SINGAPORE: Going home is supposed to be comforting, right? Home-cooked meals, familiar faces, and the usual dose of family chatter, but for one Singaporean woman, the thought of heading back feels less like a reunion and more like walking straight into stress central.
With her visa soon to expire, the woman shared on Reddit’s AskSingapore forum that she feels genuinely frightened to return to her family home because of her extremely strict and overcontrolling parents, who have imposed countless rules on her.
According to her post, the rules include a daily curfew at 10 p.m., a lifelong ban on dating and marriage, and a prohibition on travelling overseas for leisure without her parents’ permission.
She is also not allowed to stay overnight elsewhere, move out, wear makeup, use perfume, or adorn herself with jewellery or nail polish. In addition, she is forbidden from dyeing her hair or getting tattoos, and her parents have even banned her from participating in sports or exercise.
She added that she is pressured to lose weight despite not being overweight and that she is not allowed to go out in the morning unless it is for work.
Her parents also disapprove of activities they consider dangerous, such as swimming, and have prohibited her from communicating or meeting with her maternal aunts and cousins due to her father’s paranoia about them.
The restrictions, she said, extend even to the most basic aspects of daily life. She is not permitted to take food out of a takeaway bag on her own and is forbidden from keeping any personal belongings that her parents disapprove of, as such items are thrown away if discovered.
According to the woman, this is not even the full list. “I still have more rules and restrictions, but the list will be extremely long if I include everything. Also, my dad has paranoid schizophrenia, which makes him very paranoid about harm and dangers over minor things.”
Seeking advice from the online community, she asked: “Does anyone else also face unreasonable rules and restrictions from your parents as an adult? How do you deal with it?”
“Strict parents are one thing; this is something far worse.”
In the comments section, many readers were stunned by the sheer number of restrictions her parents had imposed, with one Redditor bluntly calling the list “pure insanity.”
Others chimed in with similar disbelief, saying her home sounded more like a “prison” than a place of comfort.
Some even went so far as to suggest that her parents are “psychopaths” who only want to “emotionally manipulate and control” their daughter rather than care for her.
One user said, “Do you want to be miserable for the rest of your life just to make them happy? Lifelong ban on dating and marriage….so they want you to die alone?”
“I’m sorry you have such controlling parents. At the end of the day, do you value your life above keeping the peace at home? If yes, move out, move overseas….whatever it takes.”
Another commented, “Strict parents are one thing; this is something far worse. Your parents have these rules because they see you ONLY as a carer and provider for them.”
“They don’t want you to have a life or family of your own, because it will take away resources and time from your primary purpose, which is to look after them. Your happiness and independence mean nothing to them.”
A third added, “You are old enough to know what is good for you, even if your parents think otherwise. Lifelong ban on dating and marriage? They know they got married and had you, right? That’s crossing the line of ‘caring for you’; that’s emotional manipulation.”
In other news, a local tech employee who has spent three years at a multinational corporation (MNC) has taken to social media to reveal that he and several colleagues are set to be laid off as the company plans to outsource their roles to India in six months.
Unsure of how to handle the looming retrenchment, he wrote on the r/askSingapore: “What are some best practices to prepare for this? What are some things to do in the upcoming months (besides start applying for jobs) to prepare for the layoffs?”
