Throwback Thursday: What are some of the family rules you had growing up? #TBT

[#1]

It's Thursday!

Not sure if I have one... oh wait! Yes, I remember a couple. One rule, while growing up, was that my dad would give us 2 spoons of cod liver oil every morning. Straight from the flask! Yuck, didn't taste very well. This was before they came in fancy capsules.
Also, we couldn't spend endless time on the phone. My parents wanted the phone line to be available for incoming calls. So my phone calls to friends were usually short. Just enough time to decide where and when to meet.

Soooo, what are some of the family rules you had growing up?
Let’s make it a great Thursday!
KGM

[Alex G]

Ugh, two spoons of oil... can't imagine the taste.
When I was a teen my parents would turn off the router after 10 PM to make sure my sister and I couldn't stay online and go to sleep. I would sometimes hide my Game Boy and stay up late playing haha 

[Teodora V _Fun Inc_]

Oh goodness, cod liver oil. Tough childhood! 

One rule in our family, and one I adhere to very strictly, is never to start a meal without everyone sitting around the table and being ready to eat. This rule was (is) usually related to dinner, the only time of day when everyone is available to sit down and enjoy the food together.

This rule turned into a sign of respect for me; it shows people are present and appreciative of the time together.

[Ananjan_Mishra]

Great topic @Kristján Geir Mathiesen 

In our family, we've always made it a tradition to gather for dinner together at least three times a week. We still stick to this rule, and even if we have other plans, we make sure to prioritize these special family moments.

[Eva Gruener]

@Kristján Geir Mathiesen 
OMG, 😲 I had forgotten that for a long, loooooong time...
It was exactly the same with us (germany)! 😝

[Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM]

The one I remember the most is that we had to be home after the street lights came on.  I grew up in the country and we didn't have many street lights.  The closest one to my house was about a 1/2 mile away.  I broke this rule a lot.  Very often we'd emerge from the woods and see a light off in the distance and have to peddle our bikes hard to make it home before it was too late.

[Barbara Szczesniak]

No cod liver oil in my family, thankfully. With 6 kids with less than 6 years from oldest to youngest, however, we did have a lot of rules. Memorable ones:

• Come home when the streetlights go on.
• If you are at someone else's house for dinner/sleepover/birthday party, eat whatever they feed you without complaint. (Captain Crunch that your friend's mom puts milk in 5 minutes before she calls you to breakfast is not good! 😝)
• Respect your elders—anyone not related over the age of 22 (sliding scale as we got to our teens) is addressed as Mr., Mrs., or Miss <last name>. We all knew our neighbors' last names, which is not something I can say for the current generation.

[Laurie Sciutti]

Yup ~ home before the streetlights came on!  Seems like we might all be around the same age.  😆

[Aleeza Chery]

No sleeping in until after noon on Saturdays (@ Gma's house)

[Vronik]

Wow, that rule is horrible.
One of the things that bothered me the most was during school hours every day at 9 in bed and I would miss the occasional television program that I loved.

[Dave Mathijs]

When I was a kid and my parents went out for lunch, dinner or a family gathering, I had to remain seated in my chair at the table. I wasn't allowed to leave the table to go out and play with my cousins and make a lot of noise in the restaurant. That was really frustrating, so my Walkman became my best friend soon.

On other occasions, when I was punished, I was only allowed to play with 3 miniature cars (and believe me, I had hundreds of Matchbox, Majorette, Corgi, Bburago and Siku die-cast cars). No more Lego, no more Playmobil, just three cars ... I chose a getaway car, a police vehicle and a service car or wreck truck.

[Josh Shepherd]

Home for supper. It seems like a different age, but in the summers off school, we would eat breakfast and run outside to do anything... bikes, into the woods, build a fort, toss rocks into the river... and the only hard fast rule was be home for supper. I believe this is the absolute opposite of helicopter parenting. Today we track movements of kids on their cell phones and they start at screens. Times are a-changin'. 

[Barbara Szczesniak]

Yes, @Josh Shepherd, I remember those days. I think maybe there was a combination of all the other adults in the neighborhood watching and the world being a safer place to be a kid in. I wish kids today could have the sheltered upbringing that I now feel privileged that I had.

[Kristján Geir Mathiesen]

Thanks everyone for fun memories. So interesting to hear you had the same in Germany, @Eva Gruener 

Happy föstudagur!

[Andy Gladstone]

Much like @Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM, @Barbara Szczesniak and @Laurie Sciutti - home when the streetlights come on. We also addressed all of our parent's friends and all adults, as Mr., Mrs., Dr., even Your Honor (a judge friend)! The only other significant rule I can remember was to call home when you arrived anywhere you were travelling by train, bus or bike so mom and Dad knew you arrived safely.

We didn't have many other rules or family rituals, and I think that's really what kept us in line. Some friends had a rule for EVERYTHING - and those kids were always the worst behaved and rebelling. My brothers and I grew up with an understanding that the really critical things had rules and everything else was important, but not critical, so we were taught to learn how to mold ourselves to those situations in life.

[Summer Hogan]

No cod liver oil for me @Kristján Geir Mathiesen, but we had a few rules: 

• Had to come to dinner with the family every evening and us kids were responsible for cleaning up after dinner by cleaning the table and doing the dishes. 
• We had rules about getting a long with each other and treating each other with respect although that didn't stop my brothers from beating up on me. 
• We had a bed time during school months, but during summer months we could do whatever we wanted.
• We didn't have rules like @Andy Gladstone @Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM, @Barbara Szczesniak and @Laurie Sciutti to call when we arrive places or come home by dark; probably because we lived on Air Force bases that were the safest places on earth!

[vikram]

Our's is a traditional family every morning as soon as wake up we were given small pieces of ginger soaked in honey to eat and we have to eat food after my father takes his first spoon of meal.   

[Brant Schroeder]

If you want to drive you need to pay for your own gas.  That would be a little bit harder with the cost of gas now.

[Tuncay Senturk]

Wow, cod liver oil straight from the flask sounds intense! 😅

I can't remember any of the rules but I'm happy we didn't have one like this.

[Ram Kumar Aravindakshan _Adaptavist_]

No whistling, no swearing, no fighting, no McDonalds unless homework is done.

[ABR]

Hi! @Kristján Geir Mathiesen ,

So good to hear from all of you!

We had two important rules - 

1. You have to first finish whatever Mom serves and only then you can ask for a second helping of something you like. This rule applied to even our dad but he anyways loved anything Mom made!

2. You had to be back by sun-down, which is why we loved summer times, because summer meant longer day times!

Good old times!

[Stephen_Lugton]

One rule that I remember is that the last person up had to find and lock the cats in the kitchen before going to bed so (1) if they were inside they didn't wake mum up asking for breakfast, or (2) if they were outside they wouldn't wake mum up knocking on the front door (using the door knocker) to be let in.

[Syed Osama]

We eat fish with milk and nothing happens. hhhhhh 

[Ram Kumar Aravindakshan _Adaptavist_]

I've never tried cod liver oil. This kind of reminds me of the brand Scott's Emulsion:-

[Eva Gruener]

@Kristján Geir Mathiesen 

What a nice greeting (Happy föstudagur!)!  That sounds so sweet. 😄👍🏼💚


Photo: Matty Rogers, Pixabay

[Louise Overmars]

Be at home when the streetlights went on

Eating diner together

And the Sunday morning breakfast, what wasn't nice when you were hangover