(My grandmother- dad’s mom- has recently moved in with us. It’s a huge adjustment for everyone. Unfortunately, Grandma is super stubborn and manipulative in everything and she will throw tantrums if she can’t get her way.
I’m home on my day off. I’m downstairs watching Netflix when she comes down to do her laundry and eat lunch. before heading up. She has to use a stairlift, and it will beep nonstop if it’s not locked into place at either the top or bottom of the stairs. The beeping is so loud you can hear it throughout the house. The stairlift is a bit finicky at the top and won’t always lock into place. Sure enough, as soon as she’s up, I hear the beeping. I head up and try and make it lock into place, but it won’t take, so I send it to the bottom of the stairs. Mom wants it to stay at the bottom anyway since it’s easier to navigate around there. I go back to my show, where I was at the very beginning of an episode. Forty-five minutes later, I’m just starting another episode when I hear the stairlift start up. A couple minutes later, Grandma comes downstairs.)
Grandma: (My name), why do you hate me?
Me: What?
Grandma: Why do you hate me? You knew I was coming right back down. You knew I was doing laundry. Why do you like to see me suffer?
Me: What are you talking about?
Grandma: It hurts my back to push that button to call the chair up.
(This is the first time she’s ever mentioned this. The button is directly underneath the light switch, and she only has to hold it for 30 seconds.)
Me: It was beeping and driving me crazy. Besides, it’s supposed to stay downstairs.
Grandma: I didn’t hear it!
(Grandma has selective hearing. She also has selective blindness and selective memory loss- anything to get her way.)
Me: Well, it was.
Grandma: You just like to see me suffer!
Me: (mutters under my breath) Whatever.
Grandma: Don’t use that tone with me! Oh, wait until your father gets home.
(I ignored her until she went away. Then, I got my phone out and sent my dad a message explaining what just happened. He was not happy when he got home and went up to talk to his mom about it. She tried to paint it like I was the bad guy who took joy in her suffering, but he wasn’t buying it.)
Dad: You can’t talk to my children like that. You will apologize to (my name). You know the stairlift is supposed to stay at the bottom when someone is home.
Grandma: She knew I was coming right back down!
Dad: Except you didn’t. And the thing was beeping.
Grandma: It doesn’t beep. You’re always saying it’s beeping, but it never beeps.
Dad: It beeps, you just choose not to hear it.
Grandma: It hurts my back to push that button.
Dad: Since when?
Grandma: Why are you never on my side? You always take everyone else’s side. Why are you never on my side?
(They argued for a while before he left. She refused to come down for dinner that night. She also doesn’t believe that when my uncle was living with her and she was driving him crazy, we all thought he was blowing it out of proportion. We were telling him to be nice to her. We have since admitted to him how wrong we were.
She also doesn’t understand why we tend to avoid her when we’re home.
The only reason she is not in a home is because there is a two-year wait. She also can’t afford one because she doesn’t have Medicaid because “AARP is the exact same thing” and there is no convincing her otherwise.)

(Note: This call takes place on December 6.)

Caller: I’m calling to check on one of my orders. I am missing an item.

Me: Is this your most recent order, the one place on December 2?

Caller: No, it’s the one before that, from 12/26.

(We did find the order, and it was placed on November 26 (11/26).)

As background, I’m an adult, and I live with my mom to help care for my special needs brother. My controlling, abusive father has nothing to do with him. He also owes my mom a good chunk of money from their divorce years ago. Because of the lack of other finances, including what he didn’t pay previously, I have used some of my savings over the years to support us all. We are one household after all, and I love them.

My father just got an expected windfall and is finally paying my mom what he owes her. Over the last couple of years, he has said repeatedly that he wants to pay me back for what I have spent for my mom and brother. It’s a seemingly kind gesture, meant to get back in my good graces.

Well, now that the money has come in, he says he will pay me money, out of the sum he owes my mom. Sice I spent the money for her and my brother, he says it’s only right that she repays me, with some of the money he owes her. …I understand the logic of what he is saying to a degree, but this completely contradicts what he has been saying for the last couple of years. Finally, after I had told him over, and over that what he said then isn’t matching what he is saying now, ke came up with this gem which is almost verbatim.

“For you to go on the words when you should have gone on the meaning, the feeling level, the sense of it, is ludicrous! I’m flabbergasted!”

All of this was said with the same level of incredulity as if I had said I was a Flat Earther. After continuing for a good minute or two about how truly flabbergasted he was that I wasn’t telepathic, he continued talking about words, saying:

“I find the surface level of communication is a waste of time.”

I really shouldn’t be surprised. If he misspoke, it was always our fault for not understanding him. If we misspoke, it was our fault for not being clear. Sorry for venting NAR. I just got off the phone after a two-hour sanity-melting talk, and I just really needed to.

This occurred back when i was in my middle school days, during our yearly TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills) exams.

After I had finished the section of the test and checked my work there was maybe half an hour or so remaining of the test time. Rather then get bored and fidget, I turned over my paper and got a paperback book out of my backpack and began to quietly and silently read. Shortly thereafter, the administrator for our room came up to me, and told me that I was disturbing others by reading the book, and told me to put it away. I tried telling them that reading would keep me quiet, and not be a bother, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Reluctantly, I put the book away, and zombied through the rest of the test period.

The next day, I again finished a bit earlier, and drew out my book to read. Once again, the teacher informed me that my reading the book was disturbing others, and I again put the book away. That night, I spoke with my grandmother about it, and she was as curious as I was about how my reading quietly would bother anyone else who should be focused on their own test, and not whatever I was doing. She told me that, if I should finish early again and provided I was polite, inform the administrator that I would not put the book away, and they were welcome to explain how I was being disruptive to the class.

Cue a day or so later, and I once again finished a bit early, and once again the teacher informed me to put the book away. At this point, I was ready, and quietly informed them that no, I wouldn’t, but I would remain quiet, and asked them how my quiet reading would be of any bother to anyone.

At this point, the instructor got an assistant principal from the main office, who brought me out into the hallway, left the classroom door open, and loudly informed me that I would receive a failing grade should I not put the book away.

I held my ground, and (while still polite and quiet) asked how my turning of the pages of my book was a disturbance to anyone, especially since every person in the classroom was turning pages on their own tests and marking answer sheets.

Eventually, I was let go, and I never heard another word from anyone about the test, or my grade. I was never held back in a grade, so I have to assume I passed.

So this happened a while back and wasn’t necessarily something that I “overheard” more like a situation that I “over-watched”

So I’m at the front counter, talking to some of my other coworkers as it was a slow night. It was about 7:30-8 ish and i had a table that had been there since around 4. Well after customers pay, we like to check on them every once in a while in case they still need anything.

After the first half hour, I decided to stop checking on them and just watch them from afar.

Well I was standing in a spot where I could look into the back of the restaurant and to their booth. I had pretty good view of the couple and their table.

While talking to my coworkers, I noticed some movement coming from their table, looking up, the woman had moved from her side of the booth to the man’s.

They began to kiss and I was like “well they’ll be leaving soon apparently.” And I looked away.

About twenty minutes pass and I look at the table to see if they had left, maybe through the back door or something. Well right as I looked up, the couple was still there, and the man had raised his hand and smacked her rear end.

Immediately, I look down, wide eyes and all my coworkers look at the table in the back, having heard the loud smack.

The couple had left only a few minutes after, too involved with each other to even notice that all of us knew and heard.

Got a $15 tip though, so there’s a plus :)