People Break Down The Strangest Rules Their Parents Enforced Growing Up
The rules we follow growing up are often rooted in culture and circumstance, but that doesn't mean they always make sense for the world we live in.
Or at least they didn't as kids. Let's revisit and see if things make more sense as grown ups, shall we?
Reddit user WannabeWeeb asked:
What dumb rules did you parents have growing up?
And I'm not out here saying parents need to do better. As a parent, I totally get the idea of being a semi-functional mess... I'm just saying maybe let's talk some stuff out before we start enforcing things as rules?
Like, we see where you were GOOOOOOIIIIIIING there were just some failures of logic on the way there.
Experience
"I wasn't allowed to drive at night, or in the rain/snow, because I had no experience driving in those conditions."
"So until I got experience driving at night or in rain/snow, I was forbidden to do it. But I could never gain that experience because I was forbidden to do it."
"Logic was not always a parental strength." - fangfacekitty
Video Game Rules
"Couldn't own a Call Of Duty game because I was shooting people. Halo was great because I was killing aliens." - Perriaction
"My mom actually had similar feelings. Resident Evil, while she didn't like it, was fine because it was obvious fiction. Military shooters were far worse because it's a realistic scenario of killing people, along with glorifying the military." - Hiro-Of-Shadows
No Food For You
"Never eat in any house except your own." - WiseOpinion47
"Glad I am not the only one that had to deal with this. My friends were always baffled when I would leave just because their mom started cooking."
"Dad's excuse was that my older brother supposedly would beg for food at his friends house when he didn't want to eat my mom's cooking. (He also pretended to be poor to con my aunt into buying him a designer coat so it's plausible)"
"Mom said she didn't care, but she was a health food nut and critical of what the other neighborhood mom's fed their kids." - ProfessionalBee137
Evil
"I had a friend whos parents were really religious, but only in certain ways."
"One of those ways was not using the certain words such as evil. We would go to his house and play Resident Evil, but every evil word had to be covered up. So we would often play 'Resident 4.' "
"They had a very large dvd collection of movies also, that all had words sharpied out and censored, but everyone was still allowed to watch the movies so it made no sense." - streetmitch
Twice A Week
"In high school I wasn't allowed to wear 'shirts with words on them' more than twice a week."
"I liked to wear graphic tees and merch I bought at concerts. Mother viewed her kids as an extension of her rather than as individuals, so she tended to control us as much as she could as a means of improving her image."
"Letting me dress the way I wanted to dress twice a week was her version of a compromise." - raisethesong
Dealbreakers
"My parents have a habit of making deals with me, and when I do my part, they completely change it to suit them."
"I was allowed to save up for a console a couple years ago by doing jobs, chores, etc. I was told that once I had the money, I would be allowed to buy it. Fast forward to a year and a bit later, I have the money for a Black Friday offer."
"I ask my mum if I can buy it, and she tells me no. 'You need to wait a few months to prove yourself.' Like wtf does that mean, I have to be 'worthy' of it?"
"I still managed to convince them, but I still wasn't allowed to play on it for another 2 months."
"Another example, I wanted to buy a lightsaber replica off Amazon with my own money. I was told if I saved up, my parents would buy a second one so I could play with a friend. I had the money, and I got my saber."
"But because my grades slipped a tiny bit, my parents took the lightsaber that I SAVE UP FOR off me and refused to buy me another. To this day I still don't have the second one because it sold out. So much for a deal. (And no, there was no mention of grades staying the same, etc)." - GodofMemes_Dank
The Fun Quota
"My parents had a fun quota. I couldn't have multiple fun days for a given week."
"A fun day was something like a friend coming over for a while or me getting to hang out with them." - spacexpurrp
"Disrespect"
"The main one was that dad didn't tolerate 'disrespect,' which sounds fine until you realize that 'disrespect' was just whatever set him off that time."
"So you'd walk into the room, he'd storm over yelling about 'disrespect,' and tell you to drop and give him 30, while he kicked and stepped on you until you were done. Then he'd ask you if you knew what you did wrong. Of course the answer was no, but if you said that you were 'playing dumb' so, you'd do more pushups, he'd kick you some more, and then he'd ask again."
"If you kept doing that, maybe he'd tell you what he was angry about at some point, but who knows? It wasn't worth it. He probably just didn't like your resting facial expression, or he had a bad day and decided you looked too happy, or something equally inane." - Aperture_T
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Male Family Members
"No dresses, skirts, tank tops, sometimes even t-shirts if the sleeves weren't long enough, around any male family members."
"Shorts too, and pants that were too tight around the crotch area. Oh also only thick tights were allowed. Like you should not be able to even make out my skin tone through it if I stretched it out completely."
"... if you think my family members (including my brother and father) are going to look at your 10-year-old kid like that maybe it's they are the problem and not your daughter problem 😀" - ijustwanttobeloved2
Dad
"OH… my family had such weird family rules, here are a few:"
"That we couldn't leave the table without drinking a glass of milk first. No idea why."
"We had to complement our family one time a day"
"and if we ever lied my parents would force me to eat a piece of moldy bread. That last one was (maybe?) abuse. I've cut my dad out of my life."
"My dad was the one that made all the rules. He had a lot of control on my mom and she was too brainwashed by Him to notice." - Odd-Blackberry8216
Who Are You Hiding From?
"No strangers or friends are allowed to enter the main home."
"It doesn't matter if it's your best friend of forever. To hang out with friends or guests they have another place that's 6 miles away."
"It has a small garden. You can have a bbq, hang out, and play there. Everything from the post office is delivered there. But we don't sleep there."
"We can, but we don't use it as a home. No outsiders are allowed at the place we use as home." - MJohnVan
"Rebellion"
"My parents had this gigantic chest that hid the TV in the top part and had three drawers for movies in the bottom part."
"I was only allowed to watch the movies in the bottom 2 drawers. They were parental approved. They were filtered for subject matter, language, and even year they were made; 1939-1964. Those were the earliest and latest releases that I could watch."
"My parents were super religious and put me a very strict religious community of Southern Baptist - Christianity."
"If you listened non-classical music, you were marked as a bad person. Tattoos were part of devil worship, gays had no souls. If a girl showed her ankles it was risqué. There were families who couldn't watch The Lion King because they sang about 'The Circle of Life' and that was just too scandalous."
"Other kids who grew up 'rebelled' by having sex, drinking/doing drugs, and got tattoos. My rebellion was to watch every movie I could get my hands on."
"So, naturally, when I was 18 and went to college, somebody gave me their Netflix password. I started watching the Walking Dead. I had never seen effects or a story like that. It gave me nightmares for years." - Qu33nM4ry
Bad Luck
"Don't cut nails at night. Don't pet the cat when there's thunder."
"Don't rest your chin on your hand. Don't use piggy banks. Don't bite your nails..."
"It's a long list and the reason for all of it is because doing it is 'bad luck.' " - LowAd8109
The Filibuster
"You're not allowed to leave the room while the parents are talking to you."
"I know that sounds like basic human decency, but you have to consider my father would keep ranting on and on about things, practically trapping everyone in the room with him as he did."
"If, during dinner or something, I asked to leave my parents would even spend literally half an hour lecturing me about how inappropriate it was to ask to leave at that moment, thus trapping me for 30 minutes after I had already indicated that I wanted to leave."
"I'm autistic and sensory overload is a real problem for me, so if I'm trying to leave and find a place where I can calm down and recover, trapping me by yelling what a bad person I am is not going to make it any better." - TheChosenSnail
Hopefully we've gotten some useful what NOT to do tips from these Reddit users and their confessions. Parenting is hard, but it's doable in a loving, logical, and non-abusive way.
Dating and the search for love and companionship... What a nightmare.
This journey plays out nothing like in the movies.
Every Prince or Princess (or everything in BTW) seems to have a touch of the psycho.
The things people say during what should be simple dinner conversation can leave a dining partner aghast.
Like... do you hear you?
Redditor detroit_michigldan wanted to discuss all the best ways to crash and burn when trying to make a romantic connection. They asked:
"You're on a date and it's going really great. What can another person say to ruin it completely?"
I once had a guy ask me if I was willing to follow him into the woods, depending on the price of the meal.
Yeah. No steak is worth that.
Plans After...
"Thanks for the ride but I have a date with someone else, I figured you wouldn't drive me if you knew I was going on a date with someone else and I really needed a ride."
"Online dating, talked to her for a while, finally got the courage to ask her out and then she said that as we got there."
iareyours
Mirror Image
“'You look just like my wife!'”
catalinachild
"I did have a guy tell me I reminded him of his son. I don’t believe English has a word to adequately describe my feelings at that time."
UnicornMagicRainbow
"That would definitely do it."
chaotica78
Third Wheel
"'Hope you don't mind if my mother joins us.'"
ofsquire
"Actually had a girl do this on a first date because she had anxiety issues. Honestly wasn’t bad except that 90% of the time she was silent and her mom talked over her."
"I didn’t mind that much and wouldn’t have minded trying again when she was more comfortable except that she was let go at the company we worked at and she deleted her social media profiles and she never responded on her number. Ah well."
Seightx
Liar
"'Hey bro aren't you gay? I made out with you last night.'"
"Random dude I've never seen before in front of my (f) date."
JHXC16
Was he lying though?
Filter Issues
"'You looked better on Tinder.'"
waqasnaseem07
"Isn’t it basic knowledge that everybody looks slightly worse than the worst picture you can find?"
no_user_ID_found
The Past
"'My ex used to do that too.'"
xxIvyOF
"Yep. I’ve definitely had two otherwise-decent-guy date-situations sour because the ex-comparisons just would not stop flowing. No woman wants to be seen as interchangeable—I’m not here to perfectly fill that ex-sized hole in your life. Focusing on the present moment and a future we could build together is a courtesy we need to grant each other in earliest dates of dating."
LarkScarlett
Powerless
"'I'm an alpha, you cant handle my top energy.'"
Midnightgay28
"I actually left a dude in the middle of dinner, in part, for saying this. I ordered an Uber under the table while pretending to listen to him. Went to the bathroom, and never came back. That was when I was young. Now I’d just say, 'How about we enjoy this meal in silence, before we head our separate ways.'”
UnicornMagicRainbow
Mommy...
"'Mother says I should be back by 9.'"
"Saying 'mother says' just feels weird."
bunnyrut
"That gives me Norman Bates vibes."
Werewolf_lover20
"'Mother says alligators are aggressive because they have an overabundance of teeth, but lack a toothbrush.'"
sodaextraiceplease
Obvs...
"'If you were going to be murdered, what method would you prefer. Purely hypothetical. Obvs.'"
Specific_Tap7296
If it looks anything like a Dateline NBC episode... RUN!
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Despite the advancement of technology rendering people left to their own devices–literally–to entertain them, there are some leisurely activities that will never go out of style.
Or so you would think.
Do people still knit to pass the time? Are people actively collecting stamps?
It depends on who's asking.
Curious to hear about hobby trends, Redditor gizehgizeh asked:
"What are once popular hobbies that are slowly dying these days?"

Before we've become conditioned to living on our phones, these activities used to keep people occupied.
Before Texting, There Was This
"Letter writing."
– littlekingMT
Literal And Tangible Joy
"Well the internet killed pen pals for sure. I do remember I had a Japanese girl for a penpal maybe back in 2007 or so. I honestly don't remember how it started, pretty sure some website, but that was a fun experience. But now I can just straight up talk to foreign people real time, lol. But yea getting a physical letter that someone took the time to write and mail still is hard to beat feelings wise."
– skyburnsred
Model Trains
"When I was growing up, every town had a model train store in it. Now I have one in region and everything else has to be bought online."
– Hairy_Effective1172
Pretty Rocks
"Don’t see anyone playing marbles anymore, I had an awesome collection in school."
– sheeple85
"I had some marbles as a kid in the 90s. My grandma got them for me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them. I always imagined them as a thing kids in the 40s played with."
– Ryoukugan
People Were Moving Canvases
"Paintball has been dying a slow death since 2006. Sad, really."
– hobo_recycler
Before the general population began hating clutter, collecting was once a "thing."
Precious Coins
"Coin collecting... I'm a silver/gold nut and I'm always hunting for precious metal coins. whenever I go into a shop they get all excited because 'no one under 70 collects coins anymore.'"
– ThatFishySmell99
Post It
"Stamp collecting."
– spooky_scully_mulder
"Collecting in general, really. Of course there are still prominent collectors but it's slipped more into enthusiast and niche territory than being a popular hobby that you might expect anyone to have."
– iuytrefdgh436yujhe2
What A Gem
"Rockhounding was immensely popular back in the 1950's and 1960's. Personally, I think it's a fascinating and fulfilling hobby, but when I go to a meeting at a rock and gem club, I'm usually the youngest one in the room by several decades."
– filthy_lucre
People once enjoyed making things.
Admiring The View
"Stained glass. I learned how to make it from my old man, and my junior high art class teacher also taught it. Very few artisans are still around."
– brobeanzhitler
Metal Vocation
"Black smithing."
– kenworth117
"I bought a forge to try. It’s insanely hard work, and crazy expensive. I still haven’t finished a piece."
– DSentvalue
Scrapbooking
"Yeah. I'm watching the arts and crafts stores around me completely uninstalling their racks for specialty paper. Now the only thing they have is mega packs of repeating colors/images. To boot all the inclusions like papercraft/die-cut things, washi tape, scissors, stickers, etc have gotten so expensive I would rather go buy $5 bags at value village to get an assortment of things versus buying anything new. I really, really miss yard sales for the same reasons."
– Phantasmai
I envy people who have jobs that are basically their hobbies.
Not everyone gets paid doing what they actually enjoy and have a profound level of passion for.
If they do, kudos to them.
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When we first meet someone–whether through mutual friends, at school, or in a new work setting–we generally feel people out to determine if they're worth getting to know.
While the process could take time, some people make our jobs much easier after spotting instant red flags.
Curious to hear about our general radar of people, Redditor xxFluffie asked:
"What is something that makes you immediately dislike someone?"

Some people just think they are absolutely hilarious and never realize they're the only ones laughing.
Next In Line
"They laugh about having screwed someone else over. If you think you're not next, well, you'll learn."
– whiznat
Unfunny
"when you mention you don't like a thing and they immediately do that thing 'as a joke.'"
– wayfinder
Playing Devil's Advocate
"Kneejerk contrarians. People who, no matter what you say you like or believe, just have to dismiss it and say they like or think the opposite."
– BubbhaJebus
People who put others down get slammed here.
Bad Parents
"When they treat their kids sh**ty in public. I don't mean handling tantrums, setting a rule, having to hurry to the train etc. I mean perfectly normal-behaved kids getting in trouble for trailing along peacefully, looking at things, asking questions etc."
"If you don't like tiny humans who learn the world, why have them??"
– raxeira-etterath
Public Humiliation
"Treating people sh**ty in public for laughs. Like being rude to service workers because they think it’s funny. Big red flag."
– Ok_Personality_1080
Simply Uncalled For
"Someone who is a d*ck to other people or animals for no reason."
– xebt1000
Those with ulterior motives rubs people the wrong way.
The Scheme
"If they try to get me to join their MLM scheme."
– spazmcgee1
Hard Sell
"A guy I used to be friends with in high school reached out a couple of years after graduating about a business opportunity he wanted my opinion on because 'you've always been smart', then he set up a Skype call and brought some other dude into the call and they started trying to sell me on what was clearly an MLM scheme. The guy went from friend to 'I'm never talking to you again' in a matter of 10 minutes."
– Mental-Afternoon-164
A Timeline
"Good gawd, this! I've had more than one exposure to this abject bullsh**tery..."
- Back in the late 80's/early 90's I was invited to a meeting of literally the OG "Pyramid" where you're recruited to pay in, and then you go out and recruit others to pay in, and the last in line got f'kall.
- In 1995 I had a coworker try to reel me into Amway, which was a hard no.
- In 2000 it was Pampered Chef, though to be fair they did have useful products.
- In 2009 a coworker tried to get me into some stupid video calling service that was obviously stupid from the description. He even got offended when I called bullsh*t.
– Mystical_Cat
Too much ego is a no-go.
I Can Do Better
"Being a b*tch just to stroke their own ego."
"We get it, you can lift 5lbs more than the 12 year old, you don't have to rub it in their face just because you're slightly better"
– Livia_Pivia
Can't Top This
"Oh, you did <story that's been told>? That's nothing! I did <implausible story>.
"I get the whole empathy through relating common experience, and I'm someone who does that (which drives some people crazy on its own), but there's a big different by empathising through common experience, and one-upmanship."
– Tisarwat
Lacking Conversational Etiquette
"Starting to talk over me when I was already talking."
"Stop it you rude, arrogant jerk."
– R33Gtst
If one or more of these traits sound familiar to you, you're not alone.
We don't have time for braggadocios, pyramid-schemers, and conversation interrupters.
And that's just for starters.
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Children tend to believe just about anything they hear.
That there are monsters under your bed, watching too much TV will make your head explode, and silly faces will be permanent if you make them too often.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to silly things that children will believe.
Some call it naivitée, other's youthful innocence.
But it's hard not to look back with embarrassment on certain things we believed as a child, that today might simply seem dumb.
Redditor Disastrous_Toe_6548 was curious to learn the multitude of silly things people believed when they were children, leading them to ask:
"What's the dumbest thing you believed as a kid?"
Pleading to deaf ears...
"My dad told me he had hearing loss and couldn't hear me if I whined because my pitch would get too high."
"Would completely ignore me until I asked him questions in a normal voice."
"Trusted him implicitly until I was 12 and he yelled at my younger brother for whining."- Tyrion_Stark.
Get it while you can.
"That they took everything off the shelves when the supermarket closed."- fgyfddg.
Silly superstitions.
"My grandfather used to tell me that if I played with the fire, I'd pee the bed."
"I believed him for a while, until I got older."
"I think he was just trying to protect me from the fire."- teddypa1981.
"Rain, rain go away..."
"That if it was raining where I was, it was raining everywhere in the world."- morningshartz.
Age is just a number.
"My parents used to seem really old to me, so much so I believed they grew up like cave people as children, wearing giant leaves for clothes and what not."- Laleena_.
So that's how they're made!
"That smokestacks from the power plant created clouds."- Scaniarix.
An instant cure.
"The sun gives you sunburns, therefore, moonlight should heal them."- velocipeter.
Better safe than sorry.
"Don't drink and drive meant all drinks."
"My dad was super confused when I told him he wasn't allowed to have any soda until we got home."- hulagirlslovetoparty.
Don't believe everything you see on TV.
"There was an episode of Mickey Mouse where Mickey couldn’t reach something at first, so he tried again and somehow his arm was long enough to reach it."
"As a small kid I believed that if I couldn’t reach something, I should just try reaching for it again and my arm would then somehow be long enough to reach it."- That-Dutch-Person.
The miracle of childbirth.
"That babies are pooped out."
"When I was like 7 I was listening to my aunt as she explained that childbirth was pretty intense and painful for her, and I was all solemnly like, 'yeah, sometimes just my poops are painful, I don’t think I could get a baby out' and she went 'um, WHAT?' and her reaction made me realize real quick that I had f*cked up somewhere and I tried to change the subject while my mind was just reeling lol."- thesoundingfurrows.
Oh to be a child again.
And to believe literally everything you're told.
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