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

@letssplashmummy my alcoholic father works have passed out like you've described. Just a thought

My friend wasn't allowed milk on her cereal because it was too expensive and extravagant. I found that out the hard way after a sleepover, when a cup of warm water was poured over my weetabix.

Our next door neighbours - normal council semi - made a bar in the lounge from the prow of a boat. It took up about two thirds of their living room, an actual boat, that they stocked with drinks and called a bar. We used to sit on it to watch Captain Caveman.

ColdTatty I ask my family how much of everything, including potatoes, they want before I cook. My Mum always did it and it seems normal and sensible to me. Why cook food that's not going to be eaten?

I don't remember any weird things happening at other people's houses apart from being shown my friend's dad's porn magazines but I remember being mortified when another friend visited me once. We were sat on my bed talking and as my friend adjusted her position there came the tell tale rustle of plastic sheeting. For some reason my mother insisted on having plastic sheeting on my bed when I was 13, despite me not having peed the bed since I was tiny. Of course my friend asked if I peed the bed and I said no but I know she didn't believe me. Sigh.

Following

Went to a friend's house to sleep over and we were talking quietly top and tailing when her mum came in, screamed and dragged her out the bed and made her sleep in the baby's room. I was terrified.

Another friend: her dad got really drunk and cried about what a shit dad he was on the landing for over an hour whilst my friend consoled him and I sat in her room. I think we were about 11.

Made friends with a loner at school who was adopted. Her adopted mum was batshit. Poor friend's bedroom looked like a little guest room from the 1950s (early 2000s) and she was just so strict with her. Very religious and cruel.

Haven’t yet RTFT but @ChocChipWookie, the use of mum and dad when talking to each other cracked me up, my DPs parents do exactly the same thing! I found it quite odd too but scarily, having had our daughter, we’ve now found ourselves doing it 😂

Went for a sleepover with another friend to our friends house. We were 16 and her mum was at work but their lodger was in. We were in her room munching on pizza when the doorbell rang, it got ignored... but later it rang again, then loads of loud knocking... then a guy shouting through the letterbox that he had the girl from the escort agency here! Lodger legged it downstairs, friends bedroom was above the front door so we looked out to see the lodger band the guy a load of cash and the woman come in! We called her mum straight away and she left work and basically kicked him out there and then!

I remember being invited at a birthday party of a girl that I had met at choir. We were about 8 and the birthday dinner that we were served was pig’s tongue! My first and only time of eating tongue!!

Fascinating thread, but what a lot of tragic stories. So many people really should never be allowed to have children.

My friend's sitting room had white wallpaper with red flowers on two walls and red wallpaper with white flowers on the other two walls. I really liked it but it was a bit busy.

The sofas were covered in another floral pattern entirely and then coated in plastic. We would rustle, squeak and stick to the sofa in hot days.

Her dad used to yell at us for laughing too much. He hated us laughing. It drove him crackers. We were 12/13 and used to giggle a lot.

He kept his porn stash under the sitting room floorboards. My friend showed me and we would stare in fascination at the covers of the video tapes.

@GeistohneGrenzen
You weren't far off the mark!
@wanderings
I'm not sure I like how cunning that is. Lol.

My BF at primary school lived in a farmhouse that had been two houses together; it had two separate attics and one was derelict - it had rooms with no windows or lights, rooms you couldn't walk across etc. The other attic was ok but one day one of the roof tiles came down with the weight of all the fungi behind it. Great long trails of fungi going from floor back up into the ceiling, and they just left it there. The garden was a bit of field they never mowed.

Her mum belonged to a religious sect/cult. She used to make religious statements out of nowhere, and if you politely said no thank you to her food, she would say, "You have to have some because I made it specially." She'd serve it from old school dinners urns and pots.

She was a very kind-hearted woman and I did love being there, but god, we camped in the garden once and weren't allowed to speak in the tent in case we woke up her stepdad in the house! Also, I caught her scraping flies' eggs off the morning bacon once.

Our neighbours at the end of the lane let their goats in the house and when one went to slaughter, kept its heart in the fridge for the dogs. You could hear the rats running around behind the panelling, and every day the bog backed up so the mum would go out and stick the poker into the septic tank! Euw!

I'm not even that old. Our NDN had no indoor plumbing and did bucket and chuck it. It was a very rural area, but this was the 90s (and he died about 5 years ago).

Once I started high school (13), I met new friends and one girl invited me to stay for the night. She had a little Jack Terrier dog and basically wanked it off in front of me! I was horrified and had to share a double bed with her; I literally slept on the edge of the bed and avoided her like the plague after that!! Years later, I did Ann Summers parties. There was a red vibrator that looked like the poor dog’s willy. I was telling the story and I kid you not - she walked into the room as I was getting to the punchline!!! We’re friends on fb but I don’t even know if she got how messed up it was to do that to her dog

@BertieBotts I have written about it before, I don’t remember which thread, or when though!

My parents were post war babies and responded by being very generous with portions.
But when DP and I were first married we didn't have snacks either in the house. I remember a friend popping in and staying, and then saying they were hungry and what snacks did I have. All I could offer was toast or a cheese sandwich or an apple. We were just following how our parents brought us both up to have 3 meals and no snacks. That used to be the norm.

Going to a friend's house after being invited to a friend's house for a Halloween party, it was fancy dress & her mum lent me a Basque, stockings & suspenders so I could be a bunny girl, I was probably 16, we all had a good night, her mum had invited some friends as well, we were all staying the night, sleeping in the attic, about 20 teenagers. To get to the toilet you had to go through her mum's bedroom, I went to the toilet & her mum was naked banging away at some random bloke in bed, someone else went down later on & she was shagging someone else. We didn't know until years later that she was a working girl, prostitute. Years later her grandchildren went to the same school as my ds, she said hello to me in the playground at school, I didn't recognise her until she said who she was.

I have a few weird stories from my childhood but pretty similar to most of these (from the 70's/80's).
My own daughter though brought her friend for tea about 10 years ago when she & her friend we're about 13. I served a nice safe pasta. 'What is this?' she said. She'd never had pasta before & said she had no clue what it was & she wouldn't eat it. I thought this was really odd.

Reading this thread has made me realise why my mum was so stingy with food growing up. She was a post war baby. Born in 1945 and lived in a village in rural Scotland. She only ever made exactly what she thought was enough for one meal, really small portions. No leftovers. We were always asking for more and she was always baffled that we weren't full. She never did buy more though. I was always hungry. If you had looked in our fridge it would have maybe milk, butter and a few veg.
Her fridge is still the same now. You would never go to her house and expect a snack, and if you did you'd feel guilty as that'd be all her food gone!
As a result I bulk buy and hate not having lots of food in. I'm always worried my kids lunch boxes aren't packed with enough. I hated being hungry at school.
She was an older parent too and gave me a lot more freedom than my friends parents. I think that was the kind of freedom she had in her village but never occurred to her it wasn't appropriate where we lived. I think my friends parents thought I had no supervision and ran wild.

Mine aren't particularly strange but here goes.

1. Friend at primary school, way back in the 1970's. Her family were Indian and quite superstitious. I was shown around the house by my friend, and she pointed out that her sister slept with scissors under the pillow to defend herself from 'nightmare monsters' that often attacked her. Friend was about 7, her sister maybe 10. Looking back, I wonder if the parents knew she kept (very sharp) scissors in the bedroom.

1. Possibly outing if the person I was friends with is on here. Her mum had a very quick temper, and we're talking about the 1970s where corporal punishment was the norm. She'd been a bit lippy to her mum, so her mum lashed out at her, hitting her over the head with a (string) bag of sprouts that she happened to have in her hand as she'd been unpacking the shopping. The bag broke and sprouts went everywhere.

I remember when I was about 11/12 (in year 7 at school) going to a concert with my friend and then staying over at her house. Her step-dad was always grabbing her bum and he’d go and get up in the top bunk with her in the middle of the night, I didn’t really think much of it as I was young but a few years later at 13/14 she came out and said he’d been doing unspeakable things, her mum left him right away and they moved up north, the step dad went to prison but he’s still down here,
I bumped into him in the supermarket quite recently. Thankfully it’s been 15years + since this all happened so he wouldn’t recognise me but I was a witness in court. I never saw my friend since she moved which is sad but looking back I feel so traumatised for her!!

@Rubyupbeat I agree with @32FannyDingo - there is also more than a strong chance that this man abused other children and your reporting may well help authorities put the pieces together.

No - sadly mine was the weirdo house I'm sure everyone talked about. My dad was and is a dreadful hoarder. Having my mum say 'sorry about the mess - we're decorating' was normal. I did think all my friends lived in show houses as they were SO tidy. It wasn't until I left home that I realised everyone else was normal and my house definitely wasn't. :(