having 8 billion people on the this Earth is that there are only so many 'unique' names to chose from. With 1 out of 25 Americans named 'John', it makes you wonder how many parents feel forced to think of baby names that are out of the box. Well, with the turn of the century, it seems like a lot of people have gotten extremely creative with baby names– and not in a good way.

There's this growing sentiment in modern parenting that we should never lie to our children, that, if we do, they may one day grow up to resent us for giving them an unrealistic view of the world. Maybe, just maybe, that desire for a more realistic and grounded approach stems from the fact that we were raised being told that we could be whatever, whoever, and wherever we wanted to be when the reality is that all of those things cost money and if you don't have enough money to go, be and do ever…

Not everyone is good at giving gifts. Obviously, for some people out there, it's their bread and butter. Their love language, if you will. If that's you, congratulations. However, the rest of us (myself included) were not born with the “good gift-giver” gene. As someone who was once gifted a dictionary and a pencil case holder for my 15th birthday, not to mention a DVD of Inside Out for my 21st birthday, I was not raised to be good at this. That's why when this time of year rolls around, I get…

For childfree couples, the holiday season is usually the time of year you get chased around by all of your aunties and older cousins, pestering you about your life choices, your aging physique, and your inability to (so far) provide your bloodline with an heir. What is it, the 1700's? Is that all we're good for?

Sometimes the village has to step in… and parent someone else's child. This is probably one of the most sensitive topics in the world, as parents often feel like failures, just like you and your imposter syndrome at work. Am I doing this right? I shouldn't have yelled at them like that. Why haven't they brushed their teeth yet and WHAT IS UP WITH THEIR MUSIC? Many thoughts go through parents' heads, and not all of them are pretty. We are all human, and taking care of another human is really har…

Imagine the kind of level of desperation one would have to exhibit to draft a Santa Wish List letter as a 12-year-old child in order to get expensive Christmas gifts. These are the kinds of letters to nonprofit organizations where billionaires purchase Holiday gifts for underprivileged kids. These are the kinds of organizations that are meant for children in need, not fully grown choosing beggars with a whole lot of audacity.

Raising a well-rounded child is always a conundrum. I can't speak from experience, but I imagine it would be particularly difficult to keep your teenager grounded if your family is affluent. Teenagers are inherently entitled, but imagine throwing a couple million dollars in their bank account along with the latest iPhone.

It's no secret that part of being a parent is messing up. Ideally, like in all things in life, we learn from our mistakes, but there are some parents out there who will never learn and who are practically walking red flags as a result of how they treat their kids. As these folks on Reddit pointed out via this r/AskReddit thread, there are countless signs that you or someone you know may be a trashy parent. Whether it's yelling at your kids in public or refusing to believe your kid could possibl…

How would you feel if you knew your landlord was bringing a baby and a toddler to your place while she showed it to prospective tenants? I think most people would protest that, yet one landlord thinks she's actually perfectly fine bringing the kiddos along. As a parent, you love your kid more than anything else, and you think everything they do is cute and sweet and perfect. Even though you're head over heels in love with them, not everyone is as enamored with your little ones' antics. Parents…