What's the strangest thing you've seen in someone's house that they thought was 'normal'?

[00100001]

I'll go first.

When I was 7, I went to a friend's house, and had bright red mashed potatoes for dinner.her dad always put food colouring in food. She thought this was normal, a d everyone had coloured mash.

A horse. I went to play with a new girl from school when I was about 8, and there it was in their front room. Her mom gave us carrots and we fed it. Over 40 years ago now, and I still remember how jealous I was.

I had another friend whose cats slept all over the kitchen work surfaces etc. One had a fondness for sleeping in the wok (which was kept out permanently on the stove top). When her mum needed it to cook with, she turfed the cat out, lightly brushed the fur out with her hand and put the food in it to start cooking
Needless to say, I rarely stayed for dinner.

When I was given the option of hot baked beans or cold at a friend's house when I was about 8.Still shudder now at the thought of cold bean juice.

Rice pudding might be ‘fairly basic’, but it’s still a delicious hot dessert, isn’t it? I could understand bafflement if they were all excited about pudding and it was an individual shared bag of prawn cocktail crisps, but my DC now would still all get excited at a rice pudding/crumble/cobbler, all fairly simple but exciting if you enjoy it.

Still baffled by that post.

"you just don't feed someone else"s baby without parent/carer's permission!"

That's quite a new idea though. You can't blame older or childless people for not knowing this.

I mean, particularly that it’s only once a week. Most DC I know wouldn’t give a shit about a fancy main or dessert, but really love the traditional treats of their family. Bit snobby, maybe?

@MintyGreenDream

When I was given the option of hot baked beans or cold at a friend's house when I was about 8.Still shudder now at the thought of cold bean juice.

@MintyGreenDream

mine eat cold baked beans straight out of the tin!
it started with me noticing that by the time they'd eaten their toasts the beans would be cold (they'd not eat beans on toast, only beans after the toast😁).
so the next time I didn't bother heating it, just served it from the tin. they weren't aware and the result was the same, they ate it all regardless!

@2021V2

I also had a woman from work would invited me around for dinner with 'the boys' I went and she had two stuffed teddy bears one on each chair -they got fed as did I and she talked like they were proper children - I had no idea before I went they weren't real.

She had also opened bank accounts for them (back the 1970s) and each bear (Tommy and Charles) had a huge amount of savings -I often wondered what happened to her -just weird

Tell me more about her! Did you speak to her much after that? Presumably it wasn't some epic windup at your expense?

@Monestera

I appreciate that these are popular with lots of people, but I find the huge family portraits really weird. The whole family dressed up, sometimes in coordinating outfits, and taken with a soft focus.

A memorable example was at an ex-boyfriend's. He'd moved back home after uni shortly before we got together. Pride of place in the living room was a series of these photographs, but the one I remember is of Ex and brother (both adults) posed lovingly staring at mother with their hands clasped on her shoulders. Makes me shudder to think of it.

Yes I remember back in about 2004/05 when I’d have been 17,18, I went to a friend’s house, we’d gone to school together since primary but never gone to his house before. I went to the loo and opposite the loo was a family portrait. Probably from about 1995 so my friend and his sister were kids, all dressed in 90s style clothes obvs, soft focus, all gently grinning at me as I did my wee. Nice enough picture if you’re into that sort of thing but such an odd place to put it! Both for guests and the family alike! I don’t want to make eye contact with 1995 child me as I push out a tricky poo.

That sounds a bit better with a salad combo but it's still an unusual pairing cucumber and vinegar,saying that though @00100001 gherkins I'm on board with.

Not really! It's a classic pickle. Nigella has an amazing recipe for it in one of her books.

We used to have rice pudding and jam as for pudding with my school dinners back in the 1980s it was lovely and still make it myself occasionally now. Also love bananas and hot custard which some people think is strange too.

@Gwenhwyfar

"you just don't feed someone else"s baby without parent/carer's permission!"

That's quite a new idea though. You can't blame older or childless people for not knowing this.

@Gwenhyfar

who told you they were old? or childless?
why do you assume either?
should I assume you are old and childless because you think it's a new thing?

How is it a new idea?
Unless the child is in your care and you are asked to give them food & drinks (which usually come with some instructions) you simply don't do that.
And you especially don't do that to a baby.

my mum was just as shocked that my aunt did that to DS1. and then of course it became the hot news of the day (🙄) and every single person who heard about it - regardless of age, sex, nationality or parental status - agreed with me. 20 years ago.

it's not new.

It’s not an unusual pairing at all...

Very common in Germany, Scandinavia and other European countries. We always have sweet pickled cucumber with our roast dinners and with lunches at home (Denmark).

@DoubleShotEspresso

A glass display case the height and width of the living room, containing Hitler memorabilia. Was chilling to be offered a cup of tea when I walked in and then taken into the living room to be greeted with such a horrific sight as if this was normal decor. Disturbing

Bloody hell!!!!

When I was kid, salt and vinegar was THE dressing for salad

@IncludeWomenInThePrequel

Life size clowns. Two 'sitting' posed at the dining room table, and another two lying on the double bed holding hands.

Thought I was gonna be murdered in that house and sewn into a clown suit.

This is horrific! You win the thread.

@Monestera

this is the only acceptable self-potrait ever.
🤣
(in case you"ve no idea watch White Chicks)

@Wrongsideofhistorymyarse

Dolls on every available surface

😬

Down the road from me is a 1st floor flat with a lifesize cardboard Elton John complete with star glasses stood at the window.
A bus stop is directly opposite and on occasion people have commented about being stared at by that man at the window 😂

@sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea

The duckling. My very lovely friend can't help herself from 'rescuing' wildlife and found an abandoned duckling which she took home to tend. It was very happy in the garden and the bath. Bit weird when I first went to her house and it watched me go to the loo...

But she worried that it might not be ok without her, so every time she had to come out for work events, she brought the duckling. In a bucket. We were supposed to be holding a VERY serious conference with all sorts of visiting academics doing powerpoint presentations in front of a very serious audience. At every small silence, you could hear the gentle quacks of the duckling as it rotated itself around a bucket at the front of the room.

This is fantastic! 😁

A real stuffed bear. In my parents friends house. Hated going to their toilet up the stairs. It was a big fancy old fashioned house. That wasn't the only stuffed animal they had, but it was the biggest and it gave me the creeps.

When DP was a child, the people uk the road kept a horse in their garden. Not a little pony, or Shetland, a full sized horse that they rode around the street with no saddle. Council estate so only small gardens.

My Nan did the cucumber in vinegar thing too but us kids weren't allowed to have any. Me and my cousins used to gaze wide eyed at it and sneak slices out when she wasn't looking.

@pheonixrebirth and @Peregrina, I'm in Chorley and also scratching this itch now! Was it sliced onions or sliced cucumber?! I'm going to ask my dad. My mum was a Chorley but no longer with us, she'd remember. Dad's a Wiganer but might remember.

@pheonixrebirth

Going for Sunday dinner at my friends house and her mum put a plate of sliced cucumbers in vinegar on the table along with the gravy boat. I've never seen or heard about cucumbers in vinegar before or since. Just weird???

That's very normal. It's traditional to have cucumbers/onions in malt vinegar on Yorkshire puddings.