Okay, confession time. I once had a huge meltdown on my birthday . Oh, yeah! I can assure you it wasn’t one of my finest hours. But if that’s the worst that happens to me on my special day, I’ll take it, hehe.
However, it seems that other people have had a much harder time on their birthday, and they’re more than happy to share their horror stories with the rest of us. I’ve compiled a list of the best of the worst below, so check it out and have a good laugh or cry.
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This Ill-Timed Announcement
“My parents decided to use my 17th birthday to announce they were getting divorced.”
OMG, what? That’s definitely not the right time to do that. I sincerely feel so bad for this person here. They could have at least waited a day or two.
This Sad State Of Affairs
“Got told my gf (sp) at the time wanted a break, then she went out and locked me out of my house and slept with the dude she saw when she was out in my own bed. It was my 20th birthday.”
Oh, man! That’s a tough break
This Failed Surprise
Reddit user Xenomemphate shared that on his 21st birthday, his girlfriend wanted to surprise him and planned a party. The only issue was that nobody but her showed up.
Aww, that’s so sad. Am I right? It reminds me of that time I invited my cousin to my birthday party, and he never showed up. I was crushed.
This Sad Mom
“I was crushed when my daughter turned one. I went to a mommy-and-me group at the time and thought my kids and myself (sp) had some friends. I invited everyone, got all the RSVPs back. The day of, no one came. No one called. I bawled. I’m just glad she will have no memory of this.”
I hate it when people do that.
This Sad Good-bye
“Last year our family dog had to be put to sleep on my birthday. His stomach flipped the week before and caused irreparable damage. He’d already had it turn a few years ago. My mum went to pick him up and the vet told her he wasn’t going to recover and was in pain. I got a phone call on my way to work where she was distraught. Thankfully my manager was incredible and let me use a sick day to go home. I had to arrange the home visit to put him to sleep because my mum couldn’t do it.
I called my dad to tell him (my parents are divorced and he hadn’t seen the dog in years). I arranged everything so he could be brought home and go to sleep peacefully with me, my mum, and my sister. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. My birthday is two weeks before Christmas and I’d already got him a present. This big goofball got me through my parents’ divorce and the hardest breakup I’ve been through. I’m in my late twenties and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.”
Oh, my goodness. No!
These Crappy Birthdays
“This jogged not one, but two stories for me!
This happened this year. For my birthday, my parents sent me a check for 32 cents from a stock they bought. The stamp literally cost more. For my brother’s birthday, they got him an MP3 player, loaded with 12GB of music. I’m in my 30’s and financially stable, so I didn’t care. My brother is a sociopath who has been in and out of prison and mental institutions most of his life.
When I was 20, my parents gave me a $100 to the grocery store. I was a broke college kid, so this was actually a thoughtful and useful gift. …Then they took it and went shopping for themselves.”
Wow! I have no words.
This Short-Changed Idea
“Oh man, my birthday is right before Christmas, so I always got the single-gift-as-two-gifts BS, while both my brothers always got two separate things. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal if my combo gift was bigger than what the boys got, but it never was. I’d just get one less gift than my siblings every year. Did wonders for my mental health, I tell ya what.”
Aww, that sucks.
This Sad Story
“Found out my brothers (sp) best friend who was 16 passed away in a car accident at my 21st birthday party with my family. Hearing my brother cry that night literally broke my heart.”
OMG, that must’ve been so hard to process.
This Sick Joke
“High school one year, my birthday fell on Thanksgiving. It was my birthday AND thanksgiving and my boyfriend dumped me. Through text. Using a knock knock jokeEdit: The joke was as follows
Him: Knock Knock
Me: Who’s there?
Him: Single
Me: Single who?
Him: Single you.
He was not very clever, but he did tell the whole school about it proudly.”
Okay, what a jerk. Am I right?
This Final Act Of Contempt
“My stepfather died a few days before my birthday. His funeral was on my 18th birthday. It was his final act of contempt.”
– u/Pien85
Yikes! That does not sound like a good week and I’m so sorry for this person.
This Horrible Parenting Moment
“When I was very young, my dad made some food for me but he hid chilli’s inside it which he knew that I’m allergic to and found it funny to mess with people’s food. .. well judging by the way he was encouraging me to try it, I knew something was up and refused to eat. This made him furious. He stormed upstairs and grabbed all of my unwrapped birthday presents and threw them downstairs. He proceeded to stamp and crush every single one of them. Then the next day he made me call every person who bought me these gifts and tell them that I was stupid and broke them. It was humiliating.”
OMG, what? That’s so horrible, no?
This Celebration Fail
“I can’t remember my exact age, but It was in my early teens. I always liked birthdays, like most kids do. I was in class on my birthday, and my best friend at the time told our teacher that it was my birthday. The teacher decides that our whole class was gonna sing for me. They didn’t. The only people that sang were my teacher and my best friend. I still hate when people sing for me, even if it was 5-7 years ago. (It was a class with 20 people in it).”
That must’ve been crappy to sit through.
This Bad Luck
“Back a while ago when I was turning 21 I had both strep throat and mono at the same time. Due to the meds I couldn’t drink. On top of that, the morning of my 21st birthday I walked out to the garage and found the family dog has died. He was ill but it wasn’t expected that he would have died that day and I was home alone when I found him. Flash forward to my 32nd birthday and my mom is texting me while I am out to dinner with my wife… and the new dog that was around 8 or 9 years old was dying randomly and eventually died like half an hour later. Apparently, my birthday is Friday the 13th for dogs.”
Wow!
This World Event
“9/11. I mean, that wasn’t my worst birthday personally, but it’s kinda hard to argue that it’s the suckiest thing that happened on my birthday.”
I had one of the scariest nights of my life the night before 9/11 (unrelated) so I can sympathize with this person here.
This Failed Paris Trip
“Oh man, I went to Paris last year around my birthday to perform there in theatre. It was my first time in Paris, I brought my girlfriend with me and it was my first time performing on some big theatre festival. Turns out the festival didn’t have any audience comming, I broke my toe accidentaly kicking some concrete block while walking to meet my girlfriend near Centre Pompidou, where we got into a huge fight and we pretty much broke up. I think Paris hates me.”
I guess it’s safe to say this person really wants to forget Paris.
This Misguided Gift
“When I was away at college, my parents sent me a birthday card. They put in a note that my aunt had terminal cancer and was going to die in the next month or two. Happy Birthday! Your aunt is going to die soon.”
– u/namkap
Wow! Why do people do that?
This Tough Call
“I was enlisted into the military for mandatory service.”
Oh, boy! I don’t envy this person at all. Not only did they not have a choice in the matter, but this happened on their birthday. That’s a tough call, no?
These Rough Events
“Not mine, but my sisters (hope that’s okay since I was there for these). On her 13th birthday (so she was officially a teen, and was really excited about it) we had to go to my great-grandmother’s house, help her set up to have a sort of estate sale/auction, then us kids had to stay hidden in one of the bedrooms of the house and not come out for 8 hours (food was brought to us)
On her 16th birthday (again, one she was excited for) our mom told us last minute we were visiting a friend of hers. Okay, no big deal. Only friend’s eldest son was turning 19 and having a birthday party, so instead of celebrating turning 16, my sister had to watch a bunch of late teens play video games all day, and eat cake she didn’t like, and she wasn’t allowed to be on her phone because ‘that’s rude at a birthday party.'”
That’s so not fair. Am I right?
Wow! I truly feel bad for these people.
I mean, birthdays can be rough for some, but to have gone through something like this does take the cake – no pun intended. The fact that they got through it and are able to talk about it is a testament to their strength, no? I wish them all bigger and brighter birthdays from now on.
