To ask what the weirdest thing you experienced or saw at someone else's house when you were a child?

Nothing compared to some of these on here but one of my child hood friends parents used to not let any of us use the main family bathropm (they lived in a huge old farmhouse) which was near their play room and my friends bedrooms instead we used to have to go back down stairs and to the other side of the house to the freezing tiny bathroom by the back door

my PILs - not a single photo of my DH when he was young. No family photos, no school photos, nothing at all, but loads of photos of other family members. They said there used to be some of him, but another sibling destroyed them in a fit of rage.

@annafivetowns name the rock star!

My heart really goes out to those children who were brought up in a 'normal' (to them) home but what was actually abusive or criminal to even another child - but often not picked up on/reported by the adults around them.

My childhood was mostly poddling around our huge garden (digging holes or having bonfires) scoffing mums homemade cakes, playing with our cats and dogs, going abroad on long holidays, visiting dotty grandma and baking pies/making jam, piling into the car for 'surprise' picnics or trips to the edinburgh tattoo (mum lated admitted that she would spring these things on us or we would drive her mad with excitement if we had any warning).

This weird family once came to stay with us. So this mum and dad had a blazing row in the kitchen how wasteful it is to put an egg in pancake batter.

I was good friends with the daughter of a well known rock star when I was 9 years old. He was never there as he'd run off with another woman but their house was huge and full of really bizarre things like real stuffed grizzly bears and gothic style 4 poster beds and creepy paintings. The mum used to swear a lot (but in a posh accent - "facking hell" ) and I was quite shocked / impressed by this. She also used to sunbathe topless in the garden in front of her male friends which I also found quite shocking - it was the early 80s. This friend also had a sauna house in her garden and we were allowed to.use it occasionally. I remember one time my friend needed a wee while we were in there so she weed in a cup and then because we didn't know what to do with the wee, she threw it on the sauna coals. I'll never forget the stench of that burning wee for the rest of my life! Her mum went ballistic when she found out what she'd done!

I was 13 and went to stay round one my close friend’s houses for a few weeks as I was unhappy at home and they kindly offered to put me up. I was close to my friend but her father creeped me out and her mother was rather odd too -a strict teacher.

I ignored my worries though as my friend was very kind to me. After a week there, I caught a cold and had to stay back while my friend went off to school. The girls’ father was home that day too and wanted to show me some photos of their recent holidays to France. He sat me down and showed them to me one by one. They were all photos of him and my friend completely nude, with one of her sitting totally naked on his shoulders, arms wrapped round him, others of her playing in the pool with him and one of her standing next to him naked cuddling up to him. He said they were naturists and next year I could go with them if I liked. I made my excuses, packed and left later that day- I almost ran screaming from the house. I found out years later that my suspicions were most likely to be correct that my friend had suffered some abused ( there were other signs). Nothing wrong with naturists at all- but it was just clear to me that something wasn’t right. He took an obvious delight in looking at my friend naked and showing me. Awful. I never spoke of it to my friend, I just said I had decided to return home. I told my mum but I don’t think she reported him.

I went to a friends house when I was about eight years old, it was in the early 60's. Two men dressed in suits came round to have a word with the girls father, they went into the front room, after about five minutes they came out, straightening their ties, and dusting themselves down, say goodbye to The Mr Krays girls.
The mother went into the front room, and helped the girls father upstairs, all I remember was his face was covered in blood.
I shit myself and never ever went there again.

A girl I was friends with in sixth form used to invite about ten of us over every Saturday night, as her dad would be staying at his girlfriend's and she didn't want to be on her own. One day her dad obviously got pissed off with us always being there and left a note telling us to only use one square of loo roll each, and then a break down of how many minutes he had to work work to pay for a roll of toilet paper! We all thought it was hilarious.

Another friend at secondary school had two older sisters who lived at home. The 23/24 year old had been with her boyfriend for about 5 years, but they were never allowed in her bedroom together, they had to be in the living room. Her other sister must have been about 20 and she always had her best friend staying over. I thought she lived there, as she was always there, but no they were just best friends. A couple of years later I was in the town's only gay bar and who should walk in but the sister and her "best friend", who immediately came over to say "please don't tell anyone we're here." Turned out that whilst the older sister was never allowed anytime in her room with her boyfriend, the middle sister had had her girlfriend in her bed for years! Right under the parents' noses! Good for them!

I must have lived with n a bubble, although all my friends only ever wanted to come to my house. My mum used to cooked us meals fresh from the Delia cookbook, she’d set the table in the dining room and we would have lemonade in wine glasses. She’d always have a packet of French Fancies our for pudding. And in the winter have hit chocolate waiting after school. I didn’t appreciate any of it at the time but my friends did. One spent most the summer with us

I went to state school so the majority of my friends lived in normal three bed semi’s or terraced houses except this one friend who I’m amazed didn’t attend private school looking back.

She had an au pair which I thought was a baffling concept at the time, I didn’t fully understand what one was. They lived in a humongous six bedroom detached house at the top of a hill and had stables with horses behind it. She had a double barrelled first name which would probably be tacky as hell nowadays but back then it was unheard of and seemed posh. Her Mum always drove a fancy Mercedes Benz and she worked for a big radio company, Dad owned a building firm. For her birthday she had a limousine one year and another year her parents drove us to Alton Towers (think she invited a few friends so it must have cost a pretty penny).

Anyway, whenever I went to her house after school the au pair couldn’t cook or speak much English so my friend had to make us food. She always made eggy bread, I think it was the only she knew how to make and we’d only have one slice each. I went home ravenous every time and my Mum didn’t understand why I’d gone to the posh girls house for tea and basically not been fed . Her parents just never seemed to be around which I thought was sad at the time and the au pair didn’t really do much, I’m not sure why her parents employed her tbh.

This made me laugh out loud! What a weird random thing to serve to anyone never mind a child!

While there are a few funny anecdotes on here, I feel quite disturbed after reading so many stories about child abuse. The sexual abuse ones in particular are harrowing and due to my own experiences as a child, I’ve found them quite triggering.

Did they just had one between them, then, @ispepsiokay? Arse cheeks, I mean?

Not when I was a child but collecting my own child after a play date.

The parent invited me in while my child got there shoes etc and on the wall in the living room was a life size picture of the parents, completely naked but in a soft porn kind of pose so nothing was on show apart from a little arse cheek.

when I was junior school age about 11 I called for my new friend on the way to school and she was just having her breakfast it was bowl with a slice of white bread and half milk and half water and she was eating it like Weetabix yeuk

When I was around 7-8 , I would have sleepovers at my now; ex best friends house. Her dad used to tell me he would put me in the washing machine when I was asleep at night :/

Love this thread, but am horrified by the terrible home lives that some people experience.

This one's from my own house (on a typical suburban estate). My parents always had a few old clocks, and I didn't pay any attention to them. Recently discovered that the old clock in the kitchen is one from Nazi germany...it has an eagle of the Third Reich on it!

For the record, my family are not Nazis. Turns out my grandad was was in Germany at the end of the war and "liberated" this clock from a Nazi submarine factory. It's still keeping perfect time, according to my dad.

I made a new friend at secondary school and was delighted to be asked round to her house for dinner and a sleepover. My mum took me round and when we walked in I became aware the house was pretty messy, dirty and cluttered and I saw my Mum screw her nose up ever so slightly. In the lounge I saw a knife on the carpet in the lounge and politely went to pick it up only to find it firmly adhered to the floor like it had been superglued. The mum told me not to worry and leave it.
After dinner I needed a wee so went to the separate toilet which clearly hadn’t been hoovered for a long time as all around the skirting and on the floor was basically little fragments of toilet roll of varying colours (skid mark colours). When the Mum made us lunch the next day the cat got up on the work surface and proceeded to actually step on the bread she was buttering and licked the ham. She finished making that sandwich and gave it to ME.
The Dad was forever in his armchair with a cup of tea welded to his hand. That’s where he sat when he got home from work and basically all weekend. He didn’t seem to move and ate his dinners only after everyone else, including the Mum, had eaten. We would sit at their picnic bench to eat dinner and my arms would literally stick to the table from years worth of grime. I saw the Mum get out the Hoover once and she literally did one straight line through the middle of the lounge with it and then put it away. It was weird to me because my family home was very clean and I’d never seen a house like this.
They were actually a really nice family and there was no neglect with the children, just the house.

When I went and stayed a few weeks later that bloody knife was still on the floor.

Ok, this will be very outing indeed but who cares.

When we were kids we spent most holidays and weekends all going to work with my dad, crammed in his van or in the back of the car going round various garages while my dad fixed the car washes. It was very boring indeed but my parents insisted.

Anyway, one year my sister’s birthday treat was to take a friend with us, the treat being that we could take our rolaboots and skate round on the smooth tarmac behind the car wash.

God knows what that girl thought of our Weird oppressive authoritarian family.

Schadenfreude another one who always puts out plates and cutlery for fish n chips I'm afraid! (Only out of the paper/polystyrene if eaten on the pier/beach). Never thought it was odd!

The one that I most remember was a friend from school. He lived with his "uncle" who was clearly a hoarder. Literally whole rooms piled high with newspapers, boxes and national geographic magazines. Once one room was full they'd just move on to the next room. The last time I saw him you couldn't get upstairs as every bedroom was full. My friend had moved his bed in the living room and was camped there. He told me the roof was falling in upstairs but it was ok because the piles of things were holding it up?! They no longer used the bathroom but washed in the kitchen sink. There was a loo downstairs but it had no seat and was pretty horrific so I didn't ever drink much when I was there. Always felt quite sad for him.

Two I can think of:

One very ‘old money’ mansion belonging to my primary school friend’s parents. They had so many rooms (and garden rooms) I never did see them all, despite going over regularly. The mother had the class, the father had the money (basically a mafia guy). By then the marriage was faltering and she just seemed wholly repulsed by him. I never saw them in the same room at the same time in 6 years. Despite them always both being home. Also the mother had a thing for harp music, so made all 5 kids learn to professional standard. Harps everywhere!

And then there was my mum’s mate, who’d I’d visit with her. They’d chat, and I’d ‘read her bathroom’. She had white tiles and a basket of coloured markers for people to add drawings or write sentences or whatever they liked. The walls were covered solidly! She had many bohemian friends, so some quite instructive stuff! I remember I could never quite find the courage to add anything myself- too well trained by my ‘showhome’ mother. I still wonder what on earth they found to natter about!

I always put out cutlery and plates for fish n chips. Doesn’t everyone?

NO!

You eat it out of the paper (or the polystyrene these days).

Why would you use a plate and cutlery?