The older you get, the more you realize your parents’ “weird rules” had stories behind them.

Rules that arrive with no explanation look arbitrary, and they usually come from something specific: an accident, a bad year, somebody who let the family down badly. The rule is the scar, applied to you in advance. Knowing the story will not always make it reasonable, but it does turn it from a whim into a decision.

Ask where the household rule that annoys you most came from. Ask in a calm moment rather than mid argument, and hear the whole thing before you make your case.