Weird Childhood Rules That Our Parents Made Us Follow
If you ask just about any adult, they’ll tell you their parents put some pretty bizarre rules in place when they were growing up. Although most “strict” parents are just doing what they believe to be best and safest for their child, some rules are a little more unusual than others.
We fished around the internet and the Now to Love office for the most eccentric family rules around. From eating all your rice to not speaking in the car, these stories should make your family look pretty standard.
No Talking in the Car
I wasn’t allowed to talk in the car at all unless I was directly asked a question. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal at the time because it was normal for me. Now that I’m an adult, when my friends are weirded out by my immediate silence when I enter a vehicle, I realize it was not a regular rule.
No Milk for You
My mom wouldn’t let me open a new milk carton without her permission. I couldn’t really open anything without her permission.
We would have an extra milk in the garage refrigerator, and I would use the rest of the milk inside first. Instead of a normal household where you could just get more if you wanted, I had to call her and ask. So that meant if she didn’t pick up, I would have to wait for her to call back.
The first time I realized this wasn’t normal was when a friend went to open a new milk and I became super anxious and was like, “Dude, you have to call your mom right now or she’ll freak out!” She was like, “Umm… my mom will be OK if I need a glass of milk.”
It suddenly clicked that my mom was probably a control freak.
My mom was absolutely obsessed with clean feet.
My mom was absolutely obsessed with clean feet.
Every day before school, she would make sure we got in the bath and cleaned our feet. I know most people are like, “Well when I take a shower, I’m already standing in soapy water, so that’s good enough,” but that attitude would get your face slapped off around my mom.
She’d have the bath full of scalding hot water every morning, and the first thing we would do, before eating, before showering, and before changing into our clothes, is dip our feet in that hot water.
Then, my mom would lather our feet with this really strong smelling soap from some specialty store (I’ve never seen it anywhere else), and she would scrub every inch of our feet with this big, stiff bristled toothbrush. Maybe it was for cleaning horse teeth — I don’t know.
It wasn’t until I left for college that I experienced what it was like to not thoroughly clean my feet every single morning. It felt liberating. I even walked around without socks sometimes (my mom always made us wear two pairs). I still had my feet scrubbed when I came home to visit, though. Only those times it actually felt good, as if they needed a good cleaning.
Even now when I see my mom, she wants to clean my feet. It’s pretty great actually. Imagine going to the dentist to get your teeth cleaned, but it’s for your feet instead.
Make sure you eat all your rice.
I was told to finish all of my rice because the rice I left on my plate was how many pimples my future husband would have.
Don’t eat french fries in the car.
When I was old enough to drive, my younger sister and I would drive to McDonald’s, which was just a few minutes away.
My parents would scold us, “Whatever you do, do not eat french fries in the car!” When we got home, they would run out, open the car doors, sniff, and start screaming at us for eating french fries in the car.
We never did.
This post was written by Holly Royce. For more, check out our sister site Now to Love.
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