There are strict parents, and then there are those whose rules are simply ridiculous. Imagine not being allowed to hang out in your room, or not having access to snacks. How would you feel if you went on a date, and your parents demanded an accounting of every minute and each mile? Imagine no naps! These are real, and Redditors who escaped unreasonably strict households shared their tales.
huey764 asked, People who grew up with strict parents: what was the most unreasonable rule?
Submissions have been edited for clarity, context, and profanity.
My sister used to call farts "tushy talk"
Giphy
My Dad once heard my sister say "fart" and got really angry because it was not "ladylike" so he prohibited us using it. Instead we were to say "noise that came from behind" which made it even funnier to me.
These overbearing parents.
My (now) wife's parents wanted an itinerary of where we would be on every date (she was 19 at the time but still living at home).
I thought they were asking in a more general way so I answered "well we're headed to a show, then probably dinner. Maybe a coffee after."
Unacceptable.
Which show? What time would we be physically inside the venue? When did the show end? Which restaurant? What time will you be eating? Which coffee shop?
I was just like "ehhhh... hasn't really thought that far ahead. We'll let you know."
"she can't leave till we know."
I just made some sh*t up. Seemed to placate them. From that point on I would just rattle off some bullsh*t and do whatever we wanted.
Very weird people.
What grandma says, goes.
My grandma had a "no leaving the table until you eat your food" rule. Pretty reasonable, except she would prepare your plate, often with more food than you wanted.
One time she made me a chicken salad sandwich but the chicken salad had turned. She wouldn't let me leave, she just sat across from me to make sure I didn't get up until I ate it. This went on for hours, until my mom got off work and picked me up.
It wasn't even that strict a household, I think she liked control and this was one if the few arenas where she could exercise it.
Oh, the horror.
Listening to non-Christian music was punishable by being grounded for weeks.
This is... weird. No naps?!
Giphy
I wasn't allowed to be in my room for an extended period of time except to go to bed at night. Also, no naps.
My laptop was required to stay in the living room at all times.
When I started commuting to college because dorms were expensive, I was required to report to my father and step-mother's room every day as soon as I came home, and they would yell at me if I didn't come up without being told every day.
Texts must be responded to immediately. My father threatened to report me as a missing person because he called me while I was on a shift that ended at 3AM and didn't text him back until the next morning.
One time, my step-mother asked for the full name, race, drug and crime history of a coworker whose house I was going to to play D&D. It was only a one-off event, but still super weird.
I'm sure there are more that I can't think of right now, but I've been No Contact with them for going on 8 months now and so it's been a while since I interacted with their craziness.
Wow. Yikes.
I was an unwanted child that my parents decided to keep out of pity as I was always told growing up. I wasn't allowed out of the house for anything other then school or family events. I couldn't see friends ever, wasn't allowed a phone until 16 which was only for emergencies and checking in when I got to school and when I left. I would get beat occasionally the worst was for a bit of poop not flushing. Everything had to be spotless, my bed had to be made by 7am. If I did something that didn't like I would never hear the end of how terrible I was.
No music while cleaning? Who's in charge, Ms. Hannigan?
No music allowed when cleaning the house, because it would "distract" us.
Also, not allowed to do anything with friends on a Sunday because it was "family day" (even though we never did anything as a family and just stayed shut in our rooms).
More fart restrictions. "Fluffs?" Really?
Among other stupid, non-sensical rules.... until I moved out at 17, I wasn't allowed to say "fart" because it's a "swear word". If I needed to talk about farts, I had to call them "fluffs". My best friend and I would kill ourselves over how silly this was.
Im 26 now and as much as my parents are proud of me for my life accomplishments so far, I know they're not proud of me for having a VERY extensive, dirty vocabulary. Feels good to prove to them I can talk like a degenerate and be successful.
This is how the best Redditors are made.
I was never allowed out with my friends, after school, the weekends, the holidays etc. I stopped being invited out after a while and internet became my friend, might explain why i prefer online company.
No snacks, no freedom.
Giphy
Locks on the fridge and pantry. Bars on the windows. Wasn't allowed to have the computer password.
Evolution - bad.
There were a lot of TV shows I wasn't allowed to watch. Mainly things like Pokemon because it obviously promotes evolution. The big one though is I wasn't allowed to get my driver's license. I had to learn how to operate a car and drive in case of emergencies but was not allowed to get my license. There were extreme amounts of bitching and whining when I needed to be picked up late due to my after school activities or be dropped off at a Saturday competition. Then I was the ungrateful one if I complained about them yelling at me for having to go to an event, for a school activity they signed me up for, that I didn't want to do in the first place.
No longer a prisoner.
16 year old me: "Can I go to the coffee shop with some friends? I'm done with all homework and I promise to be back by bed time."
Dad: "No. You already went out once this week."
That was actually the last straw, because he made that rule up on the spot and doubtlessly had every intention of enforcing it. I snuck out my window and left home. He found me a couple days later and it turned out, after talking to his cop buddies, that he couldn't have them arrest me unless I was found breaking laws. I agreed to talk to him and my stepmother, whereupon they told me I could either live by their rules or not live there again. No brained for me - packed a couple bags of favorite clothes and got the f out.
This stepmother from Hell.
Step mother tried to boot myself (14 female) and my bro (12 male) out because she didn't want us living with her. Dad realised if that happened, he would end up dealing with child services etc. So he "compromised".
As the female, I was allowed to still be living in the house but had to remain in my bedroom unless asked to come out for dinner. I had to ask to use the bathroom. My door had to be open at all times and no phone allowed. I was never allowed to be given cash so all of my stuff (school bus tickets, sanitary products etc) were bought for me. I often went without lunch as she wouldn't make it for us (only her son) and we weren't allowed in the kitchen. A teacher at school worked this out pretty quick and started bringing me food each day.
My bro was not allowed in the house. He lived in a van (I mean a literal work van) around the side and had allocated shower and bathroom times. He had to eat outside. He thought it was cool.
One day when I was 15, the police came to my school and said I couldn't go home as my bro had done something to set her off and she had chased him up the street with a broom, then come back in and trashed my room and the van with an axe.
EDIT: lots of comments have asked what happened next. No consequences for her but we weren't allowed back in the house and she obtained restraining orders on us coming to the house...I'm still not quite sure how as I did nothing! Dad paid for an apartment and we both lived in that - he would visit once a week to take us food shopping. This lasted until I was 16 and someone tried to break in while I was home alone and I rang my 17yo BF in a panic. He came over with his dad who sussed things out pretty quickly and I went home with them where I stayed for the rest of high school and uni as his girlfriend initially and then as a boarder.
I am now a teacher who works with disadvantaged youth and use my experiences to inform my support for them. My bro has not coped as well (partly due to personality and also being younger than I was) and is a drug addict who I have very little contact with after he stole from me repeatedly as an adult.
Dad and step mother stayed married for 20 years. He left her last year, they are divorced now and he's about to marry a Chinese lady I've never met.
What's up with all this lack of privacy?
Not allowed to close the door of my room from my 15 to my 18?
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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...
Wait What Wtf GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphy"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
Lying Simon Rex GIF by Simon Rex / Dirt NastyGiphy"'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...
just kidding jk GIFGiphy"'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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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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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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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.
venezuela empty shelves GIF by euronewsGiphySilly 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_.
Hammer Floor GIF by VPROGiphySo 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.
love him one piece GIFGiphyThe 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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