Patricia Grisafi
If you’re a kid of a Karen, you know the deal. You might be in a store when she goes wild, screaming at the cashier or a random customer for doing something absolutely benign. Or you could be at a restaurant, waiting a little too long for your meal when he pulls the waiter over to loudly complain and act like he’s the only person who’s hungry and wanting to eat. On Reddit, kids of Karens are sharing their embarrassing stories — and how they inadvertently learned to apologize to everyone because of their entitled parents.
1. Expired Offer
“Nephew of a Karen. Was visiting her and she needed to stop by Walgreens. She had newspaper ad that stated that some candles were 50% off so she bought like 10 of them. She got charged full price and flipped out. We’re talking like paying a dollar per candle instead of 50 cents. The cashier and I both showed her that she was holding an old newspaper and the add even said that the offer expired a week ago…then she shifted to ‘well you could have told me more nicely’ and kept bitching. I just kept telling her we needed to leave. Once I finally got her out into the car I said I had forgotten to grab a pack of gum and went back in and apologized to the poor guy.” — mejok
2. Tipping
“This is decades ago, but my mother used to sneak back to our table and ‘adjust’ whatever tip my dad/myself would leave. Hint: It was never adjusted upwards.” — lessmiserables
3. Diapers
“My Mom attempting to change my sister’s diaper on the table in a crowded restaurant. Going ballistic when the waitress asked her to used the restroom. Then having me change her while she argued with the entire restaurant.” — cleaning-meaning
4. Bottled Water
“My mother is not exactly a Karen, but she had a very bad Karen-Moment once. She paid me a visit shortly after I moved to Switzerland. We went shopping for groceries together. Everything in CH is at least twice as expensive. And my mother did let the entire shop know, how overpriced each and every item I put in the cart was. While also insisting that we need to buy bottled water because she couldn’t drink tapwater. (She does it at home and Switzerland has the better water quality. So I have really no idea why that was a thing in the first place.) So from everything she complained about, the 12 bucks for 4 bottles of non sparkly water was somehow completely fine. I never went shopping with her ever again after this.” — OneMorePotion
5. Shrieking
“My mother only gets like that when she’s stressed. But one time I was at the pharmacy. There were two people in line in front of me and one person at the register. The woman right in front of me shrieked as loudly as possible that they needed to open a second register. I thought maybe she was in a rush; but when I went to check out next to her I overheard her going over coupons or whatever. It’s one of the few times I’ve run into a dyed in the wool Karen in the wild. She even had the haircut. Of course this has nothing to do with my mother. Except that a couple of months later my mother did the exact same thing while I stood there contemplating if I should have pretended not to know her.” — bool_idiot_is_true
6. Impatient
“I hate going shopping with my mom, she shoved past everyone because she has no patience. She talks so loudly when a queue is long. She likes to express her impatience. And it’s embarrassing.” —shamblesaid
7. Offensive Movie
“Back in the mid-nineties my mom rented Clerks for the family at the rental store in the Kroger’s we used to shop at while having no idea how raunchy the movie is. She was so offended by it that the next day she went back in to scream at the manager at how outrageous it was that they would carry such an offensive movie at a family rental store and demanded that they permanently take it off the shelf, and the goddamned thing of it is they actually obliged her. They never carried Clerks at that location again, so if you ever tried to rent the movie from a Kroger’s in Lewisville, Texas back in the mid-nineties and weren’t able to, I apologize. It is entirely my mom’s fault.” — schnit123
8. One Star
“Not my parent but my step grandparent. We went to a Thai restaurant and they were severely understaffed because of Covid and the food took around 30 minutes to come out. My food didn’t come out for another 10 minutes, during those 10 minutes he kept calling over waiters and asking when the food will come and if it doesn’t come soon ill give you a 1 star rating. It was pretty funny for me but I also felt bad for the people working there.” — Revolutionary_Blake
9. Kicked Out Of School
“My mom went and harassed my elementary school, so much over small things and caused such a big fuss, they didn’t let my niece, who they knew was my mom’s granddaughter, come back. They just didn’t wanna deal with her anymore to the point of kicking her out of the school. My sister and I had already left in middle school. Those poor teachers didn’t get paid enough.” — noahisadumbass
10. Public Streets
“Not my mother, but my grandmother used to scream and yell at anyone who walked their dog or played basketball or rode their bike past her house during the day. When I came out to get her and reminded her that people had the right to use the city street, she turned on me and screamed, ‘I pay my goddamn taxes so I can have some peace and quiet, so yes it IS my street and I don’t WANT THEM ON IT!'” — geminiloveca.
11. Couponing
“My dad is a male Karen. I’m talking arguing with the servers at a restaurant, demands for his coupons to work type of Karen. It horrendous and oftentimes embarrassing. I went to get new shoes at the beginning of a school year several years back and we went to a specific store because he had a coupon. The store was having a sale and the items we got did not match the coupon but he was INSISTENT. Kept arguing with the poor worker for 10-15 minutes. As we were leaving, I whispered ‘I’m sorry’ to the employee and she nodded in appreciation. Dad over heard me and I got chewed out in the car on the way home. This wasn’t the worst thing he did, but it stuck with me because I ended up on the receiving end of his Karen attitude.” — Waste-Strawberry03
12. Screaming At The Cashier
“A woman who contributed to my DNA screamed at a cashier and called her a f*cking b*tch. Easily one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.” — ryan_503
13. Swimming Pool
“Went to some hotel one night for dinner. The hotel had a pool that was clearly only for ‘Hotel Guests’ as was indicated by dozens of signs surrounding the pool. My mother told my little brother and I we were allowed to use the pool and even had us wear our bathing suits under our clothing so we could easily get changed after dinner. Well, they clearly have employees monitoring this and not long after we jumped in the water security calmly walked over and asked to see our hotel room keys. Since we weren’t staying there and didn’t have room keys we were politely asked to leave. My mother refuses and insists we were within our rights because we ate dinner there. A screaming match insues, hundreds of people are staring at us, and finally the head of security had to escort us off the property before the police were called.” — mox44ah
14. Vending Machine
“My dad once got banned from Ford (the only place that his car insurance covered the 3 year late oil change he needed) because they had a vending machine that sold Arizona tea for $1.25 while the can said 99 ¢. He didn’t even buy it or want to. He was screaming at the front desk people because of it. The vending machine wasn’t owned by Ford and they were most certainly not in control of the prices. I have no idea what he hoped to gain out of the ordeal.” — beesechurgermorbees
15. Customer Service
“Whenever my mom goes boiling hot to complain on the phone. She always ends the calls with ‘I recommend you leave this sh*tty company so to avoid being screamed at like right now’ like the employees there give a damn about her opinion. (She’s trying to make the company lose employees) I can tell they’re just like “mhm… Uh huh… Right…” During the entire call.” — FaithlessnessOk1530
16. Six Flags
“My dad goes with the flow, but not this time. We were at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom years ago. We finally made it to the front of the line for the tower drop ride. My dad saw some frayed cables and insisted the operator that we wait and get on another side as he described the cables. The operator was not having it (we get it, its a shitty job dealing with people). So my dad was being polite and said no we will wait to the side whoever else can get on it. The operator started yelling and saying no. So my dad started yelling and they got into. Security showed up and they continued yelling. By this time everyone in line for that side picked up and they started refusing that side due to the cables. Management came and said the ride had safety features and its fine. Dad thought it wasn’t. Eventually we got in the other side and things were fine. About a week later the cable snapped and cut a girls feet off.” — Blue_OG_46
Featured Image: Pexels
