A lot of us sometimes make bad choices when it comes to dating. We’re desperate, or lonely, or sad, and we end up hooking up with someone who we know deep down probably isn’t great for us, but they fill some kind of emotional void for a little while.

It must be tough for kids to see their parents go through this if their folks are separated. And some are definitely worse than others.

People on AskReddit shared their depressing stories.

1. A total POS.

“My mom dated an alcoholic. He beat her right in front of me and my brother. One time she was taking a shower, and he grabbed her by the hair and threw her outside when she was wet and naked. Everyone could see and it was humiliating to watch. I couldn’t do anything. He was bigger and stronger than my brother and I. She stayed with this abusive asshole for like 4 years. I became traumatized and I hate alcohol.

Alcohol scares me so much, but lately I’ve been trying to get over it. Alcohol shouldn’t scare me forever. I’ve been letting my bf drink and I’ve freaked out a couple times, but the past couple days I’ve been getting more comfortable around him drinking. It’s not fair to freak out when he drinks just because of bad experience. He’s not the same guy. He won’t hurt me.”

2. What a psycho.

“My dad dated a lady who made us take Benadryl all the time so we would sleep the weekends we had to spend with him. Well one of the side effects of too much Benadryl is hallucinations. So I would flip shit and say that I saw spiders everywhere and was afraid to shower cause I legit saw spiders coming out of the shower head. She would then hold me under and force me to shower while I was freaking the fuck out.”

3. Just a giant douche.

“My mom dated a guy named Mike, he had this weird rule that when he called the house (this is 1997-98 before we had caller ID) he would let it ring twice, hang up and call again when we would be good to answer it. I was probably 10 during this, I remember not liking him and would answer the phone first ring every time just to piss him off. He wasn’t a bad guy, just a giant douche.”

4. Happening right now.

“Currently happening, my Mom is dating a drug addicted, jobless, loser, who lost custody of his daughter years back. He’s been to prison twice and doesn’t ever care to clean himself up. He’s abused her, hit her, stolen from her, and even got her pregnant and is now why I have a 11 month old half-sister. He steals her bank cards all the time and takes her car out at night to go and take stuff off the side of the road to buy a bunch of junk.

Our whole house, side yard, and back yard look like a junkyard of all of the stuff he’s stolen, gathered from the road, or bought with her money, I’m not exaggerating either it’s very bad. They’ve been together for over two years and it makes me angry and sad at the same time to know my Mom is with him. She’s smart, has a 8-6 job, and went to college for 4 years just to end up barely being able to afford the water and electric bills. I wish she would kick him out, he deserves to be arrested for doing heroin and coke in our backyard with his friends he brings over without notice.”

5. Stepdad.

“Currently my stepdad.

Beats my mom, threatens to kill her.

Regularly threatens to kill me.

Comes into my room while I’m at work and throws all my clothes in the floor and sometimes he takes a shit on my bed.

Held my mom at gunpoint and threatened to rape my sister.

My mom believes he’s a good guy because he hates black people just like she does, so therefore there’s still good in him.

I have 8 brothers and sisters, all moved out when they could. Now it’s my turn, in three weeks I’ll be moved out. Six years of this bullshit.

Everyone has cut ties with them, I’m next in line.

Since I’ve stayed the longest, the affects it’s had on me are more noticeable. I was super happy-go-lucky, always had a smile, and was always trying to do my best in life, cheering strangers up, helping out everyone I could.

Now I rarely smile, unless my girlfriend makes me laugh or I’m just being held by her. I definitely don’t help anyone anymore, and have a constant doom and gloom attitude.

I’m hoping to change for the better when I move out, will take some time, but I’m getting very close to 30. So I’m worried that I’ll always be this way.”

6. Wow, that’s weird.

“A a semi-famous at the time Elvis impersonator/singer for a band that had some success and he’s incredibly cocky and arrogant. My mom ended up marrying him but they live in different states and only see one another here and there. It turned out to be a marriage of convenience after a few years.”

7. Lazy SOB.

“He lost his job 2 weeks after they got married, and never found another one, so he laid around the house watching TV. The most common words he said to me were to go away. The living room was his space, and he didn’t want me in it when he was watching baseball, which was most of the time. Some times when my mom was gone, he’d scream at me, top of his lungs, I was 8.

He didn’t clean, and he cooked for me twice, burnt hot dogs, and he acted like he was doing me a huge favor serving me shitty pan-burnt hot dogs.

His son visited every other weekend and I had to share a bedroom with him, even though I begged them to put me somewhere else. He would wait for me to fall asleep and try to suffocate me with bed sheets, pillows, or his hands.”

8. Totally stable.

“This woman brought a loaded pistol to a party my dad was at because she couldn’t get in contact with him (this was before cell phones).”

9. Heartbreaking.

“My mother dated this guy from when I was 8 till about 15. He was always a bit of a weirdo, but we never lived with him and I rarely saw him so it never really bothered me. However, a few months before they got divorced he started getting really into alcohol, drank every night my mom came over, said she was his settle, said he would kill himself and refused to get help, yelled at her that she was the reason his life was so horrible (He was 45 with no kids, never married.

My mom was 50 with 2 kids and didn’t want to get married and she made that very clear from the start). She would come home crying every night and lil 15 year old me had to console her since my brother long moved out. She even confessed to me one night that she wish he would just hit her already so she would feel like she had a clear out. She was terrified of him and she felt like she was reliving her marriage which was very similar. It was heartbreaking watching her go through that.

I felt so helpless because all I could do was tell her to leave him but she refused. Thankfully though, with a lot of talking from my brother, me, and my aunt she left him and now she’s with a man now that treats her very well which I am very happy about.”

10. A bunch of good ones.

“My 5th grade teacher. My mom also worked at the school so all the kids knew her. It was awkward.

My best friends dad when he was separating from his wife. I don’t know how much dating happened but there was definitely something going on between them.

Also some creepy dude she met online who would only sleep with all the lights on and once threatened me when he thought I told my mom what her birthday gift was. Eventually she had to call the police on him when he wouldn’t stop trying to get into our house.

Those were the worst but every single one of them was bad in some way. I think all the sane dudes knew to stay away from my mom. Lol”

11. Still in love with him…for some reason…

“My mom dated this one guy for 5 plus years, she was already a bad parent but with him she acted like like we didn’t exist. They would argue and have sex till like 1 am most nights so I would go to school very tired. He didn’t even acknowledge us and she didn’t care, the only time he did he would snitch on me for small things.

The few times she was home they had her door locked and sometimes I would try to talk to her because I was being bullied and she didn’t find out till years later and at that time I had been coping with never seeing my dad and the door was locked so I’d just go off and cry. I confronted her about it once and she said he was the one who locked the door, but like still bitch I’m your kid.

He was also cheating on her and he pretty much beat her one day and she made me call the police, they ‘broke up’ again after that. That all happened like 2 years ago. This was all while I was like a preteen and up and I was actually trying to bond with my mom. I still don’t really have a connection with her because of him and dont love her. He still comes over to her house and spends the night.

Also he used to live off of her, hes never had a real job, everyone sees him as a saint and I still get questioned as of to why I dont like him. Everyone was mad at me when I was 14 because he came over to my moms house months after he beat her and he said hi to me and I said eew, my mom was pissed.

I now tell her to her face shes bad at picking men and that shes never going to be happy if she keeps picking homeless abusive men.

Shes still in love with him, according to her.”

12. Ronnie the carny.

“Ronnie. He was a carny that my mother met at the local fair….whirlwind relationship that didn’t last long, he didn’t appreciate being dumped. He broke into the basement of out house late at night and used a set of tires and gasoline to start a fire under the stairs……I woke up in a house fire. I taught my kids to tie their shoes and never trust a carny.”

13. Let’s talk about Loretta.

“Loretta.

My dad is an alcoholic and all around crappy person so the fact that he found someone at all was amazing. I adored her at first then the crazy started to come out. She’s french and had 2 preteen boys at the time. He stopped giving my mom money for us because he “had” to support her and her kids and complained about it constantly as if he didn’t have a choice and he hated those boys.

She did a lot of shady shit to my dad which didn’t bug me but then she was drunk one night and started texting my mom saying that she needs to straighten out my dad because he’s abusive and horrible (not wrong). My mom responded with something like he’s not my responsibility but you should seek proper help if it’s that bad to which Loretta lost her shit. Calling my mom a cunt and to stay away from her man?

My mom went through YEARS of crazy with my dad and they were finally at a place where they could be friends/family without drama and this crazy asshole comes in stirring shit. She was horrid. The woman he’s with now is significantly better, they both drink together but don’t seem to be hateful drunks.”

14. Awful.

“My mom’s first boyfriend after she left my dad ended up molesting me when I was 7. Her next boyfriend turned out to be gay and eventually went to prison for molesting little boys. The one after that got drunk one night and held a gun to her face. She stopped dating for 6 years after that one… it’s hard to pick a favorite from that list.”

15. Oh, it got worse…

“My dad was engaged to this extremely religious woman who believed firmly that the apocalypse was coming and most of the family would burn in hell. I didn’t think it could get worse, but then he was at Walmart and found a drug-addicted prostitute that he replaced her with and started smoking with her and doing crystal meth. It was like a 180 in the worst possible direction.

He’s single now and it’s much better.”

Buh, that was ROUGH.

What do you think? Have any stories like this?

Share them in the comments!