Did your parents ever have a bizarre house rule growing up? We had to eat everything on our plate (clean plate club) and couldn't leave the table until we did. I remember a few nights where I sat at the table until bedtime.
People online are sharing the ones from their family. Here are the highlights:
1. "No turning on the lights during thunderstorms."
2. "No wearing clothing with 'faces' on them. No Mickey Mouse shirts, no kitty-cat shirts, nothing. Either plain shirts with no graphics on them or it had to be of something not alive, like a soccer ball, a pumpkin, or something."
3. "We had to drink a huge glass of milk every morning as a kid, because my parents believed it would make us grow tall. But I was lactose intolerant, so it just ended up making me feel really nauseous."
4. "We had one drink cup by the kitchen sink. If you're thirsty, you use that cup and put it back for other family members. We'd wash it in the dishwasher every two days or so."
5. "No stepping on the bathmat with wet feet."
6. "The curtains had to be opened first thing in the morning so the neighbors wouldn't think we slept in."
7. "We weren't allowed to walk from the bathroom to our bedrooms after a shower in just a towel. Even if no one else was there besides family."
8. "We had to leave the room to fart. And 'fart' was a curse word."
9. "I wasn't allowed to watch anything that depicted a dysfunctional family...maybe in case I realized that was us."
10. "I had to bring home the plastic sandwich bags from my school lunch to be used again the next day. They were washed and dried overnight." (This may be less weird now than 20 or 30 years ago.)
11. "I wasn't allowed to invite a friend over for a second time until THEY invited me over to THEIR house. My mom kept track of how many times I invited friends over and demanded they reciprocate before I could invite them again."
(Buzzfeed)
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