Students share embarrassing stories about their parents

Teenagers are adept at finding their parents’ faults and shortcomings, whether it’s parent’s technological struggles or a cringe worthy talent for joke-telling. Sometimes, however, parents exceed the acceptable limit for a “normal parent” and then they become weird parents.

Junior Zubin Abraham-Ahmed labels his parents as “very weird.” There’s one story that Abraham-Ahmed says demonstrates his parents’ polar personalities. “There was this one time in, I want to say fourth grade, and there was this kid who was kind of bullying me,” he said.

One time, the two boys got into a fight and Abraham-Ahmed’s parents had two very different reactions when they heard about what their son had done. “My dad scolded me, ‘What were you thinking? That’s not okay,’” Abraham-Ahmed said.

His mom’s approach was a bit more unusual. “She closed the door to my room and looked me sternly in the face. Then she put out her hand in a high five, because she hates this kid. She [was] like, ‘Come on, give me a high five.’

“I give her a high five. I’m really confused now. And then she says, ‘Don’t tell your father I did that, but did you break the skin?’ I said no, and she was like, ‘Damn it,’” he said.

Sophomore A.J. Rossbach agrees that her parents aren’t quite normal. While many parents struggle with technology, her mom gets really into it. Sometimes she communicates with Rossbach over text, using only emojis.

“Sometimes when she picks me up from school, she parks by the tool library, so then she’ll text me an emoji of a car, then an arrow, then a hammer and then a book. That’s pretty nice emoji-ing for a parent,” Rossbach said.

Sophomore Alma Zimberoff’s dad also likes to be creative with language and has several strange sayings. For example, sometimes on Wednesday mornings, he greets his family with the phrase ‘Welcome to Wednesday, time to make friends day!’

Zimberoff’s dad might seem odd, but her mom has her quirks too. Zimberoff says that her mom enjoys nature and hiking to an extreme. One time, this love had “terrifying” consequences.

They were on vacation in Hawaii and her mom was “really intent on finding molten lava,” and willing to do almost anything. Their search lead them to a path marked with a “No trespassing” sign. Despite the warning, Zimberoff’s mother decided to continue. “I counted ten total ‘No trespassing’ signs on this path,” Zimberoff said.

After they had been walking on the path for a while, events took a turn for the worse. “This old woman comes out of her house with a cane and starts screaming at us that we have to leave,” Zimberoff said. After that, they left the property very slowly, not to spite the woman, but in a questionable attempt to calm her down.

Every parent has their share of strange and sometimes embarrassing habits, but next time you’re inwardly complaining about your parents weirdness, just be glad they don’t say “Welcome to Wednesday, time to make friends day!”

By Anna Inghram