This Troper often has to prevent himself from getting a large knife from the kitchen and killing either my father or mother for this alot. Yeah, I admit, I'm bit insane.

Any parent ever.

One of This Troper's goals in life is to never invoke those words when speaking to my children. If I can't reasonably explain why they shouldn't, they can.

This troper used to get into this argument with his father regularly, until he realised that it really is easier just to go along with it, especially with minor requests.

This Troper's mother had an unusual variant. She would say 'It's not necessary.' and that ended the matter. She says because we, her children, didn't know what 'necessary' meant. I disagree. We knew perfectly well that it meant 'No'.

This troper's father has played this trope to a T, and even has his own CatchPhrase. "Because I said so and I'm bigger than you."

He also still uses this trope, even now, when the troper is in her twenties.

My father uses it occasionally if I survive the chewing out when I ask "Why?" too many times. He says something along the lines of "Because I say so, and because I am the man of the house." My usual response is "Just because you're the only man in this family doesn't give you priority." or something like that. That man wouldn't be happy if he were god.

Same person as above ^. Sometimes instead of using the "Because I say so", he uses "I don't have to explain myself to you!"

This troper actively refuses to do anything without a valid reason attached, which has been known to cause teachers, his mother, and anyone who expects blind obedience to get rather annoyed. To be fair, half of what he says is saturated in sarcasm.

I've gotten '''suspended''' over this. I'm absolutely freaking resolute about it to the point of "I said so" being one of my {{Berserk Button}}s.

I was suspended several times, before the principal (who wasn't even my principal anymore, as I had moved up a grade, so I don't know why HE was passing judgement, but whatever) just expelled me and had me arrested IN THE MIDDLE OF THE OFFICE, FOR DEFENDING MYSELF IN A FIGHT several days ago. Seriously? What the hell.

Additional note: I now use "Because I gave you an order?" on my mother. It works. Sometimes...

This troper's parents were (usually) GenreSavvy enough to avoid using the exact phrase, but the general concept of them acting as if the simple fact of being her parents removed all need to justify their actions fits them perfectly, especially her mother. They also imposed arbitrary punishments for disobedience, based on what would cause this troper the most anguish, rather than providing logical reasons why it would be a bad idea to do it again. (It never helped, since said disobedience generally happened either because I disregarded the punishment/figured I wouldn't get caught or acted out of blind rage, rather than not knowing that Bad Things would happen to me if I misbehaved.)

This troper's mother's sarcastic "do what you want" is the culmination of attempts to explain her reasoning. Subverted by this troper using it on his girlfriend, who is equal in status and older than he is.

I once ignored my brothers order simply because he used this.

This troper used to ignore this kind of request, until her mother showed her that she should've gone in the Military as a Drill Sargeant and not a Meteorologist.

This troper's father uses this trope. I routinley ask him to justify his actions. His response? "I don't have to explain myself to a child". Exchange with "You're the child, I'm the adult, that's why." I keep wanting to invoke GodwinsLaw, but this troper's father quite clearly has anger issues, so I'm always deciding against it, just so I don't start something worse.

this troper once used this argument when she was councilor at a summer camp and a kid refused to participate in activities. She thought of a lot of better ways to get him to participate after the fact and wishes she had used one of those instead.

Change the gender and the camp to daycare, and I'm the kid who refused to participate. Eventually, my mother got tired of me distrusting all adults because I felt it was unfair they could make me do things I didn't want to do for no reason, and ordered the daycare staff to leave me alone unless I was breaking a legitimate rule. She actually wished I would participate but recongised that there was no reason why a child should be required to play organised games if they stayed within sight and didn't cause any problems. If the staff had tried anything besides invoking 'because I say so' and trying to use guilt trips, I might have willingly gave the games a chance.

This troper's mother rarely has to do this, mostly because this troper is far too good at arguing, especially after playing Phoenix Wright for a few hours. The argument will usually end with "Because I said so and if you don't you're not getting computer for the rest of the evening/week/etc."

This troper's parents have given up doing this ever since I got old enough to consider questioning them. Now they know that they have to actually give me a reason for what they want me to do. Of course, if it's a reasonable request that I can see the point of I'll do it anyway

This troper ''is'' a parent, and does it all the time. It's not any kind of power trip, it's just that quite often you need the kids to do something ''now'' and not after fifteen minutes of discussion and debate.

This troper is also a parent and I have to agree with the above troper. If my son argues I counter with "In the time we spent arguing about (topic), you could be half way/done by now!"

This troper does this to his little sister all the time, just to avoid accidentally giving reasons that could backfire.

I make my mom look like an idiot whenever she tries this trope on me. Sometimes she gives me arbitrary punishments for it, but considering I can get around any of them I don't see the point. If she gives me a legitimate reason, I'll do it.

Both this troper's parents like to do this if they're losing an argument. She's now given up winning and simply disobeys whenever she can.

This troper got into a fight with a friend over this phrase, mostly because this troper said 'not a good enough reason, try again' and kept doing what he was doing. This troper's friend has a bit of a tin god complex and found that unacceptable.

Subverted to the EXTREME by this troper's dad who would spend a LOT of time explaining exactly why he wanted things done a certain way... (kinda wish I'd gotten the 'because I said so' on occasion...).

My Family even inverts this by continuing to pile on reason even after I said ok.

This troper's arguments with his family generaly involve 2 hours of argueing in which his parents fail to make a single convincing argument that doesn't get disproved by me seconds later with othr relatives or school teachers joining in at the side of the parents and still failing say anything sensible, more often then not repeating the same argument several times, sometimes directly after it's been disproved already and ending with a "STFU, it's because we said so and now go do some stupid menial task that didn't need to be done 10 seconds ago and has no advantages for anybody even if you do it." This involves a 15 year old child, a pair of parents, a history teacher, a principal, a philosophy teacher who among all people should know better, an english teacher and a vice principal, in that order.

This Troper has become totally embittered toward several family members (especially my dad) because of this. But I've recently found that it's easier to go along with it whilst lacing your dialog with sarcasm. I can always tell them off when I'm older and out of the house.

Oddly my parents never did this if you asked why they would have valid rational arguments it was always the teachers who tried to do this with me. (Mind you I learned the basics of how most things works by the time I was 10 and became a smartass because of this)

This troper's mother was very fond of the phrase "Don't be so assertive" as a variant of this, which would be used whenever it was implied that maybe, just maybe, what she just ordered or claimed wasn't quite right. This troper once made the mistake of using the same words against her, and got yelled at for about an hour for being rude and disrespectful. Joy.

Now, most parents couldn't explain themselves in the first place, but for some of the ones who could, "because I said so" means "you wouldn't understand me anyways".

This troper's parents used this straight ''and'' averted it. With this troper, if she was ever told to do/not to do something, she'd ask why. Parent would explain, troper would shrug and comply because it was reasonable 99% of the time. This troper's ''sister'', however, would turn everything into Judge Judy's Family Court if she didn't get her way. If my mother said my sister couldn't go into a party, any sort of reasonable explaination would be ripped apart, picked at, demonized, compared to past reasons, call her a bad parent, and so forth. She would even follow my mother through the house on a non-stop tirade on how she Was So Unfair And She Was Full Of Crap to the point my mother once ''locked herself'' into her own bedroom until my sister was forced to give up. Ergo, this tropers just skipped to 'Because I Said So' every time - it wouldn't stop my sister from throwing a fit, but at least my parents didn't need to waste their breath.

This troper's mother uses a more aggressive variant. Instead of "Because I said so", it's "because I own the house, so do it or get the fuck out". At least it's an effective threat, but over the years our mother-son relationship has been severely compromised by this behaviour.

Recently, she got an even more aggressive argument. "Do it now or do it after you get your ass kicked". And she proved she can do it. Painfully.

I hate that my friend usually responds to any argument of mine for something I enjoy is "My opinion is better, because I can hurt you."

Two from this troper. I once used this in college in my English class and got a good laugh out of it. I forget what exactly it was, but I knew I was right, just didn't have the reason to back it up. Fortunately, after the teacher and class stopped laughing, I remembered why I was right and able to say so. Also, I do occasionally use this on my kids. Even had a counselor back me up telling my kids that as a parent, I don't always need a reason other than I don't want them doing that. I do use it less now, and try to explain myself more, but oftentimes it's more a bad feeling that they not do it and the only justification I can give is Because I Said So. I also wish that my kids were as wise as the first troper on this page. I know from my own experience when I learned (in my 30s!) my life with my parents is much easier (at their place) when I go with their flow.

This depends ''entirely'' on the family. Just like any other category of people, parents are not immune to either making mistakes or holding irrational biases, so it's certainly not impossible for parents -- even otherwise perfectly decent ones -- to make unreasonable demands or set unreasonable restrictions and believe (at the time or even in the long term) that they're in the right.

When this troper just doesn't what to do something and is asked why, I just respond, "Because I don't". Usually that is the true reason, but my mom never thinks it's a good enough one... but I usually win.

Inverted with this troper. I never minded "Because I said so," but for whatever reason, my mother decided to start using guilt trips and saying things like, "Wouldn't it be nice if..." Every time I hear this, I'm thinking, "If you want me to do such-and-such, then say so. Why do you have to act like you're giving me a choice?"

This Troper knows from experience with dealing with kids that sometimes this is the only way to get them to behave. Explaining your reasoning doesn't always work, because kids aren't always logical. Hey, if it's fun, they're gonna do it again and again. Even if it's wrong/dangerous/annoying/harmful/etc. The only way to stop a kid sometimes is to just tell them "Stop doing that. Why? Because I'm the boss and you're not."

Of course, this is situational and entirely dependent on the kid. Some are smart enough to know when to stop if you explain to them that they shouldn't be doing that. Of course, it goes the other way, too. There are plenty of teenagers who, even at eighteen years old, need to be told to shut up and sit down because they're annoying the fuck out of everyone and even then don't listen.

This Troper is the kind of person who needs to know a logical reason for every decision. Naturally, the fact that her mother pretty much ''is'' this trope drives her absolutely insane.

This Tropette has vowed to NEVER say this (except for in a joking way) to her children, if she has any.

At the age of about 10, my dad tried this on me. I replied with a completely calm "That's not an answer." He responded with "Well, it's my answer" or something equally nonsensical, but there was a definite look of "Crap, ''I don't have any answer at all'' " on his face. Clearly, he expected either immediate obedience or kicking and screaming, but not that.

In this Tropette's 4th period reading class, we play a review game to ensure we remember everything we covered that month. I was on a roll, and managed to rack up 200 points. As we have a timed thing, she accuses me of cheating somehow, and takes away 50 points. I dare ask her why, and she takes away another 50 points, stating, "Because I'm the Queen." I had decided to just open my mouth in pure rage at this ludicrous response, and say, "Well then, God Save Us From The Queen ." She didn't have anything to say after that.

This troper was subject to this attitude during pretty much the entirety of her childhood. Worst part, her father was such a stubborn nutcase that she never dared, or even thought, of defying this notion until well into puberty. And only with her mother. This troper started demanding sound, logical arguments for pretty much everything, which once spiralled into sheer MindScrew. In a shoe store, after several times calmly asking her to explain, with words, why she wanted this troper to pick another pair of shoes than she wanted for herself, she started stomping her foot to the floor like a kindergartner and started repeating "Because I said so!!" over and over. It's not fun to suddenly realize that the people you've let control your entire life are more immature than yourself at an age of fourteen.