Parenting Horror Stories That Will Make You Rethink Having Kids

From jrwreno:

"When my stepson developed schizophrenia at 15, and became intensely neurotic, paranoid and combative, it was a really tough time.

His illness would cause him to start to build false realities that he absolutely believed were true. He thought my husband murdered me, even though I was right in front of him. He claimed my daughter said terrible things all the time... she was only three. He called the police and said I was robbing the bank account the State had for him.

I had to physically restrain him due to paranoid violence. I had to homeschool him even before the illness started, due to his rebellious nature. We had worked so hard to get him up to normal in school, only for him to destroy it all by smoking cannabis and trying PCP when he ran off with shit kids that we forbid.

The drug use potentiated an underlying susceptibility for Schizophrenia due to his biological mother's familial history. Because he openly defied us constantly, looking for any opportunity to skip class and f*ck up, he will never be able to live a normal adult life. He will require supervision every single day, he may never have a full time job for cognizant adults, and he will require others to manage all of his typically adult responsibilities... For the rest of his life."

From Captain_1958:

"I am not proud of my son. This Saturday, my son will have been sober for 18 months. He got his GED this year, and he starts at Community College at the end of August. He is 29.

By 16, he was drinking. Then we found pot in his bedroom, and in our bedroom. He started leaving needles, bongs, and crack pipes where he knew we'd eventually find them, just to f*ck with us. I know this because he said so, in those exact words. He had his first intervention and first trip to rehab that year, and his first relapse.

He had to repeat a year of high school at 17, which meant he was now the ringleader of a group of other young dipsh*ts, who saw him as this totemic mentor-shaman who could hook them up with whatever sh*t they wanted. I'm also damn sure he started f*cking one of his gang's younger sister (13) around then, but I had nothing to go on but my own instincts, so all I could do was tell her parents to keep an eye on her. No charges were ever pressed, and the family never spoke to me again after that, but they did pull both of their kids out of that school, and my son was furious at me for daring to not let him continue committing statutory rape.

He decided to try for 'normal' rape later on. While I was away, he spent an uncharacteristic night at home and on his best behavior. After his mother went to sleep, he followed her to her bedroom. He took a knife with him. He crept into the room, straddled her, put the blade to her throat, and slid his other hand inside her.

I don't know exactly what happened next. I know he held her down and tried to undress her. I know she fought. I know he stabbed her. I know she got away and locked herself in the bathroom before he could catch her; I hope that means she kicked him good in the balls. I know she broke the window and screamed for help. I know he ran. I know she was lucky the ambulance got to her before she bled to death. I know he called his friends to brag and beg a ride. I know the police caught him.

I know if I'd been home, or if I'd caught him, I'd have killed him with my bare hands.

The state tried my son as an adult. He pled out, but only after making his mother testify and smiling the whole time. She divorced me a month after his sentencing; I looked too much like him. She killed herself a year later."

From [deleted]:

"My parents are not fond of their youngest.

Well, I need to back up: my parents are really my grandparents. My biological mother, their oldest, sort of gave me to them when I was a couple of days old because she and her baby daddy got lazy/bored.

Anyhow, my parents' youngest biological child was a hot mess. Got pregnant in high school by a douche, refused to fix her kid's club foot until my mom got custody and did for her, let her baby daddy duct tape his mouth shut, etc. After that guy, she married a creepy dude who needed a green card; she also became pregnant, probably by him. The guy was a sex offender who molested his daughter. Their son is also autistic.

My aunt then ran off with her sister's boyfriend and left her family with my parents. To sum up: she left her two legitimate children and her bastard, along with the husband. No one would know for a few more years about him being a perv. When we did, he fled to his country. They're still legally married.

She went on to date a series of sketchy dudes, all of them 5-10 years younger than her, one being 15 years younger. She got a decent police record and because of that, refused to sign custody of her kids over to her parents or sister because she thought she would be arrested if she walked into a courthouse. One of her boyfriends once roamed outside our house with a knife for hours and the police had to come. She's been to jail a few times and the last time, she dumped her cat with my parents. Well, her latest man did.

My parents are in their 70s and so tired of her shit. She just got out of jail and all my mom could say is 'Good. Maybe she'll take her cat back'. They hate talking to her, dread seeing her and even get upset when she gets vaguely legal-looking mail.

But they still put up with her because they feel like they have to. Unless they have to bring her up, they don't. My dad gets upset if someone else does and no one really likes her cat. I'm sure if they didn't have such a weird thing about family loyalty, she would be outcast for good."

From shubaka17:

"Now I'm not a parent, but damn is my mom pissed at my brother. The two were never really close, but after the divorce, my brother - call him Eric - clearly sided with my dad. Eric was already in the rebellious teen phase, so my parents' divorce really threw his emotions around.

It kept on escalating slowly, Eric refusing to clean up after dinner, my mother insisting that Eric always ask his friends for rides home from events, and that he be perfect in every way. My mother's side of it was always passive aggressive, never physical, all the way up to Eric's 16th birthday, almost a year-and-a-half after the divorce.

He was upset with my mom because of angsty teen reasons, and wanted to spend his birthday with our dad, even though by the custody agreement, he was under our mom's jurisdiction. My mom felt that this was an assault on her as a person, and as a mother, and just lost her head. She started screaming her face off at Eric, saying how he was a terrible human being, and how she hadn't spent the past 15 years raising him to act like such a jerk to his mother. However, it was kind of my brother's 16th birthday, so he got pissed that she had forgotten his age."

From user Gingerzing:

"He doesn't come out and say so, but my dad doesn't really like my brother (but to be fair he doesn't really like that many people in general). My dad and my brother just very different personality-wise, and have nothing in common.

One of the few people that my father does like is my husband. A couple of years ago, my brother was home for a visit and he picked up on the friendship that had developed between my father and husband. He later told my my mom and me, 'Dad likes [my husband] better than me.' He sounded so sad and I felt so sorry for him. My mom tried to deny it, but I didn't say anything because he was right."

From user franktheanon: 

"My dad cheated on my mum when I was young. She was prone to violence and aggression and this tipped her over. It boiled over into a violent confrontation in the front room and after, my dad left in a red car and I didn't see him for 10 years. I was left with my mum and two siblings.

Because I was a spitting image of my father, my mother absolutely resented me. Every time she looked at me she saw him. Being a young kid I thought that behavior from a mother was kind of normal. I remember once where she poured fairy liquid (water and dish soap) down my throat over a period of 20 minutes. I was six. It made me sick everywhere for a good few days."