How does somebody go from hero to zero in your eyes?
It happens all the time, and yet it can still feel so shocking.
The reasons are as varied as people themselves. Here are just a few surprising examples from Reddit.
1. Neglecting your kids
My son’s friend used to spend weekends and nearly his entire summers at our house.
One weekend, the boy was staying over with us when he had a terrible toothache. He was crying and just rocking back and forth writhing in pain. We looked at the tooth and it was completely rotten and broken. Tried to reach the parents, but couldn’t get ahold of them. We did the best we could to comfort him.
When we took him back home, we told the parents about it and they admitted they had known about it for awhile, but they couldn’t afford the dentist. In damn near the same breath they proceeded to show us the new flat screen tv and surround sound they had just bought for $700.
The boy continued to suffer in that home (in many ways we didn’t even know about until later) for a couple years when finally my wife and I called CPS.
We were so afraid of making things worse and were pretty certain that they would know exactly who made the complaint and it would jeopardize our being able to give him any reprieve if they cut us off from having contact with him.
When we finally made the call, it went exactly as we had feared. The agency wouldn’t give us any details of the contact, but the boy’s parents cut us off completely. My son saw him at school and that would be the only way we could communicate with him.
One night several months later, he showed up at our door. Turns out he ran away. Cops came, he tried to explain the abuse he was having in the home which at this point we found out had turned into physical beatings and the cop told him to “knock your s**t off and get in the (police) car” and they took him back to the abusive parents.
The next morning, the mother came to our house with the boy and told us to keep him. So, we went through a big process and got legal guardianship of him and ever since he has been in our home. He is treated like our own son. First thing we did was go to a dentist.
I’m not one to wish ill on anyone no matter what they’ve done, but I hope those people burn in h**l.
– MaliciousCode
2. Being stingy and selfish
At college in London I had a car and my mate didn’t, nor a driving license so I regularly drove to the other side of the city to pick him up or drop him off. Never once asked for petrol and would have rejected the offer if made. It’s a mate, right.
One night a group of us were out in town and decided to go watch a film. I called him up, told him to get over and I’d pick up an extra ticket to make sure he could make it. When he arrived he took the ticket, and casually said, “get the money from Bob, he owes me.”
I’d spent my last ten pounds on that ticket. Everyone decided to got to McDonald’s. I couldn’t afford to eat. Then they decided to go to a bar, I swear he asked me what I wanted to drink. I asked for coke. He came back holding two, thinking one was for me I reached for it and he looked at me at said, “In your dreams” and walked past.
Didn’t have much to do with him after that.
– 47q8AmLjRGfn
3. Making everything about you
My boyfriend threw me a surprise birthday party for my 21st, and invited all my friends which included one that lived 6 hours away!(F21). She ended up coming, but wanted to make the whole night about her.
She kept telling everyone I shouldn’t drink because I get too messed up, kept complaining about how much she missed her 50 year old fiancé (she kept including the age in order to also mention how more mature she was), and how it was rude that my bf’s roommate didn’t offer his room to her because his bed was larger.
Even the next day when we got brunch, she kept complaining about how much she missed her fiancé, and that I should just get a box so she can take me home and go home herself.
She managed to p**s a lot of people off that night, but especially me. We had been friends for about 3 years, but that night really made me look at our so called friendship in a brand new light.
– xxglitterkittenxx
4. Being an insensitive pr**k
I was working for Special Olympics and a friend I hadn’t talked to in a while asked if I was “still working at the ‘tard’ house.”
He then proceeded to try and recruit me to sell AdvoCare…
– Answer70
5. Just being a scumbag
When it came out that a friend was cheating on his disabled and house bound wife.
She managed the finances and got the EZ Pass (electronic tolling system) bill that showed he was in the wrong state when he was said he was at work. When confronted he, denied it until she pulled out the phone bill with his texts and calls to a number in general area of where the EZ-Pass was getting billed.
He then divorced her and tried to screw her out of her share of his navy pension and insurance.
They were married for longer than his time in the service (25 years) and was she legally entitled to half of it, he went out of his way to hurt her. She died less than a year later in a nursing home while he was moving in with a completely different woman than the one he originally cheated on the wife with.
Real classy guy, showed up to the First wives funeral with #2.
He also claimed to go out “whaling” while in the Navy- he and his fellow sailors would apparently search out and bed the largest lady they could while on shore leave, the winner took home the biggest and got bragging rights till the next round of leave.
– bbpr120
6. Being rude to staff
I used to travel as part of my job.
Sometimes I would check in to a hotel and be behind a coworker in line.
I was often amazed at how rude they treated the front desk clerk
There’s no coming back from that for me…
– williamtheturd
7. Being a manipulator
a woman robbing 25k out of her terminally ill ex-husbands bank account before a divorce, then getting her son to assault him so that she could claim self defense and sue him when he fought back.
No. he didn’t win the case or get a dime of his money back. Worst part is, before the divorce he had already given her 25k and paid her way through college (which she immediately dropped out of) because he wanted to make sure she was taken care of. Dumb b**ch spent the money on drugs and it was gone in than a month.
– RealMaskHead
8. Abandoning your wife
In the middle of a global pandemic, while I was undergoing cancer treatments, my husband threw me out of the house I helped build, and my “best” girlfriend decided to comfort him in “his time of need”.
I have several words of the 4 letter variety to describe both of them, but I don’t want to get banned.
– Goodbye11035Karma
9. Expecting everything, giving nothing
After years of helping my sister with her bills $150 car insurance $120phone bills buying tires for her car help paying to get it out after she had it repossessed.
That happened three times and countless money on baby food, milk, diapers, clothes, carseats for her son spending everyday I had off work babysitting her son.
I mean thousands of dollars she couldn’t drive me to work one time after my car broke down.
It wasn’t Missing work that mattered The way she reacted when I asked “why would I do that of I can sleep in tomorrow your lucky I’m picking you up now I could just let you sit out here” it was very disappointing but I learned that no matter how much you do for people it doesn’t matter so i spend my time and money on myself now and no one expects things from me now or even asked I feel alot less stressed.
– chantal988
10. Being a harasser
When she wouldn’t respect my “Thanks, but I’m married”…many times over. Female coworkers seem to get a pass on sexual harassment.
Believe it or not, “no means no” even for men. Shocking, I know…
– chocolate_fever
11. Betrayal
She was my closest friend back then, she slept around a lot. That wasn’t a problem until she went behind my back to sleep with the guys she knew I had a crush on.
She even went as far as finding a guy I met on a dating app, flirting with him and sleeping with him the night before I was supposed to go on a date with him.
When I confronted her about it, she admitted she seen me as “competition” when it came to men and dating.
– Youre_late_for_tea
12. Being a fraudster
A few personal injury and workmen’s comp patients asked me to commit insurance fraud through false documentation, because “nobody will know.”
GTFO
– PaperPusherPT
13. Drinking while pregnant
When my ex-friend got pregnant shortly after we graduated highschool.
She invited me to a party and when I got there she was so drunk I almost lost my s**t.
I remember telling her “I can’t believe you’re drinking while you’re pregnant, what the actual f**k is wrong with you” before I turned around and left.
– morganfreenomorph
14. Being shallow
One time I had a high school teacher who was actually really kind and respectful and she never shouted or was impatient with her students. I had her every Wednesday and I always looked forward to her lessons. I would be walking to school with my friends and the I’d be like, “Yes! I have Mrs. **** today.” They would always respond,”Ah. You mean the fat one?”
At that point I realised they couldn’t care less about personality, but only looks.
It explained why they always dated the popular girls that I’ve always hated and seemed arrogant beyond belief but looked good.
Anyways, I kinda started to zone them out a bit.
5 years later and 2 of the 3 are in prison.
The other is an alcoholic and a drug addict.
– Cold_Task9034
15. Refusing to take responsibility
I once told my grandfather that he was wrong for mistreating a child.
He launched into this long-winded, misogynistic, victim-blaming diatribe, telling me in no uncertain terms that I’m the bad guy and I deserve all the traumas I’ve endured because I don’t know my place. I waited for him to finish, and then I asked him why the truth about his behavior upset him to the point that he felt the need to verbally crucify me.
His response, verbatim: “The truth doesn’t matter. What matters is what I believe.”
– Jedi_Among_Sith
Be good to each other out there.
Have you had an experience like this?
Tell us about it in the comments.