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Original poster

Weird household rules you had growing up.

325 replies

habibihabibi · 06/07/2019 18:14

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 Grin

OP posts:
foreverhanging · 07/07/2019 00:03

@roisinagusniamh that was one of mine. I do think it's part of dh's family is that they all have a chat and inevitably it turns to musicals or something and then they start singing and I sit there gritting my teeth because I think it's just so ingrained in me. It feels so rude to me but I'm not actually sure it is?!

babyno5 · 07/07/2019 00:14

My mum always corrected my speech-even hovering when I was talking on house phone to friends!
She hated bad language-including fart, bloody, bugger, bum, wee, poo etc!! We did wee wee and poo poo in our house-why is saying it twice better? 😂😂

Nat6999 · 07/07/2019 00:52

My mum wouldn't let me stay in bed even if I was that poorly I was nearly dying. Even when I was an adult living at home & hadn't crawled home until 4.00am I had to be up & about by 9.00. She would be ringing me by 9.05 from work to "make sure I was up" Even when my late dad was ill in his last few months of life she would hassle him out of bed.

Gwenhwyfar · 07/07/2019 00:55

Nat - some people think sleeping in is 'sinful'. My dm's a big believer in sleeping in - see my post above about waking her up on the weekend, but having the landing curtains drawn after about 10am was a no-no because other people would think you weren't up.
I also know of older women who wouldn't let anyone sleep in the afternoon or anything.

AmphetamineGazelle · 07/07/2019 02:13

@Handsoffmysweets Sadly, I do still see her. She is a King James bible loving Christian which probably explains some of the wankery.
Latest gem from last week. "Why can you just not accept your cleft lip and move on? It is God's will. You will go to hell if you get surgery." Surgery to fix a collapsed rhinoplasty where I can't breathe through my nose, not much at all at night along with my right nostril almost closed up like bloody voldemort. Who, incidentally, is/was banned cos magic. I love HP!
Only got the 1st one because it was on the nhs pathway and I begged her.

I have sympathy for everyone with odd rules. At least we can ensure our own children are less restricted.

everyoneisasleepbutme · 07/07/2019 05:23

Wow I never had any of this. Could lie around in pj's, eat my breakfast on the floor watching morning cartoons. My mum was pretty relaxed. Our house was always clean too, I don't think we damaged it with lack of rules!
The only thing that used to piss me off was policing of the house phone, which was by the kitchen. We shouldn't need to phone our mates and talk after school - we'd just seen them all day. She'd hover around hissing in your ear to get off the phone and make it impossible to talk. Still annoys me!

Birdie6 · 07/07/2019 05:38

We were rationed loo paper. 2 sheets allowed for a wee, three lots of three sheets for a poo

This - but at primary school. If you asked to go to the loo, the teacher would ask " one piece of paper or two ?" . Can you imagine at 5, having to say that in front of the whole class. Incredible when I think of it.

Apolloanddaphne · 07/07/2019 05:46

How strange some families appear to be. We had no specific rules in our family. My DM could be strict about good manners and being polite etc but no weird rules. My childhood was lovely.

HellYeah90s · 07/07/2019 05:58

My mum was pretty chill but...

Also had to go to the toilet before leaving the house.

Couldn't take shower towels to the pool or beach, had to be old / beach towels.

Never allowed gum, though my dad use to buy me some!

My mum was pretty much draconian on certain foods that were banned - my mum never allowed me to have chocolate spread, only water allowed to drink unless special occasions. Yet other cheap sugary food was allowed (chips, biscuits etc) Again my dad managed to be break those rules for me.

Cereal on weekdays, and toast only at weekends.

HellYeah90s · 07/07/2019 06:01

Oh yes Emmerdale was banned but Coronation Street was allowed!

HellYeah90s · 07/07/2019 06:05

Sorry I am on a role, my mum had huge control over my hobbies - my parents pushed me into competitive swimming, my mum only allowed me to play hockey and football as sport. Apparently netball was too 'girly' and I was too short for basketball! rugby too dangerous...

Then when I got to secondary she said me playing water-polo would make us look 'posh'!

Xanadu58 · 07/07/2019 06:21

If we had a banana , we had to eat a slice of bread and butter with it , never allowed the banana on it's own. My DF used to say it wouldn't be digested properly otherwise!

DeltaFlyer · 07/07/2019 07:02

Not me but DH;
Was 16 when he 1st ate a banana as they're a choking hazard. They had them in the house but just for the dad for work. MIL hates it if 1 year old DS eats them.
Was never allowed to apply suncream as it's a 'scam Hmm so he often had sunburn as a child. FIL is often burnt by sitting for hours in the garden.
If you visit their house you cannot wear shoes in the living room but socks are not allowed either. All visitors must bring slippers, if you have none you wear the visitors pair ( one for men and one for women)
MIL is absolutely convinced that the toilets in caravans, buses and trains etc are just for show and one must never use them. And the toilets in the supermarket are for common people. Toilets are the seaside are acceptable however.
The house has a very long and very narrow passage and you cannot be trusted to shut the door behind yourself they must squeeze past you to do it. As it is their door.

YouJustDoYou · 07/07/2019 07:24

@DeltaFlyer, that's batshit!

In mine - crisps had to always be eaten on a plate on a table. Never straight out the bag.

Bathwater had to be shared- so, the two adults (step dad & my mum), my little brother and I. I would always be the last and would have to pick out all of my step dad's gross curly hairs (which has just made me realise this is why I always swore I would never date a hairy man), otherwise they would stick to me. Bath was always cold by the time I got to use it. We weren't that poor that we HAD to share water.

My mum had a major issue with the way I would sit down. She would make me re-do it again and again , more and more slowly until it got to the point I was doing it in utter slow-mo and it STILL wasn't "ladylike" enough for her. Was probably the first time as a teenager I actually snapped at her.

Benjispruce · 07/07/2019 07:31

Not parents but school:
If you forgot your PE kit , you had to do PE in your knickers and vest. Nobody complained but you never forgot your kit again.

BullBullBull · 07/07/2019 07:41

My grandmother had the rule that I wasn’t allowed to drink milk as milk was for tea. She mainlined tea

divafever99 · 07/07/2019 07:43

Gosh I'm shocked at some of these! I don't have any of these rules in my house, most of them wouldn't even enter my head to enforce!

ReganSomerset · 07/07/2019 07:49

birdie my school tried to ration toilet paper too. DF marched down there immediately and it was never mentioned by the staff again.

ReganSomerset · 07/07/2019 07:52

Benji my school used the knickers and vest rule. I remember a poor year four in my class openly weeping as she stood in the hall in her underwear one lesson. She changed schools not long after.

Benjispruce · 07/07/2019 07:57

The rationing of toilet paper didn’t happen but then again it was crispy tracing paper!!!! How you were supposed to wipe properly with that stuff I’ll never know.

uggmum · 07/07/2019 08:12

My mum would only put the central heating on if there was ice on the inside of the bathroom window.

I had a very cold childhood

headinhands · 07/07/2019 08:14

My dad didn't have a set of rules as such but he was very anal. Nothing out on sides in any room. Even the coasters got put away in their original box in a drawer after use.

Some years ago he had a breakdown and was in bed for weeks on end. Even then he'd get out of bed every so often to make sure the coasters weren't on the coffee table. Quite extreme given that he was battling suicidal ideation which makes me think it's more an OCD thing than being organised.

roisinagusniamh · 07/07/2019 08:14

One of my mum's was you never visit or accept visitors before 11 am .
I actually saw the sense in that one after I had my babies and could not get sorted (dressed, etc) until midday .

Grumpbum123 · 07/07/2019 08:16

Not mine but my neighbours mum. If she had any friends over the bad to go home to use the loo

cantfindname · 07/07/2019 08:18

And, to my shame, mixing with anyone from the 'estate' was frowned upon.

We had this rule. I had a good friend, Sylvie, who lived on the 'estate' and she was also banned from our house.

The irony of this is that many years later my vile mother was shopping and was recognised by a now adult Sylvie. She completely forgot her previous opinion of her being 'trash' and went on to tell me how Sylvie had married so well and they had a huge house and loads of money. She went on and on and on rubbing my nose in it as I was a single parent struggling to survive. She saw Sylvie as the daughter she wanted so she could brag to her friends.