My dad died suddenly a few months ago. Since then my mom has naturally had pretty regular phone calls sorting out details with legal stuff, banking, social security, etc. I’m almost thirty but still live at home, and with the layout of our house I’m usually just a room away and can hear her end clearly. Sometimes she’ll ask me to go to the basement or another room if it’s particularly sensitive or she’ll step outside, but usually I just ignore the calls while doing my own thing.

One day recently I was playing with our dog outside while she was on the phone talking to social security. Our dog can be very finicky about playing so it was probably less than five minutes, and I walked inside JUST in time to hear her say something like this: “This is my only marriage, one prior for him.”

Cue me sitting down on the couch wondering if I heard and interpreted that right. My mom went out into the garage for a little bit before returning, and eventually wrapped up the call, at which point I pounced upon her. And THAT is how I learned that years before my parents met my father had been married for a bit over a year, ending in a divorce when his ex cheated on him. They had never hidden it from me intentionally and had planned to tell me at some point as I got older, but it just never came up in conversation. There was never a reason to sit me down and have a “so your father had a previous marriage” talk either.

It’s a bit mind-blowing, sure, but not a bad revelation that changes my perception of him or makes me feel betrayed at having this hidden from me for so long. I told my mom they were right to wait until I was older, because as a kid I probably would have been spouting “My dad was divorced!” to everyone as a neat bit of trivia—and that summarizes how I feel about it: it’s just an interesting fact about my dad. It really doesn’t change anything and had no impact on our lives beyond the fact that my dad got to meet and marry my mom instead.

So, the reason I’m submitting this story? After my mom went into the garage, she told the worker, “My daughter walked in right as I answered your question about prior marriages, and she had no idea he was divorced and she looked at me with the biggest eyes!” The worker was of course very apologetic, even though my mom reassured her it was fine.

So if by any chance you work for social security and this story sounds familiar, don’t worry! You were not the catalyst for some horrible family drama due to some dark secret being ousted by asking some required questions as part of your job! At worst, I’m just disappointed that my mom confirmed there was zero chance of me having a secret half-sibling from that marriage. Alas, I am fated to be an only child.

Quick note before I begin the story this all happens in the span of about two minutes, if that.

I work in a medium sized grocery store in a small town. This takes place in 2019 in late Autumn/early Winter. It is close to the end of my shift and I am looking for a coworker in order to ask him a question(I forget what it was but it is unimportant anyways). I step outside and a customer with two dogs is struggling to tie her dogs’ leashes to something. She asks me to hold the leashes while she steps inside really quick, I don’t mind so I agree.

She steps inside and dog #1 really wants to go after her into the store, pulling at the leash, while dog #2 is quiet as can be. Eventually dog #1 gives up.

For five seconds.

Suddenly he bolts towards the door of the store and this time the leash snaps! He runs in and I’m left there holding the snapped leash thinking ‘What the heck do I do now?’ Eventually my aforementioned coworker comes over and we go into the store with dog #2.

Another customer has their hands on dog #1’s collar and the original customer is at the register paying, she took everything in good humour. I think the other customer offered to give her a lift because, you know, dog with no leash but I don’t know if the offer was taken.

All I can say now is that I’m glad the dog ran into our store. Why? Our store is on Main Street and it was getting dark out.

(I wasn’t able to attend my nephew’s birthday, as it was out of town and I was ill. About 3 weeks later his mother, my sister-in-law, sends me a photo on [photo sharing app] of him holding a sonogram, accomanied by the words “big brother”. I’m at my Dad’s at the time, so I show it to him.)

Me: “Have you talked to [Brother] lately?”
Dad: “No, why?”
Me: “Because he hasn’t said anything to me! Has he said anything to you?”
Dad: “No. Wait, s*it! The birthday! [SIL]’s mother was asked not to tell the rest of the family yet, and I just forgot. When [Aunt] and I were coming back from our trip a week later, she asked me if I’d told you yet, and by the time I got home, I’d forgotten again.”

(He also said he’d told [Brother] two weeks ago to inform me. Like father, like son, I suppose.)

I’m a graduate student in history, and my year is mainly men. I’m also the youngest one at 22, and the only woman of the three who’s not married or has kids. There’s also 2 guys who aren’t married or have kids, but they don’t get these comments.

For some odd reason, a few of my classmates like to ask me when I’m going to get married and have kids and that I should get started on that. Nevermind my academic career, or the fact that my dream is to get a PhD and become a university professor; apparently I should just get married and start popping out kids. It is so frustrating and the misogyny in academic settings, as well as the expectation of women to have kids but not men, as I know none of the other unmarried ones have gotten these comments, is so upsetting. I don’t really hang out in our Grad room anymore because of it.

I have spoken to people about it, and they’ve told me to let them know if it keeps on happening, but I feel like it shouldn’t even BE happening in the first place.

(We are in charge of keeping the bathrooms clean, me one and my coworker the other. I’m cleaning when a group of ladies come in. I leave for a bit then come back, and they’re gone. I’m hit with a truly awful smell, of vagina and blood. Hurriedly I try to find the source, thinking they threw a tampon somewhere but found nothing. I’m puzzling over it when my boss calls and says that someone complained of an awful smell. My coworker comes frantically up.)

Coworker: “Ton of blood in my garbage!”

(It turns out someone threw a pad filled with blood in the garbage, and the smell was so strong it went straight through the garbage can top, out the door and into my bathroom next door and stink it up! I usually breathe through my mouth, but it went through that too! I hope that lady gets herself to a gyno!)