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

[Creativemode]

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.

[HateSummer]

All very well pretty and saphhire, we've all been victim of a floater once in our life...but his mum never let anyone flush the toilet at night. The paper couldn't have vanished unless he placed it in the bin or threw it out the window. 😷😷😷 disgusting man. And a bogey eater too. Sick.

[SapphireStrange]

Oh yes, I forgot about that bit! As you were, then.

[IceIceIce]

I understand the no flushing thing.
My little brother was lactose intolerant and until he was diagnosed (doctors kept brushing my mum off and one even called her a paranoid mother!) My mum was surviving on an hours sleep a night.

I don't think it's necessary for most babies but if you've experienced a baby who won't sleep a bit of wee sitting in the big until morning is a small price to pay.

[Thinkingblonde]

I once stayed at a B&B in Scotland, the landlord wouldn't let us in check in until exactly 4.05pm, he gave a list of rules: no food allowed in the rooms, no outdoor shoes allowed in the rooms, they had to be left in the corridor. Showers only, there was a bath in the room but we were told it wasn't to be used, we discovered a temperature limiter had been put on the shower, we had the same one at home so we knew the one in the B&B had been tampered with, tepid showers in Scotland in early winter is not to recommended. They had bar downstairs so after our evening meal we went down for drinks, at 11.00pm the landlady appeared dressed in her nightie and dressing gown, a head full of hair curlers covered with a hairnet, the lights were turned off with the exception of the wall light above us, she stood with her hand on the switch and glared at us until we supped up and left. We heard a lot of shouting after we'd gone to bed. When wewent down to breakfast the following morning we had to go through the bar, it was a mess, empty bottles of wine, opened bottle of brandy and one glass...the landlord apologised for his wife's behaviour. She appeared, looking like she was suffering from the worst hangover in the world. We'd booked in for two nights but we'd had enough and checked out, we got a refund for the evening meal we'd had. If he'd tried to make us pay for the second night I think DH would have dragged him over the counter.

[Upsy1981]

This thread is brilliant! I think many people have their odd little ways but most manage to suspend them while they have guests. I just can't imagine being as rude as some of the hosts on here! Fair enough, shoes off here but I'm not going to make my 85 year old nan stand in the porch trying to balance and take her shoes off! Possibly some of those with light sleeping babies might want to rethink overnight guests for a couple of years, it might be less stressful for all concerned!

[Haffdonga]

Joffrey asking children to say please may I leave the table before wandering off is good manners, surely? Not a weird house rule in my house.

[JennieLee]

I think not-flushing when it's just urine makes a lot of sense. It doesn't smell.

My mother has something called interstitial cystitis. She gets up very very frequently in the night, so if she flushes the loo on each occasion it's several disturbances not one. She's also rather a noisy person - lots of coughing and throat clearing and noisy door shutting.

For years my aunt had lodgers - students at a nearby language school - and one of them indicated that he was having really disturbed nights when my mother came to say. So my aunt asked if my mother would mind using the downstairs loo by the kitchn instead, which was an outside one - accessed via the garden.

My mother and father thought this was a completely unreasonable request and this led to a falling out of some years...

[KatharinaRosalie]

Haffdonga did you read the rest of the comment? It's not teaching good manners if you force your guest to say it for the sole reason that you can then make fun of her.

[CandODad]

Shouldn't this be in classics by now?

[Imbroglio]

My mum once had another relative to stay at the same time I was visiting. After day 1 my mum took me aside to tell me that the other guest didn't like to share the bathroom so could I please not use it while they were staying.

[Hotlingbling]

Not being allowed to drink with dinner but only after everything was eaten.
Once for dinner I was given a plate of sweet corn.

[MerylPeril]

We had a family holiday with DHs family.

Me, DH and 6 month DD upstairs in one room, MIL in another, one bathroom.

Downstairs rest DH family with another big bathroom and a single toilet.

MIL wanted exclusive use of upstairs bathroom and for us to use downstairs toilet at night and no explanation of where we could showers.

Ignored her (esp as I was changing nappies in the night) we had to stay in her tiny flat with one bathroom regularly! Weird

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Imbroglio - what did your mum suggest you do, if you were so inconsiderate as to need the bathroom during your visit? Cross your legs?

[Imbroglio]

She didn't suggest anything and I told her not to be so ridiculous.

[prettybird]

I suppose you could just have gone in the garden Imbroglio in full view of the guest bedroom

[P1nkP0ppy]

Friends of my parents removed not only scatter cushions but all seating cushions too before you sat down. If you ate a reluctantly offered biscuit the vacuum cleaner came out immediately and hoovered around your feet. My DM said she'd never seen upstairs or the bathroom in the 40+ years they'd lived there.
Legend has it the friend could make a pound of mince stretch to 6 meals, and when a DC was born the father had to come home at lunchtime to change the baby because the mother never changed a nappy

[DerelictMyBalls]

I told one woman to smoke out the front, as inside the house would likely induce an asthma attack in either myself or DP, and I didn't want the hens in the back garden eating the ash.

What would happen if a hen ate some ash?

[DerelictMyBalls]

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.

And in the cupboard 'neath the stair
You'll find the red, for pubic hair

[Cloeycat]

I know a house where the only shower is in the master ensuite and you must use the towel left on the radiator in there and poo it back when you are done. I try to shower before I go to stay and leave a bit stinky cos I hate the idea of using the same towel as the whole family. I limit my stays to two nights max.

[ShatnersBassoon]

It would be easier all round to take your own towel

[piglover]

Definitely unreasonable to make people poo back the towel!

[Cloeycat]

Whoops. Put back not poo back! If I stay there any longer then two days I just help myself to a towel from the airing cupboard then put it straight into the washing machine... thankfully they don't have wash baskets they just put stuff in the machine and when it's full whoever puts the last thing in turns it on.

[JeffVaderneedsatray]

The first time i stayed with my ILs after we got married we had to sleep in the loft. It was (badly) converted to a bedroom.
The rule that got me was that the ladder had to be put up once we got to bed and the hatch closed. I asked if it could be left down but no. Apparently not.
I woke up at 3.00am desperate for a wee. At 6.30 am I was in tears. I woke DH up and insisted I had to be let out but the loft could only be opened from downstairs........
I told him he had to wake his parents and let me out or it was going to be nasty.
Next night the ladders stayed down.

[thehugemanatee]

Wow that's dangerous Jeff. If there was a fire in the loft you'd have no way to get out!

[imnotreally]

Yeah that's actually against fire regs