40 People Spill The Tea On The Weirdest Rules They Were Unfortunate Enough To See Enforced

We were curious about what had inspired u/SalMinellaOnYouTube to start the viral thread in the first place.

"If I remember correctly, it was someone else having talked about their neighbor's house having no rules when they were a child in a different thread," he told Bored Panda.

Meanwhile, the OP pointed out that he's not sure why the thread got so much attention on the site. He quipped that r/AskReddit is "something like a slot machine."

"The same (or similar) questions can get 0 to thousands of upvotes," he said that a lot depends on who's the first to spot a new question and draw inspiration from it.

According to u/SalMinellaOnYouTube, if someone could unequivocally answer what lies at the core of being a good parent, they "could more or less save the world!"

In the YouTuber's opinion, when it comes to parents figuring out whether they're being too strict or too loose with their rules, they should try to put themselves in their shoes.

"I think one way some parents could be helped is by remembering that children judge themselves (and are judged) against their peers," he shared his thoughts.

"So you want to try to make sure you’re not making your children outcasts with drastically different rules from the children you have them regularly interact with."

Bored Panda also wanted to find out more about the content creator's cooking channel. Redditor u/SalMinellaOnYouTube opened up to us that cooking and baking are his passions.

"I have a cooking channel where I do some cooking and also some juvenile comedy so it's not exactly for everyone," he said that he enjoys throwing in silly jokes and Downton Abbey references.

"I’m just sort of learning to use YouTube and everything that comes along with it, like video editing, and it's been a lot of fun," he told Bored Panda.

"My videos are not very polished, but I am actually making the food you see, there are no camera tricks and there is no food artistry happening. If you see it, it is edible. Sometimes it's not edible, like the chicken salad."

Children break rules all the time because they’re, well, kids! They subconsciously test boundaries and constantly check what they can get away with. So, as a parent, you need to make the rules to be followed under your roof very clear and then enforce them when they (inevitably) get broken.

Not finishing your homework really does mean no playing video games that evening. If you don’t mind the boundaries that you’ve set up, they’ll only get walked over. Actions have to have clear consequences so that everyone’s on the same page. Or you could do things the ‘natural consequences’ way and let your kids learn from their own mistakes. Not finishing homework would mean that you get an F the next day at school and lose some respect from your teacher and classmates. 

At the same time, you can’t make the rules way too strict: you’re raising kids, not entering into a multimillion-dollar business contract with them. Following your kids’ every move and limiting what they’re ‘allowed’ to do might make them completely unprepared for the adult world when they grow up.

Parents who smother and protect their kids far too much are known as ‘helicopter parents’ because they ‘hover’ over their kids and pay far too much attention to every single little thing that happens in their lives. In their desire not to appear neglectful, some adults end up reducing their children’s independence.

If someone realizes that their rules might be a tad too strict (an outsider’s perspective is always helpful in these sorts of subjective situations), you could try loosening the rules bit by bit until you get rid of them altogether.

For instance, if you continue to set a strict bedtime for your adult child (e.g. in bed by 8 PM), clearly, there are some trust, abandonment, and other issues at play here. You need to take a big step back and let them start making their own decisions. Otherwise, they’ll never feel comfortable doing anything in their lives without parental approval. In these sorts of cases, seeking the help of a family counselor might be a good move.

According to Very Well Family, there are some signs that can help people tell if they’re enforcing rules that are too strict. One of these is that the parent has a zero-tolerance policy for any mistakes. Instead of being overly authoritarian, add a bit of flexibility. Meanwhile, another sign that the rules might be too strict is if the child lies a lot. If they’re disciplined too harshly, they’ll simply learn to lie well to avoid punishment. In short, they become secretive, not necessarily more rule-abiding.

It also helps to take a look at how your friends and neighbors raise their kids. If you realize that you’re far stricter than everyone in your social circle, it might be a sign that you may need to scale things back a bit. Remember that everyone wants to be a great parent, but there’s no such thing as being ‘perfect.’ Take a more realistic, grounded approach to parenting. One that allows for mistakes.