I was not allowed to hang out with friends, or leave the house with very few exceptions. I spent most of my time at my parents place in the basement reading because it was quiet and I would try to avoid being yelled at. I would be so afraid to ask to do things that after a while I just stopped and gave up.

I was not allowed to argue or stand up for myself in any way.

My mom would often punish me severely for very small things (I forget to close a door, I cooked for myself, cleaned up but there was a fingerprint on the countertop) and it was really unpredictable so I was just often afraid.

Every Wednesday I had to clean for 2 hours. My mom has OCD so everything was already clean but we would have to clean the rooms anyways which included washing dishes that were clean in the cupboards, washing clean counters, walls, ect.

I was not allowed to decorate my room in any way that would potentially have any lasting mark of my existence. No way to make it mine, no posters, no pictures, nothing could touch the walls, nothing could be on my desk, only my phone and alarm clock could be on my dresser.

I would get in trouble for cooking my own food even though they did not feed me.

I was not allowed to sleep in.

When I became depressed and got insomnia and they found out they gave me crafts and I started to get quotas for the amount I had to complete so I wouldn't get in trouble for getting up to 'no good' while I stayed awake.

I wasn't allowed to swear and was afraid what would happen if I said "Oh my god" until I was about 14.


There's many more I'm probably forgetting, but I left home at 16.

alissatron Report

POST

View more comments

* My mom wouldn't let us use water guns. We could only use these things called "squirters" and if the neighborhood kids were having water fights, she would come out and test the strength of the sprays. If it was too strong, we had to go inside..In high school, I went to a pool party with super soakers and basically had an anxiety attack. I was so afraid someone would post photos.
* when people collected canned goods for food pantries, we could only give them creamed corn. I once was grounded for taking some green beans for the homeless shelter. I make it a point to find out what the pantry needs before donating now. Its never creamed corn.
* we could only mow the yard wearing a bathing suit. Finally own my own house and wear shorts and a shirt and it's still not a great chore, but at least I'm clothed.

violetmemphisblue Report

POST

View more comments

We couldn't eat what we wanted. We always had to ask for food.

I'm much better off today than my family ever was, and I absolutely NEVER will make my family ask to have food.

*Edit* I was not as detailed as I should have been, as people have pointed out this happened in their life. It wasn't a matter of, "No, you can't eat that, we're having dinner soon," or that kind of mentality from my parent(s), not was it to prevent eating junk food. We had to ask to eat at any time we wanted to eat. And the parent either acted like it was a chore to have to prepare food or would them tell us what and how much we could get out of the fridge. Imagine as a child basically having to remind your mother that you're actually a person that needs sustenance, and sometimes being denied that for days, or given allowance of the bar minimum to survive. There were also many many non-alcoholic foods that my parent(s) wouldn't let me have because they were for them only, because of how selfish they were. Silly example, but u didn't have Pepsi or any other soda until I was 15, but we always had Pepsi in the fridge as grew up.

FordyceFoxtrot Report

POST

View more comments

My brother and I were never allowed to have our doors closed or locked. I'm 18 now and I still can't have my bedroom door closed for longer than the few seconds it takes to get changed.

green_bean_420 Report

POST

View more comments

Don't go out in the full moon because witches would kidnap me.

Always carry a patch of wood on your person while at airports, to prevent witches from cursing you.

Make a cross symbol out of saliva on your forehead before sleeping to prevent demonic possession.

Open the windows wide open in the morning to let the bad spirits out of the house.

MeowsterOfCats Report

POST

View more comments

My dad would stomp the floor so we could hear how many stomps from the basement. This was to indicate which kid he needed to talk to, instead hollering us up.

2 stomps meant I had to come upstairs for something

3 stomps my brother

4 stomps my other brother

Lizziloo87 , Ron Lach Report

POST

View more comments

While I can understand the "only X cookies per day" rule, increasing as I got older, I still have no idea why my parents instituted an "only X pickles per day" rule.

I still feel mildly guilty when I eat more than one pickle. `:I`

fubes2000 Report

POST

View more comments

My mother would not allow us to say "um" during a conversation, if we did she'd mentally count each time you said it at the end of the conversation you'd get smacked said amount. Then there was "no scraping your teeth rule" if you scraped your teeth on any dining utensil watch out because something was about to hit you. To this day I refrain from the word "um" and will count when someone else says it. Also the scraping utensils thing gets under my skin now too.

Aaronp6 Report

POST

View more comments

My parents left all the original protective plastic covers on anything they bought, like lamp shades or plastic film on VCRs.

Tcloud , Blue Bird Report

POST

View more comments

Not me, but my cousin's parents (also my cousins but they were older cousins) made us takes baths together which I always thought was f*****g strange as s**t. Like I was not allowed to take a bath by myself. I HAD to take a bath with my younger cousin. And I remember being like 7 or 8 at the time. He was probably around 4 or 5.

It was just f*****g strange and I didn't like it and told them I didn't like it. I was chastised for it. I didn't go for overnight visits that much after that.

darkforcedisco Report

POST

View more comments

I didn't realize not everybody's house was spotless. My siblings and I cleaned the whole house every week. Moved furniture to vacuum, dust, etc and we had a house keeper that would come for a full day to clean, dust and vacuum the stuff we did 2-3 days prior every week as well. We also had several old trees in our yard would have to pick up any stick that fell daily. Occasionally the whole family would go through the yard on our hands and knees picking up any stick longer than 1 inch. Once when I was in highschool my mom wouldn't let me go to practice after school because I needed to tighten every screw in the house because things were coming loose.

Edit: Mom got some help she's well adjusted and a rockstar grandmother. It's very different from the woman that I would fear. We would frantically reclean before she got home so we wouldn't get called losers. Every magazine edge perpendicular with the coffee table etc

I also like a clean house but in no way a clean freak.

I-come-from-Chino Report

POST

View more comments

My parents only had three since I hit my teen.
1. Don't be homosexual
2. No body modifications
3. No smoking or drugs.
I'm a rural Canadian and when I got to college I realized how odd it was. Suffice to say, I broke them in my first year.

ddorsamo1013 Report

POST

View more comments

Father in law forbade anyone from drinking a beverage during the first half of any meal. No water, no milk, no juice, nothing, no matter how thirsty you were. He took this very seriously and would berate both kids and adults at the table if they tried.

Imho this ruined the meal experience. The rest of the family tolerated this for some reason. I had to explain to my wife no one else ever did this and we would never use that rule at our own dinner table.

Thunder_bird Report

POST

View more comments

When I got home from school, my dad would always ask "How did you f**k up today?"

I was a prissy, straight A student so this was his attempt to keep my ego in check. I later learned normal parents asked "What did you learn today?"

laterdude Report

POST

Every sunday we would dress up and go to Big Boy at around 10 am. Every other family in town was also in fancy clothes and at Big Boy. Later I learned that all those other people were at Church, which we did not participate in.... so either we were pretending we were at church, or we worship Big Boy.

ooo-ooo-oooyea Report

POST

View more comments

I had a really messed up childhood, but I mostly knew the rules were weird even while I was following them. But then as I was reading through other comments just now I realized for the first time that a particular rule was weird. My parents convinced me that media age ratings were the LAW. I thought it was illegal for a kid under 13 to watch a PG-13 movie, for a kid under 14 to watch a TV-14 show, etc. But the really weird part is that this extended to books too. My parents told me that kids' books were for elementary schoolers, YA books were for middle and high schoolers, and adult books were only for people who had turned 18, and then they convinced me that this was a law and I'd be arrested if I read a book I wasn't old enough for.

amyk936 Report

POST

View more comments

Had to check in every half hour growing up. It's a real shame the doctor waited till I moved out to prescribe mom xanax.

Pandaman0304 Report

POST

View more comments

We could only eat 2 cookies at a time, and no more than 4 in a day.

I was living on my own for like a year abiding by this rule, until one day I was like, "man, I REALLY want three oreos, not two."

And I did it.

Edit-Let me take this opportunity to say that, had I eaten 3 every day, I would not be obese. Why? Because my parents did their best to provide me with a healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was also very active in sports and skateboarded as a hobby. Sure, learning portion control IS important. But learning to have a health lifestyle in all aspects is worth more. Eating 2 cookies and not doing any exercise is not better than eating 3 and being active.

anon , cottonbro studio Report

POST

View more comments

My mom never let me eat any push pops, ring pops, etc.

She said she did it because she didn't want pedophiles getting bad ideas. I always thought it was weird.

GodDamnYou_Bernice Report

POST

View more comments

My mom has set prices that are a "deal" for produce, and we could never buy anything more expensive than that price. Grapes had to be less than $1.19 a lb. Corn had to be at least 6 for $1. It wasn't until I was well into adulthood that I realized I could buy whatever I damn well pleased no matter what the price.

Interestingly, her "deal" prices haven't changed since I was a kid in the 80's.

shelbyknits , Michael Burrows Report

POST

View more comments

Not me but my friend. His mom made him take her on "dates" to dinner or movies or whatever. Now in his 30s he found out from his sisters that she has histrionic personality disorder and what she was doing is known as "covert incest." It sparked a reexamination of his entire life, leading to him converting from Baptist to atheist. He has a master's degree in theology.

CttCJim Report

POST

View more comments

I would get grounded if u were a minute late or more. A week per minute.

Example: I would be told I could go to my buddy Ty's house till 7 and I got back at 7:03 grounded for 3 weeks. No friends, no video games, other things were taken.

They also were very conservative and when I reiterated things they said like presidential choices and what not they would ask why and if it was just things they said or opinions they spouted, they told me I should think for myself and do some research because they don't want to raise sheeple. So I mean I think even if they were to harsh for somthings I'm pretty thankful for my parents. Also I'm never late now.

GreaKnight , Kindel Media Report

POST

View more comments

My parents refused to let me go to an r&b concert with friends because they thought the black people would riot if they saw white kids listening to "their music"

anon Report

POST

View more comments

Had to go to church 4 times a week to set an "example". Anytime I asked to go out with friends to do something that would have mixed genders or could be construed as a party, I was asked "Would Jesus do something like that?"

anon Report

POST

View more comments

We weren't allowed peace signs growing up. My mom remembers some speech from when she was a kid about how communism would come under the sign of peace so peace signs were banned in our house. Those troll figurines were banned too.

sciencestolemywords Report

POST

View more comments

I wasn't allowed in the basement. Turns out they were smoking weed down there.

PrincessPantyRaid Report

POST

View more comments

We weren't allowed to sit on the cushions on the lounge. They were for display purposes only. We also had a sink that was never allowed to have any water in it. We called it the dry sink and it was a running gag with my friends and I. We gave my mum so much s**t for it lol.

Levis_Dad Report

POST

The kitchen is closed at 9 p.m.

anon Report

POST

View more comments

Had to eat cheese strings the same way you might eat a banana, with the plastic still on the bottom half, just taking bites off the top

I just wanted to make a Wacky Wildthing™

Mr_Nexxus , Chris Hsia Report

POST

View more comments

Okay so my parents were pretty normal BUT
I had this one friend who was never, under any circumstances, allowed to sleep on the livingroom couch and if she did she would be punished. It was so f*****g bizarre and I never understood why because it wasn't a formal livingroom, we were allowed to hang out in there as much as we wanted but if she ever happened to fall asleep on the couch and her parents found her there the next morning, it was game over and I would be sent home and she was grounded!!!! From what I understood this rule stood even when friends weren't over and the only place she was ever allowed to sleep was in her bed, or else.

WAT?!

shmimeathand , cottonbro studio Report

POST

View more comments

My dad used to make my sister and I rake leaves in our woods.. our f*****g WOODS!!

JustaRegularShow Report

POST

View more comments

Oh where to start?! My sister and I would secretly refer to my stepdad as Hitler, so that will give you an indication of where this is going.

- Washcloths were 100% mandatory when showering; soap or body wash didn't work as well unless it was on a washcloth. (He would check to make sure the washcloth was wet after I would leave the bathroom)

- Socks weren't allowed to be worn in the house. We had hardwood floors and apparently wearing socks on hardwood floors creates holes in your socks. Shoes and bare feet were acceptable.

- Sitting. We would get in sooo much trouble if we were sitting "incorrectly" in chairs. I'll never forget when he yelled at a friend of mine for putting her leg up on the arm of our lazy boy recliner.

- We had to pay taxes from our allowance. I clearly remember fighting and retaliating against this one. I think this rule only lasted about a year.

- We had one of those big trampolines and none of my friends were allowed to be on it without a written consent/liability waiver signed by their parents. I remember my mom printing them out and I would give them to my friends if I knew they were coming over.

- No sleeping in past 8AM on weekends. Ever.

I know there are tons more, but I'm sure I've blocked them out for obvious reasons. I always knew his behavior wasn't normal, but as a kid I just kind of dealt with it. I've had lots of therapy since so all good!

Soundsystems Report

POST

View more comments

Being grounded from the library.

My stepdad would hide my library card if he found it in the washer. I had a bad habit of leaving it in my jean's pocket.

He also constructed a locked electrical type panel in his bedroom closet that controlled all of the various tv and phone lines in the house. He would get pissed and turn them off. Eventually, I found his hiding spot for the key and would sneak and turn it on while he was at work.

bobbinwinder Report

POST

View more comments

My parents were pretty normal but my cousins' mom had the following rules:

1. Once the bed was made no one could touch it, sit, lay, etc on it because it would get wrinkled.

2. Once they were showered and dressed they could only play on the "play rug".

3. They had to change to old clothes to eat so they wouldn't get the ones they had on dirty.

4. They couldn't leave the shower cabin/bath or the sink wet when they used the bathroom

and so on, she was insane.

stefaface Report

POST

View more comments

as a girl, I had to have long hair. my dad lost his.mind when I cut it short at 14. I spent all of my 20's with short hair. I'm 33 and it's long for the first time in like 18 years.

anon Report

POST

View more comments

We were not allowed to say these words: "shut up", fart, duh, and stupid.


My siblings and I are all adults now and my mother still gets angry when we say any of those things. She gets particularly upset when we ask the question, "[insert name] did you fart?"


I ask that question all the time now just to f**k with her.

fracasfoam Report

POST

View more comments

'If you say "I'm bored" you're grounded' didn't matter when or where. Didn't matter if the power was out and the street was flooded, or if mom had dragged you to a jewelry shop.

boxster_ Report

POST

View more comments

I had to work in my parents factory from about age 11, physical work with a nail gun and everything. Both my sister and I (also a female).

I totally thought it was normal until I was about 15 and realised none of my friends did it so I got myself a different job so they couldn't insist I work. And so I got paid...

Don't get me wrong, my parents are amazing people and I had a great childhood but this is definitely questionable.

cassleej Report

POST

View more comments

I wasn't allowed to watch sad movies as a kid. When I was 3, I watched Charlotte's Web and was inconsolable after the spider died. My engineer father and German mother were baffled by this display of emotion, so they took away any movie that might make me sad.

My sister and I also weren't allowed to go into the bushes at the neighborhood park. My mother later explained that she found used needles and bullet casings there, and the park was a frequent spot for drive bys and gang shootouts.

katie3294 Report

POST

When I had the day off school sick I had science and maths text books I had to do pages out of for several hours. I never understood why people would pretend to sick because of it

Carlos-D-Yeager Report

POST

I was not allowed to go anywhere alone until like 14. Seriously. Not even allowed to walk to school with friends. I assumed everyone was that sheltered until I started high school and realized it was just me.

cmanc Report

POST

View more comments

My mom made us immediately wash, dry, and put away every single dish we used after eating. Seems like a reasonably thing to do if you're say living alone or with a roommate, but expecting the rule to be abided by in a house with FIVE children is pretty ridiculous. Also, we had a perfectly fine dishwasher that she taped off so we couldn't use it. Why.

ashleykee Report

POST

View more comments

Couldn't play video games unless it was the weekend. Seems normal at first, but then you realize that it just enforces bad habits: my brother and I would wait until the weekend, and then binge the ENTIRE weekend playing video games. And even if we didn't feel like it and though it would be better to do something else we always said "well we better play anyway because we won't be able to after"

Also what were we supposed to do when the homework was done? It isn't like homework took up the entire day

xxjxxx Report

POST

My Dad is a very VERY introverted guy, and he never liked to be in large crowds. So unless it was a school event, I was forbidden from going to any large crowded events/places like the mall, concerts, sporting events.

I was told that this was for my own safety.

djfivenine11 Report

POST

View more comments

No running after you just eat -> you will get appendicitis

No sleeping with wet hair -> you will get lice

Good old fob science :')

blupblupblip Report

POST

View more comments

Still persists in my home. I'm 25 years old, my siblings are even older and we can't say any curse words. Period. My mother also doesn't let anyone drink alcohol in our home..unless it's a bottle of wine on Christmas. No matter what age you are or even if you're not my parents child. They will treat you like a child. It's gotten so bad that I never really learned how to talk to adults on a normal level because I'm used to an authoritative life. I can be shy and feel awkward around other peoples parents and bosses. I'm so used to having overly conservative parents that I just never learned how to exist in a world of people that are old people. I know old people/parents talk s**t, drink and curse. But my parents are overly religious and think OTHER people are weird for being like that. We have told my mom she's not normal, she pretends to ignore what we said, is in denial and assumes everyone else we know is trash. So when I hear my boyfriend say f**k to his mom, my immediate reaction is to be like "Omg you said that to your mom?".

MissSara91 Report

POST

View more comments

Dad had a problem with us kids saying bloody in front of him, for some reason he thought it was the worst swear word, had no issue with f**k or s**t.

yoboypapabless Report

POST

My parent's did not allow any type of toy guns in our house hold. They forbade those fire cracker guns, nerf guns, bb guns, and even water guns. I am now 22, and just ordered myself a nerf gun for this coming Christmas. Needless to say, it's going to be a magical Christmas this year. :^)

LeagueFanForLife Report

POST

View more comments

Never turning on the lights inside of a car while it's moving.

spaceislife Report

POST

View more comments

I know a girl who had a kid in high school. Her parents wouldn't let her move out until she got married. My best friend is married to her.

RamsTPN Report

POST

I was never allowed to go anywhere New Years Eve. Even in the morning. My mother was convinced that there were drunks on the road at 10 a.m. New Years Day was fine, but not on the Eve. I'm over 40 and she still complains if I go somewhere that I'm going to get hit by a drunk.

kendiara Report

POST

View more comments

No wire hangers.

JangWolly , Michael Lehet Report

POST

View more comments

I wasn't allowed to eat dunkaroos. This wasn't a blanket ban on junk food, my mother specifically had a grudge against dunkaroos.

I wasn't allowed to watch tv on week nights, all the way through high school. I remember it was a HUGE deal because my mom let me have one exception so I could watch the friends series finale live.

alter_ego77 Report

POST

My parents made me and my brothers plug our phones in downstairs, at 8:00 every single night. They said it was to "make sure we don't stay up late", but because of that we stayed up later on other platforms like computers or playing games. I figured out my junior year that they only did that to snoop through our photos and messages. Kinda s****y.

anon Report

POST

View more comments

My siblings and I weren't allowed to wear shorts until the first day of Summer.

mmittens Report

POST

I wasn't allowed to watch Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Ghostbusters, or anything that had to do with spiritism or the occult.

Yet somehow I got my mom and dad to watch the first two Twilight movies and I was allowed to watch anime. 12 year old me loved Black Butler. Hell yeah.

Edit: just realized it's not that strange. Just odd how they were lenient in certain things.

rucbarbird Report

POST

I wasn't allowed to drink kool-aid because my mother said it was "unhealthy." Yet we could eat captain crunch, kraft mac and cheese, all types of desserts, and drink capri sun, soda, etc to our hearts content. Literally any other unhealthy thing was allowed or even encouraged. now that I'm older I think it was a racial thing tbh :/

kaninthebunny Report

POST

View more comments

My parents would not let me buy music that had a parental advisory sticker on it.

But I could watch any R rated movie or play and mature rated video games and what not.

But for some reason they just hated music that had cursing in it lol, so I had to download all my music from kazaa and napster and listen to it with headphones

kklolzz Report

POST

View more comments

My very liberal mother did not allow us to watch the Simpsons. Never really understood why.

anon Report

POST

View more comments

My mom used to make us kids organize the silverware perfectly and would have a fit if it wasn't. This consisted of carefully balancing the small forks on top of each other in a stack, and stacking the large forks in their own stack right next to it. This also meant that if you opened the silverware drawer at normal speed the stack would all fall over and you just lost 5 minutes of your ~~time~~ life restacking forks and spoons. Total craziness.

We also had to pay a verbal homage to an imaginary being each night before we consumed food.

Ganjasauce Report

POST

View more comments

After he discovered that I'd been watching p*rn, my dad routinely checked my internet history. Not the browser history, the DNS logs, which only he had access to. I was confronted multiple times in high school because I'd been looking at content that he didn't think was suitable. I wasn't allowed to get a smartphone until college because it would have been possible to browse the internet unmonitored.

CaptainTudmoke Report

POST

View more comments