To ask for your weird family behaviours that you didn't realise weren't normal until you were older?

[Coffeebiscuitsrepeat]

1. We called a toe poking through a sock hole a "potato".

1. Whoever made the most mess at the dinner table "won the prize"... And the prize was to clean up the mess!

@katew355

We called them potatoes too! Our weird thing was using one of my dad's socks as a stocking at Christmas. It didn't really hold anything other than a tangerine and a 10p coin. My mum also used to put powdered ginger in melon which I've never seen anyone else do x

My Mum put powdered ginger on melon! Was it in the late 70s/ early eighties?

Try putting a Bueno in the fridge or even the freezer. They’re really good cold!

Did anybody else like to eat Walkers Cheese & Onion crisps with a Wispa? Mixed together? I live abroad now and can’t get either of those things where I live but omg just thinking about them is making me hungry!

@Giffgaff99

My parents used to have a dripping pot - it was a pot of meat fat they had collected during cooking and they would keep it in the fridge for the Sunday roast

Surely if you're saving the dripping fat it's for toast??

@HarryHarry

Try putting a Bueno in the fridge or even the freezer. They’re really good cold!

Did anybody else like to eat Walkers Cheese & Onion crisps with a Wispa? Mixed together? I live abroad now and can’t get either of those things where I live but omg just thinking about them is making me hungry!

I use, a flake, it breaks up better

@Jenasaurus

My family also used other names for everyday things that I didnt realise were not the real words for these things until much later, for example they called poo, pongo, so when I saw 101 Dalmations I was shocked at the name of one of the dalmations.

My Mum decided for some reason that a poo would be called a “toto” and so I had exactly the same experience as you with the dog in the Wizard of Oz

My Mum pronounces the word vegetable like veggie table. I used to think veggie table was the name of a spinach based stew...until I was in secondary school explaining this meal to a friend and she was like 'are you trying to say vegetable?'

On camping holidays, my dad would sit in the car in the rain listening to the radio. When asked what he was listening to, he’d always say: ‘propaganda’.

My gran used to do us a party tea every Sunday, with salmon sandwiches and a Sara Lee gateaux.

Savoy cabbage was called Meekon cabbage, because it looked like the Meekon. I didn’t know who or what the Meekon was, so I thought that was it’s proper name till I left home.

We didn’t have a telly for a year so I used to go to my friend’s house to watch Grange Hill. Our evenings were spent with my mum reading to us instead.

My dad had these Open University geometry books and for a treat he’d help me make 20 sided 3D shapes you’ve never heard of. I was especially proud of my isosadodecahedron. 🤓

@katew355

We called them potatoes too! Our weird thing was using one of my dad's socks as a stocking at Christmas. It didn't really hold anything other than a tangerine and a 10p coin. My mum also used to put powdered ginger in melon which I've never seen anyone else do x

@katew355 my mum does this with the melon!!!!

After a 6:30pm supper I was not allowed to be downstairs; I had to go to my room in order to improve myself. When I was a teenager I discovered that other kids were allowed to watch TV in the evenings and this totally blew my mind.

Also, if you want some real I-didn't-realise-it-was-weird-until-others-found-out shit, Google "poop knife" 🤣

My family has always had Christmas Eve Breakfast - I didn't realise until I was a lot older that nobody else does that

Snowy we have Christmas breakfast! But then I grew up putting ginger on melons and having orange juice as a starter in restaurants, so what do I know? 🤷‍♀️

Sunday roast was sacrosanct and was always served at about 2 - 2.30pm because it took so long to cook! We always did the Sunday Express general knowledge crossword over Sunday dinner (my parents didn't get newspapers any other day of the week). The rule was: complete as many questions as possible from our own joint general knowledge, then we were allowed to consult reference books at the end for any answers which we didn't know. I gained a HUGE amount of completely useless trivia knowledge this way!

Apart from this, the only meal of the week which ever followed a set pattern was something called 'high tea' which ONLY happened on Saturdays in winter. This was because my dad played cricket on Saturdays from April - October so was never there at tea-time. Winter Saturday high tea consisted of kippers (which I hated because of all the bones), bread and butter, a pot of tea on the table, and for 'afters', cream cakes from the baker's - one each, only. It was a massive deal for some reason, and my mum would put a plain white tablecloth on, with a lacy crocheted one over the top of it. Only for high tea, never any other time!

My dad had a love-hate relationship with the TV. If my mum or I were watching something, he'd complain endlessly that it was 'bloody rubbish' and essentially bully us into switching it off or at least make the experience of watching it very stressful. I mostly watched fairly adult drama shows with my parents throughout my childhood because my dad moaned endlessly about children's programmes, pop music etc, to the point where I decided it wasn't worth the bother - except for Doctor Who!

But if there was something HE wanted to watch (usually sport or comedy shows) then everything stopped for that. Sometimes there was even a major ritual called Turning The Television Round, which meant watching it over dinner (a thing usually forbidden unless the programme was of ultimate importance!). ITV was disapproved of, but again an exception was made if it was something my dad liked.

My dad was obsessed with Teletext. First thing he did when he got home was switch it in to read the news.

Haven’t RTFT but I keep expecting a read a poo knife or penis beaker post...

@snowybean

After a 6:30pm supper I was not allowed to be downstairs; I had to go to my room in order to improve myself. When I was a teenager I discovered that other kids were allowed to watch TV in the evenings and this totally blew my mind.

Also, if you want some real I-didn't-realise-it-was-weird-until-others-found-out shit, Google "poop knife" 🤣

Spoke to soon it seems!

*too soon 💩 💩 💩

All these parents disapproving of ITV! My mum preferred me to watch ITV after school, she thought the BBC children's programmes were pretentious and too worthy. Same with weekend children's TV on a Saturday morning. Blue Peter and Grange Hill were eschewed in favour of Grotbags and T-Bag.

My partner has a poop knife, always has since he was about 15.
Still got one.... Vile !

My goal is to have a set meal roster each fortnight.

Weetabix with butter and cheese on- my dad!
Never going to parents evenings or making me do my homework ever!

One of my lovely Grans would not permit you to either wash your hair or go swimming if it was 'the wrong time of the month' - god knows what would have happened to you if you did.

This was quite a common one. My mum told me about a woman she worked with, who, for some reason was forced to take a bath at that 'time', but she was OK because she wore her wellies in the bath.

As fr the 'top of the milk' I get milk delivered in glass bottles and they have the top.

A thought has just struck me, have birds forgotten to drink the milk? As a child the bottle top was often pecked through, it doesn't seem to happen now, maybe all the buying from supermarkets means they have forgotten.

My family did the post-picnic washing-up-in-the-boot-of-the-car thing, but they also brought along folding picnic furniture. It was quite normal to see people sitting in a car park or lay-by with a Formica topped table and slatted wooden chairs.

Sunday roast dinner always 12 noon, Monday tea was always cold roast meat with boiled potatoes and baked beans.

Oh and all electrical items had to be unplugged if there was a thunderstorm.

I used to think all men were grumpy. My dad would never talk to me and would always mutter under his breath when we were in the same room what a waste of space I was, I hadn't done any chores around the house but he would never actually talk to me directly. My uncles were the same, wouldn't talk to us kids and generally ignored us. I remember being round my cousin's trying to draw a picture for a competition on TV and he asked his dad for a stamp to post it and his dad kicked off, saying how dare I ask for a stamp! Growing up most of my friends' dads were working so I never really saw them when I went round their houses. It was only when I was teenager and went round a friend's for a sleepover I met her dad who was so nice to me I was speechless. He offered to make me a sandwich and I was really shocked. DH says I'm a real man hater and I think this is where it all stems from.