Rules you had in your childhood that now seem bizarre?

[Tattted]

As a child/teen living with my parents we were actively discouraged from showering/bathing everyday. It was really frowned upon and seen as unnecessary and probably a bit extravagant. I know probably as a young child I didn’t need to but as I got older and even after I turned 18 and was still living at home they would have been a bit annoyed about it if I wanted to shower everyday . I should say where we live has no water charges so it wasn’t about that. Now as an adult and a mother myself it seems so strange. I realise it’s probably because my parents both came from large families that had very little money and, back then, no hot running water. Even know my parents bath weekly but sink wash every day.

@shinynewapple22

It would be really interesting to know the age of posters on this thread .

A lot of the rules sound quite normal for a 1970s, maybe early 80s upbringing, but it would be interesting to know if some of the
posters with the one bath a week rule were younger .

late 90s child here and we weren't allowed to bath more often. or shave or have enough sanitary towels. Really badly bullied for being the smelly kid! I used to wash my armpits with soap from the soap dispe ser in the girls bathroom at school!

Wasn't allowed to wash hair if had a period, apparently I would catch a chill. Bath once a week, change of clothes once a week, on a Sunday. No jeans on a Sunday.

In our house you had to open the fridge a few inches and quickly grab what you needed. Opening it wide was a sin, and nobody would ever dare stand there wondering what to eat.

Lights had to be switched off as soon as we left a room. We had dimmer switches so they could be turned down to a low glow.

Everything was unplugged at night.

One bath a week maximum- no more than 4” high. Otherwise we could wash “up and down” in freezing cold water. Hair had to be dried immediately and completely or else you’d get Bell’s Palsey. I joined a gym as soon as I got a part time job, mainly to use the showers.

Getting wet feet was a serious, potentially fatal, health hazard.

No speaking at junctions. When the car was being reversed we all had to look out for traffic, and look for parking spaces. One of the things I found really attractive about dh was that he drove all by himself without expecting me to do anything!

I wasn’t allowed wear jeans. All the other girls my age wore nothing else.

We had to ask to leave the table. The answer was no until everything on the plate was eaten.

@GrannytoaUnicorn @Benjispruce5 I still give my Young adult) DC a pillowcase for Father Christmas. Growing up in 60s and 70s Australia, rules I remember were:
No tv during the daytime
No channels except the ABC
Wait an hour after eating before swimming.
If you wear clothes even faintly damp from the wash you will get piles.
Say lavatory as toilet is common.

Wear a vest (even when you are thirteen or more).

We were allowed to watch completely inappropriate movies such as pretty woman and movies full of swear words. But when sex scenes came on, we had to put a cushion over our heads, meaning we could still hear the noises but not allowed to watch. Actually quite horrendous when I think about it. I don't even watch any films with sex in them now, just don't want to. Partly due to my faith and just why should I watch two people do that. Also makes me cringe when my mother found hilarious '50 bucks grandpa, 75 and the wife can watch' I never really got it until I was about 12 or 13 but my younger sibling would watch too.

Washing the dog in the kitchen sink when he had fleas and then spray him with a hose afterwards outside. Still makes my skin crawl when I think about it.

Not washing up properly, the way they would clean a glass or mug would be to swish it round in the basin of dirty greasy washing up water. Now, as an adult I wash everything under a running tap.

Also we weren't really allowed eyeliner because if it was too heavy it would look like 'a whore at a hockey match.'

Same toothbrushes for months on end. I remember my sister having a pink toothbrush for years.
I learnt you have to buy them every 2 months as an adult and was so shocked why we were allowed ours for so long. The only good thing about that was, there was no toilet in the upstairs bathroom where we brushed our teeth.
But still pretty Grim, they were not regularly changed. Same with sponges. The same sponge used to clean our bits went on our face. 😢

@Chichimcgee

What did some of your mothers do about periods themselves? I'm relatively old for MNet (61) and my mum was very open about menstruation and pads/tampons.

My mum would be 59 now and when she started her period she thought she was dying. Literally woke up in a pool of blood with stomach pain. Nobody told her anything bless her so when I was growing up it was a normal thing to know about. She made sure. I knew what to expect long before it happened.

Also 59, still waiting for my mum to tell me about periods and sex. I also thought I was dying but didn't say anything because I thought I'd be smacked for having dirtied my knickers ☹️. I made sure my DDs grew up in a very different atmosphere.

@Inspectorslack

We weren’t allowed to watch TISWAS because it was ITV

This. In fact it started earlier than Tiswas. We were only allowed to watch Blue Peter and not Magpie.

To be fair Tiswas was the work of the devil though!

Only one bath a week. Putting the immersion heater on was ceremonial and turned off at the first opportunity. No heaters in the bedrooms ever and our house always had frost on the inside of all the upstairs windows and the upstairs loo cistern was frozen November to April.

If you were ill you had to go to bed. All meals were at the table with the exception of if it was baked potatoes. These were on a Saturday only. The smell of baked potatoes reminds me of Saturday evenings in front of The Golden Shot.

No swearing. I think Dad would have put me through a wall if I had cussed! I called another child 'a little perisher' at school when I was about eight. My mother was called in and I was suspended for a day and made to feel like I had set light to the school!

I was a child in the 70s in America.

3 inches of water in the bath, but I was allowed to bathe daily.
Had to be fully dressed, no pyjamas, before leaving my bedroom in the morning.
No lounging on the sofa.
No eating or drinking in the car, or touching the windows.
Calling an adult by their first name was impertinent and would get a finger wagged in your face. Everyone was an Aunt or an Uncle.
Church every Sunday, for almost the entire day as it always included visiting relatives.

I got out as fast as I could. Such a stifling way to live. The only upside is that we weren’t poor, although I had no concept of that at the time.

We only used the car at weekends for outings or visiting and to go on holiday, it was safely tucked in the garage the rest of the time, DF walked or cycled to work and DM who was a SAHP walked to the shops to get grocery in the week. This was in the late 60s. During the 70s the car started to be used a bit more but not a lot.

@Sallycinnamum

Not eating on the street or on public transport.

Even now I have to be absolutely starving to even contemplate eating something like a cereal bar in the street!

My mother had this rule.

I learnt you have to buy them every 2 months as an adult and was so shocked why we were allowed ours for so long.

We're meant to replace them every 2 months? I assume it's the toothbrush manufacturer claiming this? 👀

@Quirrelsotherface

Top of the pops had to be turned off if grandad was there in case he saw men in make up

I laughed at this one too

Whoever cuts the cake is the last to choose a slice

@SecretSunflower

I feel as though I grew up in a parallel universe. As a child there were no weird food rules - my parents did believe fruit and veg was good for us - and we could eat/drink anything we fancied (including the apparently oft-rationed fruit juice). My dad even bought cans of diet cola (our weakness) for us. We could shower/bathe as much as we wanted, whenever we wanted (esp. during our periods for hygiene). And aside from being considerate and polite towards other people - we could roam free. The odd thing is, that both my parents were born in the 1920's, having us very late in life - yet they were quite forward thinking. I feel really lucky now I've read the weird rules here! :D

Same here I grew up in the late seventies/ eighties. My mother was a single parent . However, we didn’t have anything like the rules I have read on here. We ate what we wanted and when we wanted. If we couldn’t finish our dinner we would throw away the left overs. Obviously she was careful about our sugar consumption, so not too many sweet things. I watched everything and anything on tv. My sister and I had pierced ears and wore ankle bracelets . Washed out hair during periods Talked openly about sex- in fact I was the one who was embarrassed The only ‘rule ‘ she had (as I mentioned in a previous post) is that we were not to eat in the streets Also we had to me polite, but were encouraged to speak our minds Me and my siblings are all well rounded, educated and decent individuals .

Our Christmas stockings/pillowcases were placed on our beds - when we woke up at ridiculous o'clock, we were expected to amuse ourselves with the contents and NOT wake up our parents! This included being allowed to eat the chocolate selection though, so it was all good

Since I remember, this was the case - and it was mostly self-preservation because my parents wouldn't have finished wrapping and doing the stockings until around 2am, and sometimes it took us that long to get to sleep anyway.
Then the rest of the presents wouldn't be opened until after lunch, so that Mum could watch too. The morning would be taken up with making lunch, and maybe going to church (not Mum).

I have different rules for my boys - because we're in Australia and most of their family are in the UK, they're not allowed to open their presents until MIL arrives and I have the relevant relative on Skype or whatever. It allows the UK rellies to feel part of the boys' Christmas.
We open the stockings as soon as DH and I get up though.

No tv in the daytime. I still never really reach to put the tv on in the day - just doesn't feel right! DH's childhood and family now seems to have it on all day even if not watching it!
We had no sweets or chocolate at all, until Friday night sweeties!
No pets on furniture or upstairs.
All these rules no longer exist now I am an adult!

The most bizarre rule we had was that you were not allowed to ask anyone for help ever as you would then be "beholden" to them. This ranged from things like asking the way to somewhere to getting a lift to asking how to do something at school. It's been a massively hard rule to break as an adult, and I often catch myself struggling unnecessarily because I won't ask anyone else.

Me too! You can't ask for anything, only accept if offered. So tough to deal with as an adult.

No playing in the front garden (and never the street!) on a Sunday. This was late 1960s, early 1970s. It didn't apply at my grandparents ' house, as their back garden was all fruit and vegetables and the lawn was at the front.

And definitely no eating in the street. I was in my 30s before a friend and I bought ourselves flapjacks to eat on a country walk, but even then we found a log to sit on!

No butter just margarine. I mean we had butter but it was for mums use
No actual food food at one point as parents used to bring back plated dinners from their business for us.

I don’t remember my drinking as a child but dh was obsessed with dd having access to a drink 24/7. Making her sip thru out meals etc etc. An absolute phobia of her not being able to get a drink as he wasn’t allowed one
I have a friend who only allowed drinks at meal times other than a communal pint glass of water in the kitchen that they were allowed to take a mouthful of. Dd was obsessed with keeping her beaker etc next to it and spending half our visits stood in the kitchen 😆
We had mums treats. Not allowed to touch them. It’s so weird to me as it’s help yourself in my house - other than Easter eggs. Still not forgiven you dh for eating mine in 2013

Yes I did balloon and get very very fat when I left home at 18 and had actual food in the house all the time and could eat what I want …
Dd wasn’t allowed to help herself without asking until secondary school, purely because of meal time timing, but has remained slim aa she doesn’t have binge issues …
Yet mum would deny all now

@craftyminer

None of us were allowed to learn the recorder at school. Me and my twin brother (in the same class) used to have to read quietly in the corner while everyone else did music.

@BakedTattie

vm.tiktok.com/ZMLY6kLDU/

This probably explains your situation quite well 😂

Not allowed to watch TV past 9. My mum would get up, turn everything off at the switch and that was it.

I had a friend about 10 years ago who did this when I slept over, bye bye wifi!