what is the oddest thing someone has done when you have visited their house?

I went to somebody's house where (at the front door before being allowed over the threshold) I was given two choices.

1. I could remove my shoes and put on a pair of brand new slippers provided by the owner, pay £10 and be allowed to take them home with me afterwards

2. remove my shoes, not put on the slippers put slip plastic covers over my socks.

(i went for option 2)

FamiliesShareGerms You made me properly laugh - thanks! I love it when someone you don't even know improves your day!

This thread is brilliant! I wonder if there's a parallel one somewhere along the lines of "what's the oddest thing a guest in your house has done": sample posts include "not joined in the after dinner sex"; "wanted to eat lunch in the middle of the day"; "wanted an exorbitant amount of towels and an actual shower in the morning"..... [bugrin]

Charging for Christmas! I've bloody heard it all now and your own Mother as well. Different if it was pre-arranged, I know people who all chip in for the cost.

But to send a bill, Sheesh!

I went for lunch with some people I know slightly the other day and they were odd. The husband started off by telling me he had googled me before I arrived and started to harangue me about an issue I had worked on years ago. This was not a good start. Anyhoo, we went to the kitchen table to have lunch, and they pulled the parrot's stand over, lowered it until it was the same level as the table and served the parrot salad onto a plate on the table. The bloody thing stank to high heaven as well, as its stand was covered in parrot poo. I suppose I should be grateful that the dog wasn't invited to join us too.

Donkey agree!!! unfortunately their place was a looooong way from home and I was basically trapped. It was no fun having to fend off an animal while eating, a begging dog at the table isn't great at the best of times but when it is tall enough to clear your plate for you and this isn't considered weird it's a whole other ball game!

Wow, some of these are awful! If I had to share the dinner table with a dog, I'm afraid I'd be heaving and would have to leave, even if it caused offence. Then I'd post an AIBU on here :)

The same as Gwen, but I was in the same bed as the shagging couple at the time... There was another person in there for a bit as well, but he went home.

My mother gives us tiny guest towels when we go to stay and has also charged me for going there at Christmas (when I was single).

I was invited to stay at a friends house who lived with his parents, the family owned a large dog. I was put in the spare room for the night, but it was clear from the smell and the copious quantities of hairs that it was usually the dogs bed - and the sheets were not changed! URGH!!!
I really didn't want to sleep there but the floor was no better - suffice to say I had a rubbish nights sleep as I was about as un-relaxed as you can get.

The next day at dinner the same dog (who was big enough to get his head well over the table) stole food off my fork on its way to my mouth - slobber on my fork and everything, this was very funny and a clean fork was not forth-coming. I wasn't hungry. Still friends though!!!!

Staying with the PILs, they live miles away so it is always an overnighter, I had a shower and was in our bedroom getting dried etc when the MIL (who knew full well I was just out of the shower) marched in, no knock on the door at all, and when I said 'can you give me a minute I'm not decent' she just said 'it doesn't matter' while she brazenly looked me up and down!!! She didn't have anything she wanted to say - she just had a good look and left again!!! She is not a nice lady by anyones standards for sooooo many other reasons than this.

This is brilliant thread. There's nowt so queer as folk eh?

Years ago some friends bought a new living room suite, very pale cream leather sofa and chairs. Their two DC's were about 9mo and 18mo at the time. I remember thinking it was an odd choice. The suite came with a warning to not let anyone with dark clothing that 'might transfer' sit on the new furniture, 'i.e. new indigo-dyed jeans'.

We knew them for about five years. We were NEVER allowed to sit on the sofa in jeans, even ancient stonewashed jeans. Good job I preferred to sit on the floor with DD! I babysat in the evening for her a couple of times, and each time when I turned up she would point out the large bathtowel that she had kindly placed on the sofa for me to sit on.

"I know somebody who inspects you for sharp items of clothing and then makes you remove them before you can sit on their furniture."

my mind is boggling at what a sharp item of clothing could be [bugrin]

Jooly if you really think they murdered her you absolutely should call the police.

Even if it was years ago.

Went to stay with MIL and FIL when the DC were small like 3yo and 6mo!

When MIL showed us to our bedroom we gave us towels. A bath sheet for DH 1 (yes 1) hand towel for me and the DC to share.

I didnt say anything at the time as a little taken back. When bathtime came around DH just helped himself to more towels from the airing cupboard for all of us but it ended up in an almighty row and a lecture about the cost of laundering towels in winter!!!

We have not stayed since.

Another previous time (just me and DH and DD1 aged 8 weeks) we were invited for Xmas. As we lived 400 miles away it involved a few nights stay and then we went to stay with other family. Anyway we spent Xmas day there, had a lovely Xmas dinner and tea. Had taken wine, chocolates, Xmas pudding and a xmas cake. Stayed a few nights. Helped wash up, tidy etc. 3 weeks later we received an bill in the post for the cost of our stay . I am really struggling to recall if we actually paid it!! I know DH called them to see if it was a joke but they were dealy serious! On reflection - I think we may have just posted a cheque off to them!

The reason we were so taken back is that they would come and stay with us for 10 days to 3 weeks at a time (we lived in a touristy place back then) a few times a year. We never charged them a penny! Sadly we moved house before they came to stay again because I wanted to charge them B&B rates!

Omh Jooly do you think the old lady is in the back garden?

They're worse than insane Bertie. I can't think of a suitable word, but insane isn't strong enough.

My mind is waaaaaay past 'boggle'. All these people getting their bits out and shagging in front of others. And the rudeness. I have lead a very sheltered life for which I am entirely grateful.

Some of these are insane!

My worst one is that XMIL invites me and DS round and then leaves us sitting in the living room for an hour while she cleans the kitchen, and does general hoovering

Now she looks after him when I work at weekends so I don't have to be there

Years ago a friend and I stayed with friends of her parents, while on holiday. the lady of the house was pretty fearsome- tall in all directions and with quite a temper. as well as her husband and children, they had her old mother living with them.

Early one morning, I woke up to an almighty row, in which my hostess was screaming at the old woman "you'll be getting that pill in your tea and that will be the end of you, you old bitch" Pulled the pillows over my head and went back to sleep. Got up a few hours later to find that "Granny is gone...to the local nursing home"! Hmm. That very day they dug a huge hole in the back garden to "bury a wasps nest"- I couldn't get out of there quickly enough!

I know somebody who inspects you for sharp items of clothing and then makes you remove them before you can sit on their furniture.

Nothing as weird as some of these. My best friend's DP used to have his own cottage about 100 miles from where they now live in London. They'd invited us to stay on Saturday night, we'd driven to their house, left our car there and then driven to his cottage in their car (this is relevant!). We'd had a great Saturday night, drinks in his local, met some of his friends, gone for a curry, then more drinks back at his cottage. Come Sunday morning we were all feeling a little fragile so decided we'd go to a pub, which was en-route before we hit the motorway but not walkable, for a comfort food Sunday lunch before driving back to London. Sat around chatting, TV was on too ... but at no point did they say anything about leaving to go to lunch. They, and we, ended up watching some drivel on the telly until they said "we'd better make a move to get back to London". I was absolutely starving by the time we got home - if we'd taken our own car, we could have left under our own steam and gone for lunch. [buconfused]

Some of these stories are crazy.

A place set at the table for a dog?

Bucharest Did he give a reason for no letting you have a shower? You did well to escape their friendship IMO.

I'm howling at the thought of a poodle with a bib on!

Went, with new and foreign dp, to stay with university friend and her soon-to-be husband. We arrived, after a long journey, at mid-day to find they'd already had lunch.
That evening, after we had paid for dinner and cooked it, we were forced into a tedius game of Trivial Pursuit (remember I have a non-English speaking bloke with me) together with a guided tour of the bloke's Chelsea football shirt collection that he'd built a special case for at the top ofthe stairs (I don't care if this outs me and she reads it, we were treated appallingly) and made to watch his box set of Erasure videos.
Next morning, I asked if I couldhave a shower and he said no.

Never seen him, or her since.

not sure who's story is worst so far!

Went to see some friends on a hot summers day, the kids had ice cream whilst the husband hovered with a cloth wiping up any drips they made off the concrete patio