“…if misrepresented as a rabbinic ordinance, a custom may be seen as more sweeping than it actually is”

…custom, even when considered obligatory, derives its authority from the practice of either a community or a family; if misrepresented as a rabbinic ordinance, a custom may be seen as more sweeping than it actually is.

Moshe Benovitz, “A Lifetime Companion to the Laws of Jewish Family Life and Man and Woman: Guidance for Newlyweds (review),” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies & Gender Issues vol. 12, no. 1 (2006), 315.