Back in 2003, I was 8 years old. Our family had just moved into a new flat, and it was our first night in the apartment my step-father bought for us to live in. So, due to not comfortable with the new place and having already slept a lot earlier, I was wide awake. It was practically past midnight, and I was laying in my bed.

For you to understand this story better, I’ll have to explain how the room was like. So, I had my bed at the end of the room below the windows. and at the other side was the door. Next to the door was a walk in closet, both doors of the closet had mirrors on them. They were pretty big, I’d say it covered 75% of the wall. So I could see my own reflection when I was on my bed.

Anywho, as I laid there, waiting for me to fall asleep. I felt something grab my leg, like a big hand violently grabbing my leg, then pulling me out of bed. As soon as this happened, I began screaming and held the headboard of the bed so to not get completley pulled away. As this was going on, I guess my brother was also awake because he heard my screams. He tried opening my door but couldn’t get in. And in my house, there is a rule: Never lock any door. So it was unlocked, but for some reason he couldn’t open it. He yelled out to my mother and father. While they were getting up I was still struggling and holding onto the headboard.

When I looked back, I saw the reflection of myself on the closet doors. There was a huge, black arm coming from under my bed, grabbing my leg and pulling me. As soon as I saw that, I screamed louder. When my parents finally reached the door to my room, they were able to open it, the hand let go and went under the bed.

They turned on the lights and asked me what was going on. I told them what went down, but obviously it was swept aside with a bad dream. Even though I was clearly awake. After this day, I grabbed the mattress and put it on the floor. I was not going to sleep on beds that had spaces under them, afraid of this to occur again.

My brother believed me because I showed him the bed frame, there were 3 scratch marks on the side where the arm came out. Mind you, the bed was new, my dad had them set up the night we arrived. He knew I couldn’t have done that to it.

Here is a sketch I did of that night below

(it left me really uneasy when I finished this piece, that night was terrifying and intense.)

I (24F) am getting married to my partner next year. I was chatting with my mom and sisters about the guest list when my mom brought up sending an invitation to my aunt, we’ll call her L (55F). I said L wasn’t invited and they asked why.

My dad died unexpectedly <2 weeks after I turned 15. It was particularly hard for me since I had been fighting with him for about 7 months prior to his death and we were still in the beginning stages of patching up our relationship after the turmoil. Needless to say, it was one of the hardest times of my life and I was pretty emotionally raw. After his funeral ended I was heading outside when I saw L in a sea of mourners cramped in the hallway. I wasn’t feeling chatty (for obvious reasons) so I gave her the same half-hearted smile and wave I gave everyone else that day and continued walking out the door. As I was walking to the car, my Aunt T walked up to me in a huff and angrily told me to go apologize to L for what I said. I gave her a confused look and asked what she was talking about. Apparently, L told her I gave her a dirty look in the hallway and said “nobody wants you here” when I walked by. I told T that never happened and I hadn’t said a word to L all day. She immediately relaxed and said “oh well that’s just L, she likes to joke. Never mind” and walked away. I was annoyed I got berated for something I didn’t do, but quickly let it go because I had bigger problems to deal with.

On the way home from the funeral, my mom needed to stop at my grandmas house to drop some stuff off and I decided to wait in the car.

As I was waiting, I got a call from my Aunt K. I answered it and she immediately starts yelling and telling me I need to apologize to L for what I said. I told her the same thing I had told T and explained I hadn’t said anything to L or given her any dirty looks. She calmed down and said “oh” and hung up the phone. My mom got back to the car and could see I was visibly frustrated and asked what was wrong. I explained what happened with T and K and she says “oh she always jokes at the wrong time“. I didn’t get an apology from T or K for yelling at me for something I didn’t do and I’m pretty sure my mom and aunts have had conversations about L’s behavior before because all of them used the exact same phrase and each of them just brushed off what she did.

After that, I decided I wasn’t interested in being around someone who starts drama just for fun and everyone else just excuses their behavior. I’ve been civil with L at family gatherings for the last 9 years, but I haven’t gone out of my way to interact with her or build a relationship.

My partner supports my decision to not have L at the wedding, but my mom and sisters are telling me I’m being an AH because I’m not inviting her over something that happened almost a decade ago. I’m starting to wonder if they’re right and if I should just let it go.

Am I wrong?

So I’m working in a company since the beginning for 2020. The norm here is you get a 1 year contract and then another year contract, after that it becomes an unlimited contract. If you want more money you gotta talk to your boss about it at the end for the year to get more money starting with the new year. So, last year I got an offer from a company I have worked in before because one of their important employees switches to another position. They offered me $500 more on the spot without me even starting to negotiate, so I could’ve probably even raised that. My salary now is a little bit below average for what I do and my skills (I work in IT).

The new company would’ve been fewer hours, but I later learned that this was actually not the case because I would be employed by the sub-company, which doesn’t have that benefit. I didn’t feel well about that because the boss knew that and simply hid that information from me, and I thought they do less hours so will I when I work there. He even admitted to have not said that on purpose. It would’ve still been a great offer and it was pretty needless to hide that.

So I talked to my boss and told him I have an offer and that I would like to have more money when I get my unlimited time contract extension. And he said, he knows I’m worth it and could easily get that on the market and that he agrees I should get it. He would prepare this at the end of the year and we would talk about the exact sum at the beginning of january. And since I dont like change, I wanted to follow this opportunity.

Well today I learned he didn’t prepare ANYTHING and even said we have to define goals to see if I’m worth it and he meant for 2023. Maybe it SOUNDED confusing because it was the end of 2021 when he said NEXT YEAR, but it was obvious he meant he would prepare it at the end of 2022. Which doesn’t make ANY sense. So I won’t see more money this year, which upsets me so much. He even got angry I talked about the topic and degraded my employee conduct score.

I answered that he never had any issue with my work, except that one time I stayed too long to fix the NOT WORKING TELEPHONE SYSTEM ON A MONDAY NIGHT. I literally got warned for staying longer. like we wouldnt need telephones on tuesday morning or what.

I wish I had a good loving mother. When I was younger (Im 18 guy now) I didn’t really understand how horrible of a mother she is.

She was abusive, selfish, and terrible at being a mother. I would be jealous of the other kids at school of how loving their mothers are. During primary school, I would make her gifts during Mother’s Day but every time I gave it to her she never really care.

And I’ve never been praised for the works I’ve done and she never had asked me anything really. She would gamble a lot and lose lots of money, when that happens my parents would get into an argument.

She doesn’t even watch her own kids, I have a little sister and she was born in 2019 but she just goes out and has fun while her kids are watching the baby. She doesn’t even do the work around the house it’s always the kids that gotta clean, and she’ll be complaining like why didn’t you guys do this or that.

Like you’re the mother you’re supposed to do those too and she doesn’t even cook for her kids. When I was 11 it was when I had enough, I lost hope already for her. There’s no way anything good is gonna happen. I know it’s a young age but I was a child and a child deserves to be loved. Growing up in a toxic household just breaks my heart and that’s why I have to my sure my younger siblings get all the love they can. I still remember all the terrible doings she did and she’s evil asf. I really hate her and I feel like it just keeps growing.

Here are what netizens think:

• For the sake of your siblings, you have suck it up and really do it till they grow older

• Well, one way is for you to work real hard and get rich fast so you can probably move out with your siblings. But you have to wait till ur siblings get to a legal age before doing so.

• Seek help from Ministry of Social and Family development, they might be able to send someone over to asses the situation.

I (F21) moved in with my boyfriend a while ago and it didn’t go well with my parents (they are toxic, especially my mother). They don’t approve of him yet he takes care of me so well. We have an opportunity to open our own business and wanted to rent a place near YCK (my parent are living in Jurong) but when I mentioned it they got so mad and they don’t approve of what career I have chosen for myself (nail technician).

I’m scared that when I tell them they would try to talk me out of it and try to force me to move back to them and I’m scared I will lose my relationship with them and that it can’t be fixed again.

How do I tell them without them being disappointed in me or anyone getting badly hurt?

Here is what netizens think:

• I would be concerned if my daughter wanted to be a nail technician as well. cause it does not exactly make much, but since you say u are opening a business. I only can wish you well

• Where you live, would it give you enough money to live on, if you were single? I’m not saying that you and your partner will necessarily break up, but people get sick, businesses close etc

• If you and he are comfortable with the financial situation, that’s your business, not theirs or anyone else’s. But if you want them to “approve”, do make sure that you can at least make ends meet.

• What would be the least desirable scenario for you- your parents cutting off contact, or not being able to be with your boyfriend? If your parents insist that you give up their plan for you, what will you say to them? I would know your answer to that decision before you talk to them, if you’re fairly certain that it’s a possibility.

My 20 y.o brother in law “Sean” moved in with me and my wife after my father-in-law passed away a few months ago.

He is the private type and keeps to himself. He goes out and never say where he’s going or how long he’ll be out, eats at random times during the day, wears earbuds while I and the kids are sitting with him. See, all of these are uncool behaviors and a bad influence on my children. I’ve already talked to Sean about certain house rules I have and how he was violating them maybe because he didn’t but now he knows and still nothing’s changed.

Last night, he came home late at around 10pm. I wasn’t thrilled with that because he knew the rules but he said that he was an adult and I shouldn’t be policing him but it’s not about that, it’s about the fact that he’s repeatedly disrespected the homeowner and the rules…So I told him this: “If he won’t respect the rules which are: Being home at 8, not eating at random times, and not using his electronics just like my kids aren’t allowed when the family is gathered to spend time together.

He ranted about how he wasn’t a child, my child, and called me unreasonable to treat him this way just because he lives under my roof, I told him it’s not hard to show respect really but my wife went off asking what was wrong with me to be giving Sean who’s still grieving, ultimatums and treating him like a child.

I explained to her that I’m just making sure the kids won’t be influenced by her brother’s reckless behavior and she laughed asking if I think Sean being on his phone was reckless but that is beside the point.

She called me a control freak and told me to get off her brother’s back and leave him alone. I replied that she’s just saying this because he’s her brother but she said I overstepped and should back off and stop trying to control her adult brother. I asked her if she was happy with him coming home late and she said she was sick of arguing then went upstairs.

Here is what netizens think:

• Your wife is right. Why on earth should a 20 year old have a curfew and have his eating times policed? Also, you made a unilateral decision about your wife’s brother without even consulting your wife?

You sound already like an overbearing parent, and this is towards an adult who isn’t your kid. I feel horrible for your wife and kids.

• Those children must fear this man. He is policing everything about their life. There is a difference between parenting and policing. 

Still in shock, as I’m writing this so I apologize if a lot of it doesn’t make sense. I’ve been in this relationship with a married man for two, going on three years now.

We met at work before he married his wife. We’ve always talked about getting married, having kids, etc. etc. but I never wanted any of that to happen until he left his wife.

Well, I just found out I’m pregnant.

We had slept together around September and I haven’t been able to see him since. We took all the necessary precautions like we always do. My period was late, and I started noticing some changes so I took a test. It was positive. I don’t even know what to say to him. He and his wife don’t have any kids, and they’ll be married for two years in March. I’m scared out of my mind. He has awful anxiety so I know this news is going to shake him. I’m terrified for what’s going to happen next.

It was a complete shock. I scheduled a doctor’s appointment shortly after I found out to confirm the pregnancy. I decided I’m keeping the baby. So the only thing left was to tell him.

We haven’t talked in a week when I found out. He blamed it on the fact that he is “sick” but we communicate through Whatsapp and I noticed that his Online has been going up but he’s been completely ignoring my messages. I sent him something asking him to call me when he had a chance and he did. I cried when he picked up. Maybe it’s the hormones or the fact that I’m totally terrified about going through this alone.

When I told him he was silent. He honestly didn’t say much. He asked what I wanted to do and I said I was keeping the baby, whether he liked it or not. He didn’t argue with me and that was that. He said he had to go and hung up the phone. That was three days ago.

I’m slowly accepting the fact that I will have to go through this alone. Our affair has been going on for almost three years now and this seems to have been the last straw. We haven’t talked since then. I don’t know what I expected to happen.

My mind is made up about the baby. I just hate the fact that my child may grow up thinking their father didn’t want them.

I recently found out I was pregnant.

Only two weeks later, I got a job offer, which I accepted. I didn’t say anything about my pregnancy as it’s so early. I’ve also heard of employers discriminating against pregnant workers by not hiring them, and I wanted to avoid that.

Last week, I told some relatives about the new job and the pregnancy. One of them asked me if I told the boss about being pregnant. When I said no, he got disapproving and said I shouldn’t have lied about it.

I didn’t say anything, but I don’t think I’m in the wrong. My goal is to protect myself and the baby’s wellbeing, and having a job with maternity leave and a guarantee of work when I return will help me.

Here are what netizens think?

• Yup. I’ve lost out on many a position because I’m well-versed in what questions are legally allowed in interviews and don’t hesitate to ask why they’re asking about my personal life.

I ended an interview because the interviewer tried to engage in “small talk” and started asking things like “do you have kids?”. Like… seriously dude?!?

• I feel bad for people who can’t afford to mess up interviews like this and just answer.

• I got through many interviews in the past with saying “i’m infertile” – shuts them down real fast.

• Many years ago I was being interviewed for a bank teller job. The lady actually asked me if I planned on having more children! She also wanted to know who watched my kids while I was at work!

• I had an employer demand to know why I didn’t tell them in the interview I had a child. Male dominated team. In my professional life I was sure never to display pics of kids bc it will cost you in promotions (unlike the dudes). Hubs was a part time lecturer so fine with childcare.