We recently took a look at a viral Reddit thread that asked users, "What was a house rule you had as a kid that you thought was completely normal until you grew up and realized not all households followed?" These hilarious tales sparked even more responses from our very own BuzzFeed Community. Here are just a few of the wildest rules shared:
1. This TV-less Sunday:
"My house had 'no TV Sundays' where we couldn't watch anything between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. This rule was usually relaxed in the winter when we couldn't go outside, but even then, we usually had to find something to do until it got dark out."
2. This "even/odd" rule:
"It was just my sister and me. We argued about everything, so my parents enforced an 'even/odd' rule. My sister got to choose first since she was younger. She chose even. So, on even days she was able to decide who sat up front or what TV shows we watched. Still, to this day, I prefer odd numbers."
3. This couch conflict:
"No lying on the couch. My dad HATED any of the kids lying on the sectional couch. If anyone lay down on it, he immediately said, 'Go to bed or sit up. Couches aren't for sleeping.' Ironically, he slept on the couch for 16 years since we didn't have enough room for the 9 of us...so maybe he just didn't want us on his bed? None of us were that worried about it, but as an adult I now lounge all over my couch just because I can."
4. This country music hater:
"My parents were pretty strict and we had a lot of rules growing up, but the weirdest one was 'no country music.' Seriously! My dad grew up in a small town in Idaho and hated anything country. My dad isn’t a man of many words...until someone tries to blast it in the house."
5. This foot bath:
"If we’d been outside wearing open-toed shoes, we had to wash our feet when we got back in. I still do it now as an adult. I hate the feeling of having dirty hands and feet."
6. This TV payment:
"We had 'TV chips.' Every poker chip corresponded to 30 minutes of television. My sister and I would start with a certain number of chips per week (I think 15) in a yogurt container with a lid, and we each had our own color of chips. For every 30 minutes of television we watched, we had to drop a chip into a large metal bowl. They would reset at the end of the week, and there were certain restrictions on how many could roll over to the next week. There were also opportunities to earn more chips by doing chores or to lose chips for behaving badly."
7. This early riser:
"When I was growing up, Saturday mornings were reserved for cartoons. I have three younger siblings and inevitably we would argue about who got to choose what cartoon to watch, so my mom made the rule that whoever got up first on Saturday controlled the TV for cartoon viewing. This rule eliminated so many arguments."
8. This opposite grounding:
"I was a voracious reader and not much of a socializer, so when I was a kid, I would get grounded OUTSIDE of my room. It was the worst punishment ever and I would do anything to avoid it."
9. This picky eater:
"I was a comically picky eater as a child and my parents got really fed up with it, so starting in firsst grade they made the rule that I had to make dinner one night a week (usually Friday). The idea was that they had to eat whatever I made, just like I had to eat whatever they made the other six nights. They got a lot of hot dogs and baked beans and boxed mac 'n' cheese until I started branching out and learned to make tarragon chicken in second grade.
Obviously I was well-supervised in the kitchen while cooking to avoid any fires and stovetop mishaps. They also had the rule that I had to at least try a bite of something before refusing to eat it, which I'm actually grateful for now: I'm still picky, but I'll try anything at least once."
10. This quiet kid:
"My dad worked nights and slept during the day, so I wasn't allowed to make ANY noise. My friends thought it was so weird that I tiptoed around their houses and closed doors so softly."
11. This ratings researcher:
"My mom took ratings systems VERY seriously, so she wouldn’t let me watch a PG-13 movie until I was 13. She gave up on it when I was about 15 and let me watch whatever I wanted...but up until then, it was weird."
12. This pressure reliever:
"If we wanted a friend to stay for dinner or have a sleepover, we were not allowed to ask in front of that friend or it was an automatic 'no.' My mother HATED being put on the spot, so that was her solution and it definitely worked."
13. This cleaning concert:
"My family always blasted music and cleaned the house on Saturday mornings and my sister and I got so used to it that when we lived together in college, we’d still blast music and clean our apartment on Saturday mornings. We even made our other roommate participate as well."
14. This color code:
"Every kid in the family had an assigned color to help keep track of what belonged to who. So, like, my color was red. My toothbrush was red, my towel was red, I was only allowed to drink out of the red cups and eat off the red plates, my stuff was stored in red bins, etc. My sister's color was yellow, so all her stuff was yellow. While other families didn't do this, it really did help us keep things organized and avoid arguments."
15. This "evil" pop culture:
"We weren’t allowed to watch Pokémon OR Star Wars (I think because my mom just didn't like them). We were a highly religious family, and I think all of us went through a phase of believing Pokémon and/or Star Wars were 'evil,' based on the fact that we weren’t allowed to watch them. My mom didn’t find out about that until we were older, and she found it pretty hilarious."
16. This kitchen nightmare:
"We couldn't go into the kitchen barefoot. It was a third-generation rule. My mom couldn't, and neither could my grandfather. He couldn't because he had dirt floors in the kitchen growing up, so when he had kids — even through the floor was linoleum — he couldn't shake the rule, so my mom couldn't either and now my mom has rolled the rule over to us."
17. This assigned seat:
"We had assigned seats for specific days in my mom's van. There are three of us, so the front seat was always the one we would fight over. Saturdays and Tuesdays were my day for the front seat."
18. And finally, this water fear:
"We weren’t allowed to do ANYTHING involving water during a thunderstorm (shower, wash dishes, do laundry, etc.) because of the lightning. My mom and dad’s explanation sounded pretty solid when I was a kid. Basically, they said that if lightning ever struck the house it would travel through the pipes and shock you through the water. I’m 28 now, and it still feels like I’m tempting fate whenever I shower or do dishes during a storm!"
Now it's your turn! What was a "house rule" you had growing up that — until you went to someone else's house and/or moved out completely — you thought was totally standard? Share yours in the comments below!
