Mormon Childhood Bingo

hawkgrrrl

Mar 1

Someone on Twitter put together this "Bingo Card" to see what types of things had been prohibited by their parents growing up. The one posting it, White Cat Prophecy, revealed that they had an X on all but 6 squares, which is ... a lot. Here's the Bingo card, with my apologies for the intro comments & language:

Exmo bingo: Shit You Weren't Allowed To Do As A Kid Edition

I desire all to receive it pic.twitter.com/rcrT4HxsbC

— white cat prophecy (@whitecatprophcy) February 16, 2023

On a simple Y/N scale, I think I'm only around a 7 and do not have a Bingo based on placement of those squares. One respondent used a color-coded system to reply with the following categories:

Red: Disallowed
Yellow: Varied
Green: Allowed
Blue: Not Applicable (or not addressed)

That seems like a more interesting system to me than just a pass/fail, so here are my results:

Red (Definitely not kosher - 6): Say swear words, Buy anything on Sunday, Date before 16, Swimming on Sunday, Have Sex (FREE!), Play Sports on Sunday (but I wasn't sporty, so NBD)
Yellow (ignored occasional scolding on these - 4): Date a non-Mormon (actually, I think this was a race thing, but we weren't dating, and only dating Mormons would have been impossible anyway), Drink caffeine (this changed depending on our ward), Sleeveless shirts (wasn't forbidden, but I was told that I needed to "practice" wearing sleeves), Double earring piercing (actually this is not accurate--I was scolded for ANY piercing, and I had 3 in each, but Hinckley was not yet president and hadn't made this a thing yet, so nobody really cared about the number), Wear 2-piece swimsuit (this varied depending on the decade, it seems)
Green (12): Dye hair, Say "butt," Listen to real music on Sundays (some Violent Femmes lyrics scandalized my mom, but it wasn't a Sunday thing), Homework on Sundays, 1-on-1 dates (would have been OK, but all my dating was in secret), Play with face cards (routinely done, including ward parties), Friends on Sunday (encouraged), Have bf/gf (not an issue, but I liked my privacy and did not bring anyone I was dating home if it could be avoided), Sleepovers (routine & encouraged), Say "sucks," Kiss anyone, Watch R-rated movies (they took me to my first one at age 11!)
Blue (2): Spongebob and the Simpsons were later, but I doubt there would have been any objection to Spongebob. The Simpsons might have been objected to on the grounds that it makes nuclear plant workers look incompetent, or maybe that would have been grounds for it to be enjoyed. I'm not sure. In general, no TV or movies were considered forbidden.

There are a few things that weren't on the Bingo card that I think could have been included:

Having a job that worked on Sundays
Skipping church when not on vacation
Missing seminary or YM/YW
Not fasting for 24 hours
Regular clothes after Church

I'm sure there are more, but I'm having a hard time coming up with them right now. How about you?

What would you add to the Bingo card?
Would your kids' card look the same as yours? Did they have more or less "freedom" than you did?
What's your score (either Y/N or using the color coded version)?
Did you feel restricted as a kid due to family / church rules, or did it just feel normal to you?

Discuss.

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