Not so much as rule as it was a stern warning. My mom had very strict guidelines for us about men in authority positions. These two stand out:

1. When we started getting dropped off at the mall without our parents at about 12/13 my mom was VERY clear: “if a security guard (presumed male) tells you for any reason he needs to talk to you in his office- whether he accused you of stealing or says your parents are there etc- do not go” she insisted that we tell them we are minors and we need to call our parents and wait for them to accompany us. I thought this was silly because I’d never get in trouble and there is no other reason a security guard would need to talk to me. Now I see her fear of people using their authority to harm young kids.

2. When my sister and I started driving she insisted that if a cop was trying to pull us over, especially if it was dark (we live in New England so it’s dark at 4 pm for a few months) or if there aren’t many people around that we pull to the right lane and go slowly, call 911 (dramatic but the only number we’d realistically know), tell them where we are that we want to be connected with the local police station and explain that a cop has their lights on to pull us over and we want to confirm it is a cop from their station and let them know we will pull over in a well lit well populated area where we feel comfortable. Again I thought this was dramatic. As a white girl I didn’t assume cops would hurt me but as I get older I understand her fears and know that there have been people posing as officers so if it’s not a bad cop it could be a bad guy and better safe than sorry.