'I apologize on behalf of my Dad': Children of Karens and Kevins share 20+ embarrassing stories

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Sep 13, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

It's easy to feel bad for servers and employees who have to deal with Karen customers on a regular basis, but not enough attention is given to the poor children of these unhinged people. They have to deal with that level of entitlement daily and overcome stomaching one embarrassing encounter after another. They probably feel sick every time they have to go anywhere with Mama Karen or Papa Kevin. Meanwhile, these kids are also spending every waking moment worried that one day, they might take on these characteristics and become their parents. That is, of course, if they haven't already modeled their behavior off of them.

According to this collection of stories, which were compiled from this r/AskReddit thread, there is some hope for these children who seem to have come out the other side of their adolescence unscathed and different from their toxic parents. That being said, they are forever haunted by the countless memories of their parents asking to speak with the manager.

Keep scrolling below for the full list of stories. When you're finished, feel free to check out these top mildly infuriating moments of the week!

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  • 01
    Footwear - Children of " I want to talk to your manager" parents, what has been your most embarassing experience?
    via Ben Wicks
  • 02
    Font - KKLante. We travelled alot when we were younger and would skip lines at the airport since we were kids. But now we were all in our early teens and my mom faked having a heart condition to skip the long line to get on the airplane. Flight attendant would have none of it and told us to go back to the end of the line. I still remember the smiles and looks of everyone there. 36.3k Share
    via u/Em367
  • 03
    Font - sk8erguysk8er. My mom has been this person regularly throughout my life but I do have one positive story with it. She and I went to eat at portillo's when I was a teenager and we sat in the back of the restaurant where it was more private so we can eat in peace. About 10 minutes into our meal two people come into the empty area and sit down two tables away from us. Turns out it was a manager and an employee that was getting written up.
    via u/Em367
  • 04
    Font - the manager was being a complete hat towards the employee criticizing and belittling them. My mom put down her food and walked over and started yelling at the manager for being such an she went on a rant about how and wrong it was of him to do this in front of the public two tables away from customers and really let him have it. She demanded the phone number of the manager above him and we left after she received it. I was pretty embarrassed at the time but as I got older I realized that
    via u/Em367
  • 05
    Font - curtisc-j Right so my mum and me went shopping, and she dropped a melon on the way out. She then claimed it was bruised and demanded a full refund. When she refused, she shouted at customer service and demanded the manager. I just sat there with a "O me now" expression on my face. After, one of the customer service employees gave me a chocolate bar, so 7yo me was happy. 24.7k Share
    via u/Em367
  • 06
    Font - pootermun I might be late but my dad once asked the guy at the verizon wireless store to give him his own Social Secuirity number because he asked for my dads. My dad walked out afterwards with some strangers SS number on a post it. I was a silent bystander because I really wanted my first phone. 22.3k Share
    via u/Em367
  • 07
    Font - Grilled Stuffed Dragon. My mother did this in restaurants nonstop growing up. She would demand to see the manager because my burger (which I asked for medium) had some pink in it. 22.2k Share
    via u/Em367
  • 08
    Font - o psychswot I was with my parents on vacation and the hotel put charges on the bill by accident. My mom marched to the front desk and demanded to see the manager. There was a long line, but she cut right in front of it. The manager wasn't very helpful, probably because she was. So my mom, went to all the other customers in line and told them that the hotel was a scam and they were ripping us off with fake charges. She made a scene. The hotel called the police and we were escorted off the
    via u/Em367
  • 09
    Font - lovelylayout. About once a month my dad gets and calls various customer service centers demanding stuff. Once he finally gets off the phone (frequently 45+ minutes later) he spends the next few days telling us all about how he slew the customer service dragon and boy people sure don't appreciate their customers nowadays blah blah blah. (No duh, dad, you're being an no one appreciates that.) If you've worked for DirecTV customer service any time since 1996, I apologize on behalf of my dad
    via u/Em367
  • 10
    Font - edit Another story for y'all: I also remembered one time McD's was having some kind of 2- for-1 breakfast sandwich Ideal going on where the total was about $3. He gets his breakfast, drives ~25 mins to work, realizes he's missing one of the sandwiches...and proceeds to call McD's customer support every evening after work for a week to complain about his wasted $1.50. They gave him apologies. They gave him coupons. But he just wanted to yell. 19.1k Share
    via u/Em367
  • 11
    Font - Deminla Before Value Village (Savers in the States I think) changed policies, she would cut tags to get discounts since the cashiers would basically make up whatever price they thought it would be, on the spot. If they high balled it, she would get a manager involved and I hated that. 15.6k Share
    via u/Em367
  • 12
    Font - P ohhellnoxd When I was a young child on a long distance flight my mother let me and my brother sleep on the floor. For safety reasons the flight attendants told my mother that we were not allowed to sleep on the floor. She started to argue with the flight attendants who then turned to the pilots. The pilots threatened to turn the plane around unless we get up from the floor but she continued to argue. The pilots anounced they were about to turn around because of my mother, so all the pas
    via u/Em367
  • 13
    Font - DataIsMyCopilot S Not the child, but I think this fits. I had this awful annoying af terrible neighbor who, because I'm a giant I was kind to. She asked me to come with her to dinner because it was her birthday, and I knew I was the only person on the planet who would go with her and goshdarnit it's her birthday how could I say no?
    via u/Em367
  • 14
    Font - So she and I went and we brought our kids (all girls, one mine, two hers). She makes her oldest do her math homework right there at the table. When the child asks her for help (mind you this is like third grade math) the mom says it's too hard. I end up helping.
    via u/Em367
  • 15
    Font - The waiter is just fine. He comes by and takes our orders. She is already acting weird but she always acted weird so I didn't think much of it. Waiter comes by again and asks if we need anything. She dismisses him and waves him off and tells him no. Then like 30 seconds later turns to me and is like "Can you believe how awful the waiter is? He won't even refill my drink!" and just goes on about all these "issues" that literally don't exist.
    via u/Em367
  • 16
    Font - I'm like "He just asked if you needed anything..." she cuts me off "I'm going to talk to the manager" Oh God.... She talks to the manager like this is the worst experience she's ever had in the history of her miserable existence. I'm in shock, her kids have their heads down. Mine is oblivious, lol.
    via u/Em367
  • 17
    Font - The manager gives her like half off the meal. Oh and the kicker? "That's my half so you only need to pay the rest!" OH GEE THANKS!! I left a big tip and a note on my receipt telling them the waiter was great and apologizing for the complaints that were totally not warranted. It was the second-most embarrassing restaurant experience of my life. 13.1k Share
    via u/Em367
  • 18
    Font - solus-esse-nolo My Mum demanded to see a café's hygiene certificate when she saw an employee go from cutting cake in the kitchen to handling money at the till, even though the real problem is going the other way. 12.9k ↓ Share
    via u/Em367
  • 19
    Font - butchyeugene (S My mother is A nightmare with customer service... even with the fact that I her daughter works in customer service and deals with people like her on the daily So many incidents stick out in my mind but one that really embarrassed me was we were at Walmart
    via u/Em367
  • 20
    Font - The stocker was struggling and dropped their price scanner thing on the ground. I was going to go help her gather her things she was struggling with when my mom came out like a bat out of and yelled "YOU KNOW YOU SHOULD PICK THAT UP PEOPLE COULD TRIP" and then she darted off with the cart
    via u/Em367
  • 21
    Font - I was so embarrassed I just walked away in shame, and when I pointed it out to my mom the girl dropped it on accident she said "WELL SHE SHOULD BE MORE CAREFUL" K.... 12.9k Share
    via u/Em367
  • 22
    Font - n8spear 23 3 S My mom used to run restaurants. My step father used to be a chef in high end restaurants and is the kind of guy who expects to be treated better than he is currently being treated, regardless of whatever that treatment is. They are not fun to go out to eat with. The "most embarrassing experience" is actually their most embarrassing experience, one where I Embarrassed them.
    via u/Em367
  • 23
    Font - My wife and I pride ourselves on being a "relief" table when we go out to eat. Both of us have been servers, and there's always the counterpoint to the difficult table, that's us. Barring horrible service or bad food, we are super easy customers, tip well, and try to have a good time with our server. Furthermore, we just treat people nicely. So you can imagine our distain when my parents act like they're royalty at a dinner service.
    via u/Em367
  • 24
    Font - My wife and I went out to dinner with them. They were being particularly tough. My mom was acting like she was Gordon Ramsey analyzing the business, critiquing everything down to the amount of bubbles in her seltzer ("looks like it's time to change the CO2") My step dad was getting more and more heated over stupid things like the amount of ice in his drink and how the waitress didn't top off his water, that he was barely sipping on, fast enough.
    via u/Em367
  • 25
    Font - It came to a head when my step father ordered a steak medium well, it came back medium well, and for some reason he changed his mind that he wanted it medium rare while it was cooking and they didn't read his mind, so he gave attitude, as did my mom. They jumped really quickly to demanding free stuff.
    via u/Em367
  • 26
    Font - I'm an adult and this may be the first time they realized this. I interrupted in front of the server and said something like "really? This is what you're doing. That's what you ordered..." I turned to the server and said "We do not need anything comped." I then pulled out my wallet and handed her my card and said "this is for the bill. We'll happily wrap up with what we have here. I'm very sorry for their behavior, you're doing great." Then the line that stung them so deep they still brin
    via u/Em367
  • 27
    Font - They turned red, the server walked away, I looked down and cut my steak, and didn't say a word. They were so flabbergasted that the meal was virtually silent except me asking my step father how his steak was a few minutes later. I signed the check, gave a big tip, and we walked out and said goodbyes. They've been nicer to servers each time that we've gone out since. Edit: Wow. First gold. Thanks! 12.8k Share :
    via u/Em367
  • 28
    Font - [deleted] My dad just loved to argue, and he loved a deal. We were shopping in a department store, and I found a pair of pants I was mildly interested in. The pants were tagged at (let's say) $40, and the sign on the rack was "All pants $25". I was mildly interested, I asked the salesclerk if they had them in my size, the clerk said "those aren't supposed to be on that rack".
    via u/Em367
  • 29
    Font - My dad lost his and insisted on getting the pants for $25, and started asking for a courtesy discount on top of that. Escalated to the floor manager and the store manager. Meanwhile, I didn't want the pants. They were ok pants I guess, nothing awesome, I just didn't care very much about them. I was more than happy to move on. I told my dad I didn't want the pants, by then he didn't care about what I wanted, he wanted the pants at the better price.
    via u/Em367
  • 30
    Font - Eventually after like an hour of arguing the store manager said "we're not giving you the pants at that price. Take them or leave them at $40". So we left them. Which suited me just fine, because I didn't want the pants. 12.5k Share
    via u/Em367

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customer service karens entitled parents server karen-customer askreddit restaurant karens in the wild entitled reddit thread Reddit funny karen children entitled people
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