A grandmother gave her granddaughter a book to read after she realized the girl was struggling to read because she was learning with an iPad, sparking a debate about technology and parenting.

Look, I get that all of us are busy. There simply isn't enough time in the day to do the things that we need, let alone want, to do. Technology has long promised us the ability to reduce or cut out the time it takes for us to fulfill the obligations and tasks in our lives that keep us from getting to the things that we want to and should be spending our time on.

But all of this really begs the question. Where is the line between things that we can be leaving to technology versus things that we should be doing ourselves? Even if, and especially when, we don't want to do them, and there are more convenient technological "solutions" available.

These people had a major "main character" moment, and everyone else around them was there to witness it. 

Something I see a lot these days while wandering the city is people who are literally singing and dancing as they walk. They usually have their headphones in, so no one else can hear the music. We just have to assume it's a poppy upbeat song by the way this person is dancing their way across the street. Sometimes they'll sing — to music only they can hear — making the rest of us a captive audience to their impromptu karaoke session. This is fairly harmless, and sometimes kind of endearing, but it also does scream, "Give me attention! Look over here!" 

There's certainly a lot of micro-influencers who think the world owes them bigly just for existing. I think a lot of these people are working on a "fake it til you make it" kind of basis. They want to be the influencer who turns heads, makes 5 videos a day, and is recognized as a leader in their specific video genre, so they just turn up the entitlement to 11 and make everyone else around them deal with it. 

Larry is the UK's oldest and longest-reigning mouser at 10 Downing Street. He's been employed through six prime ministers, and he's still kicking.

There are many famous cats that will hopefully be remembered furrever in our history books: Grumpy Cat, Smudge, Nyan Cat, and now, 'Larry' the cat, who in 2026 celebrated his 15-year anniversary as 10 Downing Street's most purrfessional mouser. At 19-years-old, he may be a sassy senior, but he still gets the job done. Well, he does his best, and what he might lack in youthful energy, he makes up for in cuteness.

Larry was officially hired in 2011, when the media made a big fuss about a rat on Downing Street. Although some may question his actual hunting skills, we all know that he's really a purrsonality hire. He's often seen lounging on official cars and greeting dignitaries, and he even has an official X account where he publicly states his (very pointed) opinions. 

All in all, Larry is a stand-up cat who has become a meowconic figure in the UK's history, and we wish him many more years of happy employment.

It's always, "Rules for thee, but not for me."

You can play all your cards right. Befriend the mean one at work, never complain when a colleague asks you for assistance, and be a semi-doormat for higher-ups. Even still, you'll always get the short end of the stick. This is partly because you already allow yourself to, but also because everyone wants to take and nobody wants to give. At the end of the day, it's important that you not only look out for yourself in the workplace, but also look out for yourself in your own headspace. If the coworker you trusted now treats you like dirt on the bottom of their shoe for a childish reason, let them. When they need you most, you will be nowhere to be found. That's just how the cookie crumbles.

The story below features two employees, one of whom is a bit of a slacker. The other employee decides to vocalize this to their supervisor, who then speaks to their colleague to settle the slacker issue. Instead of taking the criticism politely, they choose to give the employee the silent treatment. When the employee tries to apologize for whatever they may have done to sour the relationship, the colleague doesn't want to hear it. That is, until they need four of their shifts covered.

Unfortunately for the colleague, the world doesn't resume spinning simply because she said so. The employee wants nothing to do with her, and that includes helping her navigate shift coverage. Even when the colleague tries to rekindle the work friendship, the employee refuses to bend a knee to her childish, manipulative ways. Scroll below to read about the aftermath. What would you do in either position?

If a stray cat is extremely friendly to humans, that is the first major sign that it may belong to someone else. 

We would like to think of ourselves as cat whisperers. We love cats, we try to pet each and every one that we see, and every once in a while, we encounter ones who… let us. Those rare extra-friendly stray cats who, for some reason, love human attention. We pet them, and we feel like we are on top of the world. But we know that this is rare. We know that friendly stray cats are few and far between, and even those friendly ones probably feel some trepidation toward humans.

If a stray cat approaches you, from our experience, it is usually for one of a few reasons. Maybe you're one of the lucky ones who gets adopted by a stray cat. That happens. Or maybe the stray is a pregnant momma cat in need of help. Happens too, more often than you'd think. Or maybe, just maybe, that friendly stray belongs to someone else. It's an option that you have to think about. Extreme friendliness in strays points to a lack of fear, and that lack of fear has to come from somewhere. It is your duty to try to find that someone else before you start making claims. 

You don't choose family, that's a given. What you can and should absolutely choose, though, is to cut off a cousin who treats your credit card like a family heirloom that everyone is allowed to borrow

In a world full of terrible landlord stories, it is really wholesome to come across the opposite. 

We think that everyone is pretty used to landlords being universally hated. It's a thing. Same for bosses. It's just the thing that people expect. It's almost jarring to hear about the opposite. Suspicious. And for good reason. Most of the stories that you hear about landlords, especially in the context of pets, are not good ones. Stories about landlords demanding pet rent at ridiculous rates, as if pet rent is not ridiculous enough as it is. Landlords demanding you declaw your cat, either not understanding the consequences or not caring about them. Landlords being superstitious about black cats and kicking their tenants out because of said cats. 

Whenever you hear a story about a kind landlord, you pretty much find yourself surprised. But we don't think it's as rare as it seems. We think that the other stories are just louder. Or at least we hope so. We hope that stories about kind landlords, who act like people and treat their tenants like people, stories like the one that we have for all of you today, are far more common and simply go unnoticed among all the drama. 

This one goes out to all the employees who fear that the reason they are not properly compensated is that upper management is collecting higher salaries than they deserve.

This author was responsible for bringing millions of dollars in revenue to his company. He had two managers. The first was a friend who once mysteriously said that he was being taken care of monetarily during a difficult time for the company (more on that later). The second was a more standoffish type, the kind of guy that you wouldn't necessarily trust with giving you credit for your own projects.

Despite working at the company for almost half a decade, the employee had not received a proper raise in 3.5 years. When he discovered why that was, he uncovered far more foul play than he ever could have anticipated.

Cats are the A-listers of a cat lover's favorite meowmories. 

Like Brad Pitt in the 90s, cats are the star-studded main characters of a cat lover's life, whether they realize it or not. Although many cats are cool and confident at all times, other cats, the scaredies, the fat, and the elderly, may need a little more convincing. Luckily, we humans are here to be their happy servants, providing cuddles, playtime, and an endless supply of tunafish treats whenever we hear their beckoning meow. 

All a cat has to do is snap their paws and wiggle their whiskers, and their favorite humans come sprinting to serve them. Royal ambassadors of good vibes and pawsitivity, cats do their duty to us as well. Judging from atop the fridge and lounging in the windowsill, cats use their vantage point to survey their happy home. It's no wonder they perch atop their families, coming to kitty conclusions about their 42nd meal of the day, the frequency of their feather games, and the ideal cuddling temperature. Cats have honed their feline senses to reflect their ideal world, and it's up to us hoomans to decipher the kitty code to create the purrfect, cat-approved home. 

It's up to us to give the house cat the happy, healthy, sunlit life that they deserve. Because they give us all of the happiness in the world, with one purr or one meow, so we owe it to them to reciprocate. 

Cat memes will flip your frown when you're feeling down.

Source? Trust us, friends. Seriously. If you're here, you're pawbably a feline lover, which means that one look at a cat can boost your mood from zero to 100 very quickly. If there's one thing we know for sure in this world, it's that the best way to move throughout your day is with funies, feline content, and a bunch of friends to keep you company! If those friends are felines, even better.

We hoomans are getting cabin fever. We haven't had a warm day in ages, and the last time we didn't have the heat on in our homes was in October. Save us, summertime. Our cats need us to open our windows so they can hear the birds chirp and feel the warmth of the spring sun on their fluffy backs. While we're awaiting greener, warmer days, indulge in some furry purry feline comedy. It can only help!

Knowing he had a scaredy cat since day one, this cat lover did everything in his power to make his kitty feel comfortable in his apartment, so when the mom and 8-year-old down the hall started insisting on pet playdates with the cat, he drew a hard line in the sand to keep his feline comfortable. 

Scaredy cats are tough to lure out of hiding. Like wild animals, scared cats are spooked by every new sound, every weird smell, and every unknown touch. It can take a cat lover months, even years, to coax the loving purrsonality out of a cat that they know is hiding behind their fear. It's no wonder cats are scared of so much; they're tiny little beings! Although they may not realize it, cats are powerful critters, but they are tiny morsels that could easily become hurt or spooked by the big-bad outside world. It's for this reason that many rescue kitties are traumatized by anything new. 

But when a cat, especially a scared rescue, decides that they trust you and are willing to love you back, cat lovers have made it to the magnum opus of their pspsps achievements. Nothing can take away the bond between a once-skittish cat and the cat lover who taught them to love again. 

This is why the man in the next story was so adamant against a pushy mother. Although it was sweet at first when the little girl down the hall took interest in his feline, their playdates and 20-minute play sessions were starting to degrade the kitty's feeble confidence. The cat's behavior and comfort started to backslide, and he was hiding and hissing again. So the man did all he could to protect his rescue cat, deciding that the little girl could no longer come over and play with the cat. 

It's not that the little girl was being rough or mean to the kitten; this rescue was just not ready for anymore strangers in its life, and it yearned for the companionship of only one hooman: The cat lover who saved it in the first place.

She showed up for food and stayed for good.

Last spring, a tiny white-and-orange cat started tagging along with the big black tom cat the family had been feeding. She was small, cautious, and clearly unsure about people. Meals became the bridge. Day after day, the husband and son put food out and gave her space. Slowly she stopped running so fast. They named her Scottie because of her butterscotch patches, and the name stuck as she started showing up like clockwork.

She made every decision herself. First she ate in the yard. Then she decided the garage was safe enough. The door to the house stayed open, but nobody pushed her. Some days she stepped inside for a few seconds and bolted. Other days she stayed a little longer. When the weather turned cold, she chose warmth. By the time snow arrived, she was sleeping inside like it had always been the plan.

There were already two orange cats living there, so Scottie fit in almost suspiciously well. She's still tiny and glued to Thomas, the big tabby she decided was her best friend. The family didn't set out to add a third cat. Scottie simply moved in and made it official. Now the house belongs to three orange cats, and nobody's complaining.

For these workers, quitting their job was the best possible move. 

You don't hear this kind of thing often. The advice, rightfully so, is that you should always attempt to move upward in your career, rather than horizontally or downward. Most people don't want to backtrack and make less money, or lose out on their health benefits. But for a lot of folks, making that enviable 6-figure salary comes with a high cost of it's own. They suddenly go from working 40 hour weeks to spending 80 or 100 hours working with their high-pressure clients and perfectionist bosses. They realize that their kids are growing up without them. They can't even enjoy their vacations because their bosses are contacting them the whole time! It's enough to make them sit back and think, "Something needs to change." 

In a brave move, these people did quit their demanding jobs, and many of them feel that they've been changed for the better! 

Sometimes it feels like the world is burning down, and in cases like that comforting cat memes rush in to save the day! 

If you feel like the world is burning, like the future is so terrifyingly unknown, like you can't handle anymore bad news, then it's the purrrfect time to luxuriously scroll cat memes. Why do you think everyone is harking back to 2016? The past always feels simpler, and through the eyes of nostalgia things will look rose-colored from afar. There's a strange cultural gravity pulling people towards the past, towards their nostalgic enjoyments from times that felt bereft of the certain climate we live in now. Scroll through social media and you'll see those grainy festival photos, early Instagram filters, and memes about simpler times. It's a very specific type of nostalgia, it's the rapacious longing for a year that holds a feeling. Part of it is psychological. Nostalgia tends to romanticize periods that felt stable, formative, or socially cohesive. For many people now in their early to mid 20s, 2016 is when adolescence thrived, where you were old enough to feel independent and form your own story of good memories and childlike fun, but young enough to feel carefree and unburdened of responsibilities. Memory softens the rough edges of adolescent awkwardness of confusion. 

So if you're feeling down, confused, or like you're too worried about the direction the world is shifting in, loosen the edges of your worries with these silly, hissterical, and purrfectly comforting cat memes to really drive you into ultimate distracting bliss. 

Life has a funny way of paying us back for what we do – like getting a "package" from a customer when you're a delivery driver and meant to be the one delivering goods. 

Off on the road, a long list of addresses ahead of you to dispatch the respective goods at homes who have ordered something. We all know the joy of receiving a package after making an online purchase, but in the story below, the deliverer comes out with a surprise gift. He delivers a certain package to a home, but before he can drive away, he notices a little kitten right under his car. He tires to get her to budge, but it's no use. He speaks to his customer, and she gives him the thumbs up to take the cat and enjoy her. He comes home with a gift himself, a little kitten to love furrever. 

Making friends has never been more complex than it is today, and this dude sparked a lot of conversation with his claims that he's been measuring his friendship "returns on investment" with a spreadsheet. 

How do you determine whether or not a friendship is good for you? There are tons of answers to this question, which could be answered by a therapist, thought leader, philosopher, parent, or your resident Fail Blogger. 

I think if you hang out with someone and you leave elated at their presence every time, and your friendship grows richer the longer you know them, that's a good friendship, no? 

But that is not a solid enough answer for everyone! Many people enjoy hard, empirical data that backs up everything. That's why people buy Oura rings that monitor their sleep, Apple Watches to track their exercise, and select any of the hundreds of apps used to track diets, travel, dating, goal-achieving, and even Letterboxd, to track movie-watching habits. You can quantify anything you want to, if it helps you (perhaps literally) sleep better at night. 

Man types on calculator and computer while surrounded by spreadsheets. 
Photo via Getty Images on Unsplash+
The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

This tenant had a tough time cleaning up after his former roommate's mess, to say the least.

Many of us have had regrettable experiences with cohabitants at some point in our lives. The trials and tribulations of sharing space with someone are often difficult to overcome. People have been raised a certain way and often think that their way is the acceptable one. As soon as you have to share a kitchen, a bedroom, or a living space with another person, all that you have come to know about apartment living could be challenged entirely.

This tenant had the unfortunate experience of living with a roommate who not only refused to honor his own wishes, but the fool also wouldn't honor the agreement he made with his landlord. The worst part of the whole debacle was that the author often had to take the fall for the roommate's inaction.

How many times a day does a cat pawrent have to look at their floofy feline child and think to themselves, "Why are you so weird?"

Every person who ever raised a cat knows this by heart. At least once per day, your cat would do something strange, wholly weird, or absolutely bonkers, which will only beg the question of "Why are you like this?" And to be honest, there's no conclusive answer to that one. Cats are simply weird, and the sooner you accept this universal truth, the better. Because why bother yourself with unanswerable questions, when you can bask in your cat's absolute bafoonery? Enjoying the fact that you raise a ruckus cat sounds much more enjoyable than trying to decipher why your cat eats curtains, sings you the song of their people at 4 AM, or tries to parkour on the ceiling.

And honestly, enjoying the fact that your feline friend is a little coo-coo is great. So we give you some meowing memes to celebrate it all together.

When you have competitive colleagues who will do anything to get ahead, they shouldn't be surprised when you decide to return the favor.

We all have that one colleague who would walk all over anybody in the office just so their foot is in the door. When opportunities arise, they're the first ones to abandon ship on whatever project they're working on so they can dip their toes into something more elevated. They're kind of like the teacher's pets of the corporate world; no matter how much they might try to train it out of themselves, it's just not going to happen.

Without fail, you'll run into an opportunity of your own… What do I mean by that? Well, sometimes, an arrogant colleague might not be privy to certain information in the office, and they'll have to rely on others to inform them… That "other" might be you, but you have other plans for this colleague of yours.

Scroll below to read about an employee who decides to withhold important information from their colleague, who usually goes out her way to make the employee's life more difficult in the office.