As a kid one of my favorite parts of going over to friend’s houses was seeing how their family did things. I won’t say my parents were persnickety, but our house ran smoothly on a lot of rules. My Dad has his opinions, my Mom has hers, and that was the reality I knew. For instance, we were not allowed to eat in the car growing up. Ever. No exceptions. The car is just not a place for eating and drinking, and on the rare occasion we went through a drive through, food and drinks stayed properly contained until we arrived home. I swear my Dad knew a mile before pulling into the driveway if I broke the rule in high school and enjoyed a milkshake in the car. Going over to friend’s houses was like visiting a foreign land. You eat your salad ON A SALAD PLATE? BEFORE DINNER? WHAT? (We made our salad share space on our dinner plates.) You do your homework in your ROOM? (Until high school my brother and I were “kitchen table” homework doers.) You have a TELEVISION IN YOUR ROOM? (This was mind blowing. We had two televisions growing up: one in the living room and one in either my parents room or the basement.) You have SUGARY CEREAL? (We were only allowed to pick out cereal with less than 8 grams of sugar, which left Rice Krispies and assorted corn flakes.) You have PAPER TOWELS WITH PATTERNS ON THEM? (My Mom said that the process of bleaching and then dying paper towels was bad for the enviornment. Ok fine, you win Mom. I only buy white paper towels too.)
Anyway, part of the fun of being an adult is coming up with your new household rules and ways of doing things. For instance, B and I keep our butter on the counter, in a butter dish. I put it out there on Twitter recently that people who keep all their butter in the fridge are no friend of mine, because, hi, toast. And waffles. And other items that require soft butter for spreading. You need nice room temperature butter for such things. And nope, unless you leave it out there for, I dunno, months, it won’t go bad. Especially salted butter, because as we all learned when we studied Ancient Times, salt is a preservative. I was happy so many of my Twitter friends also subscribe to the policy of Counter Butter.
Also of note: B and I are not “backround noise” television people. We rarely have the tv on unless someone is actively watching it. Sure, sometimes we have football on in the background because, hi, football, we are watching, but we do not have the TV on just to have the TV on. We turn it on to watch something and then when we are done, we turn it off.
Are you take your shoe off at the door people? B and I tend to take our shoes off at the door, but it is because we both just generally prefer to be barefoot in the house. Then our friends come over, and see that we don’t have shoes on, and offer to take their shoes off. And I don’t know how to say “No, it is fine! Please, leave your shoes on if you are more comfortable! By all means!” because they do not need to take their shoes off unless they too prefer to be barefoot. (Unless their shoes have slush on them, and then please, take them off. Nobody has time for salt puddles.) I find myself putting shoes on before people come over just to avoid the uncertainty of it all.
Anyway, what about you? Any household rules you wish the whole world would adopt? Anything mind blowing from your childhood. Did you also go to your friend’s house and DIE A THOUSAND HAPPY DEATHS when you discovered their mother hadn’t banned snack cakes and you got to eat an adult sanctioned Ho-Ho or Swiss Cake Roll?
(Also my Dad totally eats in his car now and my brother and I die when we see this happening, because seriously, no rule was more strict during our childhoods.)
