Raising strong, empathetic, well-adjusted children is not an easy task. And everyone will have their own opinions on what’s best for your kids. “It should be a crime to let them look at screens!” And “They should never be given snacks that contain Red 40!” But at the end of the day, it’s up to you as their mother or father to decide what they need. And there’s no such thing as a perfect parent anyway!
But sadly, there is such a thing as a bad parent. And Redditors have recently been sharing heartbreaking stories of the worst parenting they’ve ever witnessed. We’ll warn you right now, pandas, that these replies might not be easy to stomach. But they’re important reminders that not everyone deserves to have kids.
#1
An old girlfriend of mine had a friend who was incredibly verbally abusive to her kid. This kid was 6 years old, and one night, he pissed her off because he wouldn’t go to bed. So she went into the room and started threatening to beat him. Then she started saying things like I hope someone comes in here in the middle of the night and kidnaps you because your dad and I won’t even try to look for you. You’re such a little s**t I should’ve had an abortion. And that kind of stuff carried on for 20 minutes until the kid was wailing. It was so bad I started crying and left. Called CPS the next day.
Oh boy here we go, I lived in Abitibi, back in 2013 for about a week, my hometown was the coldest town on earth. I was at a friend’s place, playing cards and his 4 years-old daughter was a real pest, but hey, it’s a kid, I could tolerate with ease. At one point, she grabbed my deck of cards and threw it on the wall, messing it up somewhat, but nothing too bad. Her dad then took her, started yelling and took her to the patio, locking the door. She was in her pajamas. I started giving him an earful and he told me ‘relax, it works every times.’ WHAT?!?!?! I shoved him away, took his daughter back in, she was already so cold! I called the police while he was berating me. He’s still out there, but divorced and his now teenage girl don’t want anything to do with him.
#3
My GF’s coworker asked if their son could play at my D&D game.
Kid shows up. 450 pounds, reeks of s**t. Eats all of the snacks, and then tries t have in-game sex with the 80 year old bar keeper. I had to boot him. I found out later that he doesn’t go to school or do much of anything besides make characters on the heromaker website, which he never orders. He recently had to go to the emergency room because he is so fat he tore his belly button.
Parents who let a kid get like that should be jailed.
#4
Toddlers & Tiaras.
#5
Working in visiting at the jail I’m employed by. Mom brought in a two week old baby to meet the father. When she handed the baby to him he said “i don’t want that” and threw the baby on the floor, not dropped, thrown.
We had the medical team rush to help and we called an ambulance for the baby. No idea how that kid is now. This was five years ago.
#6
My cousin had a kid, poor little guy, and she just gave him a screen all the damn time. He got to 6 years old and could barely speak. He got so frustrated that he couldn’t communicate his feelings he developed really bad anger issues and had to have therapy. That’s a side of the family I ignore. So horrible, I hate to think what else went on with him.
#7
Last time I went to Chicago there was a little girl selling something for a school fundraiser. Thanks to the security guard there I quickly learned that parents send there small children (I’m talking 4-10 year olds ) into these huge crowds of people/tourists pretending to be raising funds for school activities when in reality any money they get goes back to the parent and you never receive what you ordered. Apparently this has become quite common there at least in touristy areas. Using your kids for your benefit is bad enough parenting. Making your very small child go into a crowd of strangers and having them go up to random people from God knows where is just insane.
#8
Yesterday I was at the dermatologist and this lady had two boys around the ages 3&5 and the older one hit the younger one and then they both just scream at each other back and forth at the top of their lungs. She never once looked up at them, never said a word just continued to play on her phone. The whole waiting room plus reception were staring open mouthed at her.
#9
When I worked at a shelter for several years, there was one woman whose almost 3 year old was still breastfeeding. She was on [drugs], and if she stopped nursing her son went into terrible withdrawals. Just inconsolable. And since he was addicted, all he’d eat was sugar, so it’s all she ever gave him. Every single tooth looked like it was rotting out of his head.
#10
My brother and his wife actively prevent and limit the amount of interaction their children have with their grandparents (particularly my parents) because they don’t want their kids loving their grandparents more than them. My parents are amazing grandparents and my daughter loves them more than anything and I have no problem with that.
#11
I’m a paramedic. I have plenty of bad parenting stories, but perhaps one of the worst cases I have seen was a baby girl that was starved. She was about 6 months old. We were called to help a smaller service and when we got there we found out that it was the grandma that had called us. She was seizing due to malnutrition and sheer neglect. The little girl was just skin and bones. We rushed her to the hospital where we were met by her angry parents. They were mad at us and the grandma for taking the little girl from home to get her medical help.
#12
I family asked me to nanny for them. They seemed lovely and the home was gorgeous. They had two ten year old twins and they started play wrestling like totally normal sibling stuff. The dad said “hands off” and the kids stood up immediately and put there a hands in the air, then the dad gave them 10 DOLLARS each for obeying. If the kids didn’t obey other orders in time the dad would walk up stairs and take cash out of these jars in their closet and the kids would freak out. The boys were obsessed with money.The dad walked around with a wad of cash and just gave them cash for doing normal things throughout the day. It was sooooo weird. Always talking about money and how to make more money. The kids were also pretty robotic and never played games. They just watched Iron Chef and Shark Tank. The dad told me “I’m trying to get them to think in money, not time, because time is money” and winked at me. I don’t know. Not the WORST parenting but definitely the weirdest. Also those kids aren’t learning morals, just money? Idk so strange.
#13
Watching your kid behave badly and laughing about it. Too many parents think their kids bad behavior is cute.
#14
My sister’s grandchildren. One son who has two kids (one disabled with severe autism) and he pulled his older son from school because he thought the school was promoting a “gay is okay” kind of thing. So from the age of about ten this kid never went to school. He was homeschooled but never did any of the work or submitted anything for grades. He is now 21 and has a fourth grade education. Has never had friends and is not well socialized at all. Will likely never hold a job other than as a laborer. His brother, the autistic son, never went to school for even a day. There are programs available that would have likely helped him but he was never taken to any of them. He could have at least learned toileting, how to dress himself and so on, but his dad never taught him and never allowed anyone else to help. The mother was out of the picture while the youngest was a baby because d***s were better than raising children.
I tried to have children and Family Services intervene but they saw that the kids weren’t being beaten and were being fed so that was good enough. The oldest boy rarely leaves the house. The youngest will soon be institutionalized because my nephew is unable to stop him from putting himself in danger – he’s a very strong young man.
It’s a true disaster what happened to these kids.
#15
My neighbors who live behind me. They let their kids run around and scream at all hours of the day and night. Then they got a puppy and all-but ignore the poor thing. It just sits outside howling to come in. The kids used to bounce on the trampoline and taunt my dogs and throw stuff over the fence. When I confronted them about it the parents ignored me. Like they literally just walked away. I finally stopped throwing things back and started popping the balls in front of the kids and letting my dogs chew up whatever other toys they threw.
#16
I’m sure I’ve seen things worse than this, but this stuck in my mind, and it happened about 2 years ago. I was making a delivery to East New York(Brooklyn). I went to the corner store while they unloaded my truck. It was just me, an old lady, and a lady with 3 young kids. The old lady was at the register paying for her stuff. The other lady was waiting for food. As the old lady turned to leave, the oldest of the 3 kids who was about 6 turned to open the door for the old lady. As he did that, the other 2 kids kinda followed him and joined him holding the door. The old lady started to thank them. As she did that, the mom turned and said, uh uh I told y’all to stop holding doors for people cause they never say thank you. I really try to mind my business, especially in East New York but I had to tell the lady that they shouldn’t be doing it for thanks, they should be doing it cause it’s the right thing to do. She just shook her head. I know that’s not at all abusive, and I’m sure there are much worse cases on here, but as a black man, that s**t broke my heart cause I felt so bad for those 3 black kids. It would be equally horrible no matter the race, but that s**t made an impact on me. It’s not always the big things. It’s a bunch of small things that keep people from being great. Chip after chip. I think about it every time I hold the door for someone.
#17
My cousin had a child at 16. Abandoned it with the child’s grandmother, refused to let the mother see him, and went to start a new family with a new girl. This kid is 9 now, has never been to school, has zero social skills, and is absolutely starved for attention. He’s so sweet, but I feel terrible for his situation. My father wanted to adopt him the second my cousin didn’t want him, but my aunt (on my mom’s side) had custody and refused. I’ve been trying to teach him how to read and write, but he’s so far behind academically it’s difficult.
#18
I was at the grocery store and a child, probably 4 or 5, was asking his mom for a Snickers bar. She said no, so he started screaming and running through the grocery store knocking things off the shelves. After about 10 minutes of this, she took the candy bar, unwrapped it, and physically put it directly into his open, screaming mouth. Like she was giving a crying baby a bottle.
#19
The family across the street from my house where I grew up had four kids. Their mom and dad chased and beat them with all kinds of things—mops, cords, hockey stick—whatever they could grab running out their side door as they chased the kids down the street. No one ever called the police or CPS. The 1980s was an interesting era for parenting.
#20
Friend’s mom just decided one day she was tired of being a mom and left when he and his brother were 6 and 8. She didn’t talk to them about it first, just left a note for her family when they were at work/school and was gone. She never formally divorced their dad so he had to go through the courts to make it happen, but his dad was very depressed for years and struggled with being a single dad but did his best.
My friend found out when he was a teenager that she eventually remarried and had a new baby who she adored. My friend emailed her to reconnect but she blocked him. He found her on social media eventually and she made a post saying something along the lines of “I love [baby name here]; being a mom is awesome”. He was heartbroken and enraged and said his mom was dead to him.
As an adult he finally connected with her and all she said was that she was done being a mom, and knew his dad would be a better parent for the boys and didn’t apologize. He cried in front of her and she was stoic and didn’t address it. He asked if there was any abuse or anything and she said nope, she was just done.
In this case the worst parenting was abandoning her kids, replacing them, and really not being their parent at all.
#21
Former HS principal. Small town. 50 students per grade. Out in hall by office door one morning before school. Maybe 7:45 AM.
10th gr girl is at locker next to my office door. A bit wobbly.
“Hey (name) you feeling ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” As she keeps head down.
Puts juice bottle in backpack. Fumbles with pencils, pens. Drops roll of mints like wearing oven mitts. Sits on floor cross legged to pick them up. Hangs on locker door to get to her feet.
“Sure you’re ok?”
“Yes” came the voldka flavored reply.
In the office. Call school soc wkr, cops, parents.
Juice bottle is more alcohol than juice. Soc wkr sitting in chair next to my desk. We explain the lowdown to Mom (Suspension, citation, etc…)
Mom gets up, grabs daughter by the arm and starts to walk out of office. 8:30 AM and girl is loaded.
Mom looks at me and says, “It’s only alcohol.”.
#22
For context: Worked at the theme parks for 5+ years when I lived in Florida. I was a Main Entrance greeter (turnstiles) and we had a crowd of guests waiting at the gates to enter for a ticketed event.
This girl, who looked like she would’ve been around 6 or 7 years old, was kicking me in the legs and stomping on my feet. Nonstop. Has hard as she could. I tried joking with the kid about it to get her to cut it out, but she actually thought that made it funnier and kept going. The mother was watching the whole time and eventually just played it off and said, “Oh, she does this all the time. She just wants to get your attention. Isn’t it cute?”
I actually thought the mother was messing with me for a moment, but no…she was dead a** serious. She just let her kid kick me for about another five minutes until my coordinator had to come over and tell the mother to make the girl stop.
#23
We had a local discount furniture company with tons of local ads on TV and radio with a huge gimmick by the owner. A very visible local figure. One day while at McD’s the business owner comes in with his family, makes an order, and his little girl goes over to the fountain drink station to fill cups for everyone and spills the entire tray on the floor. The business owner got nasty and went over to slap his daughter in the face in and berate her.
I watched the entire incident from start to finish. Poor girl just couldn’t handle a plastic tray of drinks. She was maybe 7 or 8 years old.
It’s McDonald’s. Fountain drinks spill all the time. It’s a money printing machine for the company. No one needs to champion McDonald’s beverage losses. Disgusting display of violence for a complete accident.
#24
Probably this family that lived behind my grandparents. There was an entire stable of kids that the parents let run free. They stole things, never bathed, and they had black teeth from their enamel rotting off. Their house was a total dumpster, it stank to high hell.
I only knew them because I would go play in the neighborhood. They were free range children in the most literal sense. I don’t think their parents were ever home. Heck I don’t remember them ever going to school either. The older ones raised the younger ones type situation. I know they were part of a clan of sorts with a guy that was treated as a king. The whole thing was bonkers.
#25
My old neighbors had 3 kids all under 10 when I knew them. These kids never got to play outside. Their dad d**ked around on his phone all day while mom worked. I heard the kids asking to go to the park EVERY day and he always said no. The only times the kids went outside it was to go to the corner store and they would come back with giant sodas and a bunch of chips and candy.
All of the kids were so fat they could barely walk. They certainly couldn't run or ride bikes. Walking across the street to the bodega was almost too much for them.
#26
I was working in Phoenix, and went to a gas station in the morning for a donut and some coffee. Two supremely trashy looking ladies were chatting by by the soda fountain, with the most raspiest smokers voices ive ever heard.
Then an incredibly dirty little girl (as in messed up hair , dirty face, very dirty/stairs clothes) walked up to them with some candy and said she got her breakfast. Neither lady cared.
Then one opened her jumbo MTN dew mug to fill it , only to find there was stuff still in it. She held it out to the little girl and asked what that was. She took a sip and said “mmmm…. orange juice vodka” and both ladies laughed while the one with the mug just cackled “that’s my girl”. She then just filled up the rest of that mug with mtn dew , not bothering to dump out the old OJ vodka, or more likely her morning breakfast ok vodka. .
#27
My dad used to let me dog sit at his [drug] dealer's house by myself when I was 12.
#28
Kid stole hat of my head. Parents wouldn’t make him give it back and gave out to me when I tried to take it back. The kid then ran away and the parents yelled at me more. I never got my hat back.
#29
Once in my state, there was this case about a woman who had a child and she tied him to a metal bed and left him all day long tied to it because he was a bad boy or something like that. She also used to burn the kid with cigarettes and stuff like that… beatings were also usual and the child developed ulcers from being all day long in his feces and urine.
Eventually, a neighbor noticed and told the police and at the time of rescue the child was severely dehydrated and malnourished (we are talking about a 3 to 5-year-old child)
The news got so big it became a national thing
#30
I worked at a daycare for a few months when I was just 18 years old. There was this little boy Mason who was so sweet, but clearly neglected. He would come in with feces still stuck to him from the night before. Terrible diaper rashes. 2 years old but with no verbal skills. He would have a bottle full of Coca-Cola. No water, no milk, his mother would send him everyday with Coca-Cola. The mother would sometimes complain ” sorry I haven’t changed him since last night, I’ve got six kids in the house” from what I heard, a couple of those were foster children, some were biological. Stop having kids. You clearly cannot take care of them. We ended up reporting her to the state for neglect, no idea what came of it because I quit a few weeks later. Between the neglectful parents, hateful parents, and crazy helicopter parents, I couldn’t do it anymore. Especially not for $9 an hour.
Same place, there was an employee, a super mean old woman who would scream at the kids and threaten to hit them. When I complained about it to the boss she said “That’s just her generation” . This older woman would also blame us younger aides If a parent complained to her about anything. For example, a parent comes to pick up their kid and the kid hasn’t been changed yet. The old b***h would point directly at me and say I’m so sorry she was supposed to change her. Like b***h I wasn’t even in your classroom today, and she would straight up lie to these people. Again, complained, and nothing was done about it. Horrible horrible place, abuse from all sides. This was in 2011.