Hey Pandas, What Were Some Strange House Rules You Had When Growing Up? (Closed)

Hard to say. Rules in my house were used whenever my parents felt like it and often made up on the spot. But you were expected to abide by them anyway. More often than not they applied only to me and not my brother since he wasn't going to listen to them anyway so why bother?

Not so much the rule was strange, but the reason behind it was. We weren't allowed to watch the Simpsons, because my sister tried to strangle my brother like Bart did to Lisa!

We had to always make sure we cleaned behind our ears when we had a bath or else there would be trouble!! Why was it so important that the back of our ears always had to be spotlessly clean??

Even as an 18yo(f), I wasn't allowed to date during the week, which made sense looking back at it as a 50yo now. But I also could only go on a date on the weekends, had to be home by 9pm sharp - and I couldn't date the same guy twice in the same weekend. As if I even had a boyfriend, much less more than one to be able to switch... Made zero sense to me. OH! I also wasn't allowed to call guys, even while in college (living at home) because "Nice girls don't call boys. It's up to the boy to call." This WAS back in the early 90's, however. It still felt so unfair to my teen/early 20's self.

You were not allowed to breathe too close to my mother's couch.

If you wanted to sit or lie down on the couch, you were always reminded not to breathe too close to the fabric. My mother was convinced that this would result in mysterious stains that could never be removed.

Chore Chart: Daily & Weekly
If you did your chores, you were rewarded with allowance $$. If Someone Else did your chores, They would be rewarded with Your Allowance $$! At 1st, I thought it was messed up to have a Chore Chart. But when my parents saw that my sister was Cheating the Chore Chart when she bullied me into doing her chores and mine, 😁 I got rewarded with Her allowance 😂🤣

Probably the weirdest rule ever: “no eating in the dining room”.

i am the youngest of three with my siblings being several years older than me. growing up (this was in the '60s), there was a living/den room for everyone and then a more formal living room for when my parents were having people visiting. that room was decorated in french provincial and was basically a gold and white room. we were never allowed into that room. we also had two separate backyards - one in which we could play and do whatever we wanted to do. it was separated from another smaller garden that mom loved with roses and other flowers. it had a small table and a few chairs under a tree. she and her friends would visit there in good weather. we could go and sit there if we wanted some quiet time but nothing ever rambunctious. the other thing i remember was that mom was a neat freak. we called her the 'white tornado' after a cleaning commercial that was popular at the time. no finger on the walls. no running hands over the kitchen appliances to leave smudges. and, especially, no leaning or rubbing against the walls. this last one got to her one time after my brother and his friends kept rubbing their shoulders and arms while moving through the entry way and hallways. so, she had someone come in and re-plaster (?) the walls with a decorative pattern that left little spikes of plaster. her thinking was that it would keep them from leaning and getting smudges on the walls. it lasted one day because she tripped going to answer the door, fell against the wall and tore herself up. the next day she had the guys come back and sand it all down smooth. when i asked her why she did that she said she was an idiot for thinking the kids wouldn't get hurt but was glad it happened to her instead. yeah, mom was unique but she was an awesome mom.

Predict Dad's mood and desires by telepathy. OK, that wasn't how it was phrased, but that was the idea.

never allowed to watch tv during the week,and not allowed to have any electronics in room.never got in trouble so there wasnt any reason as to why.

Chore "contracts": Clean your room, then you are allowed to go out saturday night (I didnt wat to go out, but was punished for not "cleaning properly").
Next week: Clean your room and the litter box, then you are allowed xyz. OK, but: I had school until evening, by that time the kitchen trashbucket had to be already emptied, which means per algorithm the litter box was already cleaned. So I (yes, me) did break the contract and was punished, apparently for attending school. (Central Europe, if someone wonders.)
Next week: ... well, some horsecrap every week, of which 50% was not beneficial and 50% was impossible to fulfill correctly.
F*ck you, mom.

I was not allowed to watch certain Saturday cartoons as they were "too violent" -- though slapstick sort of violence was I guess OK (3 Stooges, Roadrunner/Coyote, etc.). The idea was, you become what you watch.

My father and stepmother were extremely overbearing control freaks. When I ate dinner with them, I had to cut food using the knife with my left hand, switch the fork to my left hand to take a bite, then sit my knife and fork down while I chewed a minimum of 45 times. Then, for the next bite, repeat the process. This was only one of a million asinine rules that they, themselves, never followed. Would it surprise you that we are NC?

We were poor. So every time we ate cold cuts, we had to cut it in half so it would last longer. And here comes the punchline.
Every Sunday the dog would get wat was leftover.

Wasn’t allowed to watch or listen a lot of music because of my ultra religious upbringing. Examples: Smurfs because witchcraft, TMNT because they were mutants. The only metal I could listen to was Stryder (Christian metal) and rap was DC Talk ( all white christian rap group).

No being in relationships with guys, whether it be platonic or romantic. That sucks, since all the girls in my grade don’t want to be friends with “that one autistic, woke, weird kid”. My parent’s fear is that I will start dating a guy or something, even though I have never experienced romantic or sexual attraction to someone in my entire life (I’m a teenager by the way).

Sonic and Pokemon were temporarily banned from our house when I started mimicking some of the characters rude mannerisms.

You can't spend money you earned at your job unless it was gas insurance or food(once or twice a week). you owned nothing, everything can and will be taken away includes items that you bought. I had to ask to do anything with anyone and include a detailed plan of what would happen. If you asked to do thing it would just irritate the parental figure. If you doodle in your notes 2 weeks of being grounded. Had to be home by 10, if late car privileges will be taken. No passing toast under the door

My mother, who was not much into keeping things tidy herself, insisted when you used the butter you left it in a perfect block shape. If it wasn't perfect there would be shouting, name calling, punishment etc..

Don't tell Nancy (me) she's a foster kid. We'll tell her when she ages out. MFers.