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

@GlummyMcGlummerson I loved Chock-a-block! I used to record episodes of the Crystal Maze back to back, and watch them endlessly. I didn't try to make friends watch them, but I often imagined doing so, saying "here's an episode where they do very badly".

@PlumsGalore For some time in the 90s, we had a fixed menu of a certain meal on each day of the week, although weekends would be more spontaneous. Tuesday evening was always pancakes, including during Lent!

They had proper cooked food every night. I spent many an evening there, watching TV and getting fed while my parents were fuck knows where.

When I was about 14 in the 90s I bunked off school and went to my new friend's high rise flat in London. When we got up there his mum was smoking a joint and watching "enter the dragon" by Bruce Lee. I'd never heard of him and she put his films on all day for us which I of course thought was really cool. She also told us how she had actually invented punk and not Malcolm Maclaren and that he had stolen her idea. She had a huge fancy glass display cabinet and inside were hundreds of different lighters and bongs. I was fascinated by it all as my family were very ordinary and sensible.

@angieloumc my Mum did make us eat tripe. I can still smell it now
Not envy, obviously.

Never realised a schoolfriend had very religious parents. Over at hers one day, she showed me her brother's MASSIVE keyring collection. I said 'Bloody Hell, that's alot of keyrings!' She FREAKED out, panicking her parents heard me say this, she looked like she thought she'd be put to death or something. I wasn't invited back.

My best friend would never use his front door, like, EVER. I'm not sure if his parents told him not to or what, but I always thought that was so bizarre. I always had to go round the back to get into and out of his house. There was no logical reason for not using the front door. I got used to it and it wasn't a problem, I just always thought it weird.

Another friend's parents brought out forks and knives and plates to eat a fish supper

Another one's mother (clearly started her menopause, looking back) went crazy buying tonnes of plants and the house was like 'Day of the Triffids' She was also sitting around drinking gin in the middle of the day - this lady was a primary school teacher!!!

Neighbours who lived across from us had their dining room and kitchen curtains closed at all times, even in the middle of summer. Vampires?

This is new, I recently spotted this while visiting my dad at Christmas - the people next to the vampires(?) have their grown adult daughter, hubby and kids living in the house right next door and a special little gate in the middle of the two gardens to enter in and out of instead of just going around. I always thought the father was a bit of a creep. I would hate to have him right next door like that.

Shocked when asking J what she was having for tea ( we weren’t rich, worse off than J) that she said “egg and chips, it’s Tuesday” further questioning confirmed their menu was 7 things only, the same dish on the same day of the week.

My Mum's childhood was like this and my Nan still lives like this now.

I don't know every day but Tuesday is 'chop day' (lamb or pork), Friday is fish, Saturday is bacon and tomatoes and Sunday is (obvs) a roast dinner.

I remember going to a friends house in the middle of a town, she has a full sized pig which lived in her back garden, that was unexpected

I haven't read all of these (saving it for later) nothing too terrible but I remember going to a friend's house and at pick up time I was waiting for my dad, he was a few minutes late, and my friends dad said he's forgotten me and isn't coming, I almost cried and was so upset. Why would you do that to a young child? Being a parent now I just can't understand it? I didn't really like it there as they were smokers and it stank.

I wasn't allowed to watch Dallas or Eastenders but happily for me, was allowed to watch Grange Hill.

One friends house had little brothers who just used to get their willies out and pee on the carpet. The mum didn't bat an eyelid. They also tried to drown puppies they had, in a bucket.

Another friend had rabbits kept outside. She invited me to see them but they were all dead. It was winter and had been snowing.

I don't find that unusual as we weren't allowed to go upstairs unless it was to get changed or go to bed, my 0arents kept all of their papers and private stuff up there so probably didn't want kids nosing around

A family I knew had a mural on the living room wall of the whole family undead next to their own grave stones, drawn by the father. The same family had a million cats and a ouija board.

The weirdest one for me was when I went for a sleepover at a friends house - we were 15 and on the cusp of GCSEs so not little kids. Anyway it got to about 11pm and she declared she was putting her favourite video on. Here's me thinking it'll be dirty dancing or cocktail - no. It was a 3 hour long video of recorded baby programmes like school bus and chocca block. And she knew all the songs and sang along doing actions and everything! I was I'd known her for years and never knew she'd like that. Was very weird and she poked me every time I went to fall asleep because she wanted me to watch it all. I remember for about a week after that my mind was occupied solely with "WTAF was that all about?!"

They are common!!!

Stayed with a friend and we had chips for tea but we weren't allowed to make chip butties as they were common!

When I was about 12 I struck up a friendship with a girl new to my area,her mum worked through the night so we babysat the younger kids. I once asked the mum what her job was she told me she did autopsy’s...thing is she always went to work wearing mini skirts thigh high boots and a fur coat and was picked up by various men...it’s only looking back with the eyes of an adult that I’ve realised she was probably a prostitute 😳 😂

Best friends in our early teens, she lived in a modern style mansion, it looked like some sort of enormous cabin (like a ski resort style) and had loads of bedrooms, bathrooms, a gym, sauna, pool and jacuzzi, tennis court, and a WHOLE OTHER HOUSE on the grounds, along with stables of course, with two horses. Jesus, it was immense! I loved going there as they were a very close family and while they were a bit eccentric and perhaps a bit show off, there was a lot of love, affection and happiness. My friend once pointed out to me that I didn’t hug properly, I used to sort of lean away from it, simply because it didn’t happen in my house! My mother would sometimes say she loved me, but in the third person and usually after she’d hit me.
I spent a lot of time at other people’s houses really, as I pretty much hated being at home, sterile and sad with no real warmth. No one ever came to stay and if they did, they weren’t allowed to do anything really, and they could see I was nervous.
My house was clean (to ridiculous standards as my mother would do top to bottom every day) and I was always fed but a major lack of support and I always felt on edge because of her need for spotlessness, any kind of spillage was a disaster and would result in sulking or not talking to me. I remember being shocked when my friends would take glasses of water to bed with them!! Learnt a lot from my friends actually, my kids will be loved and told so! And by god will I let them drink water wherever they wish! My heart goes out to all the posts with tough stories to tell

I stayed overnight at a friend's house. At breakfast, her mum had a bowl of cornflakes which she'd poured whiskey over.

7.57am sorry

Omg and talking of French exchanges. I went on one and they didn’t like get ready in the mornings .. it’s hard to explain but they had four kids and we had to all leave at 8am for school. The first day the girl woke me up at 7.45 and we went down in our pyjamas for breakfast, and at about 8.57 they’d all sprint upstairs, chuck some jeans on and Rush out to go to school in whatever top they’d slept in, no shower no teeth brush... baffling ! I set an alarm for 7am the rest of the two weeks and got up, washed , teeth, did my hair. The mum told me not to shower in the mornings because it woke them up too early !

Footiefan2019, I know someone who had a similar set up re bedrooms for a while. I think that one parent worked weird shifts and disturbed the other coming home in the middle of the night, and so they swapped around until the shift worker got a new job/hours. Or something. Can't remember the details, but one child definitely slept in the same room as same sex parent, maybe even same bed for a couple of months.

• When I was about 13 I stayed at a friends house and we shared the bed. Top and tail, i woke up in the night to find her same end as me and she was masturbating! Luckily I wasn't facing her so I just pretended to be asleep.

• At another friends house the bath was full with real dirty water. I asked my friend about it and she said it was because they used the water over and over again.

A friend down my street slept in a room with her mum and her in two single beds, her dad in the box room and her brother in the other room. I’m sure there was some sort of explanation but at the time I thought It was really weird. We weren’t really allowed to play in her bedroom because it was full of her mums stuff except my friends ‘side’ had a kiddy bed spread and soft toys and a couple of posters/box of toys. The beds were like pine singles with a small wooden rail on one side as well, like a small safety rail.
I wonder if my friend had night terrors / sleepwalked or was really terrible at going to bed and that set up worked for them.

One of my friends through primary and into secondary had a brother who competed at a high level at a very very niche sport. Think like fencing or archery something like that. The dad would take him to this specialist Centre for practice like three or four days a week after school and sometimes the mum would go too which I found really bizarre and a bit mean as from age 11 ish my friend would be alone after school a lot. They bought a van for this ‘equipment’ for the sport even though I never saw him with anything other than a holdall type sports bag and maybe another small bag of equipment.
The dad always wore t shirts with the name of the Centre they competed with and like hoodies and baseball caps with things related to the sport like competitions they’d been to or companies that they got equipment from on and dressed in trainers and shorts and sporty stuff even though he was basically driving around and shouting from the sidelines at the son. I thought he was a sad bastard aged about 9 and I think I was spot on. They also used to give the son Different food to my friend - would go for tea and we would get oven chips and spaghetti hoops and the boy would arrive back at 8pm and the mum would be cooking him something more substantial / healthy. There were drinks and snacks in abundance in the cupboards but they were out of bounds as they were for the brother. Used to make me soooo angry! I felt so bad for my friend. The brother never even carried the sport on past about age 17. He is in his twenties and a tradesman now and I’m sure very happy but I bet the parents are lost without his hobby.