What are some trivial and stupid things your parents would give you shit for ? What are some stupid rules they had ?

[nadia11]

Most of us have decent relationships with our parents but most parents in general give us shit about the most trivial things.

When me and my sisters as well as my two brothers lived with my parents until our early twenties, our parents(especially our mom) would give us shit for not brushing our hair even when we wouldn't go out and be in the house all day.

Home should be a safe haven. You shouldn't be worried about your appearance at all but our parents expected us to look somewhat presentable all the time.

Another stupid expectation. We were expected to be up by 9 AM on weekends. Now that we don't live with them anymore, we can sleep in till whatever time we want on weekends. 10 AM, 11 AM, 12 PM.

And also when we were teenagers, our parents gave us shit for refusing to let our younger cousins play in our gaming consoles. They would also give us shit for not letting them play in our cellphones.

We couldn't lay down on the couches.

One time our mom gave us shit for not cooking for our older brothers.

We were not allowed to polish out toenails and we were not allowed to wear open high heels or sandals because they claimed that women's feet are one of the things that causes random guys to lust after women. That's why we couldn't be barefoot or wear flip flops whenever our fathers guy friends would show up. We had to cover our feet. Apparently guys get sexually aroused by feet.

We couldn't have boyfriends. We weren't even allowed to have guy platonic friends.

We were not allowed to go to the beaches.

We weren't allowed to watch much TV, definitely no soaps in case neighbours/eastenders etc influenced our behaviour 🙄

Not allowed to slack at weekends, expected to do lots of chores.

Not allowed pop music as apparently that was bad, unlike 60s music which was good so they said....

Discouraged from friendships with children of divorcees etc.

Ironically our parents were liars/cheats and divorcees themselves, so actually complete hypocrites. I dont miss living with them (now deceased).

My parents were generally very reasonable.

We were expected to eat everything we were
given though. Mostly it was fine as I wasn't fussy. I do remember chewing on a bit of gristly fat for ages and eventually spitting it out behind a door!

I wasn't allowed to watch Grange Hill, probably because it featured 'common' children from a state school not nice children from a private school (like me).

We weren't allowed to open Christmas presents apart from stockings until after xmas dinner.

I can't think of anything else, as a teen they were pretty chilled about most things including sex and alcohol (not in a let you do anything you like way, more in a realistic, this is going to happen so we'd rather know about it way).

In hindsight my parents were quite reasonable and gave me a lot of freedom, maybe a little too much if I'm honest, but I did a great line in butter wouldn't melt and got straight As, worked part time from fifteen, did my school work when it was needed, so they just let me get on with it. My peers/neighbours were about 50/50 pregnant or in prison by 18 so the context helped my image.

Except they wouldn't let me go to the Catholic girls secondary school, it was one of the best schools academically in our borough, my CofE primary were happy to write me a recommendation and it wasn't oversubscribed so plenty of non Catholic girls attended. Our local secondary was special measures dire, so I ended up out of borough at a fairly bog standard comp travelling by public buses. (Catholic school coach picked up at the top of our street).
DF would just say nuns are evil and my mum would shrug and say he doesn't have an opinion on much, let him have this one.

I had a very laid back upbringing, cannot remember any rules TBH .My parents were quite bohemian.
My children have had a similar upbringing and they are lovely, successful adults.

On the whole my parents were very reasonable people but there are a couple of things that I still remember the injustice of.

My sister got horribly car sick. I didn’t but I wasn’t allowed to read because she couldn’t without throwing up so I had to talk to her instead.

Another was a rule they did capitulate on in the end but it was a fiercely fought battle. My DMum is very religious and didn’t want me reading Harry Potter. She pulled a face when I bought it and refused to let me have the second book for a good while.

Our dog was not allowed to walk on the living room rug. He got really good at walking exactly around the edges without actually setting foot (paw) on it.

Elbows on table
Chewing loudly
Wearing hats indoors
Singing at the table
Opening any sort of door even to walk through it seemed to annoy my parents
If you got a shower you had to squeegee it to buggery. Not allowed to leave it wet. ITS A SHOWER

I keep thinking of more!

Not allowed to:

Watch ITV
Watch Grange Hill, soaps etc
Go for a walk, ride our bikes, play the piano, put the tv on or the computer without asking. The yes or no in reply was random.

We would NEVER say if we had boyfriends/girlfriends. I would still not be allowed to stay at my parents' with a man I wasn't married to even now. I'm 49.
Sleep with someone outside of marriage. Obviously, this hasn't been enforced since I moved out but my parents cannot bring themselves to talk about any of my boyfriends.

Have money for anything. No pocket money.
If we missed the school bus (miles from anywhere) we had to pay our parents £5 for the petrol they used to drive us to school. That would be our birthday money gone.

Not allowed to have sanitary pads or tampons in our room/the toilet so we had to sneak them out of the airing cupboard and carry them to the toilet. Also not allowed a toilet bin or to wrap them in toilet roll as that was wasteful. We had to carry the little bundles of embarrassment through the house to put on the fire.

In earlier years, we would be force-fed if we didn't eat everything. One parent holding our nose closed, one parent spooning the food in.

No elbows on table
Only one piece of food on your fork at a time
Never put your knife in your mouth, we were watched while eating constantly and ordered to stop if we did these things
Not allowed to sniff or cough at the table
( I had allergies and hay fever a lot)
Only one bath and hair wash a week even as a teenager
Must sit up straight with feet on the floor at all times when at home
Not allowed to touch the television ever
Got told off for laughing too loudly
Must be in bed at 8pm every night even in summer and even when I was 15
No swearing, I got belted once for saying 'crap'
If you were ill with colds or fevers never any painkillers so you would have to suffer
Fucking abusive weirdos

No deodorant. I had really bad body odour and a group of girls at school sat me down and told me kindly that I stunk. I bought myself a can of deodorant using my dinner money and they found it in my bedroom and I remember them going berserk and putting it in the garden because they thought it might explode?!

Yeah they liked to ban tv too, if they realised that you really liked something they would do it out of spite. I was a huge Neighbours fan and when they realised how much I loved it, I was banned from watching it for about two years, except for Charlene's wedding that they allowed me to watch the one episode of.

Things I thought really stupid at the time but not now…

No discussing weight or weight loss at all.
Wear stylish & different clothes, no need for titties out
Definitely no speaking with our mouth full
of food
Pardon not what
Never be afraid to be different
your best friend is money in the bank

Agree, there's a load of stuff i thought was embarrassing at the time that I now realise was actually great and stood us in good stead in later life.

My mum hated it when I became a teenager and my body was developing. She refused to buy me a bra for about two years and I was a bridesmaid at a family wedding and the relatives had buy me a vest to wear under the dress. She would also refuse to say the word 'bra' and would just gesture pointing at her chest instead.

As a parent of adults l was a bit nervous checking these lists in case l saw myself too closely but l am shocked at the lists..l was brought up in the 60s and am struggling to find the not allowed in my parents house. We were not feral and had good manners but it was pretty relaxed. We had to go to church but we never minded that as it was part of life and actually social as we saw our friends.
With my own kids they probably would say no food in bedrooms or no tvs. But l never actually made it a rule ..it just didn't happen. I wish l had been a bit stricter at not leaving the table until everyone is finished as my ds..adult..has diagnosed ADHD and cannot bear waiting for everyone to finish and will just wander off which l don't like but accept .

Don’t boast.
Don’t show off.
Don’t draw attention to yourself.

So when I was excited because I won a book token as I got second prize in an essay competition, there were no congratulations or celebration. Just told don’t boast, no-one’s interested.

Finish all your food. My cousins were force fed if they didn’t eat their food. One vomited hers up and was made to eat her own sick. My Mum felt sorry for them (they also had to clean their brother’s room and his shoes, and mend his clothes) and they used to spend most of the summer holidays with us.

No sex before marriage, as the man can always “throw that back in your face.”

Only allowed mini tampons and light flow sanitary towels which were completely inadequate for my horrendous periods. Had to use the outside toilet when I had my period. Not allowed to bath (it makes you bleed more) or wash my hair when I had my period. Told not allowed more than a mini tampon as it would mean I had lost my virginity.

You must never go on YouTube on the PC, because it was a virus...

I remember my Grandpa saying ‘joints on the table are meant for eating’ if we put our elbows on the table.

My parents were very over protective, but also idealistic like hippies. Weird combination!
-My father came to pick me up from parties and clubs until i was 22 and met my husband.
-Not allowed to go to church-meetings or scouts or teamsports because i needed to learn to think as an individual.
-Never told me i did something that was good, but always gave me feedback on how to improve further.
-My mother had an awful regime on how often everything needed cleaning even though it wasn’t really a rule for me, our family life was hugely affected by it. Cleaning windows and curtains weekly.

We weren't allowed KFC as that was for fat people. McDonald's was fine.

My DH and siblings weren't allowed to walk down the centre of the hallway as it would wear out the carpet, they had to stick to the sides.

not allowed more than a couple of inches of bathwater and no bubble bath
God forbid if you left a light on
Not allowed as teenagers to go down the seafront
nothing in between meals except maybe an apple
had to ask before taking any food at all
no touching the TV turning it over etc
no painted toe nails ankle chain etc
no playing game consoles on TV it would ruin the TV apparently
no leaving the TV on and leaving the room
woe betide you if a towel accidentally slipped off the towel rail
no leaving the table until you had cleared your plate
no ringing the front doorbell come in via the back door

Not allowed to leave the table until plate was empty.
No eating between meals.
No taking any food without asking permission.
No eating upstairs under any circumstances.
Not allowed to watch Grange Hill or Tiswas but was allowed to watch Saturday Morning Swap Shop.
Not allowed to shave legs or armpits.
Not allowed to sit near TV screen because you'd go blind.

I was given shit for not shaving. My mum actually pinned me down whilst I was crying to shave my underarms. It embarassed her to be seen with me.

We couldn't leave the house until it was left show house pristine, couldn't even leave a dirty mug in the sink. My father was ex military and my Mum was borderline OCD, so our house was beautiful but austere. We had a green, shag pile carpet in the living room which had to be raked twice daily, my Mum was a slave to that sodding carpet!