School Is In Session | Reading Reddit Stories

17:51Damien Haas:And someone's like, two weeks is fine. And someone's like, it's like, who's right? I don't know. But still, like everybody's like, no, this is the way it is because that's how I grew up. Sounds like he's a spoiled little man baby. I think there's a lot of spoiled people who, once they have roommates, they grew up their whole life just being able to, they were just provided for so much that they're just like, yeah, everything that's in the house, I eat. You know what's weird to me, too, is like, usually when you hear stories like this, it's like, oh, my roommate ate all my chips. All his friends came over and were like, do you have any snacks?

18:18Damien Haas:He's like, yeah, we have chips. I can't imagine being someone's friend being like, do you have any food? And it's like, yeah, we have some delicious salmon and broccoli with sweet potatoes. It's like, that's an entire ass meal. Let's go. For four people, let's do it. Well, I'd be, if I went over to, say I went over to your house and you had roommates. And you were like, oh, I have this delicious, delicious meal. I'm like, oh, cool. And we're eating it. And then your roommate gets home and they go, hey, where's the, like, where's that meal I have? And it's like, oh, who cooked it? It's like my mom.

18:45And you're like, delicious. I'd be like, I need to leave. Like, we just committed a crime. I'm like, Howard.

18:51Damien Haas:I don't actually live here. You got to come. You like a candlelit dinner. And you're like, we got to go. We have to get out. Uh-oh, the owner showed up. We got to leave. If in college someone offered me like sweet potatoes and chicken made from their mom, I'd be like, do you have like a PBR? And like maybe like a Twizzler? I don't want like a vegetable. Do you have Top Ramen and maybe a Coke? Yeah. I've been surviving off that. And then going, this doesn't belong to you? Dude, but like we've all met these people that are this entitled. Yeah. it's like mind-blowing when you're face-to-face with them.

19:30You're like, wait, how do you not care? Yeah, yeah. It's shocking. I'm curious what the comments will say. Someone said, I had a similar situation that I've definitely mentioned on Reddit before. I bought a huge bag of rice at the local Asian grocery store, like 50 pounds, because I was broke as hell, but it's a lot cheaper to buy it that way. I caught my roommate giving some random person a significant portion of my rice one day. I said, hey, what the fuck? That's my rice. not yours. You can't give away like one fifth of it without asking. He said, but you have so much of it. Yeah, because I'm rationing it out for the rest of the year, you idiot.

20:05He thought of himself as a musician and had a lot of musical instruments in his room. So later that week, I gave away some of his guitars to various people in that dorm. He was very angry, but my response was simply, but you have so many of them. Rice for guitars? It's a fun story, but he's dead now. Don't go skiing at night, y 'all. Or I'll get you.

20:28Damien Haas:Whoa. What do you mean? All of these stories have hard left turns. See, I got it. This is why, though, like, these types of comments are why I'm like, hey, like, I don't fuck with people. Because, like, you never know who's just a murderer, like, in the making. I'm like, I don't think you killed him, but I think you could kill someone. He gave away a fifth of my rice, so I sold his dog. Anyway, don't ski at night. I'm like, all right, man. Cool. Like, great. You stole my pork rinds? I took your skin. The way he's telling that story, I'm like, I understand that he took a fifth of your rice and gave it to someone.

21:08You seem like you're happy he's dead. Yeah. Like, damn, dude. It's also so ominous to end everything with something completely about something else and be like, anyway, don't hydroplane when it's snowing.

21:22I was the ice. Someone said I would have sold his info on the internet. I don't play about my mom's food, but that's just me. OP said that was what pushed me over the edge. It was literally my favorite dish and they ate everything, LOL. I guess this is the petty revenge Reddit. Like people are going to be here. People are here for revenge. They love revenge. Someone said college roommates suck. I had two that were eating my food and refused to clean up their messes. One roommate constantly left bowls of his leftover milk from cereal, cereal he never purchased, in the sink until the milk went rancid.

21:55The other roommate and I started putting those bowls full of milk under his bed. His room literally—

22:01Damien Haas:Oh, my God! His room really smelled bad. We kept one bowl each and would immediately clean it and hide it in our rooms. Okay, that is more in line of, like, revenge that I think is fair. I'm like, he's leaving this out. It's rancid. It smells bad for everyone. You're just taking what he's doing. You're making the consequences of his actions affect him more than everyone else. That to me is like, that's the right. How do you do that in this person's situation where it's like, you took my mom's salmon, I'm taking it back from you. Vomit. My only thought with this is I'm just like, okay, well, you're moving out now, right?

22:38Yeah. Or they're moving out. Like, you can't live together now. You declared war. You absolutely declared war. And some people are out of their mind. Yeah. That's just where my head goes.

22:49Damien Haas:100%. It's where you have to like abandon the idea of like fairness sometimes where it's like, oh, man, and they still have one over on me, and I want to get them back, but I don't know. Sometimes you can just be like, it sucks, they took my thing. I'd rather not get stabbed in the middle of the night. But that takes a lot of growth. It does, because we're old now. I feel like that's how I've always been, though. I'm the type that if someone wrongs me, now a roommate is so tough, right? But if someone wrongs me, my initial thought is not, how do I get back at them? My initial thought is, how do I remove them from my life, or I remove myself from their sphere as quickly as possible.

23:24That's you taking care of yourself. But there are some people that when you are so deeply hurt, your body's reaction for some reason is to also hurt. It's just this fucked up part of the cycle. It's the desire for catharsis, right? And I understand that's a very valid thing. I think where I also go, though, and what I would ask anyone who's seeking revenge or is like, I'm going to do this, I'm like, what is the outcome you desire? Yes, that's great. Because the whole purpose, I think, deep down with revenge is that you want to teach them a lesson. You want them to stop. Yeah. Now, I guess they are saying in this that they haven't touched their food since.

23:59Truth is, so all we know is that actually it luckily worked out. But I'm like, for me, nine times out of 10, doing something like that is going to culminate in horrible shit. Yeah. It's like bringing a gun to a knife fight or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, it's why even like on the road, especially in LA, I'm like, oh, I don't flip people off. I don't do, no matter how wrong someone is, I'm not escalating it because I'm like, people have guns. Yeah.

24:24Damien Haas:People be having guns. I've been like chased in a car before by a guy that's like, the next minute, like, oh. Oh, yeah, me too. It's crazy shit. Yeah. Well, next story. Oh, there's a third. Thank goodness. I took off the blanket because it's now a little bit warmer in here and I feel good. So you can really see the full Hollywood hot dog. We're winning. The better team. Yeah. We are winning right now. And this is like a manifestation. It's going to be so embarrassing if we are horribly losing by this point. Chance single-handedly is like the golden boy of the game. Just crushing us. Or if we have a massive falling out, you and me.

25:05Yeah. We'll look back at this footage and be like, remember they used to talk. Wow. And then they became hot dogs. A falling out when we were on the same team. That's brutal. I can see it happening. It's actually more likely.

25:15Damien Haas:It's a lot of games videos already. Yeah, it's true. Next story. This comes from Today I Fucked Up. Today I fucked up by holding a grudge for 29 years against a kid at school who called me Carrot Boy.

25:32People really come packing with these titles. Now, OP is saying that he messed up by holding a grudge for 29 years. All right. The names, including my own, have been modified to false names. About 29 years ago, I was in the third grade. I took one of those carrot packs out of my lunchbox, the kind that came with a little cup of ranch dressing. All of a sudden, this kid Balthazar said, hey, everyone, look, Tim is a carrot boy. Everyone at the whole lunch table started to laugh. I couldn't believe it. For some reason, that incident really stuck with me. Nobody really brought it up again, but I became self-conscious in elementary school for eating carrots.

26:10Later, I lost that self-consciousness. But all through school and into adulthood, I always thought of that and built it up in my head as this big disrespectful insult to me. Whenever I eat carrots, the memory pops up basically involuntarily. Whenever I see carrots, I remember Balthazar going, hey, everyone, look, Tim is a carrot boy. And hear the laughter. What you should know is that I am from a small town. And although I left, a lot of the kids I knew are still there. I saw that over the holidays, there was an impromptu high school reunion event scheduled. I decided to show up. I haven't seen these people regularly in a long time.

26:45Well, who should be there but Balthazar. All of a sudden, the old anger welled up in me. I don't know what I was thinking. It seems so ridiculous now. But I saw a big tray of carrots meant for everyone at the buffet table. And I picked up the entire tray and carried it to Balthy's table. I started eating carrots angrily. Everyone at the table and surrounding tables were staring at me. I then said, guess I'm still a carrot boy, huh? I almost immediately realized my fuck up when everyone looked at me like I was insane and they had no idea what I was referencing. So I awkwardly asked Baltho and the other people around if they remembered him calling me a carrot boy in the third grade.

27:22And nobody did. So I was like, this did happen. You really did call me a carrot boy. And he was like, uh, okay. Sorry, man. Somebody next to me put their hand on my arm and whispered to me, are you okay? as if I was having a mental breakdown or something. I was so embarrassed that I just got up and left. Multiple people have texted me asking me if I'm all right. And why did I do that? And did I really hold a grudge for some innocuous, silly remark that a third grader made almost 30 years ago? When it was put to me like that, I realized maybe I was the one being weird. Balthazar wasn't like a bully or something.

28:00Aside from that one insult, he never did anything else to me. and in high school was kind of known as being a do-gooder. I had built it up as this major incident, but nobody else even remembered it. I was horrified to find that several people from the reunion unfriended me on Facebook, and I saw photos of the event, and somebody had tagged me in the background as Carrot Boy. And none other than Balthazar responded to the post, asking the poster to remove the tag, even though several other people had replied with laugh emojis. Now I feel like I have made a huge fool of myself and can never show myself in this town again.

28:33Well, maybe that's okay. I don't like the town anyways. But I am so embarrassed I can hardly sleep, and it has been a few weeks since the incident. Oh, God. Another 30 years are going to pass, and he's going to meet up with him, and he's going to be like, hey, I want to talk about that high school deal. This is a gem.

28:50Damien Haas:The entire first half, I imagined him riding in a thunderstorm at midnight, like the Raven style. It was then that he called me Carrot Barney, and I remember it. It didn't even become a nickname. It didn't even stick. No, it was the one incident. He's 37 or 38 right now. And that Carrot Boy comment, which means the rest of his school years were a breeze. If Carrot Boy from third grade is what stands out to you, then you made it through high school without anything that much worse. That's a crazy point. He did puberty and just drove right on by. Nothing else stuck? Carrot Boy, it's not even that bad.

29:28No, and also, like, to his credit, you know, eight-year-olds, nine-year-olds, that's not even a good joke for them to laugh at.

29:35Damien Haas:Like, the whole class laughing at it, Carrot Boy, that sucks. Like, that does suck. A little disappointing. What's honestly remarkable to me about this story is the fact that he made himself Carrot Boy at the end. That he got tagged in a post that sometimes the things that we keep, we decide stay with us. Yeah, it's terrible. Right? He became Carrot Boy. He did the carrots at the reunion as an adult. As a boy. He was like, I am Carrot Boy. No one said he was Carrot Boy besides him. I even think it would be wild to be at the tray with somebody and be like, well, I guess you expect me to eat all these, huh?

30:15Damien Haas:The fact that he brought it over to the table, he really spent 29 years as Carrot Boy in his mind. But also, I also get it. It's wild the things that stick with you, right? That you like bring up your friends and you're like, remember that happened? And they're like, no. Like me and my brother all the time all remember some of the most embarrassing shit. He's like, I don't remember that at all. And it's like, oh, it sticks with you. It does. It does. No, that's fair. So it's very fair. That's real. But it's like at a certain point going, okay, like putting it into the context of like, well, they're not going to remember that.

30:45That's from third grade. Like it affected me. It's a core memory for me. But that doesn't mean it's a core memory for them. But like it's a core memory for me, right? and I have no control over it because I felt humiliated. But I do have control the rest of my life and I don't want it to be a core memory anymore. Like, I don't have to bring it into these new spaces.

31:03Damien Haas:Yeah. Therapy is expensive, but 29 years, you can maybe find, scrape together some change for one session at some point in there. So Carrot Boy. So Carrot Boy. I also, what's funny is around fourth grade, fifth grade, I have a carrot-related story. Oh. Where, you know, I was a little bit of a goofster in my day. Well, you're kidding. Angela, if you can believe it, as I live and breathe, I was a goofster. Okay. And I had these little carrot sticks, right? And I put one sort of where my teeth go. And you guys know the animal, the walrus? I've heard of it. So I was sort of like a carrot walrus. And it slayed.

31:39Damien Haas:And then this girl, I'll change her name for posterity. Bethala. Balthazina. Balthazina came up and went, poof, and hit both carrots. And it kind of hurt my gums a little bit. Okay. And you want to know the crazy thing is I didn't think about that from then until now. It was only that day and then only right now. And it's just that easy. That girl that bumped him up? Kate Hudson. And she turned out to be Kate Hudson. Yeah. No, I mean, I cannot knock this person for like this sticking with him, right? Because stuff like from your childhood. Stuff sticks. Like I, core memory, in middle school, it might have been elementary school or middle school, and there was a dance and like a dance circle for him and just kids were hopping into it.

32:20I remember I got booed out of it. And like to this day, I'm like, I won't dance.

32:26Damien Haas:Oh no! She's the saddest thing I've ever heard. It's all so deeply funny. I'm trying to keep going.

32:38Damien Haas:Shane, this is going to sound like an insult and I mean it as the highest compliment. You turned out so well. You turned out so well For all the things of like I got people dancing I was homeschooled Like your life is awesome You did great And there were all these things Going against you Cut to us on a Disney show Where the end The end of the first episode They're like alright Now here's the part Where you all dance I know And people are like Oh Shane I also got I also got made fun of For dancing in elementary school Like there was a day Where everybody had to dance this song And people were like Look what Damien's doing And I stopped And to this day I think it's a I think it's a very base level insult dudes throw at each other in elementary school.

33:18Like boys are just like, ah, you're dancing, you're dumb. I think learning to dance is humiliating no matter the gender. When you're young, I remember we used to play Big Booty in theater class. And I was humiliated to play.

33:32Damien Haas:Was there dancing in Big Booty? It was a version of it that you would dance. But thinking of someone getting booed out of the way. Yeah, that sucks a lot. It was pretty rough. So sorry. Pretty rough. Damn, dude. And then, like, what if you went back to your reunion? You're like, how about this, huh? And everyone's like, what? You do a full, like, footloose routine? Yeah. And they're like, sick, dude. Just like, all right. Lights and roll. Isn't that the guy that's, like, a YouTuber now? I think it's the Goldbergs kid. Thank you. Okay, comments. That's some self-fulfilling prophecy shit. Yeah. 10 ,000 upvotes.

34:11Someone said, I have hard secondhand cringe. Someone said, I picked up the entire tray and carried it to Balthy's table. Oh, my God. He's going to dump the carrots on his classmates. I started eating carrots angrily. Question marks. And then he realized he was no longer a carrot boy. Wipes tear, but a carrot man. I will say that the self-fulfilling prophecy thing is true of like the things that you hold on to, you will become. You bring it into the room. You will become it. It wasn't there, and you brought it in.

34:42Damien Haas:That's a Greek tragedy level of, like, this is the prophecy, and because you know about it, it's going to happen. It's actually very much like a, it's true. It's like Oedipus. It's like he was punished for what he's going to do in the future, and he was punished by being abandoned as a baby, and that's what leads to him doing all that stuff in the future. First Oedipus reference in a Reddit story. Boom, and it's not even about the mom stuff. That's actually kind of shocking that Oedipus has not been brought up before in Reddit stories. I was going to say this. Redipus. Redipus. James with the...

35:13Redipus. From half court. I wish he could have seen Redipus. This sounds like a Spencer.

35:21Damien Haas:Dare I say Redipus? It's actually very much like an acting thing where in scenes, I've had coaches be like, yeah, whatever you're thinking about is what we're going to see. It's true. If you're uncomfortable or something, it's like, we're just going to see that. You have to focus on what you want us to see. and what you'll become. Yep. But hey, I mean, not to toot my own horn, but I'm the fist bump guy. Don't. Don't. And this is my carrot man moment. I really wasn't the fist bump guy. Are you okay? Am I taking up too much? No, not at all. I just move a lot. I move a lot too. Keep up. It's okay.

36:02Damien Haas:Oh. Whoa. That's some challenging. In a bus. Our next story. Today, I messed up by nailing my crush with a football and making the whole school hate me. This came from nine years ago. Ooh. I was in P.E. today, playing football with the boys' class. The girls' class was on the side of the field, warming up to run laps. Only one girl caught my attention, though. My crush, leaning on the chain-link fence. As usual, she was too cool to be there. Fuck yeah. Half smoking a cigarette, legs all the way down to the ground. As I half-assedly played the game, I decided I'd get her attention by tossing the football nearby her, then coolly saying hi when I went to retrieve it.

36:46Maybe that would blossom into a conversation later. I was so excited. What a great idea. Well, the moment I got that ball, I sent it flying in her direction with all my strength. Oh, shit. I realized too late. I forgot to make that look like an accident. Also, that throw was way too close. Fuck. It's going to hit her. She noticed, too. Directly in the ball's path with no time to run, she covered her face. It nailed her in the groin. Everyone went silent as she collapsed to the grass in a ball. They stared at her, then at me. They did not look happy. I was overloaded with horror between my instant pariah status and the ghastly fate of this poor girl's womanhood.

37:26Fuck this. I took off sprinting right to the junior parking lot. P.E. is the last class of the day, so I jumped in my car and got the fuck out of there. What a coward! I was sobbing when I got home. My mother asked me why, and I told her that I stopped at Taco Bell on the way home and got jalapenos in my eye. Coward! Weird! Okay, I throw it, it hits her, she's on the ground crying, I go, I like you! Better shot, then. I double down, and I go, I am a Christian of you, I fucked up!

37:59Damien Haas:It's the knowledge that you get as an adult that like, whenever someone's like, what would you tell your teenage self? It's like nothing. You know, you have to learn the lessons you learn. I take that back. It would be just like, just go talk to someone. Just go say like, hey, I think you're cute. Like, how's it going? You know, and if they're not interested, you go away. And that's how it goes. But the fact that it's like, okay, you go over here and I'll throw this to you and then I'll pretend to trip and I'll look up and be like, oops, can I kiss you? Like, I'm just saying, it's so stupid. But this is the logic we pull in high school.

38:26It is. And also what so many people pull in their 30s. I was going to say, Amy, Why'd you look at me when you said that?

38:31Damien Haas:I know. When somebody eats all your food is a roommate, you know what it's like. When somebody eats all your food is a roommate, you know what it's like. I did that kind of shit even in college. I'd be like, oh, we're meeting here. I feel like you think when you have crushes that you have to do, like you have to just create a bunch of meet-cutes and organic stuff instead of just doing anything. I think everything in media tells us that that's how it should go. Like you can't just have a desire go up to somebody and like talk to them. You just have to be like, oops, that ball fell. You know what it is?

39:03It's because we fear that it's boring, right? Like direct communication seems boring. Yeah. Because it's not movie-like. It's not TV show-like. It's just like, oh, you're just going up and you're just saying, hey, I'm like, would you ever want to hang out? Also, there's like a bad rep around just trying. Absolutely, especially when you're young. Just trying anything and doing it and not like falling accidentally into this and going, hey, what's up? And the more directly you put yourself out there, the more directly it's asking someone out, the more cemented their rejection is, right? Because if it's just throwing out hints and they kind of shoot away, you can tell yourself like, oh, well, you know, it's whatever.

39:43And you're not hurt. Yeah. But if you go and you say, hey, I'm interested in you. And they go, I'm not interested in you. It's like, oh, and now I know that for real.

39:50Damien Haas:I've had great interactions with people when I've just been like forthright where it's just like, hey, I think you're really attractive and I'm interested in you. Would you like to go, you know, do this something sometime? And, like, not like I've never been rejected before, but I'm saying if the person is at all interested, that's very, like, oh, my God, it's so refreshing. Like, that was really direct. And I was like, thank you. Yep, that's. Yeah. It's sometimes called, like, the tiz riz where you're just like. It is. It's like, this is how I feel. And then someone's like, oh, shit. Like, cool.

40:19Damien Haas:Nice. Throwing a ball at her is so funny. It's very funny. And, I mean, that's a great opener for a conversation. You just walk over and you'd be like, you didn't catch it. Girl, keep up. Oh, my God, are you okay? I saw that that guy threw that at you. That was me. I did that. I was aiming for it. Well, it looks like you need a little less on how to catch. Why don't we hang?

40:50Comments. So I jumped in my car. Damn, up until that point, I was picturing you in, like, eighth grade. Yeah. Yeah. You're driving a car. I did so too, especially P.E. Yeah. Someone said, she might have forgiven you for hitting her with the ball, but not for running away. Dude, you're screwed. Someone said, LOL, I hit my crush twice with a football and soccer ball totally by accident. Both times the ball hit her in the head. It was terrible when it occurred, but she is now my girlfriend. So all is good. Just make sure to apologize to her. Someone said, my very concussed girlfriend. Someone said, 2029, married to her with two kids.

41:25Placing that bet now. That's possible. It's a little too soon. Yeah. He ran away. Yeah. He ran away and then did this weird Taco Bell lie that doesn't really add up. You lied to your mom, actually. I think what's most important is that your mom doesn't respect you anymore. I went through the drive-thru and I got jalapenos and I put them all over my eyes and I came back. It's like, you don't even know how to eat Taco Bell? Give me your license. You can't drive.

41:49Damien Haas:She's like, hon, jalapenos are an extra 49 cents and we have them at home. You don't know how to use your money anymore. You lose your car privileges. You lose your car privileges. Oh, my God. I got hit in the face with a tennis ball once by my best friend, and I watched it happen. We were trying to collect the tennis balls after playing, and so he, like, hit it back toward me, and I just watched. And I was like, oh, shit, it's coming right from my face, and the teeth hit me right in the mouth. Yeah. You don't make it through school without getting just rocked. I was walking at UCLA. It was an awful day.

42:20I had a really hot chai latte in my hand, and a frisbee hit me so big.

42:29And I, when I tell you, I was so upset. I went, who the fuck are you two little children boys playing frisbee while we all had schoolwork? I was stressed. I was mad. My chai latte went flying.

42:48Damien Haas:Sure. Did it hit the chai latte or did it hit my face? And I just. I think the impact is probably enough that you're like in shock. You dropped the. We're just like hanging out. I was like, it's not a Saturday, you dumb two fucks. It's a Tuesday. And we all have school. I was so pissed. Getting hit by a frisbee is rough. I can't. That's hard. But do you mind where? What is like eyebrow or like what was. Like right. You know, like through flat. No, it was like right here. You like to think that you were yelling and then you started crying. You were like, how dare you? No, I started crying. I was like, I'm fine.

43:24It's okay. And then I started walking and I was talking to them. I left them and I was still talking. I'm going, who are you? Do you realize that's those kids' like stand by me moment?

43:39They're going to meet up 20 years from now and be like, remember when we hit that girl?

43:43Damien Haas:That girl looks stressed. Remember when we were really stressed? Yeah, before that, you didn't even like theater. and you get hit and you're just like, and your whole life is different. It's like, just hits your brain just the right way. You're like, I feel like there's Starkid. That's so funny. Damn. That's awful. My friends and I, realizing this is crazy, we used to just throw rocks at each other. It's crazy, huh? It was Arizona and there was just like rocks everywhere and we were bored, so we're just throwing rocks at each other. It's like a game that grows out of the ground. We're throwing like rocks at each other.

44:18When I say it again And I did get rocked I got rocked In the fucking forehead By one of these rocks

44:23Damien Haas:You turned out so well For every circumstance In your life Like yeah We did something with rocks I was home school They got made fun for dancing And you're like The most well adjusted person I've ever met Also drowned Yeah I drowned Twice The elements got me Yeah we used to just Throw rocks Water That's all we had So we'd throw rocks At each other Thank god kids have The internet now Cool Actually yeah That was loaded We throw different kinds of rocks now. Dwayne Johnson, get on up here. We throw upvotes at each other now. Yeah, back to Reddit. Yeah. All right, our next story comes from Am I the Asshole.

44:57Am I the Asshole for telling my daughter that life isn't high school, and if it was, she would be the loser now?

45:04Damien Haas:Ooh. Calling your daughter a loser is rough. Guys, let's hear him out. Let's hear him out. Sounds like one of those tough love conversations that you're like, this will set them straight, and you're like, you're going to give them a complex. Okay. My daughter is 24, Kelly. Get it fixed. And my younger daughter is 23, Sarah. They both had very different high school experiences. Kelly was very social and in different sports. Sarah was very academic and had a small group of friends. I'm so sorry. Can you go back to which one's which again? So Kelly is the 24-year-old daughter. Sarah is the 23-year-old daughter.

45:38Okay, cool. Thank you. Okay. Kelly was the one who was popular and very social and did different sports in high school. Kelly got a sports scholarship for college, but soon dropped out of college after she failed multiple classes. She basically partied and did her sport and nothing else. Sarah went on to finish her degree and is doing well in life. Kelly has a jealousy issue, and I have talked with her before about it. She is never happy when Sarah has an accomplishment. Today, Sarah told us that she is going on a cruise for her vacation this year. Kelly always wanted to go on a cruise and couldn't afford it with her waiter job.

46:11In the car, she blew up saying that Sarah was a loser in high school, so it isn't fair that she has all this now. She went on for a bit when I had enough. I told her that life isn't like high school and if it was, she was the loser now. This started an argument and she called me a bitch.

46:30Yeah, it feels like everybody's kind of wrong.

46:35Damien Haas:I don't know their dynamic and I know you should never call your kid something like that because it really could stick with them But at the same time, you know, if you see them like not doing what they even wanted with their life and, you know, putting down their sibling for, you know, doing all the quote unquote right things. Like it's like you have to snap out of this complex. Like no matter how much you love someone, sometimes there is this aspect of like, hey, snap out of it. Like I don't know the right way to do it is. Yeah, it's almost like telling someone who's having a lot of anxiety to calm down.

47:08And you're like, how much is this helping? You know? Yeah. It's also the context of a parent. Because I'm like a friend. If you had a friend and your friend was like, yeah, well, you're the loser now. It's like that's a different context. A parent calling their child a loser.

47:24Damien Haas:But it was the other child calling that other child a loser too. She was doing it. It's not necessarily an eye for eye thing. And I don't know what it's like to be a parent. And, like, again, I've had some conversations that have stuck with me, you know, from parents. And, you know, I know my sister does. I feel like a lot of people do. and I still feel like overall my parents did a pretty damn good job. So one of those things can really stick with you. But if someone is really like in total burnout mode and they're calling someone else a loser, it's like, oh, is this what the thing is? Is this what's holding you back?

47:54Damien Haas:Is that you still think you deserve these other things without working for it? Well, then here's the reality. She does need a reality check. Yes. Right? Because she's sitting there going like, well, she doesn't deserve a good life because she wasn't cool in high school. Saying she's the loser now because she's a waiter is wrong. That is not cool. But it's like. Because it's like, I don't think that's fair to say she's a loser. She's a loser because of how she's treating her sister. That's what I think that person was trying to say. But to say you're a loser now because of your job and your living situation isn't cool.

48:28But we don't have that context. She didn't say why she's saying. We don't know why. She's saying, I told her that life isn't like high school. And if it was, she was the loser now. I mean, that still could be because of her attitude being like, I'm mad when people get good things. It's just, it's, I don't know. But it's definitely wild logic the sister is using of like, it's like you're 24 and you're still in high school. Like it's been over six years. You're in denial. Move on. Yeah. But the verdict was not the asshole. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, it's also tough. I'm not a parent either. So it's like I'm thinking of this from my perspective where I'm like, oh, I'm thinking about people I know who are like this.

49:15But I'm thinking more from a peer situation where I'm like, when I call them a loser, yeah. But I'm like, it feels different from like when you're saying it to someone your own age. But if like you have a kid and you call your kid a loser, that's rough. There's like inherently from the big jump, there's a power dynamic with your parents and there's like a want for approval. I think like yeah you calling me a loser versus like my parents there is a level of like oh I let him down and as my friend you're just like identifying me being acting like a loser rather than like your parent being like you lose like that's rough

49:51Damien Haas:yeah I'm thinking sorry go ahead I was just gonna say the only difference I see because you are I agree with you 100 % the only difference I see is specifically because she was saying my sister doesn't deserve these things because no one liked her in high school. Meanwhile, the sister did all these steps to earn the things that she has, and that's never a guarantee, but the fact that she is putting down her sister saying she does not deserve these things is what would maybe, I'm not a parent, but would maybe make me go like, okay, let's lock in. Loser's not the right word. Yeah, I think it's the, how hard she's going on her daughter is not necessarily my problem.

50:31I think she could say a lot of things in my eyes that I wouldn't have a problem with, like being like, hey, your attitude is embarrassing. Your jealousy is embarrassing. Like the fact that you think you deserve something in life because of your high school experience is entitled and embarrassing. I'm like, you are acting pathetic right now. Like all those things. But just calling someone a loser for their life is just so, that's so deep. That's so rough. Like it's in one of those in some of those ways that I'm like is as we go back to the earlier thing I'm like what result are you gonna get from yeah?

51:05Is that gonna just make it worse? Yeah, like she gonna hate her life even more because what you want is for her to like wake up and not Think this way and not your sister horribly But maybe it did work. I don't know Several comments go back and forth with like is it not the asshole is it everyone sucks here? The big deciding factor is that Kelly is a 24 year old adult, but she is still a daughter that's kind of where I'm getting hung up on like I don't know like I said in most situations that I can think of in my personal life this wouldn't be like a problem as much but you know it's the parent child dynamic one that I don't know I would never talk to my cats

51:46Damien Haas:like that no oh well I do how did you get their number? oh your cats yeah it's just so I was a little bit of a goof back in the day. Kind of bringing it back for the school episode. Someone said, not the asshole. Kelly is obviously behaving like a complete brat and I can only imagine how frustrated you must be. But I can guarantee that Kelly is going to remember her mother calling her a loser for the rest of her life. That's the sort of thing you just don't forget. My siblings can call me a loser and it's a water off a duck's back. Let my mom or dad say that and I would be devastated. Some things just hit differently coming from a parent.

52:21It's so real. That's just, yeah. My mom takes a deep breath at a weird time and it hits a different one. Sure. Like, it's like, it's just family. And already, Kelly, what she's saying is awful. We know that Kelly is so insecure about herself and life. Continuing that comment, there was probably a more constructive way for you to respond to Kelly. If I were you, I would definitely sit her down and have a conversation. Something expressing how you don't view her as a loser, but you worry about the way she views herself and the overt jealousy slash resentment she has towards her sister. Remind her that if she's so unhappy with her life, It's on her to fix it.

52:56And hating on her sister isn't going to solve anything. It's cheesy. But tell her that resentment is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Mainly, though, you just want to convey that you don't consider her a loser. Someone else said, everyone sucks here. I 100 % agree with what you told your daughter, but you missed a huge opportunity to ask her what her plans are to improve her life today. It was a perfect opportunity to push her towards college slash trade slash business ownership. We live in a time where college is not the only path to success. Even though your daughter is an adult, as a parent, I hope you're pushing her to find a path that will allow her to fulfill her goals.

53:31Kelly obviously is the asshole for her jealousy, being stuck in high school and calling you a bitch. I agree with that.

53:39Damien Haas:I would agree. It's also one of those things where we get the luxury of reading it in the future. That was not the right thing to call her. That was not the right way to do it. Like, yes, you should sit her down now. But in that moment, letting it build up, the kettle just starts to whistle a little bit. And you're just like, no, no, no, my sister's a loser. It doesn't deserve. That's that moment of just like, hey, guess what? I'm angry now. And it's a bummer because I'm sure she probably would want to take it back. I feel like it's a caveat that we never really cover on this show of like, calling someone an asshole doesn't mean that I'm like, you're a bad person.

54:12I'm like, oh, you're the asshole in this situation. But that just kind of means like, oh, like. It's kind of like you have the right of way. A little bit like, oh, you're being an asshole. Your morals and who you are at your core is asshole. That's not what we're saying when we say, am I the asshole? You're just being like, am I the one that did the mistake here? Because if you give, yeah, there's am I the devil? And then we're like, okay, we're saying that you're a bad person. But then with like, am I the asshole, we are kind of just being like, yeah, maybe don't do that again. Yeah, dick move.

54:44There's so many situations where we've deemed someone the asshole where I'm like, but I don't think you're a bad person by any means. I don't even think what you did is necessarily a bad thing. I think the saying of, am I the asshole in this situation? Right. It's like, yes, you are. That reddit name was taken. If someone was wearing the hat in this scene, it's you. Yeah, absolutely. Someone said, not the asshole. While it's never a good call to call your child a loser, you were using the word she used for her sister and in a conditional manner, so I'll give that a pass. I think it's probably closer to the truth that Sarah was never a loser.

55:16She was just playing a different game. She did what she was interested in, had close friends, and probably never wanted to be popular. Research has shown that siblings intentionally differentiate themselves from each other. I had five siblings, and we were all very different. My closest brother, only 14 months older, was on the chess club in high school. I could never beat him at home, so I never joined. In this case, since Kelly was older and liked sports, Sarah could never be as good as Kelly in sports. So she chose to focus on classwork. Kelly was a favorite with the coaches and Sarah with the teachers.

55:47That's really fascinating. Yeah, no, maybe it's like early competitive vibes where there's like only two of you and you're kind of like stepping into your first steps of like being like originality and you're like, I remember when my brother played guitar, I played piano. And when I picked up the guitar, he was like, no, this doesn't make sense. You can't play that too. And I thought that, he thought that, we all thought that. It was just like, no, we have our separate things. Yeah, it's true. I don't know why. That's interesting. I also feel like another thing I'd like to add is in this world today that we live in where everything is bullshit, I think it's like no 24-year-old is a loser for what they're doing.

56:24It's just so hard. I'm in my 30s, and I'm like, it's okay if even in your 30s you haven't figured it out because it's just so fucking hard to find those paths nowadays. It's why she's a loser is because she's being so toxic. Yeah. Yeah.

56:40Damien Haas:But. I think they're like, it was in a different Reddit stories that I watched with y 'all. I think it was like restaurant stories. But it was like Tommy brought up the point, or maybe it was Chance. It was like they're career waiters. Like it's not a loser thing to be a waiter. Like my sister dropped out of school for a while, like worked as a waiter, and then like came back to school to finish her degree. Now has her master's degree. But it was like working as a waiter for a lot of that time. And like it's a very viable way to do things. And now with the job market, we should be so lucky to be able to be a waiter if you don't have a job.

57:10Damien Haas:So that is not the loser thing. It's her putting her sister down based off of a high school status, which is already, to borrow your word, bullshit. And holding on to high school is embarrassing at a certain age. It gets embarrassing. It's like you've got to move on from that. Or you'll be the next Carrot Boy. Yeah. Boom. And you don't want to do that. And we're back. And we're back. Okay. Our next story. Another today I messed up. These are relatable to me more than any of the other categories. Well, because you mess up all the time. Fuck you. Not the oh. I got booed out of a dance circle. I get to say whatever I want.

57:46And you can.

57:48Damien Haas:Am I the asshole for saying my friend messes up when she really does all the time? I'm telling the truth. You walked towards that frisbee. You walked into it. Today I messed up by accidentally revealing my Reddit to one of my high school students. That's rough. That's rough. You cannot reveal that you're a Redditor. Embarrassing. During my second year at my current school, I, a 25-year-old man, was teaching a cover lesson. Normally, during a cover lesson, I'm a lot more relaxed since the work is usually simple and the kids know it's just trying to fill the hour. I got chatting with a couple of students about Reddit and talked about a post I'd made, which I thought was fairly ambiguous and buried and totally safe for work anyway.

58:29The students I was talking to were two lads, both around 14 or 15 and both pretty nice kids who I have a good relationship with. Little did I know, one of them would go all super sleuth and track down the post. It must have taken him ages since the post was at least four months old at this point and my username contained nothing related to anything I could be identified by. A couple of days later, I see one of the lads on the corridor and he says, what would you do if you were a girl for a day, sir? At first, I have no idea what he's talking about, but then his smirk helps the horror melt into my brain.

58:59A day or two previous, I had rather immaturely answered that question on Ask Reddit with finger blast myself into oblivion. After a mad dash across the school to the staff room, which is the only place in the school that I get signal, my Reddit account was no more. Dude. So he was talking about a post he'd made on his Reddit account. Yeah. They went and found his Reddit account where you can not only see the post you made but all the replies. All the replies you do to everything else. and he had answered the question, what would you do if you were a woman for a day? And he said, finger blast himself into oblivion.

59:34This is a teacher of teenage students.

59:39Damien Haas:That's a huge mistake. I don't want to laugh. I also, I want to, I want to, you can laugh. It's laughable. I'm not laughing back here. Oh, Art did do a good job with the set. You're right. We're looking at it. Finger blast himself. Into oblivion. What in the name of oblivion is that?

1:00:02Damien Haas:I would finger blast myself to Morrowind. Sorry, nerds out there. When he said, like, yeah, little did I know this 15-year-old would be super sleuth. Buddy, we live in a different age. I can't imagine going to school in this day and age with digital footprints being that big where you could find your teacher in a second. And you could find anything they've never done in a second. Like, could you imagine if we were teachers? Oh, God. They'd be able to find the most cringe shit of me. Can't. Yeah. What? I just can't. You can't. You can't. It's just like it is wild to live in a world where everything's online.

1:00:40So you can just find your teacher or your therapist or like you can find anybody out there and be like, this is what you posted back then. I almost feel like, though, it's so much for us. It's so much that we're kind of vulnerable. Like we can't be harmed because we've embarrassed ourselves in every kind of way. No, you're right Here's what I think is embarrassing about this over what we do. What part of this is embarrassing is that it was anonymous Yeah, he had anonymously answered this question He didn't say this publicly he said this in private Yeah, and then they found like that in the privacy of his home by himself He wrote this and that's what's rough It's different than if they found a video of him hanging out with his friends and he said that and he was like, I don't know when was night-11?

1:01:23And it was like, he was on camera, he knew. Let's do a realistic one. He did not know this was public.

1:01:30Damien Haas:Yeah, exactly. But like, this is, I can't get over the finger of us. It's a very funny answer. For your teacher to say. Yeah. What do you do now? Because even though he's like, oh, I deleted the account. It's like, okay, well, the kid knows. Almost guarantee you, we screenshotted it. Oh, yeah. Well, that's why I think we've talked about this before on episodes where we're like, gosh, are there HRs at schools? Because it's just such a walking HR violation. That one woman who found out that those boys were watching her. Oh my God, yeah. And she was in the bathtub. It's just weird. I don't know how teachers can really have social media.

1:02:14You call it the superintendent. How do you do that? How do you honestly get on a dating app? like even if you like just anything online like how do you put yourself out there in a vulnerable

1:02:25Damien Haas:way at all i think it's a matter of like keeping those boundaries you know and it's hard too because like i'm sure if you see your students every day it's almost like seeing a co-worker every day in a weird way but it's not so i was watching like the most recent reddit stories that came out as the time of filming this and there was the one with the teacher that was like uh yeah it turns out my husband's been cheating with this other person and multiple other people he likes redheads and now I have to tell all my students that like the man I love and have been gushing about, you know, why aren't I talking about him anymore?

1:02:54Damien Haas:Why aren't his pictures up? And I have to tell them. I'm like, yeah, and that's awful but like maybe you shouldn't have any part of your personal life with your students in the first place. I don't, it's got to be a hard line to walk. It's a tough job. I had a lot of actor teachers like acting coaches. No, but I just mean like I was in LA, like a lot of my math teachers were like also actors. And like, I remember like our one teacher was like, our science teacher like we saw an episode of like CSI with her on there. I was gonna say like a procedural. And we like just laughed at her so hard. Like, we were like, where's Mrs.

1:03:30Blah Blah Blah in the episode of CSI? Like we were like, we just thought it was so silly. When you're a kid, it's weird to see like your authority figures being human. Yes, it's like that single quote where it's like seeing a teacher outside is like seeing a dog on its high where it's like, I don't know.

1:03:46Damien Haas:Like wait, you do things? Like it's weird. I remember seeing a martial arts teacher because I took karate for like most of my youth. I remember seeing one of those teachers at Blockbuster and I was just like, my brain was like fried. I was like, I don't, what's going on here? You're not in your gi. Yeah, I think she actually was. I think she's coming from martial arts. Well then very easy to sponsor. I was like, why aren't you renting a kung fu movie? Yeah, I was like, this doesn't make sense. Our final story comes from Today I Messed Up. Again. Today I messed up by telling my kid to throat punch his bully at school.

1:04:24So did it just like stumble out of your mouth? Did you trip and say it? I accidentally said it. Actual fuck up happened yesterday at the dinner table after school. After effects of my fuck up have me currently at the ER getting my son checked out for anaphylactic shock.

1:04:43Damien Haas:He stuffed a shrimp down his throat.

1:05:13At this point, my kid said that he told the teacher and the lunchroom monitor who both know about this allergy, and they were able to intervene yesterday. I had a long talk with my kid about doing the right thing and telling the teacher and not letting this other kid make him lash out. Then we talked about the hard part. Now, I'm sure I'm going to generate some hate with some people here with what I told him next, and that's fine. We are allowed to have differing opinions, but I'm not apologizing to anyone for teaching my kid to stand up and defend himself. After we talked about doing the right thing and doing everything you can to avoid a bad situation I told him that sometimes you have to do the wrong thing to protect yourself And that should always be the absolute last resort when he asked what I meant I told him that kid as long as the bully is only taunting him with words Then he should always walk away But if he ever did try to put peanut butter on you Then you hit him as hard as you can with the side of your hand in the throat kind of like a throat chop Then you stop unless the bully keeps trying Fast forward to this very afternoon, and I get a call from the principal of the school saying that my son assaulted another student and needed to be picked up.

1:06:18I ask what happened, and of course, they won't talk about it over the phone. But I smiled a little bit because I already knew. I get to school, and I see my kid sitting in the office, tears streaming down his face. So I walk in, and the principal tries talking to me, but I blow right past her and ask my kid what happened. He says the bully had peanut butter on his fingers and he was threatening to wipe it on his face. Then my kid said that he did what I told him to do and hit the kid in the throat because he wiped peanut butter on his arm. I looked at his arm that was pretty swollen up and asked him if he was having trouble breathing.

1:06:51Kid said he was fine, just a little shaky. At this point, the principal interrupts with her, Mr. So-and-so, we can't just have kids hitting other children just because they had a little peanut butter wiped on them. Kids do this kind of thing. We're gonna have to suspend him for a few days. It's obvious to me that principal is clueless about the peanut allergy So I cut her off and asked my kid if he told the bully to stop before he hit the other kid He said yes I yelled at him several times that i'm allergic to peanut butter and told him to stop and he just kept acting like he was going to wipe it on me Now the principal has a shocked look on her face I asked to see the video from the cafeteria and sure as shit My kid can be seen and heard screaming and trying to back away from his bully At the point where it looks like the bully grabs my kid's arm My kid yells at the top of his little lungs, I told you to stop.

1:07:36Then he grabs the bully by the arm, pulls him towards himself, and executes the best clothesline I've ever seen anyone do and floors this kid. Then my kid sits down and starts crying in the middle of the cafeteria. At this point, I told the principal that if my kid isn't allowed back at school tomorrow, I was consulting with a lawyer about the attempted murder of my son. I also said that assuming he didn't have any other ill effects from this, I would be fine not pressing charges against the school and the bully since it looks like he may have already learned his lesson. Since I didn't get a response and it's been about a half an hour since the peanut butter was wiped on my kid's arm, I picked him up and left to take him to the ER to get checked out.

1:08:12About 10 minutes ago, I got a call from the school board superintendent saying that the school board has decided to let my kid come back to school tomorrow. Edit number one, kid has a clean bill of health from the hospital. Swelling is starting to go down after some epinephrine. Edit number two, kid got cookies and cream ice cream. Edit number three, I have been invited to a meeting with the school board Thursday afternoon. We'll update afterwards. Did the principal and them just not review the footage? I guess they're not thinking to do that.

1:08:40Damien Haas:So you haven't been to public school, Shane. I guess that's true. I went to elementary school and stuff. But wow, just to call him in and be like, yeah. Yeah, and then he asked for the footage, then they watch it, and then the principal's like, oh. They do like a football sidelines playback. Yes, they do 30 for 30. There you can see the kid. And then we saw the best clothesline we've ever seen in our lives. Holy moly, you got an arm on that kid. A scout for the NFL. Your kid's the real deal. He was the next linebacker. The height difference was like, and you're like, that's Heisman right there.

1:09:12Damien Haas:I mean. This is loaded. I mean, hey, the kid tried to murder him. Yeah, that is, people talk about peanut allergies like, yeah, serious, be careful. But like, if someone's doing that, that is attempted murder. And it doesn't matter if you're eight years old or not. Like, kids can really hurt other kids. Totally. If the teachers weren't doing anything about it, if he was screaming at the top of his lung as like, you know, violence is a last resort. And I maybe wouldn't have personally been like, yeah, just punch his throat. That one specific spot that's kind of hard to reach. Like, that's a specific way to be like, this is the one move you know.

1:09:48Oh, my God. It's like when Hamilton tells his kid, go challenge him to a duel. Ooh, shit. And then he challenges him to a duel. And there's, spoiler alert. Hamilton spoilers. If you haven't seen the show or history.

1:10:04Damien Haas:Sorry, you were saying? No, I'm just saying, like, violence is not the answer generally. But, like, that is defending your life. Right. A kid did say, like, I don't, I'm going to, a kid basically threatened his life. Yeah, like, oh, I forgot about the kid that said, I want to kill you. Yeah. And he also told the kid, like, if you wipe it on me, I'm going to die. And he's like, nuh-uh. And it's like, it doesn't matter at that point. Like, it's like, if you, you know, release the arrow from the bow and arrow straight at my brain, I'm going to die. Nuh-uh. Like, it doesn't matter. You've got to. Yeah, another kid said he didn't care and that he wanted him to die anyways.

1:10:37Oh, my God. But if I hear that, you see I'm in the corner. A frisbee comes flying out of the door. Hits that kid right in the face. And I'm like. Because he brought up all the things before. He's like, you've got to talk. You've got to find all the ways not to have this happen. Scream. Find an adult. Because in life, like as a, I'm not a parent, but as a parent, I feel like you're setting your kid up for like how life works. It's like in life, you can't just resort to violence or else you will end up in prison or like just sued or just horrible situations. Life is unfair and you have to play your cards right.

1:11:14And he's like, here's all these cards. And once your hand is out and then they're coming at you with peanut butter, the last move is the throat chop. Do you think you'd tell your kid just for the sake of conversation, do you think you'd tell your kid to run away or run to a teacher? That's what he said first though. He said that. That's what he said there. He said if you can get away, if like, but. Use your words, run away. And if you can't get a teacher there. If you absolutely can't, if you're in this situation, you got to do this. And I'm not being like, he should have done that. I just am like, how much, like, is it, this is why I can't even imagine parenting.

1:11:48It's like, do you like instill fight or flight? Like, what is better? Is running away or is fight? Like, it's so layered and like. I think also realistically in life, there's situations where both are. Yeah. Right? Right? Like, that's what's complicated. Yeah. And, like, it's just like with kids, like, you deal with situations that you just hope you don't deal with as much as an adult. But, like, kids are vicious. And it is good to, like, show your kid that you can stand up for yourself. I think it's just, like, a scary territory to get into.

1:12:16Damien Haas:It is because there isn't necessarily a right answer. And I think when it comes to consequences, fight usually has a lot more. Like, no one's going to be like, well, he proved he was the stronger kid. You did it. Like, there's always going to be something that comes with it. but when it comes to protecting your life or the lives of someone you know, like, it's just, yeah. It's tough. It's a tough reality. Comments, 10 out of 10 response. Your kid's life was legit in danger. That's the only way to defend himself after screaming and demanding to be left alone. Yeah, he could have died. No hate here.

1:12:51Personally, I would be proud of my son and probably reward him for defeating himself. Personally, this kid is bullying me at school and he's just looking in the mirror. Time to defeat my last enemy, myself. Personally, I would be proud of my son and probably reward him for defending himself. Someone said, teacher here, I'm missing the part where you fucked up. OP left a comment saying, honestly, I'm proud of him. I just don't know how to tell him without glorifying the fact that it had to come down to violence. Yeah. Not that I disagree with what he did. I just don't want that to be the point of this whole thing.

1:13:21Yeah. I agree with that. I would slow said. You don't want to teach that's how you solve things because all the worst people we know, like that's their core belief, right? It's like, oh, if I come into a roadblock, I hit people. It's like - Or for like your early processing brain to feel like it stopped when I did this. So I will do this when I ever feel that way. Where it's like, you have to remember, that kid's got to learn or everyone's got to learn. It's like, that was the last like -

1:13:49Damien Haas:Right. I think that's the way to do it. Like you're not glorifying that you did it. It's just like, hey, I want to reaffirm that you did the right thing at that point because you tried everything else first. And I'm like, you know, my parents put me in karate as a kid so that I could learn how to defend myself. And that was kind of the point where it's like, hey, if you ever had to, you at least know in your mind that you maybe can and have a better shot at that than just being like, I don't know what to do. For sure, for sure. This is like one of those, it should be rare that it's like it should come down to like, you're in a corner and they are grabbing you and they have peanut butter.

1:14:25I like that the teacher piped up in there and was like, I don't see a problem. Someone replied to OP saying, you could phrase it something like, I saw the video footage of what happened. You were really brave, stood up to the bully, and tried to resolve things peacefully. You only resorted to hitting him when it was absolutely necessary, and I'm proud of you for showing such restraint while you were scared. Put the emphasis on the behavioral pattern of restraint rather than the actual fighting part. I agree with that. And I'd say praise him for being like, you hit him, and then you stopped. Yeah.

1:14:51And that's what you're supposed to do. Like, you stop as soon as the danger is gone.

1:14:54Damien Haas:I'd say maybe don't sit down and cry after you got to hit a pose of some kind. Yeah. You got to hit a taunt. You got to be like, huh, you surely don't think you can defeat me. Round two goes to Benjamin.

1:15:13Damien Haas:And then you got to be like, carrot boy. That's hip hop. And then you take the peanut butter and go. I'm not allergic. I'll see you in hell, motherfucker. Which one of us brings to get first?

1:15:30Damien Haas:The kids on the ground just like, whoa. Yeah, motherfucker. Okay. Update. Update. Two days later, just left the meeting, which wasn't with the school board as I was led to believe on the phone. It was with the principal and a legal representative from the school board. I had a lawyer with me prior to this meeting, and we discussed what I wanted out of this meeting. My main concerns were making sure that there was a procedure in place to keep allergens away from my child, ensuring that this child has no ability to assault my child again. I also wanted to know how it was that the principal wasn't informed or aware of my child's allergy prior to trying to tell me that he was going to be suspended.

1:16:09Lawyers talked legal stuff for a little bit while I listened and the principal listened. Eventually, my turn to talk came and I simply explained points one and two above. I also asked why the principal didn't take time to assess the whole situation. The explanation I got was that she was told by the monitor that it was almond butter, not peanut butter, by the monitor So she really didn't look further into it Which I can understand her point, but it doesn't make things any better from my perspective So cut and dry stuff first The bully child has been moved to a different school Unfortunately, I don't have any legal recourse to find out which school he has been moved to And frankly, don't care Cafeteria monitor has been fired I didn't hear this at the meeting, but my son's teacher called last night after school and told me I asked why, and I was told that she was distracted by her phone when all of the commotion started, which explains why this was allowed to progress in the first place.

1:16:57Based on the recommendation of a friend, thanks, AX, and many of you via private message, I requested and was accommodated with an allergy-free table at our school. And I'm being told every other school in the district will be implementing one as well. where children with known allergies will eat lunch at and anyone who eats with them will have their lunches inspected by a teacher and a monitor to ensure no allergens are present. Now the weird stuff. The kid probably did wipe almond butter on my son. The kid's parents found out through a mutual friend where we lived and showed up at my house last night.

1:17:30The bully kid was very apologetic to me and asked if he could apologize to my son, which I said yes, of course, too. I invited parents and son into the living room and this child started crying and said he didn't mean to hurt my son. My son started crying as well and said he didn't want to hit him, and he apologized as well. Then the parents asked Bully Child to explain what happened. So apparently this kid likes peanut butter and almond butter and has almond butter on a sandwich and a little pack of peanut butter in his lunch for crackers. Bully Child thought it would be funny to continue the tormenting from the previous day and said something about putting peanut butter on my son and put a little bit on his fingers to make him think it was peanut butter.

1:18:06Then he wiped them off afterwards and got some of the almond butter from his sandwich, and that's what was on his hands when he grabbed my son's arms. I can only guess that there was a little peanut residue left on the bully's hands when he grabbed my son, which explains the subdued swelling reaction. I asked the kid if he knew what a peanut allergy actually does to a person, which, to the other parents' credit, they had actually made him read WebMD about it, and he explained the whole inability to breathe and some other things his mind grasped onto. So I took the opportunity to show this young man the EpiPen needle.

1:18:36We have one that we've had to use previously just for show and tell purposes. That you have to stick a person with it in an anaphylactic shock scenario. Then I gave him the trainer unit and showed him where it goes and how to press the button. Yes, I told him it was the trainer unit, but I really thought hard about not telling him. I ultimately decided against that because that wouldn't make me any better than the bully kid in front of me. When the button activated, I think he jumped about 15 feet in the air and he was obviously scared. Parents apologized again, as did the bully kid. I told all of them I was satisfied that a lesson was learned here and I wouldn't be pursuing any additional charges against the kid or his parents.

1:19:11Yeah, I know you can roast me for it with downvotes. As the parents and bully kid are leaving, my son runs right past us and gives the bully a hug and tells him that he hopes he isn't in too much trouble. I love this kid. This is so sweet. I was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which I, of course, declined. I want my options open to me in case something like this happens again. Until then, I'm letting this die. Well, I think that's a great, I think once you have that, pressing charges, like, I don't know. I guess I don't, this is a personal opinion, but in our country, like, the desire to sue, I think only makes, has made things worse often.

1:19:48Sometimes it's justified, but most of the time it's like, what are you doing?

1:19:52Damien Haas:I've only seen situations that make sense. There was one recently where, like, an aunt, like, broke her arm because of, like, a 10-year-old nephew and is suing the 10-year-old nephew. And everyone's like, that's awful. The point was the insurance or the payments were so much that, like, because they had insurance, she had to sue so that insurance would pay her and not the family. If you're in desperate need of money because of a situation that was caused, I guess. But, like, in this situation, I don't think. But, I mean, this is best case scenario. I got to say, I'm shocked. Yeah. Because typically you'd expect a bully to not have parents who are down for teaching a lesson.

1:20:32Usually it's like, oh, and we're going to find out why you're a bully. Why? Yeah, yeah.

1:20:36Damien Haas:Yeah. But, no, I would feel like my head goes to, oh, shit, the parents. Yeah, you never know. Like, that's what's always so scary. So they found my house and showed up. I'm like, that's not what I thought. Because he also said, now the weird stuff. Every part of this he's been like, I know you guys are gonna be mad at me, but I taught my son self-defense And everyone's like, yeah, and he's like, you know hate me if you want down vote me But I'm not gonna sue the nice family. I'm like, what do you think? Like I think I know it's like now the weird stuff They came over and they're the bully learned a lesson They hugged and I thought it was kind of everything worked out.

1:21:07It's like that's weird We don't hug in my family just them showing up, but here's what I'm gonna end this episode with that ended very sweet Summer games not gonna end that way. That's the truth. It's kind of a drama

1:21:19Damien Haas:the superintendent from that last story didn't even show up to that meeting I'm gonna be showing up and making sure y 'all meet with some drama hell yeah alright thanks for watching check out Summer Games on the Pit and Games channels it's going for another week you gotta keep watching alright we'll see you next Saturday bye bye happy birthday if it's your birthday

1:21:49Thank you.