As the prophet Will Smith once stated: Sometimes parents just don’t understand.
We all remember the first time we went over to someone’s house and discovered that their parents had a weird rule instilled. Something like “No TV until you’ve graduated high school.” There are lots of parenting styles and there’s no one way to do it right. That said, there are some rules that are totally ridiculous, as evidenced by this AskReddit thread:
1. From user GameJusticeWarrior:
Not allowed to leave the house without being an accompanied by an adult even in late teens.
Not allowed to use a steak knife and mom had to cut the meat.
Not allowed to use a can opener.
Not allowed to use the stove, deep fryer, or oven even during late teens.
I think that’s everything about my childhood.
2. From user I_Stand_Correct:
I worked at summer camps for a lot of years. You meet a lot of different folks with some interesting ideas of what is and isn’t appropriate.
One time, a concerned mom came up to me at the end of the day and asked if she could have a word.
“I’m concerned about some of the language I’ve heard the other kids using,” she said. “I’m wondering why you aren’t doing anything about it.”
I assured her that we do have a camp-appropriate language policy, and that we enforce it. I asked her what she had heard.
She told me she overheard one of the kids saying that something or other was “stupid.” She described it with the discomfort a normal person might exhibit when they catch a “fuck” or “cunt.” She was genuinely scandalized that a group of 6-11 year old kids called things stupid.
I have quite a few crazy PC parent stories, but… I just can’t wrap my head around a woman in her middle 30s who considers the word “stupid” to be a profanity. There are parents these days who seriously try to protect their kids from any expression of negativity or disdain directed at anyone or anything. Baffling.
3. From user DwaiTheGuy:
Not allowed to watch rated G movies
4. From user moogiemuffinnn:
The choice of “not allowed to watch this TV show” was always so weird to me. Like….the wild thornberries? Why?
And all the Christian reaction against Halloween…like that kids need to do some corny alternative with their church and can’t dress up as anything “satanic” like a vampire.
5. From user SalemScout:
I taught a student who was a first born son of an Indian family. This meant he was treated like a little prince. His folks let him get away with all sorts of drinking and partying and drugs and just general shit behavior to the point that I nearly kicked him out of our program.
Day of the competition arrives and we’re at the courthouse. The kids can only have water in the courtrooms, which is fine because we get them all water bottles. About halfway through the day his mum came up to me and asked for another bottle; I didn’t have one but I pointed her in the direction of the water fountain to refill his current bottle.
She told me he couldn’t drink water that was also drunk by people who had committed crimes. She wasn’t worried about the cleanliness of the water, she just didn’t want him drinking from the same fountains as alleged criminals.