Rules that YOUR parents had

[sleepsforwimps]

Come confess, is there a rule they had for you, no matter how big or small, that the child/rebel in you just refuses to apply to your own kids/household?

I was not allowed to sit on the arms of the sofa... I really wanted to... but apparently I would have broken them. I know it's slightly pathetic but I get a strange delight in sitting on the arms of my sofa, it's my sofa and I'll break the arms if I want to

Anyone else slightly pathetic?

Yep my dp's mum usedto lock up chocolate and sweet stuff and now he can't just have one biscuit he will eat a full packet .

I see savoury food as a luxury we would come home from school and get freezer food and then she would cook her and my Dad steak and chips or have a takeaway . I used to (not so much now but when I first lived alone) consider bacon and steak to be really indulgent and I would buy loads of pure OJ and drink it all the time .

My dc are not allowed to just keep helping themselves but I don't lock food away or have one type of food for dc and another for us .

It's so strange, I remember loads of rules but I think my parents were much more relaxed than I am. DC are 8&7 now, so maybe I'll loosen up a bit.

I let them have blankets on the couch when they watch telly, which my parents would never have allowed....not really major rebel material though is it?

We do horse around at the dinner table quite a bit if we're in the mood. My parents would not have approved. Its the only meal we all sit down and have together most days so if it degenerates into fits of giggles what's wrong with that? At least we're not wolfing it all down at 100mph to get aways as quick as possible like I used to!

I had a friend whos mum had a cupboard full of chocolate biscuits that were for her only. She gave us Mums own custard creams......

My parents did the 'if you ask you don't get' thing but I wish I had created the same rule as my ds asks all the time for stuff.....

Also, bedtime was bedtime and woe betide me if I set a foot out of bed....

There were no rules when I was growing up...and I'm alright. It was a laissez faire, benign neglect 70s kind of childhood.

At the time, I would have liked rules, rituals and routines - I'm an Earth sign after all. I used to love reading books about boarding schools, old-fashioned childhoods, family traditions etc. I loved the Milly Molly Mandy books where Monday was laundry day, Tuesday was baking, Wednesday was market day etc. I also think it would have made me easier to live with as a student (everyone else was brought up in tidy, organised houses - I wasn't and it showed!)

Now, I really appreciate it and it had given me some self-discipline and self-motivation, non-judgmental attitude and generally an easy life as I can prioritise and improvise. I enjoy eating vegetables. I work hard because I want to and not because someone is standing over me with a whip. I also think that if you enforce the rules, YOU have to live by them and where's the fun in that?

The one I will never be able to enforce is "no reading at the table", that was the one I always got told off for at home (I was a right little bookworm) but as DH and I often do it, we can't really tell DS not to! (We do have limits though, don't usually read during dinner so that we can talk, but I see no harm in newspapers at breakfast time for instance!).

Not allowed to watch kids tv after 'the man of the house' comes home from work/is in the house.

Not allowed to play music downstairs

Not allowed friends in the house without prior arrangement

Don't drink the milk - it is for tea, coffee and cereal. Not for drinking.

No after school activities, because we 'don't believe in them'

Many many more things I imagine that I can't remember right now. My father was a control freak. I parent completely different to them.

Why in earth would any parents have a 'no blankets on the couch when watching tv' rule?

HLaurens - I think you are right about the effect of restricting junk food. Like you, treats were restricted when I was growing up and I know that I went a bit bonkers when I left home, and overindulged in all the things that mum had rationed - and the evidence is all round my waist.

(Disclaimer - I know that my weight issues are not mainly due to mum's rationing of treats, and other factors have had a far bigger effect).

Lots of rules already mentioned like...

...eat all your food (have vowed never to use the 'starving children in africa' line on my kids)
...only 2 biscuits at a time (more like 2 packets now
...ironing everything

Nothing really wierd or OTT although i think i am generally more lazy relaxed about alot of things than my parents were.

PMSL at DrNortherner "Plus my mum had tidy draws - mine are very messy!"

This has brought back some strange memories -having friends in the house was a rare treat for me and my sister. Kids are constantly traipsing in and out of our house. My mother ironed everything, including pants. I, er, don't. She also took control of what clothes I'd be wearing everyday until I was at high school. My kids have been choosing what to wear for themselves since they were 5 or 6. She was, and still is, neurotic about housework. I'm not. Dad was in complete control of the tv (he still is in their house). If we were going out somewhere we couldn't go out until the washing machine had finished??! There were a lot of weird food rules that seem quite insane to me now. I've just remembered something else although it wasn't exactly a rule - everyone was always terrified of everybody else's dad. In fact I think we were terrified of our own - "wait till your father gets home!". My kids can't wait for their dad to get home.