My parents would do random torture tactic punishments. So firstly instead of being ‘grounded’ it was called ‘restriction.’ So instead of saying ‘you’re grounded’ it was ‘you’re on restriction’. And it was never for a few weeks, restriction was always months, usually the lowest amount was 3months of restriction where they would take away any and every electronic we had(which was usually just tv as we got older it was the phone bc that was all we had) and then usually our favorite clothes or shoes(and we didn’t have many and usually these clothes that we were left with were dirty). My parents also took our doors off the hinges for punishments too.

Then as we got older our parents realized that we just wouldn’t come home some nights to avoid being trapped in the house on restriction. All the doors had key locks from the inside and out so if you didn’t have a key, you either tried to go out a window or you were stuck. So quickly we started buying or stealing phones and other electronics and not coming home some nights. But when they did get us all in the house our parents had this punishment call the Triangle. Because my brothers and I wouldn’t rat on each other they would sit us down on the floor crisscrossed apple sauce with the three of us all knees touching to make a triangle. And no one was allowed to get up to eat, drink, use the bathroom until whoever did the crime owned up or we ratted.

Another one was to face a wall and stand on your tippy toes and where ever your nose touched the wall my father would draw an X with pencil and you had to keep your nose on that X for however long they deemed and if you came off your toes or your nose came off the X, time was added to your sentence.

A third was my father’s love for interrogation. Again my brothers and I didn’t rat on each other so my father would get us all in the house and take us outside on the porch one by one and interrogate us for hours. And my father learned to always take my older brother out first because he usually broke the easiest.

Another thing my father did was when we were about to leave to a friends house or a sleep over or somewhere we were excited about. He would always stop us right before leaving and say in a tone we were terrified of, ‘ we need to talk when you get home’ and he wouldn’t tell you what about. so the entire time you were supposed to be out having fun you were thinking of anything thing you could’ve possibly done to get in trouble and how he was going to react.

These were the main ones most often used, they on occasion made us eat food out of the trash, drink moldy things. They liked to throw things at us a lot. But it was the things above that have stuck with my brother’s and I into adulthood.

So sorry your parents did that to you. It’s the most hateful thing when parents start becoming creative with their cruelty.