The Most Jaw-Dropping “Karen” Encounters These Kids Could Never Forget Revealed!
I grew up pretty poor. My mom was what I like to call Trailer Park Karen (we lived in a trailer). I remember we were in a KFC and she asked how much a bucket of chicken was. The girl told her and mom starts yelling about how that’s ridiculous and she can do better at Albertsons and she stormed out.
I’m the child of a male Karen (…Darren?)
It’s alarming because my dad is normally a measured, calm and patient man but if he gets hungry or tired he becomes a brat and this has lead to full on meltdowns in restaurants or yelling at some unfortunate receptionist at a hotel. It’s made worse by the fact that he is a tall, broad man and doesn’t realise how threatening his body language can come across as.
As a kid I just cringed. As an adult, I started going to the waiters or receptionists afterwards, apologising, and pressing extra tips on them. Then about seven years ago I turned to him as he went off on one and said ‘this is not how you taught us to speak to people and you would be ashamed if any of your children acted this way’.
He hasn’t acted out since.
When you’re very young (0 to 5 yrs), you have no idea. Once you’re old enough to realize it (7 to 10ish), you get super embarrassed. When you’re around the age of going through puberty, you start to apologize to people for your mom or dad’s behavior.
Then, FINALLY, you are old enough to get away (14 to 18) and if you’re lucky, you have a lot of excuses to not go places with them – practices, games, rehearsals, concerts, homework, a job…. and so on.
When you’re an adult, if you have the balls to do so, you start to point out to them in the moment how absurd and ridiculous they are acting and they learn to not act that way around you… but they still do it when you’re not around. You’re not around a lot.
Coming back to today’s stories, it’s easy to see how growing up with “Karen” parents can put kids in some pretty awkward and difficult situations. Pandas, have you ever witnessed a parent behaving this way, or experienced something similar yourself? Let us know in the comments below.
My mother once got mad at a cashier for her cart not having a good wheel and he didn’t offer to replace it for her during a rush. I work at that grocery store. People know she’s my mother. I was mortified.
My mother in law is one, luckily not as crazy as some but definitely is embarrassing. Whenever my husband and I visit, she always wants to go out to eat. We always try to say let’s get take out or offer to cook, because honestly I hate going out to eat with her.
I was 37 to when I was able to sit with mom through an entire restaurant meal without something being returned to the kitchen. If her food was perfectly prepared, she would complain about someone else’s against that diner’s protestations. It was exhausting. As a teenager, I started carrying a few extra dollars that I’d sneak to the server to try and not get my food spit in.
My mom isn’t intentionally a “karen” but she has some social anxiety and comes off as demanding to customer service workers. She’s generally very nice but has RBF and talks curtly when ordering food and stuff. I hated it growing up because I felt like she was being rude but now that I’m older I understand that her anxiety makes her overthink those interactions. I compensated as a kid by being overly smiley to employees that she had been rude to and sometimes apologizing to them after my mom had walked away.
Cashier: Sorry ma’am, I’m actually closing my till.
My mum: Well where am I supposed to go?!
My mother used to throw her hands around while driving and road raging, she used to aggressively paraphrase people she didn’t like by making a loud and stupid voice. She used to always complain to employees about stupid things that had no solutions. “Why are you out of the sale items?”
What’s it like to be her son? I moved 1000km to get away from her. Hope that sums it up! :D.
My dad was married to a wretched woman from the time I was 7 to 22. Her name was literally Karen 😂
Anyway, she was awful to everyone. I remember shooting apologetic looks to waiters, cashiers, receptionists, flight attendants, etc as a young child. OMG. It was mortifying.
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