29 Red Flags That Someone Really Wasn’t Raised To Be A Good Person

Raising kids is basically a long-term social experiment where the stakes are your sanity and their future therapist bills. Do it right, and you get a responsible, kind adult. Do it wrong, and you could end up with a full-grown menace who thinks shopping cart etiquette is optional. So, what makes the difference? In short, parenting styles.

We all know that one kid who never had to lift a finger in their life because their parents were always hovering like an overprotective drone. Helicopter parenting means shielding kids from every possible failure, scraped knee, and slightly critical teacher comment. The result? Adults who panic when their Wi-Fi drops out for five minutes.

On the other side of the spectrum, we have free-range parenting. These parents believe in ‘natural consequences.’ This sounds grand until little Timmy finds out that jumping off the garage roof is a terrible idea—the hard way. While independence is great and all, kids probably shouldn’t have the same level of supervision as a houseplant.

Then there are the parents who believe that their child is an infallible little deity, no matter how many tantrums, stolen lunches, or questionable “pranks” they pull. These are the parents who storm into school demanding to know why their ‘sweet baby’ got detention for setting a trash can on fire. Spoiler alert: this is how you get adults who refuse to accept consequences.

Permissive parents take the ‘cool mom’ thing a little too far. Instead of enforcing rules, they believe in ‘letting their kids make their own choices.’ Seems progressive, right? Until you realize those choices include unlimited screen time, skipping homework, and eating nothing but Sour Patch Kids. Sure, a kid should have freedom, but maybe they shouldn’t be negotiating bedtime terms like a corporate lawyer.

Strict (or authoritarian) parents, on the other hand, mean well, but raising a kid under a military dictatorship doesn’t always lead to stellar results. These parents enforce rules with the iron fist of a 16th-century monarch. Sure, their kids might have perfect grades and impeccable manners, but come adulthood? They’re either rebellious chaos engines or incapable of making a single decision without their parents’ say so.

Of course, there’s also the case where parenting styles clash and kids get inconsistent messages, which can lead to confusion about how to behave. That being said, different parenting styles can also complement each other, so it’s worth parents exploring and discussing each other’s styles and finding common ground for the sake of everyone’s sanity.

Parenting isn’t just about keeping tiny humans alive—it’s about making sure they don’t turn into full-grown nightmares. Every style has its ups and downs, but one thing’s for sure: kids need guidance, discipline, and, yes, a little bit of independence. Otherwise, we end up with adults who microwave foil, cut in line at the grocery store, and think ‘customer service’ means ‘verbal punching bag.’

The examples on this list are just some of the downsides of poor parenting, but we’re sure there are plenty more. What kinds of bad behavior have you come across that made you think someone must have been raised in all the wrong ways?

We’d say netizens really delivered when it came to answering OP’s question. Which do you think are the worst results of a questionable upbringing? Upvote your favorites and don’t forget to leave a comment if you can relate!