40+ People with Strict Parents Describe Absurd Rules They Had to Live By

40+ People with Strict Parents Describe Absurd Rules They Had to Live By

Having strict parents is a unique experience. Oftentimes, they have oddly specific rules that you might even carry with you later on in life. This rule could come from anywhere – a way to make life in the house easier or even to cater to personal preferences. These people took the time to share weird absurd rules their parents had.


Appropriate Television


The rule this person’s parents had was about television. This isn’t uncommon at all. Many strict parents put strict rules on what their children watch on TV.


Appropriate Television

For this person, that meant they couldn’t enjoy Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place. On the other hand, there was no such rule about magical content in cartoons like The Fairly Oddparents.



Getting Around It


Sometimes even rather laid-back parents can have the odd strict rule. In this case, the rule was that there were to be no video games ever – either on a console or a computer.


Getting Around It

This was probably a rule to keep the kids from using too much technology or to protect what was likely a family computer. However, strict parents often make their kids learn how to get around the rules. Rather than skipping out on video games, they just learned how to hide the files.



Tolerable Tap Water


There are rules that we just can’t understand but people had to follow all the same. This mother seemed pretty suspicious about this person’s bathroom tap water.


Tolerable Tap Water

We have to wonder what led her to such strong suspicions about what was happening here. All they wanted, in reality, was a glass of water that was crisp and cool. Still, because of this distrust, their mom came up with a rule that they could only drink water from other taps in the house.



The Thought That Counts


There are certain things that are widely believed to not be appropriate for children. This often includes swearing or “adult language” that parents admonish children for.


The Thought That Counts

Yet, there seems to be some variation on what counts as swearing for kids. It could just include what someone might censor on TV. Parents sometimes even include words that are often used to replace swear words. According to these parents, it’s not just the action but the thought that counts too.



Storm Safety


There are times that the rules of strict parents aren’t always the most logical. On the other hand, they still come from a place of caring about your child’s safety.


Storm Safety

In this case, these parents just wanted to keep their children safe from lightning. Not to mention, it’s not hard for parents to pass down illogical ideas to children. Children aren’t always logically critical, after all. As such, it wasn’t until much later that this person realized this isn’t quite how electricity works.



Fear of Straws


There are certain rules that come out of the fears of parents. It makes sense, parents have a lot of worries about their kids! It’s all a part of worrying about someone you love.


Fear of Straws

This can still lead to some pretty odd rules for kids, though. For example, this person’s dad was worried that they’d hurt their mouth with the straw. It probably wouldn’t have happened, but he took the precaution all the same. In addition, they added a rule about potentially swearing as well.



Music Selection


There are certain rules that aren’t necessarily for the best of the children. Sometimes, parents just want to keep parts of their home the way they want it.


Music Selection

This can mean concepts such as the type of music that children are allowed to listen to is under their parents’ control. These parents made that decision, not because of content, but personal preference. They just didn’t want to listen to country, especially after the dad listened to country so much growing up.



Street Safety


There are certain things you learn when you’re very young. As an example, everyone learns early on that you need to look both ways before crossing the street.


Street Safety

These parents took that lesson to another level. To avoid danger as a whole, they forbade crossing the street at all. As a result, this person only really had close friends that lived on the same block as them. When they were in middle school, they finally managed to branch out.



Passing Down the Rules


When a couple becomes parents, you can sometimes see the rules that they grew up with. Even if those rules don’t make sense anymore, they stick around by the force of habit alone.


Passing Down the Rules

For this family, that rule was that they couldn’t wear shoes in the kitchen. The rule originally came from their great-grandparents, not just their parents. Apparently, it came from a time the family had a dirt floor in their kitchen. Once it became ingrained in them, they kept going with it.



Familiar Complaints


There are certain pieces of pop culture that have long been hated by parents. One piece of media that always seems to have plenty of angry parents against it is Pokémon.


Familiar Complaints

If you aren’t aware, one of the core features of the series includes creatures evolving into stronger versions of themselves. This has led to plenty of odd rules from parents like this one. It seems that if you don’t believe in evolution, a game based on evolution can seem fairly dire.



No Cheating!


It’s the job of the parents to instill moral lessons in their children. Still, there’s plenty of debate on how to best go about this practice with your own children.


No Cheating!

For these parents, they decided to take their lessons into the virtual world. When this person played The Sims, they’d catch plenty of trouble if they were caught cheating. One “motherlode” cheat later and they found themselves grounded from the game altogether. It seems like extra work to monitor a game that closely.



Simplifying Seats


If you’ve ever dealt with children or had siblings, you know that odd things might be coveted. For instance, everyone might fight over a specific seat.


Simplifying Seats

To turn this around, this mom jumped ahead of the game and assigned seats in her van. To make sure this strict rule stayed fair, on the other hand, the assignments revolved depending on the day. This rule actually made sure that everyone got a chance and there was less fighting, so it worked!



Not as Romantic


There are all sorts of types of content that parents deem inappropriate for their young children. Romantic material, in particular, is often scrutinized for its themes.


Not as Romantic

These parents were even concerned about the effect of playing dolls with romantic themes. As such, they refused to allow their children to have Barbie dolls and Ken dolls at the same time. Still, it didn’t do much, in the end. The Barbies just had their weddings to various stuffed animals.



Punishing a Bookworm


Usually, when a child does something wrong or gets in trouble, parents tell them to go to their room. If a child loves solitude, though, what can parents do?


Punishing a Bookworm

These parents decided the best answer was to ground them from their room. This meant that they weren’t allowed to disappear into their room to read if they misbehaved. They said it definitely led to them trying to make sure they never got any socialization as punishment.



Chances Lost


There are certain phrases that parents just don’t like. This often includes comments such as “I can’t” or “It’s not possible.” Yet, this could encompass another phrase, depending on the parents.


Chances Lost

In this case, this person’s parents weren’t a fan of the phrase “I died.” This included when Mario died while they tried to traverse the levels. So, they had to come up with a phrase in its place. They went with the dark option of, “I lost one of my chances to succeed.”



Thanks, Mom


There’s a lot to take in on the rule this person’s parents laid down. The rule in question was odd in and of itself: no one could have sugar in their tea.


Thanks, Mom

They gave a straightforward explanation: liking sugar in your tea would make prison harder. For one, we wonder what this knowledge is based on. On top of that, this definitely isn’t the most encouraging thing to tell your child as they get ready for the day.



Scheduling Out Your Time


There are certain rules that come from parents wanting to make sure their kids build good habits. However, some of these rules go too far and get a little too harsh.


Scheduling Out Your Time

This Reddit user said that had a friend who had a variety of rules posted on their bedroom door. One of the rules they specifically remembered was that they had to practice piano for an hour per hour they relaxed or played with friends. You’d really have to budget your hours!



Stick to the Program


Like we’ve said, some strict rules come from trying to mitigate fights between siblings. As long as kids follow the rules, there’s no argument over what belongs to who.


Stick to the Program

This family did this by color-coordinating everything. The user said their color was red and their sister’s color was yellow. So, everything they used and ate off of or drank from was red. It’s a pretty clever way to make a clear divide between the two people!



One Way to Solve a Problem


Siblings constantly fighting is a quick way to tire everyone involved. So, sometimes parents get pretty creative to come up with a solution to reduce the number of arguments in the house.


One Way to Solve a Problem

To avoid fights in this family, the parents came up with an “even/odd” rule. This way, when the date was an “even” day, the younger sister had the privilege of choosing the TV show or where she sat. On “odd” days, the older sibling had the chance to do so.



Not Trendy


Fads seem to be a staple, especially to younger audiences. When Beanie Babies, certain video games, and even fashion comes into style, people buy it right away and it quickly falls out of style.


Not Trendy

Many people find these fads annoying or even detrimental. That’s what these parents thought. As a result, they banned any and all fads from their home. Unfortunately, it can be pretty hard on a kid’s relationship with their peers.



What Qualifies?


Violent video games have long been a target of strict parents. There is a persisting belief among many parents that they’ll inspire violence in general.


What Qualifies?

That’s why parents come up with rules like this one. This person wasn’t allowed to play any violent video games unless they were about history. Yet, we have to wonder what counts under this rule. Would Assassin’s Creed qualify because it features some historical figures or is this just limited to educational games, specifically?



Strict Rules From the Laid-Back


Sometimes, it’s more than just strict parents with strict rules. There are parents that seem relaxed but have a few strict rules to follow.


Strict Rules From the Laid-Back

That’s what this person experienced. Their parents had four rules they absolutely had to follow. They weren’t to play with Play-Doh, chew gum, eat cereal with a lot of sugar, or watch The Simpsons. We can see how most of these rules came to be but why hate on Play-Doh?



Don’t Ball Up Pizza


The phrase “no pizza-balling” seems pretty confusing at first. In what situation are people regularly balling up pizza to eat it? The answer is a home with competitive brothers.


Don’t Ball Up Pizza

To tamper their arguments over pizza, the rule was no grabbing an extra slice until you ate yours. Unfortunately, the boys quickly figured out that they could eat their pizza faster if they balled it up in one bite. So, they had to come up with a second rule to stop that.



None of That Heavy Metal


When you were a kid, there was probably certain music that was deemed inappropriate. Rock n’ roll has long been on the list of music that parents steer clear of.


None of That Heavy Metal

This parent took that pretty seriously too. Not only could they not listen to heavy metal but they weren’t allowed to listen to anything with a guitar in it at all! Sneaking around the rule wouldn’t work either. One listen to “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” and this Reddit user’s brother lost his whole radio.



Young children are often looked after by a babysitter if the parents are busy or away. In fact, it’s even a common job for teens as they get older.


Self Care

This parent stepped around those rules to hire their child as their own babysitter. All they had to do from ages 10 to 14 to behave and go to bed on time. It’s a great exercise in trust and independence at first but we hope there was never an emergency that required an adult!



An Ironic Request


Couches are incredibly versatile pieces of furniture. You can lounge here to watch TV, spend time with friends, or even curl up and take a nap if you’re tired.


An Ironic Request

Not with this dad around, however. He hated people sleeping on the couch so much that people weren’t even allowed to lay down on it. They said that the rule was pretty ironic since the couch doubled as his bed for quite some time but maybe it’s because of the limited space.



Lost in Translation


There are certain rules that aren’t necessarily strict. However, thanks to the way children sometimes think, can have fairly interesting interpretations.


Lost in Translation

This mother just told their kid to leave when their friend’s dad got home. In all likelihood, this was probably so that their friend’s family could sit down to dinner. Without this explanation, however, the rule just managed to make this person scared of their friend’s dad and not leaving when he got home.



No Dirty Feet


There are certain rules that come from personal pet peeves or standards. For instance, many people have to take their shoes off when they come in to avoid making the floor messy.


No Dirty Feet

These parents took it a step further. If anyone was outside and wore open-toed shoes of any kind, they had to wash their feet before coming in. It’s a lesson that this person even carried into their adult life. It seems like a clean rule!



Too Many Sweets


Halloween is a great opportunity for kids. Not only do they get the chance to dress up but they get to collect buckets of candy as well.


Too Many Sweets

This means that it’s often up to the parents to make sure no one overindulges. For this person, that meant they gave some of their sweets to the “Great Pumpkin” every year. It wasn’t until much later that they learned that just meant they went into their dad’s candy dish at work.



Getting Up Early


When you’re talking about a big family, there may be extra rules to keep things fair. Otherwise, parents end up refereeing too many fights between siblings.


Getting Up Early

In this case, having three other siblings made choosing Saturday morning cartoons hard to deal with. To solve this, their parents came up with a simple rule. Whoever got up first on Saturday morning got the chance to choose the program for the morning. It seems like it worked, according to them!



T for Teen


ESRB ratings on video games are there to help players know what sensitive content a game contains in general terms. It’s long been a way for parents to pay attention to the content their children are consuming.


T for Teen

How seriously parents take those ratings, though, has varied greatly. As for this person’s parents, they weren’t going to stand for disobeying the rating system. As a result, they were even forced to return games that didn’t fit. Luckily, their dad wasn’t quite the same.



Not Asked on the Spot


There aren’t many people out there that enjoy suddenly appearing in the spotlight. Most people want some time to prepare for a moment when everyone turns to them.


Not Asked on the Spot

That’s why we lean to say that this solution was pretty genius. It’s not uncommon for kids to put their parents on the spot by asking for a friend over while the friend is standing there. To avoid this altogether, this mother put a moratorium on the practice.



Playing for Programs


If you’ve ever been to a casino or even watched a movie, you’ll recognize poker chips. These are used as stand-ins for real money in a game.


Playing for Programs

These parents decided to swap out their usage, though. They used them as “TV chips” that their children would “pay” with to watch a half-hour of TV. They had 15 every week to use as they pleased until they ran out. There were even ways to lose chips or earn more.



Whistling Superstitions


There are some rules that aren’t based on the world around you. On the contrary, there are some rules purely founded on their own personal beliefs instead.


Whistling Superstitions

For this family, this didn’t come from the parents but the user’s grandmother. As long as they were in their grandmother’s house, they weren’t supposed to whistle at all. If they did, she was worried that they would welcome the devil right inside. To avoid that, everyone avoided whistling.



Muted Commercials


No one likes commercials. That’s why many people pay for premium subscriptions to services that will let them cut out or skip ads altogether.


Muted Commercials

If you don’t, you might go to the effort to mute the commercials. That’s what this mom did, anyway. The only problem is that she doesn’t always pay close attention. As a result, she’ll sometimes mute the commercials and forget to unmute them or even mute the TV early. That would make watching TV pretty hard.



Sorry, Son


There are rules that strict parents have that aren’t necessarily malicious, they just want a little peace. It can serve as a confusing lesson for young children all the same.


Sorry, Son

For this family, that was telling their son that their house just couldn’t have a dog. Unfortunately, their neighbors already had dogs and that was just illegal. It worked and he stopped asking. Unfortunately, he also believed the lesson for quite a while.



No TV Sundays


Parents are usually pretty concerned about the amount of screen time their kids get. So, every parent tends to have their own rules about the subject.


No TV Sundays

In this case, there was no TV on Sundays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Since the rule was slightly more relaxed when it was colder, we have to assume it was to try and get the kids to play outside at least one day a week. Still, it’d be a dreaded day as a child.


Too Much Fun


There are some rules from strict parents that are ridiculous but there’s a bit of humor to them. Other times, the rules that parents have can be a bit extreme, to say the least.


Too Much Fun

In this case, these parents were afraid that their son would have “too much fun.” We have a few questions about this, but mainly, what is the threshold for too much fun? On top of that, this person is already old enough to be in college!



Protective Parents


As we’ve covered, there are certain rules that parents implement because of their own fears. To avoid these frightening situations, they create strict rules for their children to follow.


Protective Parents

For this family, that meant no showering when you were home alone. It seems like a random and unnecessary rule but the backstory explains a lot. The dad had fallen in the shower before when no one was home and he ended up driving himself to the hospital. We’d be nervous too!



Petition to Watch


Parental controls are a familiar barrier to anyone who grew up with strict parents. There are ways around it, though, whether it’s somehow gaining permission or just learning the password.


Petition to Watch

For this person, they could watch a show or movie protected by parental controls. The only caveat was that they had to write an essay about why the show had benefit. In particular, they remember writing a riveting piece about one of their favorite Disney classics.



The Dining Room Is Special


It’s hard for parents to make sure their homes stay as clean as they might want. After all, kids can be quite messy, by their nature.


The Dining Room is Special

One way around this is to use strict rules. For these kids, their parents wouldn’t let them walk across the dining room unless it was a special occasion. This is one way to make sure that no one messed up the floor. Plus, they said the carpet always gave footprints away.



Bottom Bun Privileges


There are times that a rule probably wouldn’t seem so bizarre if it was fully explained. This rule came from a medical issue that the father of the family had.


Bottom Bun Privileges

Since these kids didn’t know their dad couldn’t have sesame seeds, though, it just seemed like a weird privilege for dads. It took a while for the children to realize it was a strange family rule. In fact, they were in college before it crossed their mind.



Illegal Mail


There are certain fears that parents think about a lot. For this mother, that was a fear of their child being kidnapped, even to the point of paranoia.


Illegal Mail

As such, she made a rule that it was illegal to stay outside when the mailman came through. The biggest problem was that this instilled a fear of breaking the law in this user’s mind. Even now, they say they have a bit of panic when they see the mailman coming.



Freddy v. Jason


Horror movies are pretty controversial among parents. How old is old enough to watch horror movies? Which horror movies are okay to watch?


Freddy v. Jason

In this case, the solution was that Freddy Kreuger was fine but Jason Vorhees would never be allowed in the house. She stated that while Kreuger was a “fun” figure, Vorhees was specifically “satanic.” We guess no one had the chance to watch Freddy vs. Jason in this house!



Breaking Bread


Right off the bat, the use of the phrase “manual” for rules is a little much. It’s a clear sign that strange and strict rules weren’t uncommon in this house.


Breaking Bread

One of the weirdest rules that this person remembered was about bread. When they wanted to cut bread, they weren’t allowed to use a knife. Instead, they had to tear the bread with their hands. According to some of the responses, this might stem from some specific etiquette rules.