People reveal the weirdest rules they had to follow at their childhood home — these 15 have the internet surprised

While growing up, people have experienced different childhoods. With different parenting methods, rules, morals and values, each individual has grown up with a different set of beliefs and characteristics. Most families have particular reasons behind the parenting approach they take or the rules they place for their kids. However, some of these rules are way too bizarre to believe. Think of the time you visited a friend's home and were taken aback by their strict rules about food or clothing. 

A user on Reddit, u/poothhippers, called on people to share the extraordinary rules they have encountered in their childhood. "What’s the weirdest rule you had to follow at your childhood home?" the post asked. With over 2,100 comments, people had several opinions to share. What may be usual to some is baffling to others on different accounts. From not being allowed to have friends over to having a fixed time to chew gum, people have shared mind-boggling rules they or someone they knew had to follow. These 15 have many stunned.  

1. Do not enter other rooms

"Was a friend, not me. Basically at his house, he and his brother were allowed in only 3 rooms. Their bedrooms and the bathroom. The kitchen, living room and conservatory were off-limits.  If they wanted water, they had to ask and a parent would bring a glass from the kitchen. I would be greeted by the parents, they would escort me to my mate's bedroom, then close the door behind me. When it was time to leave my mate had to call for his parents to then escort me out." -u/MrR0undbout

2. No gum after 4:30 pm 

"We weren't allowed to chew gum after 4:30 because we wouldn't be 'getting enough use out of it' before we had dinner at 6:00." -u/SuLiaodai "All her life, my grandma chewed gum 1/2 stick at a time. So she’d offer a piece of gum and you’d get half a stick covered in purse lint." -u/FunIntention9846

3. Guests are a liability

"Guests weren't allowed to use the upstairs washroom (and by guests, I mean if me or my siblings had friends over). We weren't allowed to offer them any food or drinks except water. I'm pretty sure my mom just wanted to make my house as inhospitable as possible so that she could destroy those friendships. She thought that friends were a distraction and that studying was all that mattered." -u/yeetgodmcneechas

4. No napping

"Not allowed to take naps when I was a teenager because 'I'm too young to be tired' even after I got a job and had to be up at 5 am." -u/Mammoth-Tea5495 "My parent told me I wasn't allowed to sleep past 10 am when my full-time job ended at 5 am because 'the world is productive and you're missing it.'" -u/tacoslave420

5. Unusual punishments

"When my brother and I would fight, we would be locked in a dog cage in the backyard. If we fought in the car, we would get 'bagged' and were forced to wear pillowcases on our heads until we reached our destination. It could be 45 minutes up to 4 hours. We laughed about it telling friends and it only dawned on us how f***ed up it was when we realized our friends were not laughing." -u/GroundControl12Major1

6. No homework on weekends

"Not allowed to do homework on the weekends. I was forced to have family TV time instead, where we watched 'Days of our lives', of all things. I would secretly do it after everyone went to bed." -u/miggles92

7. Living room is off-limits

"We had a whole room, living room, that we couldn't enter unless we had company." -u/C5H2A7 "My grandparents had one of those rooms. They used to vacuum the carpet in precise lines and wouldn't let us in it. My brother used to like to try to run in there and 'mess up the carpet' by walking on it." -u/Beth_Pleasant

8. No footprints

"The lady who lived next door when I was growing up was a freak about cleaning. They had a formal living room with a white carpet and a brocade silk sofa. She had that room roped off with velvet ribbon secured to the entrance with cup hooks. She would look for footprints in the carpet to make sure no one had been in. Her whole house smelled of bleach and floor wax. Her kids were always sick because they were never allowed to get dirty to build up immunity." -u/tiffy68

9. No outside clothing on furniture

"It was my dad's weird rule. We were not allowed to sit on any furniture in the house if we were wearing clothing that had been worn outside. We had to come in and change clothes immediately. No one was a germaphobe, he could never explain it but that was his thing." -u/IllustriousPickle657

10. Can't say 'no'

"I wasn't allowed to say no. I wasn't allowed to smile either." -u/AnxiousLoad4600 "Hey, fellow 'not allowed to say no' person here. We didn't have the smiling rule, but kinda the opposite—any display of negative emotions was labeled as a deliberate attempt at manipulation and therefore, a punishable offense." -u/CantaloupeWir3

11. No chores

"No chores. I’m dead serious. My mom was so overprotective she wouldn’t let me do any kind of chores. She never let me near appliances or showed me how to do the most basic of housework. The only thing she told me to do was clean my room, but never showed me how to clean it. So my room was always messy." -u/iamliterallyinsane

12. No pronouns

"Couldn't say 'him' or 'she' when referring to mom or dad." -u/nochickflickmoments "We had the that one too! I don’t know why that bothered my mom so much or why she assumed there was always an attitude associated with it." -u/No-List-216 "I remember the first time I got screamed at by my dad about it. He asked me something and I said, 'Oh, she's over there looking at the flowers.' 'That's your mother! Show some respect. Your mom, you don't call her she.'" -u/nochickflickmoments

13.  Stay away from the door

"This wasn't my house, but a friend across the street. His father didn't want us ringing the doorbell or using the front door. So, if we wanted to visit, we were supposed to go around to the side of the house and knock on the door by the kitchen, which nobody ever heard. It was strange. Generally, if you wanted to play, it was best to call him first so he could meet you outside. They did have a separate phone line for the kids, which was kind of an unusual thing to have in the 1970s." -u/manniax

14. Children should be seen not heard

"Not me but my dad who grew up on a farm in Kansas, with his six other siblings. His grandmother believed in the idea that children should be seen and not heard. If dad and his siblings were in the house while she was there, they had to quietly sit on the couch in the living room, so they usually would find a field or something and peace out to play out there." -u/katyvicky

15. Melting rules

"It does not matter if it's 90F, 100F, or even hotter and extremely humid out. The moment the clock hits 4 or 5 pm during the hottest part of a summer day, the AC must be turned off, all windows immediately opened and it is time to cook dinner. Not any old dinner mind you, no. We will pick the hottest July day to make the kind of dinner that requires two huge pans of sizzling food that takes a long time to cook and two huge pots of boiling stew, dumping heat and humidity into the house for at least an hour, usually much longer. The house will easily hit 95F." -u/CaseyGuo