Silly things that were forbidden when you were a kid

melody921 · December 2014

Was there anything your parents did not approve of when you were young that is not a big deal to you as a parent now?

For us, it's playing hide-and-seek in the house. My mom never wanted my brother and me to play this. I guess she thought it was too raucous. But it's one of my kids' favorite activities. It doesn't faze me, as I feel there are way wilder things they could be doing.

Newt69 · December 2014

the Simpsons, I was not allowed to watch the Simpsons at all.

My DH finds this very odd....cartoons of any kind do not bother me for DS to watch. hopefully he will have the same sick sense of humor we have.

hmp1 · December 2014

Newt69 said:

the Simpsons, I was not allowed to watch the Simpsons at all.

My DH finds this very odd....cartoons of any kind do not bother me for DS to watch. hopefully he will have the same sick sense of humor we have.

The area I grew up in in AR didn't have Fox because it was not family appropriate. I could only watch the Simpsons at friends' houses that had the huge satellite dishes. This was all before Fox started carrying football games though.

I'm the youngest of 4. My parents didn't have a lot of rules by the time I came along.

kelbel527 · December 2014

Newt69 said:

the Simpsons, I was not allowed to watch the Simpsons at all.

My DH finds this very odd....cartoons of any kind do not bother me for DS to watch. hopefully he will have the same sick sense of humor we have.

Haha! I wasn't allowed to watch the Simpsons either! Actually, to this day, I don't like the Simpsons because of it.

That said - we're pretty strict on what our kids watch, so I guess that rubbed off on me.

My Dad hated that I didn't put my feet on floor and sit up straight when eating dinner. I usually sat with my feet up on the chair or criss-cross style. I still sit that way, it's just how I'm comfortable. So I never yell at my kids for sitting a certain way at the table. DH however isn't as relaxed as I am.

smb+jab · December 2014

Newt69 said:

the Simpsons, I was not allowed to watch the Simpsons at all.

We (my brother and I who are 2.5 years apart) were not allowed either. However when my mom was working (she did basket parties for longaberger remember those back in the day! - she actually pulled in a lot of money this way) my dad would let us watch it. when mom's away.....

tinyhumantoe · December 2014

We weren't allowed to salt food. Probably a good thing.

We weren't allowed to have white bread. I loved going over to other houses and having Wonder bread, ha!

We also had to eat the crust of sandwiches. Like, if you were going to left anything uneaten, it had to be the middle.... the crust had to be consumed first. Weird!

BeebopandBuddy · December 2014

We weren't allowed to watch MTV either. My parents were pretty lax on other shows, which were probably worse. It seems weird to me now.

tinyhumantoe · December 2014

BobKat22 said:

I wasn't allowed to shave above my knee. I had really hairy legs too. I looked so ridiculous having half shaven legs.

OOO ME TOO!

redneckmomma25 · December 2014

I got nothing. I lived with my mom most of the time and she didn't really care. My dad made me return the Red Hot Chili Peppers CD Californication because of the title. I was like 15 or 16 I think.

tinyhumantoe · December 2014

redneckmomma25 said:

I got nothing. I lived with my mom most of the time and she didn't really care. My dad made me return the Red Hot Chili Peppers CD Californication because of the title. I was like 15 or 16 I think.

ERMAHGERD

I NEVER MADE THE CONNECTION BETWEEN CALIFORNICATION AND FORNICATION.

I thought it was Californi + cation. Like everything is california-ized.

jenndub · December 2014

No nail polish, lotions with a scent, hairspray, makeup, not even lip gloss. Man was I ugly in high school. I had to fight to wear deodorant. For reals.

27boo · December 2014

tinyhumantoe said:
We weren't allowed to salt food. Probably a good thing.

We weren't allowed to have white bread. I loved going over to other houses and having Wonder bread, ha!

We also had to eat the crust of sandwiches. Like, if you were going to left anything uneaten, it had to be the middle.... the crust had to be consumed first. Weird!

As an adult, I still don'teat the crust most of the time. Aria leaves that part behind too. I don't really care though. I'd rather she eat more fruit than worry about the crust.

Nita2603 · December 2014

I wasn't allowed to wear make up, shave at all or do my nails.
My mother also didn't want me to do a lot of other things. We also didn't have satellite, so most tv wasn't happening anyways.

Once I was 14, I still wasn't allowed and did all of them anyways.

kdsmith43 · December 2014

I don't guess I had many rules. It was me and my mom growing up, and dads on the weekends until I begged her not to send me anymore. She never really told me no, but I guess I was just a good kid. She let me have parties at my house after school dances in middle school - I always had the "cool mom" and everyone wanted to come to my house.

kelbel527 · December 2014

kdsmith43 said:

I don't guess I had many rules. It was me and my mom growing up, and dads on the weekends until I begged her not to send me anymore. She never really told me no, but I guess I was just a good kid. She let me have parties at my house after school dances in middle school - I always had the "cool mom" and everyone wanted to come to my house.

This sounds a lot like my Mom. My Dad was definitely the strict one in our house, which became more evident when they got divorced. She let us do everything and he had a lot of rules. I was a good kid though and never really took advantage of it.

Looking back, as much as I hated my Dad's rules, I actually respect them. At some point with my Mom, it felt like she just didn't care anymore, which started to bother me as well. Parents can never win.

And what is with the no shaving above your knee? I don't really get it...

MRoxy0628 · December 2014

There wasn't too much forbidden in our house either. My mom didn't buy sugar cereals for a long time and we also never had white bread and while I felt different at the time, it was for the best.

She also suggested I not shave above the knee, but she didn't forbid me from doing it. She didn't want me to start shaving for a long time and I don't know exactly why, but I'm assuming she knew how much a pain in the ass it is and was trying to save me some trouble?

kelbel527 · December 2014

IndigoVader said:

MRoxy0628 said:

She also suggested I not shave above the knee, but she didn't forbid me from doing it. She didn't want me to start shaving for a long time and I don't know exactly why, but I'm assuming she knew how much a pain in the ass it is and was trying to save me some trouble?

My mom's thought was that once you shave above the knee, you are planning on having sex.

I guess that makes sense. I don't think my Mom paid attention to how far up I shaved. Maybe she should have...

MRoxy0628 · December 2014

kelbel527 said:

IndigoVader said:

MRoxy0628 said:

She also suggested I not shave above the knee, but she didn't forbid me from doing it. She didn't want me to start shaving for a long time and I don't know exactly why, but I'm assuming she knew how much a pain in the ass it is and was trying to save me some trouble?

My mom's thought was that once you shave above the knee, you are planning on having sex.

I guess that makes sense. I don't think my Mom paid attention to how far up I shaved. Maybe she should have...

Yeah, I think my mom knew she didn't have to worry about that with me. I didn't have my first kiss until I was 17.

Pokedot · December 2014

kelbel527 said:

Newt69 said:

the Simpsons, I was not allowed to watch the Simpsons at all.

My DH finds this very odd....cartoons of any kind do not bother me for DS to watch. hopefully he will have the same sick sense of humor we have.
Haha! I wasn't allowed to watch the Simpsons either! Actually, to this day, I don't like the Simpsons because of it.

That said - we're pretty strict on what our kids watch, so I guess that rubbed off on me.

My Dad hated that I didn't put my feet on floor and sit up straight when eating dinner. I usually sat with my feet up on the chair or criss-cross style. I still sit that way, it's just how I'm comfortable. So I never yell at my kids for sitting a certain way at the table. DH however isn't as relaxed as I am.

I still sit this way as well. I hate chair cushions too so whenever we go to my parents house the first thing to go is the cushion. As long as B is sitting at the table nicely I'm ok with it. Lately feet on the table are hilarious. Not to us though.

Simpson's were the one thing I could think of. My mom hated that show and forbide us from watching it. I don't watch it to this day. Southpark came along and that was a no no as well.

hmp1 · December 2014

Oh, I mean we had rules just not silly rules. Pretty much everything my parents did I am doing too. Like, I was allowed juice but my mom didn't buy it to keep in the house. I wasn't allowed soda as a kid but I didn't like it anyways. No sleep overs on school nights, and I will probably follow along with this too. No boys in my bedroom (when I was a teen), but we had a game room that we hung out in away from my parents. No tv in our bedrooms. Just normal stuff, normal to me anyways.

Pokedot · December 2014

I don't get the no share above the knee rule? One of my mom's BFF's had that rule and to this day she doesn't shave above it. Her legs look super weird. Shaved on the bottom, all fuzzy on the top.

hmp1 · December 2014

My mom doesn't shave above her knee but she grew up in a time when even her cheerleader skirt was below her knee. She isn't hairy either so it didn't matter. I got my dad's hair gene and she never had a problem with me shaving above my knee. She didn't really teach me to shave either. I just asked if I could shave one day and she said sure and got me a razor.

melody921 · December 2014

Newt69 said:

the Simpsons, I was not allowed to watch the Simpsons at all.

My DH finds this very odd....cartoons of any kind do not bother me for DS to watch. hopefully he will have the same sick sense of humor we have.

No Simpsons allowed here either, although we really didn't watch a lot of TV in general. I remember being a HS student, babysitting for a family of 3 kids who wanted to watch "South Park." I was like, "Uh, no."

melody921 · December 2014

loislayn said:

My dad blocked Cartoon Network, MTV, E!, and a couple other stations because they weren't appropriate. I didn't watch MTV until college!

I didn't watch it either!

melody921 · December 2014

tinyhumantoe said:

We weren't allowed to salt food. Probably a good thing.

We weren't allowed to have white bread. I loved going over to other houses and having Wonder bread, ha!

We also had to eat the crust of sandwiches. Like, if you were going to left anything uneaten, it had to be the middle.... the crust had to be consumed first. Weird!

All of this, although for the last one, we had to eat the whole sandwich. I still don't really salt food at the table though, which is probably a good thing.

MRoxy0628 · December 2014

mnkate said:

Newt69 said:

the Simpsons, I was not allowed to watch the Simpsons at all.

My DH finds this very odd....cartoons of any kind do not bother me for DS to watch. hopefully he will have the same sick sense of humor we have.

Am I the only one who watched the Simpsons back when it was a short on the Tracy Ullman Show? The whole family would sit down to watch Tracy Ullman, In Living Color and Married with Children. Sunday Night was our favorite night of the week! Woo-hoo!!!

We loved In Living Color.

AlinnJo · December 2014

We weren't allowed to have video games. Pipes a mom now, I'm ok with that but we will probably have some in the future.

I was the youngest of 3 girls and like hmp, my parents didn't care nearly as much by the time I was a teenager. They had other rules when we wre little, but I agree with them. Like no pop, no pg-13 movies etc. I hated that we weren't allowed to write on the windows in th car when they fogged up. We had dealer cars and my dad said no one wanted to clean up after us.

AKB090609 · December 2014

There were a few years where my father would not let me watch TGIF (because of Sabrina the teenage witch) and Dawson's Creek was also a no go. I was also not allowed to have friends over at his house, he worked until 8pm and I was home alone so my friends just left by dinner time...

I thought most of his rules were dumb and managed to stay at my mom's house or at a slumber party every Friday.

melody921 · December 2014

tinyhumantoe said:

BobKat22 said:

I wasn't allowed to shave above my knee. I had really hairy legs too. I looked so ridiculous having half shaven legs.

OOO ME TOO!

WHAT?! I don't understand the reasoning of this.

melody921 · December 2014

jenndub said:

No nail polish, lotions with a scent, hairspray, makeup, not even lip gloss. Man was I ugly in high school. I had to fight to wear deodorant. For reals.

Eww, deodorant should be mandatory, lol.

kdsmith43 · December 2014

I don't shave above my knee in the winter months - but I shave the other half at LEAST every other day. My hair is really light so you cant see it anyways.

watercolor5 · December 2014

Hmm no Simpsons, no Married with Children, no Roseanne... but we could watch MTV :-/ I think most of what we weren't allowed to watch was just stuff my mom didn't like, like families being disrespectful to each other. She should have banned MTV too, but my brother was 6 years older and controlled the remote at that point. We didn't have cable for most of my growing up years.

No video games at our house- only exception was our gameboys which we were given for plane rides/long road trips, etc. No phone in my room (until I got a cell phone in high school.)

I've never heard of a no shaving above the knee rule- interesting that it was so common.

ETA: No bikinis, no tank tops/sleeveless shirts without a cardigan over

melody921 · December 2014

BobKat22 said:

tinyhumantoe said:

BobKat22 said:

I wasn't allowed to shave above my knee. I had really hairy legs too. I looked so ridiculous having half shaven legs.

OOO ME TOO!

WHAT?! I don't understand the reasoning of this.
I think it was to keep boys away from my thighs and anything above.

I can't imagine a teenage boy would let a little hair keep him away anyway.

tinyhumantoe · December 2014

I wasn't allowed to shave around my ankles until I reached a certain age. The ankles and knee were about cutting myself, not anything else (though now I'm wondering?).

I looked like a poodle. Also mom wouldn't let me shave F O R E V E R. It was so embarrassing.

tinyhumantoe · December 2014

My mom would be so proud of me now. My legs are hairy and I'm not having sex.

MarisaKathleen · December 2014

Some of these are so funny!

I didn't have any weird rules. It was just me and my parents though--my youngest brother is 10yrs older than me and he lived with his Mom, so I think we just did so much more stuff as a family that I didn't get a lot of rules.

Also, I never remember even having a discussion about shaving my legs with my Mom. I just started shaving my legs.

The only stupid rule my Dad had was about going to this concert venue in Milwaukee. It's in a not great part of town and in 1973 my Dad's car got broken into down there. Fast forward to 2003 when I'm 21 and Dave Matthews look alike in my Communications class wants to go and see Bob Dylan with me and MY DAD SAYS NO! Pf. We had a come to Jesus meeting and I went anyway. Every time I see a good show announced there I still think about my Dad's car getting broken into while parked there in 1973. :-)

AKB090609 · December 2014

MarisaKathleen said:

Some of these are so funny!

I didn't have any weird rules. It was just me and my parents though--my youngest brother is 10yrs older than me and he lived with his Mom, so I think we just did so much more stuff as a family that I didn't get a lot of rules.

Also, I never remember even having a discussion about shaving my legs with my Mom. I just started shaving my legs.

The only stupid rule my Dad had was about going to this concert venue in Milwaukee. It's in a not great part of town and in 1973 my Dad's car got broken into down there. Fast forward to 2003 when I'm 21 and Dave Matthews look alike in my Communications class wants to go and see Bob Dylan with me and MY DAD SAYS NO! Pf. We had a come to Jesus meeting and I went anyway. Every time I see a good show announced there I still think about my Dad's car getting broken into while parked there in 1973. :-)

I'm gonna go ahead and assume you are talking about the Rave, I got in so much trouble with one of my friends after a concert there when we were 16, she got lost and our car ran out of gas on Walnut, the cops were really nice and explained why we shouldn't be walking around 'that part of town' dressed the way we were... Then they called her parents.

amandad715 · December 2014

Mine was that I was not allowed to share or trade clothes with friends.
I'm sure it was about her growing up somewhat poor with 4 siblings and that she had to take care of her things bc they had so little. My mom was a little uptight.
But my aunt let my cousin who is 2 years younger than me do it. And I could not get why I couldn't. My aunt was a single mom and is so laid back. It made me wonder how they are from the same parents.

Flamingemu · December 2014

Rules? Umm...my mom was more worried about keeping whatever man of the week she had than me. I am pretty amazed I came out unscathed, by all accounts, I should be a waste of life.

Flamingemu · December 2014

Oh, wait, she had one. No Simpsons. But she would tell me to change it, I would say no, and she would walk out of the room. So it wasn't really a rule...

tyrannasaurusjess · December 2014

mnkate said:

Newt69 said:

the Simpsons, I was not allowed to watch the Simpsons at all.

My DH finds this very odd....cartoons of any kind do not bother me for DS to watch. hopefully he will have the same sick sense of humor we have.

Am I the only one who watched the Simpsons back when it was a short on the Tracy Ullman Show? The whole family would sit down to watch Tracy Ullman, In Living Color and Married with Children. Sunday Night was our favorite night of the week! Woo-hoo!!!

I used to sit in the hallway and watch married with Children when I was supposed to be in bed. I had to be sneaky about it, but I recall getting caught all the time.

I never got the californication thing either until just now. I remember asking my mom if I could get the Orgy CD, and she about died. I did not know what an orgy was at that point in my life.

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