We've all heard the phrase, "their house, their rules," and in general, we tend to respect that concept and follow the rules when we're visiting someone.
But even if we're being respectful, sometimes it's still surprising how some people decide to run their homes.
Redditor SalMinellaOnYouTube asked:
"What's the most ridiculous rule you've heard someone have for their house/family/children?"
Possible Munchausen by Proxy
"I had a friend in fifth grade and her mother was legitimately insane. She wouldn’t let her daughter come to my house because we had carpeting."
"I think she had some Munchausen by Proxy because she was convinced her child was allergic to everything, including dust mites/any innocuous dirt in carpeting."
"The girl also developed an eating disorder. She was a dancer when we were kids, and her mother apparently monitored what she ate extremely closely. I felt so badly for her."
- j4321g4321
'Troll' Translates to... 'Troll'
"When I was a kid, we used to play a game called 'Tunnels and Trolls' (it was basically a cheap 'Dungeons and Dragons' ripoff), and one of our friends with ultra-religious parents wouldn't let him play because 'troll' is Swedish for 'devil.'"
"To this day, I have no idea whether that's even true."
- Schwann-Port
Early to Bed
"I went to visit a college roommate's family, and everyone had to go to bed at 8 PM because that was the youngest daughter's bedtime. The kid was eight or nine years old."
"I laughed because I thought they were joking, but the kid threw a tantrum that I wasn't going to bed. They weren't kidding. I did, obviously, but what the f**k?"
"The next day, the parents told me it would be best if I just headed on back to college a day early. Yeah, no kidding, bye!"
"My roommate thought I was the a**hole."
"I laughed at her, too."
- AhFFSImTooOldForThis
The No-Sitting Room
"When I was a kid, my friend's mom was a little nuts. She had a sitting room with a couch and a love seat that nobody was ever allowed to sit on. You had to walk through that room to get to the rest of the house, and it led to the kitchen and then the living room."
"If you sat on the furniture in the sitting room, she'd throw a fit. I always felt like it was such a waste, to have such a nice room and never use it. It would have been a perfect study room or reading room."
"She also had other crazy rules, like punishing my friend when his little sister did anything wrong. As if he was responsible for her actions and looking out for her."
- Samisoy001
"A friend of mine in high school had a room like that in her house. It was basically a second living room, but nobody was allowed to walk into it or sit on the furniture."
"I always thought it was weird. Why have a room with nice furniture in it that you never use? Her mom was nice, but she was a major clean freak."
- MeowMeNot
"We had that room. It was the 'living room,' and the other room we actually sat in was the 'family room.'"
"The living room always had lines in the carpet from the vacuum, and no footprints because we weren't allowed in there. Maybe on Christmas. Maybe."
"It was a clean but tense house."
"In my house, we use every room."
- GloomyCamel6050
The Houseguest Price
"That guests have to pay for their stay."
"They invited me for dinner and then calculated how many minutes I was over, charged for my portion of food, drink, electricity, and water usage. Yes, they also counted toilet flushing and timed me on hand washing."
"This happened over a decade ago. I was pretty new to the mainland US at the time (I came from Guam), and I didn't know how out of left field being charged was until I told more people about it over the years."
"I think my friend's stepdad was just a super cheap guy. But I could never do this to anyone."
- khalavaster
Sore Loser, Much?
"A friend's parents had a pool table. His mom decided to play with us one day and gave us the house rules."
"She said, 'When it's someone's turn to shoot, I tell them. If someone gets ahead of me, they lose their turn. Everyone plays very hard, and in the end, I win.'"
- CrediblyHandsome
Gross... or Strange?
"Family friend wasn't allowed to say the word 'gross' because it was his mom's maiden name; I'm guessing she'd been teased as a kid and hated it."
" My brother said it in front of him at our house once and the kid freaked out and told my mom he'd said a really bad word. That mom was just making her kid weirder with that one."
- EnvironmentalSkin488
That's Awkward
"Had a friend who was very much into computer gaming in the late '90s/early 2000s. Voodoo video cards were very much in vogue, but his parents forbade him from using the term, 'voodoo,' even in reference to the card."
"They suggested they he instead call it the 'V-card.' The hilarity of the situation was lost on them."
- staggerb
Kicked Out
"When we were 13, a friend of mine was kicked out of the house by his parents for a week because he stacked things wrong in the freezer, and some bread got squished."
"He spent the week staying at different friends' houses each night until his parents let him come back home."
"The mom was super religious and tended to be pretty strict, but tried, unsuccessfully, to hide it when any of our group were at their house. The stepdad wasn't allowed to have much input when it came to any punishments because he wasn't the bio dad."
"My friend and his sister were always punished pretty much immediately by the mom, and the stepdad would just kinda disappear. Regardless of the error made, the punishments would build until she would snap and say something like, 'Get out of my house, I don't want to see your face!'"
"She was definitely verbally and emotionally abusive, but I never saw signs of physical abuse."
"There were multiple occurrences of me or other friends going to spend the night and being sent back home shortly after because she was in a bad mood and my friend didn't have his room clean enough for her liking, like a plate and fork on the dresser from breakfast or a couple of clothing items on the floor."
- Disastrous-Manager95
A Clean Yard
"I was five and at a friend’s house. We were playing in the leaves outside. There was a box of leaves I wanted to move closer to his box of leaves. My box had no bottom, so the leaves spilled out into a small pile."
"He went and told his mother, and she came out and spanked me, quite hard."
"I ran home crying to my Mom, partly because it hurt and partly because of the injustice."
"She comforted me but didn’t do much else (or so I thought). I learned, decades later, my Mom called up the spanker and told her to never lay a hand on any of her children ever again."
- Utterlybored
Proactive Healthcare
"My stepmom had a totally bonkers rule about feet. She was irrationally afraid of plantar warts and, according to her, anyone she didn't know intimately had plantar warts. As a family, we had a second home/beach house that was basically a small bungalow and only had one restroom with one stall shower."
"Nobody, no friends, relatives, could use that shower after the beach because they'll get their plantar wart all over the floor and then she'll take a shower and she'll get plantar warts."
"We also had a swimming pool and she would make new people, including children, WEAR SOCKS IN THE SWIMMING POOL. And as far as I know, nobody living in our house including her ever had plantar warts so... unreasonable? Sure. Effective? Sure."
- Sister_Christina
Water Limit
"When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time at my best friend’s house. Her mom wouldn’t let us drink more than one glass of water in the afternoon because she thought it would dilute the nutrients in our bodies. Instead, she gave us 7-up if we were thirsty."
"I ended up secretly drinking water out of the bathroom faucet every time I used the bathroom when I was thirsty at her house."
- SeaStarless
No Snacks
"My kid had a friend over recently (high school) and we offered him a snack. He said maybe, is that allowed? Then he mentioned getting an A on a test so we said, then you deserve an extra special after-school snack."
"We offered several options like cereal, goldfish crackers, etc. He cried because no one had ever offered an after-school snack, much less said good job on an A. So sad."
- FloridaParalegal
No Alcohol Allowed
"My wife once had a friend over for a sleepover when she was little. Suddenly, their mum showed up to take them home."
"Apparently, the friend had seen beer in the fridge and called her mum crying because of it. They were not allowed to look at, talk about, think about, and especially drink, beer."
"It scared her so much that she called her mum to come to get her."
- Thecell1990
Welcome Home
"Whenever I had friends over as a kid, my mom would say something like, 'We’ll probably forget to offer you anything, but please help yourself to anything in the fridge or pantry if you get hungry' (she would still offer, though, if she was making something for herself later or it was lunch time)."
"I didn’t think much of it at the time. Honestly, I thought it seemed a little overboard sometimes, but now I know she did that because you never really know what someone’s situation is at home."
"Maybe they struggle to afford enough food, or maybe there’s abuse or neglect going on. Kids in those situations may have also been taught not to ask or accept things from other people or might have shame or guilt around them."
"She wanted to make sure that if anyone was hungry in our house that they got fed and knew they didn’t have to feel bad about it."
- CumulativeHazard
If this thread taught us anything, it's that there's no telling what's really going on behind closed doors and what someone else is going through. Remember to show others kindness, especially when you invite them into your home.