When speaking about roommates, I’ve always thought that college or university dorms are a crazy social experiment. Let’s take these 2 or 3 people and put them in one room, these completely different individuals, and see what happens.
And hey - evidence shows that it’s fine most of the time. But there are moments when it goes horribly wrong. You only need one bad roommate to never want another one again.
Redditor ExternalScary9392 shares how her friend took in an old pal only to regret it more than anything not long after.
More info: Reddit
Sometimes roommates are a wolf in sheep's clothing, especially after they get comfortable in your place
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
The poster came to share her friend's experience, who took in an old pal down on her luck with her kid and dog
Image credits: ExternalScary9392
Image credits: Taro the Shiba Inu (not the actual photo)
The dog wrecked the host's couch, while the roomie would leave the house in an absolute state and bring over guests at odd hours
Image credits: ExternalScary9392
Image credits: Ali West (not the actual photo)
She had enough of this and informed her she was kicking her out, which led to the guest spreading nasty rumors and personal info in the community about her host
Image credits: ExternalScary9392
After moving out, the guest tried using her host's address for benefits, which she promptly reported, leading to a karmic $28k fine for the awful ex-roomie
ExternalScary9392 retold this story about her friend on the petty revenge sub, although the conclusion doesn’t sound so petty to me.
OP’s friend let an old pal from high school move in with her dog and a child, under the promise that they were very well behaved.
Almost immediately, things started going downhill. The new roomie, named Karen for the story, started trashing the place, her dog ruined the couch, and her child’s father would come around unannounced and late in the evening.
OP goes on to clarify that the dad wouldn’t come over to sleep with Karen, but rather to see his son, because she was trying to keep him away.
Now, for the actual revenge bit. She had kicked Karen out – during which she started spilling secrets and rumors about her host, which was particularly bad as they live in a small town – but got a call a month later about using her address for some Job and Family Services (JFS) process, to which OP’s friend gave her an “absolutely not.” Turns out she used the address anyway and the friend called JFS to report her for even attempting it, and long story short, Karen was fined 28 grand.
Actually, it’s even more than that, according to OP’s comment: “So really she’s about 50k in debt but I didn’t wanna try explaining something I didn’t fully understand.” This is because she apparently has to pay back for the benefits she received on a fictitious basis while using the friend’s address.
And if you’re one of the people repeating that the friend getting with the baby daddy is a bit “sus,” rest assured that they broke it off (and OP is tired of repeating it to everyone).
Moral of the story - don’t mess with people who take you in and especially don’t commit fraud with their data.
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)
So, let’s talk about roommates today, how it looked before, how it looks now, and the good, the bad and the nutty about it.
If you were to dwell on it for a second, the concept of rooming was popular throughout history, with entire families sleeping communally, which would make it easier to keep the whole room warm.
By the 15th century, beds started to take on a familiarly modern form, but until then a little cloth was the only thing separating people from the cold hard floors. There’s a reason why we have the saying “hit the hay,” as people would quite frequently “hit” it, first having stuffed it into a sack, of course. And they wouldn’t do it alone.
Atlas Obscura goes on to say that not only would families room together - mistresses would sleep with their female servants to fend off leering male advances and many servants slept at the foot of their master’s bed.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, boarding houses became popular, according to Bloomberg. These places were a good start to new residents in towns, where they could get acquainted with the area before looking for a place of their own.
These boarding houses are very popular in classical literature as well, as they were perfect places for people to mingle and exchange cultural customs with other residents or hosts.
People even say that they are looking for “bed and board”, with the bed being, well, a literal bed, while the board could be referring to the table they’d be eating meals from, which were also paid for in boarding houses.
We began moving away from communal housing during the Victorian age, when the home of the time had many rooms, which could be separated into servants’ quarters and their masters’. The idea that sleeping communally was inappropriate and even completely immoral slowly trickled down to the lower classes.
After that, a bigger and bigger push for privacy slowly led to where we are now.
Image credits: Just a Prairie Boy (not the actual photo)
All of the former has led to the following - sprawling and identical suburbs as far as the eye can see and high rises packed to the brim with insane rent.
Communal housing still exists in places such as universities and more frequently in senior homes, where they share many amenities and comforts, somewhat combatting the loneliness epidemic plaguing the elderly.
But let’s talk about more kooky aspects of it.
I’m almost an expert on this topic. I was living in my uni’s dorm and once woke up in the dead of night. It's important that my roomie and I weren’t on good terms. I saw that his phone was unlocked and just on his bed, but he wasn’t using it. My guess was that he was playing with it and had fallen asleep.
As I was still drunk with sleep, I saw something glistening in the darkness, by the light of the phone. I tried to understand what I was seeing and I did - they were my roommate’s moist eyes, just staring at me in the darkness.
There’s a horror story for you. I rolled over, somewhat horrified, but seeing as I’m still here, guess it went fine? I have many more stories to tell, though, but maybe sometime later.
If you’re in the mood to experience weird roommates, even if vicariously, just pop down to Craigslist and have a peep at some of the ads. I won’t do any finger-pointing, but you’re sure to find some weird guys looking to take on a roommate - female, of course, and with several odd criteria.
There’s also a lot of thinly veiled invitations for illicit activities of an adult nature, especially if you read in between the lines.
You can also find plenty more bad roommate content on the Reddit community by the same name, if you’re thirsting to go back to your college days.
Oh and don’t forget the “and they were roommates” used to have a laugh when people are misinterpreting same-sex relationships. Also, the “they were roommates” excuse was and is still very popular when examining historical figures who’d talk about each other in private letters very fondly, but historians would rather accept they were really, really, really, REALLY good friends, rather than in a relationship.
The original story collected 2.8k upvotes and 93 comments in the petty revenge community. The commenters enjoyed the revenge story and were very emphatic about the friend not hooking up with the kid’s dad, so there’s that too. Share your thoughts below!
The community warned OP's friend about kicking it with the baby daddy, but overall enjoyed the story
