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If you’re going on vacation, what do you put your clothes, shoes, toiletries and anything else you need in?

The answer for most people would be some sort of suitcase or duffle bag, but if you don’t have one of those, you have to use what you do have.

For the family in this story, they used garbage bags. The problem is one teen was tasked with loaded the car with the luggage and throwing out the garbage. But it’s hard to know which is which.

Keep reading to see how the story plays out.

I threw out the garbage like you told me to!

I’m 17, (this was years ago) and my mother decided we’re going to go on a several thousand miles, or kilometres, trip from where we live to Toronto area.

My learner’s permit had expired because she couldn’t find the time to let me take my test and so she was going to be the only driver.

I couldn’t even get it renewed because she would need to sign for it.

Okay, so she’s stuck doing all the driving. Note that for future reference.

It sounds like it was kind of good timing.

At the same time, the landlords were supposed to come in and repaint the apartment.

The assistant landlord had come by multiple times during the day to ask when we would be leaving. So not only were we packing, but we took everything out of the closets, away from the walls, and more. This was from the tenancy board and they were supposed to paint when we were away.

Note that too.

It could be easy to confuse which bags are garbage and which bags are luggage.

So, we got harassed to go on our “vacation” earlier.

In the process of doing so, I would take bags, and bags, and bags down to the car. Bags that were obvious for our luggage. Then I had the garbage runs in between.

She’d find garbage, bag it up in a grocery bag, and yell at me to take it out to the big bin below. Bags for car – cloth or luggage. Bags for the garbage? Grocery bags tied with a knot. Luggage – on the small bench we had. Garbage? on the floor in front of the bench or where we hung the garbage bag.

I obeyed. Everything on the bench went to the car. Everything that was a tied grocery bag went to the garbage.

Everything was fine until OP’s mom needed a different pair of shoes.

See where I am going here?

So, we lock up the apartment and take off.

About 4 hours in, she has developed a blister.

At 6 hrs, she stopped and searched through the luggage for the “grocery bag with my shoes in it that I tied in a knot!” Searched through the luggage = tore the entire trunk apart in the middle of a road pull out. She needed another pair of shoes, and fast.

The shoes were nowhere to be found.

A quick discussion, once she came down from ballistic, and it was guestimated that one of the bags on the floor that I had thrown out was her prized shoes.

I don’t remember seeing shoes in any of the bags, but that’s besides the point. >>I<< threw them out.

We managed to get to the next mall, and found a Kmart (remember those?) and she bought two pairs of shoes – but no band-aids for her blisters, and kept on driving.

The entire vacation, I was grounded cause of her shoes, even though it was her fault.

Here’s what it looks like to be grounded on vacation.

If she had wanted the shoes, why weren’t they in her luggage?

Of course, being grounded by her meant I got to stay in the AC in my room, while she and the rest of the family spent time outside.

No driver’s license? Well, that meant she had to do all the driving.

Found out from my police officer uncle that I could have driven right across everything she drove and could have spelled her. Found out the same thing from the border patrol when we made our trip back too.

This would be so frustrating.

We got back, and no painting in the apartment was done.

I laughed my arse off at all the work we had done and they, once again, didn’t do what they were told to do.

And where were her shoes? Probably the landfill. It took her years to replace them all, and I never had to make sure her shoes were someplace while I lived there.

The grocery bag I threw out. Because she told me to throw out the garbage that was in the tied grocery bags. That she was yelling and screaming at me to hurry up so she could keep on packing.

Here’s the real problem. The mom was using trash bags for trash and trash bags for luggage. Don’t they have any suitcases, duffle bags, backpacks or anything they could use for luggage besides trash bags? The mistake would be too easy to make.

I’d be upset about the painting situation too. I definitely wouldn’t find it funny.

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

This person criticizes the teen.

But this person criticizes the mom.

Another person comments on moving, but this family wasn’t moving.

I’m surprised nobody commented on the fact that their place wasn’t painted while they were gone. I almost thought that was the whole reason they were going on vacation, so they wouldn’t be in the way while the painting was happening.

I think the mom has two reasons to be upset. The painting wasn’t done, and her shoes are gone.

The teen also has two reasons to be upset. He still doesn’t have his driver’s license, and his mom is blaming him for something that’s not his fault.

If only she had used something other than trash bags for the luggage, she’s still have her shoes.

This definitely sounds like a frustrating vacation.