History TearJerker / NotAlwaysRight

* [[http://notalwaysright.com/bad-parents-bug-us/20630 This one's]] especially horrifying to people who are [[FriendToAllLivingThings friends to all living things.]] Two kids grab butterflies from an exhibit with their fists, possibly hurting them, and when they are told to stop, their mother says that they should be allowed to do whatever they want to them, and tries to apply NeverSayDie to real life. She has to be forcibly removed from the exhibit in the end.

* [[http://notalwaysright.com/a-dragon-cannot-be-killed-by-fire-or-bad-parenting/79281 This poor girl]] just wants a dragon toy, but her mother won't let her. Then she tries to get a toy dog, but her mother won't get her that either because it's not pink. Then her mother tells her that she can't get a toy unless it's pink and 'girly', and ''then'' her mother tells the stunned cashier that [[InsaneTrollLogic girls who don't play with pink toys will be gay]] and that her daughter needs to 'learn her place'. Jesus ''Christ''.
* [[http://notalwaysright.com/stick-a-pin-in-my-heart/46327 An otherwise normal tech support call]] about an elderly man trying to access his voicemail takes a depressing turn when he admits that the reason why was because his wife passed away recently and he wanted to hear her voice again via an old voicemail message.

* [[https://notalwaysright.com/ganging-up-to-prove-his-good-name/159321/ This story]] starts with a 15-year-old kid, a coworker of the poster, being shot dead on the way to school, a week before Christmas no less, and just gets worse from there. Rumors start flying around that he was in a gang and was killed by a rival gang (purely because of the color of his skin), and his grieving colleagues have to deal not only with members of the public asking about his supposed criminal connections, but even a news crew that shows up wanting to ask all sorts of horrible questions (the store's managers and owners end up chasing them off the premises). Fortunately, there are also a fair number of decent people who knew the kid and that he would never be involved in anything like that, and the ending notes that a collection has been taken up for his family.

* [[https://notalwaysright.com/the-lawnmower-ban An elderly mother of two]] works herself into an early grave because she's too stubborn to hire someone to help her with mowing the lawn (the lawn is on a steep incline and has to be kept short per HA rules). While the OP has some excuse to have not been able to help, her brother only says that he shouldn't be expected to do any work just because he's a man when asked why he never helped despite being fit enough to do so. Let this sink in: His mother died early because he was too lazy to help her with the yard work and he doesn't seem to care.

* Not really a TearJerker, but kinda depressing: [[http://notalwaysright.com/parlez-snooze-francais This one student]] in an advanced French class is always late, and when she does come, she sleeps through most of the class. However, her homework is always done, and she does very well on exams. Then one day, the student has had enough of this, and says, in French, [[SurroundedByIdiots "I hate all my classmates."]] The teacher is surprised that she would blatantly insult everyone in class, but the student is confident that nobody actually understood her. The teacher confirmed that ''nobody'' in the class understood that fairly-basic-French sentence, and were only there because ''everyone else'' had cheated for the entire term by using translators. The student was then moved into a class where people were actually interested in learning French.

* [[http://notalwaysright.com/a-victory-in-tragedy-part-2 A teacher puts a student in detention]] for being ''a few seconds late'' to school... because the student's brother died the previous night, and she was up all night grieving.

*** But you have to wonder... ''why in the world was she in school that day in the first place''? Why didn't the parents keep her home? That's a whole separate ball of TearJerker by itself. To be fair here though, some people cope with grief by trying to maintain as much normalcy in their lives as they can... but then, if she was up all night it doesn't sound like that was her preference.

* The submitter's mother in [[https://notalwaysright.com/death-and-taxes/29496/ this story]] deserves mention. Not only has she recently lost her father, the town tax collector, but it's only been six months since she lost her mother - both of her parents died within half a year of each other. And while she's trying to sort out her father's estate ''and'' his tax office, she gets a woman on the phone who yells at her for several minutes because he's not there to accept her tax payment. Sure, the woman had no idea, but she never gives the grieving daughter much chance to explain either.

* [[https://notalwaysright.com/some-stories-chopstick-with-you/90874/ This sad story]] here. A young Chinese girl used to be a brat at a Chinese restaurant despite attempts by her mother telling her daughter to behave and be a proper lady. Then one day, the little girl and her parents stop coming to the restaurant. Three months later, the little girl returns to the restaurant with her father and much to the staff's surprise, she is behaving well and is polite to them. But then comes the WhamLine on why the sudden change of behavior: the mother was killed in a car accident three months ago, around the time they stopped coming to the restaurant. The little girl, not understanding that her mother is gone, thought her mother left her because she was naughty, and became a proper lady which she hoped would make her mother come back.

* The poor kid in [[https://notalwaysright.com/taking-wild-unruly-to-the-next-level/218827/ this story]] gets to watch his mom go batshit crazy over an airsoft gun, shoot the submitter with it, run off into the woods without him, and then shoot a police dog's eye out. She's thereafter sentenced to 15 years in prison. ''All'' of this when he's just eleven. One can only hope that his remaining family isn't as criminally insane and will help him move past the trauma the whole incident likely caused.

* The ordeal of [[https://notalwaysright.com/has-good-reason-to-be-a-scaredy-cat/170403/ Lady the cat]]. The submitter fosters her to a woman who claims to be an experienced pet owner who will get Lady spayed. A month later, the submitter is furious to discover that the woman is now giving Lady away herself – and she's now pregnant, showing marks of attack from male cats, and ''miserable''. The submitter's friend offers to pick Lady up and bring her back. Thankfully Lady recovers and she and her kittens are safe, and all back in the submitter's care, where she plans for them to stay. But the ordeal has left a tangible mark on the poor cat.

* When an elementary school class is asked what they would do with a time machine, [[WiseBeyondTheirYears one kid]] [[https://notalwaysright.com/looking-back-helps-you-realize-what-matters/213207/ says]] they would go back to give George Floyd a real $20 bill. [[labelnote:Explanation]]George Floyd was an African-American man who had the police called on him for allegedly using a counterfeit $20. He was killed during the arrest, and his death sparked worldwide protests against police brutality.[[/labelnote]]

* [[http://notalwaysright.com/i-junk-mailed-to-say-i-love-you/2316 This customer]] is so lonely he wants to receive ads from a company just so he can get something through the mail.

** Imagine how the teacher felt at that moment.

* Not really a TearJerker, but kinda depressing: [[http://notalwaysright.com/parlez-snooze-francais This one student]] in an advanced French class is always late, and when she does come, she sleeps through most of the class. However, her homework is always done, and she does very well on exams. Then one day, the student has had enough of this, and says, in French, [[SurroundedByIdiots "I hate all my classmates."]] The teacher is surprised that she would blatantly insult everyone in class, but the student is confident that nobody actually understood her. The teacher confirmed that ''nobody'' in the class understood that fairly-basic-French sentence, and were only there because ''everyone'' had cheated for the entire term by using translators. The student was then moved into a class where people were actually interested in learning French.

** And then in the comments, someone wants an explanation for why the family handled it the way that they did. The submitter comes forward and replies that they were following the instructions they were given. This is met with an even lengthier demand for an explanation, and absolutely no consideration given to the fact that the submitter had lost a close relative in the story and was likely grieving extensively themselves at the time.

* [[https://notalwaysright.com/our-deepest-condolences/127118/ We think we have a winner.]] A longtime member of NAR has had [[https://notalwaysright.com/with-a-mother-like-that-pain-tolerance-is-through-the-roof/118817/ three]] [[https://notalwaysright.com/already-has-a-big-baby-to-look-after/118777/ stories]] [[https://notalwaysright.com/not-the-formula-for-a-successful-doctor/126319/ posted]], all centering around the birth of her baby at only 29 weeks. The fourth story above is about how, after a month of the premature girl living happy and healthy following 70 days at the hospital, the submitter wakes up to find her baby suddenly struggling to breathe. The rest of the story is pure AdultFear as the parents and paramedics do everything they can to save the slowly dying child, despite the low odds and one doctor telling them that the merciful thing would be to let her go when she suffers brain damage after her heart stops, [[DownerEnding but it all ends up in vain--the child passes away peacefully in her mother's arms.]] The comments are almost nothing but expressions of sympathy, and the story itself is titled "Our Deepest Condolences", implying that even the site editors were heartbroken over the news. It also makes all of those stories ''so'' much HarsherInHindsight.

* To summarise [[https://notalwaysright.com/whats-a-word-for-worse-than-neglect/252383/ this story]], which got a {{Content Warning|s}} for '''severe injury to a child''', a 5-year-old boy ''[[{{Fingore}} loses a finger to a T-shirt printing machine]]'' because his mother is too absorbed in a phone call to supervise him. And even after learning what just happened, she's more focused on [[NeverMyFault berating the staff members]], [[SkewedPriorities continuing the phone call, and getting her order]] than trying to comfort her injured son, who is crying, terrified, and likely traumatised. One hopes the poor boy was permanently taken out of her custody as a result of her being charged with neglect.

* To summarise [[https://notalwaysright.com/whats-a-word-for-worse-than-neglect/252383/ this story]], which got a {{Content Warning|s}} for '''severe injury to a child''', a 5-year-old boy ''[[{{Fingore}} loses a finger to a T-shirt printing machine]]'' because his mother is too absorbed in a phone call to supervise him. And even after learning what just happened, she's more focused on [[NeverMyFault berating the staff members]], [[SkewedPriorities continuing the phone call, and getting her order]] than trying to comfort her injured son, who is crying, terrified, and likely traumatised. One hopes the poor boy was taken out of her custody as a result of her being charged with neglect.

* To summarise [[https://notalwaysright.com/whats-a-word-for-worse-than-neglect/252383/ this story]], which got a {{Content Warning|s}} for '''severe injury to a child''', a 5-year-old boy ''[[{{Fingore}} loses a finger to a T-shirt printing machine]]'' because his mother is too absorbed in a phone call to supervise him. And even after learning what just happened, she's more focused on [[NeverMyFault berating the staff members]], [[SkewedPriorities continuing the phone call, and getting her order]] than trying to comfort her injured son, who is crying, terrified, and likely traumatised. One hopes the poor boy was taken out of her custody.

* To summarise [[https://notalwaysright.com/whats-a-word-for-worse-than-neglect/252383/ this story]], which got a {{Content Warning|s}} for '''severe injury to a child''', a 5-year-old boy ''[[{{Fingore}} loses a finger to a T-shirt printing machine]]'' because his mother is too absorbed in a phone call to supervise him. And even after learning what just happened, she's more focused on [[NeverMyFault berating the staff members]], [[SkewedPriorities https://notalwaysright.com/whats-a-word-for-worse-than-neglect/252383/ continuing the phone call, and getting her order]] than trying to comfort her injured son, who is crying, terrified, and likely traumatised. One hopes the poor boy was taken out of her custody.