14 People On The Weirdest Habit They Picked Up From Their Parents

1. “My mom used to always tell me that your ears burn if someone is talking about you. So if she had just been either out with her friends or at a parent-teacher conference or something, she would always come back and ask me if my ears felt hot. I never realized this wasn’t a universal thing for such a long time, but now I always ask my friends how their ears are doing if their name just came up in conversation.” — Grace, 18

2. “I am incredibly hyperconscious about calling or even emailing people around 5pm or 7pm, just because my dad was so strict about us using the landline (LOL) to call our friends when it was close to dinner time.” — Sally, 23

3. “Never look at the microwave while it’s on. Still not sure if there is actual evidence supporting this, but my mom was convinced it was going to make our eyes explode or something — so whenever we would microwave anything, my brothers and I would dive away as soon as we clicked “Start,” so that our eyes would be safe.” — Mark, 22

4. “Don’t sleep opposite a mirror. I can’t really remember the reasoning behind it, but I’m very conscious of it now and sometimes if I’m in a hotel or something and there’s a mirror across from my bed, I’ll have to hang up a shirt or something to cover it.” — Lucas, 21

5. “I have to hand wash the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. I’m now just paranoid that they’re not clean enough if I don’t do it beforehand!” — Francis, 23

6. “We were never allowed to put our shoes on the table. My mom was very superstitious about it and always told us that it was bad luck.” — Holden, 22

7. “Anytime my dad heard a baby screaming or some other loud, unpleasant noise, he would look at one of us and yell ‘WHAT DID YOU SAY?’ as if he innocently mistook the awful screeching for what we sounded like when we talked to him. It’s now an impulse reaction for me to do the same, no matter who I’m with.” — Eli, 22

8. “I was always told if my palms itched, it meant I was about to get some money.” — Meredith, 21

9. “My parents were very strict about ‘playtime clothes.’ Whenever my sisters and I would come home, we would have to change from our school outfits into something else (usually sweatpants or whatever my mom deemed ‘okay’ to get dirty) for playtime or running around outside. Now whenever I come home from work, I have to change immediately.” — Seth, 22

10. “I used to want really curly hair growing up and my mom used to tell me that the crusts on sandwiches gave you curls. I’m wondering now if she only told me that so I would stop asking her to cut the crusts off, but it worked — I was adamant about eating sandwich crusts.” — Gina, 24

11. “Whenever you’re giving someone a purse or a wallet as a gift, always leave a single penny in one of the pockets for good luck.” — Liv, 23

12. “Both my mom and grandmother used to always warn me about going to sleep with my hair still wet. They were convinced that it would give me arthritis??? Not sure if there is actual science backing that, but I always wash my hair in the morning just in case.” — Jenny, 20

13. “I noticed that I always eat some kind of snack at 3pm, and that’s because when I was growing up, that was the designated ‘snack time’ instituted by my parents. Now it’s like clockwork.” — Ashley, 24

14. “Never touch the glass in jewelry stores or bakeries. My mom told me, a very paranoid and anxious child, that the police would find my fingerprints on it and if there was a burglary, they would come and find me as a suspect. Obviously I’ve watched enough Law and Order: SVU to know that that is not how the police work, but I still actively avoid touching the glass.” — Thomas, 23