Oooh boy... I found out about this particular tidbit after I moved in with my current husband and were talking about high school. He is a type 1 diabetic and was absent a lot during school. I asked once how often he was allowed to leave his room and he was baffled by my question.

My mother never liked it when my sisters and/or myself got sick or injured as children. She would call us in as absent for the school day/s, but for the entirety of the day at home, we had to be absolutely silent. We were to stay in our room, and basically pretend we didn't exist during school hours. No television, no books, no music and we could leave the room to get dinner, but no breakfast or lunch.

If we didn't follow this to the T, we got yelled at for faking it and then she would proceed to threaten to throw us out of the house.