Silly rules when we were kids

.... that still don't make sense now that we're grown.

Having to wait an hour after eating before we could get back in the water.

Not allowed to say words like "fart" or "crap" or "guts."

Not allowed red nail polish until I was 16. Not 15 and a half, but 16.

Yeah those are very silly rules. I know kids need to be disciplined but some rules are more about control than anything else. It's extra hard to follow rules that those with authority can't follow themselves. Even now in adulthood I have trouble taking some adults seriously because they just simply can't follow their own rules.

Oh my gosh I was just going to say the no swimming rule after you’ve eaten.

Don’t sit too close to the tv you’ll get square eyes is another one.

No wearing black until I was 18.

I also was not allowed to frost my hair, at age 13. So many other girls at my junior high school (now called middle school) were doing it, as were their mothers. Having your hair frosted was all the rage in the mid to late 1970's, and my mother knew that. Her thinking, though, was that she couldn't help it if everybody else looked like a bunch of freaks and weirdos; I was going to look normal even if I were the only one who did! (She never did see the contradiction in this. That is, if I'm the only one looking that way, is it really "normal"? It's the old "Hey, look, my Johnny is the only one in step!" thing.)

I realize "I'm not everybody else's mother" is a valid response, but having my hair frosted as in the *first* picture below would have actually helped me fit in better, rather than creating the bizarre spectacle she was absolutely convinced I would. My hair would have been more mainstream, not less.

For a visual aid, I was going for this kind of look:
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My mother reacted as if I were asking for this:


Which certainly is extreme and probably wouldn't be appropriate for a middle schooler, although I am personally not judging the woman herself.

I suppose issues of fitting in vs. yielding to peer pressure goes beyond mere social chat. Let's see if I can think of other silly rules without diving so deep. After all, it hasn't been an hour yet since I've eaten!

Got one: My father wouldn't allow us (again, late 1970's; my siblings and I were teens and a tween) to watch a documentary about the Beatles. Not because he had any kind of moral issue with us watching it, but just because their music style wasn't his thing. So, we were not allowed to watch it. Even though he wasn't going to be home when it was on.

Got another one: Finish everything on your plate because children in other parts of the world are starving.

How was stuffing myself well past the point of feeling full going to do anything to help them?

Yeah, the no swimming for an hour after eating, and finish everything on your plate are two of my pet peeves from childhood.

Do you remember the caps with the crochet hook @Arbie?

The entire hair frosting kit was sold in a box (mid/late 70's). the bleach & peroxide, a blue latex cap with holes in it, the hook. You had to put the cap on your head and use the hook to pull pieces of your hair through the holes. Those pieces would be the ones you'd bleach. It took a minimum of 90 minutes to do the whole thing. If your hair was long, well, God help you altogether.

When you were done with the bleaching process, shampoo; then remove the cap - voila! Theoretically, your hair would be perfectly frosted! Okay, but pulling strands of hair through those holes with that metal hook was sheer torture. I'm pretty sure that many people gave up part way through.

Yes, I remember that. I wonder if it's still being sold that way.

Not that I plan to have my hair frosted now. Pushing 60 years old, my hair is finally starting to be a little bit frosty by nature. Not a lot, but a little. Besides, I colored my hair for so many years that I developed an allergy, and now I can't.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arbie Yes, I remember that. I wonder if it's still being sold that way. Not that I plan to have my hair frosted now. Pushing 60 years old, my hair is finally starting to be a little bit frosty by nature. Not a lot, but a little. Besides, I colored my hair for so many years that I developed an allergy, and now I can't.

Ha, yeah...I wonder if those kits are still being sold. Yikes, I hope not

I'll be 60 this month (I don't know how that happened). I've been coloring my hair since I was 13. Every color imaginable. It was prematurely grey, then turned white quickly. So I have it platinum and I'm pretty much stuck with platinum.

My grandmother used to tell us never to put our knife and fork down on the dinner plate in the form of an 'x' or a cross as this will bring bad luck. And she would threaten us with the wooden spoon to enforce this 'custom'. 🙂

*It actually stems from old British superstitions of which there are a lot.

I would have to put my knife and fork down to the side only when I was completely finished my meal. Think that’s a standard norm though.

@Crazy Hitch
Yup. Otherwise no dessert.😉

The no swimming rule had a reason; you might get a cramp and drown. Thanks to this thread, I looked up if that’s true. It turns out it is just a myth. I’m embarrassed. I didn’t let my kids go swimming right after eating, either. I perpetuated the lie!

I can’t think of other rules that don’t make sense, just lots of superstititions my family believed. I now know they are not real, that it is magical thinking, yet still I don’t want to take any chances by walking under a ladder…

In regards to the no swimming rule, you might get a cramp but only if you push yourself too hard and even then you probably won't drown. It's similar to if you're running and go too fast too quickly and get a side stitch.

My dad made me do his favorite hamstring stretch (the only hamstring stretch he knows) every day with him. It wasn't even a very effective stretch.

Also wasn't allowed to wear make up. Ever. Even now I barely use any (just some eyeliner here and there).

A friend of mine told his parents "I'll pack it up and you can send it to them!".

Makeup was certainly looked down on in my extended family. My mother wore it, but her parents considered her the rebel child of the family. She had two sisters. One managed to wear some makeup, applied minimally. She made it look like she didn't have any on, similar to what Muddy Boots said above, so very little was said to her about it. Her other sister made a big deal out of the fact that never touched the stuff, as if that made her morally superior. Good grief, it was makeup, not illicit substances! Of course, as I developed into my teens, my extended family tried to shame me out of wearing it too. That continued into my adult years.

Comparing this to my earlier posts, I suppose I see a pattern. My mother is still, to this day, hung up on what "statement" a person's appearance makes. She had been taught to think that any and all use of cosmetics was a sign of being a loose woman. Maybe she thought she was being progressive by allowing me to wear nail polish at all. But red, specifically, was outlawed because she couldn't shake that "wildcat on the prowl" connection, and didn't want to see her preteen daughter that way.

I've got cousins who have been allowing their children to dye their hair whatever color they chose, since elementary school. When I was that age, family would have blown a collective gasket if I had changed my hair color to anything other than what I was born with. I'm naturally dark. When I was in seventh grade, my mother did allow me to color my hair a dark shade of auburn. The change was noticeable only in strong sunlight. But she told me, if her parents asked, to say it was "highlights" and avoid using the word "dye," or they'll "start having heart attacks." I suppose I can sympathize. She was a grown woman, and afraid of what her family might say about her parenting decisions. Since then my hair has been every shade from burgundy to strawberry blonde, and she thought it looked "bizarre" and "not normal." I wonder what she would say about my cousin's daughter having pink hair at age 11.

The next generation came along, and she did the same thing to me. Policed my parenting decisions, I mean. My kids wanted to grow their hair long, and I wanted to let them. But my mother would take them out "for lunch," and ask me if she could take them to have their hair cut while they were out. I'd say no, they're growing it long, and she'd do it anyway "because it looked bad." Boy, did I resent the snot out of that, but looking back, I can see where she learned it.

On the superstitions, my father had a thing about never sleeping with your head toward the east. It had something to do with cemeteries and his belief that bodies are always buried with their heads facing east. Not true.