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Original poster

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

646 replies

00100001 · 14/08/2021 21:53

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.

OP posts:
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8
Hellvelyn · 16/08/2021 21:10

My mum used to serve Angel Delight mixed with a crushed up Weetabix. It was a regular dessert in our house. I thought everyone had this until DH told me he thought it sounded weird!

Bleachmycloths · 16/08/2021 21:12

A full sized dustbin in the main bedroom - almost full of rubbish 🤮

MrsJackWhicher · 16/08/2021 21:19

@30degreesandmeltinghere

My bff's df used to iron his money wearing just his underpants!! No sight a teenager should see..
GrinGrinGrin
Ladyrattles · 16/08/2021 21:31
  1. Gerbil cage in the kitchen next to where my friend was preparing food. I found that a bit odd.
  1. My first BF parents used to cook whole pigs heads. I used to find that really bizarre.
  1. A relative used to always have car & motorbike parts in their living room. And nobody ever commented lol.
PastyMuncher · 16/08/2021 21:39

An ex boyfriend whose Mum had had a ceramic bust made of him and one of his brother too. Totally bizarre Hmm

DowntrainTrain · 16/08/2021 21:41

Back in the early 1970s, I was invited for tea at a new friends house. After tea, we went to play ‘dancing’ in the best room (as it was called)
My friend couldn’t reach the light switch so we just bounced around in the dark… I found the huge cactus collection belonging to her Dm!! They were everywhere and I had fell over and landed on the damn things😱 God, the pain!! It took ages ages to tweezer all the spines out - and her Dm was furious with me!! I had broken her best cactus (huge thing😡)
I have a real aversion to cacti now and it’s almost 50 years ago!

Megjobethamy · 16/08/2021 21:43

Pigs Head or Pigs Cheek was a very popular delicacy in Ireland in the 40’s to 60’s….Wouldn’t be for me!!

Lovemusic33 · 16/08/2021 21:46

My friends grandma (who she lived with) would feed a big rat that used to visit her in her bedroom. Was sat there one day and rat ran out and started eating bird food from under the bird cage 😬😬l

RebaJ22 · 16/08/2021 22:07

I went for a viewing at a house earlier this year, as I walked into the living room I noticed a big plastic tub with black moving blobs, she quite proudly pointed out that it was her collection of tadpoles and she had about 200, the smell from that house is still haunting me months later!

bondgirl76 · 16/08/2021 22:16

Out of interest..what is Hitler memorability????

BSideBaby · 16/08/2021 22:23

As a teenager, walking into the living room at my boyfriend's parents house to find him ironing his socks.

hotbutteredtoasttreat · 16/08/2021 22:26

A new girl joined our secondary school, they were English but had grown up in the ME where her father owned or part owned an oil rig thing. She seemed very posh to me and very upper class and I was really looking forward to going to her house. We were 16, and when I arrived at her house her very eccentric mum was very welcoming and started rubbing her hands together with glee stating she had a very special treat for dinner. When friend asked what it was she very excitedly exclaimed "hot buttered toast!" as if this was the most luxurious food ever. I was a bit Hmm and wondering if she was joking or something, then my very well spoken friend bellowed "WOULD YOU SHUT THE F*CK UP!" at her, and the mother replied "oh I'm sorry dear" in a really cheery voice. I was in total shock at this, but everyone just carried on as if this was normal. The hot buttered toast was presented with much joy from the mother, and my friend and her older brother kept shouting, swearing and mocking the mother who just went on oblivious. I used to visit them often and could write a book about the odd things that went on there. On one occasion the mother was sitting in the kitchen sink with her trousers rolled up, and was pontificating wildly about the benefits of Jiffing your knees 🤣

safariboot · 16/08/2021 22:32

Something light hearted as an antidote to all the sad or nasty stuff. Round playing cards. Makes it super easy to shuffle by just spreading all over the table. Never seen them again.

FortunesFave · 16/08/2021 22:39

@hotbutteredtoasttreat

A new girl joined our secondary school, they were English but had grown up in the ME where her father owned or part owned an oil rig thing. She seemed very posh to me and very upper class and I was really looking forward to going to her house. We were 16, and when I arrived at her house her very eccentric mum was very welcoming and started rubbing her hands together with glee stating she had a very special treat for dinner. When friend asked what it was she very excitedly exclaimed "hot buttered toast!" as if this was the most luxurious food ever. I was a bit Hmm and wondering if she was joking or something, then my very well spoken friend bellowed "WOULD YOU SHUT THE F*CK UP!" at her, and the mother replied "oh I'm sorry dear" in a really cheery voice. I was in total shock at this, but everyone just carried on as if this was normal. The hot buttered toast was presented with much joy from the mother, and my friend and her older brother kept shouting, swearing and mocking the mother who just went on oblivious. I used to visit them often and could write a book about the odd things that went on there. On one occasion the mother was sitting in the kitchen sink with her trousers rolled up, and was pontificating wildly about the benefits of Jiffing your knees 🤣
God. Maybe the Mum had read lots of Enid Blyton and thought that toast was a marvelous teatime treat. They were always eating "hot buttered toast' in Blyton's books weren't they? Making the most mundane thing sound like a treat was one of Enid's better qualities.
safariboot · 16/08/2021 22:42

Oh, and there was that time I got roped into helping someone do a moonlight flit. Presumably skipping out on the unpaid rent from their old place. Furniture tied to the car roof and it fell off on a roundabout!

BSideBaby · 16/08/2021 22:48

My toaster is on a tray in the cupboard. I fucking hate it.

Hated mine so much I threw it away and use the grill instead. Why have crumby surfaces and cupboards when you don't need to?

adeleh · 16/08/2021 23:05

@hotbutteredtoasttreat

A new girl joined our secondary school, they were English but had grown up in the ME where her father owned or part owned an oil rig thing. She seemed very posh to me and very upper class and I was really looking forward to going to her house. We were 16, and when I arrived at her house her very eccentric mum was very welcoming and started rubbing her hands together with glee stating she had a very special treat for dinner. When friend asked what it was she very excitedly exclaimed "hot buttered toast!" as if this was the most luxurious food ever. I was a bit Hmm and wondering if she was joking or something, then my very well spoken friend bellowed "WOULD YOU SHUT THE F*CK UP!" at her, and the mother replied "oh I'm sorry dear" in a really cheery voice. I was in total shock at this, but everyone just carried on as if this was normal. The hot buttered toast was presented with much joy from the mother, and my friend and her older brother kept shouting, swearing and mocking the mother who just went on oblivious. I used to visit them often and could write a book about the odd things that went on there. On one occasion the mother was sitting in the kitchen sink with her trousers rolled up, and was pontificating wildly about the benefits of Jiffing your knees 🤣
It sounds like a Barbara Trapido novel.
CambsAlways · 16/08/2021 23:15

A cow, yep a real live one, in their farmhouse kitchen,

CherryRipe1 · 16/08/2021 23:22

An ex b/f had alcoholic parents who were often sparko & partially clothed when I went round. The house was presided over by a parliament/mischief of uncaged magpies that crapped everywhere.
Dd's freind's mum had a weird looking cheese/bread board with holes hanging on the kitchen wall. When I enqired what it was for she said it was a fraternity paddle & she whacked the kids & husband with it if they acted up. I thought she was joking & chuckled somewhat. A bit later I heard a rumour on the mums grapevine that social services had been involved over something to do with the kids. Hmmmm.

Vomtastical · 16/08/2021 23:25

Dogs. Yes. I realise Brits think it's normal, but where I was born, dogs are outside animals and considered the way most Brits view rats. Still seems hideously unhygienic to me, and I've been here for decades.
Reading the disgusting stories on here about dogs pooing and peeing in people's homes, I still don't understand the appeal in keeping filthy scavenging animals indoors. 🤮🤮🤮

alexdgr8 · 16/08/2021 23:29

staying overnight at school pal;s flat, staggered in morning to loo, shrieked as i saw what looked like a scene of slaughter in the bath.
her mother came rushing, said, oh i meant to say, i knew you wouldn't like it, as if that was some peculiarity of mine.
apparently she always soaked offal in the bath, doesn't everyone.
nothing could have prepared me, a bathful of internal organs bobbing about, early in the morning. guess i was just a wimpey kid.
this will be outing if she reads it. or does everyone do it ?

Martz · 16/08/2021 23:34

Technically not “in” someone’s house, but I once drove past a house that had a tree stump outside with around a dozen teddy bears stuck to it Confused

What's the strangest thing you've seen in someone's house that they thought was 'normal'?
Saz12 · 16/08/2021 23:35

Vomtastical - I totally agree with you!

myfaceismyown · 16/08/2021 23:39

[quote grey12]@00100001 regarding eating crisps with knife and fork

I just want to explain that is was as a side to a main meal and not straight from the packet Grin

They would carefully fit the crisp in between the thines of the fork and help balance it with the knife Wink Everyone thought it was unnecessary but the father of the family insisted. [/quote]
@grey12 I think your friends were just having game chips with their dinner. Perfectly reasonable. I have cheated myself and warmed up thick ready salted (or unsalted) crisps rather than go through the faff of making my own game chips. My mother made her own and would serve them as a special treat We would not have dared to eat them with our fingers...

EastWestWhosBest · 16/08/2021 23:44

What gets me in stories like this is how the mum and dad have decided this is how they are going to live their lives.
As a kid when you go to someone else’s house and they act like it’s all normal that there is a pig in the living room or you can’t speak at the dinner table or you should wipe your arse on a towel. But at some point a couple have got together, set up home and decided on these rules.

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