There are moments in life where we do something so stupid and dumb, that it makes us feel horrible about ourselves. In these moments, we stop and think–’oh wow, I’m an a**hole.’
From embarrassing ourselves in public to making someone feel bad, we always have that everlasting guilt in the back of our minds. That is, of course, if you’re a normal person with a guilty conscious. You could always be a sociopath who has no regard for anyone–and then, you’re just an a**hole anyway. Thanks to Reddit, we have the joy of reading the very moment people stopped and realized, ‘oh sh*t, I’m an a**hole.’
30.
My wife usually goes to bed earlier than I do. A few months ago I had to start reminding her to turn the TV in the living room off when she was done because it was still on when I came to bed. She said she didn’t forget, but it kept happening so I kept after her about it. Eventually she started questioning her memory. She thought she was losing it. I was kind of asshole about it.
A few weeks ago she was out of town and I was watching TV. I turned the TV off…and a minute later it came back on by itself. It turns out the power board is going out on it.
I called her immediately to apologize.
29.
Complaining how hot it is at work…to other people at work…that work in the direct heat…while I manage from my air conditioned office…
Once what I was saying hit me, I awkwardly just walked away knowing how much of an asshole I sounded like.
28.
I used to teach tennis to kids. They tend to goof around a lot and not be very good so we play a wide variety of games to make it more fun. Also often they try to imitate the pros (one handed backhands, trying to hit everything 100mph, etc) so it takes some reminders to get the fundamentals down.
One day at a tennis camp this kid came in laughing and joking around and would hit a weak 1 handed backhand into the net almost every shot. Keep in mind around this time it was popular for the kids to put their arms in their shirts and pretend they were like t-Rex’s or something. I kept encouraging him to use two hands and stop goofing off and he would kinda shrug me off or mutter something under his breath. This happened for about 20 minutes when finally I stopped him and said, “hey you’re not gonna get anything over the net if you don’t use two hands.” The kid firmly responded “I can’t!” And waved his amputated arm nub at me. I was mortified and gave him pretty much a pass to do whatever he wanted the rest of the week
27.
When she was about five, I was babysitting my niece, and I’d cooked her her favourite dinner (turkey dinosaurs, natch; she’s a kid of exceptional taste). She took one bite of one of them and told me she didn’t like it and she didn’t want to eat anymore. She was apparently going through a fussy-eating stage, but I didn’t have a lot else to feed her and it was getting too late for me to cook something else, so I went down the childhood bribery route: the ‘Oh well, you can’t have dessert until you eat your dinner’ pantomime.
Nothing. Just a blank stare.
So I upped my game. I started eating my dessert right in front of her, full of theatrical mmm-noises as I worked my way through my ice cream. ‘You can eat some too if you have your dinner,’ I said.
Nothing. Just a tiny little face of fury staring back at me.
That’s when I decided that I should probably give them a taste, thinking that I could make her think they were as delicious as I knew they would be. It turned out I had burned the fuck out of them. The bottoms were solid black and they were absolutely inedible.
We went and got her a Happy Meal.
26.
In jr. high, I was in the girl’s bathroom during lunch. So I waked out the stall and was washing my hands in the sink, and this boy walked out one of the stalls and started washing his hands. So I just looked at him like *wtf are you doing here* and I asked him “You know this is the girl’s bathroom, right?” To which *he* looked at me flustered and slowly said “…yeah?” I just shook my head and left.
Later on, I saw him in the cafeteria sitting with a bunch of girls. I really stared at his face…
I then realized that this boy was just a larger girl with very short hair and boyish features. I felt so so bad, the way I must have embarrassed that poor girl. I still remember this nearly a decade later.
25.
I’m training my new coworker and his nerves are getting to him so bad his hands are shaking. . I tell him to try to relax, we have a very easy, laid back job. This goes on for 2 weeks. Sloppy hand writing, telling him his production is sloppy, he needs to be more professional. Then last Friday I overhear him talking to a coworker about the neurological disorder he has that gives him trimmers and his medication helps but doesn’t make it go away. I’m an asshole.
24.
My first place after moving out was a top floor apartment. I bought a great sound system, cranked up the bass and played music pretty much anytime I was home.
My downstairs neighbor would frequently pound on my door and ask me to turn it down, which I did for awhile but I assumed she was just super-sensitive so I didn’t pay it much mind. After her 3rd visit in the space of two weeks I decided she was just an asshole who didn’t like hip-hop and felt the need to be all up in my business, and my tone with her became pretty rude.
I moved out a year later and my next place was in an apartment on the ground floor and guess what? My upstairs neighbor had a great sound system and the bass would penetrate every room I was in. No headphones, pillow or earplugs would block it out and one day, while I was raging about the noise inside my head an epiphany came to me:
My previous neighbor wasn’t the asshole, I was the asshole for not recognizing that bass travels downward and can be real source of noise pollution. This was a big step for me in becoming a bit more understanding of other people’s needs and a bit less selfish about my own, though I wish I could have apologized to my ex-neighbor for all the stress I caused.
23.
One morning at work an old friend came in to buy something and asked me if we were hiring. I told him to fill out an application. He said that it wasn’t for him but for his brother. I asked him which brother… completely forgetting one of his brothers had passed away a few years prior. I still feel like a total asshole for that.
22.
Several years ago one of my coworkers and I had switched shifts per my request so I could have a specific day off. The week of that shift, another coworker mentions to me that the coworker I had switched with’s mother had just died. The first thing I said was, “Oh no, she was supposed to work for me on Saturday.”
I’ll be regretting that one till my grave.
21.
I currently work as a delivery driver for a company that delivers pretty much everything from snacks, drinks, OTC meds, vape juices, and a bunch of other stuff, mainly geared toward college students, but not exclusively.
This poor girl ordered 2 pregnancy tests, plan b, ice cream, and a shot glass.
I delivered it, and when she signed for it, dumbass me said “Enjoy the rest of the night!”
The look on her face said she wanted to murder me…. I cringed HARD on my way back to the car and the entire rest of the shift…
Now i just say “Thanks! Take care!” to avoid continuously cringing for 3 straight months…
-Anonymous