- What?
People get to skip school when they're not sick?
I would never go to school.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, my name is Gift Igbin, I am 16 years old.
- Hi, I'm Ryann, and I'm old.
And I will not tell you how old I am.
- Hi, I'm Eli, and I am 16 years old, a teenager.
- Hi, I'm Joyce, and I'm 24.
I'm an adult.
- Today, we're actually gonna be figuring out
how strict our parents are.
- My parents are Haitian immigrants, so 100%.
- They weren't crazy.
Well, not that like being strict is crazy.
I guess it can be.
- My parents were actually the most relaxed people.
- Wow, you're still a child.
It ain't over yet.
(laughing)
- My mom's pretty ...
She's like perfect.
Sometimes she can be extra,
but you know, I love her.
- When you said your mom was perfect,
it was the most heart-warming thing.
I love you, too, Mom.
(laughing)
- I think parents now are a little bit more relaxed
because you can't really have as much control
over your kid, like, the internet and things,
because the kid is gonna have access to that regardless.
But, parents are still parents.
- We grew up in like different times.
I'm wondering if we will have like very sharp differences.
- Every parent's different, so I feel like
that will determine a lot.
- First one on the checklist,
Your parents would never let you have dessert first.
- Represent.
- I would not say never.
- They just want me to eat.
- Yeah.
- So, no not really.
- I always eat dessert.
- What, first?
- Yeah, all the time.
- How are your cavities, young man?
- I don't have any cavities because I brush twice a day!
I'm a good child.
(cat meows)
Your parents went through your computer history.
Yeah, I remember I got in trouble for that one.
- And your phone, and your bag,
and like, everything in your room.
That's a little...
- Intense.
- Yeah.
- At a early age I knew the power of delete, so,
I never got caught. - Must be nice.
- I didn't, I wasn't a bright child.
- My mom did go through my computer history once.
That was not a good time.
But other than that, she didn't really go through much,
because I also feel like, she always knew.
- She already knows everything I do.
I'm on Instagram checking stuff out.
But my bag, not unless she wants to clean it,
and then she tells me how dirty it is.
- Yeah, my mom looked through my phone, and my bag.
- Me, too.
- And everything in my room.
- Yeah.
- You had to sneak out to buy CDs
and video games and movies.
If they found them, they'd throw them away.
- Why would I need CDs, you know?
And then movies, that's why we have YouTube.
(crickets)
- Back in my day, we had to go to a store.
- When I got mail, my parents would open it first
to look at it, and then put it back in,
and then say you got mail as if I didn't realize that.
- I think my parents bought most of the CDs,
video games that we ever had, so I never had this problem,
and I don't think they'd ever throw them away.
- I'm surprised it's an option.
I feel like you've already spent money on it.
- One time I got this free DVD from the Scene Dolls.
It got mailed to the house, and my mom was so frightened
because there was mail in my name that she destroyed it.
- You always had chores to do, yes.
- Definitely, I would get yelled at
all the time to do things.
- Yes, still do.
I'm sorry, Mother.
- 6 a.m.
- I still do chores.
- Still?
- Yeah.
- You know what the sad part is?
After you leave your parent's house, everyday is chores,
and you don't get no money for it.
- I don't need to hear that.
I'm trying to live my best life.
- Anytime I'm sitting down my dad would be like,
"Whatcha doin' sitting down?
"Clean something."
I'm like, how many times does a person
clean something in a day?
There's only so many dishes I have to wash.
- They could get dusty.
- You know, don't.
- They never talked to you about sex,
and if they did, it was only to forbid you from having sex.
- I had the talk.
It was very uncomfortable.
- I did not.
- We didn't really actually have the talk.
It was something I think I learned about
through my brother because he was older than me.
- I didn't know what it was until like
sophomore year of high school.
Like I knew like the technical term,
but I didn't know the actual act.
- My mom loved to have the talk.
She told me when I was eight.
I didn't have questions, she just told me.
- Whoa.
- You were never allowed to skip school if you weren't sick.
Yeah.
- What? People get to skip school when they're not sick?
I would never got to school.
- Oh, I missed days, but it's because I found
the perfect sickness that couldn't get proven.
- What do you mean?
- Diarrhea.
(bell rings)
- Oh.
- I literally would cry if I missed school,
but not anymore, not anymore.
But that's because it was almost the end of the year.
Finals, I was trying to avoid that.
- Don't tell your mother I told you that.
- I won't because I'm gonna try it myself.
(laughing)
- You panicked if you saw that you
missed a call from your parents.
This is a touchy subject.
- Oh. (laughing)
- Yes, all the time.
- After three, or two even,
and I still haven't answered the phone, maniac.
(laughing)
Just don't miss calls.
- When my mom says call me, still to this day,
my heart stops in my body, and then she'll like
talk about something basic like the weather.
- So we used to, I forwarded the call,
like to my cell phone in high school,
so every time, because I was sneaking out,
and I was good about not missing calls,
but one time I missed it, and then my cell phone answered,
and she was like, "Why is your cell phone
"answering the house?"
And I was like "Oh, I'm at home, I don't know."
And she said, "Okay."
And so I knew she was sending someone
to my home while I was sneaking out.
So, I had to like run out of my friend's house,
go upstairs, just enough time to get into boxers
and a T-shirt, so I looked like I was chilling,
and then my aunt knocks on the door,
and I'm like, "Oh, I don't know what's going on."
- I would never do that.
That's just too much effort.
- You had to prepare PowerPoint presentations
to ask for something big, like a dog.
- No, do kids do that? - People do that?
- Not for a dog, but I did have to do that
just to get my ears pierced.
I had to make like a full presentation.
I did like, what happens if you don't clean them.
I did everything.
I didn't get them pierced, but,
it was a good presentation if you ask me.
- I would just ask my mom when she was half asleep.
- I had to do a PowerPoint presentation
on why my parents should extend
my curfew from 9:30 to 10.
And they still said no.
Even when I was in college, it was still 9:30.
- Then good stuff starts at 10:00.
- It wasn't until sophomore year, my mom was like,
"You could come at 2:00am."
That was pushing it for her because of that PowerPoint,
which I will find and bring up.
- Nice.
- Wait, let's see how strict our parents were.
- Okay.
(laughing)
- You checked 43 out of 59 on this list.
Yep, your parents were actually pretty strict with you.
- I got a 10 out of 59, and it says,
"Sounds like your parents gave you
"enough rules to keep you in line,
"but they were pretty lax about everything else."
- I got 21 out of 59.
That means my parents weren't strict but they had
golden rules that could not be messed with.
That sums up my household.
But I think that all the rules in my house are fair.
- I got 16 out of the 59.
That's surprising to me.
Still not that strict, like I still,
I got the same description.
So it's pretty lax with my parents.
- If we had to venture a guess we'd say
it's because you were the first born or an only child.
That's a lie.
I'm the middle daughter.
- Dang.
- You know, at the end of the day,
I think, yes, my parents were strict,
but they came to this country,
and they didn't know anything about how this country works.
So, of course they wanted to be strict.
They had three girls to protect.
- I think she did well for me,
and I also had a lot of leeway.
Well done, Mother.
(upbeat music)