My friends always find it strange when I talk about my dad’s ‘protection cabinet’ ( his words not mine)
Basically we had those units that where floor to ceiling that were filled with VHS. As me and my brother had the biggest room in the house they sorta just ended up in there when we were young and they were sick of the living room being full
All our VHS’ bar about 40-50 that where locked away with him having the only key
You could see in the glass what was in there ( for the record it was mainly 80’s/90’s horror movies etc but a few things like the south park movie etc where in there initially)
The reason he had this was because my cousin was staying, caught the end of Ghoulies when my dad was watching it, freaked out and was scared of the toilet for years… Hell she still checks now according to her bf
Not so weird right? Well his rule was we could watch anything we want to go to bed too except obviously the cabinet movies ***however*** should we think we could handle the movies (or indeed if I could and my big brother couldn’t and vice versa)
Then he would put the movie on in the living room and we could watch it with him and this is where the real ‘rules’ came into play.
These rules where typed out on a typewriter and stuck to the cabinet, with mine and my brother’s signatures (we were 7/8 ish so just squiggles obviously but yeah)
The rules were
If he puts it on and you get scared of ask for it to be turned off or have nightmares that night then the movie gets locked back in the cupboard and you are banned from asking to watch another cabinet movie until your next birthday when you might be ‘old enough’
If he puts it on and you fall asleep or go to bed, then nothing changes it stays in the cupboard and you can ask to watch **any other** movie in the cabinet in the future as normal, not your fault the movie sucked
But **if** you watch it enjoy it and are fine that night then the VHS would be taken out of the cabinet and put into the unit for regular rotation i.e you can watch it whenever you want unsupervised
My brother was alot like my cousin and didn’t like horrors and stuff but me, I watched every damn movie that was in there, a few I found boring and quit but never got scared etc.
So in the end they turned the office into a bedroom for me and he put the cabinet unlocked into the room so I could watch all the movies without my brother complaining.
We were talking about this the other month and my gf was just there jaw dropped and couldn’t believe this was a thing my family had as it’s not something she’d ever heard of people doing before
So yeah I’m just wondering if any of you guys had any ‘unique’ rules of your household that others didn’t ‘get’ or ones you believe we’re something only you guys did
29 comments
That’s funny. Sounds like your Dad caught a lot of shit from your family for your cousins sudden phobia!
Your rule was very elaborate. Ours was no singing at the dining table. It was broken constantly.
My and my brother created an elaborate rota with rules on Xmas day which dictated who could play legend of zelda ocarina of time and for how long.
From memory, one of the rules was whoever woke up first would he allowed to start playing but whenever the second person woke up and said “I want a shot” the counter started and you only had 2 hours to continue playing and thereafter I think it swapped every 2 hours with various other rules put in for allowed pause times whilst eating/pissing
We shared a room so it meant there was lots of sneakily waking up at 5am to get a good shift of playing in before the other woke up and called his turn
I lived in a terraced house in London with a coal cellar. There was a small metal cover that could be removed to allow the coal to be poured into the cellar.
Generous of you to assume I have any friends!
As kids, we were never allowed to just help ourselves to food. My Mum and Dad were born just before the war and were brought up on rationing and as there were 7 of us in the house, we were just expected to be satisfied with meal times. I’m not saying we were starved, far from it but the idea we couldn’t make a sandwich or have a bag of crisps when we wanted blew my kids minds . We were also never allowed crusts on the loaf, they were my dads and it still feels odd now being able to eat one in my own house!
We also had jobs around the house as my parents came home late from work everyday from lighting a coal fire and bringing in coal to prepping veg or peeling potatoes. And whoever had cookery at school, that became part of the evening meal
I honestly think that rule is kinda genius.
Maybe not a house rule, but certainly something my Dad did that everyone except my cousins find weird (my uncle does the same thing).
You know the really loud whistle some people can do? My Dad was excellent at it, I’m talking heard across a field or in the middle of a theme park loud. So, if my sister or I got lost or he needed our attention, he whistled. Playing in a soft play and time to go home? Whistle. He couldn’t find us in B&Q? Whistle. Separated at Disney?
And if he whistled, you responded. Because he didn’t whistle unless he needed your attention, and it was just like having your name shouted. I have no idea if I ever ignored it, but I assume if I did I was too young to remember and was told off. So I guess the rule would be that you responded to the whistle.
People have said (including my husband) that it was akin to being treated like a dog, especially in my 20’s. But… it worked, anywhere and anytime. And I really wish I had that skill, because it was so so useful.
I think that’s adorable
The only rule I can remember being spelled out was “Just because he did it to you, doesn’t mean you can do it to him.” Seems sound enough.
I like your dad’s system, clearly well thought out and takes every scenario into consideration
So if you watched evil dead and didn’t like it, could you have tried to watch the sequel the next time you watched something? My dad bought my 11 year old brother starship troopers instead of lost in space for his birthday by mistake back in the day lol we loved it.
Only dad was allowed to rotate the pigs bladders hanging from the canoe in the garage to dry.
Wasn’t allowed out of bedrooms before 8am on a weekend
I wasn’t alowed to paint that I hated my step dad across the front of the house in 1m high black letters.
There was a rota for which of the two children (meself plus older sibling) got to open the new bottle of tomato ketchup. I am not making this up, and I wince thinking of what had driven my poor mother to this level of nonsense.
Plus – touching the thermostat would lead to ‘Great Escape’-style penalties. Ok, severe dressings down.
We were only allowed to put the sitting room ‘big light’ on, on christmas mornings or if my mam was doing something crafty or ironing etc…
I think that’s cute! Also, I’d completely forgotten about Ghoulies.
Just remembered one. We had to sit at the table before dinner was dished up because it was polite or something. Our chairs had these decorative pointy circles on top, and by the time we were teenages, they’d been gnawed down on the kids’ chairs where we’d be hungry waiting and just eat our seats instead, lol. Same table had deep scratches in it too. My older brother played cars on the new table and gouged holes in the surface. This is why you can’t have nice things with kids.
Poop knife…
My friends dad had a rule that we weren’t allowed to decorate the Christmas tree without first getting the previous years photographs out of the loft and copying the bauble formation.
As kids we weren’t allowed to sit on our beds for the catastrophic fear we’d crease the bed linen. 40 year old me now watches my nephew bounce all over my mums bed while she happily watches on.
Dont drink more than the 4 cans of beer a week i buy you. (I was 12.)
Dont let your friends gamble their money on the fruit machine in your bedroom.
My stepdad took all the playstation and tv controllers to work with him.
Im not sure if that was a rule but your post reminded me of how much of a massive prick he was.
*is, hes not dead.
1 roll of toilet paper per person per week. If/when we ran out we would have to use newspaper.
My parents always made us finish our carbs before we could eat the protein in a meal for whatever reason
My sister and I had a rule that when we borrowed each other’s clothes, if we forgot and the other had it for 30 days it was theirs. We used to get into fights about it instead of just.. scrapping the rule😂
The sweetie tub. We had a roses tub that had jelly sweets in and only if we had eaten all of our tea we were allowed to to get some.
We got a small container like a small lock and lock tub and put one layer covering the bottom and that’s all we were allowed.
If we put more than one layer then my mum would say I think you have a few too many and we would put some back.
I still can’t bring myself to eat sweets before my tea and only if I’ve eaten all of it.
Food rules in my house from my parents:
* Not allowed to help ourselves from the fridge or pantry.
* One chocolate biscuit or two plain biscuits.
* Cheese or ham on a sandwich (but never both together).
* Full English breakfast on a Sunday (but only after we had been swimming in the local pool).
* No eating dinner in front of the TV.
At home we have a very loud bell, and whenever a meal’s ready you signal everyone to come by ringing it. Unless you can’t find the bell, in which case you just shout ding ding ding.
I still occasionally shout ding ding ding when I want people to come for dinner, and all my friends look at me like I’m insane.
I was allowed – nay, encouraged! – to read Stephen king books at eight years old but I wasn’t allowed to watch friends until I was an adult. 🤷♀️
I think thats really cool. He gave you freedom but if it went bad he was still a parent. My mum was just like no I don’t like that stuff so neither will you.