People Who Grew Up With "Karen" Parents Are Sharing The Most Unhinged Things Their Parents Ever Did, And These Are DIABOLICAL
Ahhh, Karens...We've all had the misfortune of dealing with them at some point (especially if a person has ever worked in retail), but imagine how terrible it would be to have a "Karen" for a parent? Sadly, that's a reality for many people...
That's why when Redditor u/Character-Escape1621 asked "People whose moms are Karens, what was the worst thing she's ever done?" Individuals raised by "Karens" flooded the comments with stories of their parents' worst moments, and these are FAR beyond "I would like to speak to the manager." Without further ado, here are 17 of their most cringe-inducing tantrums:
1."Years ago, I was at the mall with my mom and sister, and we saw a pretzel shop that sold lemonade, so we walked over and bought three lemonades, then went to the food court to grab some pizza. We sat down, began eating, and noticed the lemonade tasted bad. My sister and I were thirsty and drank it anyway, but our mother didn't drink hers and complained the entire time."
"After we finished our meal, my mother dragged us back to the pretzel shop and demanded a full refund for all three lemonades. The cashier was polite and refunded her lemonade since she didn't drink any of it, but (rightfully) didn't refund the lemonades my sister and I drank.
This was not good enough for my mother, so she went ballistic. I am relieved that this took place before cell phones, because otherwise, we'd have videos of 'Lemonade Karen' circulating online. The cashier offered coupons, but still wouldn't refund the lemonades my sister and I drank. By this point, my sister and I were thoroughly embarrassed and begged our mother to drop it and leave. She eventually did.
She spent the entire car ride home yelling because we drank our lemonades and telling us it made her look 'dumb.'"
—u/AtLeastImGenreSavvy
2."When my mother didn't get her way after trying to return an item, she held her arms straight out to the side while walking out, so tons of merchandise fell off the racks and onto the floor."
"It was a clothing store, so nothing broke, but it was still mortifying, and I could never shop there again."
—u/PainfullyLoyal
3."Years ago, my mother was acquainted with a neighbor who owned a local fast-food restaurant and constantly complained about how expensive the ketchup and sauce packets were."
"One day, while picking up dinner for our family of five, my mother asked for extra ketchup, and she was given a small bag filled to the top with packets. She wrote down the employee's name, called the owner, and ratted the employee out for wasting money.
She is proud of this and still regularly tells people about it. We don't talk anymore."
—u/Armydds
4."My mom is an extremely judgmental and condescending person, but cowardly. She used to love talking sh*t about people right in front of them by speaking Spanish and assuming they didn't understand her."
"One time we were in line at the grocery store, and she was making fun of the cashier's weight. I replied to her (in Spanish) and told her to stop talking about people that way, but she insisted the cashier couldn't understand her. I told her that if the cashier said something to her, I would not defend her.
When it was our turn to check out, the cashier only spoke to us in Spanish! Just pleasantries like 'I hope you're having a wonderful day,' and 'Did you find everything you're looking for?' She never said a word about my mother's remarks, but she let my mother know, in a classy way, that she understood everything. We paid, and while leaving, my mother said she would tell my sister (also a Karen) about the situation so she could complain about the cashier."
"I took a hard turn towards the customer service desk, asked for the store manager, and gave a glowing review of the cashier — how efficient and polite she was, and how it was so kind of her to speak to us in Spanish when we lived in a town with very few Spanish speakers. I didn't discuss my mother's nasty comments or the cashier's classy response. The store manager smiled happily, told me it was nice to compliment someone, and thanked me."
"Then I returned to the cashier to tell her I had given her a great review. She thanked me, and we exchanged a look, both of us knowing what I had done.
I was not about to let my mother win that day. She remembered the incident because she stopped talking about people in Spanish when they could hear her. Now, she saves her sh*t-talking until she is in the car with the windows rolled up. Like I said, she's a coward."
—u/Speed-O-SonicsWife
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5."My mom once hit the bumper of another vehicle in a parking lot. She was going to walk away, but some people who witnessed it called her out and told her to do the right thing. She made a huge deal about writing her name and number on a piece of paper to leave under the wipers. The witnesses entered the store while she was doing this, and the vehicle's owners showed up around the same time, inspected the damage, said it wasn't a big deal, and drove off."
"Afterwards, my mother went out of her way to enter the store, find the witnesses, and yell at them to let them know the owners weren't mad.
She told them she shouldn't have been made to leave a note, and that they should have minded their own business."
—u/Calm_Palms_41
6."This is the first incident that came to mind, but there are so many: My mother saw a puddle of water on the floor of a shoe store and took it as an opportunity to fake an injury and sue. She pretended to slip and fall and splayed herself on the floor in front of the store's entryway while moaning in 'pain.'"
"Her acting was so bad that everyone ignored her, and employees walked by her. Then she started rolling around on the ground, but was still ignored, so she stopped and we left."
—u/hello__brooklyn
7."When I was 11 or 12, I won a 'science award' and a 'student award' because I had the second-best grades in the class. My mother was outraged that I received two awards while my twin sister didn't win any, so she went to the school and raised hell. The school created a new category just for my sister and gave her a 'music award.'"
"It was embarrassing for everyone at the ceremony, including my sister, because we all knew what had happened since she got her invitation to the award ceremony a few days later than the rest of us.
It was so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, I only remember it because my 'Karen-mom's' actions made me feel like it was my fault my sister didn't win anything, and that my own achievements weren't important. The stress of watching her get angry and scream at the school employees made it a terrible core memory."
—u/ctrlrgsm
8."When I was young, I often accompanied my mom to the grocery store. One morning, she filled the cart with frozen pot pies. A store employee tried to stop her because they were on sale, and she didn't leave any for other shoppers."
"My mom shoved the newspaper ad in his face and pointed out that there was no posted limit to the quantity you could buy. She shamed him so severely that he brought out two more cases of pot pies for her to buy.
I enjoyed pot pies for the next year, but struggled with being embarrassed because of her behavior."
—u/CoderJoe1
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9."I played high school softball for exactly one season, and one season only because my mother's version of 'cheering' was more akin to yelling, 'Why did you miss that?' Or 'Do I need to come show you how to do that?' I hated when she showed up to my games."
"One day, a teammate's mom was sitting in the bleachers near my mother. So when my mom began 'cheering,' this lady politely asked, 'Is all that necessary?'
My mother unleashed this epic Karen shakedown: 'Just because your husband wears a gun doesn't mean I'm afraid of you!' (Teammate's dad was a police officer)."
—u/SapphirePSL
10."My grandfather, mother, and I went to a chain restaurant for cheap takeout when I was about six. My mother asked for an extra container of gravy, and when the cashier rang it up, they charged her $0.40. She lost it. She never asked if the price had gone up (it hadn't), she immediately started berating a teenager over literal pennies while she was buying $50 worth of fast-food chicken."
"My grandfather and I stood by the ketchup and straws while she went off. He leaned over to me and said, 'You see what she is doing? Never do that.' He later explained that it's an incredibly trashy, rude thing to do, and it's also a surefire way to eat spit and boogers.
It's FAR from her worst offense, but it's the first one that stuck with me."
—u/FoGuckYourselg_
11."My mother used to go into stores she deemed 'fancy' and make the sales assistants wait on her hand and foot, waste their time by demanding to be shown multiple items, try on jewelry etc., then say 'Well, I'll have to go home and think about it' and leave."
"It was a form of free entertainment and attention for her. We were very poor, so there was no way she could afford anything she pretended to be interested in buying.
The worst part was that she'd adopt a fake posh accent and manner, which included being incredibly condescending and demanding because she believed it would make her seem richer and more important. So gross."
—u/Radiant_Cheesecake81
12."My mom once requested a refund because her burger had one pickle instead of two. I just watched in embarrassment while she and the woman at the counter went back and forth."
—u/Character_Bit_1491
13."During Covid, my mom was an anti-mask 'Karen.' Towards the end of lockdown, she went to a local drugstore to pick up a prescription. Of course, she didn't wear a mask inside, so when one of the workers (she described him as a teenager) came over to ask her to put one on, she threw a fit and used the infamous 'I want to speak to your manager' line. The manager gave in to her demands and she grabbed her prescription and left. After the ordeal, she called me to tell me what she did, as if she were proud of herself."
"I let her have it. I told her the employee only did what his manager had probably instructed, and that since he was so young, it could have been his first job, and she left him rattled. And for what reason? Because she felt entitled not to wear a mask? She has no health conditions that prevent her from wearing one; she just loved the confrontations that arose from it.
I told her to go back and apologize to the employee and the manager. I made her feel guilty, and she did eventually go back and apologize. I always call her out for acting like a 'Karen,' but that's the only incident for which she took responsibility."
—u/Kooky_Inevitable_373
14."My mom has chronic health conditions, but she always yells and curses at the patient care techs in the ER. These techs aren't equipped to de-escalate conflict, so they often yell back at her, and then she tries to act like they started it."
"At first, I would try to explain that she has panic disorder and was probably having a panic attack, but then I realized she was also making up rumors about how rude the patient techs and nurses are, so I gave up. For all I care, they can write 'difficult patient' in her chart everytime she's there.
She was never like this when I was growing up, but my stepdad screamed at everyone, and my grandfather was a massive 'Karen,' so I guess she feels like she has to 'step up' since they aren't around to do it for her anymore."
—u/Ekyou
15."I'll preface this by saying that this happened during an already bad situation, but I don't believe it condoned this behavior: My grandmother had been sick while my mother and I were on vacation. We were getting ready to go to a museum when we learned she had passed away. We decided to go to the museum and enjoy our vacation as best we could because there was nothing else we could do."
"The entire time we were there, whether in line for tickets, looking at the exhibits, or browsing in the gift shop, my mother told anyone who looked her way, 'My mother just died,' bluntly, with the inflection of a child saying their shoes are red. She was fishing for sympathy from whoever was within earshot.
It was met with blank stares and awkward 'sorrys' from strangers trying to enjoy themselves."
—u/FatherlessBehavior22
16."My mom has hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), which is easily managed by eating anything."
"She would purposefully go without eating to send herself into hypoglycemic shock (always in public) so she could garner attention and sympathy. I would often be admonished for 'not taking better care of your mom,' even though I was a child and she was an adult who was fully aware of her condition and how to manage it..
Oh, and one time she peed in a guy's bed because she was mad that he broke up with her. He broke up with her because she sucks, and I cannot emphasize enough that she was the problem."
—u/IsabellaGalavant
17."When I was younger, there were signs that my mother was a 'Karen.' I remember her changing my sister's diaper on restaurant tables and getting mad at people who judged her. Situations like that were common."
"However, the worst thing she's ever done happened when I had my first child. She took her 'Karen' behavior to the extreme: After I gave birth, she thought she was entitled to my baby. It got to the point that she started asking if she could breastfeed my daughter — I made her stop babysitting because I wasn't sure if she was actually trying to do it. Every conversation we had was about how she did so much for me, and why it was so 'wrong' that I was denying her access to her baby.
She got so jealous that she sued me for grandparent rights. Thankfully, she lost in the end, but it doesn't end there. Because she no longer had access to my baby, guess what she did next? She got pregnant. That's the kind of person she is."
—u/Living_Bath4500
Did any of these "Karen" stories surprise you? People who grew up with a "Karen" parent, what is your most embarrassing memory of their behavior? Tell us in the comments or answer using the anonymous form below!
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
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