There are things that we all wish we had known from an earlier age to avoid mistakes, mishaps, and general embarrassment.
Not only is there advice that older people wish they could give the younger generation, but there are things the younger generation is doing now that older people simply do not get.
Redditor IslamicAnime asked:
"Older women of Reddit, what is something young women are doing that puzzles you?"
Buccal Fat Removal
"Buccal Fat Removal surgery."
- walkingoffthebuz
"They're gonna regret that s**t, lol (laughing out loud)."
- beepbooponyournose
"It's permanent, and your body will never make more of it. Buccal fat removal ages the face immediately, which isn't a problem for most women in their 20s, but as they actually do age, there is a high likelihood that they will need to constantly get fillers for the rest of their life to combat the side effects of significant premature aging."
- NinaNeptune13
Lip Fillers
"The overdone lip injections. I can’t wait for this trend to die."
- chubbybarbie81
"I'm 26. I went to high school with a girl who has lip fillers, and every time I see a picture of her, those d**n lips are all I can look at. They look so goofy."
- mrsbebe
Surgical Butt Lifts
"Brazilian Butt Lifts. The weird disproportionate diaper booty look is... interesting."
- Shapoopadoopie
"I have not seen a single one that looked good. The proportions are so unnatural between the butt and legs."
- Hexenhut
Social Media Babies
"Blasting pictures of their young children all over social media with 1000 followers."
- assylemdivas
"Before my son was born, I asked everyone to keep my kid off their social media. Mine is restricted to friends and family only, locked down pretty well, and difficult to find because I don’t use my first name on there. I don’t know who other people have on their pages but my kid didn’t need to be blasted all over their pages to see."
"My son was born via C-section around 5:00 PM. The nurse asked if I wanted a picture taken on my phone to show my mom and niece (who were in the waiting room). I said yes, she went and got my phone from my mom, took a couple of photos, and gave it back to my mom."
"She sent it to herself, then to close family members. Within 10 minutes, my sister had it posted on all of her social media pages and was acting as though she had been at the hospital with me all day."
"My 16-year-old niece (her daughter) called her and told her to stop, to take it all down, and do as I’d asked. My sister apparently got mad but finally did it. I found out about it the next day and thanked my niece, but it started a whole thing that ended with me finally just blocking her (my sister) on social media because she wouldn’t do one simple thing."
- quincyd
Falsies of All Sizes
"Big, fluffy false eyelashes. I tried it once and it felt like caterpillars on my eyelids, they had to come off right away. I don't know how they stand it, but I admire their skill."
"(Just wanna make it clear here, I'm not about sh*tting on the aesthetics of young people. You do you, my sweet children! It's just not for me.)"
- katie-kaboom
A Little Privacy
"Letting everyone on the internet know exactly where you are at all times and what your schedule is seems a bit nuts."
- Konebred
"I teach high school math..."
"My students have tracking apps so they can see exactly where their friends are at all times, and I think it's weird as h**l."
"Someone was absent, so I asked, 'Where is Martha?' to nobody in particular. Well, her friend in class pulls out her phone and replies, 'Oh! She should be here soon. She's in the 300 building bathroom.' I find it incredibly creepy, but they have no issue with it."
- Philyphreak3
Influencer Concerns
"Posting non-stop content and then caring so much about what strangers say about them online. As if life isn't difficult enough for women without finding new and unnecessary standards to hold themselves up to. It all seems like an exhausting, pointless, and mentally draining exercise."
- MuddaFrmAnnudaBrudda
"Focusing on their social media appearance. The lighting, the posing… it’s all for likes."
"Posting where they are. Where they go."
"The complete transparency over their location floors me after being told not to tell people that stuff online."
"I worry that a lot of young people are too aware of their social media standing and appearance and aesthetic and are forgetting to find and love themselves for who they are."
- punnymama
Lack of Communication
"Passive-aggressive roommate fights."
"The layers can get really impressive, but in a terrible way. 'A wrote B a note about dishes, but C thought it was about them, so C wrote A a note, and then B came home and thought it was for her so she texted the group chat and...'"
"DUDE. TALK TO PEOPLE. TALK. TO. PEOPLE. This is the perfect time in your life to be practicing assertiveness and healthy conflict resolution. All this s**tty note-writing and vague group text chatting and bulls**t is making whatever the problem is a thousand times worse."
- Much_Difference
Self-Sufficiency
"I am bewildered by women who do not prioritize the ability to support themselves."
- Joey690
"I have so many friends that can't do stuff my dad taught me was basic. Like following instructions for general house maintenance stuff. No reason to pay someone $400 and wait two weeks for them to come when you can do it yourself in 15 minutes with an online tutorial."
"Like swapping the lock assembly on a washing machine. Sounds difficult if you don't know what you're doing, but on many washing machines it's one screw and it's plug and play. There are a ton of videos on YouTube for it, so you don't even need to know how to start."
"I guess what I really got from my dad was the confidence to try. So many people I run into just don't even think they can, so they don't try."
- caboosetp
#VanLife
"Van life."
"The whole 'Van life is so glamorous, look at me sipping my coffee sitting in the back of my van in front of the sunrise' thing is WAY overrated and very, very fake."
"Van life or camper life can be fun and an adventure at times, yes, but it comes with a LOT of work, expenses, and risks that people don't tell you about."
- Just_another_Sue
Makeup Enthusiasts
"They are SO good at makeup. I don’t know if it’s because they have better products, the availability of tutorial videos, or both but they all look amazing and we were walking around with orange faces and smudged eyeliner. Not gonna lie, I’m a little jealous."
"EDITED TO ADD: so many bitter people in these replies! Makeup is a hobby. It might not be one that you enjoy but that doesn’t invalidate it."
"We should respect and uplift all women and however they choose to express themselves, whether it’s by wearing makeup and miniskirts or Carhartt and axel grease."
- SnooPeripherals5969
Relationship Red Flags
"I'm definitely not considered an older woman yet, so I apologize as my view may not count, but one thing I've noticed since starting a new job and working with some 17-20-year-olds has given me a few yikes."
"One is the weird obsession with knowing where their partner is at all times, one girl threw a mini fit because her partner's Snapchat location wasn't on and she was scarily angry about it."
"And the weird glorification I've seen about being 'psycho' is such a weird red flag. Amount of them boasting about borderline mentally abusive things or acts they do to their partners is f**king WILD and frankly scares me a little."
- bamyris
Real-Life Experiences
"I'm 33 so I don't consider myself old yet, but I've seen young girls living through Snapchat and other apps, vehemently photographing themselves and everything around them."
"To me, it seems as if they care more about how they portray themselves online towards others (they don't even know), instead of enjoying the actual experiences."
- Flikketeer
Miss Dependent
"I know a few 17 or 18-year-old girls who have decided not to learn to drive or get licensed because their boyfriends always have cars; not to finish school because they don't enjoy it; and don't ever want to vote because that stuff's boring."
"They have these precious rights to be free, to be educated, to be heard, and they don't care!"
"(Regarding the car thing, we're in a semi-rural area with limited transport options.)"
- RooBeeDooBeeDoo
Lack of Skin Protection
"Not wearing sunscreen and still going tanning."
"My sister died at age 36 from skin cancer and it is still a struggle to convince younger girls of all ethnicities to wear sunscreen and stop tanning. Use a fake tanner or/and love the skin you're in."
- Sure_Temperature_349
From generation to generation, priorities and practices have a way of changing. Some practices are wildly confusing for older generations, leaving the older people to wish that they could give younger people advice they wish they'd had themselves.
What do we really know about famous people?
Not much if we're honest.
But that doesn't stop us from prying into their lives and dissecting and destroying it.
It feels like society needs to have people to build up and tear down.
Is it that we all need an enemy?
Or is it just another form of reality tv?
So many people, celebrity and non-celebrity have been heaped on with vitriol.
Their lives often take a downturn.
Then in hindsight, upon re-examing, we learn maybe society went too far.
And those people too were just trying to survive.
Redditor wild-wolf-woman wanted to name the people we all may owe a few apologies to, so they asked:
"What famous person didn't deserve all the hate that they got?"
As a Madonna fan.
I'm livid with many people.
She didn't deserve any of the trash thrown at her.
Kevin
Screaming Macaulay Culkin GIF by Home AloneGiphy"Macaulay Culkin."
"For Redditors old enough to remember, the young Home Alone star got a bunch of hate for being a spoiled brat when he sued to divorce his parents."
"The truth of the matter is his father was a physically abusive a**hole, and his parents were going to take the $15-20M he earned from acting and leave Macaulay with nothing."
happy_snowy_owl
In Vienna
"Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis"
"He was a Hungarian physician and scientist, described as the 'savior of mothers.' He proposed the practice of washing hands with chlorinated lime solutions in 1847 while working in Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, where doctors' wards had three times the mortality of midwive's wards."
"Some doctors were offended at the suggestion that they should wash their hands and mocked him for it. In 1865 he allegedly suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum by his colleagues. In the asylum, he was beaten by the guards. He died 14 days later from a gangrenous wound on his right hand that may have been caused by the beating. His findings earned widespread acceptance only years after his death, when Louis Pasteur confirmed the germ theory."
SuvenPan
She Deserved Better
"Lindsey Lohan- overworked and used by her parents."
HRPurrfrockington
"Was looking through the comments to see if Lindsey Lohan would be mentioned. not to mention the disgusting behavior of the media and the public in regard to her addiction issues. that one David Letterman interview with her is almost unbearable to watch. she deserves a huge apology from the world."
clownteeth222
Good Guy
"Guy Fiere is in the same vein. His entire career is giving small businesses a national platform and boosting them up, hiring folks most others won't, and being a huge advocate for LGBTQ rights (including officiating gay weddings) but because his shirt is on fire and it looks like he got electrocuted by mountain dew that spun his glasses around, everybody is so mean to him."
A_giant_dog
"He also goes out to disaster areas and serves food to emergency workers. He was here in Santa Cruz County during the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire serving free food. Genuinely cool guy."
adventureremily
Chill
f. murray abraham amadeus GIF by MauditGiphy"Salieri. Pretty chill dude. Mozart's biggest supporter. Lent him his librettist so he could write Figaro. Took care of Mozart's kid after he passed away."
veriverd
"That's a damn good movie, though. But it also does him dirty as well."
MajoraOfTime
That movie. That play. Those people.
The best and worst of drama.
Let her sing...
friday rebecca black GIFGiphy"Rebecca Black got death threats for her song Friday. It's just a song, an annoying one, but just a song guys."
EMdesigns
Shocking Truth
"Parents of Azaria were ridiculed and hounded by the press and the grieving mother's statement became a pop culture reference. They were accused of murdering their child. Many years later it was finally proven that a Dingo had, in fact, eaten their baby."
Stinkyminge123
"Lindy Chamberlain was, in fact, found guilty of murdering her child and sent to jail for a number of years. Her conviction was overturned, and it's now accepted that a dingo was responsible."
"However, jokes about it are still made. I can't imagine how awful it must be to have the world laugh for decades over your child's horrific death."
brownhedgehog
Blame it on the Rain
"Milli Vanilli. They were a late 80’s R&B duo who were 'exposed' for lip-syncing their music during a live performance on MTV. In reality, the two members Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus were capable singers and performers, but their record label didn’t allow them to sing on their records or during live performances. They had signed their record contract in German, a language neither of them spoke, and actively fought with the label behind the scenes to sing and perform their own songs."
"After being 'exposed,' they were forced to relinquish their Best New Artist Grammies, and their label toured the actual singers as 'The Real Milli Vanilli.' The media backlash was severe, and Rob Pilatus fell victim to addiction. He overdosed and died in the late 90’s."
"Rob could speak German. Most of this information is from a Fab Morvan interview, and when he said he couldn’t speak German, I wrongfully assumed neither of them could. My mistake."
HomePlastic
Poor Mama...
"Mama Cass Elliot."
"She was an absolutely beautiful, intensely powerful voice. But because she was... gasp fat, in the 60s-70s she was bullied relentlessly by the media."
"She died of heart failure and a random doctor said she 'could’ve died choking on a ham sandwich.' The media just dropped articles that that is how she died. If there is any reason for me to despise older generations it’s how they treated Mama Cass."
holyerthanthou
They Tried...
anakin skywalker GIFGiphy"Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin and the child actor of Anakin. They both got sooo much hate... and I still don't get why."
TheDudeOnHisRug
We really need to do better as a people.
So much judgement.
No matter how happy we are with our lives, most of us can think of at least one thing that we wish we could have done differently.
Even if that just means starting to do the same things a little bit sooner.
Feeling reflective, Redditor AbortiveBases1 asked:
"What's something you wish you started doing sooner?"
Letting People Go
"Learning that just because someone is your friend for a long time doesn't mean you have to deal with their toxicity or narcissistic behavior."
"You can leave those friendships. It sucks at first but it's worse staying friends with people like that."
- SadStone2265
Getting Divorced
"My mom and dad got divorced in 2022 when my siblings and I were all between the ages of 27 and 31."
"We couldn't be happier. It could (and should) have happened way earlier, like 10 to 15 years earlier. Our childhood definitely suffered for it."
"I have no complaints about my mom, she's the best lady ever, but things would've been a lot more pleasant at home if they divorced then."
- doomed_danny
Creative Outlet
"Making things."
"I 3D print, do woodwork, and do home renovations. It’s made me more self-confident (I now usually believe I can do anything), more creative, and changed the way my brain works."
"I can’t imagine what kind of person I’d be today if I had been doing this all throughout my 20s."
- AirZurk
Sugar Intake
"Weaning myself off sugar."
- CouldMurderACarvery
The Perfect Partner
"My wife. She's the granddaughter of a friend of my aunt, so I could have met her a lot sooner, but we only met when I was 29."
"The way we clicked together and got lost in conversation with each other... I only wish it had started sooner."
- netheroth
"You can't guarantee that you would have clicked earlier."
"It was the same with my wife, I had met a bunch of her close friends over the years through friends and vice versa. There are pictures of us at the same events when we were 17, 18, and 20, but we just never met. Ships passing in the night."
"We met finally at 29 and realized we had all the things in common and clicked immediately and are happily married with a beautiful two-year-old."
"Looking back, had we met at 17, I don't think we would have gotten together. We both had a lot of growing to do before we were right for each other."
- sirhcdobo
Ditch the Hustle
"Focusing on friends instead of the grind."
"I worked two jobs through the 2010s. As a freelance digital artist at night, I made a lot of 'friends' through conventions, online chat groups, and social media."
"However, the pandemic hit, and the conventions closed. Freelance business dried up. Our clients disappeared. With my evenings more open, I focused more intently on ascending in my day job, and now only have one or two contacts left from my digital art years."
"They're all I have left. And we don't even talk that much."
"I'm working on rebuilding a friends circle, trying to reconnect with everyone who still remembers me, lives close enough, and didn't die years ago unbeknownst."
"It's an awkward process, trying to again find similar interests now that everyone has a wife, kids, and home to take care of, while I seem to have dropped out of a time portal from 2003."
- QuarantineTitans
Understanding Mental Health
"My wife."
"But seriously, endorphins."
"And understanding the importance of endorphins on mental health."
"Even a small amount of physical activity has a major improvement on my mental health, energy, and moods."
- ksozay
Work History
"I wish I'd started working sooner."
"My mom sent me money for food and essentials while I was in college because she said a job would just distract me from getting good grades. Unfortunately, she simply forgot to send the money, a lot."
- stellathewizard
Home Yoga Sessions
"At-home yoga. It's free AND my back doesn't hurt anymore!"
- mekkimegz
Prioritizing Sleep
"Enforcing my own bedtime. My mood is 1,000% better on days when I get enough sleep."
- lights_camera_pizza
The Value of Therapy
"Therapy. Seriously, if you are considering seeing a therapist, then just do it."
- Avjycjc8ttghu478
Exercise Routine
"Two-a-day workouts. Once you figure out intensity pacing and treating one as a 'light' workout, it’s not hard."
"Getting up at 5:30 most days isn’t awesome, but I get 14, 45-min hits of exercise almost every week, and I’ve never had as much energy, positivity, and overall health. Plus, weight management-wise, I can eat d**n near anything I want to. I had a 'mostly' clean diet before, so I wasn’t going bonkers. But it makes eating pretty enjoyable."
- superstarrrr99
Better Self-Talk
"Replacing self-depreciative jokes with sarcastic compliments on myself."
"For example, instead of saying, 'My hair looks like something died in it,' say, 'I was born a queen. Look how great I look on a bad hair day too!'"
"Fake it till you make it kinda works. Eventually, I'm not feeling as insecure about myself as I used to."
- saagarammm
Sentimental Photos
"Taking pictures with my husband and kids. I hate the way I look in pictures so usually, I’m the one behind the camera. It wasn’t until last year that I read a post here on Reddit that made me change my way of thinking."
"It said something along the lines of, kids don't see wrinkles, extra fat, or bad hair. You know, all the things we nitpick about ourselves. They just see Mom."
- Dazzling-Nature-6380
The Next Phase
"Retirement. Did it at 68 but was enjoying running my own publishing business, so I stayed on."
"Now in retirement, I’m having a blast doing so many things I never previously had time for that I wish I’d taken the plunge at 60, or earlier. (Let that be a lesson to all you young ‘uns out there.)"
- SkepticalSenior9133
While it's so easy to regret things in our lives, sometimes it's important to think about the things we're doing right.
Sometimes we'll be so proud of what we're doing, we'll only regret not getting a jump on it sooner.
It's so easy for us to get caught up in the negative things in our day-to-day lives, whether it's a bad day at work or an ended relationship, but it's important to remember what else we have going for it.
Sometimes the best thing to do is to listen to the people we look up to, and let their words help us move through the tough time.
Redditor Miller1xo asked:
"What's the best advice you've ever received?"
It's Not That Important
"No one cares."
"That's actually the advice."
"The vast majority of people are more concerned about going about their own days and doing their own things."
"I kept being too socially conscious of myself around others, believing that every move I was making was being monitored and judged all the time."
"But the reality was that, just like me, everyone around me was just focused on themselves and what they were doing and not at all on others."
"And if anyone did anything out of the ordinary or 'embarrassing,' we all forgot about it the next day."
"So once I realized this, my social anxiety essentially disappeared after a month and I was far more comfortable in my own skin."
- fortifier22
The Bad Comes with the Good
"Life sucks, get a helmet."
"And life is like a s**t sandwich, every now and again you gotta take a bite. But the more bread you have, the less s**t you taste."
- vNerdNeck
The Great Aunt Has Spoken
"Three rules from a great aunt:"
"Go to the restroom while you have a chance."
"If there's a seat available, sit down."
"If someone offers you a breath mint, take it."
- realitygroupie
Just Ask
"If you ask, they might say yes. They might also say no, but if you don't ask, it's always a no. So ask."
- frid
Nothing Can Change if Nothing Ever Changes
"Not making a decision IS making a decision."
"As someone who struggles with indecisiveness, this has been an important one. It's easy to get wrapped up in analyzing options, especially what could go wrong. Sometimes the decision paralysis is worse than the consequences of a suboptimal choice."
- FatherJohnFahey
Take Care of Your Body
"Look after your back. You will be sorry in later years if you don't, and it's much easier to look after it now than try to fix it later."
- LucyVialli
Progress, Not Perfection
"Doing something imperfectly is better than not doing it at all."
- T3canolis
Perfection is an Obstacle
"There's a common phrase, 'Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.'"
"I like to adapt it: 'Don't let perfect be the enemy of done.'"
- angry_guacamole
Let It Go
"The best advice I ever saw was from Bo Burnham on a talk show. Conan O'Brien asked the standard question: 'What advice would you have for other young people who want to pursue their dreams like you?'"
"He responded: 'Well, my advice for you would be to take a deep breath...and give up. I got to where I am today purely because of luck. All these celebs today like Taylor Swift telling you to 'be yourself and follow your dreams,' it's like saying 'liquidize your assets, buy Powerball tickets! get rich! it works!' It doesn't work.'"
"'...Ten years ago I was just a dumb, skinny white kid who didn't know what he was doing. Now the only thing that's changed is I'm famous.'"
"Just do whatever you want, and if you get lucky and hit it rich then that's great. But it probably won't happen."
- VisconitiKing
Put Yourself Out There
"Hard work alone won't do sh*t for you. Chance encounters, a seemingly small conversation, and Cosmic timing have a much bigger impact on your success than hard work alone."
"In my case, there was a random LinkedIn message from a recruiter and a gut feeling I should respond to it. That led me to have a successful job that values work-life balance and pays way more than my previous company."
"Networking is an example of this. If you happened to know a guy who knows a guy, you can land pretty sweet jobs over someone who quietly works overtime all day every day."
"The family you are born into can also play into it. Apologies to Taylor swift fans, but there isn't anything special about her. If she was an average person, she would not have had the same level of success. Her family's connection to the record industry played a huge part in her initial success."
- ansteve1
Dump Her Back
"My first love left me for another guy. I was visibly depressed, and my Granddad asked, 'What's wrong with you?' I told him. He responded, 'Dump her back.'"
"I was bewildered. What the f**k does that mean?"
"Then, a few months later, my ex-girlfriend got dumped by the new guy and pleaded with me to take her back. It got to the point of her stalking me."
"I stood firm and dumped her back."
- frederick_ungman
Perspective is Everything
"While driving one day, I was p**sed that someone cut me off when I had the right of way."
"My Great Grandfather told me, 'There's a lot of dead people who had the right of way, too.'"
"I never forgot that advice. It may not be the best advice ever but it always stuck with me."
- SeriousBlak
Practice Gratitude
"A hundred dollars isn’t a lot to have, but it’s a lot to need."
- bang0_slank
Parenting Hacks
"If you have little kids, triple sheet their beds, alternating with full-size waterproof pads. So: pad, sheet, pad, sheet, pad, sheet."
"In the middle of the night when you have work in the morning and they wet the bed or throw up or get a nosebleed, pull up one layer, toss it into the laundry, and put the kid right back to sleep."
"Also, if anyone in your house isn't feeling well, give your kid a bucket or something next to their bed in case they wake up feeling sick. No one likes to clean up a trail of vomit from the kid's room to the parent's room or bathroom in the middle of the night."
- goddess_eris
Surround Yourself with People Who Support You
"When no one's got your back... move your f**king back."
- IJacboy
Each of these concepts are great ways to get more out of life, but the big ticket item here is perspective.
So often, we exaggerate things, whether how embarrassing a mistake was or how hard it will be to complete that task or how bad we think we have it, but if we compare that to someone else's circumstances, or how small this moment is in the grand scheme of things, it suddenly becomes easier to be more grateful and take more from life.
People Share The Weirdest Rule Their Parents Made Them Follow As A Kid
When you're a kid, most of the time, adults make no sense. Parents always seem to devise arbitrary reasons to stifle fun under the guise of "safety and concern." Of course, the best reason I most often recall is... "because I said so!" That one in particular always seemed a little fishy to me. But if we knew what was good for us, we acquiesced. However, in hindsight, every so often, parents have some weird motivations.
Redditor u/Korn_makes_me_horny wanted everyone to tell us about the times in childhood parents made some "questionable" decisions by asking...What's the weirdest rule your parents made you follow as a kid?
Menu Choices
GIF by Pop-TartsGiphyChocolate PopTarts are dessert and therefore can only be eaten on Saturdays. Fruit PopTarts are obviously nutritious and are to be eaten during the week. (There was no healthy option instead of PopTarts.)
Be Home
If someone asked me to hang out with them, I had to go (unless it was after curfew or someone my parents didn't like). As an adult I understand that my parents wanted me to be social and wanted me out of the house, but how it felt as a kid was that I needed to give other people what they wanted, my time was not my own, and my feelings always came second to others. Not a great lesson to give your kid.
In & Out
My friend's Filipino mum would only let us play his Sega Megadrive for 15 minutes before literally kicking us out the house and locking the door so we had to play outside. After 2 hours outside she would give us another 15min on the Megadrive.
I once pooped myself in his driveway because she wouldn't open the door.
Them 90's Shows....
Grew up in the 90's and 00's my mother would not let us watch king of the hill specifically. when I was about 15 I asked my dad why and he said "besides the fact that it is not funny, I have no idea."
Same! Any 'adult' cartoons of the 90s and 2000s (Simpsons, Futurama, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Beavis and Butthead - pretty much every vaguely edgy cartoon of the era) was banned for me growing up because my mom hated them. Made me feel really left out when I was young. It still makes me feel left out, because I never ultimately got into any of them so other people think there's something wrong with me.
Wardrobe Malfunctions
My parents were very chill for the most part but they (particularly my dad but sometimes my mom too) would get on a high horse about the most random issues.
One of them was hats. My parents HATED us wearing hats. Any hats. It was the craziest thing. We really were only allowed to wear them like dress-up clothes and sometimes not even then. Even if it went with our outfit, you couldn't have it on in the house for thirty minutes without hearing one of them snap, "Take that hat off your head!" Going out in public with a hat on was forbidden, unless it was actually snowing. Sometimes, for Christmas and such, relatives would give us hats that they thought we would like, but we were never actually allowed to wear them anywhere.
One other exception was when we did Little League, of course, a ball cap was part of your uniform. My dad would freak out on us if he caught us with it turned backwards or to the side, because "That is disrespectful to the game of baseball! It is not the way that hat is meant to be worn!" It was the 90s, backward ball caps everywhere, so at the time we felt it was especially lame that we couldn't. When I went to summer camp, I packed a baseball cap and wore it backward the entire time because they finally weren't there to stop me, haha.
Wordplay
Not really the weirdest but the only one I remember: we were allowed to say the word 'a**' but not 'a**hole' because that would make it too inappropriate/descriptive. Still funny to this day.
Another one is where my dad buys new things and doesn't allow anyone to use them. "Why are you taking your new umbrella out? It'll get wet!" or "Don't wear your new shoes, they'll get dirty!" These are all things he has said before, lol.
TV or Not to TV
flying harry potter GIFGiphyWe were not allowed to watch Harry Potter, but we were allowed to watch Wizards of Waverly Place.
Meh?
I wasn't allowed to say, "I don't care" when I was a kid. My parents viewed that as leading to a callous attitude about the suffering of others.
Of course, the emotional burden of having to care about everything has left me jaded.
"Do you want peas or carrots for dinner?"
"I don't care"
Gets smacked!!
The Greens
Wet Hot American Summer Cooking GIF by NETFLIXGiphyI was not allowed to mix my salad dressing in with my salad. I had to just hope it coated the leaves while I was eating it.
in the pocket....
I was not allowed to put my hands in my pockets (unless I was getting something out of them). "Only lazy people put their hands in their pockets..."
JTT Forever
justin timberlake GIFGiphyMy mom wouldn't let me put posters on my wall because she said it would start a fire. Ya know, because my JTT posters might spontaneously combust.
The 90's
I wasn't allowed to watch the show Martin because it was full of dirty jokes and bad black stereotypes.
I could watch In Living Color, however.
My parents let me watch in living color with them when I was around 4 years old. Homey D. Clown and the Head Detective defined me.
Free Dogs
Every morning when I woke up we had to eat a hotdog because my dad worked at the hotdog factory and he got unlimited free hotdogs so basically every meal for my entire childhood was hotdogs.
Superstition
Super Bowl Football GIF by Frito-LayGiphyFor several years, everyone had to wear a hat while watching the Steelers game, because my mom decided it was good luck.
"Crude"
Watching The Simpsons, ever. I was 10 when it premiered; now, in my 40s, I'm still not allowed to watch it in their house while visiting. The main reason I was always given was "It's so crude!" "Crude" meaning the fact that Smithers is gay and Marge thought of cheating on Homer in one episode in 1990.
Clip Clip Here.... Clip Clip There....
Flush my nail clipping (as opposed to just throw then in the trash can).
Just gonna put it out there that some people, particularly more witchy peeps, are super careful to discard their hair and nail clippings in such a way that it cannot be collected by another person and used against them in like a spell or such.
Idk what your parents reasoning for flushing the nail clippings but just gonna leave this here lol. Oh as a side note, I'd flush those bad boys just to be totally rid of them VS maybe finding one that missed the trash receptacle just laying around randomly one day when I'm sittin' on the throne. floopyferret
Stay Awake
No sleeping over at a friend's house whatsoever because "little girls shouldn't be doing that", but my mom is a Jehovah's Witness so it wasn't that unexpected along with the no birthdays or holidays rule.
Girl Crush
I couldn't cut my hair above my shoulders… When my mom found out I was gay, she for bid me from going over to any females house except for the one girl I had a crush on. The girl I had a crush on was Mormon so she knew nothing would happen. She thought I was sleeping with all my female friends even though they were straight.
After 16
drag queen avon pride GIF by AVONBRGiphyFor the boys, no parting your hair down the middle until you're 16. For the girls, no make up/eyebrow plucking/shaving until you're 16.
We have never heard of some of these, but we can't say that we disagree with some of them!
Do you have any similar rules? Let us know in the comments.