13 Parents Who Chose Their Kids Even When It Cost Them Everything

Most parents say they’d do anything for their kids. These ones were actually tested. When danger, injustice, or impossible odds stood in the way, they didn’t hesitate to act. These stories show what happens when parental love turns into an unstoppable force and why some parents truly would move mountains.

• My dad never really had many friends and didn’t have much of a social life when I was young. He had a few work friends, and sometimes they came over for cookouts and sometimes we went to their family events, and sometimes he helped them with things on the weekends like moving or working on a car. But he arranged his work schedule and his social life to be at home as much as possible after school and on weekends. My mom wasn’t emotionally stable, so he took over where she failed and was always around to be the “sane parent”. © H**eticHouswife / Reddit

• Growing up, my dad never came to my matches. Football, track, anything — he’d drop me off and leave. I stopped looking for him in the crowd after a while. One day, years later, a teammate mentioned seeing him outside the ground every game, sitting in his car. I realized he’d always been there, just far enough away that I wouldn’t feel pressured or nervous knowing he was watching.

• My dad never argued with my grandparents when they criticized me. He just stayed quiet. I thought he agreed with them. After I moved out, my aunt told me he fought with them constantly, just never in front of me. He let them think he was weak, so I wouldn’t grow up feeling like a problem everyone was arguing about.

• Growing up I (22 now) played softball. I was a catcher so I had to have double the equipment on top of uniforms, tournament fees, gas to get back and forth from practices and tournaments, and even private lessons. As a kid I never realized how much my dad actually made (I didn’t realize it until I entered the work force as an adult). He had one daughter in college (13 years older than me) plus my mom who couldn’t work, yet he always made sure I and my sisters had everything we needed. Looking back I realize all the things he sacrificed, time, sleep, money, and more.
  © -T******Wolf / Reddit

• My mother had A LOT of debts from a lot of credit cards, it wasn’t because she had a shopping addiction or something, she used them a lot because her salary was not enough to feed me and my sister and she needed to use them to pay for our food and other needs. I found it out when I was about 19 years old and the bank seized all of her money because she couldn’t pay the debts anymore... the bank also told her that they were going to continue seizing her future salaries, she literally remained with $0... I still remember how much she was crying and how desperate she was, fortunately a good lawyer found out about the incident and contacted my mom, he told her that it was illegal to take all of her money and that they can only take a part of it... so he talked to the bank and convinced them to return back all what they took, he never charged for the legal process or anything, he was just a great man. Since then I started to help her to pay her debts, we are almost done. © sunintheradio / Reddit

• My parents never asked what I wanted to study. They just said, “Do what you think is best.” I took it as indifference. Years later, while helping them move, I found brochures, cutoff lists, scholarship printouts, all for fields I’d casually mentioned once and then abandoned. They’d kept updating the folder long after I’d stopped talking about it, just in case I changed my mind and needed options immediately.

• I knew we grew up pretty poor, but my grandma told me three weeks ago that my mom and dad would alternate which nights they’d eat dinner. I didn’t know it was that bad. © Tiff_Rex / Reddit

• My mom sacrificed her knees. When my brother and I were kids, my parents were sort of poor. My mom took a job in an automotive factory and worked 60-80 hours a week on her feet in a hot factory just so my brother and I had everything we wanted and needed. Years later, she ended up needing to have both knees replaced. She was immobilized for some time, which led to other health issues she’s still battling with today. I think about it pretty often and wish I could have realized it back then and expressed my gratitude. She always put my brother and I before everything else even if we simply wanted something but didn’t need it, she’d work overtime to make sure we were able to get it. © Cheese_Pancakes / Reddit

• My mom gave up her dream job for me. I’m disabled, and growing up I needed a lot more care than I do now, even if I do still need care. My mom got her degree, she went back to college for me to give me a better life but when she was offered her dream job she learned I would lose the benefits that paid for my experience medication, covered all hospital costs and surgeries and with me having maybe two surgeries a year or more she knew even with her job she couldn’t afford it. So, she declined it to keep me living basically. She did this as a single mother too. Even if I feel bad she gave up doing a job that would make her happy for me I know she did what was best for my well-being. © Starlight_sky / Reddit

• My mom worked daytime and my dad worked nighttime so that me and my sister always had at least one parent home at any given time. It made us feel safe and we were never alone. This continued on well into our teens. © Deechon / Reddit

• I used to think my parents were unusually relaxed. No curfews. No phone checks. No questions when I came home late. After my dad died, I was fixing a blown fuse and found a notebook taped behind the fuse box. It had my routes, bus numbers, friends’ addresses, emergency contacts, all crossed out and rewritten again and again. I broke down that day. I wish I could tell my dad I love him one more time.

• I lost my hearing at 12. My dad didn’t talk to me much since then. I thought he was ashamed. On my 13th birthday, I screamed at him, “You can’t even look at me anymore!” I ran to my room crying. Hours later, he walked in and my heart stopped when I saw him signing fluently, tears streaming down his face. “I can look at you. I see you every day. I’ve been learning sign language for a year 3 hours every single night after work, plus all weekend. I stayed silent because I refused to make you struggle reading my lips while I was still learning. I wanted to speak to you perfectly, in your language, not mine. Tonight was supposed to be the surprise I was finally ready. I’m sorry you thought I was ashamed. I was just preparing to truly talk to my daughter again.”

• My parents are imperfect, but they did a lot of things right. The biggest one that sticks out to me is that they’re supportive of things my brother and I like, even when they don’t understand or like them. They didn’t care for skateboarding, but they spent hundreds of dollars over the years for my brother to enjoy his hobby. They not only helped me get a drum set but also allowed the band to hold practice in our basement and drove us to all our shows. They wanted me to be a lawyer, but they were willing to settle for a line cook. It made a difference in the long run because it helped me realize that I get to make my own choices in life. Nothing is laid out for me. I can do whatever I enjoy, and my parents will be there for me, cheering me on. © mgraunk / Reddit

It takes a special person to be a good parent. Here are 10+ stories that prove parents would risk anything for their kids.