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!

@Guineapigbridge I love the love bread! That’s so nice

My partner calls my feet "Spud feet"

So potatoes is obviously "A thing"

*when we had days out when I was a child, my parents would pack a picnic with a primus stove, a kettle full of water and plastic cups to make tea.

When we were finished the hot water left in the kettle was used to wash up the cups in a washing up bowl in the boot of the car. The cups were then dried with a tea towel before being packed away. *

I think that's a brilliant idea!

Ginger on melon here too! And sugar sprinkled on strawberries .

We didnt ever go out for meals either. Or days out really. They maintain noone did, but we were reasonably well off . I certainty felt uncomfortable at uni andndidnt udnerstand the concept of going out for coffee!!!

We didn't have set meals. All food was cooked from scratch giving me a real complex if I dont do that. Im now wondering about starting a regular days of the week menu....

We had brown sugar on our melon! And I think sugar on strawberries as well?

Broccoli as a side dish for most dinners. Chicken korma? Serve with broccoli. Spag Bol? Serve with broccoli. Chicken nuggets and chips? Serve with broccoli. It turns out my parents didn't think it was normal either, but it was the only veg they could get me and my brother to eat. I wish they'd told me it wasn't normal before letting me go off into the big wide world on my own.

We also had melon with ginger. Tinned fruit for pudding with “cream” which I think came from a tin too.

We always had a teapot, cups and saucers, milk and sugar on the table at dinner time.

For holidays we would go places like Devon, Cornwall, or somewhere in Wales. I would always make friends with another child in our hotel, and that child would come with us on trips, or I would go off with their family. I vividly remember me and another girl going off ice skating by ourselves, in a Welsh town - we were about ten, no adults, and had known one another about three days. This was the 80s.

We used to have a car journey game where my brother and I had to think of any word and challenge mum and dad to remember a song that included it. And then sing it, obviously.

“Stand by your beds” basically my mum/dad would yell that upstairs. Me and my brother would stand to attention at the foot of our beds whilst mum/dad inspected the tidiness of our bedrooms.
Fire drills! I never realised until I started living with my husband that it’s not normal to be woken up at 3am by your dad setting the fire alarm off and having to climb through your bedroom window and shimmy down the roof, onto the shed and into the back garden within 15 minutes or you’d be declared a “fatality”. It’s something we have always done growing up and I thought it was so normal. Turns out it’s not.

Growing up with no drinks with dinners. Which is werid. I always make sure we have water at meal times.

Ive wondered about the fire drill in the past! Im terrified of fire.... I think the fire services recommend it?

What's the no drinks about? Did they believe it was bad fornyou? We used to have water with meals... or oj as a starter!

We did the fire drill thing too

@PineappleUpsideDownCake yes they do (my dad is a firefighter) but they don’t recommend it’s done at 3am, when your Teenage daughter has to be up at 4 to go to work. They suggest you know and are aware of your fire exits, not practise going through them every week!

Having parents who both worked night shifts ..not the same nights and absolutely no houeserules. We actually had a really happy childhood .

@AnnaSW1

All family members right down to toddlers having a pretty much compulsory cup of coffee before bed every night.

Weirdly it never stopped any of us getting off to sleep as the cup of coffee had a strong sleep association.

I'm immune to caffeine now. But still like coffee.

Us too! All my friends think it's weird that I have coffee before bed. It has never affected my sleep!

@AnnaSW1 My family didn't do that, but I do find coffee helps me sleep. Not so much if I'm drinking it on weekday mornings because I think subconsciously I know I need to go to work, but on the weekends or days off, a cup of coffee in the mornings always makes me want to nap. I've also had one before when struggling to sleep. I thought I was the only one! 🙂

Fish fingers or omelette for breakfast, after the cereal. Not together, and not every day. I have no idea why, I must ask my Mother.

We never ate takeaway, or anything like McDonald's or Wimpy. I can still remember a classmate's birthday party at Wimpy which was the first hamburger I ever had. I wanted to know why it didn't taste of ham...

@Badtasteflump

We used to have a 'starter' before Sunday dinner of a big Yorkshire pudding & gravy, just on it's own. I thought my friend's family were a bit strange when I was having Sunday dinner with them and they just had a 'mini Yorkshire on the same plate as their roast.

This is how they are meant to be eaten. It's what we did when I was growing up in Yorkshire and I can remember doing the same at my best friend's house as well. I believe the idea was it would fill you up a bit so you wouldn't want so much of the expensive meat

Toffeepenny fire drills at 3am

We all saw the film "Willow" (fantasy starring Warwick Davies, Val Kilmer and Joanne Whalley) and became a bit obsessed with it, to the extent that years later (mid 90s and DSis and I were in our late teens) we would still randomly quote from it in daily life ("zees way, no zees way!).

I mean, it's ok as eighties fantasy goes, but not all that really, looking back?

No ITV especially TISWAS so Swap Shop for us but only if it was raining. No Saturday morning TV otherwise.
Always Casserole and baked potato on Friday with Rice pudding for afters.
Chocolate once a week on a Thursday night. One bar. No sweets ever.

Another one who had

Predictable meals each day of the week and set meal times

A cup of tea after our meal rather than a drink with

Powdered ginger on melon

Eating out wasn't a normal thing - maybe once or twice a year eg on holiday

I think these were pretty standard upbringing in the 1970s/80s

Oh and we also had coffee as a bed time drink

Not my family but Iremember staying over at my boyfriends house and the next morning his mum did a cooked breakfast with a banana on each plate. Still makes me heave to this day.