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Hey Pandas, What Were Some Strange House Rules You Had When Growing Up? (Closed)
I don’t mean anything that might be considered abuse or trauma; just some random rule that seemed fine to you at the time, but looking back now realize it was not quite the norm.
For example, at our house, we were not allowed to say “dang it” because it was “too close to swearing”. We were also not allowed to walk on the front lawn because my dad didn’t want us messing up the lines he’d mowed into the grass. As teenagers, if we borrowed money from our parents, they would charge us interest on the repayment at whatever the going rate was at the bank.
Is anything quirky going on at your house?
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Hard to say. Rules in my house were used whenever my parents felt like it and often made up on the spot. But you were expected to abide by them anyway. More often than not they applied only to me and not my brother since he wasn't going to listen to them anyway so why bother?
Not so much the rule was strange, but the reason behind it was. We weren't allowed to watch the Simpsons, because my sister tried to strangle my brother like Bart did to Lisa!
We had to always make sure we cleaned behind our ears when we had a bath or else there would be trouble!! Why was it so important that the back of our ears always had to be spotlessly clean??
Some ppl can sweat a lot and the back of the ears can get smelly. So just like every part of the body, it's smart to wash off all the bacteria, skin cells, etc.
Even as an 18yo(f), I wasn't allowed to date during the week, which made sense looking back at it as a 50yo now. But I also could only go on a date on the weekends, had to be home by 9pm sharp - and I couldn't date the same guy twice in the same weekend. As if I even had a boyfriend, much less more than one to be able to switch... Made zero sense to me. OH! I also wasn't allowed to call guys, even while in college (living at home) because "Nice girls don't call boys. It's up to the boy to call." This WAS back in the early 90's, however. It still felt so unfair to my teen/early 20's self.
You were not allowed to breathe too close to my mother's couch.
If you wanted to sit or lie down on the couch, you were always reminded not to breathe too close to the fabric. My mother was convinced that this would result in mysterious stains that could never be removed.
Chore Chart: Daily & Weekly
If you did your chores, you were rewarded with allowance $$. If Someone Else did your chores, They would be rewarded with Your Allowance $$! At 1st, I thought it was messed up to have a Chore Chart. But when my parents saw that my sister was Cheating the Chore Chart when she bullied me into doing her chores and mine, 😁 I got rewarded with Her allowance 😂🤣
OMG, my sis did that with me when my mom tried the Chore Chart! So my mom cancelled the Chore Chart, assumed I did more, and snuck treats into the house that were meant for just me.
Probably the weirdest rule ever: “no eating in the dining room”.
i am the youngest of three with my siblings being several years older than me. growing up (this was in the '60s), there was a living/den room for everyone and then a more formal living room for when my parents were having people visiting. that room was decorated in french provincial and was basically a gold and white room. we were never allowed into that room. we also had two separate backyards - one in which we could play and do whatever we wanted to do. it was separated from another smaller garden that mom loved with roses and other flowers. it had a small table and a few chairs under a tree. she and her friends would visit there in good weather. we could go and sit there if we wanted some quiet time but nothing ever rambunctious. the other thing i remember was that mom was a neat freak. we called her the 'white tornado' after a cleaning commercial that was popular at the time. no finger on the walls. no running hands over the kitchen appliances to leave smudges. and, especially, no leaning or rubbing against the walls. this last one got to her one time after my brother and his friends kept rubbing their shoulders and arms while moving through the entry way and hallways. so, she had someone come in and re-plaster (?) the walls with a decorative pattern that left little spikes of plaster. her thinking was that it would keep them from leaning and getting smudges on the walls. it lasted one day because she tripped going to answer the door, fell against the wall and tore herself up. the next day she had the guys come back and sand it all down smooth. when i asked her why she did that she said she was an idiot for thinking the kids wouldn't get hurt but was glad it happened to her instead. yeah, mom was unique but she was an awesome mom.
I grew up like that too. (Born Jan '72) the living room and foyer were completely OFF LIMITS! In case someone from church, school, neighborhood, etc... stopped by. We (kids) weren't even allowed to enter/exit the front door like 95-98% of the time! To enforce this rule, the door would be locked so we had to go around to the kitchen (back) door and MAYBE we would be allowed to enter the house.
Predict Dad's mood and desires by telepathy. OK, that wasn't how it was phrased, but that was the idea.
never allowed to watch tv during the week,and not allowed to have any electronics in room.never got in trouble so there wasnt any reason as to why.
My mother and I were not allowed to watch day time TV ever by my father. If we tried we'd feel so guilty we couldn't enjoy it. In the 70s/80s there was a Farmhouse Kitchen programme which had fabulous recipes but in the afternoon and we both loved it. I still have the recipe books now. When my father retired he settled down to watch daytime TV absolutely fine! I wasn't allowed to watch cowboy and Indian films, nor music videos. As long as you're not a coach potato and have done all chores and played outside, I cánnot see any reason for my restrictions or the OP s here 😔
Chore "contracts": Clean your room, then you are allowed to go out saturday night (I didnt wat to go out, but was punished for not "cleaning properly").
Next week: Clean your room and the litter box, then you are allowed xyz. OK, but: I had school until evening, by that time the kitchen trashbucket had to be already emptied, which means per algorithm the litter box was already cleaned. So I (yes, me) did break the contract and was punished, apparently for attending school. (Central Europe, if someone wonders.)
Next week: ... well, some horsecrap every week, of which 50% was not beneficial and 50% was impossible to fulfill correctly.
F*ck you, mom.
Sorry about the other comments, I agree that people should be grateful to the parent who gave birth to them but that does not mean that you should have to tolerate your mother's stupid rules.
I was not allowed to watch certain Saturday cartoons as they were "too violent" -- though slapstick sort of violence was I guess OK (3 Stooges, Roadrunner/Coyote, etc.). The idea was, you become what you watch.
My father and stepmother were extremely overbearing control freaks. When I ate dinner with them, I had to cut food using the knife with my left hand, switch the fork to my left hand to take a bite, then sit my knife and fork down while I chewed a minimum of 45 times. Then, for the next bite, repeat the process. This was only one of a million asinine rules that they, themselves, never followed. Would it surprise you that we are NC?
We were poor. So every time we ate cold cuts, we had to cut it in half so it would last longer. And here comes the punchline.
Every Sunday the dog would get wat was leftover.
Wasn’t allowed to watch or listen a lot of music because of my ultra religious upbringing. Examples: Smurfs because witchcraft, TMNT because they were mutants. The only metal I could listen to was Stryder (Christian metal) and rap was DC Talk ( all white christian rap group).
BRO oof u had to live without tmnt? And I hope ur rule isn't in effect anymore bc if not then the world of JRPGs has opened
No being in relationships with guys, whether it be platonic or romantic. That sucks, since all the girls in my grade don’t want to be friends with “that one autistic, woke, weird kid”. My parent’s fear is that I will start dating a guy or something, even though I have never experienced romantic or sexual attraction to someone in my entire life (I’m a teenager by the way).
The look on my parents face when they found out that the kids in my grade are all guys minus me and one other kid 😂 absolutely priceless
Sonic and Pokemon were temporarily banned from our house when I started mimicking some of the characters rude mannerisms.
You can't spend money you earned at your job unless it was gas insurance or food(once or twice a week). you owned nothing, everything can and will be taken away includes items that you bought. I had to ask to do anything with anyone and include a detailed plan of what would happen. If you asked to do thing it would just irritate the parental figure. If you doodle in your notes 2 weeks of being grounded. Had to be home by 10, if late car privileges will be taken. No passing toast under the door
My mother, who was not much into keeping things tidy herself, insisted when you used the butter you left it in a perfect block shape. If it wasn't perfect there would be shouting, name calling, punishment etc..
Some of the post seem common sense while others are borderline abusive
Don't tell Nancy (me) she's a foster kid. We'll tell her when she ages out. MFers.
We weren't allowed to flush our toilet paper because it could clog the septic tank. Instead the used paper was thrown into special waste baskets which my brothers and I had to collect and merge with our other organic trash. Makes me gag just thinking about it.
We were 5 kids and had to re-use each other bathwater. Only when it was cold, we could let a bit out and add a bit hot.
Hated it when I got into my teens. Just disgusting.
My dad took a Bath every day and he didn't had that rules.
Once breakfast was eaten, we had to clear the table, wash up, dry put away then clean the table, then repeat at lunch and dinner time on a Sunday, if there were leftovers, we got supper if not we went without.
No devices. I used to have "Device " Time", (AKA a few hours on my computer while my mom breathes down my neck.) But my parents almost never give me any time on devices anymore. In fact, I'm writing this on my kindle now, without my moms permission! Also, I can't have a phone until I'm 16, or say words like God, Hell, Stupid, Dumb, and she gives me an "Allowance", but the money goes straight into her bank account. Once I got $100 for my birthday, and she took it from me, and I never got to spend it. Everyone we were at a store, and I asked to buy some this with MY $100 dollars, my Mom would say it " wasn't a toy buying trip."
I'm so sorry. This is so controlling. You should keep a ledger of all your money. My mother stole all mine. This post is extremely triggering of my teenage existence
No listening to worldly music because the demons are attracted to it
No Christmas, Easter, birthdays ECT.
No friends who are worldly
No fashionable clothes
Prayer before every meal even if it's just a snack.
No boyfriends
No higher education allowed until you live under my roof.
Yep it's just a few I could write a book about it
Welcome to the world JW.
Always get permission from parents from both parties before hanging out, parent must meet friend’s parents before hanging out. ASL (age, sex, location).
Don't see why this is weird. I as a parent also want to know wo my child hangs out with.
We always had to be quiet during the weather. It always came on during dinner, and my grandpa would pick up the remote and turn up the volume. That was everyone's cue to stop talking. Mid-sentence conversations would just stop. Then when it was over, he would turn the volume back down and normal conversation would resume.
When I was little, my sister and I were banned from whistling around my dad. He's an immigrant and he said that back home, he used to get spankings for whistling around his elders because it was "rude." To this day, I have never heard anything like that, but it could have also been that my dad was just annoyed that we were whistling.
We were also never allowed to have sleep overs; that meant no one sleeping over at our house and we couldn't sleep over at anyone else's house. I understand that one now that I'm older.
I also didn't get a phone until the end of my freshman year of high school. My parents were always against screen time and we were often not allowed to use the family TV during weekdays. My parents' reasoning was that I would become: "depressed," "lazy," and "irritable." All of my classmates had phones in middle school, so it was hard getting through my first year of high school without any way to connect with them. My parents are still against me having a phone (I'm a teenager), but after I pointed out that THEY ARE THE ONES ALWAYS GLUED TO THEIR SCREENS, they agreed to sign an actual contract for the usage of my phone.
Me and my siblings also didn't have doors on our rooms until I was 11 and my sister was 9. My parents did this so that we couldn't "sneak things" into our rooms.
Before I created a BP account I didn't have the confidence to talk to other students, I was very lonely and that made my anxiety worse, I failed my English exam because I had an anxiety attack when I realized that I would probably not share another class with most of those students. My phone has greatly improved my mental health, I have made a few friends on this site and gotten the confidence to talk to other students, phones can cause problems but they also helped me socialize. They could have at least given you a phone specifically to text and call people with.
Not super strange, but super annoying. My friends definitely thought it was weird, though.
Sleep-overs had a 10pm lights out rule, as my mom would want quiet and not hear us past 10pm. She was mean about it, too.
At my dad's and step-mom's, the rules got weirder.
I wasn't allowed to watch You Can't Do That On Television, nor The Addams Family.
Punishments for being a kid, having kid accidents, included humiliation in front of the family, smacks and being sent to the corner. I never got that at my mom's.
Everything piled on your plate had to be eaten, regardless how full you were. If you didn't, you were punished.
Rules were sort of made up as she went along. Me and my step-bro used to always sit on the floor, watching TV and play Nintendo. 10 years later my step-mom is scolding my half brother for sitting on the floor because "that's where feet go".
We always had to be quiet during the weather. It always came on during dinner, and my grandpa would pick up the remote and turn up the volume. That was everyone's cue to stop talking. Mid-sentence conversations would just stop. Then when it was over, he would turn the volume back down and normal conversation would resume.
