Entitled parents are the worst. They will be rude to anyone in their path. People discuss entitled parents they have encountered in various scenarios. Content has been edited for clarity.
Dad’s Turn To Climb The Rock Wall
“For quite a few years, I would work street fairs for an entertainment company. Many times, I was assigned to our rock wall. This particular wall had four sides of varying degrees of difficulty. It was 25 feet high and could accommodate anyone. We even let little kids go on as long as they understood the concept of climbing since they were harnessed.
One day, a father brought his five-year-old to climb the rock wall. I got him harnessed and hooked up to the wall, and he started climbing. He got around halfway up, and his dad started yelling at him for a photo opportunity. Wrong move! The kid looked down, realized how high he was, and froze.
He looked at me and started crying. He said he wanted to come down. I was telling the kid what to do.
I told him, ‘Let go of the wall, and you’ll come down slowly.’
The dad started yelling at me saying, ‘He’s going up that dang wall! Don’t tell him he can quit.’
The dad then started yelling at the kid. He was relentless as this poor kid, around 12 feet in the air, was scared to death and crying. Keep in mind, there were a lot of people and kids hanging around waiting for their turn.
Dad was saying things to the kid like, ‘Get your butt up there.’
‘Are you a wimp? Only a wimp would quit!’
‘I’m ashamed of you! I can’t believe my son is a wimp!’
I couldn’t take it anymore.
I looked at the kid and said, ‘You did great! Look how high you got! But if you want to come down, let me know and I’ll help you. You can try again later if you want.’
The kid just nodded his head.
As I went to grab the ‘lifeline’ (an additional rope for really light kids when the hydraulics may not let down), the dad started calling his kid a wimp again.
I turned to the dad and said, ‘I’ll tell you what, I’ll harness you up once your son comes down and we’ll see how good you do.’
I got the kid down and there was not another peep from the dad. I guess dad was the wimp since he wouldn’t even try.”
Dishing Out Entitlement
“The head of the PTA at my son’s school.
Our school’s primary division was fairly new, so when my son joined at age four, there were only two years of studying at the school. I wanted to get to know the parents at the school, and I thought that volunteering would be the best way to do so while giving my son something extra to be proud of.
Boy, oh boy, what a mistake. The Christmas fair came, and we all made our best efforts to set up. Little miss sunshine brought a bottle of happy juice and a glass for one and drank it all while the rest of us worked. Once in a while, she gave us snarky comments and yelled orders.
Not long after, there was the international food fair. I volunteered again, already less than keen to invest any time or effort, but my son asked me to. I cooked a traditional dish, which doesn’t look complicated but takes a very long time to make and involves kneading dough over and over again.
I was standing at the stall, my dish, along with other dishes, in front of me, ready to serve the food. She approached the stall with one of her friends.
She looked at what I’d made (unaware it was mine) and said, ‘Oh my gosh! What is this? Who would want to eat that?’
I was furious. How dare she criticize any food someone put in the effort to make? The fact the particular dish was mine was incidental. I would’ve been livid if it were any other dish. I said nothing and left.
The following year, not many people volunteered to bring food donations. They had to practically beg for it.
The story didn’t end there. One of her friends heard how I said more people would volunteer if she weren’t so ungrateful and rude to criticize peoples’ food and culture. I got an angry text from her threatening me and telling me I would not stand in her way.
At the end of that year, she resigned. I’m not sure why, but good riddance.”
Pay To Party
“There was a parent at my kid’s school who was insane. She muscled her way to becoming the PTA president and was at every school event. She was snobby and always belittling all the parents that worked for not volunteering 40 hours a week as she did.
She was having a birthday party for her son, who was in fifth grade. She invited my son with a paper invitation. I got a text message from her later that day which said each kid would need to pay 30 bucks to attend the birthday party (at her house) because she was hiring entertainment and rides and it would include a custom t-shirt as a keepsake. She also made an Amazon wish list of everything her son wanted and said to not bother going if we didn’t bring a present from the list.
I took a look at the list, and all the items ranged from 60-400 bucks. The list included GoPros, iPads, Nintendo Switch, etcetera. The cheapest item was a Nintendo Switch game which was 60 bucks. I told my son this was ridiculous and he couldn’t go. Even my son conceded this was ridiculous.
I felt bad for the kid for having such a crazy mom. I sent her a message saying we couldn’t go, and she told me to have my son return the invitation back to the kid so she could invite other kids who didn’t make the original list.”
Trust The Nanny
“My mother, hands down is the most entitled parent I know. She is the type who would help others out, but then expected you to worship the ground she walked on and to control your household from that day forward. Criticisms pour from her mouth like diarrhea.
Both my sisters have developed mental illness and have moved far away. She treated my nanny horribly. She would monitor her every move, throw fits, slam stuff, and throw stuff when she was displeased, gave horrible instructions (like how they can’t turn on any lights; we have solar so it’s not like it costs anything), and force her to do tasks that were repetitive and pointless just to keep her as busy as possible.
She minimized my nanny’s interactions with the kids as she thought my nanny was only useful to clean the house and cook. There was not a day gone by when she didn’t scream at me for selecting the wrong employee, whereas I know my nanny was one of the best possible. Nobody else would even be able to tolerate my mom.
She made my first nanny cry and run out the door. I was even on the brink of divorce because she was throwing fits at everyone over nothing. Nobody could go out or go on vacation without her throwing a fit. You couldn’t even take her out for dinner or do anything nice for her without her throwing a fit about how she could do it better. I was starting to wonder if she had some sort of mental illness.
We lived in her moldy condo for three years. During that time, we put in maybe 30,000 bucks of renovation and upgrades. But every day, she threatened and screamed at me and told me to pay back rent, utilities, and HOA. When I told her to give me the final amount we owed, she threw a fit because she actually just wanted to retain power over me. The money was just an excuse.
For Mother’s Day, I called her to plan something, and she never picked up the phone. Then, finally, when I reached her, she screamed at me because we didn’t visit her. Then she had the same rant about my nanny that I’ve heard billions of times. I got mad.
Then she was her typical petty self and complained about my husband and how we owed her a 500 buck red envelope (we are Chinese) for Mother’s Day. She also said we weren’t thankful for her. I was just over it now. If I gave the money to you, will you finally be quiet? She thought I was so great because I earned a lot of money, but to be honest, I’m nearly broke as we just did construction, and I have about a 50 percent effective tax rate.
She helped out with the childcare but came over even when she was not needed. She would then demand we pay her. At most, we would only need her like an hour or two a day, but she stayed longer for no reason other than to scrutinize the nanny.
She always told me I was the worst child when I was the highest achieving and the only one who bothered with her nonsense. I may be the worst because I also tolerated less of her nonsense. It seems like I’m being rude, but to be honest, she’s just so downright toxic I would rather have her out of my life forever.”
Holiday Drama
“My brother-in-law and his wife (I’ll lump them together) have absolutely no respect for my family. We get together on the weekends, usually at our house, and they’re almost always 20 minutes late. The exception was when it was a birthday party for one of our kids, then they would be an hour early because they didn’t want to deal with their twins asking when it was time to go.
Our four hours of cleaning were meaningless when the house would get trashed before our second set of guests arrived. They let their five-year-old twins help themselves to anything in our refrigerator and pantry, and would let them crawl, walk, and jump on our furniture.
Until this year, we’ve had to host every holiday. My wife asked them to take two holidays/events, so they chose Easter and Christmas cookie baking day.
For Easter, their first response was, ‘So are we going to get food out?’
They wanted to have it on Saturday night, which would leave my live-in mother-in-law with nothing to do on Easter. But it would have worked out best for their family, which is all they ever think about.”
Get On The Train
“At the end of my second year, I was engaged to a boy I met at university.
He was going to be a doctor. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do yet. I met his family briefly when we went to visit them for a weekend; I liked one of his three sisters. I hoped the rest would grow on me, and I would grow on them.
The summer after we were engaged, I moved in with him before heading home for a semester exchange program. A few days before I was set to leave, I answered the phone to hear the voice of my fiancé’s mother. The conversation went something like this:
I said, ‘Oh hello, Miss. No, I’m sorry, he is at work. He should be home after eight p.m. Should I ask him to call you back?’
Then she said, ‘That’s fine. I called to talk to you.’
I was a bit confused and said, ‘Oh, okay. How are you then?’
She said sternly, ‘I was calling because I think you’re due to leave soon.’
I replied, ‘Oh, yes. He is taking me to the train on Thursday.’
She said, ‘Well, make sure you’re on it.’
Silence.
I was perplexed and said, ‘Excuse me?’
She said again in a stern tone, ‘You just see to it. Make sure you’re on that train. I want you out of his house and out of his bed. My son is going to be a doctor. He doesn’t need you dragging him down.’
I don’t really remember what was said after that. I was completely flattened, and I was fairly hysterical by the time my fiancé got home from work.
I did get on the train. We broke up briefly while I was on my semester exchange, but he came out to visit, and we started up again. I’m pretty sure I never saw his mother again or even spoke to her in the years after.
As fate would have it, it would have been better for my finances if I had left him, but harder for him to get into medical school. He turned out to be siphoning money out of my checking account, leaving me both clueless and horrified as returned checks and overdraft fees built up over months.
When I finally figured it out, it was the final straw in our relationship.
Looking back years later, I realized that I had been in a very emotionally abusive relationship the entire time. He took everything I said and turned it around to mean the opposite; all to manipulate situations to where he always had the upper hand.
If I’d had more experience before I accepted his ring, I might have realized that having a horribly manipulative parent might just make for a child who knows how to be manipulative in his relationships. Yes. I know this isn’t always the case. It might have made me warier, and attentive to the signs instead of wasting several years tethered to a self-centered prick who stole my money and ruined my credit.
What was done was done, and for the last 20+ years I’ve been happily married to a fantastic fellow. His family, incidentally, adored me from the first, and I felt likewise. I have stories to tell my kids when they start having romantic relationships, and how to identify both good and bad ones. So I’ll take the win.”
He Should Have Kept It To Himself
“My first boyfriend’s mother was the rudest person I have ever personally been, I hate to say, ‘associated with.’
The worst part was I never even met her.
I was a sophomore when we started dating, but he was only a freshman. While we were only a year apart grade-wise, I was still one year and 10 months older than him; I had an early birthday, and he had a late birthday.
I remember genuinely looking forward to meeting his parents once we started dating because I’m really big on making good first impressions, and I wanted them to like me. Unfortunately for me, his parents, namely his mother, never really gave me a chance.
Although I had never even met his mother, my ex would tell me how she hated how I was older than him and said I was too short. There were other reasons he told me about, but the worst one was how she didn’t like how I was adopted from China.
In many Asian minds, being adopted means you were given up because you weren’t good enough. So, in my boyfriend’s mother’s mind, there must have been something wrong with me, or else I would have not been given up for adoption.
In hindsight, I completely realized him telling me all of this was absolutely wrong, and he never should’ve done it. It killed my self-confidence, and I absolutely felt like I was just not good enough for anyone. Her comments especially made me feel guilty for being adopted.
I think the absolute worst part about all of this is the fact she didn’t like me over factors completely out of my control. She would not even give me a chance to try and prove her wrong and show her I’m more than just a short, Asian girl raised by white parents.
Thankfully, those feelings of worthlessness did not last long, as I soon realized their ignorance was not my fault. Even though they didn’t realize it, I realized I was good enough for myself and for their son.”
Crazy Baseball Mom
“There was a mom in my town who had two boys who were both very involved in sports, especially baseball. They were both athletic, but the younger one was probably close to being gifted. So much so, that the other coaches in the league insisted they produce a birth certificate to prove he wasn’t an older ‘ringer.’
The mom had to be the most overbearing, loud, awful person in town, at least when her kids were on the field. Otherwise, she was pretty nice. But, boy-oh-boy, when one of her kids was playing, she was screaming and ranting at the coach, the other coach, the players, and the other parents. One time, I actually saw her scream and taunt the other team’s pitcher so much so he cried and had to leave the field. What has to be wrong in your brain that you think it’s okay to bully a nine-year-old until he cries?
At one point, she was asked to not come to any more games for the rest of the season unless she could keep it zipped. Everyone was terrified she would turn on them, so no one said anything.
The funny thing? Both her boys are the sweetest, most humble kids you’d ever meet.
I know there are a lot of these sports parents, but I’m happy we really only had one.”
Late-Night Babysitting
“On a Thursday night, I was asked over the phone if I could do an emergency babysitting job for their seven-year-old and nine-year-old sons. I knew the family only as neighbors; they were more private than our other neighbors. I was always wanting to babysit these two boys and now I had the chance.
They told me I was very well recommended. I went over the terms and conditions, and they negotiated. Upon a final agreement, I accepted the job. It was going to be a full-time weekend ordeal, nothing I couldn’t handle.
The parents left the keys and notes in my mailbox so I could have them when I arrived home from school. I always arrived home a half-hour to 40 minutes earlier than the elementary bus.
I opened our family’s mailbox and took out a manila envelope. The contents were inside. Their house was directly across the street and directly opposite ours. I waited in their driveway. I barely had time to skim and scan the notes over.
While they were exiting the bus, the boys were confused at my presence; seeing how it was always either their father or mother waiting on them. I knew this and quickly explained without telling them the reason their parents had left because I was asked not to. They accepted the not fully explained explanation. The boys lead me in.
The children were typical elementary-aged kids, continuously shifting from rambunctious to needy. No problems in providing their “emergency” care.
The rudeness came when the parents never mentioned to their children why they were leaving. I believe those confused and baffled boys I cared for that weekend never did learn ‘why’.”
Want A Treat?
“Given that parenting is one of the hardest jobs in the world, parents are torn between tough love and nurturing. Some are better than others when a pet or loved one pass.
With that in mind, the adult world is busy, and the youngest children are not so. Small children need a lot of attention day and night. My story is about observations of other people with small children. It is a lie to appease the kid for a bit. A friend of mine came over because she was selling life insurance.
At my kitchen table, my toddler came over for something. She told him she would give him a treat if he would go play for a bit longer. I was alarmed and asked her what she had as a treat. She said she didn’t have anything. She just said to get back to her demonstration. Of course, I was angry and had her leave, and then sat on the couch holding my baby for as long as he needed.
As mentioned before, I have seen lots of parents do this. It makes me ill. Kids will eventually see you as a fake and dismiss you, and rebel. Because if you do this, you likely let them down in other ways. And the parent is tasked with providing protection and security, and lying is part of being rude.
The more you put into your kids, the more you get out. If you are going to be rude and aloof, don’t be surprised when it comes back.”
Pizza Place Shenanigans
“My friend growing up had a mother who was just downright mean, controlling, and nasty. For my friend’s birthday, there were three of us who went to the pizza place. We were 13, and she was 12 going on 13.
After we had pizza, we thought we’d go next door to Kmart and look around.
We were there 20 minutes, and my friend said, ‘We have to hurry back.’
When I asked her why she told me her mother might call the pizza place and check to see if we were still there. I thought it was a little strange as there was nowhere else to go. We got back, and her mother was waiting for us.
We got there, and her mother started screaming, ‘Where were you? I called the pizza place to check on you and you weren’t even there!’
We tried to tell her it was our idea and that it wasn’t her fault we left.
She said, ‘Well, she was told not to leave. Now she’s grounded.’
She was such a stupid parent. All the time, screaming at her for stuff, grounding her, smacking her, etcetera. Little did I know, her stepdad was a nightmare and was horrible to her mother all the time, as well as her girls, including my friend.”
Give The Kid The Sheep
“When I was about seven, my dad was asked to play at a different community center in our town on Sunday. We went along with him. It was an all-age service and the speech was about the parable of the lost sheep. To make it more interactive, there was a segment in the service where all the kids were invited to search the community center for a ‘lost sheep’ soft toy. Whoever found the toy would get to keep it.
I found the sheep. It was on top of a cupboard door. As I wasn’t tall enough to reach it, I asked the nearest adult to get it down for me. The woman said okay, but then handed the sheep to her toddler and rushed her toddler to the front of the community center to claim the sheep.
She stole my sheep.
It was a small toy. It probably cost one euro. But I was crying. It didn’t help that other adults around then told me to stop crying and to stop being jealous of a baby.”