Yahoo Lifestyle "That Was When I Realized It Wasn't Normal": 20 Bizarre "Family Rules" People Followed That Took Them Way Too Long To Realize Were A Little...Unusual
We probably all had "rules" we had to follow growing up; maybe you couldn't watch TV until you finished your homework or had to take turns on the one family computer everyone shared. But some rules folks abided by in their households as kids were definitely a little more... unusual. Recently, redditor HumanRole9407 asked the r/AskReddit community to share their "very strange" house rules growing up. Here were some of the weirdest ones.
1."Don't feed friends. If friends came over after school, we weren't allowed to offer them snacks or drinks. My parents didn't want them to 'eat all our food.' As an adult, I feed everyone and offer food to my kids' friends. I find it so weird that my parents were so stingy. We weren't broke growing up — we were well off. I never minded feeding the kids who came over."
2."Everyone took an afternoon siesta. Turned out, my grandma was narcoleptic, and her kids got used to napping with her."
3."We were only allowed ginger ale if we were sick or on an airplane. It wasn't common, but we would occasionally get a soda. Ginger ale was special, I guess. I was well into my 20s and had an epiphany one day: I'm a grown adult with my own money. I can just go buy a ginger ale if I want to."
4."Not my house, but at a friend's. I slept over once in elementary school, and during dinner, no one was allowed to drink anything. The mom's reasoning was that by filling your stomach with water, you would be too full, which would cause you not to finish your meal. After everyone cleaned their plate (required by the parents to not waste anything), everyone got up and went to the refrigerator to get a can of Coke. I asked for a glass to get some water and was given a rolled-eye look from her mother."
5."We had to wear socks at all times to keep the carpet clean. Now I can't walk barefoot without feeling like a rebel."
6."Girls were not allowed to be around boys during that time of the month. Turned out to be a wild lie."
7."Not being allowed to get the bath mat wet. What's it for, then?!"
8."You can't eat unless an adult makes the food and gives you permission to eat it. I didn't get that permission often as there wasn't a present/conscious adult around to ask most of the time. I mainly ate at school. We also had plenty of food at home, so it wasn't as though we were impoverished and starving. I remember one time my mom snuck up behind me and shattered a decorative bowl over my head because she caught me, half-starved, eating shredded cheese out of the bag in the middle of the night. I was 13 at the time and just hit a growth spurt."
"The first time I was at a friend's house and saw him just make a box of mac 'n' cheese for us, I was panicking because he hadn't asked for or received permission to eat. He was confused, to say the least."
9."Don't use the decorative towels to dry your hands; use the old towels. Also, only use half a pump of soap to wash your hands."
10."Every Thursday evening was 'fancy dinner' during which there were so many more rules than dinner the rest of the week. For the rest of the week, the rules were just not to be messy and not to be rude. But fancy dinner meant dressing nicely, no swearing, sitting up straight, only talking about polite subjects, elbows off the table, etc. I was confused as to why we mostly had casual dinners, but my parents insisted on fancy dinners even when we didn't have company."
"Now, as an adult, I know what they were doing. They wanted us to have upward class mobility. They were making us practice our manners so we could make a good impression on fancy people when needed.
I was grateful for it when I sat down for an academic awards dinner with some of my college professors. I was able to talk easily and feel good because I recognized a fancy dinner when I saw one. Like a sleeper agent who just heard my code word, I knew exactly what to do."
11."We could not watch TV Monday through Thursday unless we had straight A's."
12."When I stay at my grandparents' house, my grandfather WILL NOT go to sleep until he knows that everybody in the house is asleep. One time, I woke up to use the bathroom (keep in mind it was three or four in the morning), and as I was walking out, he came out of nowhere and went, 'What are you doing awake?' He got pretty mad. I never understood this, but I won't ask him why."
13."We were not allowed to lay on the bed and just read or be on the phone. Every time we did it, my father would come screaming and mocking us for being lazy or something else. When I was a teenager, I always listened for his footsteps in the hallway so I could get up quick enough and pretend to do something."
14."No locked doors, ever. In fairness, it started as a safety thing when we were kids. When I was a toddler, I fell asleep behind a locked door, and my parents thought I was dead because I wasn't responding. But when it carried into adulthood, it became about not letting us have boundaries or our own space. My mother assumed we were keeping horrible secrets or plotting against her if we locked a door. Heaven forbid if we just wanted an ounce of privacy!"
15."The entire family shared a bath towel for the whole week."
16."My mom had a strict rule about me not being allowed to eat at anyone's house. She was convinced that if I accepted an invite for dinner, it would make it look like she couldn't afford to feed me. It just became normal to say no if someone invited me to dinner. That was until I met the man who would be my ex-husband. His family kept inviting me over to dinner so that they could get to know me. I kept saying no. They thought I was rude. I finally explained why. That was when I realized it wasn't normal."
17."The bedroom window had to be open at all times, even in the winter. I thought it needed to be open to get air, and we would suffocate if it weren't open. Seemed totally logical."
18."No talking at the dinner table unless you were asked a direct question."
19."Not being able to eat or make anything in the kitchen after dinner. After dinner was finished and the kitchen was cleaned, it was essentially closed. When I was younger, I had some friends over for a sleepover. They wanted to get a snack, and I told them the kitchen was closed. So we'd just have to wait until morning. They all looked at me like I was weird. They convinced me to sneak a bag of chips, and I was panicking the entire time."
20."Not me, but my ex wasn't allowed to eat hotdogs unless it was accompanied by a glass of orange juice because of a belief that things in the orange juice canceled out harmful nutritional things in the hotdogs."
Did you have a "house rule" growing up that you later realized was a little unusual? Tell us about it in the comments or fill out this anonymous form.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
