Parents need to set boundaries for their children both as a way to teach them right and wrong and to keep them safe in the outside world, because kids who run amok with no boundaries are bound to get hurt.
My Dad is a very VERY introverted guy, and he never liked to be in large crowds. So unless it was a school event, I was forbidden from going to any large crowded events/places like the mall, concerts, sporting events.
I was told that this was for my own safety.
-djfiyenine11
But some parents take the setting of household boundaries too far, and their ridiculous demands affect their kids for the rest of their lives.
We could only eat 2 cookies at a time, and no more than 4 in a day.
I was living on my own for like a year abiding by this rule, until one day I was like, "man, I REALLY want three Oreos, not two." And I did it.
-PrettyTypicalBroTBH
Redditors took to AskReddit to answer the question "What bizarre rule did your parents enforce that seemed normal, but when you grew up realized was not normal at all?" and their answers prove some parents are plumb loco.
8:30 pm bedtime. My. Entire. Damned. Life. Though, I knew as a teenager that making your high schooler go to bed when it was still light out half the time was whacko.
Well into my 20s I'd come back to visit for the holidays and dad would get up to use the toilet at night, see the light on in my room from me being awake reading a book at 10 p.m., and yell at me to go to sleep.
-norrina
There may have been extenuating circumstances that the Redditors aren't sharing which led to these bizarre rules, but how does a parent justify not letting visitors poop in their house?
No one was allowed to poop in our house. We had a large house and all 4 of us had our own restrooms. There was this little girl with special needs I used to play with when I was little and once she had to use the restroom. My mom asked me where she was and I said she's in the bathroom. My mom walked in on the poor girl mid-poop and told her to go home and finish.
-Token_Texan
Read People Share Bizarre Rules They Had To Follow As Kids here