To wonder what are the most [shock] family habits you've ever encountered?

[Sapph1e]

Mine are: an ex years ago was one boy with two sisters and one night we got talking about what they called their genitalia when they were growing up. I was flabbergasted when he said "Oh, I had a 'cock' and my sisters had 'minges'"

However that was not as bad as the family BBQ (same family) where we were all sitting around a table having a lovely lunch; me, ex-bf, his parents, sisters, sisters' boyfriends and then ex-MIL casually mentioned that she hadn't woken up till 9am that morning.
"That's not true," says ex-FIL promptly, "I heard you having a shit at 5." did not cover it.

Was about to be bridesmaid for my bff and visited a her family for a get ti know them dinner. I think it was ham and salad. As guest I was invited to serve myself first and took a modest but normal portion - there was plenty. They all just put one tiny piece of meat, a single lettuce leaf, a single slice of cucumber, one tomato wedge on their plates and then spent the whole meal passing round the serving dishes to top up. Meanwhile I was constantly saying no thank you and felt like a glutton

EstRusMum

My dad used to drink his tea with the spoon in but then a guy at his work gave him a lecture about how it sucks the heat out of the drink and makes it go cold quicker. No idea if that's true but he doesn't bother with it now!

Gatekeeper

DP and I make up songs for everything too! A recurring one is "I need a pee, a pee is what I need" sung to the tune of Hi Diddle Dee Dee from Pinocchio

I was with my ex for three years and his parents were really odd. They used to argue across the dinner table in front of six guests, they'd hear that we'd booked a holiday and then try to price up the same hotel so that they could come along (we were 19 and 23 at the time, hardly looking for fun family times!) and his dad would make comments like (and this is a direct quote, said to my ex's brother's GF), "you could be really pretty if you lost some weight"

Anyway, his dad was CONVINCED that I was vegetarian even though he'd never been told that I was. At first it was quite funny but then he would serve everyone a gorgeous plate of roast with all the trimmings, then produce my "special" plate of cauliflower cheese

We went for dinner with a family once when we were staying in the South of France (we had met them through some friends of my parents) I was 13 at the time.

They all lived in a run down French farmhouse in the attic - all in one room. The daughter who was 1 or 2 years older than me refused to speak English to us and spoke in French only. The house was horrendously filthy and while cooking dinner the mum put a platter of food on the floor as she had no other space - the cats then started to eat from it - she picked it up after a while shooing the cats. I caught my mums eye and we refused that particular dish.

After the meal the dad proceeded to belch really loudly for about 15 minutes.

Then the daughter asked if we could go out (me and her) and both mums said yes - we went up the road where she met some french boys and the proceeded to wonder off with one of them (i knew exactly what they were doing) leaving me alone with 4/5 very little English speaking French boys.

When we got back she told her mum that we'd been ages because i'd gone of with a boy at 13... we left shortly after.

My dp speaks as the cat. She is a beautiful Russian Grey, but for some reason she just has to have a Jamaican accent that sometimes floats into a horrible vague Indian (apparently it's not casual racism because there is a bit of Indian in the family). He also speaks as our 9 month son, in a totally chavvy voice, even though dp is totally middle class and likes to point out "oiks" at every given occasion.

Seems that it's a family thing, his Mum tells me that her poodle used to tell off dp's younger sibling. A visit isn't complete unless they have has a chat with the cat.

Oh no. I am the weirdo. It's me. I sing all the time. I do live in a musical. And now, as a result, so do the children. I probably would have started a harmony duet with "look at the price of those Blu-Rays" dad, and there would have been some kind of grand jazz hand-y finish, too. I also sing back the things people have said to me. and converse with people in song. They will ask a question, I sing back the answer.

I don't even have a good voice.

And my mum will read random things on signs or menus in a weird dramatic voice as if she is a voice-over on a film trailer.

:) we are a singing family too. My brother once sang Willow's song from the wicker man (the naked slappy one) in the check out at sainsburys. My mum said she kept trying to shush him but he kept singing things like 'a touch as gentle as a feather' at the poor check out guy. My brother is 6'2 and looks a bit like Jesus.

I've fought against it because it horrified me as a child, but I like a bit of singing myself now. It must be genetic.

The tongue-kissing uncle on this thread has given me the heave. Just eurghhh.

This thread is great. The bum clutching child is just superb. Keep them coming!

I knew a family that had no toilet door and thought it was odd that I had one.

Ihatethecold - that's fantastic, your husband and the dogs. I wish I had thought of that. Mind you, I chat to the cat and that seems perfectly fine.

Infact I actually know a family who are a bit odd.
They are obsessed with saving money, so much so that a 16 year old boy, 19 year old girl and their 50 year old father showered together on holiday

Please tell me I'm not the only one that finds that weird? I'd HATE my dad or brother to see me naked never mind showering together!

Professor hell would find freeze over before I'd be voluntarily naked in front of my father or brother!

Especially if you were in a shower and washing yourself?!

Their dad is pretty weird though, when I was about 12 he commented that I'd started wearing bras shudders

Am I the only one whose Df sings the muppets theme tune if anyone uses the word 'phenomenal'???

Some of these are hilarious. My giggling is waking up DS who is trying to fall asleep.

If we're staying over, DH will walk about naked at his parents house, no one will bat an eyelid. It's odd.

Another singing one. If anyone calls out 'hello' , everyone has to sing back 'is it me your looking for' Lionel Richie style

My sisters MiL will often start speaking in a French accent. She doesn't know any French, just likes the accent. Once someone started speaking back to her.

I can't stop laughing about the carpet cat brooch or the cousin poo selfies/snapchats! Grim...

My DH and my SIL used to share a bed on xmas eve night growing up together so they could open stockings etc together first thing in the morning on christmas.
Whilst this was fine as children, the year DH and I got together, SIL expressed disappointment that he 'wouldn't be sharing the bed' with her at Christmas that year because he had to work xmas eve! Not, note, that he was 23, she was 27, and they both had serious/LTR partners...I nipped that one in the bud pretty quick

There is a girl at work who is always casually referring to death in such a nonchalant way...it would be insulting/upsetting/offensive but my colleague just genuinely peppers her sentences with it and doesn't seem to realise how awful it sounds, so it's funny(ish), in an exasperated way.
EG If someone has a day off sick, she'll go "he's probably dead", or if she hasn't seen someone in a while she'll say "I wonder if they've died." I can happily say there are only a few of us in an open-minded, non-easily-offended office...she is lovely in every other way so I try not to complain too much!

I had a friend growing up whose mother would lay in bed all day smoking, and when she appeared in the evenings to cook dinner/etc, would sit and pick stuffing out of their huge, brown oversized sofa. Their house was revoltingly dirty but me and my mate didn't care, we ran wild doing what we wanted without being told off. The carpets were covered in the foam from the sofa that the mum had picked out, like little yellowy-beige snowflakes everywhere. It was so odd but, aged 7-8 or so, it was heaven to just do whatever and make a mess without getting into trouble!
I did stop being friends with the girl though when she decided to show me her dead cat that had been hit by a car two weeks ago, and she moved it into her shed to 'watch it slowly rot' as some sort of grim fascination. Truly truly horrible, I told her mad sofa-picking mother expecting her to reprimand her daughter about the cat, and she just laughed.

I think we're probably the weird ones!

My sister does the Lion King thing with our cats - holding them above her head and singing the beginning of the Circle of Life thing.

Mum and I quote random film lines at each other all the time. The Producers (can't make plays without checkies!) is a current, long running favourite.

DSis and I can have five minute conversations of "hey", "hey", "hey", "hey".

I purr at DH when I'm happy and we both sort of rub heads like we're cats.

If DM is cooking something nice, the whole family (me, DH, DF and DSis) all stand by the cooker with our mouths open pretending to be cuckoos and begging for nibbles

One of our cats is the designated sous chef in our house. He has to be held up to observe, at various points of cooking, how the meal is coming along and give his consent for it to be served.

We also talk to the cats / as if we were the cats in funky accents. One of them even has his own theme tune.

And I LOVE it.

Jemappelleanon- I want to be a part of your family
I particularly love the cat sous chef bit.

rabbit I don't personally know anyone who does that but I did just laugh out loud at the thought :)

I didn't realise singing random crap was considered weirdness. We have a lot of singing rules at home, at the moment DD is loving the 'bestest in the barn routine' we do with cat / dog and air saxophone

There's another family who wolf-howl at wine? But that's OUR thing! DDad will ask the table "who would like a little wine?" And we howl back!

We talk as our baby sons. I even send texts in their "voices" to my mother. dS2 who is 3mo sounds like Winston Churchill.

My husband and I both have "characters" that we occasionally talk as and narrate stories about them. But we never, ever do it in front of other people and nobody knows about it except the whole of Mumsnet ;)

rabbit {whispers} are you one of my children?