Dad came to my apartment with toys for two young kids. I do not have any kids.
A Reddit user shares a baffling encounter when her father unexpectedly visits her apartment with toys meant for children she doesn’t have.
The situation quickly escalates as her father becomes angry and confused when she clarifies that she has no kids, leaving her deeply concerned and searching for answers. Read the original story below to understand the full context of this unsettling interaction.
‘ Dad came to my apartment with toys for two young kids. I do not have any kids.’
I have a s**tty, low rent apartment about 45 minutes away from my Dad’s house. It’s on the third floor, and you have to walk *into* the apartment building and up flights of stairs to reach my door. Yesterday around 6pm my Dad knocks on my apartment door.
I wasn’t expecting him so when I answered I was confused but pleasantly surprised. I greeted him normally and he gave me a side hug because he had a few toy boxes in his hands. Like Fisher Price toys for really young kids, even babies.
I didn’t say anything about them because I had no reason to assume they were for me, like I just didn’t even register them in my brain. He looked totally normal. He wasn’t breathing weird, wasn’t sweaty, his pupils weren’t huge, nothing was off with him visually.
When we hugged I didn’t smell anything weird, no alcohol or smoke or anything, but my face wasn’t too close to him. I said I was happy he dropped by but why is he here? He said he was in the area shopping when saw these toys (which he then held up for me proudly) and wanted to give them to “the girls”.
I said “Who?” and he gave me two names I didn’t recognize. I remember my brain sorting through the Rolodex of everyone I’ve ever met in our family terminator style and nobody matched.
As I’m standing there trying to match the names to any kids I knew of, he peeks over my shoulder into the apartment and asks if the kids are here or if they’re with “Mike”. Again, who is that? Apparently its my husband.
I must have been radiating confusion since now my Dad is looking just as confused as I am, but still keeping up a “good mood” kind of vibe. I tell him I am not married and have no kids. At first, he insisted I did, and when I reiterated that he just kind of shook his head.
At this point I’m getting really concerned. Is my Dad lost? Confused? Is he having some kind of breakdown? I ask my Dad if he knows where he is. He starts to get frustrated *really quickly* and confirms that yes, he knows where he is and who I am.
I start to ask him questions that I’ve seen in movies like “Do you know what time it is? Or the year?” and he just gets more and more angry. He starts shouting at me *right in my face*, yelling “YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?” and “ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME LOOK STUPID?”.
There’s bubbles of spit in the corners of his mouth. He went from 0 – 100 so fast it genuinely kind of scared me and I just retreated a bit into my apartment. When I backed away he took it as a personal offense and started screaming “OH NOW YOU’RE SCARED? YOU’RE SCARED OF ME? GUESS I’LL JUST F**K OFF THEN!”
He storms off, literally stopping his feet like a child down the hallway. I thought about chasing him but he was so irate that I didn’t think it was a smart move. Whole interaction was less than 5 minutes. I closed and locked my door and immediately start making phone calls.
Called my Mom, Uncle, and siblings. Nobody has any idea what just happened. I did ask my Mom and sister if *I* was the crazy one and did have children I just forgot about, they confirmed I certainly didn’t. Uncle says that Dad left the house around 4pm to run errands in my area, so that part was true.
I told him what happened and he said he’d try to figure out what’s going on and would call with updates. It’s tomorrow morning and I haven’t heard anything back. I spent all night trying to figure this out. Here are my theories:
– He has another kid somewhere that none of us know about, and that kid is married with two kids. But if thats true, why MY apartment? Did he confuse me with his other, hidden kid? He confirmed he knew where he was so I’m not sure. Did he drive here on autopilot?
He’d have to get out of his car and walk all the way up here though, which should have been enough time to snap out of it? The anger might have come from him realizing what he’d done and panicking, but it would have been so easy to make up a lie about what happened.
– He had some kind of mental breakdown. This was my first thought but he looked and acted so normal. He drove out here and went to a store and purchased items without issue, so he must have been in decently sound mind to do that.
Maybe he was somewhere else in his mind? I considered the idea that he was maybe “in the past” and thought I was someone else, but again he confirmed where he was and who I was, and I didn’t recognize any of the names as anyone in our family.
– He did this on purpose for some reason. I have no idea why he would do this. Drama? Our whole family loves to stir the pot but this is extreme, and makes *him* look bad which is out of character. If he were to manufacture drama, he’d want to make himself look good, so this would be a drastic switch in his dramatics.
Maybe sympathy? Maybe he’s going to play this up as some kind of stress breakdown? As far as I know his job doesn’t squeeze him too much. He’s had the same position for years and was pretty happy with it. The most he complained about was having to work overtime every once and a while.
– He’s developing dementia. I know early onset dementia could be the cause, but he’s just barely 50. Yeah he’s getting older, but not THAT old, and he’s never shown any signs of cognitive failure up until this exact point. This is a huge escalation from nothing.
If anyone else has any idea what is happening here, please share. Uncle has yet to call me back and my siblings can’t get through to my dads phone. I think it’s dead. I left a voicemail and texts on my Uncles line but who knows if he’s seen them.
I don’t have any authority in his life, the only one that does is my brother and he lives in another state so it’s not like he can help much. What the f**k happened to my Dad???
Here’s the feedback from the Reddit community:
The_Real_Scrotus − Something is seriously wrong with your dad. Even if he does have a secret kid somewhere, confusing you for them like that is already a bad sign.
Him somehow concocting a family you have and being *that* certain of it, along with the mercurial mood is a really bad sign. I won’t speculate as to what is wrong, but your dad needs to see a doctor yesterday.
Fidget11 − Your dad needs to be seen by a healthcare professional immediately. There are multiple possible causes of this beyond dementia (which you personally cannot rule out).
Things like schizophrenia, d**g reactions causing hallucinations, even things like brain tumors can cause seemingly other wise normal people to do things we might see as crazy.. Get him to a doctor asap.
Niodia − My dad had brain tumors late in his life. Yep, before anyone caught what was going on there were changes that seemed to not make much sense. He got them removed, and was around a few more years, but COULD have killed him years earlier.
He needs medical help, and fast, as someone said, or you may not have a dad much longer. (Brain tumors are only one of many things that could be going on!)
Maleficent-Ear3571 − When I started kidney failure, the chemicals in my system made me hallucinate. I was convinced that my favorite first manager was my doctor. She left her job, went back to medical school and saw my name and asked to be my doctor.
That’s what I thought. I didn’t feel anything but tired. It is like your brain is sitting in pee. I was in the hospital for two weeks trying to dry out my brain and clear my system of toxins.
The hallucinating wasn’t what initially put me in the hospital. My blood sugar dropped dramatically and I passed out. I say this to say that you and your family need to get your dad checked out asap.
GeromeDB − D**g side effects possibly? I had a family member, normal individual, was on statins for high cholesterol. Started to hallucinate events because the d**g started to cause his muscle tissues to break down,
the proteins jamming to his kidney function, thus a build up of toxins that began to effect his brain. Started out slow, accelerated quickly. Took a few weeks in hospital to counteract effects.
mostawesomemom − He needs to see a doctor. Early onset frontal lobe dementia, or a stroke can impact people in this way. My aunt was brilliant. The early onset frontal lobe dementia she experienced was frightening to watch.
PugGrumbles − I think it would be a good idea to talk to your uncle and see if there have been other instances in which your dad has had a spell like this. He and his wife would be the first to notice he has been different.
I worry that your last bullet point is the correct one and it’s so sad. He’s young for that but this incident would be a prime example of possible decline.
nudewithasuitcase − He needs to see a doctor.
watchingonsidelines − As the child of a parent who had a breakdown this is basically how it started. Odd behaviour and unchecked emotional rage. Days and weeks of normalcy then another odd thing, until they had a breakdown. Interfere now, or get someone else to. Whatever it is you don’t want it to get worse.
whichwitch9 − Medical intervention needed. Even if he’s confusing kids, he had a major break to not realize when he saw you.
What could be the reason behind the father’s confusing and angry behavior? How should the user approach this unexpected and unsettling situation? Share your thoughts below!