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Original poster

Rules you had in your childhood that now seem bizarre?

999 replies

Tattted · 05/02/2022 17:20

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.

OP posts:
ABitOfAShitShow · 07/02/2022 23:52

@theDudesmummy

Enid Blyton was the reason I became an avid reader, a stepping stone to the whole world of reading. I don't care what others say about her books, for me they were brilliant. I loved the school stories especially.
Me too. I just wanted so desperately to be able to have secret midnight feasts! 😂
Pudmyboy · 07/02/2022 23:53

My dad always had a chair he sat on in the livingroom and no one was allowed to sit in it.
@StickyToffeePuddingAndIceCream
Mine too! It was the one by the fire with the best view of the telly.
If someone did dare to sit in it we had to get off it sharpish once he came in!

blyn72 · 08/02/2022 00:07

@BlueThursday

No ribena because it was bad for our teeth. Lucozade though: totally fine to have Hmm

I was given a ration of mattress like sanitary towels and got belted if I used too many. So I had to wear them longer than they could cope with and ruined so many clothes. Which, of course, I got belted for.

For context this would have been 1995-1998. I was so grateful to get a part time job when I was 16 in 1999 to buy whatever I wanted.

Today I totally go overboard on sanitary wear and; it’s one part of my life I’m very unfriendly to the environment but i just can’t not have more than I need Sad

I get that about the sanitary towels. My mother bought me something called 'Nikini' which she thought would be better than a sanitary belt. You had to buy Nikini pads which clipped into the - thing.

Unfortunately she only bought me one Nikini 'thing' which I had to wear day and night for a full week. It also leaked and I would be told off if I stained the sheets.

www.mum.org/nikiadv.htm

katseyes7 · 08/02/2022 00:08

Not so much a rule for me, but up until the day my mother died, she went to bed at 11pm.
Nothing wrong with that, people like a routine, especially some older people. Except if she was watching something on tv (even a film!) on tv, and it finished at quarter past eleven, she missed the end.
It still bemuses me. She stopped working when she had me (she was 29) and even after my dad died, she didn't work. So she/they didn't need to get up in the morning for work.
I honestly can't comprehend why anyone would do that!

tumpymummy · 08/02/2022 00:18

Not my parents rules, but a boyfriend's parents. Whilst at uni I went to stay at my boyfriend's parents house. If I needed the loo in the night I wasnt allowed to turn on any lights or flush the toilet. With hindsight I understand the parents didnt want to be disturbed, but I do remember feeling my way unsteadily in an unfamiliar house. Then the next day I wasnt allowed any breakfast because I got up after 9am. I had been working all week so thought a lie in would be fine, but no! I wasn't even allowed to make myself some toast or have a cup of tea because I got up too late. Only ever visited the once!

swampygirl · 08/02/2022 01:38

My mum was incredibly houseproud. She was always on the go doing something tidying, ironing. Never seemed to sit down in the daytime. Only after tea and the dishes were washed, dried and put away would she sit down in the evening and watch TV. My two younger sisters and I wasn't allowed to watch TV in the daytime. Mum would moan at us if we were sat in the lounge and would tell us to go out and play. then promptly plump up the cushions and shut the room off. Weren't allowed to go up to our room because she said we'd make a mess. Bedrooms are for sleeping in she'd say. Bath once a week. She'd light a paraffin heater in the bathroom and shut the door to warm the bathroom. It was freezing in our house. No central heating back then. Wash at the basin and the water wasn't always hot. Our hot water was heated by an electric immersion and it did eat money. Most of the time the water was tepid or if cold she'd bring up a kettle of hot water.
We wasn't allowed to call on friends on a Sunday. It was a day of rest and our friends parents wouldn't want kids knocking the door. Christmas we had to wash, get dressed and have breakfast before we could open presents. All in all mum did her best for us after dad and her divorced. I was about 11. The good old days!

sweetbellyhigh · 08/02/2022 02:46

@Pudmyboy

My dad always had a chair he sat on in the livingroom and no one was allowed to sit in it. *@StickyToffeePuddingAndIceCream* Mine too! It was the one by the fire with the best view of the telly. If someone did dare to sit in it we had to get off it sharpish once he came in!
Same!!
ProseccoOnSafari · 08/02/2022 05:19

My mum cooking and calling me every time to “salt the food”. She would literally expect me to stop what I was doing (sometimes I would be playing at the next door neighbour’s and she would send for me to come home to “salt the food”) - once done; I could go back to whatever it was I was doing. I would literally walk into the kitchen, take a couple pinches of salt from the tub, sprinkle it in and that was that! It never crossed my mind to ask why - it’s just how it was. As an adult, I asked her about it. She was all uncomfortable talking about it but said her mum had made her do it as a child and it’s to do with superstition about being on your period and cooking. Go figure. Didn’t have the mental energy to ask HOW or WHY THE FUCK? Needless to say - I salt my own food - regardless of what my nether regions are up to!!!

LegsMiserables · 08/02/2022 06:41

Being made to eat the dust and crumbs at the bottom of a cereal packet. It's one of my favourite things about being an adult that I no longer have to do that.

Jeans were common.

My Dad got to choose what to watch on telly always, as "he earns the money".

GoodbyeKat · 08/02/2022 07:10

If you swear it makes you physically look ugly…how mother how

sueelleker · 08/02/2022 08:30

re. elbows on the table; I've just remembered Mum used to say "uncooked joints off the table please"!.

TroysMammy · 08/02/2022 08:44

I had to wear a petticoat even if I wore trousers which were handmade. I remember it being bunched up around my hips.

If we put our bums near the table my Mother would say "tables are for glasses not asses".

Emberino · 08/02/2022 08:46

My grandma had rules about how much toilet paper you could use for weeing or pooing - not sure you were allowed to combine the amounts when performing both functions.

She loved a water shortage and relished banning baths and hair washing when we were teenagers.

She never let us turn the boiler onto its antiquated Bakelite setting to heat up enough water for a bath and here is the spooky bit. After my grandparents died the family kept the house as a holiday home, all sorts of strange things happened when we stayed there including the hot water being turned off if I put it on that particular setting!

librarian55 · 08/02/2022 11:41

Having to go to bed at 8pm, even at the weekends and school holidays. I remember looking out of the window on summer nights and it seemed that every other child on the estate was still out playing when I was (supposed to be) in bed.

TeaAddict235 · 08/02/2022 12:29

@Cherrybomb197

Oh. And my dad was completely against me going on the pill at 15. Nothing about sex. No: he just thought it fucked with women’s hormones and made them fat and depressed
Let's be honest, he was right. My mum said the same thing, and I'm glad that I paid attention. She said condoms were the way, and any man who had a problem with putting one on wasn't a real man Grin
RedskyThisNight · 08/02/2022 12:31

@librarian55

Having to go to bed at 8pm, even at the weekends and school holidays. I remember looking out of the window on summer nights and it seemed that every other child on the estate was still out playing when I was (supposed to be) in bed.
In our house it was 7.30pm. When I got to 12, I was graciously allowed to stay up until 8pm. I spent a lot of time reading in bed.
Cherrybomb197 · 08/02/2022 14:31

@TeaAddict235 yeah. My mums phrase about using condoms rather than relying on the pill only was “there’s worse things you can get from having sex than a wee baby”. She got that from her elderly strict Catholic granny

JuergenSchwarzwald · 08/02/2022 15:36

Enid Blyton was the reason I became an avid reader, a stepping stone to the whole world of reading. I don't care what others say about her books, for me they were brilliant. I loved the school stories especially

I agree. The county library was snobby about them. They did stock them but they didn't count towards the reading scheme! But I enjoyed them.

JuergenSchwarzwald · 08/02/2022 15:38

up until the day my mother died, she went to bed at 11pm.
Nothing wrong with that, people like a routine, especially some older people. Except if she was watching something on tv (even a film!) on tv, and it finished at quarter past eleven, she missed the end

I am a bit like this. My desire to sleep outweighs my desire to know what happens!

JuergenSchwarzwald · 08/02/2022 15:44

Not allowed to sit in front seat of car

Neither was I and had the same rule for my ds until he was about 12.

I never had to ask to get down from the table and thought it weird that I had to when I went to other peoples' houses. But I was an only child and probably ate more slowly than my parents so they were waiting for me, not the other way round!

riceuten · 08/02/2022 17:36

Not my mum, but my partner's mum bursts into tears when it's thundering and lightning, turns ALL appliances off in the entire house and unplugs them, turns off the fusebox, puts wellies on and hides under the stairs.

She apparently inherited this from HER mum who did exactly the same.

ilovebagpuss · 08/02/2022 18:40

No one over to play on a Sunday and we weren’t religious I think my parents just wanted a family day!
Definitely the don’t be beholden to people thing and don’t lend things as you won’t get them back. I used to get terrible anxiety if a friend borrowed a pencil or something waiting to get it back.
I’ve always struggled to ask for help or a favour which is a shame as people like helping each other.
We always had to wait for the road to be totally clear before we crossed and whilst this seems a good idea I was stuck doing it well into my older teens when it was a long road and obvious when you could time it safely! Even when I was on my own I still waited Grin
There weren’t many things to be fair but these stuck with me.

blyn72 · 08/02/2022 19:00

@riceuten

Not my mum, but my partner's mum bursts into tears when it's thundering and lightning, turns ALL appliances off in the entire house and unplugs them, turns off the fusebox, puts wellies on and hides under the stairs.

She apparently inherited this from HER mum who did exactly the same.

My mother was similar, always terrified of storms. Couldn't bear seeing a scene with a storm on TV!
Lndnmummy · 08/02/2022 19:17

Not allowed to eat or drink outside (unless seated at a restaurant) and not allowed to eat or drink on transport. Always had to wear a collar under a jumper/sweatshirt as showing your neck looked "cheap"Hmm.
Also not allowed to wear my hair down. In fact my mum still tells me to put it up now and I'm in my 40s

BiscuitLover3678 · 08/02/2022 19:21

Some of these are really sad. It shows what fear of poverty can do.