LIFE IS TOUGH when you’re a kid. All you want to do is live by your own rules, and often all your parents seem to do is keep you down.

Not only do they stop you from doing the things you want to do, they stop you with some of the most annoying phrases known to man.

Here are thirteen of the most annoying phrases your parents used (and that you may find yourself using if you’re a parent).

‘Elbows off the table.’

Really? Is it really that important?  This is one of the rules you start ignoring as soon as you’re old enough to get away with it.

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‘While you’re under my roof…’

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‘When you pay the bills you can do whatever you want.’

‘But I can’t pay the bills!  You make me go to school!’

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‘Have an apple.’

As an answer to ‘I’m hungry’.  You never wanted a bloody apple when you said ‘I’m hungry’, did you?

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‘Because I said so.’

Completely maddening.  It’s not an explanation at all!

Why do I have to wear this hat?  Oh.  Because you said so.  Flickr/Micah Taylor/Creative Commons

‘They’re like sweets.’

Said about any small vegetable you didn’t want to eat.  Because I’m that stupid mam.

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‘If all your friends jumped off a bridge would you do it?’

‘Obviously not.  I’m not an idiot.’

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‘You’re not going anywhere until you tidy that room.’

No arguing with this one.

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‘Why can’t you be more like…?’

‘I bet [insert friend's name here] doesn’t speak to her mother like this/has a tidy room/finishes her dinner without complaining.’

Can also be applied to siblings.

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‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.’

This one really burns.

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‘You’ve got school tomorrow.’

‘AAAAAAARGH.  I KNOW.  Bloody school ruins my life.’

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Maybe when you’re older.

‘But I probably won’t want to do it when I’m older.  I want to do it NOW!’

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‘When you have kids you’ll understand.’

This one is probably bang on.

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What phrases got your goat when you were a youngster?  And do you find yourself using them with your own kids?

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