Page 22 | Things you didn't know weren't normal

Applescruffle · 2023-08-08T17:43:07+00:00

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

Siouxiesiouxiesioux · 09/08/2023 07:09

Scorchio84 · 08/08/2023 23:27

My nana said the same thing too!!!

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Maybe they do. It sounds plausible.

fivetriangulartrees · 09/08/2023 07:19

Applescruffle · 08/08/2023 20:29

You're clean when you get out of the bath though

This was the argument my ex made for why his towel literally never needed washing. You could smell it from outside the room.

LylaLee · 09/08/2023 07:19

Violinist64 · 08/08/2023 21:11

I was sixteen when I realised that I had perfect pitch and that it was fairly unusual even among musicians - I had simply assumed that all musicians with a reasonable amount of training knew the pitch name of a note on hearing it and could read a piece of music at pitch in my head as I would read a book. I also didn’t know until I was grown up that most people don’t hear music in their head almost all the time (pleasant music, not earworms).

As for the word that @Applescruffle did not understand till her late twenties, l had not even heard of it it until a few years ago in my early fifties. My daughter looked shocked when she heard someone else saying it and I didn’t know why because it sounded innocuous to me. She explained that it was a swear word. I still don’t know what it means. In the same way, I first heard the word tw*t in my forties and thought it was a version of twit until I was corrected. I must be very innocent.

This is lovely. I hope you work with music in your job somehow.

SlippySarah · 09/08/2023 07:19

WinterDeWinter · 09/08/2023 00:54

Where do you come from @Nowthenhere - this is so interesting. I remember being shocked when a friend's dad cooked tea in the 80s (it made me a feminist) but I still don't think I've come across a place as gender-free as you describe even forty years on.

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I grew up in the 80s and although my Dad was the higher earner and was out of the house more he definitely cooked tea fairly regularly, and often cooked for guests or Sunday dinner. He helped with homework (and took it very seriously) and did plenty of housework and laundry, especially when my mum went out to evening classes or she was on various committees. I remember my mum taking the training wheels off my bike one afternoon and a neighbours kid telling her that my dad was supposed to do it. She laughed at the kid.

I do remember going to friends houses where the mum was always fussing about tidying up and the dad was sat on his arse. Thst wasnt normal to me and didn't happen in my house. My parents were either out working, doing something for a local charity or group or studying or it was all hands on deck at home.

inappropriateraspberry · 09/08/2023 07:20

Applescruffle · 09/08/2023 00:57

And peeling mushrooms? Christ, have you nothing better to do!

I don't even like mushrooms and neither do my husband and kids so I don't cook them or peel them at all.
Bit of a weird thing to say though. Presumably you don't think peeling potatoes or carrots or other fruit and veg is a waste of time? It's just a method of food prep.
My mum did it so like most kids would, I assumed that was the way it was done.

But the outside of a mushroom is perfectly edible and cooks the same as the rest of it. I do t bother peeling carrots, parsnips, and other veg that have the same 'skin,' Potatoes are only peeled when mashed or roasted. Mushrooms do not have to be peeled! I don't even wash them, just brush off the big bits of dirt!

inappropriateraspberry · 09/08/2023 07:21

chicjen · 09/08/2023 01:18

I didn't realise that when a visitor leaves someone's house, other families don't all stand up and wave from the window until their relative/friend has gone out of sight.
My parents and us kids used to all stand up and wave goodbye to each other until we couldn't see each other any more, I thought everyone did this too!
Then I stood waving for ages to a friend years later (in my 20s) and she said it freaked her out. To be fair it probably would be kind of weird if you're not used to it. Never realised it could be weird!

My granny would stand at the gate and do this! As siblings we now do it to each other as a bit of a joke.

SoberIsTheNew50 · 09/08/2023 07:22

OMG head spin.

You don't have to peel the skin of carrots and other veg.

[bangs head]

This has literally never occurred to me before!! I just do it. Probably don't even have to top and tail them- tail them maybe with that woody bit, but why have I been topping carrots all these years? What a waste!

I need to search back through my memory to see why I always peel veg... it's just the way its always been done in my family.

Rosscameasdoody · 09/08/2023 07:26

loveyoutothemoonandtosaturn · 08/08/2023 19:09

White bread and butter crisp sandwiches. Grew up on these but my husband is horrified my them.

My partner puts plain crisps on banana sandwiches !!

inappropriateraspberry · 09/08/2023 07:28

@SoberIsTheNew50 Tbere are a lot of nutrients and good stuff in the ski. If veg, so I never peel unless I have to! Actually. I don't always peel potatoes for mash. If they're smaller I just chop them up and boil them, then break them up with a fork or masher. 'Smashed' potatoes rather than mashed.

fabnot · 09/08/2023 07:29

Butter and Peanut Butter on toast.
Never heard of Yorkshire Puds with sweet things. Only had them with a roast dinner. I think I will try syrup with them.
Shared towels growing up until I realised it was gross as a teenager. I have 3 children and always washing towels - they don't like sharing!
Always had pudding as a child - sponge puddings, rice pudding, trifle, custard & sliced banana, crumbles, egg custard, lemon meringue, jelly, tinned fruit & cream.
I only had pancakes on pancake day but now I eat them when I fancy them.
Jam and cheese sandwiches - so tasty.

dramoy · 09/08/2023 07:38

This was the argument my ex made for why his towel literally never needed washing. You could smell it from outside the room.

But the towel was smelly because it got wet repeatedly as opposed to dirt from body

dramoy · 09/08/2023 07:41

Yes to pancakes - savoury (cheese and ham) then sweet (whatever, trad lemon and sugar, banana and chocolate spread etc). The idea of pancakes as a dessert after a normal meal, alien to us, pancakes are a faff, why do that after the faff of cooking a proper meal!We also spent lots of time in France as a family, when I was a child, and savoury crepes were a big feature, so thats what we had at home, thin crepes with all sorts of fillings, not thick pancakes or bubbly american style pancakes.

Sweet pancakes/crepes are definitely a thing in France so weird the concept is alien to you.

Deathraystare · 09/08/2023 07:41

@NannyGythaOgg
My family too! Loved the excess yorkies for 'afters' with golden syrup. My Dad loved golden syrup! Used to have it on his cornflakes as a kid!

Davestwattymissus · 09/08/2023 07:48

I was in my 20s before I learned that cauliflower and cabbage were not the same thing. DM and DGM always boiled them together with bicarb into some kind of amorphous mush, so I thought that the cauliflower was the white bit in the middle, and the cabbage was the leafy bits around the outside i.e. one vegetable called 'cauli and cabbage'. Very shocked when I realised they were 2 separate vegetables and in other people's houses they looked like 2 different things on the Sunday dinner plate!

Threenow · 09/08/2023 07:48

inappropriateraspberry · 09/08/2023 07:28

@SoberIsTheNew50 Tbere are a lot of nutrients and good stuff in the ski. If veg, so I never peel unless I have to! Actually. I don't always peel potatoes for mash. If they're smaller I just chop them up and boil them, then break them up with a fork or masher. 'Smashed' potatoes rather than mashed.

Hello fellow "smashed potato" person - I do the same. I don't peel vegetables either unless I have to - I learnt last week that you should peel parsnips, but can't remember why.

GingerLiberalFeminist · 09/08/2023 07:50

porridgeisbae · 08/08/2023 21:22

When I was a child my parents taught me Monty Python's Lumberjack song as a nursery rhyme. I got told off for singing it at school

@GingerLiberalFeminist Imagine nowadays, with the transvestite bit. The child would probably end up under the Prevent strategy.

If I'd been a boy they would have asked me my pronouns 🙄 and then referred me to social services! I was 5 or 6!

Beetleback · 09/08/2023 07:51

I LOVE butter. I’m firmly of the belief that almost anything is improved by the addition of lashings of butter.

EXCEPT peanut butter on toast, where the idea of adding butter is an abomination!

Someone also mentioned being SOLD a Nutella crumpet with butter! They should have been shut down by environmental health in my opinion, that sound positively toxic!

katepilar · 09/08/2023 07:56

dramoy · 09/08/2023 07:41

Yes to pancakes - savoury (cheese and ham) then sweet (whatever, trad lemon and sugar, banana and chocolate spread etc). The idea of pancakes as a dessert after a normal meal, alien to us, pancakes are a faff, why do that after the faff of cooking a proper meal!We also spent lots of time in France as a family, when I was a child, and savoury crepes were a big feature, so thats what we had at home, thin crepes with all sorts of fillings, not thick pancakes or bubbly american style pancakes.

Sweet pancakes/crepes are definitely a thing in France so weird the concept is alien to you.

Its not the concept of sweet pancakes/crepes that PP is finding alien. She says its not practical to do pancakes as a dessert after a meal.

One of the culture shocks for me in the UK too. We have pancakes as a meal in my home country as well. Savoury crepes became a thing there only when I was adult. Sweet ones were eaten typically with jam. Small pancakes made with yeast were eaten with melted butter and cinnamon mixed with sugar or damson jam, curd cheese and sour cream.

WickedSerious · 09/08/2023 08:00

Gabby10 · 08/08/2023 20:25

My family always have Yorkshire puddings first with mushy peas, gravy and mint sauce. I thought everyone did it until a few years ago and I'm in my 30's 😂

Yorkshire pud and gravy was always eaten as a sort of first course in my parents' house,my father insisted on it.

Commonhousewitch · 09/08/2023 08:02

we always had various types of potatoes with a roast dinner - mashed and roast - apparently its only a northern thing?
I was also surprised that other peoples custard didn't have a thick skin on it and wasn't able to hold a spoon vertical in it.
we did eat cold crumble with cold custard as well which was lovely. Also mashed potatoes sandwiches
I was always told you shouldn't wash mushrooms ever- not sure why

MrsMitford3 · 09/08/2023 08:08

Switcher · 08/08/2023 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.

My DD best friend at Nursery was an Aussie-her mum made them for a play date. She called them fairy bread and they were heaven to them!!

Herewegoagain2023 · 09/08/2023 08:08

I got told by an infant school friend and her dad about the boogie man- a bloke that showed up on Friday night to steal your tapes and CDs. I was actually petrified about someone coming and stealing my tapes!

Later when I heard about the boogie man from other sources, I just assumed there were two types of boogie men until adulthood.

Saracen · 09/08/2023 08:25

I thought it was customary to assume that whenever the bathroom door is shut, someone is in there. If somebody outside was really desperate, or if the door had been shut for ages and they thought possibly it had been accidentally left shut while vacant, they might knock a couple of times and then wait a good long while before finally opening the door.

Therefore it is never necessary to lock a bathroom door 😅unless you live with a toddler, because nobody else would ever barge in on you. As you can imagine, I had a few surprises once I moved out into the world, until I learned this custom is not universal!

There was a good reason for my family's custom: the cat's litterbox was kept in the bathroom, so we could never leave the bathroom door shut for any length of time for fear that the cat would make other arrangements 😂. Also my mum was not a fan of locks, as she had a paranoia that we might slip over in the bath and hit our head and no one could get in to rescue us.

LylaLee · 09/08/2023 08:26

Growing up we always had warm milk on our cereal. I never understood why hotel breakfasts didn't have jugs of warm milk for this.

VivaLesTartes · 09/08/2023 08:35

I can't seem to think of anything but the Yorkshire pudding thing is genius I will start doing that haha.