There’s nothing like having a friend with kind parents who treat you like one of their own. However, this isn’t the case for everyone. Some parents are awkward or just plain out weird. People share about the questionable moment they had with a friend’s parent. Content has been edited for clarity.
Oops!
“Back in high school I was huge into DnD (dungeons and dragons board game) but was also lucky enough to get a girlfriend. I brought her with me to my friend’s house one night and we started playing DnD with our friend group. My gf was sitting next to me and at one point, she went to the bathroom. A couple of minutes later, I felt her standing next to me and lean over the table. I, not paying attention, reached behind and slapped my hand on her butt and grabbed a cheek. Suddenly she yelped and jumped away.
I looked up and to my horror and embarrassment, it was my friend’s mom clearing dishes from the table. I was mortified! Everyone at the table looked at us and then started laughing. The mom, after the initial shock, laughed as well. She then reached down and slapped me upside my head. ‘Pay attention to what your grabbing!’ she said, then walked away.
I didn’t visit that house for about three months because I was too embarrassed to face the mom. When I finally did, she took me aside and hugged me, letting me know it was okay and she didn’t hate me.”
Cringe
“My best friend and I went to see a girl he was interested in. They’d seen each other a few times and we were all good friends anyway. We went to her parent’s house and were in the kitchen when the girl went into the garden to get something.
That’s when my friend looked over and saw a basket of clean clothes on the kitchen table. On top was a pair of red and black frilly panties. My friend thought it was funny to pick them up, pretend to sniff them, and then put them on his head. As he was doing that, he was facing me with his back to the hallway.
I literally couldn’t speak from shock as the girl’s mother walked in behind him and saw what he was doing. He kinda clocked the expression on my face and slowly turned around. He looked at the girl’s mom and said ‘sorry’ in a very sheepish voice whilst shamefully taking the panties off his head.
The mom said something about them being hers and not the girls anyway but by that point, we were making a swift exit. It was painfully cringey.
That was like 25 years ago. Coincidentally, my wife now works with the mother and we’ve met her out at company parties a few times. I don’t think she remembers me but I don’t have the courage to ask!”
Birthday Party Gone Wrong
“I grew up in a big tourist town. There were lots of lakes around with summer homes and all the hotels had little water parks attached. Anyways, one winter when I was in 8th grade, my friend had a birthday party at one of the water parks. It was cheap to get into in the winter and they had slides and a lazy river and a big hot tub and whatnot.
The plan after the party was for 8-10 of us to stay the night at the birthday boy’s house. His mom was going to drive us all there, but she had been drinking all night by the pool. I didn’t know any better though because my parents didn’t drink. Well, it got late and was time to go home so the group of us piled into her minivan.
We all had to squish together and some even sat on the floor between seats and next to the big sliding-door vans have. First red flag. So we started to leave and had to cut across this divided four-lane highway. The mom started going the WRONG way down the two lanes and her son started yelling, ‘Mom, you’re going the wrong way!’
It took her a minute of driving until she realized he was right and started to make a U-turn. When we got on the other side of the highway, she turned the wrong way again! We all started nervously yelling and pointing it out so she corrected herself and got on the right track.
I never thought much of it as it was a good night before and after that, but being an adult now, it scares the shit out of me. She had an over-packed car (some of us not wearing seatbelts) and she still drove drunk down a 65 mph zone highway. I never told my mom because I didn’t understand that she was drunk at the time.”
“You’re My Favorite”
“My friend had moved back in with her mom when we were in our late 20s. Their mom lived around the corner from me, so it was not uncommon for them to invite me over for drinks/dinner/hang out.
One night, I was walking back from a bar and my friend texted me to come over and have a drink, I was only a block or two away so I thought, ‘Sure, why not?’ and headed there. I arrived and both my friend and her mother were drunk and listening to music in the lounge room. We all drank some wine together and were talking shit.
About an hour or two later, my friend hit a wall and wanted to go to sleep. I told her I would go home and walked with her down the hallway, but her mother called out to me and said, ‘I just poured you another glass of wine,’ so I put my friend to bed and headed back down the hallway to the lounge room.
Straight away, the mother had changed the music to something more ‘romantic,’ the lights were dimmed, and she told me to come sit by her. Within moments, she was telling me how I was always her favorite of her daughter’s friends and placed a hand on my thigh.
I’m not going to lie, I always fancied her because she was a top-notch MILF when we were growing up and was the flirty, fun type. We made out a little right there on the couch and went a little further but not all the way.
We made loose plans to meet up again, but ultimately decided it was too risky and left it at that and decided that it would be our secret and never tell anyone. Sadly, she died suddenly last year and this is the first I’ve ever told anyone about it.”
Food Shortage
“My ex-boyfriend was living in his best friend’s basement for a while when we were all about 16. One day he invited his best friend’s girlfriend and me over for food and a movie. When I got there, his best friend’s dad looked and me and said, ‘Well, I don’t really have enough food for you. I was only told that my son’s girlfriend was coming over.’
Oh okay so ILL JUST SIT HERE AND WATCH EVERYONE ELSE EAT? He ended up LETTING me eat (I weighed 100 pounds at the time and barely ate anything anyways). He ended up apologizing later and said he truly didn’t know I was coming over and didn’t think there’d be enough food.
But I hate just in general when I’d go to a friend’s house after school and just ask for a granola bar or something and they’d act like I just asked them to cook me a steak dinner. When I had friends over, my dad would ask, ‘Okay, what would you like to eat?’ It was always just a given that he would give everyone a big supper.”
No Lying Allowed
“I was around 11 or 12 and had this friend from secondary school. We would spend the weekend having sleepovers etc. One weekend after her birthday, we went into town. My friend’s mom told her not to spend her birthday money buying presents for a boy she liked, but she did anyways.
Afterward, we were sitting in a cafe with her mom when her mom asked, ‘Did you spend all your birthday money on that boy?’ After a tense back and forth with my friend denying and trying to say no, the Mum turned to me and ask if she had. I tried to avoid the question. After being told I was not allowed to lie, I HAD to tell the truth.
My friend got upset so I apologized to my friend and said, ‘I had to, she asked.’ Then the mom basically started saying I was a dick and didn’t HAVE to tell her. I don’t think I ever really hung out at their house again after that.
After a while, her mom cornered me at my parent’s gathering and tried to have a conversation about not spending time with her daughter anymore. I feel bad in hindsight. It wasn’t my friend’s fault, 12 year old me just really didn’t want to get caught in another family’s drama.”
Cheapskates
“I love saving money as much as the next guy but there’s a fine line between being frugal and being cheap. I like to think that line is drawn right before you’re complaining to the Applebee’s manager to get your meal for free after the waiter brought out the extra sauce you asked for without telling you it cost 30 cents more (a different story for a different time).
Well when I was a sophomore, I went on vacation with a friend’s family to some beach hotel. Downstairs there was a super upscale seafood restaurant where we went for dinner one night, dressed up in suits and everything. Unbeknownst to me, this family was really cheap. Not ‘frugal’ like they claimed, but cheap.
First off, the hotel we stayed at was already paid for because his mom was a teacher and the school board gave them this as a ‘teacher’s weekend.’ Second, because we stayed at the hotel that the restaurant was attached to, we got 50% off our whole bill. Third, my mom handed his dad money for my food for the week that I could spend on any meal I wanted.
When the waiter started taking drink orders, I said, ‘coke, please!’ My friend’s dad from the other side of the table leaned over to me and said, ‘You sure?’ At that point, everyone was staring at me.I said, ‘Yeah, I’d just like a coke please.’ The dad piped up again and said, ‘Alright, well if you’re gonna be spending your parent’s money, then might as well go big!’ It was a soda for 2 dollars but whatever, I just broke the awkwardness by changing the topic.
When it came time to order food, his family decided for the table of 5 adults that the best plan of action was to split 2 small appetizers and eat free bread instead of getting meals individually. I had my own money mind you and when I went to order a steak, the dad said, ‘Hopefully, you have enough money for breakfast!’
At that point, I was basically engulfed in this cocktail of passive-aggressive comments and cheapskate mindsets that I kinda slowly lost my appetite and just sat there while picking at the appetizer we got.
The appetizer was fried calamari served on a bed of spinach. The calamari was gone and the plate of greens had been sitting there for about 5 minutes. The waiter, who had just started and was being trained that day, came by and picked up the plates. All of a sudden, his dad said out loud for the restaurant to hear, ‘Where’s the damn spinach?’
The waiter rushed over and asked what the problem was, trying to diffuse it. He might as well have walked up and kicked him right in the balls because his dad erupted in rage. He had taken the waiter cleaning the plates off the table as some personal threat and had gone off the rails.
My friend stepped in and tried to calm him and he said, and I quote to his own son, ‘Screw you, I’m not going to calm down. You’re the kid, I’m the dad. Remember that.’ He eventually calmed to a point of where the manager not only comped him his half-priced order of waters and calamari for free, but a second free meal to ease this magnificent burden in this man’s mind.
I remember being dumbfounded by how weak I saw him for the rest of our friendship. To completely embarrass yourself and your family over calamari, Jesus man.”
Jamaican Meatballs
“One of my best friend’s mom is Jamaican and she holds these big bbqs in the summer. Her son (my friend) is in the military, but even if he’s deployed, she invites all his white guy friends. Partly because I think she actually likes us, but the biggest reason is so she can get us to eat weird things and she and her friends can laugh at our expressions.
This one time she gave us what she called Jamaican meatballs and only a few of us were brave enough to try it. After we ate them, the mother came up to us to tell us that we had in fact just eaten bull’s testicles. At that moment, the mother who was a little drunk grabbed my butt and said, ‘I like a strong guy!’
I panicked I picked her up and started dancing to the reggae being played in the background. This had an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage was she was a 5’2″ lady and I’m 6’4″ so she could no longer reach my butt. The problem was I now had a drunk lady at my head height and she went for a kiss.
Everyone at the bbq was laughing at me holding a middle-aged lady in the air while trying to dodge a kiss from her. She gave up and started kissing my neck and I was so taken away that I dropped her! She landed flat on her butt and it was one of those moments anywhere everything went silent.
It didn’t stay quiet for long though. She started laughing and half-jokingly half dead serious said, ‘You better be ready cause I’m gonna get you later.’ She didn’t. She drank a lot and passed out just before we left. My friend and I actually put her to bed. My mate got back from deployment shortly after and I told him the story and he said, ‘Yeah, you were always her favorite.’
I have been to many of her bbqs since and she has apologized, but whenever she gets a little drunk, she likes to dance with me. I think she doesn’t try anything now cause I bring my little Vietnamese ninja of a wife, but she does like to tell the story and always winks at me like she’s trying to hint things.”
SLAMMIN’ JAMMIN CAKES!
“Hoooooooo boy, I had a friend in junior high who was quite odd. Her parents were worse. They were cold, unfriendly, and strange af. They didn’t let my friend play outside in our very small, safe town because her family was convinced she’d get kidnapped even though they lived on a cul-de-sac where several cops lived.
One time my friend asked me to spend the might but I was nervous because I knew how weird their whole family was. My mom was reluctant to agree, but she did wind up allowing me to. I was told from the start not to say the word ‘crap’ around them even because her parents found it a vulgar word. I slipped up like 20 times while playing Mario Kart, but they were in another room, so whatever.
The next morning, after I somehow managed to sleep on the floor of her room all night, her dad said, ‘Who wants my famous SLAMMIN JAMMIN CAKES?!’ I had no idea what the hell he was talking about. The whole family got excited though so I did too.
He continued in dramatic fashion to ask who wanted some ‘SLAMMIN! JAMMIN! CAKES!’
Uhhhh. Okay. Sure, man, we do, yeah.
After going on and on and saying ‘SLAMMIN JAMMIN CAKES!’ no less than like 5 more times, I was served regular pancakes. I can’t remember why I didn’t eat them, but I just know I barely took any bites.
My friend next to me ate a fair amount, but couldn’t finish. Her mom harshly lectured her about wasting food, but she allowed her to throw the rest away just this once. So there I was with a plate full that I threw away because they sucked.
Her mom then curtly told me I needed to call my mom to come pick me up. We hadn’t actually agreed on a time to leave in the morning, but sleepover protocol generally says you hang out for a bit in the morning and play a bit more before leaving. I don’t actually know if it was because I wasted the SLAMMIN JAMMIN CAKES, or if they were just weird and kicking the sleepover guest out the instant they woke up and ate.”
Sneaky Link
“I had this friend in high school who was way more promiscuous than I was back then. I went out of town with her and her family once and we stayed at their friend’s house for the night. The bedroom we stayed in adjoined their baby’s bedroom with a Jack and Jill bathroom.
My friend had a boyfriend that she would visit while she was there. The boyfriend came over with his friend. My friend and her boyfriend were up to something in the bathroom so I was kind of obligated to make out with the other friend. Then the boys left and we went to bed.
This was the early 2000s, so I had a Motorola Razor and was getting text messages kind of late at night. My phone ran of out space so I had to delete them to make room. I guess her parents heard my phone going off so the next morning, they called me (by my first and middle name, I might add. That luxury is reserved only for MY angry parents) out to the kitchen (in front of the owners of the home we were staying in who I did not know) and forced me to hand over my phone.
They went through my text message which, of course, had been deleted so they had no evidence of anything. I was so pissed. I mean their daughter was the one getting down in the bathroom with her boyfriend. My own parents never would have gone through my phone. It still pisses me off to his day. We stopped being friends after that and she’s trash now.”
