17 People Who Asked for Advice, but Quickly Regretted It

Asking for advice may not be easy, but scientists have found that it actually can make a good impression. The heroes of this article genuinely wanted to ask someone for help, but the tips they got made them raise their eyebrows.

Here at Now I’ve Seen Everything, we were surprised and even shocked by some of these pieces of advice. Although we wouldn’t recommend following any of them, they surely can make you laugh.

• “You know, son, there really is no such thing as cheating if you aren’t married. Until you are married, relationships don’t really exist.”
  “Thanks Dad, you just indirectly explained why you’re on your third marriage.” djramrod / Reddit

• I called Kids Help Phone when I was a teen to ask for advice on how to help my depressed friend. They advised I find new friends. I wish I was making this up. atsignwork / Reddit

• Both of my parents taught my brother and me that so long as someone wasn’t married that they were “basically single.” My parents never went a year of their marriage without cheating on each other and my brother and I never actually got to learn what a healthy relationship looked like. I’m in my 30s now and, for the sake of my mental and emotional health, have sworn off relationships for the foreseeable future because I cannot bring myself to see anything but future problems. © TheRavingRaccoon / Reddit

• “If you run out of dishwasher detergent, just substitute it with regular dish soap.” A big mistake that will only be made once. © Deep_Drones / Reddit

• “Put some butter on it.” —My father to me directly after getting a 3rd-degree burn on my arm (cooking accident). © ISnortBonedust / Reddit

• My husband needed a medical card after his heart failure from viral cardiomyopathy. The social worker told me I should get pregnant so we would qualify for help with his medical costs. I was 24. She listed all the “help” we could get if I could get pregnant. He was in an ICU ward recovering from heart surgery. © shmoopiefunk / Reddit

• “Family over friends, because friends won’t always be there for you, but family will.” Fat load of garbage that was. © TaborlinTheGreater / Reddit

• “Don’t study computer programming. The market is probably going to be saturated by the time you graduate.” From a computer science professor in the mid-80s. © BrobdingnagLilliput / Reddit

• “Don’t quit your job at Wal-Mart! You’ve been here for three years! Just seven more and you’ll be fully vested in the company!” PmMeYourDiscordChat / Reddit

• My boyfriend kept telling me that I smelled bad. I was taking a shower several times a day but he insisted that I smelled bad. Once, I yelled at him and he got all panicked and upset, I eventually got out of him that this is what his father told him to say because it was a sure-fire technique to have a woman never leave you because “She will feel too low to cheat, will love only you, and will always be clean.” Needless to say, his father was wrong. He’s packing his things and moving out of my house today. © ThrowRA-doistink / Reddit

• Investing in my brother-in-law’s bar. Thanks, Dad. Bye-bye 30k and bye-bye bar. Did not know I’d be working alongside an illiterate buffoon. © Alpha**** / Reddit

• My grandmother told me that if I wanted to stop being poor, I should find a job in logistics or warehousing. I was literally managing a warehouse at the time. © GavinBelsonsAlexa / Reddit

• “Just open another credit card, it’s free money” coming from my friend who is in thousands of dollars worth of debt and has no idea she will eventually have to pay that off. BaconAficionado8 / Reddit

• At 24, while making $12 an hour and renting an apartment, my parents convinced me to buy a brand new Honda Accord. They assured me it was the ONLY WAY to get a new car and that used ones broke down immediately. The payments were one entire paycheck of the 2 I got every month. © Worlds_Best_Coffee / Reddit

• I told my family I was going to file for divorce because my (ex)husband was abusive. My aunt wrote me 3 pages instructing me to quit my successful career and get pregnant as quickly as possible. The woman had 13 kids. © ContContext / Reddit

• My dad pulled me aside and told me that “Your 10-year high school reunion is coming up... your classmates are going to ask what you’ve been doing. You might want to think about what you’re going to tell them.” I wasn’t planning on going to and did not go to my 10-year high school reunion. Why my dad was so concerned with the opinions of people I haven’t seen in over a decade, I have no idea. © Unfortunate_Derek / Reddit

• I was told by a sailor of 5 decades that the best way to get rid of sunburn is to take the hottest shower possible. Not only did that cause immeasurable pain, but it didn’t help in the slightest. © BurlHopsBridge / Reddit

What was the most useless advice you’ve ever received?