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AIBU?

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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:
Birdsgottafly · 03/01/2019 18:33

VictoriaBun, was that in Liverpool? I had a neighbour who used to do the page three thing. Mending bikes in the living room wasn't uncommon.

The plastic runner on the carpet, was in most houses, including mine, in the 80's.

DeaflySilence · 03/01/2019 18:35

"Husband who sits in his armchair while his wife fetches him everything he wants."

This reminded me of my first (and only) visit to a fairly new boyfriend's home, where his mother cooked for and served the 'men' of the house (her husband and two sons) and any guests (me, on that occasion), but did not eat with them.
Instead she 'hovered' about (a couple of yards back from the table), tending to everyone and popping back and forth to the kitchen to fetch anything they wanted!

Of course, I could hardly believe this, but my boyfriend assured me that all meals were served and taken this way, and that his mother would have her portion later! Even on occasions such as Christmas Day! He thought it was perfectly normal, and just the way things were 'done'.

I was a teenager at the time and have never forgotten that meal (my memory assisted not only by their behavior, but also by the fact that it was runny minced beef).

Perhaps needless to say, I sort of went off him after that Grin.

TheRealJoseph · 03/01/2019 18:36

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

Makes sense to me.

Ribbonsonabox · 03/01/2019 18:38

My friend at schools mum had mental health issues and instead of doing any cleaning she would just hide stuff round the house.. so like dirty plates and laundry were just stuffed in cupboards... my friend used to have to go round gathering all the dirty dishes each evening in order that it didnt get rancid... it was sort of like a game... she used to leave her mum a list each morning of what to do during the day after my friend had left for school... when I look back on it it was really sad... I think now days they would have a had a lot of social services input hopefully

Original poster
purpleworms · 03/01/2019 18:38

@MishMashMosher God that sounds terrible. I woke up at 5am this Christmas day and was creeping around like that trying not to wake my little cousin up, genuinely couldn't imagine having to do that every single evening in my own home

OP posts:
TinklyLittleLaugh · 03/01/2019 18:39

DH used to mend his motorbike in the living room. But not once he moved in with me.

pigsDOfly · 03/01/2019 18:40

When my DCs were babies I had a friend who 'potty trained' her toddler by allowing the child to walk around the house with her bottom half permanently naked.

I think her thinking was that when the child started to wee or poo you could just grab her and stick her on the potty. However, it didn't work like that and the child literally just shat on the floor for month and my friend would just clean it up.

The funny thing was that otherwise their house was beautifully kept with lovely furniture. Her DH used to get really fed up with it and used to rant to me about it but she just carried on regardless.

VioletCharlotte · 03/01/2019 18:40

When I was a teenager, my friend's parents celebrated Halloween at Christmas. They used to decorate the house with cobwebs, etc, dress up in Halloween costumes and eat pumpkin pie instead of Christmas Dinner. As a teen I thought they were so cool, but looking back it was very odd!

MyFavouritePlace · 03/01/2019 18:41

I went to wedding last year where the groom didn't turn up to the church and barely made the reception. The family still insist that they are married even though they have not been to the register office since. Bride's sister told me in confidence.

Jebuschristchocolatebar · 03/01/2019 18:42

Relatives of my dh had their only shower in one of the bedrooms. Not an en-suite but a shower in the bedroom.

Ribbonsonabox · 03/01/2019 18:46

Oh and another friend I had was not allowed downstairs before her parents had woken up and she wasn't allowed to wake them up either. This was when we were 12/13! I stayed over and we just had to sit in up In her room till her parents woke up... seemed so odd that we couldn't just go down and make breakfast and watch TV or anything..... mind you I once had a friend stay with me who thought my family were weird because they didnt 'host' at all. Over the age of about 12 if I had friends over I was just left to it.. to make meals etc they would just leave me stuff to cook in the kitchen or money for pizza, and i had a TV in a small playroom next to my room and an ensuite... so friends may sometimes come to stay and not see my parents the entire time.. some of them found that very weird as their own parents would properly host their friends with the table laid out for dinner, everyone eating together and talking to each other etc

KirstyAllsoppsFatterTwin · 03/01/2019 18:46

The pooing naked thing is freaking me out. I would feel very vulnerable doing that. It only ever happens if I am literally about to step in the shower and therefore already naked when I get the urge. I don't especially enjoy the sensation of being naked when you are in such a compromising position.

LearningMySelfWorth · 03/01/2019 18:49

@DeaflySilence, that sounds eerily similar to my friends house. Mum (or sister and occasionally he or his brother) does everything, while dad or the other men folk do nothing. Like my friend will happily drink tea or hot chocolate all day, but he refuses to make it himself. Strangely though that's the one thing his dad does do for himself.

userschmoozer · 03/01/2019 18:51

I went to a friends house for tea and they had sort of knocked every room through into the next room. Some of the walls had been replaced with glass panels like in an office. It was all painted magnolia.
I think they had seen some sort of architectural feature of a light airy open plan house and really liked it, except they lived in an old house with lots of small rooms and not much money for renovations. It really didn't work.
Also it meant the childrens bedrooms had windows in them looking into the corridoors.

Slippershoes · 03/01/2019 18:51

Visiting a friend who kept the litter tray next to the couch Envy

Bringbackthestripes · 03/01/2019 18:52

MitziK Sad Flowers

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 03/01/2019 19:02

Oh, the never opening windows thing! Used to stay with friends where every single window in the house was always locked. Except for the bedroom we slept in - I had to ask for that key.

The cooking smells (esp. greasy frying of chicken) in their kitchen would sometimes really make me feel sick..

My DM had elderly neighbours who used to cook on some sort of camping stove thing in a shed in the garden, because they didn't want to dirty their nice new cooker.

One I loved as a kid at a friend's house - they had 2 dogs, a cat and a rabbit, all often in the big kitchen together, and his mum would put saucers of tea down in a row for them and they'd all drink it! even the rabbit.
I adored that house!

Room101isWhereIUsedtoLive · 03/01/2019 19:05

A bison head. On the wall of the family room. It was really large and I hope they had had it specially mounted.

Junkmail · 03/01/2019 19:06

My friends all have normal houses. I think I’m the odd one out 😂😳 I keep the house spotless (I clean every day and am really on top of it) but there are animals everywhere. I have a lot of pets and my friends have nicknamed my home “the zoo” 😂 There are cats on every surface although the litter trays are safely stowed in bathrooms/utility room/the cats own bedroom. Dogs are under your feet every time you turn around.

I also have a box of cockroaches in the cabinet in my bedroom which I guess is horrifying? I don’t know. I’m used to it 😂 In my defence they are lizard food. But still gross I know.

FrazzyAndFrumpled · 03/01/2019 19:06

Some of these stories are quite sad to read Sad

DP and I sometimes do the “bath buddies” thing!

KirstyAllsoppsFatterTwin · 03/01/2019 19:11

I also have a box of cockroaches in the cabinet in my bedroom which I guess is horrifying?

WHAT??

ImNotReallyAWaitress · 03/01/2019 19:15

Family. Naked. Sauna.
(Live in Scandinavia so totally the norm here)

I was horrified at walking into a sauna full of naked (almost) strangers, they were horrified I had a swimsuit on 🙈

Coralnails · 03/01/2019 19:15

I'm not sure if this is weird or not.

I had a friend and they weren't allowed to put their feet up on the sofa, incase they left an imprint on the sofa.

They weren't allowed to bring fish and chips home because of the smell.

(This one is definitely weird) They weren't allowed to order curries because the dad was a racist git, they also weren't allowed to go into any Asian restaurants but the mum and daughters would sneak out to them anyway, it was all very hush hush and don't tell the dad.

Looking back I can't believe what a controlling tosser he was.

SamBaileys · 03/01/2019 19:15

@abacucat you describe my in laws to a tee.

I worked with a girl whos husband collected limited edition comic character figurines and displayed them in a wall to wall glass cabinet in the living room. Once a month he met up with other like minded men and they would dress up as the characters- one month they would all be iron man, the next month Captain America etc. He travelled all over the uk and spent the majority of their disposable income on his hobby. She wore shoes and trousers with holes in.

Natsku · 03/01/2019 19:18

The wife doing everything for the husband was rather like my mum and dad, except not just the wife, he would expect me to make his supper for him (crackers and cheese) often. The only thing he did around the house was make his own cups of tea. But in the last 5 or so years I guess my mum decided enough is enough and now my dad does a lot more around the house.

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