Children Share Their Stories of Parental Outbursts in Public

10. Take them or Leave them

My dad just loved to argue, and he loved a deal.

We were shopping in a department store, and I found a pair of pants I was mildly interested in. The pants were tagged at (let’s say) $40, and the sign on the rack was “All pants $25”.

I was mildly interested, I asked the sales clerk if they had them in my size, and the clerk said “those aren’t supposed to be on that rack”.

My dad lost his sh*t and insisted on getting the pants for $25, and started asking for a courtesy discount on top of that. Escalated to the floor manager and the store manager.

Meanwhile, I didn’t want the pants. They were ok pants I guess, nothing awesome, I just didn’t care very much about them. I was more than happy to move on. I told my dad I didn’t want the pants, but by then he didn’t care about what I wanted, he wanted the pants at a better price.

Eventually after like an hour of arguing the store manager said “we’re not giving you the pants at that price. Take them or leave them at $40”. So we left them. Which suited me just fine, because I didn’t want the pants.

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11. Lost Faith

A grocery store had this sign-up that said if an item rang up higher than an advertised price it was free. It was the 80s and stores did stupid sh*t like this that I never see in stores today.

Mom was buying a box of Little Debbie cakes and they rang up for $2.85 instead of the advertised $2.50. So now mom wants her free cakes. The cashier doesn’t know what to do and summons a manager. The manager tells her to ring up the sale otherwise and he’ll be right back.

Comes back and hands my mother 35 cents cheerfully and says “There you go!” My mother points out the sign behind him and he says “Oh, the last manager put that up, it doesn’t make any sense. I’m the new manager and I just haven’t had the sign removed yet” (it was a printed plastic sign that was screwed into the wall).

Mom insists they honor their sign, he says Nah. Now, up to this point, I as an adult looking back am totally on board with mom’s actions.

Mom gathers her things, decides against taking the Little Debbies on principle, and we get in the car. Mom wordlessly drives downtown to the main store of this 3-5 store chain, knowing the office is next door. We walk into this perfectly 80’s wood paneled office where my mother asks the secretary to speak to the owner of the store and is permitted to do so since this is a family-owned business and their “corporate office” is smaller than the row of cubicles my staff occupy at work.

Here my mother unleashes a tirade about how she has lost faith in his brand and how his word is meaningless since they will not honor the sign etc. This guy stands up, profusely apologizes, validates her anger and then pulls out his wallet and hands her a $5 bill along with a promise that he will speak to the manager and the sign will either be honored or removed.

We get home and find that the ice cream we bought melted in the trunk because of summer and ruined the cereal and the bread.

12. Human Being

My MIL is truly a Karen. Going out to eat with her is always a nightmare. Her orders have 14 special requests, but she’s not at all kind about it, she is defensive from the get-go like you’re an idiot who’s already screwed the order up. “Nooo dressing. Not on the side. Nothing. Completely dry. Do you understand? I will send it back!”

The one I will never forget though was dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack. In case you’ve never been it’s one of those places that every so often plays a song that the entire staff is required to drop everything & do a little synchronized dance to. It’s quick, everyone gets a little kick out of it, and it’s part of the fun. Now my MIL Karen knew this, it’s not like she’d never been here. But apparently, she was not willing to wait 2 extra minutes for her dry salad, so she starts going off as soon as the dancing starts. She gets a manager, who clearly knows Karen well & who offers a quick apology (for doing their job), a discount & her dry salad. But Karen’s not completely satisfied. She tells us that even though dinner for our party of 8 is on her, she’s not tipping the waitress 1 penny. She proceeds to b*tch…..loudly…the rest of the meal & antagonizes our waitress over petty sh*t.

I worked too many years in customer service & ya know, I’m a decent human being. I made sure to get my bill separate so I could tip for the entire table. I wrote a quick note on the receipt, something along the lines of “Way to stay positive even when the customer’s a jerk”. I was a little afraid of the wrath of Karen, it was one of my first interactions with her too, but when the waitress came & hugged me, Karen & I locked eyes. She knew. I didn’t care.

13. Nightmares About It

When I was 6 my mom took my brothers and I out to Golden Corral for dinner. She went up to the buffet, got a steak, and came back to the table. She’s an avid A1 steak sauce fan and cannot, I repeat, cannot eat steak without it.

She poured out the A1 onto her plate, tasted it, and was instantly horrified. She proceeded to pour out the Golden Corral Steak Sauce right next to the A1 and it matched perfectly.

Outraged, she called over a waitress and eventually the manager showing them her little experiment and how she exposed the Great Steak Sauce Fraud of 06.

My brothers and I were scarred for the rest of our lives. I still have nightmares about it.

14. His Own Wallet

One time I was in a record store with my dad. He bought a record that was 19,99 euros. He paid using a 20 euro bill. The clerk took the money and put it in the register and gave my dad the cd in a plastic bag. I started walking off when I noticed my dad wasn’t moving. As I turn around I hear him say to the record store clerk “You still have to give me my cent back.” The clerk replies that they don’t return one or two cents because they don’t accept them and as such don’t have them in the store. My dad replies by saying that is “Judicially impossible” and asks for the manager. To make a long story short; one of the clerks gave my dad a cent from his own wallet.

15. Like, “Really”?

My wife and I pride ourselves on being a “relief” table when we go out to eat. Both of us have been servers, and there’s always the counterpoint to the difficult table, that’s us. Barring horrible service or bad food, we are super easy customers, tip well, and try to have a good time with our server. Furthermore, we just treat people nicely. So you can imagine our distain when my parents act like they’re f*cking royalty at dinner service.

My wife and I went out to dinner with them. They were particularly tough. My mom was acting like she was Gordon Ramsey analyzing the business, critiquing everything down to the amount of bubbles in her seltzer (“looks like it’s time to change the CO2”) My stepdad was getting more and more heated over stupid things like the amount of ice in his drink and how the waitress didn’t top off his water, that he was barely sipping on, fast enough.

It came to a head when my stepfather ordered a steak medium well, it came back medium well, and for some reason, he changed his mind that he wanted it medium rare while it was cooking and they didn’t read his mind, so he gave attitude, as did my mom. They jumped really quickly to demanding free stuff.

I’m an adult and this may be the first time they realized this. I interrupted in front of the server and said something like “really? This is what you’re doing. That’s what you ordered…” I turned to the server and said “We do not need anything comped.” I then pulled out my wallet and handed her my card and said “this is for the bill. We’ll happily wrap up with what we have here. I’m very sorry for their behavior, you’re doing great.” Then the line that stung them so deep they still bring it up years later …” I was taught to treat people nicely, a lesson that seems to be forgotten. Thank you.”

They turned red, the server walked away, I looked down and cut my steak, and didn’t say a word. They were so flabbergasted that the meal was virtually silent except for me asking my stepfather how his steak was a few minutes later. I signed the check, gave a big tip, and we walked out and said goodbyes.

They’ve been nicer to servers each time that we’ve gone out since.

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16. Good Kid

My mom needed to return some shirts at the mall because they didn’t fit right. It was past the allotted time that she had to return them, so the employee said that there wasn’t anything she could do. My mom started SCREAMING at this girl who was probably about 16 or 17 calling her names and demanding to speak to the manager. When the manager told my mom that they couldn’t do anything and that the return policy was on the receipt, my mom threw a fit and knocked over a display that was next to the register and stormed out of the store. I was probably 6 or 7 at the time and I was mortified. I apologized for her behavior and picked up what I could before she started calling for me to follow her. The manager was super sweet to me though and told me that I was a good kid and to stick up for my mom when I could get away with it

17. A Nightclub?

This is my favorite example of my mom being an absolute whacko. We are from NY and I met her in LA where she was vacationing for a few days. There is a restaurant we had been to before and really wanted to visit again, I guess you could say it’s a “hot spot”. This is lunchtime, no reservation.

We arrive at the restaurant and there are a bunch of open tables, it’s early, probably before noon. My mom asks for a table and they say “we’re so sorry but if you don’t have a reservation, we, unfortunately, do not have any tables for you. If you’d like, you can leave your phone number and we can call you if we have any cancellations.” My mom starts huffing and puffing, pointing at all the tables, which are of course reserved for 12:00 and 12:30 reservations but are currently empty. She’s making a whole scene and just storms out of the restaurant.

I try to explain to her the way restaurants work, that there are empty tables because other people are going to be coming in later with reservations. She is storming down the block just ranting “NO! You don’t

get it! I’ve worked in restaurants my whole life. This is what they do. It’s LA. It’s like a nightclub. They don’t like the way we look. This is ridiculous.” While she’s ranting, the hostess comes running down the block. They had a cancellation and they could seat us immediately. I was humiliated, I didn’t even want to eat there anymore.

Long story short, I never take my mom to any restaurant I like.

18. The Coupon

My mom constantly does this, but one time really sticks out.

We went to a local Mexican restaurant and as we were paying for the food she tried to use a coupon. The cashier said they wouldn’t accept the coupon and my mom was furious. She demanded that the manager come out and accept the coupon. She caused a massive scene in the restaurant and it lasted at least five minutes. As the cashier was getting the manager, I decided to look at the coupon…it was for a totally different Mexican restaurant in the area and my mom wasn’t wearing her glasses. The cashier and manager both came back, my mom apologized, and they ended up accepting the coupon.

19. Far Too Expensive

My mom once called Domino’s regional corporate office or some sh*t because a pizza I ordered for her, THAT I PAID FOR, was “too expensive”.

She did get 4 free pizza vouchers out of it but I’m so glad I was not around for the embarrassment of it all (I ordered it online from my job in the next state. Why? Because she wanted pizza 😂)

20 Looks of Everyone

We travelled a lot when we were younger and would skip lines at the airport since we were kids.

But now we were all in our early teens and my mom faked having a heart condition to skip the long line to get on the airplane.

The flight attendant would have none of it and told us to go back to the end of the line. I still remember the smiles and looks of everyone there.

21. Don’t do That

Okay, so we were going to a theme park in the capitol of the country. I must have been around 19, which makes my one sister 16, and the youngest around 9. My dad had been planning this for a year, and we were psyched to go.

After you go into this place, you see a huge lake, and on each side, there are several shops. A restaurant there, a souvenir shop there. And also, there is a Build-A-Bear shop. This shop is NOT a part of the park itself, but it does have an entrance from the park.

Anyway, my dad didn’t have custody of my sister at the time and only saw her very sporadically. This was his own choice since his anxiety meant he couldn’t care for her properly. She lived with a foster family. This was one of maybe three times a year he got to actually take her somewhere, so this trip was a BIG deal.

He told her she could have ONE thing from the park, whatever she wanted he would pay for it. And, being a 9-year old girl, she said she wanted a Build-A-Bear.

My dad was unfamiliar with the concept of Build-A-Bear, so he didn’t know that the price of the bear isn’t the total price. On top of it comes clothes, shoes etc. So the shop person takes my sister through the whole thing. You know, stuffing, putting the heart in etc and rings up the total.

My dad totally lost it. Like, red in the head, screaming at this poor girl in the shop lost it. And I felt SO embarrassed. Firstly, this girl didn’t make the prices. Secondly, this was THE trip of the year, it was all four of us for the first time in forever. And thirdly, you don’t yell at people like that.

I get that he was angry, since he didn’t know the process, and felt cheated. And also, he felt backed into a corner, since he had promised my sister that she could have anything. But you don’t do that. Ever.

Luckily, the rest of the trip went by without a hitch, and my youngest sister doesn’t remember this happening. She has two Build-A-Bears now, and she named each of them after one of her sisters.

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22. Left Him

About the only thing my dad and I have in common is we like to go thrifting. Garage sales, estate sales, antique stores, and charity thrift shops.

Thing is, we do it for different reasons. I do it for the fun of finding something unusual and offbeat. Dad does it because he likes to find bargains, to be one-up on the suckers who didn’t know what they had.

So I was mortified when dad went to the charity shop checkout and b*tched for 10 minutes about being overcharged 50 cents. Left him in the store alone. When he finally came out, I went in and dropped 5 bucks in the donation jar and apologized for my father.

23. Show More Respect

It was at a TGI Fridays in Katy, TX. This waiter was amazing. He was working 8 tables that I could count and was managing all of them flawlessly. Drinks never got below 1/3rd full at any table, he was always attentive and prompt, friendly, just a textbook example of the perfect waiter. He impressed my dad so much that my dad asked if he could speak to a manager. Of course, the waiter immediately asks if anything is wrong since that’s the only time someone asks. My dad tells him no, it’s to make sure that management knows what excellent service he’s providing. The waiter thanks us and says he’ll get a manager over as quickly as he can.

We wait for about 10 minutes before this middle-aged grease ball of a manager saunters over and starts asking my dad how the waiter screwed up. My dad is not the most patient of people, and we were kinda in a hurry to get home, so the 10-minute wait was rubbing him wrong. But when the manager immediately acted like the guy was a screw-up, my dad lost it. He told the manager that the waiter had done everything perfectly, and that’s why he tipped the guy $15 on a $35 ticket. He also went on to say that the manager needed to be more respectful of his staff and gave the guy an *ss-chewing for presuming that the employee had screwed up. Before that moment, I thought that my sister and I were the only ones he would scream at when he was upset. It was somewhat embarrassing to see my dad yell at this guy, but he did it for a good reason.

24. He Did Better

My mom came to my school because she thought I was lying about what I got on my SATs. She didn’t think I was that smart. No one in my school would give her that information because they didn’t have to. She got to my principal and said, “I want to speak to your manager” in front of me. He refused and they argued for a while. The principal knew I was an okay guy and the score I told my mother was legit. It was really embarrassing though.

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25. No Recollection

Well, when I was 10, my mom got a phone for Christmas, and it had a warranty on it. A little later my mother threw It on the ground and called the company asking for a full refund plus a new phone because they gave me a broken one. After a few weeks, a company staff came to our house and asked my mum what happened. She said the phone you sold us was broken and that I was heartbroken. He gave us a refund but not another phone. My mum started yelling and told him that she would call the police for harassing me. She never did.

Recently I asked her about it and she said “I have no memory of any of that happening”.

26. One for Free

My dad is a pretty big hothead and thinks yelling loudly at customer service employees will solve things. So one time I brought my laptop into a BestBuy for a quick fix, and they said I could come to get it the next day after it was finished. We show up the next day and they give me a laptop that is 100% not mine.

I just let them know politely that there’s been a mistake and it’s not my computer. They apologize and go looking for mine, 10 mins later they can’t find it. Queue rage machine father “YOU BETTER FIND HIS LAPTOP OR THERE ARE GOING TO BE PROBLEMS”. No mention of what kind of problems just one of those “I’m screaming it sounds threatening” sentences. They explain they will keep looking and call me when they have found it but that they will call me every day with an update.

I’m totally fine with this being a relatively laid back person, I was only worried I wouldn’t have a laptop for my first week of college. Anyways they called every day and every day my father would get on the phone and yell about how unbelievably stupid you’d have to be to lose a computer in the store. This happened for about 4 days. Every time they would get off the phone with my father I would call them back myself to apologize for that and calmly say don’t worry about it I’m sure it’ll turn up soon.

The guy on the phone was very gracious I wasn’t screaming at him and told me if they didn’t find it by end of the day tomorrow I could come in and pick a laptop and they would write it off to replace mine. Well, they never found my computer BUT I did get a much nicer one for free! I honestly think had I not called to apologize on my father’s behalf every day I wouldn’t have been given the option to choose any laptop to replace it.

27. Window View

Spent two hours in the lobby of the MGM Grand in Vegas circa Jan ’99. We had arrived with family friends to attend a hairstylist convention (a friend’s mom owned a salon and mine managed it), and we discovered our family suites had a window view of their dumpster area about a minute after walking into the room.

Cue my mother storming back down to the lobby and demanding the head manager at the front desk switch our rooms immediately. Watching her make a scene and get even angrier once security threatened her was mortifying. I was 10, tired and embarrassed, and just wanted us all to have fun.

Luckily the head manager offered a vacant Presidential Suite for “all of the trouble” after getting my mother to calm down. Looking back I realize he did it just to shut her up and restore calm back to the lobby for other guests. To this day, I am overly nice to retail and food service workers to compensate for her behavior even though she’s not even around anymore. I never want to be THAT person.

28. Everyone is Staring

Mom bought a pair of boots at a large, fancy department store. Wore them every day for approximately 6 months. Wore them in the rain a few times and the soles were eventually starting to come loose due to wear.

While wearing the boots, she marches into the store, takes them off at the counter, plonks them down on the counter and demands a refund or a new pair, because the quality of the shoes was not up to par, arguing that if it were, the soles wouldn’t have started coming loose. Note – she no longer has the receipt at this point, but argues the boots have the store logo on the bottom so she doesn’t need one.

She proceeds to argue for almost 20 min. Refuses to budge. Demands to see the manager. A queue has formed at this point and everyone is staring.

The manager caves.

He walks to the back, gets a new pair of boots and brings them to my mom. She puts them on right there at the counter and marches back out of the store as if nothing happened.

29. Since Then

My dad is kind of a drunk. A rich drunk. We were out at an extremely nice restaurant in our small town, a very foodie and chic place that had only been open for a couple of years and had since become my favorite restaurant. I was sitting at a table with my siblings and cousins (all of us college-age), while my dad was sitting with my aunt and uncle and mom at a table nearby. By the time we get our food, the parents are still sitting there chugging their wine with no food. My dad starts getting upset. I hear him call the waitress over. She brings them some bread and leaves them alone. We finish our meals and our parents are still sitting there without food and several empty bottles of wine. My mom is essentially falling asleep at this point. My father, furious, starts banging his fists on the table, shaking all of the silverware. The waitress goes into the kitchen to find the chef, but she is apparently taking too long. My dad storms into the kitchen. I hear him SCREAMING at the top of his lungs like a f*cking toddler. The chef calmly, and politely walks him back to his table. He sits him down and, in the calmest voice possible, says, “F*ck you, sir. Now, get out of my restaurant.” We have not been back since.

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30. Email Was Sent

My mom asked to speak to the manager after her food took too long during lunch. He spoke to her and personally apologized plus a free meal etc. Then she went home and wrote an email to the address listed on their website, complaining again about the situation.

Then a year later I started working there, and one day, my mom had come in for lunch. Her order ticket had her full name on it on the kitchen line. Coincidentally, a friend from high school was working in the kitchen at the same time as me and recognized that we had the same last name. I confirmed that it was my mom’s order when the manager had a look so he could make fun of me for making my “mommie’s food” (regular kitchen banter). Then it hit him, my mom was “the polenta lady”.

Her email, as I had found out went straight to the owners, and they pinned it up on the line for a month. Then they gave the manager an ear beating for the incident.

My mom continued to come in regularly over the next year. Each time she ate lunch there, everyone on the line would start to proclaim loudly, “RootedOak’s mom’s here! Make sure her order is perfect or else she’ll write another email!”

rootedoak

31. Fresh Nuggets

When I was about 5 or 6, my dad picked us up at McDonald’s on the way home and got me a six-piece McNugget. When we got home, he looked in the bag and didn’t see the nuggets, so he called up McDonald’s, asked for the manager, and screamed at them that they needed to DRIVE TO OUR HOUSE with fresh nuggets.

The manager actually did and apologized profusely at the door and my dad took the hand-delivered nuggets from him and slammed the door in this poor manager’s face.

When he walked into the living room to give me my lunch, he found me eating the McNuggets that I had taken out of the bag in the car before we got home.

32. The Worst Part

Once when I was maybe 6 I got a parakeet from a small family-owned pet store. Maybe two days later it died. My mom put it in a paper bag and we drove over, but when we got there but it had been closed for about half an hour.

My mom started banging on the glass door yelling “DEAD BIRD” until someone unlocked the door. I could not look that store owner in the eye as I got a new parakeet. The worst part was my mom mentioned it to an employee almost every time we came in after. I think in hopes of getting a discount.

33. The Last One

My first job was at Panera when I was in high school. I usually worked nights after school, but I was working one morning and my mom comes in for a coffee. Suddenly everyone runs and hides in the back of the house. Apparently, she was awful to deal with and it got to the point where they had a system where the last one in front had to take her order.

34. The Old Ones

My mom drags me on some errands here and there. One day, we walk into the local Bath and Body works and everything is normal. We get to the register and that’s when the switch flips. Mom opens her purse and takes out a few coupons and slams them on the counter. “I’ve spoken to the manager several times and they always honor these”

The cashier was mortified. She immediately calls the manager to which the manager says “miss, I’ve told you multiple times these are expired and we can not take these. Please discard the old ones as our system doesn’t allow us to accept these”

My mom then insults and berates the guy to the point where I have to tell my mom to leave the store so I could apologize. I ended up buying the cashier and manager a gift card to the food court as an apology because no one is deserving of a scolding over $3 in discounts. I did give her a talk and she ended up apologizing to the manager as well. Working in the same mall, I’d occasionally see the manager and cashier who would say hello but that’s about it.

35. Semi-Black Eye

In 8th Grade, My mom stormed into the headmaster’s office at my school, when she found blood on my uniform and some scratches on my hand, I was terrified and scared as I was the one who beat up a kid and now my mom dragged me straight to the headmaster asking who beat me up. It got even more embarrassing when my mom demanded the boy to be punished who now had a semi-black eye.

36. Still Making Fun

I have this cafe I go to near my place. Super friendly staff, I’m on good terms with all of them, and would even consider some of the baristas friends. However, it’s a vegan cafe, and I’m not vegan.

Bring my mom in one day while she’s visiting me. She would not stop making fun of them being vegan (rather loudly I should add) the whole time we wait in line. Then when she orders, she asks for regular milk, knowing they don’t serve it. Then she b*tches at the barista for not having dairy, and begrudgingly orders anyway.

Almost a year has passed, and that barista is still teasing me about how much my mom pissed her off.

37. Someone’s Hostage

My brother, my mom and I were on vacation at a hotel that was locked from the inside with a key. My mom was pissed about the sh*tty lock and some other things we’d been promised but did not get. One of the hotel clerks came to address one of the issues and my mom locked the door. And he became our guest for the next 2 hours. My mom insisted that if he really wanted out, he could break the door down himself as the lock was, in her view, that flimsy. This was in the mid-90s, in a 3rd world African country, with a teenage clerk which is why she didn’t end up in jail.

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38. Her Latte

I was at the mall with my mom and she told my brother to get her a latte. My mom had a sip then marched to the food court and complained to the employee “what type of sh*t is this” in Spanish. Then my brother timidly told her he didn’t get the coffee from this location 😂😂

39. Not Helping

My dad hates people and one time when I was 14 and started working, he went to get me a bank account. We were sitting with the lady, setting it up. She says, “we have this plan-“

My dad: “No. We want a student account that’s it.”

Her: “Sir, I’m only telling you the optio-“

D: Student account.

H: Sir, these are the options for tha-

D: You’re not helping me at all. Let’s go.

We left after that.

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40. Into The Kitchen

Literally last Sunday. Me (30), my stepdad, my brother and my mom were out to eat at a chain restaurant whose name rhymes with Phili’s.

My mom ordered fajitas, the food was delivered and the server said she’d be right back with the tortillas. After waiting for no more than 2 minutes my mom stood up, walked across the restaurant and walked into the kitchen to get her tortillas. What’s worse, the server was one of my students.