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

[purpleworms]

...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 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!

I need that two week menu!! But not the ironing obsession!!

Just caught up with this thread. Question for the takeaway sharers: when you eat out in a restaurant do you insist on everyone sharing too?

Indian, Chinese, Thai - yes, you take your main and then put in the middle to share or if as a collective we have chosen together then everything just goes in the middle.

savoury cake

What's one of them?

I had no idea people didn't share takeaways! I assumed in a family situation you all dug in. We all choose different meals in restaurants on purpose so we all have a chance to have a bit of everything.

Some Chinese restaurants have revolving bits in the middle of the table so you can share the dishes. You're not supposed to grab a whole chow mein or whatever and just eat that. Can you imagine if one person hogged all the Peking duck pancake-making paraphernalia?

Wow. That two week menu. I'd be sneak feeding fishfingers and chips just because

A friend told me about his first wife, who insisted on cooking a full Sunday roast every week and he hated it, it reminded him of his childhood when you knew which day of the week it was because of the food that would be served (both parent Dr's, they had a housekeeper), Friday night fish night etc.
I suspect she did the Sunday roast because she thought he wanted food like his Mummy made...

Irma - exactly!!!! Completely with you.

Sadly, with the two week menu, it was one of the jobs where the parents did the food shopping (taking me with them to look after the toddler while they shopped of course) so they bought exactly what the menu needed and no more. The parents had their own 2 week menu and a cook who came in to prepare it for them. They literally planned and bought the exact amount they needed, one of the only jobs I had I had to provide all of my own food (live-in nanny, 6 day often 7 days a week!)

I had a savoury cake the other week that had fish in not envy

My parents didn't allow friends over ever, nor was I allowed out after 7pm at night. I also wasn't allowed to stay downstairs any later than 8pm (this continued right up to 18 when my father passed away).

We had a big family and it's only now that we've become sociable-ish with one side as neither parent bothered with family meet ups/parties etc.

TBF I would be too ashamed to bring people over - my mother is a massive horder but I hated that I'd go to other peoples houses on occasion but not be allowed to return it.

Just remembered too - a girl from my school in the year above worked in my local papershop on a Saturday and if my mum decided i'd done anything 'wrong' (whatever it was) she'd tell this girl and it'd get back to school so yeah.... fun.

@Asthenia I love chips with Chinese and Indian food. I’ve had to cut back recently (trying to lose weight!) but i’m well known for it amongst my friends and most think it’s odd lol.

Those of you who hate sharing takeaways would have hated the Valentines meal I had with DH last year. It was a set menu at a lovely Indian near us where they put all the tables together so you were sat next to strangers and everyone shared dishes. It definitely wasn’t the romantic evening I was expecting!

The PP who mentioned clowns made me think of my brother. He’s got clown tattoos, clown figurines and masks etc. My DH went in to feed the dog once and there was a dummy lying on the sofa which freaked him out

@PixieN that sounds like my idea of hell sharing food and sitting next to strangers.

I like chips from the Chinese takeaway because they are the best chips around and they won't let you order them on their own, they will only sell them when you buy a main dish.

Yes Irma! I'd forgotten about those lazy susans, they make the point perfectly!

Oh holidays, how vile. You've reminded me of a friend who was called to fix some household problem at a large house in Kensington, old English family. In a glass case in the entrance hallway was a display of chains and shackles the family had kept as mementos from the days when they'd made a fortune from sugar. Disturbing what can be found behind closed doors. Hideous.

My mum does the top sheet under a duvet. It feels very restrictive, as the sheet is tucked in all around the bed, very firmly. It also makes making the bed more difficult, as you have to strip the quilt back to make sure the sheet is all straight and tucked in

Yes! It’s a pain in the arse. Anyway makes me feel better knowing my family aren’t that weird

I have never seen anybody share their main takeaway meal. We all order a main and then work out who wants which sides and if two or more people want the same one they share. Why would I want someone else's takeaway, the whole point is that I can choose my own meal so I don't have to eat what everyone else does like every other day!

With the flat sheet under duvet, it's thin so you sweat through it anyway, you still need to change the duvet cover! DH has finally been broken of the habit of using one when I finally decided I couldn't bear it anymore and made him have it only on his side during the night. He got tangled so I got him a smaller one that was only on half the bed but he decided it wasn't worth the effort of him making the bed up with it. Funny that he didn't mind the effort when I was making up a bed that I hated for him.

I was au pair to a family who had a very beautiful house. Not huge, but I think 18th century. 3 bedrooms, and a dining room/sitting room which was one big room on most of the ground floor. Only they almost never used it. In the six months I was there, they had one party and one dinner party in it. There was a long dining table, and a sofa but no chairs so not enough room for the whole family to sit. In any case the tv was upstairs in the main bedroom and they treated that room more like the sitting room.

Marcipex Jesus, that poor boy.

I was brought up to eat chops and pizzia with my fingers. We never ate out at restaurants etc when i was a kid, so was never a problem. Got really embarrassed first time i ate either with other half, as he used a knife and fork for both . Still not sure which one of us is being weird lol.

My father in law used to take a flask of coffee, bag of nibbles and Tupperware with sandwiches in, nearly every time he went out. My daughter loved raiding her grandads bag for nibbles. Another one was my mother in law never ate with her family and always ate in the kitchen. Also my in laws never used proper milk, just the long life stuff.

Pizza with your fingers is fine, but chops?

Also my in laws never used proper milk, just the long life stuff.

Grief - do you recall people who only ever used:
i) sterilised milk ('starry' as UHT used to be known);
ii) evaporated milk (with Camp for coffee);
iii) condensed milk (heavily diluted for drinks or spread on bread).

We used to eat chips and pizza with our hands too! I'm veggie now though.... but when I was living at home we still did it when we went out to restaurants etc never even thought to think it was strange!