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

*hoovered

Obviously if he was hovering that would also have been weird.

At a friend's house for a sleepover when I was 11, I got woken up at about 2am by her father hoovering. My friend told me and the other friend that he hovered most nights as it was peaceful

A friend’s Mum used to have the thick Gratran catalogue. Her Dad used to open the pages where the bras were and shoot through the tits with an air gun.

Another friend, if we went round there for tea, children weren’t allowed to talk at the table, so we used to sit there eating in silence.

There was a family in our road whose kids got taken into care. I remember the mum always looking very depressed and the dad was often drunk. I must have been about 8. I once got invited round to their house for a play and it was absolutely horrendous, no carpets, filthy, messy, dog shit everywhere. I distinctly remember the feeling of wanting to go home and never go back but that was their normal. I remember it being a bit of a scandal when the children got taken away but at least they got to live a normal life for a bit.

And then there was my best friends house. I sometimes went back for tea after school. We’d all sit down and eat in absolute silence. Her dad kept a wooden ruler on the table and would slam it down if he thought anyone was misbehaving. Even with guests there. And he was bloody awful to my friend. Insulted her in front of friends, called her dreadful names. Looking back I think he had some sort of problem, he was most definitely abusive.

Stayed over at a friend's house, she lived up the road. I used to think her parents were so cool, the mum had long, braided hair and the dad was a leather clad biker. They had a slot machine in the back sitting room and lots of gothic ornaments etc.

Anyway my friend and I were banished upstairs around 9pm but as it was a weekend we wouldn't settle and came downstairs for snacks. The front sitting room door was locked! We could hear music from inside the room, I always remember it was 3 non blondes 'whats's up' and as we could get no answer upon knocking we spied through the keyhole.
It was quite obvious that her parents were getting it on with another couple.

My friend shrugged and went to the kitchen, she made me instant noodles but used sesame instead of soy sauce. My ten year old self was more disgusted with this than thw goings on in the sitting room

I went to a friend's house where they had pictures of naked women on the bathroom wallpaper. This was in the 1970s.
She told me her mum wanted the family to go to a nudist camp for a holiday.

I knew a nanny who lived-in - the parents (French) used to wander around naked.

She said she didn’t know where to look when they would wander into the kitchen starkers to chat about dinner plans or give her a bollocking for something or other.

I went to a friend's house for tea many years ago, and when we finished eating, she and her sister both chanted "Thank you mummy for a very nice meal, and please may I leave the table?" in sing-song little voices. I told my mum when I got home, and she said "That's stupid, not all meals are very nice! "

I can remember staying being around 9 or 10, my first sleepover with a new girl on the street, her mum seemed really young and dad quite alot older, I must have queried this with my new friend and she told me they were all Italian, mum looked after her, dad looked after all of then as he was a doctor. Later on, mum and dad were cooking dinner for us, completely naked, I must've again said something as not what my home life was like, friend said it was because they were Italian. Bedtime came, naked mum put us to bed, but after a while friend asked me to follow her, that she had something to show me. Bathroom door was left ajar and mum was on top of dad, obviously to me now, riding dad. My friend, Stephanie, told me that they usually leave the door wide open so that she could learn how to make love!! I remember returning home, feeling a distinct lack of sophistication, retelling my stay to my mum - she told me off for making up stories! How fucked up they were, looking back, not the nudity but the teaching daughter (9 y old) to make love! (Yuck)

Some of these posts are so revealing in how times have changed, and some have made me laugh out loud. I don’t know why but the Dad who was in the navy climbing the stairs on all fours just tickles me!

Fascinating and in places heartbreaking thread. I'm certain some of these incidents will appear in upcoming novels. 👀

Have nothing to add as of yet but placemarking as some of these are hilarious

I remember my friends mum being an absolute health fanatic. The kids were banned from eating baked beans, Easter eggs would last months as she only allowed them to have a 50p size of chocolate a day. I remember her son getting so excited as he was allowed rice crispies for breakfast instead of branflakes. They would have Longley yogurts as a sweet and they would fight over the toffee flavored and dinner there would always be steamed fish and veg. Oh and butter was banned.
I'm all up for being healthy but the kids were so miserable. When ever friend came round me she'd be fascinated by my cupboards or fridge because we had beans, pizza or things like philadelpia etc.

I had a friend who's Dad used to walk around totally naked when her friends stayed over. It's so massively inappropriate but I was so speechless I never said a word 🤮

Going to a friends house for tea after school and finding Grange Hill was banned in their house!

That could’ve been my house - I also wasn’t allowed to watch marmalade Atkins! (parents were Christians!)

@Notso A friend I had as a teenager lived in a house where anything was ok, we could drink and smoke, climb on the worktops, write on the walls, play music as loud as we wanted, spray paint the living room. Anything. Looking back it must've been chaotic to live like that but it was also really welcoming. It didn't matter who my friend brought home or what time she came in with them there'd always be a cup of tea, a bed, or a plate of food for whoever it was.

This sounds like my parents’ house. It’s still like it now, and it is so comforting knowing I can turn up any time of the night and someone will offer me a cup of tea and chat. We are all ex smokers now though! Miss the days sitting and puffing smoke up the fireplace at 3am 😄

Brilliant thread op.

Reminds me of visiting my first boyfriend's home when I was 17. His mother was a SAHM and at the constant beck and call of BF, his brother and his father. Examples included cooking three totally different evening meals for each if they decided they wanted something different - not just ready meals but things like three different full roasts and trimmings. BF didn't think this unreasonable as they each contributed to the housekeeping. Her husband came in from work each evening and barely left his armchair before bedtime. Whenever he wanted a drink she got it for him no matter how many times he asked. Best was on Saturday afternoons when he was glued to the horse racing on the tv - she was constantly running out to the hallway to ring the bookies with his bets.

Oh my goodness Ruby. That is devastating.

I have a few, two happy, one not.

A friend who lived in a huge house (actually two 4/5 story Victorian terraced houses sort of knocked together) with endless family members. No one had their own room, they just slept where they fancied, and they had the most enormous pantry full of bulk bought food. It was incredibly warm and welcoming and I loved it there.

A very Evangelical Christian family who prayed lengthily at every given opportunity - they would all just grab hands or hug each other and start to pray. The Dad once took us for McD’s drive through and we had to thank God for the meal and each other before we could eat. But I loved it there too - I was and am an atheist but they really did embody Christian values.

The sad one - a school friend who is now a celebrity. She has semi famous parents who didn’t care what we did. Open drug use etc in the house. A few people have mentioned similar homes up thread and said they liked it but I HATED it. There was just a sad, toxic atmosphere in the house and I was always so glad to get home to my normal parents with their normal rules. It does turn out that she had a very unhappy childhood and I’m not in the least surprised.

I was about 13

At my friend's house on a sleepover and her Dad wouldn't leave me alone and kept telling me he could teach me how to kiss properly, while wagging his tongue at me He was in his 70s! I made every excuse to never stay there again, dirty old pervert

Some of these are awful. I really hope people who've grown up in abusive or neglectful situations are doing ok now.

I think we might have been the weird ones. We had a 'front room' which was never, ever used. It had a nice dining table and chairs, a bookshelf, and was pristine, but we never ate in there and mostly ate off our knees in the back. Kids were allowed round to play, but only in the yard or 'back room'. I don't remember anyone coming for a sleepover, I went to others a few times but could never sleep elsewhere so didn't really bother.

When I was a bit older, maybe 10 one younger friend's mum used to just dote on the new baby and basically ignore my friend, letting her roam the street after school as she didn't want the baby disturbed, friend was 8 and had nowhere to go at all. So she ended up at mine for tea a lot and would just go home to sleep.

A friend I made at uni had a house with her bf and 2 dogs. She let the dogs poo all over the place indoors and outdoors, and just never cleaned anything. Everywhere had fur or poo on literally everything, they'd regularly throw parties but never clean, but you were not allowed to smoke in the house. I don't know we ever went back actually. They even joked about 'the poo garden' being full of 'exotic species' while their friends were carefully stepping around piles of shit to try and have a cig.

Aged 7, being made to help pluck a chicken by hand. It gave me a long-lasting fear of feathers and I never went back to that friend’s house!

I had a friend who would just help themselves to literally anything in my house growing up. They would open the fridge, go through the cupboards etc. They where also allowed to do this at home.

However, as a guest in their house you had to ask her mum permission to get even a drink of tap water! Even if friend was making her self a drink, we would have to go into the next room and ask her mum if she could also make us one!!!

Boy next doors dad kept a loaded revolver in the bedside table and we used to sneak up and play with it... thought make me shudder now. We were 8/9 and the gun was really heavy so we couldn’t really point it at each other ...