I've heard of some crazy household rules while growing up but I've never seen a thread on it.
A couple my parents had were that we couldn't play pool even if the pool table was just at a friends house. They never had a reason. We couldn't play with suited face cards and if my dad said we could play with them we had to take out the king, queen and jack cards. There was no point of playing if we had to take those out. We never got an explanation on that either. What other crazy rules are out there?
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2013 01:40PM by confusedkim.
Couldn't play with friends on Sunday, Couldn't go outside on Sunday other than the commute to and from church. Couldn't listen to music other than church music on Sunday, even though my parents would watch TV on Sunday. Couldn't watch a PG 13 movie unless parents watched it first and gave ok (up until I was 18). MTV was forbidden and worse than a rated r movie. All sunday rules were void or nullified if we were on vacation, which was confusing growing up. I got the impression at a young age that the rules were ok to break in the right conditions.
No TV on Sunday's...REALLY MOM? WTF? Other kids get to watch TV on Sunday!!???....Ok, I will go to thier house and try to get them to join the church.. :)
Man I did have a sucky childhood growing up in TSCC..
I had a friend who couldn't go to a movie if he had school the next day. It didn't matter that he had his homework done and that the movie got out early enough that he would be home before his regular bed time. The answer was always no.
Thank Dog for my ex-mormon, atheist dad while growing up!
While I went to church every Sunday and in general tried to be a good mormon girl, his presence and co-parenting within the same household as my TBM mom never let kooky rules get too entrenched.
Because I was the oldest daughter, I was subject to the following rules that both parents upheld though I don't think they're necessarily unique to mormonism:
- I couldn't date ("one-on-one") before age 16.
- Couldn't get my ears pierced before high school and even then, I had to beg.
- I wasn't allowed to wear makeup before entering high school.
- Throughout high school, I wasn't allowed to be at any friend's house (didn't matter what religion) if one of their parents wasn't home when I was there.
- I wasn't allowed to see R-rated movies. Both parents supported it. My dad because of the violence/potentially psychologically disturbing subject matter; my mom because of worries I'd see boobs and people simulating having sex, as well as hear naughty words.
For awhile my mom tried the rule of only church clothes on Sundays (after the bishop gave a talk about it) I think it lasted for a couple months or so.
When one of my older brothers started dating a non-member girl at the age of 16 she made me go on the dates with them. I HATED that. I remember going on several dates with them.
When my two oldest siblings were on their missions (at the same time) we had to write them each a letter every Sunday.
dang, after reading these I realize that I had it pretty good growing up. We had a pool table downstairs and we played on it all the time. We also played cards all the time lol and drank soda! My cousins weren't as lucky though. Their dad was such a TBM controlling asshat. He watched every word that came out of their mouths.
If you work M-F, maybe you could jump in the pool in the evening. However, your real free time is the weekend. If you cannot swim on Sunday, then you just lost 50% of the weekend time to swim.
Why would swimming in your own backyard be such an offense to the sabbath?
Also, couldn't date anyone who wasn't mormon. That didn't last long. All I had to do was ask my mother if these were the guys she wanted as father of her grandchildren.
Couldn't wear pants, or shorts. Skirts had to touch the floor when kneeling. No make up until 16. No two piece swimsuits. Nothing sleeveless. No guys on motorcycles (probably not a bad idea) Curfew at 11:00 no exceptions No rock concerts (completely ignored that one) Could only date white guys. No caffeine. Those are the only ones I can remember. I'm sure there were more.
Weird mormon rules were that I couldn't do any thing that affected mutual night. Even if a good friend was in town for one day I had to say "Sorry, can't see you, I have to go to mutual and do stupid Personal Progress for two hours."
No being alone with a male under any circumstance. My dad freaked out on me when I was 17 and a good friend gave me a ride home because my lazy parents wouldn't come pick me up cause he was a MALE. Guess my dad thought that I was going to stop on the side of the road and have a quicky with any one just because they were male.
We had no tv rule on Sunday, either. Or no homework... But it was perfectly ok to take 3 hour naps, because that's what they did every Sunday.... The BOM says nothing about slothfullness! Oh, wait....
Could only date mormons.
No bikins, even if you are just in your own yard, tanning. My step mother called the police (a certain cop who was tbm) to come over and talk to my sister because she was wearing a bikini to tan in our own yard.
lol I'm sure there's so much more.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2013 09:07PM by ness.
My convert sister stopped eating chocolate because it has caffeine in it. I don't know if she made that one up or if it came from her tbm friends influence.
When i converted I decided on my own that surfing on Sunday probably wasn't a good idea, but sis decided she had to enforce it because she had all of the above ideas in her head about keeping the holy day holy- no TV, no rock music, etc. Sunday was all about making your life as miserable as possible. And we didn't have Mormon parents. Sis got all these ideas from her Mormon friends.
As an adult, I rented a basement room from a tbm family while in Jr. College. They had a word with me after I started doing my laundry on Sunday.
That's one thing I gotta credit my tbm DW with-she never tried to carry these crazy ideas about Sunday into our marriage when we started raising our own children.
Yup, my mom went back and forth about chocolate being okay or not. Ate a lot of carob, growing up.
And also, yes don't make the machines work on Sunday either! Laundry also forbidden at my house. But she still cooked or baked, so not totally Sabbath holy.
When I was young, under 8 (?), had to wear undershirts. My sis and I HATED them. Having a tank-top undershirt under a t-shirt was so uncomfortable and pointless. I hated that. I guess my mom was trying to create her own garments for us. We were not allowed to wear sundresses. Or anything that would warrant an undershirt. I always wanted to wear a sundress.
Had to play with a mormon kid every other time I played with a friend. I grew up in California and there was only one girl my age in our ward. She was boring and I resented being forced to play with her just so I could play with my real friends.
Was told to never french kiss a guy till we were engaged. In seminary we were told to never become comfortable holding hands. The entire seminary erupted in laughter. The look on the teacher's face was priceless.
In high school I was told I shouldn't hang out with gay people. I asked why and was told that I should not hang out with anybody who was having sex.
In high school was not suppose to wear anything that might make a boy have lustful thoughts. I liked to dress sexy (in hindsight totally trashy.) I had this cute baby doll sundress in light pink with a sheer white shrug over it. I even bought pink lingerie to match. I looked like Baby Spice. One day I was wearing it but the undies needed longer to finish drying so had them in the dryer. My mom needed to do laundry and opened the dryer to see what was drying. She gave me a disgusted look. I heard her on the phone later with my dad: "well she has a shirt to go over the dress so I guess that is okay . . " I wonder if she discussed my underwear. I was 18 and in college.
my 6 yr old stepson lives with his crazy TBM mom in UT.....he complains to us on the phone every Sunday that he can't watch TV or play with his electronic games (Nintendo). His mom "allows" him to watch a dvd of her choosing each Sunday. He's seen Fiddler on the Roof and Ben Hur and some other 1950s "religious" Hollywood movie. Really? A 6 yr old watching these types of movies?? Whenever he comes to visit and brings up these weird things his mom does, we ask him what he thinks about it.
A friend couldn't do homework on Sundays. If she had an assignment due on Monday and didn't have time on Saturday because of chores then she had to wait until midnight and then drag her sleep deprived self to school the next day.
I didn't grow up Mormon, but my kids were not allowed to wear any sort of a mask on Halloween....never could really figure out why the cult told us that or why it was a rule.
This is my all time favorite rule! It is because of mormon folk lore that Satan will use Halloween as a time to sneak into the church. If people are wearing masks there is no way to tell if it is them or Satan taking advantage of the holiday. Use to scare me as a kid wondering if Satan was sneaking around the Halloween party.
Along with everything mentioned above about no dating, no non-church activities on Sunday, not being allowed to be at a friend's house without a parent home, etc., my parents insisted that I take my sister along anytime I hung out with friends in (and even after) high school. I love my sister dearly, but it was awkward for her being dragged along to a bunch of events with my friends that she didn't really choose to be friends with. I think this was to prevent them from being a "bad influence," and also to make my sister and me closer (although the thing that's really made us close is our mutual hatred of Mormonism and its stifling rules).
Oh, and them still attempting to enforce an 11:00 currfew when I go to visit for a couple weeks every year, even though I've been out of the house for a few years now ... and they wonder why I'm not eager to visit home.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2013 02:43AM by glibberish.
No leaving house on Sunday aside from church or church activities. No going out to play with friends.
Must wear church clothes all Sunday.
Only read church magazines or listen to church music on Sundays.
Sisters could only wear dresses that went past the knees. Could not pierce ears.
None of us could wear tank tops or sleeveless t-shirts. We had to wear clothes that would cover garments, so we would be ready for when we went to the temple.
No caffinated drinks, no coffee or tea.
Had to attend scouts and all youth activities.
No R rated movies, only PG.
No dating until 16.
Sunday night and Monday night scripture reading.
Monday night FHE, just like Sunday, but we didn't have to wear our Sunday clothes.
I'm sure I'm missing a few gems here, but that is what I remember. And after all that divine child raising. 5 out of 7 children left the church.
Girls weren't supposed to wear pants with a front zipper/fly. Those were for men/boys. And never wear jeans. We only wore ones that zipped on the side or back and never to school. Dresses with shorts under them if you were playing on the bars or something. That changed by the 1970's or so or if it snowed A LOT and we got a snow day. But TSCC was SLOW to change. No jeans, no front zippers unless you were loose.
Oh, and the face card thing was because they were too close to tarot cards, which is fortune telling and of the devil. Much like Ouiji boards, which was also evil. The devil could take possession. The priesthood (I think they sent the Bishop and counselors) had to come cast the devil out of some girls at a slumber party who went hysterical over a Ouiji board. Those were banned too.
You poor sweet people! This is a form of abuse. My atheist parents had silly rules, but my father was a VERY sweet man. My mother was VERY abusive and her rules were changing by the minute. (Whatever could make me feel bad she would change it too such as you HAVE to have sex it is a woman's duty to I was a whore when I was dating---yet I was a virgin and dressed modest). They changed so often that I begged her to write them down so I could obey them. I was trying to slip out of beatings this way, but it was no use.
The point is that whether your parents are Amish, Mormons, Catholics, Hindus, and etc...There is a way to abuse people. People try to use the Bible against me all the time, but I am getting decent at showing them the history behind it and smashing out the abuse.