Things you didn't know weren't normal

[Applescruffle]

What are things you thought every one or every family did until you became an adult or entered a new relationship?

I'll start. I thought that everyone ate the leftover yorkshires after a roast dinner as desert eg: fill them with cream and fruit or custard or something, basically use them like you would a pancake... no?

I thought everyone peeled mushrooms, I didn't know that not only do people not peel mushrooms, lots don't even know they have peel!! 😱

I'll probably think of more.

Nb: I'm not meaning to trigger anyone's childhood or relationship trauma, I just mean lighthearted things x

I don't like mushrooms but I can definitely remember my mum peeling them.

Definitely no butter with peanut butter! Although I do like it with jam.

DM always made her roast potatoes in boiling water and I’ve never come across them made that way by anyone else.. I also didn’t know that homemade soup was a thing.. I thought it only came in a tin from Heinz!

I always thought that cheese on toast was called roasted cheese because that was what my my mum and dad called it.

Also that you always had pudding, usually tinned peaches and carnation milk or Angel Delight and Dream Topping.

I have also learned a lot about Yorkshire pudding on here.

Toast cannot be eaten with jam unless there is butter on it too. This also applies to pate.

With you on chewing gum, but we were told it would bodge up your innards, not heart. I was a bit confused about why shops would freely sell such dangerous items to people.

Also still nervous to combine painkillers and fizzy drinks!

@Limitedisall definitely haggis that have two legs shorter so they don't fall off! DH is from the land of haggis and used to keep the kids entertained with the story about how to catch them - DC3 (now 17) still has fits of giggles when he tells it!!!!!

That girls don't have to set the table and help clear up and boys dont

A classmate called the G clamp the 'G string' in woodwork and the teacher then called it g string all year as did the other students. Wasn't till I asked my dad if I could use his g string I learned they were mocking the poor child

What do you mean about the roast potatoes? She boiled them first, then roasted them? This is perfectly normal. Literally everyone from Jamie Oliver to me Nan does this. It's how you make roast potatoes
Or do you mean something else?

Oops apologies!

I have read this site for years and never bothered to sign up- but this… this I had to make an account for.

My nan used to crack nuts in her bicep with this action 💪🏽 .. no really. I believed this my whole life until at the grand age of 22 my boyfriend and I were arguing over him claiming it was impossible. I left a message on my nans answering machine telling her to call me back with urgency to set him straight.

she called me back absolutely pissing herself that I believed all this time she was cracking nuts in her bicep when in reality she was using a nut cracker and slipping it in between when I wasn’t looking.

My mind is still blown 10 years after this discovery.

I'm a kiwi... white bread spread with butter and hundreds and thousands on top is called "Fairy Bread". Great for children's parties.

That BBC tv doesn’t have adverts. Must have been in my twenties before I realised that.

April fools day DH told his y7 students that sausages were little creatures that had their arms and legs cut off. Cue lots of tears

I am with you @IrisBearded ..cannot imagine eating peanut butter toast without butter!

My Dad used to come home after a hard day’s work, eat his dinner and then take his trousers off. He would then sit around in his pants watching the tv for the rest of the evening.
it seemed so normal I thought that all men sat around in their y-fronts at home. A la Jim Royale.
In later years long after I’d left home and he’d retired he got some jogging bottoms to sit around in. So either someone had told him it was weird or the penny had finally dropped for him.

Switcher · Today 19:18
At children's parties in Australia, it was traditional to serve white bread with the crusts cut off, liberally spread to the edges with butter, and covered in 100s and 1000s. It was one of the things I was most excited about at my kids 5th birthday and not only did nobody eat them, all the parents were absolutely horrified and looked at me like I was a heathen!! Oh well.

You've got one thing wrong here - for fairy bread you don't use butter, you need bright yellow margarine for the full effect

:-)

I didn't know this either as I didn't go to University. My husband told me one evening when he was talking about his University days. He didn't laugh at me as he is not an asshole. What a horrible thing for your colleague to do.

As a child (seventies), I think It was more normal to have home bonfire night events.

I’ve poured neat milk on pies and crumbles when I haven’t had any ice cream or custard.

@Fedupwitheveryone yes this is true! I was poshing it up, I thought! 😂

I would have to bring a jar of bistro ..I cannot imagine a roast without gravy 😳

I was trying to find this comment so I could reply!

Bread sauce goes on poultry in tbe same way mint sauce is for lamb, apple sauce is for pork, horseradish is for beef....

It's NOT a substitute for the gravy, the gravy is for the whole meal, the sauces are for the meat.

I also don't understand how these people had bread sauce with every roast. Do they always have chicken?

I always do this and berate DH for not doing this !

Mushrooms can be peeled? People wipe them down instead of just sticking the punnet under the tap and rinsing them? Well, shit.

I didn't realise that not everyone put butter on their pasta. Growing up, any pasta dish we'd have, my mum would cook the pasta, add a big blob of salted butter and stirred it through, then added whatever sauce. I've always done this too, I was only told it was weird last year!

Mushrooms can be peeled? People wipe them down instead of just sticking the punnet under the tap and rinsing them? Well, shit.
I dont even do that. Never washed any fruit or veg. My mother is horrified.

My dad used to do this. It was called cheese muck up in our house and the correct way to eat it was to mop it up with torn off bits of sliced white bread. No knife and fork necessary. I thought it was normal until I mentioned it to other people.

My mother is a brilliant cook but honestly I always thought cooked carrots were done when they had lightly burnt in a pan that had boiled dry and set off the smoke alarm. Something of a blind spot she had, who knows. She used to call them "caramelised."

Carrots never seem to taste of owt now without that light singeing :D

The first Christmas after my brother got married we went round for the day and his wife says "Do you do that weird thing your brother does where you take your presents away to open them in a separate room by yourself in silence"....YES I DO BECAUSE WE THOUGHT THAT WAS NORMAL!

I have idea how this came about. We weren't a very social or close family when we were growing up. Mum would just hand me a pile of presents then disappear off. Dad would be out at church or in the pub or still asleep. When my brother woke up he would be handed his presents and Mum would again disappear back into the kitchen or wherever by which point I'd usually be in another room. So opening presents alone in silence was the norm. I did this for so many years it now feels really sort of vulnerable opening them in front of others because they see what you got, and your reaction.

I only realised in my thirties that this wasn't normal when I stayed with friends. I was handed my pile of presents and cracked on opening them quietly and discretely. Then 5 minutes later we were all made to sit in a big circle and open them in turn, with her Dad filming each of us. And we have laughed about it, but it's all like Uncle Dave opening his jumper and saying "Thanks Mavis" and getting to walk across and circle to give his SiL a peck on the cheek, etc etc, and then the camera turns to me, and its very clear I just want to crawl underneath my chair and all I say is "I already opened them. Thanks everyone" and then the camera moves onto the next person. 🙈 🤣. Its just so EXPOSING opening presents in front of others!

My Brother has joyfully embraced the normal way of unwrapping presents at Christmas and birthdays and makes us all gather round, but it still makes me itch so given the choice I'd still rather do it alone in solace and silence.