My parents used to give me a lot of rules when I was a kid, like every other day they'd tell me something had to change or don't do this activity for some arbitrary reason. Mostly they just said "Because I'm your parent and you live in my house! Now promise me you won't put any white bags out on Tuesdays and Thursdays!" and I was expected to just go along with it like they did.
For the most part I did obey their bizarre rules, at least to some extent. There were some that were just not possible for me at that age and time, like when they sat me down and told me to not talk to anybody with green eyes for the rest of the month when my green-eyed teacher would give detentions for lack of participation. I wasn't about to get a detention when they had no way of telling if I was talking to anyone with whatever coloured eyes.
The following evening I was confronted by my parents who somehow knew the eye colour of everyone in my school, giving me a list of people I can and can't talk to based purely on that. I tried to show it to my teacher and claim that was my excuse for not participating but I got a detention anyway and my parents were never called in to explain the list.
It took me several years to realise that I wasn't the only kid being forced to follow the ridiculous rules when my friend Terri wore all beige for three weeks, just like me. I'd never seen her follow the same rules as me so it was almost a relief until she told me she knew why the rules changed so often.
She gave this whole spiel about creatures that only adults could see (something about their brain development and eye level that vaguely made sense at the time) and they made the rules that were passed down to us. They were fussy creatures who'd kill anyone they felt like unless their demands were met, not by the adults but by us children - their hostages in this situation.
Terri had proof of this from when she secretly took off the chicken wire bracelet (last week's rule that I had also followed) for the night and woke up missing all of the toes on her left foot. She'd never felt a thing, just found them gone and only smooth skin left behind. I knew for a fact she once had all ten toes, she loved to wear her glittery jelly sandals all year round but when she took off her trainer, sure enough they were gone.
Ever since then I kept to the rules until I moved out at the age of nineteen. The rules were occasionally texted to me until I turned thirty eight which is apparently when I was no longer a child to these creatures. Coincidentally it's when I first began to see them too. Right around my daughter's second birthday. They gave me my first rule to be enforced as an adult or they'd skin her and frame me for it.
I wonder what they threatened my parents with.
For the most part I did obey their bizarre rules, at least to some extent. There were some that were just not possible for me at that age and time, like when they sat me down and told me to not talk to anybody with green eyes for the rest of the month when my green-eyed teacher would give detentions for lack of participation. I wasn't about to get a detention when they had no way of telling if I was talking to anyone with whatever coloured eyes.
The following evening I was confronted by my parents who somehow knew the eye colour of everyone in my school, giving me a list of people I can and can't talk to based purely on that. I tried to show it to my teacher and claim that was my excuse for not participating but I got a detention anyway and my parents were never called in to explain the list.
It took me several years to realise that I wasn't the only kid being forced to follow the ridiculous rules when my friend Terri wore all beige for three weeks, just like me. I'd never seen her follow the same rules as me so it was almost a relief until she told me she knew why the rules changed so often.
She gave this whole spiel about creatures that only adults could see (something about their brain development and eye level that vaguely made sense at the time) and they made the rules that were passed down to us. They were fussy creatures who'd kill anyone they felt like unless their demands were met, not by the adults but by us children - their hostages in this situation.
Terri had proof of this from when she secretly took off the chicken wire bracelet (last week's rule that I had also followed) for the night and woke up missing all of the toes on her left foot. She'd never felt a thing, just found them gone and only smooth skin left behind. I knew for a fact she once had all ten toes, she loved to wear her glittery jelly sandals all year round but when she took off her trainer, sure enough they were gone.
Ever since then I kept to the rules until I moved out at the age of nineteen. The rules were occasionally texted to me until I turned thirty eight which is apparently when I was no longer a child to these creatures. Coincidentally it's when I first began to see them too. Right around my daughter's second birthday. They gave me my first rule to be enforced as an adult or they'd skin her and frame me for it.
I wonder what they threatened my parents with.
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