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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:
Gwenhwyfar · 13/01/2019 20:58

"When my dad speaks about him and my mum before they got married it was referred to when they were 'courting' not dating as my generation say (early 30s)
It was always makes me smile.. courting! Lolll no idea where that came from x"

Is this supposed to be in the thread?? Using the word courting was 100% normal until quite recently.

Gwenhwyfar · 13/01/2019 21:03

"The same is true of washing machines, many other countries find it odd that you bring dirty clothes into the room where you prepare food."

I can see the logic of that, but in some countries it's quite normal to have a washing machine in the bathroom if the bathroom is spacious and the kitchen small. A friend of mine visited a house like this in the UK, but the thought it was probably against regulation and would cause him problems so didn't want to buy the house.

Gwenhwyfar · 13/01/2019 21:15

"Anyone who can sit under a bright overhead light all evening is a psychopath."

I must be a psychopath then. I can't be bothered with lamps. I live alone so don't need to be romantic and would rather be able to see where I'm going.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 13/01/2019 21:36

In another house, the male of the home, rebuilding his motorbike - in the kitchen.

I've seen exactly this before too (was a community speech and language therapist). I'll see your pieces of motorbike, dripping oil, all over the kitchen benches - and raise you pieces of motorbike decoratively hung on the wall of the living room (also an entire bike being repaired in the living room - at least this one was on newspaper - probably to protect all of the delicate nuts and bolts from getting covered with carpet fluff).

These are generally lovely families - 6 kids, 19 very friendly dogs that wag and slobber all over you, offers of cups of tea (I never accepted - the cups weren't the cleanest - never felt thirsty there, somehow) - but they were genuinely generous and really thrilled that you were taking an interest in little Krystofer (any child with an unusually-spelled name starting with a "k" generally had a speech problem in my experience). But it was like entering another world . . .

I was hit in the face by an iguana in one house (it lashed me with its tail) - it was agony - like I'd been flogged! This 3-foot long lizard had the run of the house - did its business in a cat littler tray - but it wasn't the sweetest tempered animal I've ever met.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 13/01/2019 21:38

Oh - and the family with a catflap with ferrets running in and out of it every five minutes.

(They're rather nice, actually - a bit like furry snakes - but they do STINK!)

katseyes7 · 13/01/2019 21:58

Talking of catflaps, my OH had, until very recently, a Continental Giant rabbit. He has a large 'dog flap' in the back door so she could go out and come in when she felt like it.
One day my youngest stepson had three of his friends over for tea. They were all sitting at the table, when suddenly the flap burst open and Talulah shot through the kitchen. One of the lads nearly fell off his chair. "Fcking hell! What the fck was that?!"
He knew they had a rabbit, but not how big she was (about the size of a Shetland sheepdog). The others were in fits as they'd all seen her before.

katseyes7 · 13/01/2019 22:02

Gwenhwyfar Me too. l can't bear sitting in gloom. l like to be able to see what l'm doing!

katseyes7 · 13/01/2019 22:14

l remember my dad telling me that when he was 14, his mum died (he was the youngest of a huge family) - my grandad was going blind, so they went to live with my aunt. Who already had four children and a husband. Where she put everybody, l have no idea.
My dad was an apprentice in the shipyards at the time. Apparently he came home from work one day and the living room was almost empty. Table, curtains, chairs, rug, mantel clock - everything gone.
lt turned out that a family down the street had had a bereavement and all the neighbours helped out for the funeral, providing furniture etc as well as food for the 'tea' afterwards. Nobody had much but they all helped out when it was needed.

steppemum · 13/01/2019 23:04

Gwenhwyfar

I don't really understand your comment about washign machines in bathrooms. I have seen this quite often, it is not unusual at all.

Motoko · 14/01/2019 00:30

Me too. l can't bear sitting in gloom. l like to be able to see what l'm doing!

So do I, which is why we have lamps dotted around the living room. They actually give out more light than the central main light.

There's no need for it to be gloomy with lamps, but having light in different places in the room, means you can have light exactly where you need it, (which with my bad eyesight, I need) and, it simply looks nicer.

Gwenhwyfar · 14/01/2019 00:39

"I don't really understand your comment about washign machines in bathrooms. I have seen this quite often, it is not unusual at all."

Oh good, my friend thought it might not be standard and would cause problems. I suppose because in the UK you don't normally have sockets in bathrooms, except for shaver ones. Something that foreigners usually find really annoying, not being able to dry their hair in the bathroom, etc.

CountessOfNowhere · 14/01/2019 07:43

I've never seen a washer in a bathroom. UK bathrooms have no sockets for a start.

ChesterGreySideboard · 14/01/2019 07:45

I have never seen a washing machine in a bathroom.
I’ve seen a toilet in a utility room, but not a bathroom that has a washing machine in it.

I have my washing machine in my downstairs loo. It’s hardwired in.

A loo does not make it a bathroom in my opinion.

BertieBotts · 14/01/2019 09:04

UK bathrooms can have normal sockets if they are large enough, they just rarely are. You have to have the socket at least 3 metres away from any water source iirc.

steppemum · 14/01/2019 11:03

well, I have seen plenty.
Usually when it is a downstairs bathroom.
They are sometimes on an extension lead to a socket outside

MyShinyWhiteTeeth · 17/01/2019 19:45

I think the strangest things can also be fairly normal but just totally unexpected because of who's living there and their characteristics. One of my colleagues has a very tidy office and is OCD about leaving it organised. She won't leave work until it's sorted. Her house is a tip.

I'm amazed at how unhygienic NHS staff can be at home.

I'd expect very conservative people to have less pornographic art on display.

Mrsfrumble · 17/01/2019 21:38

I can post a photo of the washing machine in the bathroom of our flat if you like chester Grin

It’s built into a cupboard, so I’m not entirely sure where the power supply is (rented flat, not sufficiently interested to investigate. As long as it works...) It’s a small flat with a disproportionately large bathroom, so its location makes perfect sense to me. Means everyone can chuck their clothes straight in when they get undressed to bath or shower.

ChesterGreySideboard · 17/01/2019 21:44

I agree that a washing machine in a bathroom makes sense.
It’s not that I don’t believe they exist but that they can’t said to be common.

Mrsfrumble · 17/01/2019 21:53

It’s only the second time I’ve seen it too chester, but as soon as I saw it when we were looking round the flat I thought “ooh, genius!”

I’ve seen some pretty quirky flat layouts in my days; I lived briefly in a place that had no bathroom. There was a sink in the bedroom, a shared toilet down the hall and the bath was in the kitchen. That was fun.

Avis7 · 17/01/2019 22:17

I've got my washing machine and tumble dryer in the bathroom. They've got a little alcove at the end of the bath with normal plug sockets. We bought our house about five years ago and had full surveys etc so I assume it's fine.

SusieQ5604 · 18/01/2019 14:01

Okay: I'm in the US where I have the hated tumble dryer. What in the world is an "airing cubbard"?????

SusieQ5604 · 18/01/2019 14:02

Oops. Cupboard

StupidLandRoverStupidHusband · 18/01/2019 14:34

An airing cupboard is s cupboard that houses your boiler and / or water tank. It's normally toasty warm to air clothes

Whyislarryhappy · 18/01/2019 14:45

Knew a boy lived with mum, 2 bros and 2 dogs. Their house was disgusting, if they bought shopping in, thyd think its OK to just screw up the carrier bag and dump it on the floor, along with crisp packets, sweet wrappers ect. They washed up only when there was nothing to eat or drink from. They never cleaned the oven or hob, the hob was so bad covered in old food ect it blocked the gas ducts or whatever they're called, and didn't work, so rather than scrubbing it, they just replaced the oven with a new one! They also used to deep fat Fry everything and never change the oil, just top it up when needed. Imagine what went in there - hips, potatoes, sausages, bacon, burgers, fish fingers, breaded chicken, chicken drumsticks, everything!
I went round a couple of times and was offered tea - I declined!

SchadenfreudePersonified · 18/01/2019 16:03

My mum puts a flat sheet under a duvet

So do I. Sometimes, during the night, one of our spaniels shanks not only onto the bed, but under the covers. Then he literally falls out of the bottom of the bed and wakes us up.

The tucked in sheet keeps him in.

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