What did you used to get in trouble for, by your Mom/Dad?

[bumbershoot]

Mom also used to tell me, "You young girls all wear those baggy clothes- you have such nice figures, and you are hiding them! Some day, you won't have such nice trim figures." She was right. Now, I am the one shaking my head and asking. "What are kids wearing these days??!?"

That was my mom's thing too. And she was SO right. I would gain a few pounds, start wearing bigger clothes, and then...I would start to fit into the bigger clothes. Whoopsie. Whereas she always wore form-fitting clothes so she could know immediately that she had gained a few. And then she would strive to lose those few. Probably was one of the reasons many people in 50s America were so much smaller than we were, because they had those close-fitting dresses with princess seams and darts and all, and belts, etc etc etc. They didn't gain because they simply could not wear their clothes if they did!

I don't even want to bring up the time my sister played with playdo on our chrome coffee table, that one is epic!

Ouch.



I'm having a hard time remembering rules! Call if the plans change when I was out with friends (this mainly applied to my female friends...with guys, she met and sized them up, and made SURE they knew they were responsible for me coming home safe and sound, and she tended to trust the guys I dated more than she did my friends (and rightly so)), call BEFORE I'm late if I'm going to be late... That's all I remember. And I think I should state that all the phoning was well before normal people had cellphones; I was expected to use a friend's phone at their house or find a payphone to make sure she knew what I was up to.

I think those things are highly reasonable, and I always called her, and it was always fine. By the time my Senior Ball ("prom" but that word was used for the Juniors) rolled around, I was without a curfew that night because she trusted me so much (and rightly so!). Alas I went with a group of people, and 4 of the 6 in the group did have curfews. Including my date, who had already graduated but was going surfing early the next morning and had a self-imposed curfew! Drat!


We didn't even have a "no jumping on the beds" rule, b/c we had waterbeds and it was *obvious* that we shouldn't jump on them.

 

[SiAmCrAzY]

Turning to many lights on -as I type this there are lights on in 4 areas of my home When my husband is home he usually follows me around shutting them off.

Turning up the thermostat- My father believes that if you cannot see your breath inside your home you are wasting money, because I do not believe that heat is a luxury item my husband and I now have thermostat wars.

Bringing home strays - sadly my husband put a stop to this

Staying up to late reading or watching TV Now my husband complains I am up to late on the computer

OMG I married my father!!!!

 

[MomofKatie]

This is such a small thing now but I remember asking my dad for something and him saying no and then going to my mom to find out if I would get a different answer My dad got so mad, never did that again!

Ooh, I got in big trouble for that once- Mom had the final say about things like sleepovers in our house. When I was in 6th grade, I asked Mom if I could go to a friend's house to spend the night (the friend lived 30 mins away). She said no, so I immediately went to Dad and asked the same thing. He said OK- took me to the friend's house before Mom got home from work. I figure I'm home free- Mom can't do anything about it now! She'd NEVER embarrass me in front of my friend, plus it's 30 minutes away!

Well, about 90 minutes later, Mom shows up on the friend's doorstep and tells the other mom that I did NOT have permission to stay, and I had to come home right then. I cried and moaned, but Mom carted me home and grounded me for a month. Dad was mad at me, too- seems Mom gave him a talking-to about asking if she had already said NO before agreeing to anything.

 

[kellyg403]

Ooh, I got in big trouble for that once- Mom had the final say about things like sleepovers in our house. When I was in 6th grade, I asked Mom if I could go to a friend's house to spend the night (the friend lived 30 mins away). She said no, so I immediately went to Dad and asked the same thing. He said OK- took me to the friend's house before Mom got home from work. I figure I'm home free- Mom can't do anything about it now! She'd NEVER embarrass me in front of my friend, plus it's 30 minutes away!

Well, about 90 minutes later, Mom shows up on the friend's doorstep and tells the other mom that I did NOT have permission to stay, and I had to come home right then. I cried and moaned, but Mom carted me home and grounded me for a month. Dad was mad at me, too- seems Mom gave him a talking-to about asking if she had already said NO before agreeing to anything.

In our house mom was always the last say too. It only took one time to find out Dad is great guy, but don't ask him for permission for much...Mom was THE boss. I remember once asking my mom something and her saying maybe I have to think about it. Well, I didn't like that so I asked Dad he said ok. It involved walking to the store and going to the little ice cream shop next store. Happy as a camper I started the march to the store. Mom came barreling around the corner in the stationwagon and I knew it. I got home and first thing dad said was "why didn't you tell me your mom said maybe". No maybe's about that punishment and I never ever did it again. To this day, if I need something..even if dad answers the phone, I ask my mother!

My mom was a clean freak..serious clean freak. She has a beautiful home even today!!! I love going there because it is so clean and new looking even though they have lived there for about 10 years. Thats one thing I don't have. I have a 'neat' home but not clean. And definitely lived in.

Kelly

 

[pyrxtc]

everything. There wasn't much time in my life when I wasn't grounded and all of my friends from high school could vouch for that.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I was a naturally easy or "good" kid and I had very few rules to break even if I had not been. My parents rarely cooked (we generally picked put TV dinners for the week every Saturday at King Soopers) but when Dad did cook it was usually pork roast or pork chops. I have never liked the taste of pork. Ever. The only times I can ever remember being in trouble were being sent to my room on various occasions for refusing to eat pork roast or chops It is like my dad took it personally that he had cooked and i wasn't eating it.
I am in my late 30s now, live in germany (where pork is THE meat) and I still never, ever eat it.

 

[laurafergie]

I grew up in a very Southern home where you were expected to say Yes Ma'am and No Sir - and I did for the most part, but my parents, especially my Mom would make it such a control issue - that to this day, I don't make my kids say it. (Even though I still do) My kids are just required to be polite and pleasant and say "Yes, Mom" or "No, Mrs. Smith". (My parents hate this)

 

[MushyMushy]

What didn't I get in trouble for? That might be a shorter list!

Basically I just got into trouble for being me.

 

[iwrbnd]

I was the last child in the family so I pretty much got away with everything!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Oh geez, there were a lot of little stupid rules like this that I had growing up. Probably the worst was the "aswering the phone" one. I was required to answer "Hello, [lastname] residence." My parents used to go out to dinner and would call halfway through while I was home with a babysitter to check that I would, in fact, answer the phone correctly and I'd get chewed out if I didn't. It became so ingrained in me that it was almost impossible to curb. I eventually stopped when I lived in an apartment with multiple folks and couldn't determine whose "residence" it was, but I still do it whenever I answer the phone at my parents' or someone else's house.

Calling adults by their first names was nigh on impossible for me for some time. A good friend of mine (who's slightly less than 10 years older) still makes fun of me because when I first met him I kept calling him Mr. Lastname. What can I say? He was thirty and married and I was just some young punk college kid.

Oh, here's a biggie. My dad had this obsession with napkins. They had to be placed on your lap with the folded edge towards you. Yes, the fold goes TOWARDS your lap so that crumbs roll off easier. I can't tell you how many times I got yelled at for this. Most people would be happy their kid always properly used a napkin, but mine had to be fold side IN. And yes, I still do this, every single time.

Whenever I sit down at a table where there's silverware, whether its at home or a restaurant or someone else's house, if the silverware is not in the correct position, I rearrange it. It's a disease. DH likes to disarrange the silverware just to drive me nuts. I'm constantly flipping knives over so their edge faces the plate. No, this is not OCD, it's something I was brought up to and had enforced repeatedly.

Others I still do?

-Correctly (meaning my father's way) wrapping presents (yes, I got yelled at for how I wrapped presents...in retrospect, I'm now an excellent wrapper)
-Correctly (see above) coiling rope
-Correctly folding socks
-Correctly filling a diswasher
-Correctly decorating a Christmas tree

I think of my parents every time I do these things.

 

[Luv2Scrap]

I am another one who got in trouble for merely existing. In two different households. Then in my teen years I rebelled (wonder why... ) and took it to a whole new level of getting in trouble.

I've mellowed out quite a bit in my adult years, and a few years back, my stepmom said something to me that really blew me away - she said compared to my two younger brothers, I was an angel! Too bad she couldn't realize that when I was young enough for it to still matter.

 

[golfgal]

Let's see--my sister habitually stayed out until all hours of the night, I got a curfew, my sister would pick fights with me, I got grounded, she got nothing, my brother was the biggest punk in town, I got in trouble for letting him misbehave. I pretty much got in trouble whenever my siblings did something wrong because I was expected to make sure they stayed out of trouble-my mom actually told me that once. . She was amazed that as an adult I wanted no relationship with her, especially when she started in on my kids like that.

Honestly, the worst thing I ever did in high school was toilet papering a neighborhood. I was an honor student, 3 sport athlete. I didn't have time to get into trouble. .

 

[Pakey]

I'm a child of the late 50's, early 60's--the days of Leave It To Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet. I once got grounded for 2 weeks for not fixing my brother, who was 11 months younger than me, his breakfast when he asked. I got another week added on for attempting to explain that just because I was female, I shouldn't be expected to fix my brother's breakfast.

 

[NotUrsula]

Blowing a whistle -- heck, even POSSESSING a whistle was grounds for punishment in my mother's home. For the longest time, she had me convinced that we would end up homeless if I ever blew a whistle. She fed me this story about how if you blew a whistle then then fire dept. would come, and if there wasn't really a fire then you would have to pay a HUGE fine for filing a false alarm, and that we didn't have enough money for that fine, and that we would have to give up our house in order to pay it. (Needless to say, I seriously embarassed myself by bursting into tears on my first day of grade school gym, because didn't the teacher KNOW that she was going to get in serious trouble for blowing that whistle?!)

The other big issue was closing the door of any room except the bathroom, and that ONLY when you were using the toilet; it wasn't allowed if you were in the bath or shower. (You could close it to, but no latching it shut). "We don't tolerate closed doors in this house!"

 

[hereyago]

I got another week added on for attempting to explain that just because I was female, I shouldn't be expected to fix my brother's breakfast.

I would have been grounded forever back then.

 

[mandylo]

Instead of closing a loaf of bread by using the bread bag tie, I would just spin the bag around a couple of times and just tuck the end under the loaf itself. Drove my mother nuts. I still do it!

 

[Uuaww]

Skateboarding, Mountain Biking, insert adrenaline junkie activity here... Didn't get in trouble for the activity, but anytime I can back needing stitches or broke a bone... oh man, my Mom freaked out.

Example:
Me and my friends casually sitting on a couch watching TV at 5 PM, Mom comes home from work.
Me: Hello
Mom: Hello, why are you home watching TV?
Me: Just tired...
Mom: Uh huh... wait, what's wrong with your leg... OH MY GOD! WHAT DID YOU DO!!!!

 

[CathrynRose]

Instead of closing a loaf of bread by using the bread bag tie, I would just spin the bag around a couple of times and just tuck the end under the loaf itself. Drove my mother nuts. I still do it!

I do that! Thankfully my mom did it too.

Isn't it kinda funny looking back on these things as an adult?

I also remembered - remember that colored hair mousse? It would come in like red, purple.... WTH was it called? It was really pigmented, and would work good?

I would use that red one all the time. And it really, really would just stick to your hair. So, I'd wash my hair, condition - and when I'd get out I'd towel dry my hair, and it never failed, some would come off on my towel.

And my mom insisted - INSISTED - I had rubbed my hands on the towel, after using it. INSISTED! I swore on my life, that's not what happened, and she wouldn't believe me, and be furious.

Looking back, I had strict bathroom rules.

And can I tell you, when she passed away, one of the (MANY!) thoughts I had after she died, was that she would FINALLY know, I hadn't wiped my hands on those damn towels.

 

[Silent1CB]

Born in the early 60's, but raised by very Leave it To Beaver & Father Knows Best type parents but stricter.
Kids should be seen & not heard type of place.

Not eating all the food put on my plate, whether I like the food or not.
Talking during dinner because dad wanted to be able to watch the news.
Talking back at all.
Not telling the whole truth.
Not following any of their rules.
Not doing my chores.
Taking care of my possessions & theirs. Items were not replaced if I broke them or lost them.
A lot of lessons were based on the value of money & not wasting & only buying what was needed.
Saving money for item before it was purchased because once you saved up the money, you might not even want the item anymore.

There wasn't always punishment. Maybe a grounding. Threatening of the belt, but don't recall it ever happening. Just an overall you better do as told or else. Stricter than friends parents, but I've heard of even stricter than mine.

Basically, doing exactly as my parents wished. To this day, I still think I need to please them with everything and I'm mid-40's. This is very sad to say, but I sort of hope I'll be able to (mentally) lead my own life & not feel any guilt about some decisions after they are gone....or will this always be with me.

 

[Sparx]

-Just being generally messy and leaving things places that they didn't belong.

-When I did laundry, I would bring the clean laundry to my room and not put it away, just leave it on a chair or something.

-Loading the dishwasher "wrong."