23 Adults Revealed The Weirdest Punishment Their Parents Ever Gave Them As Kids, And I'm Honestly Speechless
Not too long ago, we asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to share the weirdest punishment their parents ever gave them when they were kids, and they came through with punishments that were strange, random, and seriously weird.
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Here are some of the most memorable responses, along with a few new stories from the comments section:
1."When I got in trouble, my mom would make me jog around the neighborhood while she followed me in her car blaring ABBA! She said the running would raise my endorphins so I wouldn't be so rude. I was in middle school when this punishment became a regular occurrence. I always felt better after the run, even though I never admitted it to her."
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2."When I got in trouble, I had to go smell my dog's breath. Because 'if we have to deal with filth from your mouth, then you have to deal with the filth from its mouth.' It sounds silly, but I begged my parents to give me anything but that!"
3."One of my worst punishments — though it ended up being useful later in life — was that I had to write chain words. I'd get a paper dictionary and a starter word, then I'd have to write everything that came next: pronunciations, root words, synonyms, antonyms, multiple definitions, sample sentences, etc....and then my next word started with the last letter of the previous word. The number of words I'd have to write depended on how much I'd misbehaved."
"I fully believe it contributed to an unusually high vocabulary as an adult!"
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4."We had an in-ground pool when I was a kid, and when I was growing up, my dad didn’t let us go up there when our parents weren’t home. Well, when I was in sixth grade, my friend convinced me to sneak her up there and my dad caught us. So he made me write an essay — no less than three pages — on hypothermia."
—Melissa Jaskela, Facebook
5."My nephew was goofing off in school in order to impress girls, so my sister bought him an ugly purple suit at Goodwill and made him wear it every day for a week so that he could get 'the attention he was craving.' By the end of the week, though, other guys started wearing suits to school, having seen all the attention he was getting from everyone!"
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6."If I or my siblings ever hit each other, my mom made us wear what she called 'the hitting glove.' It was just an oven mitt, but we had to wear it while playing, trying to eat lunch, or doing anything else for 30 minutes! Our hands would get hot and sweaty, and if we took the oven mitt off, the timer would restart. And if we tried using our free hand to hit someone, both hands went into hitting gloves! We learned quickly."
7."Whenever I got in trouble, my parents literally took my bedroom door off its hinges and put it in the basement. I felt bad because it ended up being more of a punishment to my brothers, since we shared a bathroom and I was constantly in there trying to get some privacy."
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8."When my son was about 8 years old, he got in trouble, and that night, there happened to be a primetime special on television about Barney, the purple dinosaur. He hated Barney, so his punishment was to watch the show and write a report on it — no spelling or grammatical errors or he would have to redo it. His report was perfect!"
9."I once got in trouble, and my dad made me edit his old 8 mm vacation films into a Vine-style highlight reel."
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10."We had horses growing up, and their shit was put in a pile at the end of the pasture. Well, I got caught cursing in eighth grade, and my dad said, 'If you're going to let 'shit' come out of your mouth, you can go move it around.' So I spent three days moving the manure pile from one side of the pasture to the other and back. My dad always said the punishment should fit the crime."
11."My sister and I used to fight really badly, and on days we were relentless, my mom would make us sit cross-legged and facing each other, with our knees touching. If we still wouldn't stop fighting, we had to hold hands. If we still tried fighting, we had to touch our foreheads together. It usually worked by that point."
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12."If I cursed, my mom would make me go into the bathroom and say every curse word I knew while looking in the mirror so that I could see how ugly it looks to curse."
"I learned that if I wanted to curse, all I had to do was say 'ass' and get sent to the bathroom, where I could say any curse word I could think of, punishment-free, for as long as I wanted."
13."My mom would only let my brother and me fight while speaking with accents, which always ended in us laughing. She would also have us 'dance fight' when we were mad at each other."
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14."I had to sit in the empty bathtub and read war books all day."
15."My sisters used to leave their dirty socks all over the house, so one day, my mom wisely put two pairs of dirty, disgusting socks into their pencil cases. When they got to school, they realized what my mom had done, and they had to quickly put the pencil cases back in their backpacks before anyone noticed!"
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16."My room had a full-size color TV with cable, video games, and all my stuff. So when I got in trouble, my parents sent me to their room — which had a tiny black-and-white TV with an antenna that only got one channel."
17."My dad was in the military, and he was very strict about our rooms being clean. If we didn't make our beds before leaving for school, he would take off all the bedding, then stand the mattresses up against the wall. It only took a couple of times of that for us to keep things clean."
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18."I went to Catholic school, and once, my mom found out I ditched Mass, so she made me go to all seven Masses offered by my church that weekend. I spent like 10 hours in church that weekend. I had the gospel and homily memorized."
19."My stepfather made me eat biscuits and gravy when I was in trouble. I absolutely hated that food."
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20."I would get grounded to the front porch because I would entertain myself in my room. I wasn't allowed to talk to anyone except to say that I was grounded and couldn't talk."
21."When I got in trouble in high school, my dad would hand me five dice. I would roll them, and whatever number came up, I would have to alternate that many pushups and situps, counting down, until I got down to zero. My father was a drill sergeant in the Army."
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22."My kids are very particular about their food — not picky in terms of what they will or will not eat, but they expect a certain level of flavor in their food. So when they have especially bad days, I use less seasoning on their food that night — just enough for their food to be edible but not up to their standards."
And lastly:
23."I was really tired of the fighting between my daughters, so I pulled out a tough kids puzzle and told them they couldn't do anything together except the puzzle. I thought I would have a few hours of glorious quiet — instead, those two put their little heads together and had it completed in 30 minutes! At least the fighting was forgotten for the day!"
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Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
