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

My uncles next door neighbour kids smashing up an old caravan in their back garden with axes and hammers wearing tights over their heads. I was watching them out of a back window and it was terrifying. They demolished the whole caravan in about an hour!!

Wow, some of these post are shocking.
I grew up in a normal, ordered, loving household but we envied our neighbours who were allowed play handball against the wall in their front room. They ate dinner with their fingers and went to bed when they liked.
All perfectly functional adults now.

The strangest thing I ever seen was staying at a school friend's when I was 10/11. No-one was allowed to use the toilet in the night. Her Mum put chamber pots in the bedrooms because apparently the noise was too much for her Dad and he "worked".

Not even with 6 girls staying over was an exception made. Her Dad worked 9-5 for the council. It's not like he did crazy shifts. Most people only stayed over with her once as no-one liked peeing in the night on a pot in front of everyone

My house was the strange one though. My parents were abusive, but my father especially

When he invited someone round, usually a friend of one of my brothers as they were the eldest, kids always loved it. He was loud and funny, he played games and there was mountains of food and fizzy drinks. The more enthusiastic he was the more we knew we were going to cop it later

I remember being 3 or 4 and stuffing down pizza he ordered because even at that age I knew we'd be going hungry the next day or two.

Then when I was 7 we were taken by my grandparents. I was still the weird one as I lived with two "oldies" (as they were christened by a girl in my class) and my three siblings in a small 3 bed flat that just didn't fit us all, and often had a damaged front door or window if my father had come to try and take us back

Ruby

That is heartbreaking. That poor child. How awful!

@peachgreen same here, are you my sister 🤔

@SilverySurfer at my Grammar school there was a waste paper bin in the library made out of a real elephant's foot.

Ok so this is so weird I haven't really told people about it irl. Promise it is true.

My Great Aunt lived in a big house where lots of the grounds had been sold off to make a new housing estate. When we visited we would play with a girl who lived in the estate. We were about 8-10. She had an odd voice and a skin condition so wore a cap all the time and hid her face. She lived with her Grandad.

We played with her on and off for a year or so. I would go to her house and watch Byker Grove. Her bedroom was full of toys and dolls. Her grandad would go and have tea with my Auntie.

We didn't see her for a while then an article was in the local news about her and her 'grandad'. Apparently she was a woman in her 40s who had been posing as a child with this man. They had moved several times before they got to us and moved away after. They even bought school uniform for one of the local private schools and she would trot off to the bus stop.

I can't think how it happened now but I think we just accepted she was different and didn't really look too closely. So weird! My cousins and I occasionally chat about it just to make sure we haven't imagined it!!

rubyupbeat omg that is dreadful.
I knew a girl who invited me round, we weren’t that friendly so did think it was odd but happily went to visit. We were about 12. Her dad was loitering quite a bit. My dad was the local policeman.
Years later her father was jailed for abusing her and her sister. I often wonder if I was invited to warn off her dad ☹️

Aged about 15 and with a bunch of mates back at one lad’s very old and quirky house after an evening in the park with cider. I elected to stay in an unused room with one of our group who was exceptionally drunk in case he threw up and choked on his own vomit. The room was bloody freezing and I barely slept; in the middle of the night I was bothered by a persistent whimpering sound from somewhere close by, which I presumed was one of the dogs of the house. I asked my mate about it in the morning and he said that the dogs were in a different part of the house where I couldn’t have heard them. They didn’t keep them in that part of the house any more and his parents had moved out of that room because a little girl kept appearing in there. Cheers for putting us in that room and pissing off somewhere else lads, eh?

BeverlyGoldbergsHairAndJumpers Do you think her parents were having noisy sex?! 😊

@Rubyupbeat I feel so sorry for what happened to your friend and for you for having witnessed it.

Life size, full length portrait of Grandad. Wearing his SS uniform.

Sadly, I saw my best friends father grab her lovely mother by the hair and yank her out of the room.

Father later went to jail for some sort of financial thing. Totally served him right, IMO.

Such an interesting thread.

@ineedto kind of like in this ad?!

@Rubyupbeat, please please please contact the police about what you saw.

If there is any chance this evil man is still alive he can be prosecuted for what he did.

The fact that your friend is no longer alive does not prevent him being prosecuted, nor does the passage of time.

The CPS are still prosecuting historic sexual abuse cases going back as far as the 1950s.

Please do it for your friend.

If this man is still alive, even if he is in his 80s or 90s he could still be a danger to children.

Although these things were once swept under the carpet, the police and CPS will pursue these cases.

Please report what you saw.

My best friend couldn't get into bed at night until she removed the bottles of booze from under the mattress. They were hidden there by her mum so her dad wouldn't find them.
Her dad gave me a lift in his van once and tried to put his hand up my skirt (I was 17). I told my mum and she laughed. She actually thought it was funny.

Rip that poor girl.

A friends house where we weren't allowed in the lounge. It was totally and utterly spotless . If we wanted to watch tv we had to sit on the dining room side of the folding doors.
MY house was more of a 'kick your shoes off at the door and curl up on the sofa' kind of house.

I had a friend whose family did not ever seem to eat dinner. At different times during the evening they would each go to the kitchen and make toast or breakfast cereal and eat it alone. I had only ever eaten toast for breakfast and sugary cereal was a rare treat so my mind was blown.
The same friend and her brother also had to lock their bedroom doors because their sister used to steal things from them. The sister (aged about 15) stole the money their brother (about 20) had been saving for a deposit to rent somewhere and the parents' response was "well you should have locked your room then"! I've often wondered if they're still in contact with her as adults. They seemed very normal and a bit posh if you met them outside of their house. The girls had ponies and the drove nice cars etc, but the house was an absolute tip and they were pretty dysfunctional.

@Rubyupbeat that is fucking awful. That poor poor girl

@Rubyupbeat
Fuck
That’s so shocking.

This is actually not a funny one. [content warning: concerns rape]

When I was around 9 or 10, I went back to my friends house at lunchtime, from school,( it was the days you could let yourself into your house as the key was on a string inside the letterbox), we weren't meant to be there, but had sneaked out to buy chips instead of school dinners. All of a sudden we heard the front door open and she panicked and told me to hide behind the setee, it was her dad. All I can say is he never found out I was there, he then raped her, I could see it in the mirror, he told her after he was going back to work , to have wash and get back to school.
Do you know we never spoke about it again, I never told anyone,and we went out separate ways after primary school.
Looking back, it's obvious it was a regular thing, because of how accepting she was , she died when she was 19, we never found e out how, but as an adult, I often wonder if it was suicide and went through a lot of self blame for not speaking out, but I realise now I was so young and it was a different era, I am 56.

Rubbish typing, apologies!

On a brighter side I went to have tea at a friend when I was in grammar school. There was something boiling in a saucepan that smelt awful and looked even worse, Luke white sponge, vile! Her dad said it was tripe and for our tea!
I knew I would have to eat whatever I was offered out of politeness but was already gagging inwardly.
He laughed and said not really, that was for the dogs, ours was cottage pie, thank god.
I'm still friends with her and at her 50th her dad saw me and said "That's the girl with the tripe!"