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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what the strangest thing is that you've seen in a family home/life...

888 replies

purpleworms · 03/01/2019 12:06

...that to them was completely normal?

I have just seen someone asked this on an AMA on their Instagram. Their reply was walking around fully naked in front of parents/siblings/any family members.

While this is obviously okay for some, if it happened in a home I was visiting I'd be Shock but that's just because it's not the norm in my family.

I'm racking my brains but I don't think I've ever noticed anything! But people have such different ways/customs within their home lives and routines. We all regard our own as normal without ever really knowing if what's normal to us is strange to others!

OP posts:
Drogosnextwife · 04/01/2019 21:21

However, she would allow her children, age 3 and 5 to strip from waist down and openly masturbate no matter who was in the house.

I'm not sure it's possible for any 3 to 5 year old to "masturbate"

FortunesFave · 04/01/2019 21:22

Drogo of course it is! It's a well known phenomenon. People don't like thinking about it naturally...and there's no reason to really but it does happen.

StoneofDestiny · 04/01/2019 21:23

Nothing wrong with a sheet between you and the duvet. Nothing wrong with using back or side door - a lot of cars drive up to that rather than the front of the house.

Clowns in the bed ........eek.

PhilomenaButterfly · 04/01/2019 21:27

Quack I spent years trying to persuade DS2 that no one else does this! I can't show him this thread! Xmas Grin

mystifiedinbrighton · 04/01/2019 21:29

best thread ever

Drogosnextwife · 04/01/2019 21:31

Jeezo I literally had no idea and I'm a childminder and have 2 kids of my own. I thought it was just that they had discovered down there and were with me fascinated!

MaryLouFreebush · 04/01/2019 21:34

This might not be that weird, but I thought it was at the time!
As a teenager I used to babysit for my neighbour's DC, & every time when the mum got home she'd do that thing where you take off your bra under your top & pull it out through your sleeve. Right there in the living room, in front of me. Then she'd toss it onto the couch near where I'd be sat!
Not in a sexual way, like in a 'time to get comfy' kind of way - but I always used to think FFS can you not just wait until I've left, or at least go & do that in your bedroom in private?! I don't want to see or be sat next to your massive sweaty bra, thanks.

anitagreen · 04/01/2019 21:46

Ah I forgot about this one when we was young kids my mum to used ask this lady Karen * not her real name, to baby sit us, she used to feed us custard creams only but she was kind she didn't tell us off or hit us or anything like that, but she was barmy she had morning sickness once and just opened the bathroom door and threw up my mum offered to clean it and she said nah it's ok love I'm so used to it now I'll sort it later but she never did it stunk in there 😭, she also named her kids Paris and Michael as there last name was Jackson, my brother used to sit in his buggy the whole time there with his coat on Blush I asked my mum why did she leave us there knowing all that???

NotBeforeCoffee · 04/01/2019 21:55

On many, many a professional visit I’ve seen kids beds with no sheets or duvet cover. So gross. These kids must think it’s normal

Drogosnextwife · 04/01/2019 21:56

Not with me fascinated, ment a bit fascinated Blush bloody phone!

Maranello4 · 04/01/2019 21:56

Hubby and I were house hunting and it was clear one of the houses would need updating, all okay there. We went upstairs to be greeted by a long corridor, 70s carpet and an old dolls house at the end. Felt like we were in The Shining! Still think about it now...really creeped me out!

Another house of a friend from high school had a downstairs loo, with a wrap around book case fully stocked with books and magazines. So not only can you poo in the nude but can also catch up on some old classics...

ilovewelshrarebit123 · 04/01/2019 22:02

My best friend and her sister had a strange childhood. They were only allowed one bath/shower a week and it had to be the day before their mum cleaned the bath.

So when we were around 18 if we were going out she'd have to have a shower at my parents and wash her hair as her mum wouldn't let her have one!

Her bedroom also looked like a guest bedroom. There was no evidence at all that it was a child's bedroom, no toys, no games, no dolls etc, everything was put away and all the bedding/curtains were flowery matching stuff.

They also had to take the pillowcase off the second 'show' pillow if they slept on it so it didn't crease.

LambChopsMcGee · 04/01/2019 22:12

@drum123 I think I know jaws man!

Does he live in South London?

There can't be two people with an entire bookcase of Jaws books, surely?!

beela · 04/01/2019 22:12

I had a friend at secondary school whose parents were really into antiques. We weren't allowed to sit on any of the sofas etc in case we laughed and broke them (we were all of a normal weight!).

When we got a bit older we were trusted to sit on the furniture, on condition that we got off if we thought we might laugh.

SilverySurfer · 04/01/2019 22:21

Back in the 60s I moved into a flat share with three girls. One of them had a boyfriend and upon arriving home from work he would sit down and she would bring him a cup of tea. She then removed his work boots and placed a stool under his feet and he would read the newspaper while she cooked dinner. They never ate together, his was plated up, put on a tray and placed on his lap, while she would return to the kitchen and eat whatever was left straight from the saucepans.

It used to make my blood boil. I hope she never married him.

drum123 · 04/01/2019 22:27

lambchops, no, he lives near Oxford! Two of them exist - maybe they're identical twins separated at birth (he didn't have a twin brother that I knew of).

drum123 · 04/01/2019 22:27

Meant to add aGrinto the end of my last part!

honestlynotagain · 04/01/2019 22:34

@anitagreen, what did your mum say?!

Puzzledandpissedoff · 04/01/2019 22:40

The home in Kent which had several wormeries lined up against the kitchen wall
The French house with countless framed pictures of very explicit anal sex
The US house with a huge video cabinet absolutely full of hard porn movies
The US home with ceiling mirrors over the huge whirlpool bath, and a tripod camera strategically placed ready for filming

All these were on home exchanges; my own house is totally boring and normal (honest!!)

WhoGivesADamnForAFlakeyBandit · 04/01/2019 22:42
  1. The Dad that lived in the conservatory. With hindsight the parents had split up - they did divorce later, but the dad lived in the conservatory. It was more like a lean to on the back of the living room too.
  1. Naked dad. Father of school friend who would wander around naked. I did query this and my parents thought it was normal because he was a musician/conductor. Quite famous for a bit too.
  1. Babysitting locked up child. I was once asked to babysit the baby of someone my dad worked with. Never met them before but I was 18 and could drive. They showed me around the house, pointed to the baby's room - which was locked from the outside. The baby was asleep. They went out. They were gone until 2am - much much later than expected. But the baby woke up before that and I couldnt get into the room, and this before mobiles and I couldn't find a phone to call my parents let alone wherever the baby's parents were.
  1. Peeping BIL. My friend was 17 years younger than her two older sisters - she wasn't unconvinced one wasn't her actual mum, which could have been wishful thinking as her father was a complete arse (he gave a speech at middle daughter's wedding all about what a slag she was and how he wasn't drunk because he was going to walk 20 miles home just to get away from his whinging bitch wife - who'd been trying to shut him up) Anyway BIL1 would openly peep on her. Open the bathroom door. Go and watch her get undressed. Come around when she was in bed and go into her room and talk - and no one said anything to the letchy bastard. No one in her family thought anything of it. She was early teens and he was 30 odd.
TickTockClocks · 04/01/2019 22:44

My Ex-SIL will "plate up" takeaway meals including McDonald's and Chinese so the main dish you specifically ordered because it's your favourite gets sploshed in a pasta bowl with a share of everyone else's chosen main dish "to make it fair

I do this. Blush

findurfavouritesorhaveabrowse · 04/01/2019 22:46

An ex boyfriend when I was about 19 I was at his house and his sister in her early 20s left the toilet door open. It was separate from the bathroom and so with the door open it was basically a toilet at the end of the hall.

So she's having a shit and their mum shuts the door then when she comes out she's really angry about her mum shutting it in case she missed something.

RapunzelsRealMom · 04/01/2019 22:47

ShitleyPhallus was that my MIL???

First time my parents were invited for dinner before DH and I got married, MIL and FIL had already eaten so they 'served' DPs who were seated at the sideboard pulled out from the wall (they had a perfectly good dining table!). DM was mortified and kept asking them to sit down but no, they wouldn't even have a cup of tea with them.

They served Bird Eye chicken grill things cooked on the George Foreman grill so that all the moisture ran out and DM broke her tooth on hers as it was solid! 😂

BartonHollow · 04/01/2019 22:49

I've not read the full thread but when we sold the family home I grew up in only DM and I househunted because I was the only one living at home.

We went to this house and it was all relatively normal bar the fact there was a luminous green ceramic pig the size of a large TV in one corner and a massive hole in the ceiling above it. Grin

findurfavouritesorhaveabrowse · 04/01/2019 22:50

And I've been in a dog shit house too. These people cleaned it up but only by picking up a turd with a bit of tissue dropping it in the toilet and that's it. Not even flushing or washing their hands never mind the carpet.

Wooden doors and frames all rotten from dogs pissing up them too.