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Shoes off the second you walk through the door, dinner no later than 7pm, or no TV before bed – these are just a few examples of house rules many people follow; and definitely not the craziest ones there are. It’s not uncommon for families to have rules—saying yes and thank you reportedly being the most common one of all—but some can seem bizarre at best for those outside of that home.
Members of the ‘Ask Reddit’ community have recently discussed house rules that would make many visitors scratch their heads in confusion or even fear some of the inhabitants there. User ‘Center_Power_Unit’ started the discussion by asking fellow redditors what was the strangest rule they had to follow when at a friend’s house, and quite a few people shared their experiences. Scroll down to find netizens’ answers on the list below and see just how crazy the rules in some households are.
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#1
Alright, I’ll throw a sweet one in here to break up the depressing stories.
At my best friend’s house growing up, whenever we would swing by her house, her Abuela (who raised her) would always have a plate of hot fresh food for us and had us sit down and eat it before doing anything else. Not in an abusive, mess with your relationship with food kind of way, but in a “Abuela made you some food and it’s the best food you have ever eaten, and it was made with so much love”.
Food was her love language, and even though she only speaks Spanish (I didn’t), you always felt loved when you when to her house and that was never lost in translation. I still miss her tamales.
(Belatedly realizing this sounds depressing since it sounds like she is dead. She isn’t. I just moved).
Michael D Bresnahan 1 year ago
I miss my Mexican friends in California. Whenever I visited their homes they were always so friendly and welcoming. Their cooking was amazing and always stuffed me like a pinata. They spoiled me eating at Mexican restaurants now, it's just not the same.
Jodi Rinker 1 year ago
My cute granny's typical greeting was, "hi. how are you? Are you hungry?"
Sheena Leversedge Wood 1 year ago
sounds like the kind of person who would have taken a lot of pleasure and pride in seeing her children's friends enjoying the food she provided them with. language barrier or no, I bet it meant a lot to her
RELATED:
#2
I had a friend in elementary school who had a controlling a**hat of a father who also worked some wacky hours - like had to be at work at 3 am. God bless him for providing for his family, but he forced everyone to adhere to his schedule. He needed to go to bed at 4 pm, so “dinner” was at 2:30, the landline phone was taken off the hook at 3, and everyone was expected to complete their evening baths/teeth brushing, etc and go to bed at 4. No tv, nothing. He expected the house to be quiet.
In addition to these ridiculous rules, he insisted that if his daughter was going to come to my house for a sleepover, then I had to go to their house. Every other sleepover had to be at their house with his ridiculous rules. Every other friend bailed- I think the “no tv” was the dealbreaker. But as young girls, the no giggling probably also played a role. I can still close my eyes and picture that ape of a man losing his s**t and screaming at other people’s children for giggling.
Anyway, I did it. I stuck it out. Because my friend needed somewhere else to go and I could do that for her.
She who must not be named 1 year ago
You're a good friend, those nights at yours were probably her only escape so good on you for helping her where you could
Sue User 1 year ago
Just as important, it showed them there was a different way of doing things. Thats the insideousness of childhood abuse. Most often the kids dont even realise it. They know of no other way.
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Susan W. 1 year ago
I do wonder where the Moms were in these scenarios. Perhaps just as afraid of the fathers?
Rahul Pawa 1 year ago
I wonder if this was a single parent situation. It would certainly explain a lot.
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Joanne Mendonza-Earle 1 year ago
There is no way that children could possibly function w/ that kind of schedule unless they were home schooled. Dinner at 230? Most kids don't get out of school till 2 or 3. Homework would take awhile, and getting ready for bed. And they could never have any after school activities either.
Couragetcd 1 year ago
The kids would have plenty of time for homework when they weren't allowed to make any noise or want or tv.
Load More Replies... Rahul Pawa 1 year ago
It sounds to me like working that schedule was super stressful for him. He wasn't handling it well. And the every other sleepover thing sounds like he was really concerned about feeling like he owes the other parents, or "score keeping" mentality. I really get that, I like my relationships to feel balanced.
Catpawsarethebest 1 year ago
Exactly! Wonder how henwouldnhave been with better working hours! People act like everybody has to be perfect all the timenno matter the curcumstances. But imagine him, being sleep deprived and maybe depressed, maybe feeling like a failure with no way to turn it around and trying to provide for his fsmily as well. Everybody would break. Not that its ok but how would he have been in another setting.
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Ouss Ben Aziza 1 year ago (edited)
Mental illness that is masked. That is what this is... He is still a massive d**k for not figuring that out about himself and seeking help. I hope the girls can have happy lives despite this senseless suffering.
Bryn 1 year ago
I would say toxic masulenity & not being able to ask for help, even though he really needed it.
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John Dilligaf 1 year ago
how the heck does a schedule like what's described here work for kids in school ? Unless they're homeschooled I guess.
Melissa Longee 1 year ago
Growing up my self and my siblings had friends of the Mormon faith, we were confounded by the no TV, no music or dancing, no pants for the girls and definitely no makeup or dating. But hey, they had to eat a LOT fish and got roped into working with us at the soup kitchen at our Catholic Church. I still dearly love and respect all of them.
dremetrius 1 year ago
Whenever the subject of Samwise Gamgee comes up I always see a lot of people saying they wish they had a Sam. Which, fair enough, but never do I see anyone say they aspire to be someone else's Sam. But here the writer is the real life incarnation of a Sam.
#3
Your butt must be in the dinner chair at 6 PM sharp even if dinner is not quite ready. No speaking at the dinner table unless asked a question by an adult. You must eat everything on your plate, and cannot ask for seconds. No leaving the table before the Father (you could hear the capital F) dismisses you.
Coming from a family where dinner was a joyful affair where everybody talked about their day, I was shocked.
Mrs Irish Mom 1 year ago
That sounds scary, it would make me scared to eat and scared not to eat plus i would get everyone in trouble with my nervous laughing
EmAdoresHerKats🇮🇪🇩🇿🇵🇸 1 year ago
Could you imagine that happening at an Irish table? Not a chance
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ॐBoyGanesh 1 year ago (edited)
Debase, dehumanize & de-individualize to destroy or minimize any sense of free will/autonomy is the correct way to establish one’s dominion. If one is an ego-tripping, narcissistic sociopath.
Roger9er 1 year ago
'Must eat everything on your plate.' Buaargghh! As a child I had a friend where that was a rule as well at his house. His mother also put the food (waayy too much) on my plate. Couldn't leave the table untill I was finished. My mom got mad and called her, never ate there again (she must have said some serious stuff, haha!).
Liz The Biz 1 year ago
My mother always made me sit at the table until my plate was clear. Sometimes it would take me hours to eat a meal if I didn't like it. I thought this was normal until I left home. Looking back it might seem harsh but my parents were both kids during WWII when everything was rationed and waste of any kind was considered abhorrent. Sometimes they didn't know where their next meal was coming from. Even now I still clear my plate because I too don't like to waste food.
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UpQuarkDownQuark (he/him) 1 year ago
When I went to my friend’s house for dinner, I was blithely unaware and just jabbering away at the table. I finally got my friend to respond to a question, and before the second word was out of his mouth, his dad grumbled, “Richard! The table is for eating, not for talking.” Everyone lowered their eyes and ate silently. His mom was such a warm, welcoming and funny person, and everyone who knew her cherished her. But I can tell you that not a lot of people showed for his dad’s funeral, and I don’t think anyone misses him. At least the dinner table was quiet and your kids didn’t dare sit in your special La-Z-Boy, Hugh! Nice legacy you left!
Liz The Biz 1 year ago
A similar thing happened to me when my boyfriend's parents invited me for a family meal. What he didn't tell me was that there was no talking allowed at the dinner table, so I was chatting away, and the whole time his dad was glaring at me. Afterwards he said to me, "Mealtimes are for eating, not for talking."
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Col Prettyman 1 year ago
I had a grandmother and an aunt/uncle like this. It's no wonder we were allowed to refuse to go to their houses after we were able to voice things to our parents. If only this was the worst of it.....
Joanne Mendonza-Earle 1 year ago
I had my elementary school best friend over a few times and at the time, I didn't know about DV and things going on at her house. My dad was from S. America and when he'd get talking or laughing, he could be loud, and he talked with his hands a lot. My mom told me years later that she noticed my friend would flinch or look scared when my dad was talking or telling a joke while we ate, getting louder and gesticulating wildly for emphasis. Mom and I would be laughing at his story, and my friend would then smile when she realized she wasn't gonna get a crack across the face, which probably went on in her home at dinner.
#4
Idk if it was a rule but we stayed the night at my mom's best friend's house. For breakfast we had cereal. He kids had it with milk, my sibs and I had to eat it with water.
I asked why and she just told me "No you can use water, the milk is for my kids."
I told my mom and she flipped out on her for that bs and never talked to her again.. it was a terrible betrayal especially since my mom did a lot for her.
My mom is the best.
Michael Largey 1 year ago
Doesn't sound like it was really about the expense.
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Col Car 121 Car 1 year ago (edited)
Always treat a guest better than the householders. If we had unexpected guests for a meal, a signal would be given of FHB. Stands for family hold back. Take smaller portions so there is plenty for the guests. Family could always get a Peanut butter and jelly sandwich or cheese and crackers later.
Melissa Longee 1 year ago
My aunt, my mom's brothers wife, attempted to feed all of the kids hot dogs while the adults were having burgers, broiled snapper and steaks at the first bbq they hosted. My grandmother, mom and aunts set her straight with a quickness
#5
At age 12, I stayed at this girl's house, and she said some s**t before bed like, "Dad keeps an eye out so we're safe."
This didn't bother me til I rolled over at midnight and her dad was in a chair next to the bed we were in, just staring at us. Naturally, I got out of that bed and walked home, ignoring their calls and sprinting when they got in their car to follow me.
ConstantlyJon 1 year ago
I mean, the sitting by the bed is creepy AF and dude was probably a creep. But also, if a kid is staying at your house and then they walk out of the house in the middle of the night, it's kinda the responsible thing as an adult to follow them in the car to make sure they are safe. It's a lot different when they're trying to get away from you though.
#6
I had a friend whose dad was obsessed with the vacuum lines in the house and would vacuum multiple times a day. We weren’t allowed to walk on them because it would mess them up so we had to tip toe around the edges of rooms if we wanted to go anywhere in the house. I witnessed him beating the c**p out of her for “messing up one of the lines” my parents didn’t let me go over after that.
BrunoVI 1 year ago
The Dad is apparently mentally ill. Not sure what impact that has or should have on the moral or legal culpability, but it's sad all around.
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Patricia Smith 1 year ago
Obsessive compulsive violent behavior. Should be institutionalized until he's stabilized on meds and never allowed around his family.
nottheactualphoto 1 year ago
I think it refers to the marks left on a carpet when you vacuum it, due to the carpet nap being pushed one way or the other.
Load More Replies... Joanne Mendonza-Earle 1 year ago
One of my friends lived in a beautiful house and her mom had plastic runners down for all of the carpets. So basically we couldn't ever sit in the livingroom cause the runners didn't go to the chairs.
#7
My friends dad was divorced and lived in a big house with his new gf. he made women wear their hair up at dinner. We had to wait for him to sit before we could start eating. We could not leave until he was done. We weren’t allowed to speak unless her dad asked us a question. We got in trouble for playing outside in the yard without permission. As punishment we had to clean his shoes. I said something to my friend like is this how your dad always is? And he heard me and told me if I spoke about him again he would slap me across the face.
Speak easy buttercup 1 year ago
Let my daughter(or any of my kids for that matter) come home and tell me some dude threatened to slap them and see how fast I go to jail! Just saying...
BoredPossum 1 year ago
Yep, in my country it would be illegal in many ways, psychological violence, abuse, threatening another person. Kids should have more rights and legal protection than adults, not less.
ॐBoyGanesh 1 year ago (edited)
I was just gonna say that this reeks of the JW/LDS cultists. Been listening to the podcast, “Shunned,” and this is a common thread with the fathers.
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Vinny DaPooh 1 year ago
Go ahead. Slap my kid for talking about you. They're gonna call you stumpy the rest of your life
Kelsie Marx 1 year ago
I hope you never went back, and that you told your mom. That’s not right at all!
Robert Beveridge 1 year ago
I hope "cleaning his shoes" involved defeating in them as a bonus.
#8
Rule: Blankets are only allowed to be used on the bed.
I spent the night there only once because they kept their house freezing cold in the middle of winter and had me sleeping on the couch in the basement. I wore my winter coat to bed and used his coat as a blanket. I was 9 or 10yo and it was f*****g miserable.
BoredPossum 1 year ago
If someone would treat my kid that way, I'd be over in 2 seconds having stern words with the adult in charge, possibly with the police as well and then cutting all connections.
Joke de Bruijn 1 year ago
In my youth, short after World War II, I was born in a house like that in Rotterdam, no central heating was normal that days, but in both livingrooms a heating with coal. We heated only in one livingroom, there were two, one for the sunday. Our bedrooms were so cold in the winter, there were ice'flowers' on the window. But lots of woolen blankets kept us warm, we had special knitted bedsocks. And I did not mind being in the cold room. We were used to it, slept with 2 sisters in that room.
Magenta Blu 1 year ago
That's how the rest of the world lives since not all countries have central heat
#9
At my childhood best friend's house, I had to wear disposable shoe covers over my shoes or socks and rubber gloves and I wasn't allowed to sit on any of the furniture because her mom didn't want me touching anything. I was the only one who had to do this. Her brother, cousins, or her other friends didn't have to. Just me. I visited her house six times before my mom was like "no, you're not going there to stand around like a statue. B comes here to play or you two don't play at all." I found out years later, after my friend's mom died, it was because she didn't like white people. I was my friend's only white friend. I also discovered that if she visited my house, she would go home and her mom would scrub her down in the shower.
GlassHalfWay 1 year ago
I'm surprised he went there 6 times and did all that. I don't think I'd come back after the first visit.
Marcellus II 1 year ago
Kids accept remarkably many things as normal; they have less to compare it with after all. This is what allows a lot of abuse among other things.
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Danish Susanne 1 year ago (edited)
Such rubbish. You don't have to have a special color or faith to dislike others for not having the same.
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Brandon Parisien 1 year ago
There's a certain Andromeda actress who's a bit racist...oddly her husband is of the race she doesn't like :p She says it's OK to be racist towards white people. I used to like her, I don't now.
#10
Stayed at a friend's house one night and the family communicated exclusively through whispering...not just hushed voices but full on hand to ear. Serious mind f**k.
ॐBoyGanesh 1 year ago
I’ve neighbors who are virtually silent when home. A typical mom, dad, teen son & older teen daughter. They watch movies/shows, odors or listen to music exclusively through headphones. They never or rarely have shared experiences whilst home because they’re all off quietly doing their own thing, minimizing interaction. The extends to meals, which are taken in each own space. They believe this is the way to respect others in shared spaces. Meanwhile, I come from a large family with a very loud home and anything remotely like their home would be taken as a silent treatment or insult of some sort. There’s a nuance to knowing when & how to interacted and be vocal or make noise. These kids aren’t going to leave the nest with paramount respect for other’ privacy & quietness, but come across as withdrawn & disinterested.
Shaunn Munn 1 year ago
It might be that someone has misophonia. I wish my family knew I had it, and that I wasn't a crazy kid. My home is now very quiet and my husband uses earbuds or plays volumes low out of love. Every day I let him know he's my hero. No kids. It wouldn't be fair to them.
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dremetrius 1 year ago
The image chosen for this story was very well chosen and perfectly demonstrates how creepy this would be to see in person.
Pamela24 1 year ago
Isn't it? I'm not saying in any way it's close to hard abuse but not being allowed to speak normally ever sounds pretty controlling and unreasonable.
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#11
I stayed with my girlfriend's family for a few days one college break. They had a rule at breakfast that you could never have just a single type of breakfast cereal - it always had to be a mix of two different boxes. But not any two - had to be flakes with flakes, or Os with Os. I don't know what Cap'n Crunch matched with. I had toast.
Robert Beveridge 1 year ago
Cap'n Crunch goes great with Golden Grahams, if you ever up needing to answer that question.
Marcellus II 1 year ago
"My parenting manual said kids need rules, so I imposed this one; the rest they're free..."
Dreaming Spirit 1 year ago
This is a stock photo (shared by photographer free of charge for use in websites in exchange for link), so no, not OP's girlfriend. But I agree, the model has beautiful eyes!
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Mark Kelly 1 year ago
I would sometimes combine a healthy cereal like bran or wheat one with more kids, sugary ones.
Mark Kelly 1 year ago
WTF? My parents didn't care how we ate our food. I can't imagine people that psycho. I can not think of one weird or crazy rule my parents had.
#12
I wasn’t allowed to throw any “female waste products” in the house, aka I’d have to wrap my tampon or pad and throw it out in the outside trash…I went home.
G A 1 year ago
Why did this even come up? I mean, why did you need to tell anyone in the first place? I don't get it, as surely they would just find out when emptying the bin, and then it would only matter if they didn't use bin sacks...I dunno...odd.
Neopet22 1 year ago
I can imagine that if OP threw something in the bin and the person who enforced this rule went to the washroom after them,they probably saw it and flipped a lid.
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#13
I’m white but I grew up in a black neighborhood.
4-5 of my freinds parents wouldn’t let me use the front door. A couple wouldn’t let me come in their house at all.
Jinx (she/her) 1 year ago (edited)
My friends grandmother wouldn't let me use her bathroom to change my tampon when I was like 14..I had to walk home leaking
Nykky 1 year ago
I would have taken it out and left it at her front door. Clothes were already stained, might as well not worry about the blood poisoning. And since it's considered a sort of biological threat to throw stuff like that directly at someone, just put it at the front door. Leave a stain. She was a woman at one time, it seems, she should know that that just happens. What a b***h.
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Two Cat Studio 1 year ago
I, too, have been a victim of black-on-white racism. It's probably the last form of racism discussed in the USA.
Sensitive Issues 1 year ago
sounds just like it is, pay back. The kids are paying for what their parents and grand parents did. My father was a huge racist and wouldn't let us bring our POC friends in the house. My oldest sister and her friend learned the hard way she told us younger sibs never to bring our friends home. it was best because he was an abusive As*Ho*e anyway. My sister still has nightmares about how horrible he was to her friend, that poor little girl. he was a POS.
#14
I was 11 and spent the weekend at a friend's house. Her mom got us (me, my friend, and her 9 yo brother) up super early. After breakfast, she told us we had to go outside, and no matter what, we couldn't come back in until 6 pm. I asked her what we were supposed to do for 12 hours. She said, "Have fun!". She left a pitcher of water and 3 cups on the porch swing and locked us out. Apparently, they were used to being locked out all day every Saturday and Sunday while their mom was in the house alone. I went to her neighbor's house and called my mom to come get me.
Mrs Irish Mom 1 year ago (edited)
Poor kids and very selfish mom, someone should have called cps
CrunChewy McSandybutt 1 year ago
People on this platform have a warped view of what Child Protective Services (CPS) can do. They are overwhelmed by actual, life-threatening abuse cases, so kids getting locked out of the house wouldn't even warrant a house visit.
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Diolla 1 year ago
Had neighbors like that once. They would lock out their kids for hours. Problem was, the kids were about 3 and 6 at the time and they just left the older brother to look out for his younger one. One day they wandered into my garden (which has a 1.80 meter fence and a door which is always lcosed), the younger one fell into a mini pool I had in my back yard and almost drowned. He was saved by his brother. I wasn't home at the time. Had a talk with their dad after the incident and he said, "well, you know, those little ones always like to wander around". WHICH IS WHY YOU HAVE TO SUPERVISE THEM AT ALL TIMES. Sorry for shouting but the stupidity of this guy bothers me up to today. Anyway CPS got involved, his thrash wife (who did the lockouts) left the building, and he is now doing much better with his kids, it seems.
Kathie Mihindukulasuriya 1 year ago
We had neighbors like that growing up. The kids would make sure to play with someone at lunchtime and go home with them for lunch. My parents thought their parents were nuts, but always fed them.
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UpQuarkDownQuark (he/him) 1 year ago
Do some people not realize that you can actually, I don’t know, *do* things with your kids?
iBlank 1 year ago
When I was that age my brother and I were obsessed with video games and my parents forced us to spend hours outside, but never to the point of locking us out. It was also the suburbs in the 90s, so worries about safety was minimal.
Sue User 1 year ago (edited)
Yep. I sent the kids outside but they could always come in ( well knock and yell cause the floor might be wet). However, i would make them a picnic and give them a camera to take pictures or send them on a bug hunt.
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Lsai Aeon 1 year ago
This was normal in the 80s and 90s. We raised ourselves, feral and had all kinds of fun
dremetrius 1 year ago
They sound just like boomers. Confusing *choosing* to be outside, along with the knowledge that home was open and available to you if you needed it, with this. Excusing neglect because they didn't die from it, so clearly it's all fine!
Load More Replies... #15
Friend’s family had this nice house with a nicely finished walkout basement with a kitchen, main area, bathroom and two bedrooms. It was furnished as if it was an apartment and the entire family including three kids lived down there full time while the four bedroom upstairs was fully furnished and they would only use the main part of the house if they were hosting company. It was bizarre going over there because we’d get in trouble if we tried to play in the big unused part of the house. When I asked him why they all lived in the basement he said his mom doesn’t want to have to clean it all the time so they just didn’t use their big house. It was so weird.
dremetrius 1 year ago
I do think this is a great idea, if you can swing it why not? However in this case, 3 kids to one bedroom is not okay.
Load More Replies... GlassHalfWay 1 year ago
Buy a smaller house? I mean, how often are they hosting guests to where this is their lifestyle? It's definitely unusual.
Con O Cuinn 1 year ago
Inherited maybe. My house is a 4bed and I'm single but I can't sell for a decade without paying crazy inheritance tax.
Load More Replies... Lily bloom 1 year ago
I had relatives like this. One story house with finished walkout basement with full kitchen and bathroom. The main floor kitchen, living room, and bathroom were for special occasions only. One aunt had plastic over everything and an actual velvet rope blocking the enrtyway into those rooms. They did sleep in the bedrooms on the main floor but that was about it.
Cathy Lemay 1 year ago
At one point it was common for Italian people in Montreal to have a good "show" kitchen and another downstairs where the real stuff happened. I had never heard of it back in the Maritimes though. I don't know if the younger generation kept it up.
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_-DungeonKeeper-_ 1 year ago
It makes sense even for me, who is someone who never had anything like this. You have a really, really nice basement, a basement you could even rent to people, and the upstairs would be bigger, thus more to vacuum, dust, etc, than the basement. Solution? Switch the guest and main area. Clean less, and you have a great guest space.
Tom Brincefield 1 year ago (edited)
2 adults & 3 kids in a 2 bedroom apt makes sense? What would make sense would be sell the white elephant and buy something that actually fits their needs.
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Colleen Glim 1 year ago
When I bought my house, I knew it wasn’t gonna be too much longer before my girls moved out. Buy a house with an eye towards the future. If you don’t wanna clean it now, you definitely aren’t gonna want to clean it later. Ridiculously large houses are a waste of time and money
Heather Atwood 1 year ago
Wow! My dream house is big (I have 4 kids and a huge extended family) but I can live in just a part of it so that I can close off the rest of the house for energy conservation etc. Open it up for company!
Colleen Glim 1 year ago
How often do you have company? Buy a smaller house and company can just deal with less than ideal arrangements
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Lara Verne 1 year ago
It's not that unusual. My relatives, who are pretty well-off, did this. They have big, shiny, beautiful kitchen, dining room and huge living room. But they use it only with visitors, otherwise they cook in a small kitchenette downstairs and use two smaller rooms in their house as living room and bedroom. Their reasoning was similar - they wanted to keep unused rooms clean .
#16
My best friend’s parents used to make all their kids (and kids’ friends) come into their room at 9 pm and kneel at the foot of their bed to read scripture and pray with them, while they laid in bed. So weird looking back on it…my friend is now “living an alternative lifestyle” and has very minimal contact with them.
Andrew Keir 1 year ago
I bet it was the parents who chose the scriptures they wanted to be read. Many parts of the Christian Bible just don't suit being read by children to adults ...
Ouss Ben Aziza 1 year ago
Indoctrination into a cult is abuse as a baseline anyway.
Load More Replies... UpQuarkDownQuark (he/him) 1 year ago
I wonder if the kids read Isaiah 13:16 - “Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.” Or maybe Ezekiel 23:20 - “…and lusted after her paramours there, whose members were like those of donkeys, and whose issue was like that of horses.”
BoredPossum 1 year ago
Would never ever set my foot in that house again. My religion is my business and I'm not gonna be converted or part take in blasphemy or ungodly behaviour. Ramen.
dremetrius 1 year ago
Sounds to me more like the parents were living an alternative lifestyle, that s**t definitely should never classify as normal.
Bec 1 year ago
I had a girl tell me that when she and/or her brother got in trouble they had to go read out of the Bible until their stepdad decided it had been long enough. They were supposed to read out loud and she said if he wasn't really paying attention they would just mumble unless he came in to check.
Joanne Mendonza-Earle 1 year ago
A college friend and I went to Philly to visit her parents....stayed at their house. Keep in mind, both of us are like 21 or 22. She took me all around sightseeing and shopping in the city, hiking in a local park, etc. Very Catholic family. We were headed back to Boston on the Sunday. Her father tells us Sat. morning, 'you can go to 5pm mass tonight or get up early before your flight and go tomorrow.' He was dead serious. Missing mass was NOT an option. We chose 5pm that night and made sure we were back from our adventures in time.
Bo'owowo'uh 1 year ago
Those verses in I think Genesis (?) where Lot's daughters... do some unspeakable things
#17
My high school best friend’s dad wouldn’t let her or her sisters’ friends in the house if they had “masculine” colored nail polish on. It had to be neutral (white/beige) or feminine (pink/red). No strange colors like green and yellow and absolutely no blue or black. Well I’m an elder emo millennial and I loved my black nails but I kept nail polish remover in my car so that I could remove it before going in her house. It’s been 20+ years since I’ve seen that family and I still think of them anytime I paint my nails blue or black.
Bookworm 1 year ago
Wonder what his reaction would have been to a boy with 'masculine' colored nail polish?
Joanne Mendonza-Earle 1 year ago
I was using blue, green and black my senior year of high school, 1981/82 and it was not at all common for anyone to use those colors yet. I took a lot of guff for it too. I was wicked into British punk and new wave at that time. Everyone thought I was weird.
#18
In second grade, I went to my new friend's house and their whole house was split up by the "inside" half and the "outside" half. Inside = the hallway to the bedrooms and bathrooms, and outside = the living room and kitchen areas. The children were supposed to stay "inside" until dinnertime when we could go back "outside" to eat together. It was absolutely wack and I never went there again.
Anyway the dad ended up trying to k*ll his whole family with a flamethrower years later. And their dog had worms.
Diolla 1 year ago
Ah! Must have been the dog's worms turning the dad psycho by affecting his brains. On a serious note, my home is divided like that, but withouth the rules. It's just that the "inside" ( in my case the upstairs) is not for visitors.
Verena 1 year ago
Same. And no street-footwear upstairs. Ok in the non-carpeted areas on the ground floor.
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_-DungeonKeeper-_ 1 year ago
1: I don't get why you'd separate the house like that. 2: ...why? 3: this makes me the angriest
#19
I wiped my mouth on the provided cloth napkin. I thought they must be very fancy, we used paper napkins at our house. I looked up and they were all staring at me. “Those are *decorative*”. The next morning the mom pulled out her food journal and laid it open so we could see how little she had eaten. We ignored it, so she felt she had to announce it, “I’ve only had an apple and a low-fat string cheese today. [daughter], have you and your friend been pigging out?”. Yet it was cool to let us speculate as to whether the hot tub was safe to enter because her brother liked to watch, and he liked to have relations with the intake valves after he watched. I didn’t stay over again.
Johnny McFearless 1 year ago
Why am I afraid to imagine what the "relations with the intake valves" are?
Rahul Pawa 1 year ago
It's like the mom was trying to transfer her eating disorder to her daughter.
Paddling Panda 1 year ago
Trying? She IS transferring her E.D. to her daughter. I can all but guarantee it
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#20
I slept over and we had to go to bed at 7pm, then in the morning his mother would not let me leave to go back home until I had a shower and dressed in identical clothing to my "Friend" we then went to McDonalds where his mother left me to figure out my own way home.
Joanne Mendonza-Earle 1 year ago
In high school I had a friend whose dad got up wicked early so lights out at 7pm downstairs. Fortunately she had the run of the whole upstairs and he didn't seem to mind our talking or listening to music. He was.....stern. My mom always used to remind me to mind my p's & q's over there. He was pretty rough around the edges. My friend actually enjoyed provoking him all the time...she thought it was funny, but I pretty much didn't speak unless spoken to over there! hahaha Her mom was awesome though.
#21
A friends mum did not like when a wall power socket was turned on at the switch but with nothing plugged in. According to her, it would leak electricity onto the floor.
Robert T 1 year ago
All ours were also religiously turned off when anything was unplugged, or if the thing was plugged in, but not in use. It is marginally safer if you then come to plug something in and the socket is turned off as whatever doesn't immediately start up. It can also protect appliances against power surges. Turning sockets off when things like TVs and chargers are left plugged in also helps prevent fires and does reduce electicity consumption a little, though most things these days have very low stand-by current consumtion - back in the olden days with CRTs, they often used to keep the tubes energised when in standby!
Max Fox 1 year ago
James Thurber wrote how one of his aunts would make sure that the lights were switched off if there were no lightbulbs in the sockets. However, this was in the 1910s, and the aunt grew up without electric wiring in her home, and, more importantly, with gas lighting. If you left the gas on without the light working, gas did leak into the home and was very dangerous.
Definitely a Human 1 year ago
Might just be what she told the kids. It's safer to leave them off.
Bryn 1 year ago
Yup. I can see kids asking why & her coming up with some random answer.
Load More Replies... Fat Harry (Oi / You) 1 year ago
This must be the UK. I'm not sure I've seen switched wall sockets anywhere else.
Glitcher 1 year ago
That's kinda cute until she kept believing it. When we got our very first microwave, my mom put a cup of coffee in it for 5 minutes. It started boiling much sooner than that. Not knowing any better, she bravely ran to the door to open it, shouting to us; "stand back so the microwaves don't hit you!" And then we learned that it shuts off if the door is open. But until we knew better, my mom was so brave for us.
Bob Brooce 1 year ago
Was the new mom she got after the first one got electrocuted from walking across the floor also insane?
_-DungeonKeeper-_ 1 year ago
You should unplug unused things, but no it won't leak electricity. It will just waste it.
#22
My friends mom would yell at us for swimming because we would make her have to do laundry and was all the towels. She would then tell us we can’t sit inside and play video games all day long. So we would leave and usually go to my house which also had video games and a pool. She would then call my mom and yell at her if we were playing video games or swimming. After like 2 of these calls my mom never would answer her calls.
Joanne Mendonza-Earle 1 year ago
Oh for crying out loud. My mom basically taught me to hang the towel on the line before going in the house, shower in my suit so it got rinsed off, then hang the suit on the line. The designated pool towel would get washed after a day or so, but if it was only used to dry me off out of a fresh water pool, there was zero need to wash it every time.
Nikole 1 year ago
Exactly! Shower in your suit and hang the towel up to dry.
Load More Replies... Mark Kelly 1 year ago
WTF? My mom let me and my sibs play video games but we also went outside voluntarily also.
#23
My husbands mother kept the kitchen locked. You ate the meals she cooked in the dining room and that was what you got. They were very wealthy so it wasn’t a matter of food insecurity. Oh, and they were allowed one soft boiled egg for breakfast on Sunday. He left home at 17.
Kiss Army 1 year ago
My father learned food insecurity as a child and it lead to him making sure his children always had plenty to eat not the other way around.
Load More Replies... LonelyLittleLeafSheep 1 year ago
I don't blame him; any sane person would leave as soon as they could.
Jay Cee 1 year ago
One of my nieces went out with a boy whose family had the same dish at dinner on a weekly rotation. Every Sunday was a roast, every Monday cold cuts, every Tuesday spaghetti, every Wednesday . . . They broke up because he never knew what would be offered for dinner at my brother and SIL's house and it got him confused!
Mark Kelly 1 year ago
WTF? My moms rule was don't go in the kitchen after 11 but didn't lock up stuff but that was more to not disturb her because at times she stayed up later than us. It made sense.
Petra 1 year ago
"You ate them in the dining room", not "she made them in the dining room".
Load More Replies... #24
This rule was enforced for their children but not their children’s friends- whenever they used the bathroom their mother made them specify if it was “tinkle” or “kerplunk”.
We were all around 10 years old, not toddlers that needed bathroom supervision. I was always embarrassed for them.
Some guy 1 year ago
Why can't you hear a pterodactyl urinate? Because the "P" is silent.
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BunnyMommy 1 year ago
Could have been for a check on the plumbing situation. We've lived in older places where we needed to keep track of the amount of toilet paper that was used. A kerplunk would have helped in that situation. Not so unusual after all.
Bec 1 year ago
Then she would ask the guest too. We had like water supply in the summer, so #1 might be a no flush depending on the situation
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#25
The neighbor lady would take care of me as a kid when I'd get back from school and my parents were at work. She wouldn't let me turn on the t.v because I would "waste it" and I couldn't sit on her couches even though they were wrapped in plastic. I was on the floor once with my back against the couch and she scolded me. F*****g witch. I don't know why my mom was friends with her. If I'm ever mad at my mom I call her by that woman's name.
Joe Reaves 1 year ago
Be sure to remember her when choosing mum's care home though...
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Rahul Pawa 1 year ago
Mom was friends with that lady for the cheap (or possibly free) childcare.
Anna Ekberg 1 year ago
Maybe the mom didn't know she treated her kid like c**p? Did he ever tell the mom? Kids don't tell you everything and nobody is a mind reader.
no adhesiveness 2020 1 year ago
My grandmother left me with a baby sitter in about 1966. The woman kept probably 10 kids by herself in a fenced in yard. The ice cream truck would come and she would buy ice cream for her two grand kids while the rest of us watched. I remember talking with a friend I reconnected with in high school about our shared experience. We likened it to being in a POW camp, walking around the fence. I get it wasn't abuse, just bizarre. Nanny Nugent.
Petra 1 year ago
Unfortunately, the trend seems to be coming back around.
Load More Replies... Sensitive Issues 1 year ago
Your mom wasn't "friends" with this woman, she used her to watch you and the woman felt used. sorry you got the brunt of it.
#26
At a friends house, I was asked to pay for dinner. I thought it was a joke, but they legitimately asked me to bring money next time if I expected to eat. They said it didn’t have to be the exact amount.
Same family, asked me to bring my own sheets blankets and pillowcases because they thought it was more sanitary than me using theirs. They were especially worried about pillowcases.
Be clear, these were nice people.
Snorkeldorf 1 year ago
Long, long time ago I went over to a friend's house after school. Had never been to her house before but we had a lot of fun. I was supposed to go home at 4:00 p.m., but she asked if I could stay a bit longer and I said I'd have to call home and ask. She said they had limited phone calls (an option on the phone bill in the olden days) and I'd have to give her mom 10 cents. I didn't have it, so she checked with her mom who said those were the rules, so I went home. Her dad was a mailman and they lived in a really nice house. Maybe it was just a good way to make sure kids didn't outstay their welcome.
Petra 1 year ago
OP is likely saying that they are nice in general, not that they were nice in this particular instance. Even the nicest people in the world aren't always nice 100% of the time.
Load More Replies... Mark Kelly 1 year ago
In theory it might be more sanitary for people to NOT bring other bedding into their house.
Tom De Paul 9 months ago
Again, my general question: how do they not know their behavior is weird? Do they watch TV or read books? The Bradys and the Waltons don't do these things. Because a lot of these people seem to have strong religious beliefs: I don't think these strange rules/behaviors are found in the Bible, either.
Mark Kelly 1 year ago
I had someone ask me to pay for bedding laundering after I stayed at their house but it made sense since it cost them to do it.
#27
MIL, def not a friend. Breakfast is a full meal, and everyone eats together and at the same time. It’s 8:30 am. Lunch is at 1:00 pm, another full meal. Snack is at 4 pm, always includes alcohol. Dinner is at 7 pm, another full meal. At each meal they say grace. MIL goes to bed as soon as she finishes eating dinner, and someone else is to clean up. A full meal means meat, and three side dishes. One is always fruit. If any food is leftover from the previous meal, it is served at the next meal the same day, along with all the food that’s freshly prepared. If you’re not hungry when she declares it’s food time, you have to eat anyway. And if you are hungry when she hasn’t declared it to be a meal time, you aren’t allowed to eat.
GlassHalfWay 1 year ago
That's a lot of food to eat in a day. I guess it depends on how much food is at a "full meal".
🦄 Unicorn Princess 1 year ago (edited)
OP states that a full meal is meat and three sides.
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The Starsong Princess 1 year ago
This is very old fashioned. My grandparents ate like this when they were young - no snacks, no waste and every meal was a large sit down one. But it was a very different lifestyle with eight kids and everyone doing heavy farm labor.
Kelley Baltierra 1 year ago
So the snacks at four pm that includes alcohol. Do the kids get that too?
Col Prettyman 1 year ago
My grandmother used to make me eat everything on my plate when I wasn't hungry. It caused a lifelong eating disorder called bulimia and mental health issues because she expected me to be bone skinny. I wasn't and I'm not and it started with her and continued with my stepmother and dad. Dad got better the others didn't. I stopped associating witb the others LOL.
Kaeda 1 year ago
Former bulimic here too. The physical damage that we do to our bodies is nothing compared to the mental damage. My best wishes on your recovery!
Load More Replies... Petra 1 year ago
I don't see what's wrong with this. Drinking alcohol every day seems a bit much, but even that isn't too bad considering you don't have to drink it and it's only once a day. Everything else seems perfectly fine. As long as you're getting food, she gets to dictate how that food is served in her own house.
Nikole 1 year ago
This will lead to disordered eating. Eat when you’re hungry, not because the clock tells you to eat.
Load More Replies... #28
My best friend in school lived with her mom (after her parents divorced) in a massive three story home. My friend had the entire third floor as her bedroom and after 9 pm until mid-morning, we weren’t allowed down on the first floor unless it was an emergency and we could only go to the second floor to use the bathroom. As a kid, it was weird. As an adult, we alllll know why the single mom wanted us to stay upstairs lol.
Crazy Cookie 1 year ago
Yeah when I was a kid my parents were a bit strict on tech use, so we had to “turn in” our phones at night. Even when our bedtime changed though, mom insisted we put our phones in at 9:30 so they could lock the door. Let’s just say it was super awkward when I realized why they wanted “alone time”
#29
"Nobody feel up my wife."
They had a plaster casting of his wife's stomach and (large) breasts from her pregnancy on display in the living room.
AnkleByter 1 year ago
I have a feeling this rule was made because some "kid/s" thought it was funny and the dad had enough of that bs. The OP of this one may not know why the rule was made, but it's just as likely that there's a valid reason for it.
Antonia 1 year ago
I don't know what "feel up" has to do with this? But I do like the statue so shoot me
anon panda 1 year ago
Well, it's not the same statue, and feel up refers to touching someone's genitals, breasts, or buttocks.
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Colleen Glim 1 year ago
I don’t understand why this was even a thing. I would not want my baby belly on display for the rest of my life. Seems more than a bit creepy
_-DungeonKeeper-_ 1 year ago
The people who took the picture? Pregnant Belly Casts? Why does that exist?
Tom Brincefield 1 year ago
Because people want it and are willing to pay.
Load More Replies... Catharina Geerts 1 year ago
With all those tiny mirrors, I wouldn't dream of touching this. The tiniest part that might stick out, would make a painful cut
Marykay Klim 1 year ago
Then don't have it in a public place. Keep it in your bedroom,where only you can feel it up.
Jay Cee 1 year ago
I worked with somebody who had a photo of his wife on the lounge wall. She was naked and 8 months pregnant. It was very tastefully shot, hips twisted one way, forearm across her nipples but still . . . When we worked together the outcome of this pregnancy was a strapping 15 year old who refused to invite any of his school friends home! Wonder why?
Load More Replies... #30
Children could only drink warm kool-aid or water. You couldn't put it in the fridge. You couldn't use ice cubes. It had to be room temperature.
Any child that came over had an assigned solo cup with their name in permanent marker. You had to wash and reuse the same solo cup, over and over. .
Daya Meyer 1 year ago
I am totally okay with the cups. It is nice to find your own cup everytime.
ConstantlyJon 1 year ago
kinda. except a solo cup is supposed to be a single use. it's not really meant to wash and re-use over and over like a normal dish. It's a cheap plastic cup that you buy in large packs.
Load More Replies... Con O Cuinn 1 year ago
I kinda get the no ice cubes thing if they're young kids. My Ma was a childminder and she had a ban on hard sweets and lollipops after a kid choked on a lollipop that came off the stick. I was still allowed them after the kids left but in her words, "no way in hell am I being responsible for someone's kid choking on my watch."
Robert Beveridge 1 year ago
My ex's very large family did the labeled-cup thing at every kid's birthday party. I never found it weird, but then you're talking 50-75 kids per party, 30ish parties per year... that's a LOT of cups.
Dave In MD 1 year ago
Were they Chinese? Traditional Chinese medicine says that drinking cold drinks is bad for you.
Glitcher 1 year ago
When I was little, I was playing at a friend's house. Normally, we always played outside, but for whatever reason (probably bad weather) his mom asked us to play inside. I needed a drink, and my friend said to go ask his mom. I was terribly shy, so I really had to work up to it. She gave me hot water. For years, I thought she didn't like me. It wasn't until I was much older that I realized it was because she was doing the dishes and just hadn't thought about it before filling the cup.
#31
Not a friend's house but a girlfriends dad's house. He was pretty well off but cheap AF. The rule was if you went into the bathroom to pee and the bowl water "was fresh" you didn't flush. I was not aware of the "yellow is mellow and brown goes down" rule till after I used the bathroom and flushed. My girlfriend heard the toilet flush and gave me the heads up. Apparently he would spot check the bathrooms and flush them when he felt they needed.
Andrew Keir 1 year ago
A lot of people seriously believe that *their* rules either *are*, or *should be* universal
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Montanavanna 1 year ago
Flushing a toilet does take an insane amount of water. I get the rule, I have actually practiced it. Here is something they don't tell you. The longer the waste sits in the toilet the harder it is to clean off. Like, it gets welded to the porcelain. Oh, and it will be a stinkin in that bathroom.
Con O Cuinn 1 year ago
I think this is a good rule for throughout the night at least. Nobody needs to be flushing a toilet at 3am if they only took a p**s
Heather Atwood 1 year ago
It is absurd to waste 5 gallons of water to flush a little pee. I got some cleaning tablets that change the water to blue so at our house, if it's green, let be, if it's brown, flush it down.
#32
No one was allowed to laugh at the dinner table or talk other than to ask, "Please pass the
. . ." No one was allowed to leave the table (even for a potty emergency) until the dad was done eating.
Me Oh My (He/They) 1 year ago
Well, mental illness is genetic, and the father definitely seems to be nuts...
Load More Replies... LonelyLittleLeafSheep 1 year ago
Or what? If I, as a visitor, get up to use the bathroom during the meal, what, exactly, is he going to do about it? Beat the visitor?
DC 1 year ago
Ok, so this family would be ok to guests urinating onto their kitchen furniture? And have replacements for the pee soaked clothes on hand? Otherwise, I can't understand, because this set of rules, if obeyed regardlessly and flawlessly, will result in people wetting themselves during dinner. Kids, especially so. I don't get those people, I'd NOT want to have to deal with peespots in my dining room, and I'd rather provide a more pleasant reason to remember being my guest, or my kids' guest, or so.
#33
Never use the decorative towels in the bathroom to dry your hands... Problem, they were the ONLY towels!
#34
First one to fart at the table on holidays had to do the dishes. Ok. It was my family, but of course the kids tried to get the other kids to fart so they would have to do the dishes.
SheamusFanFrom1987 1 year ago
At the risk of doing the dishes (which I already handle at home anyway): POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! XP
#35
The father had to interview any friend who came over. He would make you stand in front of him and drill you like it was an interrogation. He wanted to know what your parents jobs were, if you played sports, your grades, point blank if we’d ever drank or done d***s. I’d kind of understand if we were in high school, but this was elementary age in an upper class suburb.
#36
A good friend of mine went thru a season where he didn’t have running water at his house so the rule in the house was that no one could come over unless they brought a couple gallons of water with them to pour into the toilet in the event that they had to poop.
ColdSteelRonin 1 year ago
Possibly on a well and it needed to be re-dug or repaired, they said a season so makes me think it was a rural area where they are more likely to mark time in that manner
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#37
Ok, wasn't really a friend, but one of my kids friend's mom. She invited me over to get to know me better since our teens were bffs. I asked to use the bathroom. At this point she told me that because they were on a septic tank, NO toilet paper can go down the drain. So, no matter what business you did in the bathroom, the tp had to go into the trash can. Now, we've been a a septic as well, for years...and never had a problem. However, she was adamant that NO tp can be flushed. She had the cheapest, 1-ply, easily falls apart tp paper. So, I used the bathroom...with a full trash can, and a...smell that was just how you'd imagine it smelled. I flushed the tp paper. If I didn't have to go badly, I would have not gone at her house! Never went back there. Interestingly, I still know her oldest daughter, who told me that in their previous house, they were on city plumbing, and she was STILL not allowed to EVER flush tp. Her mom just had a really weird issue with it.
Linda Tisue 1 year ago
Still a lot of places in the world you can't flush toilet paper, and more than there should be with out toilets at all.
Andrew Keir 1 year ago
Some countries are like this - the plumbing is narrow and easily blocked. Even thin tp can cause a stoppage
#38
Being a young man, that I had to sit while peeing in their house. And the dad stayed in the bathroom to make sure. Weird.
arthbach 1 year ago
Sitting to pee is common in many places. Boys can be very off in their aim, and it creates a mess. Sitting is a good way to prevent unnecessary, and unsanitary mess.
Sean Of The Spiders 1 year ago
But the staying in the bathroom with a kid's friend, to make sure, is weeeeeird
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Linda Tisue 1 year ago
Men pee sitting in Germany in a proper toilet , peeing standing up is for dirty streets and bars. My Swede pees sitting. Toilets don't stink like pee, and don't have to be cleaned as often.
Sue Ellen Jensen 1 year ago
I worked for a while in an orthotic shop where there was one restroom and cleaning it was part of the job. I got tired of mopping the WALL.
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Bubs (he/they) 1 year ago
sitting down to pee regardless of your genital situation is just more sanitary. the dad staying in the bathroom to watch and make sure he does sit is....... yeah, there's no going around it, it's creepy!!
Gladys Hayes Southerland 1 year ago (edited)
Taught my son to pee sitting bc l had to clean after Dad & 3 bros because they never paid attention or put the seat down, growing up. Also, "if your friend's don't sit or aim, YOU will clean the seat and floor." Never had to clean pee after him or his friends & he's 37 now. He never leaves the seat up either.
Kalikima 9 months ago
I taught my son to pee sitting down too, and his daycare teacher took it upon herself to teach him to stand, and he's being doing it every since. Now he's 8, and I can't get him to sit to pee for anything.
Load More Replies... #39
The strangest rule at a friend's house was having to sing a song before dinner. Everyone participated, making it a full family performance before we could eat.
ConstantlyJon 1 year ago
I knew a family who did this. It was kinda fun/awkward when visiting.
#40
You had to take your shoes off then walk down the plastic runner in the hallway. the main problem was that the floor was hardwood and they had the runner for carpet. so your socked feet were walking on the tops of a hundred spikes of plastic the length of the hall.
Debbie 1 year ago
Why is AnkleByter downvoted and why is this so horrible? The poster above - did they place it the wrong way down? Are they hard plastic? I've never encountered these runners so I have no idea. I mean, it's probably not Lego.... Is it worse or the same as gravel? With socks on that is doable (but it would prevent me from running, which might have been an unintented welcome side effect for some).
AnkleByter 1 year ago
I don't know why it's downvoted so much to be honest. I am guessing that people either don't know what type of runner I was talking about, or maybe assumed I was insulting, or, something. I don't know, lol. We do have those runners, they are super soft and bendy spikes, they are not at all hard plastic. The ones I had were given to me by my parents, I used them as a kid as well. Maybe the ones others have, or ones sold where they live are hard plastic instead. The ones I am familiar with and have used since my own childhood all have bendy spikes that definitely don't hurt in the least. A lot of people where I live, most of my family, we all have them and the spikes are ALL soft and bendy, not in the least hard. In fact even the plastic part of the actual runner is a softer pliable plastic.
Load More Replies... #41
I stayed with people off the grid. They're obsessed with saving any type of fuel. When the moon is full we weren't allowed to use any light at night even flashlight. I wasn't even allowed to use my own light (light from my phone, or my flashlight) because it ruins they're ability to see in the dark. Probably not strange in their world, but strange for a city boy like me.
#42
Once at a friend’s house I helped her set the table, and her whole family reacted with surprise and laughter at how I set the table, with the knife and spoon on the right, and fork on the left, because they always set it the opposite way. They thought it was hilarious that I had learned it backwards….
Verena 1 year ago
This is the European style. Knife in the dominant hand (often right), fork in the other. And no switching between bites, the cutlery stays in the respective hands unless pausing or drinking.
Maartje 1 year ago
Desert spoon top, soup spoon would have been to the right of the knife.
Load More Replies... Definitely a Human 1 year ago
I always use my fork in my right hand. I'm right handed, so it makes so much more sense to me. But apparently I'm the weird one.
Roland Nijveld 1 year ago
How do you cut then? With your left? Im right handed so i use the knife in my dominant hand
Load More Replies... #43
Everyone had to bring a clean pair of socks to change into when going inside. I understand taking off your shoes and wearing socks inside, but not being allowed to wear the socks you have on seems weird to me.
#44
We had to go to bed at 9pm sharp. She lived in the country so she didn't get home off the bus until 4:30-5pm. Dinner was probably an hour. Then we got up at 8-8:30am, ate breakfast, and she immediately made me pack up, insisted I never leave anything at their home, and dropped me off at my house by 10am. I could only come over on a Friday. I didn't like being pushed out like that. I left my hairbrush at their house once. They immediately returned it by leaving it on the front porch as we weren't home. I had other hair brushes and it could have waited until Monday on the bus or at school. The mom didn't like me. She literally said I wasn't decent. I was 10 years old. Edit: typo & clarity.
arthbach 1 year ago
I am trying to work out what is so bad about 10 year olds having a 9pm bedtime, and being returned home by 10am.
BoredPossum 1 year ago
It's normal where I come from but exceptions are allowed.
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Damned_Cat 1 year ago
10 a.m. is perfectly reasonable. I used to have a friend that had sleep-over parties a few times a year. Her mom would do everything to make a nice party on Saturday but would wake us up at 6 a.m. on Sunday and kick us straight out of the house. No breakfast or anything. I'd get home and my parents weren't even up yet.
#45
It wasn’t really a rule, but when I was around 7 I was at a family friend’s house. The father told me to pass him the “thingamajig”. I asked him what he was talking about and he points to the remote control. And I said “Oh! It’s called the ‘remote’.” or something like that. And he got pissed at me and very sternly said “In this house we call it a ‘thingamajig’!!!”.
Debbie 1 year ago
I think this is about being a smartass and dad being fed up with the kid being a smartass/knowitall. I could see myself being annoyed about being corrected by a kid when I'm tired and just want to couchpotato. I loose words when I am tired and it's annoying to have to think sometimes. My kids can be such annoying and tiring smartasses as well. So I'd even state to them that it's now called a thingamajig. (and ofcourse they'd start to make fun of it and call everything that untill I have to laugh as well).
iBlank 1 year ago
or could very well be a poorly executed dad joke that went over the head of a little kid
Load More Replies... Michael Largey 1 year ago
Because the "whatchamacallit" was a different device entiely.
Load More Replies... Montanavanna 1 year ago
My FIL calls it a twit. I will have to ask him why he calls it that next time I see him.
#46
I had a friend who's mother got angry if we walked to Circle K and I got a bigger soda than him. I used my own money from my mom.
bookbuddy 1 year ago
Maybe all they had enough for was a small. Or they didn't want them having all the sugar! either way, it can be impolite to get more than someone if you dont know why they are limited.
Load More Replies... Sarah Gallegos 1 year ago
Not sure the situation, but maybe your friends mom couldn't afford anything more and didn't want her son realizing they go without a little more than others? Just a thought.
#47
I'm Hispanic and we had tons of food all the time. Spent the night at friend's house, they were better off than us. Dinner was one piece of chicken and a vegetable. I was 13 and I got the vibe right away, I don't even recall what led me to that understanding that was all we were getting but I somehow knew that asking for seconds was not okay. Years later the BF of one of the siblings in the house validated what I had felt at that time. The family ate in super small portions. I still don't get it because the parents were overweight.
Karen Krause 1 year ago
At least there was a vegetable. Some people I know don't serve veggies unless it's fries.
#48
I had a friend whose mom was very strict about power usage. They were far from struggling but she would still shut off the power to every room beside the kitchen and maybe things like the ac, heater, and water heater at night for some reason. At first I thought it was due to noise or something but my friend confirmed it was just something she did all the time.
Diolla 1 year ago
Huh. How do you shut off power to individual rooms? Is that an American thing?
Fat Harry (Oi / You) 1 year ago
Are you British, per chance? We use ring mains, whereby you have a breaker for (often) the upstairs lights, downstairs lights, upstairs sockets, downstairs sockets, cooker, and shower (obviously there are variations on this). Other countries use radial circuits, and so tend to have more breakers for more finite areas of the house, such as individual rooms. AFAIK, our ring mains come from trying to save copper after WWII.
Load More Replies... Bubs (he/they) 1 year ago
this isn't that weird. leaving the power on in a room you aren't using is wasteful and bar for the environment, so I get what the mom is doing.
#49
There was assigned seats in the living room.
Bored Trash Panda 1 year ago
I am very "Sheldon" about my seat. I hate sitting anywhere else on the couch.
Load More Replies... 
Hey! 1 year ago
We had assigned seats in the car for the kids. They are adults now and still remember. They said it was the best decision for the travels we did. No arguing who sits where. We didn't choose right off, the eldest had first choice, the baby had to go in the middle so the 3rd one was on the other side.
#50
We are not allowed to wash the dishes unless we have already spent the night at their house. I found it kind of creepy as it sounds like a curse kind of thing, I will never know.
Just-4-2day 1 year ago
It saves the dishes. Too young to stay the night, too young to wash the dishes.
What do you think ?
Angie Falzarano 1 year ago (edited)
My bff and I met at 15. I became part of their family. For many years I wasn't allowed past the living room. After about 10 yrs or so nobody really stopped me. Come to find out my bff was ashamed of his house. He had a tiny little room that was more like large closet. I asked finally if the reason why I wasn't allowed past the living room was because he was embarrassed because my house was bigger. He said yes. I told him that there was more love in his small house then there was in my larger house. And it was the truth and he knew it. There's still a lot of love in that house. More than there has ever truly been in my parents house. 50 yrs later and we're still bffs and Im considered one of the kids.
ConstantlyJon 1 year ago
I will say, as a parent of teenagers, just because someone's house is nice doesn't mean that they have a ton of money for things like snacks to feed all their kids' friends anytime they want. Feeding a group of teenagers daily is a great way to miss a mortgage payment, and being house-poor is definitely a thing. Sometimes as kids we think people have a bunch of money because of things we associate with being rich, but they might not actually be rich or maybe they have a ton of debt or something.
Nykky 1 year ago
I know stuff can pop up later in life, so you can't plan for it entirely...but again, why have kids if that's likely to happen? It's a big reason why I'll never contribute to the human population.
Load More Replies...
Jackie Lulu 1 year ago
My ex-husband's mother was proud of her housekeeping. She had plastic walkways laid over the carpet, and you had to stay on the plastic. She ironed her sons' and husband's undershirts and underpants. The day I found a spider web in her bathroom window was one of the happiest days of my life (up til then, that is).
Skadi Lifdis 1 year ago
These are so weird. Granted I'm pretty relaxed and 99% of the time, when my kids have friends over, the only "rule" I have is "don't touch that particular cat. She is really growly and unstable and will claw and bite you. Oh...and watch the gray one. He'll jump on you for pets.". Otherwise, eat what you want. Drink what you want (excluding alcohol, kids). Sleeping over? Fresh bedding and pillows.
XenoMurph 1 year ago
I wonder if one or two of them are the parents joking with the kids. The "two types of breakfast ceral, but only flakes with flakes, and hoops with hoops" sounds like something some silly dad would say to the visitor.
Petra 1 year ago
That one made me think the parents were trying to cut down on the kid's sugar intake. They probably had the kids mix sugary and non-sugary variations of the same cereal so that it still tasted sugary to the kids but had half the amount of sugar.
Load More Replies... LonelyLittleLeafSheep 1 year ago
Being the rebel that I am, I would have (and still would) push the limits on these ridiculous, ABUSIVE, rules. No one tells me what or how to eat or use the bathroom. FAFO.
Angie Falzarano 1 year ago (edited)
My bff and I met at 15. I became part of their family. For many years I wasn't allowed past the living room. After about 10 yrs or so nobody really stopped me. Come to find out my bff was ashamed of his house. He had a tiny little room that was more like large closet. I asked finally if the reason why I wasn't allowed past the living room was because he was embarrassed because my house was bigger. He said yes. I told him that there was more love in his small house then there was in my larger house. And it was the truth and he knew it. There's still a lot of love in that house. More than there has ever truly been in my parents house. 50 yrs later and we're still bffs and Im considered one of the kids.
ConstantlyJon 1 year ago
I will say, as a parent of teenagers, just because someone's house is nice doesn't mean that they have a ton of money for things like snacks to feed all their kids' friends anytime they want. Feeding a group of teenagers daily is a great way to miss a mortgage payment, and being house-poor is definitely a thing. Sometimes as kids we think people have a bunch of money because of things we associate with being rich, but they might not actually be rich or maybe they have a ton of debt or something.
Nykky 1 year ago
I know stuff can pop up later in life, so you can't plan for it entirely...but again, why have kids if that's likely to happen? It's a big reason why I'll never contribute to the human population.
Load More Replies... Jackie Lulu 1 year ago
My ex-husband's mother was proud of her housekeeping. She had plastic walkways laid over the carpet, and you had to stay on the plastic. She ironed her sons' and husband's undershirts and underpants. The day I found a spider web in her bathroom window was one of the happiest days of my life (up til then, that is).
Skadi Lifdis 1 year ago
These are so weird. Granted I'm pretty relaxed and 99% of the time, when my kids have friends over, the only "rule" I have is "don't touch that particular cat. She is really growly and unstable and will claw and bite you. Oh...and watch the gray one. He'll jump on you for pets.". Otherwise, eat what you want. Drink what you want (excluding alcohol, kids). Sleeping over? Fresh bedding and pillows.
XenoMurph 1 year ago
I wonder if one or two of them are the parents joking with the kids. The "two types of breakfast ceral, but only flakes with flakes, and hoops with hoops" sounds like something some silly dad would say to the visitor.
Petra 1 year ago
That one made me think the parents were trying to cut down on the kid's sugar intake. They probably had the kids mix sugary and non-sugary variations of the same cereal so that it still tasted sugary to the kids but had half the amount of sugar.
Load More Replies... LonelyLittleLeafSheep 1 year ago
Being the rebel that I am, I would have (and still would) push the limits on these ridiculous, ABUSIVE, rules. No one tells me what or how to eat or use the bathroom. FAFO.
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