Growing up with strict and overprotective parents can be pretty rough. Sometimes you feel like you are missing out on a lot of great childhood experiences. Although you need to make mistakes in order to learn, this is not a common ideology that many strict parents have. However, it shows how much your parents care about you and want to protect you from harm’s way when they are that strict. A lot of the rules may seem silly, comical, or plain crazy but there are pros and cons to having strict parents. Here are 21 things only kids with strict parents would understand:
1. Sleepovers are incredibly difficult. At least one adult contact is needed in order to initiate a sleepover.
2. Parents need to contact you at least 3 times a day or they issue a missing person’s report. Speaking of contacts, if you look down at your phone and smile your parents assume you are talking to your S.O. and have the ability to confiscate it.
3. You are required to dress very modestly. This means no shorts unless they are for soccer practice or sports. Dresses must go down to the ankles and cover the shoulders. You feel like a rebel when wearing shorts with your knee caps showing.
4. It is hard to attend dances and parties--especially as a girl and even with chaperones around.
5. There are strict curfews. Come home before dark or they assume you are doing every illegal thing in the world. If you go to parties you must come home at a curfew, even if it means missing the part when they cut the birthday cake.
6. Everything is budgeted. Food. Clothes. Sweatpants are a luxury item. Do not spend your own money on anything, without consulting parents--unless it is school supplies.
7. You are definitely not allowed to randomly invite friends into your home. There are definitely no “last minute” plans with friends. Every friend is a bad influence unless your parents spend at least 125 hours with them.
8. Reputation is everything. If you are caught with a boy (or girl) before dating age (which may be 18 for some people) you are practically put into solitary confinement. Death threats may be sent to your S.O.
9. If you do have a boyfriend or girlfriend, conditions apply. You may not have sex and he or she must be a A plus student who also has good parents--bonus points are given if he or she is trying to become an engineer. If you have trouble finding a boy or girl because of restrictions, your parents will plan an arranged marriage for you.
10. When one parent says no, you ask the more lenient parent. And if they both say no you do it in secret anyway, even if you are scared to death.
11. You have to compile a humongous list of reasons as to why you should be allowed to travel abroad (or beg repeatedly).
12. You never had the traditional sex talk. Abstinence is not only encouraged but required.
13. Unless there is a cultural reason as to why you need it, tattoos and piercings are not allowed. Tattoos are seen as a permanent stamp of your failure as a child.
14. You are constantly reminded of the fact that you are way better off than the majority of people on earth. This is why you must only have one trip every few years.
15. Family is allowed to break and enter your room at any time. Privacy is not a real word in the dictionary because your parents make the rules and own the house.
16. No smoking or drinking.
17. Manners are everything. Treat every guest and adult with respect. No swearing or foul language. You sometimes are told you are a bad kid simply for wanting to change the channel with the remote.
18. If you got a 96 on an exam, parents ask where the other 4% went.
19. Parents tell you to start becoming an adult not by being independent and social but by doing all the real world business stuff; getting a license, a credit card, voting rights, and a job. It is like being thrown into the ocean without knowing how to swim.
20. You are told to hide feminine and personal hygiene products from people because it shows “indecency." No reason as to why.
21. Once you are in college, you may go crazy and do everything you were told not to do. You become a wild child!
Although this seems insane, there are pros. Having strict parents teaches you how not to treat your children when you get older. You know all of the dos and do nots. Strict parents save you from getting too distracted by material things and help you stay out of trouble. This experience also teaches you discipline and incredible patience. Growing up with strict parents can be a challenge, but also an experience.
