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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:
FrustratedBeyond · 04/01/2019 23:07

When I was a kid, I used to play with my neighbour the same age as me. Between the ages of 4-10 when playing at her house, she used to get me to sit in the bathroom with her whilst she pooped

BartonHollow · 04/01/2019 23:09

Oh and I see dog shit house and raise you cat shit house

Went to stay with an old uni pal and the stench of the cat shit that hit you in the doorway was unreal - he simply left it in the lounge and just sprayed odour spray round the lounge

I got up in the middle of night for the toilet and the smell of cat shit from the top of the stairs was so overwhelming I genuinely thought I would vomit

I was up and down half the night because I was basically sleeping on a mattress with a sheet because he didn't make the bed and I had no idea where his linen was

DesertSky · 04/01/2019 23:10

All experiences as a child:
Having a roast dinner at a friends’ house where everyone was served 1 roast potato each. They weren’t hard up at all. Maybe my family were piggies (!) but I found this quite stingy!

In another friends’ house, the floor was their wardrobe. Clothes covered every inch of their carpet throughout every room. It was a large family and I remember feeling a bit Shock but kept telling myself not to judge.

Another friends’ mum would happily breeze in/out of the room topless as though it was perfectly normal.

Gingercat86 · 04/01/2019 23:13

@crookedme my worst nightmare!!!

katseyes7 · 04/01/2019 23:13

l never witnessed it, but my mother told me that when she went to sleep, she'd put a tissue on her pillow so if she 'drooled' through the night, it wouldn't stain the pillowcase....

katseyes7 · 04/01/2019 23:15

My mother also had a small clock in her kitchen that was made from a Dutch design tile. lt was on the wall, but still inside the cellophane box it came in. And she used to put newspaper on her (cream) worktops "to keep them clean." Quite how that worked when they got covered in newsprint escapes me.

windowWAG · 04/01/2019 23:15

One toothbrush for the entire family

covetingthepreciousthings · 04/01/2019 23:15

All experiences as a child:
Having a roast dinner at a friends’ house where everyone was served 1 roast potato each. They weren’t hard up at all. Maybe my family were piggies (!) but I found this quite stingy!

I remember going to a friends party as a child and the dad only allowed one chocolate finger per child (he kept hold of the box to ensure this was followed).

Paininmybummum · 04/01/2019 23:27

Going to sleepovers at my friend's house from the age of 8 to about 15, once we went to bed I wasn't allowed out of the bedroom (even to pee) unless she checked to see if her parents were fully clothed, and I'd have to wait till she gave the all clear in the morning before I could leave her room!

I went to view a house we were interested in renting, plenty of notice given to existing tenants, nice house too, cottage in the country, and when the agent opened the front door this smell hit me, and I gagged, and every single room, every surface was covered in filthy clothes, rubbish, mouldy plates, dirty nappies, we were picking our way across the kitchen floor through piles of food waste, shitty pants, oh my god it was the most horrific thing I've ever seen. The agent was MORTIFIED!

Ho hum...

Jizzonmyface · 04/01/2019 23:38

@mitzic thats made me cry that's so sad. I hope your sister let you stay

Flooffloof · 04/01/2019 23:41

I do this

If I order a takeaway I expect to eat what I ordered. Not have mine portioned out to everyone else and then I get some of theirs too.
I went to a friends house and takeaway was ordered (really late on think almost midnight, which is a whole other thread) and it was put on big plates and everyone helped themself. Sounds great in theory but I can't eat fish and one dish was fish, I can't stand sweet and savoury together so another dish I can't eat and the final dish I tried but didn't like.
I was Hmm when most of my choice was eaten by others.
Unfair

katseyes7 · 04/01/2019 23:42

When l still lived 'at home' but was looking to find a place of my own, l bought a microwave. (This was in the mid 80s).
My mother wouldn't let me keep it in the kitchen. l had to put it in my bedroom.
Years later when my husband and l upgraded to a combi microwave, we gave the old one to my parents. Next time we went, there was no sign of the microwave. We found it in the conservatory, wrapped in a blanket, fastened with bungee ties. They gave it to a neighbour soon after.

Knitwit101 · 04/01/2019 23:45

A shrine to Princess Diana in the bedroom with photos, candles, incense and a board thing recording the number of days since she died.

katseyes7 · 04/01/2019 23:50

Before my friend got married, she and her parents lived in a two bedroomed house. As her dad was ill, he slept in a single bed, and she slept with her mum in the double.
After she got married, whenever she and her husband stayed over at her parents house, she still had to sleep with her mum and her husband was relegated to the sofa.

Georgeofthejungle · 04/01/2019 23:52

Loving this thread but must sleep! Following for tomorrow :) x

katseyes7 · 04/01/2019 23:57

QuackPorridgeBacon My three rabbits live in the house. They have their own room (the dining room) and they use their litter trays.

Proseccoagain · 05/01/2019 00:03

DD had a boyfriend who when he came to stay thought it weird that I cooked for all of us and we all sat round the table, ate together and chatted. Apparently his family just each got their own food when they were hungry, ate it on their laps in front of the tv and generally just grazed. Also that we never went to McDonald's for a meal out even when our children were little, but took them to 'proper' restaurants.
My late DMiL also always cooked her joint on a Saturday and it would be reheated on the Sunday with the full roast dinner. Never tasted as good as a freshly cooked roast.

TheFormidableMrsC · 05/01/2019 00:04

This has been such an entertaining thread...but some of the stories of child neglect, even "well intentioned" neglect and the sort of childhoods that some kids have had to live through is heartbreaking Sad

katseyes7 · 05/01/2019 00:06

My friend has a very strange brother. He lived in a one bedroom upstairs flat. He was extremely 'careful' with money, (he wasn't hard up, he went on holiday two or three times a year!) but had all manner of weird and wonderful things in his flat. Thomas the Tank Engine curtains he'd got from the charity shop (he was in his 50s!) and, as her young son delighted in telling me, "a farting gnome on every stair. They fart as you walk past them, up or down the stairs." And he had one of those clocks that makes a different bird sound each hour.
He invited them round one New Years Day. He had one can of beer for her husband, a can of coke for her son, and nothing for her. She felt sorry for him as he had only one fork, one spoon, one knife, one cup, saucer and plate. She took him some of hers round, but he returned them, saying he "liked his own things."
She reckoned it was so he wouldn't have to feed any visitors. lt didn't stop him from continually turning up at her her house, cadging meals, though. He'd sit and stare at his empty coffee cup, and cough, until she put the kettle on again. And sit and eat his way through the biscuit jar.

GunpowderGelatine · 05/01/2019 00:25

Growing up, when we sat down to have a Sunday roast the men would be served the meat first, oldest to youngest, followed by women oldest to youngest (so I got the dregs as I'm the youngest female). Sexist bullshit peddled by my mother who believes women's only purpose in life is to serve men and who secretly harbours resentment that, unlike her, I didn't become a wifey turning a blind eye to my adulteress husband as long as he bought me nice things Angry

GunpowderGelatine · 05/01/2019 00:27

And on a lighter note my old boss once turned round to me and said: "Do you think this is weird - growing up my mum cooked me and my 2 brother a full English breakfast every morning, for our entire childhood - bacon, eggs, sausage, beans, the works". Yes Martín that is weird, and probably why you're all overweight, but bless you for thinking it was normal Grin

GunpowderGelatine · 05/01/2019 00:29

As an aide OP I had a friend growing up whose parents were naturists and we had to honk the car horn when going round (they lived rurally and had a very long drive so we honked it at the start of going on the drive) as a warning to get your clothes on. My poor friend still dies of embarrassment at the thought of it, they're in their 80s now and still naturists!

Vivianebrezilletbrooks · 05/01/2019 01:14

My little Ponies are worth a lot of money these days. I used to know someone who loved them and I don't think it's in the slightest bit strange. I also know a Polly Pocket collector. For myself it's Hello Kitty and my vintage clothing items from a particular label.
Oddest things in my opinion? Vintage sword collection lined up behind a radiator(the fact they were behind a radiator I found odd) I think has to be the all time oddest one I can think of.
I do find those 'random words/motivational phrases' on pillows/pictures/painted wall things odd though.

Concernedmamab · 05/01/2019 01:22

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.

This is so, so horrible Sad

Vivianebrezilletbrooks · 05/01/2019 01:24

Talking of cats and dogs,we dropped my previous best friend home one night and as soon as the door opened the doggy smell was so bad I felt sick. I luckily wasn't invited in as she knew I was in a hurry.
An old family friend,when he bought his old house(he's since sold up)the carpets were riddled with cat pee and mess I think. I think a good few carpets if not all the carpets needed ripping up, the previous owners cats were in double figures.

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