Ever see signs like, "No swimming if you have diarrhea," and wondered, Who even does that?! I sure do. That's why I was very curious when u/TheBlackTemplar125 asked folks, "What rules were put in place because of you?" And well, I was not disappointed.
Here are some of the rules, and the stories behind them, that stood out to me:
1. "My brother and I got into a cattle prod sword fight at a farm store. We shocked the hell out of each other a few times. Now, the cattle prods are locked up. We were in our thirties."
2. "I put a croissant in one of those hotel conveyor toasters. It soon became engulfed in flames and had to be extinguished. The next day at breakfast, there was a sign that said, 'If you’d like your croissant toasted, please ask a member of staff.'"
3. "Back in the day, we listened to a radio station that had a weekly trivia contest. The prize was a free pizza and movie rental. Somehow, my mom figured out which book they were using for the trivia questions. She bought it, memorized all the answers, and each week, we'd listen to the trivia question and call in immediately. We won almost every time. Even though we changed up who would actually make the call, they figured us out and made it a rule you couldn’t win if your family had already won in the last month or whatever."
4. "As a kindergartner, I once fell asleep in the bus. When I woke up, the bus was in the garage and I had to yell to get someone to get me out. So to this day, every bus driver in my school district needs to walk to the back of the bus and check every seat before they park the bus. Seems like a good rule to have."
5. "In my high school history class, there were about 10 of us in who were really close friends. We'd take every opportunity to make 'your mom' jokes. A couple months into class, the teacher made us sign a 'treaty' promising to stop making fun of each other’s moms. We signed it, and started making fun of each other’s dads."
6. "A friend of mine in a military school found out the regulations never stated what color the bed sheets for a bed made for inspection had to be in. So, this mad man went and bought Power Ranger sheets and made the perfect regulation bed. I have never seen so many Sergeants lose their cool, but be unable to actually do anything since the regs were perfectly followed. Needless to say, the next year's regulations were updated to state sheets must be plain white."
7. "In middle school, I would use Sharpie permanent markers to 'tattoo' myself. Other kids thought it was cool, so I started charging $1 per drawing, wherever they wanted. The principal found out, and after I refused to stop, she put a ban on Sharpies for the entire school. Even the teachers couldn’t bring them in. I’m a tattoo artist now."
8. "In college, some friends and I used to go to a Mexican restaurant every Thursday, and often on Saturdays, for their $1 margaritas. As a group, we would go through A LOT. Eventually, they put a new rule in: It was now $2 margaritas, and no more than four margaritas per person."
9. "I got our human resources dropbox taken away at work because HR threatened to not pay us if we missed a clock-in or clock-out. I printed out the law stating that what they were threatening was illegal, highlighted it, and put it in the HR box when no one was around. Our HR rep threw an unholy fit and tried to figure out who put the paper in her box. From then on, everything had to be handed in personally."
"In our defense the phones didn't always work and the clock-in system was really unreliable." —u/Pollowollo
10. "I worked concessions at a ballpark that had an all-you-can-eat promo day where tickets were more expensive than usual, but concessions excluding alcohol around the stadium were free. So, I worked that day and of course, it was chaos. When the lines started dying down later in the game, they started sending some of the hourly employees home, myself included. But I didn't go home. After I clocked out, I stayed in the stadium and got some cheeseburgers, Philly cheesesteaks, and a soda, then found an empty seat in the crowd for the last few innings. The next year, they had the same promo, but a new rule for staff: If you got sent home early, you had to actually leave the stadium."
11. "My younger brother was always late to school, and tardy everyday. He eventually figured out if he just skipped first period altogether and showed up to his second period, he was counted as being at school with no late penalty since he was at second period on time. They changed this the following year."
12. "I had to sue my school district back in high school just to leave special education after fighting it for over a decade. Every single special education student now has the right built into their Individualized Education Program to attend any standard education class in their grade level or below, earn the associated credits, and also go to both health education and driver's education. They could do none of that before the lawsuit."
13. "When I used to walk home from school, I had to walk next to the road to get to my house. One day, I decided to see if I could walk with my eyes closed. As I walked, I didn’t feel the transition from gravel to road, so unknowingly was walking on it. I heard a noise, and looked behind me. A line of cars had formed, but none of the cars had honked. I immediately ran off into an orchard, but later learned why nobody honked: Two weeks later, they put up Deaf Child Area signs on both sides of that road. They thought I was a deaf, so didn't honk."
14. "Male students are not allowed to wear hair accessories anymore. Previously, we only had a rule about hair not touching collars, and it couldn't be past eyebrows, or over the ears. I grew my hair out and just put it up in head bands. After receiving multiple detentions and fighting them and winning, the school changed the rule for male students."
15. "'No sign language during silent lunch punishment.' My lunch period was so loud, we got put on silent lunch for over a month straight. I decided the only clear solution was to teach my entire table sign language so we could still talk without getting in trouble. Apparently, it was 'unfair' to the kids who didn't know how to sign, so we had to stop."
16. "I had a teacher in seventh grade that banned the use of the word 'Shamu.' We apparently were using it as a joke answer to everything, which I had started doing as a one-off joke for that one hour class because it sounded funny. I guess news spread that she didn’t like it, and soon all seven of her class periods were answering 'Shamu' to everything she said, and giggling. I came in two days later to a referral, an accusation that I had organized the 'Shamu Party,' and the entirety of her classes were instructed to never mention 'Shamu' in her presence again."
"It was obscure to say the least." —u/Rawrby
17. "My junior high made a rule against yo-yos in class after I tried to do a trick and my yo-yo flew across the room and broke a glass beaker set."
18. "My elementary school was located in the center of the neighborhood, and my fifth grade class was the first class of students to get outdoor trailers for classrooms. We'd just ask for bathroom passes and then walk home. The next year, they built a fence around the school."
19. "You can no longer skip to the end of training videos at Wendy's. I completed about 10 hours of this training when it was implemented, after I'd already been working there a year, in about 45 minutes. I'd open the training, skip, skip, skip, skip, take a test, and repeat. I was quite proud of myself. My store, which is a franchise location, got a call from corporate an hour later about it. I didn't have to retake any of it though."
20. "When I was 12 years old, there was a kids outdoor play area I'd frequent. They had go-karts, batting cages, token-based games, it was like a Chuck-E-Cheese. You could get a wrist band for maybe $15 and it'd get you unlimited rides, mini-golf, and some other activities. Everything else cost tokens. When you finished golfing, you'd get two tokens for bringing your golf ball back. It was unlimited golfing, so my friends and I would golf, speed-run two games, return the balls, and collect $1 in tokens to our pockets. Later on, we just started fishing balls out of the water hazards and turning them in. Subtly at first and then in bulk later. The guys working there didn't care, or actively laughed at it. So, we'd have a few hundred tokens. Then we started selling them — five for $1. We stopped buying the unlimited bands. I'd bike there and earn $25 in a couple of hours. Management eventually caught on, and altered the token for ball exchange."
"Now, 'Golf users can no longer return an unlimited # of balls for tokens.'" —u/Teripid
21. "No make-up was allowed at our school because of my friend group. We went to an all-boys school, and apparently they never had an issue with make-up until me and my emo friends rocked up in black eyeliner and lipstick."
22. "I got the Ryan’s Steak House buffets in Louisville, Kentucky to put baby changing stations in the men’s bathrooms back in the '90s."
23. "When I was in elementary school we had one of those bridge-building challenges using toothpicks and hot glue. My partner and I realized if we just coated the entire thing with a thick layer of hot glue, it would make our bridge strong as hell. So, we used like a full pack of around twenty hot glue sticks — it was more glue than toothpicks. After us, they limited the number of glue sticks you could use."
24. "Years ago for work, we took a bunch of our clients out and everyone had way to much to drink, so I ordered everyone rideshares home. I turned in the expense report to our account manager of just under $400 for the Ubers. She had no clue what an Uber was. I explained to my bosses that if we expense drinks for clients, why not expense their Uber home? Now if we pay for drinks for clients, we also cover their Uber home."
25. "My older brother got a curfew enforced at Boy Scouts camp when one of the leaders noticed him walking around the area in the daytime with his eyes closed, counting steps. He may have just been practicing walking with his eyes closed, but the adults assumed he was figuring out how to get around at night without lights so he could get into some kind of mischief later. Which, knowing my brother, was also possible."
26. "Typewriters were no longer allowed in class because of me. I was kind of a troublemaker, and while my school allowed us to use laptops, I would play video games, primarily Warcraft 3 in class. I played with no sound, so I wasn't being a complete nuisance, but I wasn't doing my work. So, a teacher told me I couldn't use my laptop. I happened to have a 1950's Remington Quiet-Riter portable, all-mechanical typewriter. It was anything but quiet, with all of the takka takka takka takka...ding! you'd expect from a typewriter. After one full day of studiously taking notes and doing my assignments on my typewriter, my teacher said I could use my laptop again as long as I didn't bring the typewriter to class anymore."
What's your own story of a rule that was put in place because of you? Speak up in the comments!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.