Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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:
MyBreadIsEggy · 21/09/2016 15:49

Borp
I can honestly see her being one of those parents who never lets them leave their special little bubble of "messages" and lentil bake, just in case normal "poo people" like us contaminate their angelic minds Hmm

Sighsofthetimes · 21/09/2016 15:50

This was at a country house B&B we were staying in for the weekend in a room with a windowless ensuite.
After the first night we went down to breakfast and the first thing the owner said was: 'So, someone needed the loo in the night. If you need to use the ensuite again tonight, don't switch the light on, because it activates the fan and it wakes me up.'
Cheek!

prettybird · 21/09/2016 15:50

The thing about no loo pepper down the loo is the same all the way across Greece. See that nice big pipe that your loo is connected to, which flushes away the waste? Well in Greece, it's just the same width as "ordinary" pipes here (a few centimetres).

So while you might not have had a problem ignoring that custom, the people staying there after you (or a sequence of similarly squeamish foreign tourists) will have done. Sad

NinaSimoneful · 21/09/2016 15:51

Imagine the kid having a Pavlovian response to "Please leave a message after the beep"
BEEP

PerpetualStudent · 21/09/2016 15:52

How do they cope with answerphones? 'Please leave your message after the tone' what?!

WhatchaMaCalllit · 21/09/2016 15:53

Nina - pmsl at that one!!! Smile

shovetheholly · 21/09/2016 15:54

sighs - I've had that at a B&B too! (One of the reasons I hate B&Bs is the long list of house rules you are so often read. Much prefer a hotel - more relaxing!).

Some of these things - like the loo paper in Greece - are cultural and habitual. When I was in Japan, I found it really hard to remember to take my outdoor shoes off before setting foot in the house, and to change into toilet slippers for the loo, and then out again when coming into the main rooms. But it's all part of the amazing experience of travel. How boring would it be if it were all the same.

paxillin · 21/09/2016 15:55

Uncle's brother has a water meter. If you visit and need the loo you need to announce if you're doing a shit, because if you are only peeing, you mustn't flush. Everyone goes, the last one flushes. You are allowed to flush faeces without sharing. Boak.

ateapotandacake · 21/09/2016 15:55

I had a friend at school whose parents were quite old fashioned and quite a bit older than my own parents. They had some rules that were different to my home: no deodorant or makeup (it caused cancer apparently). Also I went round once and was reading something like More Magazine- It was confiscated by the mum and was told it was disgusting and I was corrupt and vile and should 'think about what I'd done'. I can't quite remember the words she used to tell me off but it stayed with me for years- I was shocked by house strong the wording was.

PerpetualStudent · 21/09/2016 15:55

Nina snap!

Tiredqueen87 · 21/09/2016 15:55

I went to my friends and it was so cold, massive house, don't heat it because of the cost. Why not live somewhere you can afford to run? We sat in the kitchen by the oven. Didn't go back

icanteven · 21/09/2016 15:57

EssentialHummus and Dapplegrey1 Sewage pipes in some countries like Greece are substantially narrower than here in this part of Europe, and get clogged easily, so putting paper down the loo there when you know you have been asked not to is pretty grim, as your hosts are the ones who are going to have to sort it out if you clog their loo. The bins are usually covered though.

I confess I'm guilty of the flushing at night thing - when DD1 was a baby she had colic & cried for 4 months straight and was a very light sleeper. Getting her to sleep was a NIGHTMARE and when guests thumped up our creaky stairs to use the loo & then flushed it (loud loo, tiny house) she would wake up EVERY SINGLE TIME for pretty much the first year, and then I would have to spend the next hour upstairs with her nursing her back to sleep. So yes - people were asked if they could possibly try not to flush after she went down. 2nd baby was fine, but then I think most of us are a bit more laid back about 2nd babies!

Canyouforgiveher · 21/09/2016 15:57

Boyfriend's house where the rule was you had to finish everything on your plate, even if you were an unrelated adult. Most stressful dinner I ever ate - mother was terrifying enough but you could see her checking everyone's plate to make sure we were eating every last scrap. He told me later that she would reuse food from people's plates if they left it (like one mouthful of meat or last scrape of potato). I never went back.

This thread is great but sucking coke out of the carpet with the straw is pure gold.

citychick · 21/09/2016 15:57

DM asks us to dry off the shower too. I don't mind really.
I adopted this habit in our own home as it helps keep the limescale at bay.
I wouldn't expect weekend visitors to do it tho!
I did ask our lodgers to try and remember to do it but it didn't last so I just did it anyway

It's quite popular for a shoes off in the house policy. I've never done that. Neither has DM.

dnwig · 21/09/2016 15:58

FIL's rule...dry self with a face cloth, wringing it out as needed, after showering. Only when excess water has been removed can a bath towel be used. Saves on laundry apparently.

(Dont think we ever obeyed that rule though)

ProseccoBitch · 21/09/2016 15:59

Creativemode I'd actually buried that for years and this thread made me remember it! They really were awful, they used to hit her if she was 'naughty'. She hated them and wrote to Jim'll Fix It asking him to find her real parents (she was adopted). I hope things worked out OK for her in adult life.

Anyway, this thread has made me not feel so bad about making people take their shoes off at the front door!

EttaJ · 21/09/2016 15:59

biggles50 blooming cheek! That reminds me of two things

My very good friend and her DH went to his family for Christmas dinner. They had not been married long and she didn't really know them. At the end of the meal they asked each couple for x amount of money to pay for the meal and drinks. Even though they had brought wine with them.The meal was in their home, cooked by them. Apparently it wasn't even that nice. I'll never forget that one.

Not a rule but many years ago ,DH and I took an expensive bottle of champagne to our friends house for dinner to toast their new home. The wifes eyes lit up, she thanked us and put it away. When it came to drinks the DH said to her how about we crack that bottle open. Oh no she says , we will save that for a special occasion and gave us some cheap old crap.

EssentialHummus · 21/09/2016 16:04

I always did it icant, but my god that bin was unpleasant.

grimupnorthLondon · 21/09/2016 16:05

These are great. I had a housemate once who made me and the other female housemate keep our hair tied up at all times while in the house and we were only allowed to brush it over the sink. Such was his paranoia about finding stray hair lying around. I think he would have liked to issue us with hairnets but didn't quite dare.

Also the B&B who kept a squegee and some organic cleaning fluid in the shower and "requested" (not very politely) all guests to use it to clean the shower before exiting.

PuppyMonkey · 21/09/2016 16:05

My friend once told me about a place where she lodged as a student. She had her own bedroom, could use kitchen etc - and she was allowed in the living room, but the LL had put a curtain up across the middle of the room to make two separate areas. My friend used to watch her telly etc in one half, and the LL would be watching hers on the other side of the curtain. Bizarre. Grin

citychick · 21/09/2016 16:11

puppymonkey
That is weird!
Honestly, the number of folk who want easy money from lodgers but don't want to see or hear them is frightening.

Confused
brasty · 21/09/2016 16:11

I stayed in a lovely B and B with our own living room next to our bedroom. Had great reviews on Trip Advisor. Was lovely, until we were told not to use the living room after 10pm as we had the night before because it was above their bedroom. We had been talking fairly quietly. I was annoyed, as we had paid for the use of that room.

Floggingmolly · 21/09/2016 16:12

A friend's house when we were kids. They had a large rug that covered most of the living room floor, leaving an uncovered area approx 18" around the edges. (This was odd in itself at the time; it was the era of shag pile fitted carpets). Anyway, nobody was allowed to walk on the rug itself, they had to hop around the narrow gap at the edges.

Even the parents did it Confused

WorkAccount · 21/09/2016 16:16

Essential - the house we stayed in in Greece also had no loo paper down loo rule.
I ignored it, I just couldn't leave loo paper in an open bin, but nothing went wrong with the plumbing despite loo paper going down pipes.

how completely selfish, you think a whole country stores it's used paper in bins on a whim or fancy?

YelloDraw · 21/09/2016 16:16

Essential - the house we stayed in in Greece also had no loo paper down loo rule.

That isn't a silly rule, that is a 'please don't fuck up the poor quality sewage system' so pretty irresponsible of you to ignore it. Nothing might have gone wrong when you were there, but no doubt probably contributed to an eventual problem. But, give a shit eh?