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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

What's the weirdest house rule you've ever experienced as a house guest?

750 replies

Creativemode · 21/09/2016 14:49

Just that really.

Mine is someone that wouldn't let me flush the toilet incase it woke their children.

Also another wouldn't let me go upstairs to the toilet incase the stairs creaked and woke their children (there was no downstairs toilet).

I had a school friend that wasn't allowed fish and chips in the house because of the smell.

OP posts:
murphys · 26/09/2016 12:21

Neighbours of ours when we were growing up. We spent every afternoon together after school. I think I can count the times I went into their house. Both girls had bedrooms that looked like they came out of a magazine, and both had white duvet covers and carpets. They were not allowed in their rooms unless it was to change or sleep, so they weren't allowed to play in there. And NO visitors were allowed in. Apart from one time, I only ever saw their rooms from the window outside as I had to stay in the garden. I fetched her every morning as we cycled to school together, but I wasn't allowed in the house, I had to ring my bike bell so say I was there.

They came over to out house all the time, but had to be back home by 4pm sharp. If they were late, they would get the belt.

They were never allowed more that a upright hand measure of water in the bath at night. It was a drowning issue according to the mum. The cold water had to be put on first to 3/4 of level and hot topped up to the right level, so it was always just luke warm. I did once have a bath at their house once as my mum went into labour unexpectedly, but my mum came home from hospital before bedtime, thank goodness.

For breakfast they had Pronutro, which is an instant cereal which you mix with milk (I am trying to think of UK equivalent but cant right now), and although there are loads of flavours, they were only allowed to have chocolate flavour, and it was made with boiling water not milk. It was revolting. They never had corn flakes or rice krispies, only ever this same cereal. They were only to have plastic bowls and spoons, and this was until they were teenagers so wasn't just a possibility of it breaking sort of thing.

It wasn't a money issue, their dad had a good job at an accounting firm, got a new car each year....they were just very odd.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 26/09/2016 14:27

"...I couldn't even put the chicken shavings in..."

You shave your chickens, Stratters? WinkGrin

SteamTrainsRealAleandOpenFires · 26/09/2016 15:09

Re:- Pronuto

The nearest I can think of is Ready Brek

NotCitrus · 26/09/2016 15:24

I never thought this was odd until I mentioned it to friends in sixth form, but every single school day through primary school, I was given the same breakfast: a fried egg on Weetabix. Apparently making toast was too much work. Yes, we owned a toaster, and no, my mum wouldn't let me have just cereal instead.

I went on a language exchange where the family was perfectly pleasant and normal, let us teenagers make our own hot drinks and all, but with one odd rule: mum laid the brakfast table each morning and pre-poured milk into each white cereal bowl. So of course the first morning I tilted the bowl to add cereal and spilt milk everywhere. And actually at least half of the rest of the mornings...

ShatnersBassoon · 26/09/2016 15:45

I wonder why Weetabix don't have 'a fried egg atop' as one of their serving suggestions on the box Grin.

SapphireStrange · 26/09/2016 15:50

There is NOTHING that isn't improved by adding a fried egg.

Ladyrattlesuk · 26/09/2016 17:05
  1. We stay with a relative who has a freezing house. He's not poor, he just doesn't like to waste heat and has a rule about the thermostat. It gets so cold in winter you can see your breath in the morning. We were so fed up of huddling together at night & the kids waking up with ear ache, we started to smuggle in a heater in our suitcase. 2. We have other relatives that live in a "show" house. Nothing is allowed to be out on the sides and you can't relax. They have several layers of table cloth and coasters for everything. I live in fear the kids might drop something. 3. Hubby has a serious food allergy. We have relatives that we have to remind every time, and they still sometimes try and serve it.
Zaphodsotherhead · 26/09/2016 19:34

My OH has a 'no wet patches on the sheet' rule. As soon as we've...errr...had congress, we have to leap apart and out of the bed and find tissues or wet wipes. No cuddling or post coital snuggles, because the sheet might get dirty.

He is so on his way out...

PigletJohn · 26/09/2016 20:04

Buy him a bathtowel.

OrianaBanana · 26/09/2016 20:16

To be fair wet patches on the sheets are gross (especially as they usually end up on my side). A towel does the trick and it's quite funny (we found) to make sure it's in the right place before.. er, separating. Then post coital snuggles.

KatharinaRosalie · 26/09/2016 20:20

This wasn't a rule, but the cold house post reminded me when I was staying with a friend for a few days, in London. In January. He kindly invited me, but forgot to mention that his house was being extended. There was no building work going on that weekend, but the entire back wall of the house was missing. As said, in January. I have never been so cold in my life.
He didn't think this tiny detail was worth mentioning.

MeadowHay · 26/09/2016 20:37

Read first page and then the last 3. Astounded by some of the stuff I've read!! Shock Also some people's relatives here sound a lot like my darling MIL (SARCASM)!

My parents have some weird house rules and DH and I usually stay with them quite a lot but we are probably going to start cutting it down because it's wearing us down a bit:
My parents police what I wear when I'm there, and what I wear to go out in when I'm there. I'm 22 and married, left home at 18. This is mostly my dad tbh my mum's not too bad.
My dad even polices what DH wears to an extent - he has told him he's not allowed to PJ shorts in the house Confused.
We weren't allowed to sleep in the same room until we were married, DH used to have to sleep downstairs in one of the living rooms, even while we were engaged and they knew I stayed in the same room as him at his mum's house when we visited her.
My mum has also always been really arsey about anyone making toast or tea or anything in the kitchen after she's gone to bed for some unknown reason Confused We just ignore that though obviously!
When we go out we have to be back at my parents' for about 1am, even though I have house keys, and what's even funnier is we're technically "not allowed" to drink alcohol even outside of the house. Obviously we do anyway but we're not allowed to come back looking like it and have to have chewing gum on our way home, it makes us feel like 15 year olds!!
When we first got our guinea pigs we weren't allowed to have them in their house only in the garden shed but the second time we came to stay with them they just completely changed their mind because they loved them so much! Grin

bertsdinner · 26/09/2016 22:03

My mum has colour coded towels when I stay over. My stepdads is white and goes on the left of the radiator, mum's is peach and goes in the middle, mine is green and goes on the right. This is my stepdads rule and he gets upset if the towels are out of "order".
He also checks the crockery and cutlery each night before bed, if a cup is missing, he can't rest until it's found and washed up, so I can't take a drink to bed.

Only rule I have is shoes off at the door. However, I'm not mega strict. Ive got an elderly relative who struggles to get his shoes off as he can't bend, so he keeps them on. I don't ask workmen, eg plumbers, to take their shoes off either. It does bother me, but I keep quiet.

WetsTheFinger · 26/09/2016 22:20

My Nana also had a 'nice room' where only extra special visitors were allowed. I always remember my Dad losing his temper one evening when she wouldn't let family members in and shouting "For Gods sake, mam, the Queen is never coming for tea!!" Grin

KarmaNoMore · 26/09/2016 22:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

murphys · 27/09/2016 07:38

For Gods sake, mam, the Queen is never coming for tea

Grin
SlowJinn · 27/09/2016 09:14

Oh I've just remembered a house rule I do have. Teenage sons must wear more than boxer shorts in the kitchen especially when my mum is staying. And a dressing gown at the dinner table is also frowned upon (although it's not that often I can persuade my boys to eat with us these days)

JennieLee · 27/09/2016 09:18

Perhaps not all rules are bad.

In our house if you complete a crossword or sudoku you have to shout, 'Mouse!'

Zaphodsotherhead · 27/09/2016 09:23

piglet and oriana - we aren't allowed to get the towels messy either. He won't give a massage because the oil would make the towels messy. Towels are for drying self and nothing else.

Butterfingering · 27/09/2016 09:27

Ex-P's mum wouldn't let anyone flush the toilet after bedtime even though there were no children in the house.

First night I stayed over, when we'd been together about two months, I went to the toilet after ex-P had been and saw a giant turd floating in the bowl. No toilet paper.

Being greeted by the sight of ex-P's shit was one thing but learning that he didn't wipe his arse was quite another. I binned him off shortly after.

SlowJinn · 27/09/2016 10:11

Eurgh. Why would anyone not wipe after a poo? Shock

JoffreyBaratheon · 27/09/2016 10:15

When I was a kid, I briefly had to stay at my mum's cleaner's house before and after school, as my mum got a job and had to be out of the house by 8AM, and there was that gap, plus I was too young to be trusted to lock the front door...

This woman was a bit of a shit. Her kids would have tea around 4:30 and because I wouldn't be able to eat til after my parents got home from work around 6, I had a little sort of pack up made by my mum, I'd have to eat at the table with the cleaner and her girls. The girls - one was the school bully, the other just a nasty piece of work. They constantly stole my toys and my parents wouldn't do anything about it, because they felt sorry for them.

One rule this woman had was, when you'd finished eating you had to say 'Please may I leave the table?' before you escaped. Worst thing was, this rule only applied to me, not her girls. And she went batshit, if I didn't say it every day. Then, when I said it, they'd all laugh and say "Well you can't bloody take it with you!" Same formula, every day, for months. I used to dread it.

She also forced me to teach them to read. Later she went very odd and started walking into random people's houses in the village and stealing things. She stole something from my mum eventually so she got the sack. I'd never been so happy in my life.

Butterfingering · 27/09/2016 10:17

SlowJinn I don't know. He was a disgusting bugger. I decided to bin him off when I noticed him eat his own nose pickings one day.

prettybird · 27/09/2016 13:38

TMI alert Blush: to be fair on the "turd with no loo paper" culprit, dh and I have occasionally been guilty of victims of "floaters" - when despite repeated flushing, the damn thing won't disappear. The paper is long gone. Blush

Billy Connolly even does a sketch about the phenomenon. Shock

SapphireStrange · 27/09/2016 14:02

I was coming on to say the same thing, pretty! Vanishing-paper syndrome.

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