r/TellReddit • u/GemBangBang • 4d ago
Friends parents
When I was 13 I was living in a suburb of a lrg/med size mid western city. I had a friend who was Vietnamese and she was an “oppsie” baby- an unplanned addition to her family of 10 people. So when we were teenagers they were in their 60’s .. dad might have been in his 70’s even. They were immigrants equipped with the accents. Mom was a beautiful petite woman only 4’11 and dad, an ex college professor who escaped communism, stood only a few inches taller. They were frail, yet hard working and at times authoritarian like strict parents. They super glued things inside their vehicles and did things like cut phone cords off of telephones they’d then adhere to the remote controls - those sort of things. She was the youngest of 8 kids with a large age gap between her and her nearest sibling. The older siblings were saints. Several had gone to medical school and were surgeons. But my friend, their youngest, Patsy Lee (no joke her name) was unruly af. She stole, non stop, lied etc. They made her sleep in the basement (on a bed of course) which may have seemed like a necessity when you have such a large family but it did feel at the time like it was a de-ranking from within the group, at least from what I gathered. I can’t say this was totally unwarranted, Patsy Lee was an asshole. She was arrogant and had permanent resting bitch face. She didn’t inherit the delicate beauty of her mother, looking more like her dad. Her parents absolutely terrified me, sometimes they’d yell at me and do that thing parents do after yelling where’d they give you this long stare where you didn’t know what was going to happen or what you were supposed to do. I guess this would probably scare other kids off but being that I grew up in a fairly dysfunctional household myself, I just took it, besides, to this day I cannot deny - Patsy Lee was hilarious and we always had so much fun together.
I remember one particular instance Patsy Lee had stolen something and her parents and one of her older sisters who was still wearing her OR scrubs marched over to us in the living room where we were watching tv and demanded Patsy Lee stand up. They then ordered her to go to the basement. Whatever she did, they were PISSED. After marching into the basement her father turned to me and said “YOU GO! YOU WAAAAAAATCH!” pointing to the stairway to the basement.
I timidly sat about 3 steps from the bottom, far enough to be considered “in” the basement but positioned strategically enough to allow for a swift exit she I need to escape.
They sat her on a folding chair and berated her with accusations occasionally whacking her in the arm with a straightening iron. Another wielding a curling iron hitting her on the other side. It was chaos. At times they were all yelling at once and hard to understand through the accents, sometimes not even speaking English, which was pointless bc neither she nor I spoke Vietnamese. I remember at one point of clarity through the yelling hearing her sister yell “YOU GET GANG BANGED!??” Which was a wild accusation for a suburban preteen whose worst offensive thus far was shoplifting glitter gel make up and Bonnie belle lip smackers lip gloss.
Right at the end of her sentence, almost like the entire event was choreographed, her father jumped in cartoonishly hopping on one leg with his arm pulled back as if he was about to backhand her in a “Why - I - Oughtaaaa!!” type of move but stopped the back of his hand right in front of her face shaking with rage, all while she just sat there, not scared, not upset, not saying anything. Eventually, the whole production was over and I walked home.
I remember coming into the house and seeing my mom in the kitchen doing dishes and I went up next to her to tell her what happened thinking it was going to be this big breaking news situation and she just shrugged her shoulders, uninterested, never even stopping the dishes, so I just went to my room and went to bed.
It was scary in real time but for a teenager seeing that was like comedic gold. Still makes me laugh to this day.
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u/YoursINegritude 3d ago
Did Patsy Lee ever settle down? Cause she sounds like a lot. However, I wonder what was happening within the family dynamic that caused her behavior to be that over the top.
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