Staying Put
I was about 11 and my dad wanted me to come along with him to pick up some furniture about 30 minutes away. I made a huge stink about it, basically being an annoying little male adolescent turd, saying how I wanted to stay at home and play, I’d be really good, it was boring, etc.
He finally got fed up and stormed out and told me to STAY PUT and he’d back soon. About an hour later, he comes home in a police car, pretty shaken up, and just reached over and hugged me hard.
Turns out that he was driving down the highway and traffic got busy ahead, and this semi truck in the lane over tried to stop too late and jack-knifed.
When it was coming to a stop from swerving all over the road, it fell over on the passenger side of the car, right where I would have been if I had gone along with him. The car was totaled (obviously), with the entire passenger side crushed down flat. Actually, he was lucky HE made it out alive.
He never made another big deal about me coming along if I really said I didn’t want to go. Story credit: Reddit / bbergman1