The Gameboy Was The Wrong Color
“My sister once started crying and locked herself in her room after my parents spent the last of their money buying her a Gameboy – because the Gameboy was grey and not pink. It was Christmas morning. I was maybe 15 and knew that my parents had spent all their money on gifts (we were very very poor growing up). My sister was 10 or 11 and also knew albeit vaguely that my parents were very tight on money (she and I had long talks about why we couldn’t shop at the mall and why we always wrote hand-me-downs, etc).
She unwrapped it excitedly. I remember mom and dad looking at each other and their expressions of weariness but excitement, finally, they had gotten their daughter a gift she had really wanted, and who cared if we couldn’t eat next week? And when she pulled it out she was completely silent, just looked at it with a grimace. My mom asked, tentatively, if that was a good present? Slowly, she wrapped it back up, set it in my mom’s lap, and said, “My sister can have it. I wanted pink.”
My parents were both in shock and I saw my mom’s eyes well up with tears. My sister, oblivious, stood up and said, “This is the worst Christmas ever.” Then she strode into her bedroom and slammed and locked the door. My mother was inconsolable and even my dad had to leave the house. I’ve never felt so sorry for them.”
Trying To Bond Over New Computer Fails
“I built my stepson a gaming computer, helped him set it up and got some games loaded up on it for him so we could game together and bond some. As soon as I had it all set up he told me to get out of his room and closed the door. I spent 4 months saving and buying parts for it one at a time.”
Selling The Car She Was Gifted
“My sister was so unhappy with the car my parents got her that she tried to sell it every time it was parked. This was back before cell phones so the only number she had to give was the home phone which my parents always answered if they were there. They got her back by moving the car one day and telling her that someone had bought it but since it was their car they got the money for it.”
Crashing A Car To Teach A Lesson…To Her Parents
“A girl at my high school put a brick on her gas pedal and crashed her brand new mustang into a concrete wall, at school.
All because the car she got for her 16th birthday was the wrong color.
And she kept bragging she’d ‘get a new one. I’m just teaching my parents a lesson.'”
Hijacking A Romantic Vacation From Her Husband For A ‘Girls’ Weekend’
“This year for Valentine’s day, my brother in law decided to make a weekend of it in Vegas for his wife. He booked a suite at the Rio, couples massages, 2 really fancy dinners, VIP seating at one of the clubs, the whole nine yards.
His wife finds out about the whole thing (but my brother in law didn’t know she knew), and decides she wants to make a girls’ weekend out of it instead. So on valentines day, just as my brother in law is getting ready to take his wife out, she tells him that she cancelled everything but the room and the VIP club seating, and that he should just stay home with the kid because her and her friends are spending the weekend in the room and he’s not invited.”
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
“All that can come to mind is my girlfriend (soon to perhaps be ex). She cooked dinner on Friday night and Saturday after she left for work, I stuck behind and cleaned her entire apartment. Washed all the pots and pans (it was Italian so it required a lot to cook it) then went on to clean her whole place. This morning she snapped at me for washing the dishes twice (I didn’t know the ones in the washer were already clean) and then I told her, ‘Wow, I guess I shouldn’t have washed all those pots, and you’re entire apartment too.’ I have spinal surgery tomorrow (Monday) and two severely herniated discs in my back, and it hurt a lot to do it, but I like trying to help her.
I’ve taken her out for countless nice meals which she ruins with her negativity. The waitress will ask her, ‘Do you want another drink?’, and she will respond in a tone, ‘I don’t know, do I?’ and the waitress will just give her a look of confusion. I’m tired of having to apologize for her and leave huge tips because of her curtness.
I have surgery on Monday and I CC’ed her on the email to my parents which just states the time and place (my parents are taking me) and all she said that night was ‘Why did you send me this email?,’ I said I thought you’d want to know the details, and she said ‘Pfft, I’m not waking up at 6:30.'”
Ungrateful Wife Sends Bill To EMTs
“I’m an EMT. Early morning cardiac arrest call. We worked on this guy furiously, got a pulse back, everything went right. Good call. Guy gets into the cath lab right away and walks out of the hospital alive a couple weeks later.
Then his cranky wife sends us a bill for carpet cleaning, saying that we tracked in mud on her carpet when we were saving her husband’s life.”
Spoiled Kid Isn’t Spoiled Enough According To Him
“My spoiled teenage cousin almost earned himself a punch one Christmas. We were talking about what we each got for Christmas that year, since we’re both gamers. I was excited that my wife had gotten me SWTOR. He got a bunch of games, a new 360 since his old one was “dirty and scratched” (from his nerd-raging) with Kinect, a Fender guitar, a new drum set, an iPhone 4 (to replace his “stupid 3GS”), and since he’d just turned 16 his parents gave them their “old” 2009 Toyota SUV (thing is sweet, fully loaded, beautiful). I was like ‘Dude! That sounds like a heck of a haul.’ His reply:
‘Yeah right that car is terrible. My buddy at school’s parents got him a Honda S2000, a Burton snowboard, and him and his girlfriend new iPhones, plus they got to go on a cruise for Christmas. I told my parents what car I wanted, they’re just cheap.’ I gave him a verbal beatdown the likes of which he needed to hear, rubbing in just how rough his life is, all the while he’s rolling his eyes.”
No New Phone, But A New Baby!
“My cousin who is 16 ran away from home because her mom wouldn’t buy her a Droid Razor (they couldn’t afford it. Her mother was working two jobs just to support her) she was only gone for a few days but just long enough to get pregnant.”
Her Laptop HAD To Be Pink
“My sister wanted a laptop. I was in college but had a little bit of christmas money saved up, so I decided to get her something.
I did a bunch of reading about what was the best kind of used laptop to buy. I ended up getting her a IBM Thinkpad T51. I formatted it, installed Windows XP, and went down to the school bookstore and got a student copy of Office to install on it.
I was talking to my mom the next day and mentioned what I was getting her. My mom says “Oh, well she really wanted one of those new pink laptops, you should have gotten her one of those”
I explain I didn’t have the hundreds to spend on a brand new Dell for her, but this was a perfectly nice IBM that would do great for her for her first year of college (she was graduating high school that year).
Later that day I got a call from my sister where she proceeded to scream at me and demand I get her the pink Dell she wanted.
Screw that. I sold it on Ebay and ended up making some money on it. I don’t remember what I got her that year, but it was something cheap and from Walmart.
She dealt without a laptop until she was desperate and I gave her an even crappier one than the IBM a friend had given to me that was destined for his trash can.”
Cooking Dinner For Ungrateful In-Laws
“Every Christmas my in laws ask me to cook dinner for them. They always want steaks, and I always make sure to cook them exactly as ordered. I’ve been cooking for years at a restaurant, and now at the firehouse and know my way around a steak. Every year I stand out in the cold and grill their dinner while they sit inside and enjoy the fire. Every year they insist that their steaks are pink. Every year I prove to them that the lighting in the dining room is pinkish and if they would simply come outside and view their steaks in natural light they would know. So I go back outside and grill their steaks until they turn to charcoal to make them happy.
Every year I have to listen to 6 months of complaints about how tough the steaks were.”
A Hateful Father Doesn’t Appreciate Daughters Hard Work
“This one is about my sister’s dad. I was in 6th grade and my sister in 8th. We only had for classes for extracurricular activities, and she’d already taken all of them, as they’d only lasted 3 weeks. So her teacher(and eventually mine), Mrs. McCulley, started teaching her American Sign Language during 6th period instead of what she usually did during that hour. My sister worked hard and became an impressive translator using sign for her age. Mrs. McCulley scheduled a special performance for her to debut her skill during 8th-grade graduation ceremonies.
She signed ‘You Raise Me Up,’ and it was beautiful.
She fumbled a little bit during the middle of the song, but smiled and mouthed ‘Sorry’ to the audience, and continued on flawlessly.
After the ceremony was over, her father walked up to her and said
‘Well, you messed up there didn’t you?’ Instead of being proud and grateful to have a talented child, he snubbed her out. She was so ashamed and embarrassed, she never did Sign again. She could have had a promising career teaching it. And he screwed it up. I hate him for that.”
Wrong Size Sweatshirt Makes It The Worst Christmas Ever
“It wasn’t the most expensive of gifts, but my mom bought me a sweatshirt I really wanted for Christmas. I was in my scene kid stage and wanted my clothes to fit tight, so I told my mom to get me a medium even though she’d normally buy me a large. Well, I opened up my gift, got excited when I saw it was that sweatshirt, and then immediately threw a fit when I saw the sweatshirt was a large. I basically threw it on the couch and went ‘Great, well now I’m never going to wear this.’ I acted like a jerk the rest of the day and made it a point to not even try the sweatshirt on.
Eventually, I put it on in my room and it fit perfectly. I thought about the fact that I had yelled at my mom for something that she bought out of love for me, and didn’t need to get me in the first place. I felt pretty ashamed of myself and gave her a sob-filled apology. I’m always grateful anytime anyone gives me any sort of gift now, even if it’s something that I wouldn’t in a million years want.”
A Misdirection Causes A Meltdown at Christmas
“I’m ashamed of it to this day, but I’ve got a good example of selfishness.
It was Christmas time, and I was 17 and my sister was 14. One of the family friends owns a taxi company, and my parents bought one of his old cabs for $500 as a Christmas present for my sister. I was pissed. I mean, all I wanted was to drive, but couldn’t afford a car yet, and here they were buying my sister a car when she didn’t even have her learners! I didn’t get insulting, but I was pretty unpleasant about the whole thing.
Turns out, they had bought the car for me, and told me that it was for my sister to explain its presence.
Yeah, even thinking about it fills me with shame.
And my parents are such good parents that they’ll never bring up my behavior, unless I do first. One of these days, I really have to apologize for how I acted. If I can work up the balls.”
Angry, Spoiled Graduate Doesn’t Bother With The Huge Party Her Parents Planned
“A cousin of mine recently graduated high school (I couldn’t travel to attend, but a family member of mine relayed this story). She also has an older sibling, who was graduating college on the same day, but roughly 100mi away from her graduation, so their parents were working hard to make sure family could represent and be there for each of their kids. My aunt and uncle also spent tons of time and a fair amount of money preparing a joint post-ceremony party for the both of them, inviting family and friends, getting her a nice dress, basically doing everything to make sure the day goes off perfectly for both of their kids. Needless to say, the parents were exhausted, but happy to celebrate this big moment in their kids’ lives.
The day of the graduation ceremonies, my youngest cousin starts demanding that she has to have a new pair of ‘wedges’ because all of her friends were going to be wearing them. When her parents say that they can’t really afford them after all the money they’ve spent on everything so far, she launches into a tirade, saying how terrible it’s going to be, how awful her parent are to her, how they never give her anything, blah blah blah.
At this point, my uncle gets furious, and starts laying out everything that they’re doing for her that day, how they can’t spend any more money on this, and how she can just deal with having different shoes from her friends.
So what does my cousin do at this point? She goes to a relative who wasn’t privy to the fight and convinces them to buy her the shoes as a ‘graduation gift.’ Basically an eff you to her parents. And now has another family member inexplicably in the middle of their madness.
There was a host of other things that weekend, but this one really was the crap topping on the BS cake.”
Spoiled Girl Wants A Mercedes, Gets A Cadillac
“A girl in one of my classes in high school came in all pissy and crabby one morning. The teacher asked her what was wrong. She began by saying her daddy had promised her a Mercedes Benz for her birthday, but she wasn’t going to get one after all.
At first I thought ‘okay, fine. Her dad was just messing with her and she didn’t realize it.’ After a few minutes of ‘OMG! It’s not fair! I hate my life! etc’ she explained why she wasn’t getting the Benz after all.
Apparently, her mother didn’t approve of her having a sporty Benz as her first car; the mom was afraid it would encourage her daughter to drive recklessly. So, the mom got the dad to buy the girl a brand new Cadillac CTS with all the bells dings and whistles instead.
Minor upshot: Not even a month later, she totaled the car. As far as I know, her parents fixed it but kept it for themselves after that.”
Wrong Color Shoes Are Devastating To Spoiled Man
“My aunt gave a small birthday party for my cousin (who was turning 25) last fall. He got really upset and angry because she bought him a pair of black skateboarding shoes instead of brown ones. She tried to calmly explain that she couldn’t find any brown ones, but he wasn’t having it. I almost slapped him.”
Another Unhappy Person With A Free Car
“One of my friends received a car for their 18th birthday from their grandparents. A free car. Their response was to break down in tears saying how much they hated it because it was an old man car and then absolutely refused to drive it ever. That’s about when I had an epiphany and wanted that person out of life immediately.”
If Your Kids Are Ungrateful, Buy Yourself Something Nice
“Similar issue with a group of children I’ll allow to remain anonymous, they complained about their Christmas gifts being either too cheap, or too lame or one of many other things.
Their Father returned all of them to the store, and bought something for himself and their Mother. The following year they were very humble and thankful for the gifts they received.”
Hates Her New Camera
“My niece is 14. For the better part of 5 years my parents (her grandparents) have been raising her because her parents are deadbeats. Because of what her past was like (witnessing abuse, lots of emotional problems, etc) she is spoiled rotten. Last year for Christmas my parents bought her a $400 camera that is nicer than any of us have ever had. This year for Christmas she spent the entire day complaining about how ‘terrible’ her camera was and how it ‘takes awful pictures’ and how she deserves a new one.
Another story, my parents gave her a used iPhone (she’s 14) a few months ago with an otter box case. She took the case off because it was “ugly” and then promptly carelessly dropped it on the ground, shattering the screen. She blamed it on my parents, saying they should have gotten her a case for it.
I have endless stories from her. She also broke her nice laptop by being careless and whines every day for a new one. I’ve never wanted to slap a kid as much as I have her at times.”
Gag Gift Was The Worst Kind Of Hidden Surprise
“When I was a little kid, my grandmother had gotten me Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES as a birthday present. I was turning like 4 or 5. It was the one thing I really wanted. I loved the ninja turtles, and what better than a VIDEO GAME about them! Except… She put it in a box for a toaster. I’d assume to throw me off from the fact that she was getting me a video game.
So there I was, 4 or 5 years old, and I unwrap a toaster. From the grandmother who always spoils the grand kid, getting them whatever they want. I remember the disappointment that washed over me immediately. ‘Why would my grandma get me a toaster?,’ was all I could think. It was too much grief. I started to cry. And cry, and ball my eyes out.
I didn’t calm down until they opened the box, and showed me that inside, she had indeed gotten me the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles video game.”