12 Unexpected Discoveries Made by People Who Came Home Early

Coming home early is supposed to feel comforting — like slipping back into your own world a little sooner than expected. But for some people, that early return came with a twist they never saw coming. From awkward surprises to full-on emotional chaos, these stories prove that sometimes, walking through your front door feels more like walking into a plot twist.

Found my wife in bed with my brother

I came back from a work trip a day early to surprise my wife. It was like 2 AM, I got in super quiet. Walk into the bedroom, and I see someone’s sneakers by the door. I walk in and my wife is sleeping in our bed — next to my brother. Both are under the blanket. He’s wide awake, scrolling on his phone. My heart just... dropped. I backed out and didn’t say a word.

The next morning, I finally confronted them. Turns out he had been supposed to meet up with her earlier that day to drop off keys to our cabin, but his bus got delayed. She offered for him to crash at our place. She was exhausted from dealing with our toddler all week and just passed out next to him. Nothing happened. Zero drama. Just peak awkward family sitcom energy. Still not sure if I should laugh or be a little traumatized. Or both.

DIY nose piercing

I came back from a weekend trip earlier than planned. As I walked into the apartment, something felt off — there was a trail of tissues on the floor leading to the bathroom. My heart started racing. I thought someone got hurt or sick. Turns out, my wife and her friend decided to try a DIY nose piercing while I was away. It didn’t go well. She fainted, her friend panicked, and tried to help her clean up before I walked in. When I arrived, she was lying on the floor, her friend was freaking out, and the bathroom looked like a scene from a medical drama. No emergency — just a questionable idea and too much confidence.

Goblin mode

My boyfriend came home early and caught me off guard. He had left for work as usual, but barely half an hour later, he returned after remembering the rent check. When he walked in, he saw me finishing off a 2-litre soda, straight from the bottle, queso dripping down my shirt; and just giving strong goblin energy. Definitely not the version of me he’s seen before. To top it off, the male voice he heard on the other side of the door was of a YouTube video. © Rosecello / Reddit

Love lost and gained

I got home one day and found out my wife had left me. The next day, I got home from work and found 75 of my friends in my house cooking dinner and having a party in my honor. They wanted me to know I was loved. © Carl F Price / Quora

The surprise call

I was on a video call with my girlfriend and we were talking about our plans for me coming home on the weekend and the entire time I was trying not to tell her about my changed flight. I’ve missed home and everyone a lot. We made our plans and whatnot and I went on to bed to get enough sleep for “work the next day.” I got the flight no bother and spent a couple of hours home getting ready to surprise my girlfriend.

I knew she was planning on catching up on coursework, but I knew I’d either let it slip that I was home or that she’d be annoyed with me if she found out later, so I rang her during what would’ve been my lunch hour to make sure she was going to be home then called round to her house. As soon as she saw me at the door she sprinted down the hall to find the keys and when she opened the door practically jumped onto me and nearly made me fall over a few times.

I got back home a couple of hours later and waited for my dad to get home from work. He almost jumped as well and gave me a big hug, and we’ve planned to go out for lunch tomorrow.
© Cyanide_R******* / Reddit

The strange woman at the door

I hadn’t seen him in nearly a year. I got into town early, stopped by his place, and rang the bell with my heart racing.
A woman answered.
I blinked. She blinked.
Then she smiled and said, “You must be the famous girlfriend! I’m his mom!”
Apparently, he had flown her out that week as a surprise for me.
We ended up surprising each other at the same time. Now she texts me more than he does.

Well surprise! Surprise?

Today I came home early from work to surprise my wife.... who was surprising me. I walked in quietly, and I saw her in the kitchen, with flour and cake mix on her forehead and tapestries, birthday cups, flowers, and gifts around the table. She was making a cake, for a surprise party. My surprise birthday.

My mouth dropped and I quietly walked backwards to the door, exiting quietly and waiting till 7:30 to come back home. My wife would be so sad, and she was working so hard. So, within a time frame of about 3 and a half hours, I practiced my “oh my, I’m so surprised face”

When I came home, she yelled “Surprise!” And I did a very bad surprise face, hugged her and we had a movie marathon.

This secret will never come out. © mylo_account1-07 / Reddit

You ruined it

My wife and I had both been working from home but recently I started to go to the office. Today, I came back a little earlier than my usual time because I wasn’t feeling so well. When I opened the door to our house, her reaction felt a little odd to me — like she was surprised to see me, but not happy surprised. Felt a little weird, but I shrugged it off.

Sometime later I just happened to pick her phone up for some other work, and as I touched on the search bar, it opened up her search history. And there it was, her most recent search at the top — “how do I surprise my husband when he gets back from office”. I didn’t mention it to her, neither did she of course, but turned out I ruined her surprise by coming early, hence the reaction. © sau_dard / Reddit

Invited him early

I had an awful pregnancy, extreme all day nausea that never went away. I jokingly wished for my son to come out early to “end my misery”. I guess he heard me and made his entrance at 26 weeks. I have never felt more guilty about anything else in my life. Thankfully everything turned out okay, he is perfectly healthy. It really triggers me when people say they wish their baby would come early, gosh they have nooo idea. I wouldn’t wish this life on my worst enemy. © Additional_Ad7032 / Reddit

Nursery delivery

Three years ago, I came home to a porch full of delivery boxes—some of them pretty big.

Boxes on the porch weren’t unusual. My wife’s an Amazon regular. But these weren’t the plain cardboard kind. They were printed—like you’d see in a store. That was the first red flag.

The second was what they said: nursery furniture. A crib. A dresser. A rocking chair.

My first thought: “Is this her way of telling me she’s pregnant again?”
Half a second later: “We can’t afford another kid.”

Then the worst thought hit me: “Oh no... my teenage daughter?”

Cue five seconds of mini panic—confirmed by a spike on my Fitbit—until I checked the address.

Not ours.

The boxes were meant for a house one street over. We get their mail about once a week—same house number, similar street name. This time, we got their whole delivery.

After calming down, I grabbed my hand truck, rolled everything over, and congratulated the neighbor—turns out it was for a new grandchild. © Matthew Bates / Quora

Mom locked out

I was five months pregnant at the time. I always got home earlier than my husband. For reasons unknown, the garage door opener wouldn’t work and, for the life of me, I couldn’t find any house keys in my purse! Discouragement comes very quickly when pregnant, so do tears. I sat on the front step feeling exceedingly sorry for my increasingly chubby self who had to sit and wait 2 hours for my husband to return home. No cell phones yet...naturally.

A window? I sat up a little straighter and clung to that possibility as I circumnavigated the house. Aha! The microscopic bathroom window was open at least an inch. It was fairly high off the ground, so I grabbed the least unstable patio chair we had and shoved it against the brick wall with vastly more confidence than the chair deserved. With no small amount of effort, I opened the window so there was just enough space for “both of us” to slide through.

Three months later (Steve was born prematurely) he sleeps comfortably in his bassinet.

All I can say is I’m glad Candid Camera wasn’t lurking behind a tree that day or any other video camera. I was certainly a sight to behold inching my enlarged body through that small space. © Kathy Pennell / Quora

I was just offline

So I was studying abroad in Thailand and went off-grid for like two weeks — phone got stolen, Wi-Fi was spotty, I didn’t check in. I didn’t think much of it. I fly home and walk into my mom’s house to find... a full-on memorial. Candles. Black-and-white photo of me printed out and framed. My aunt in tears. Apparently they hadn’t heard from me, assumed the worst, and my mom legit thought I died. She called it “a spiritual goodbye.” I called it a panic-fueled disaster. Everyone screamed when they saw me. My grandma fainted. Not sure if I should laugh, cry, or sue my mom for emotional damage.

Here are stories from women who revealed shocking truths.