Weird household rules you had growing up.

[habibihabibi]

A number of odd rules but most memorable:
My mother did not allow us to sit ot lie on beds unless in our pj's ready to sleep.
Not allowed in bedrooms during the day unless poorly.
If we had friends over we had to play in the garden/playroom.
We were not permitted downstairs in pjs ever.
Straight from bath to bed and immediately washed and dressed on waking.

Hit me with your strange rules

You must drink milk every day. I hated it. It made me feel sick. We had unpasteurised milk in those days. Eventually my dad and I both had a horrid illness we were both convinced was caused by the milk and I rebelled against the daily milk drinking.

We also had the no gum rule - frankly
I agree with that one

Honestly I'm incredibly grateful for how chill my parents were/are about most things!

The only weird rule we had growing up was that when we came home late (and drunk!) we had to use the downstairs loo so as not to wake my mum who was a very light sleeper.

We didn't realise this might seem odd until I picked up my little brother and his girlfriend from a party (she was allowed to stay over with her parent's permission after 16 - tres liberal I know!) and she looked at us both like we were mad when we told her to clean her teeth downstairs!

It was only a few years ago that my mum confessed she always heard us get back because she couldn't sleep properly when we were out anyway - she just appreciated that we tried!

Did all your parents hate you and want you to have a miserable childhood? 😮

"You must go to the toilet before leaving any place. Always.

I cannot leave any place always without going to the toilet whether I need it or not!"

Same!! I was trained to do this at a very early age.

I'm finding the "no sitting about in PJs" rules quite strange... my mum was very insistent that if we weren't going anywhere then we weren't to wear our "good clothes" to sit about it because they'd just get dirty for no reason so (clean) pyjamas were to be worn in the house.

We had an orange juice rule! No other drinks just orange juice.
Even as teenagers we had to ask first and generally mum would get it for us. It was the only drink that was restricted because if it wasn't a 1ltr carton would be finished by me and DB within 2 days.

This thread is making my think of my childhood. I don't remember rules. We were told to go outside to go outside to play, we were told not to snitch on one another, but what I recall is the fun and excitement of being a child. Our family going to another family's house for dinner, all us kids squealing, running about. We were boundaried but time allowed to play was completely play time as kids would naturally do it!

Mine were incredibly strict on bad language .We weren't allowed to say the word 'bum' or the word 'knickers'! We had to say 'bottom' and 'pants'. I once had to walk home from school because I said the word 'slapper'. I probably didn't swear until I was 24!! But my parents were very loving and quite laid back on other things. And my husband has always sworn his head off and my parents just ignored it.

Not too many, though I don't think I was really one to test them very often so maybe I am not a great judge.

We weren't allowed to be known by shortened versions of our named. Us children always had to be called by our full names and if any of our friends ever phoned to ask for one of us using a shortened version then my parents (my Dad in particular) would correct them before passing the call on. Only my parents could be known by shortened versions of their names. They always have been, and still are. As adults we have ripped the piss out of them for that double standard.

The other for me was regarding school uniform. Ties were optional for girls at my secondary school and none ever wore it, but my Dad insisted that because it was on the list at all I WOULD BE WEARING IT, LIKE IT OR NOT!!! In reality, I just wore it for a few minutes every morning until I was out of his sight and then took it off.

Not allowed to say fart

No food in bedrooms

No TV in bedrooms

I wasn't allowed jelly shoes! I grew up in the 90s when everyone had them and I was so upset I wasn't allowed them. I also wasn't allowed normal shorts, only culottes and I had to wear socks under my sandals because my mum thought I looked "common" with bare feet in sandals.

No milk bottles on the table (strangely milk cartons are fine) we had to decant the milk into a jug for breakfast.
We had to ask before taking the last of anything.
What that meant in real terms, if you saw there was only one biscuit left, you broke it in half (and took the bigger half). The next person did the same and we ended up with lots of tins with about 1/16 of a stale piece.

Finish your dinner
No food upstairs
Always say no when offered a snack

"The only rule that was a bit extreme that we never ever allowed to switch on any lights unless the curtains were drawn."

That's not extreme. If the lights are on and curtains open, everyone can see in.

"No using the phone before 6pm"

That was totally normal in the '80s and '90s. You'd wait till 6pm for the cheaper tariff.

You had butter or jam on your bread, not both

MIL was obsessed by this and would get furious if anyone had both, because it was the rule from her parents. Luckily DH didn’t take any notice, but it was many of my misgivings

When I was little I wasn’t allowed to use the word “poo”. I didn’t know any other words for it, so if I needed to let anyone know I needed to go, or had a problem, I got in trouble!

I can't think of many things really. Not allowed to be too noise on the weekend and destroy my mum's lie in - though she didn't work through most of my childhood.
Sometimes df would try to make us sit for hours and hours until we finished our food. We ended up finding ways around it and he'd given up by the time the younger siblings were born.
Our bed times were earlier than they should have been because my dm wanted a break so we did feel a bit left out with the kind of TV other kids were watching.
Not allowed to wash my hair every day and got teased at school for having greasy hair.
We had horrible clothes from junk sales and charity shops, but that wasn't exactly a rule.
Same uniform on all week was just normal for the time, not a rule.

I wasn't allowed a cabbage patch doll as they were ugly.
Not allowed to play out on Sunday's

Not being able to use the toilet as she had just cleaned it. We only had the one toilet so I would go across the road to my friends house and ask to borrow theirs (why do we say borrow the toilet when we are not taking it away?) She would laugh at me and ask if ours had been cleaned. I clean ours and then use it as a two fingered salute 😀

Not many other rules - when I was a teenager I had to be back at 9.30 but could stay in the road with friends till 10.30. She just wanted me home at a reasonable time and know where I was (pre mobile phones). Oh, one more - if the mop was outside the back door I had to use the front as she had just cleaned the kitchen floor.

I don’t remember anything weird

Just normal rules sensible parents have for children (like where we were allowed to go when we played out using our manners and ‘being good’)

The ‘rule’ I rebelled against (& broke) the most was nit bring allowed to ride my bike to school. I was 13 and had more arguments about that than anything else in my life I think!

As a teen I thought it was ridiculous but looking at that road now I can totally understand their POV!

We always had to ask, not just help ourselves to food (but rarely were told no, only if say dinner was about to be out in the table)

It wasn’t really until I joined MN that I realised how lucky I was as a child. Reasonably rational
Parents, lots of fun, no abuse etc. Prior I would have said my parents were strict, but hearing about other people’s childhoods I realised how good I actually had it.

I miss my Dad SO MUCH 😭😭

That's not extreme. If the lights are on and curtains open, everyone can see in.

...and???

Ooh yes don't talk while loading the car (or if planning a holiday - don't even talk about it in the garden or even with the windows open) as people will know you'll be away and burgle you.

Don't put the lights on until you've closed the curtains or people will "see what you've got" and come and burgle you.

Can't leave your bedroom window open at night even in a heatwave as burglars will climb in the window and burgle you.

If you had a drink you had to finish it fairly quickly or would keep getting told to finish it or it would be taken away and washed up. Nowadays I have a pint of water on the side that I just drink as and when!

I have the lights/curtains rule, don't want people seeing in my house

Can't think of anything that unusual from my parents, I'm the youngest so they were pretty relaxed by the time they got to me

Haha @SheSaidNoFuckThat I'm the youngest too and my oldest sibling likes to let me know I got away with much much more!

We weren't allowed to watch Grange Hill as it had smoking in it.