To ask what the weirdest thing you experienced or saw at someone else's house when you were a child?

[BillHadersNewWife]

Inspired by a Reddit thread...there were some absolutely weird things that people experienced or saw at their mates' houses as children.

There was a man who said he hated eating at his friend's house because they weren't allowed to drink water with a meal.

There was someone who said their friend wasn't allowed in any other room but the kitchen and their bedroom.

That kind of thing! I'm thinking myself and can't really dredge much up. There was one friend who lived in a huge mansion...think National Trust style place...and it was empty!

Just room after room with less furniture in the place than in an average semi!

Normal-ish family...I think they were broke due to having 5 kids and privately educating them all!

Nothing crazy really, I remember going for a sleepover at a friend's house and half the doors had been taken off and were just randomly leaning against walls. They weren’t decorating or anything, it just seemed to be their ‘normal’.

This is pretty outing, but our house must have been the weird one in our street. My Dad was a total dippy hippy. Harmless, but bonkers. He was part of a spiritual cult, and used to meditate in a cardboard pyramid in the loft. We were allowed to climb the ladder and play in there when he wasn’t meditating.
If we were ill he cured us with crystals and pungent herbal remedies. His friends were all weird and wonderful too.
We were raised vegetarian and ate lots of lentils, chick peas and buckwheat. There were five siblings and we all squashed in the back of the car to go anywhere, sometimes he’d let us and our friends ride on his rickety piano trailer on the back of the car. It was so dangerous!
I can’t imagine what someone from a ‘normal’ family in the 80s would have thought visiting us. I had friends from more mainstream families but I thought they were the strange ones!

I had a friend at primary who’s mum was never, ever dressed. Always in a nightie and dressing gown, and the curtains in the house were always shut. It was dark and gloomy in there.

My dad told me years later that they’d had a 5 year old son who’d been killed in an accident, would’ve been just a few years before we knew them. So looking back now, she was grieving and depressed I imagine. Really sad.

Being served boiled pig trotters as a kid by my friends mum. The skin was slimy wet with hairs on

Oh gawd. I remember my best friend at school was a Jehovah’s Witness and wasn’t allowed to my birthday party. And I was never allowed in their house.

My ds befriended a J W . He asked the df how did it feel having us knock on their door?
Omg I died...

Hilarious

I have lots of different stories but two stick in my mind. I'm 50 now so these were over 40 years ago.
The first was going to a little friends house at the bottom of our street, I must have been about seven. She was the eldest of four and her mum always had bruises on her face. The carpet around the fireplace had lots of bits, clearly I know now they mustn't have had a vacuum cleaner. Upstairs on their beds they had coats over the blankets, and, horror of horror in my eyes then, they had bottom sheets but no top ones just scratchy blankets.
The second was going to sleep at a friends house when I was about 9, they only had one bedroom which my friend shared with her mum so we slept downstairs in sleeping bags. I woke up early and went to the kitchen to get a drink and her mum had her back to me but was drinking out of what I assume was something like a sherry bottle. She was an alcoholic I found out in later years.
Both very sad and now I look back on my childhood with a realisation I was very fortunate. We didn't have much money but our house was clean and warm and we had plenty of food and fresh clothes.

Alligator in garage
Zebras- a different house
a lions (same house as zebras)

Pink loo roll (best friend)

I remember a friend whose parents were divorcing. Her mother just cried the whole day, doing chores and everything it was so sad.
The friend also made me get into bed a be the 'boy's snogging her. It was gross looking back on it, I think we were about 8 or 9.

When I went to my best friends house (ages about 15/16) we had to go outside for 2 hours a day. No matter what day it was, because his parents needed to nap
No matter what the weather was like we had to leave! A few times we were allowed in their car, a few times in their garage and once just stood on the doorstep.
We only ever used to be sat quietly watching a film anyway and never asked for anything or did anything wrong. Bizarre.

The J W family mentioned up thread hired a van and helped me leave exh. Forever in their debt.

On a brighter side I went to have tea at a friend when I was in grammar school. There was something boiling in a saucepan that smelt awful and looked even worse, Luke white sponge, vile! Her dad said it was tripe and for our tea!
I knew I would have to eat whatever I was offered out of politeness but was already gagging inwardly.
He laughed and said not really, that was for the dogs, ours was cottage pie, thank god.
I'm still friends with her and at her 50th her dad saw me and said "That's the girl with the tripe!"

Rubbish typing, apologies!

This is actually not a funny one. [content warning: concerns rape]

When I was around 9 or 10, I went back to my friends house at lunchtime, from school,( it was the days you could let yourself into your house as the key was on a string inside the letterbox), we weren't meant to be there, but had sneaked out to buy chips instead of school dinners. All of a sudden we heard the front door open and she panicked and told me to hide behind the setee, it was her dad. All I can say is he never found out I was there, he then raped her, I could see it in the mirror, he told her after he was going back to work , to have wash and get back to school.
Do you know we never spoke about it again, I never told anyone,and we went out separate ways after primary school.
Looking back, it's obvious it was a regular thing, because of how accepting she was , she died when she was 19, we never found e out how, but as an adult, I often wonder if it was suicide and went through a lot of self blame for not speaking out, but I realise now I was so young and it was a different era, I am 56.

@Rubyupbeat
Fuck
That’s so shocking.

@Rubyupbeat that is fucking awful. That poor poor girl

I had a friend whose family did not ever seem to eat dinner. At different times during the evening they would each go to the kitchen and make toast or breakfast cereal and eat it alone. I had only ever eaten toast for breakfast and sugary cereal was a rare treat so my mind was blown.
The same friend and her brother also had to lock their bedroom doors because their sister used to steal things from them. The sister (aged about 15) stole the money their brother (about 20) had been saving for a deposit to rent somewhere and the parents' response was "well you should have locked your room then"! I've often wondered if they're still in contact with her as adults. They seemed very normal and a bit posh if you met them outside of their house. The girls had ponies and the drove nice cars etc, but the house was an absolute tip and they were pretty dysfunctional.

A friends house where we weren't allowed in the lounge. It was totally and utterly spotless . If we wanted to watch tv we had to sit on the dining room side of the folding doors.
MY house was more of a 'kick your shoes off at the door and curl up on the sofa' kind of house.

Rip that poor girl.

My best friend couldn't get into bed at night until she removed the bottles of booze from under the mattress. They were hidden there by her mum so her dad wouldn't find them.
Her dad gave me a lift in his van once and tried to put his hand up my skirt (I was 17). I told my mum and she laughed. She actually thought it was funny.

@Rubyupbeat, please please please contact the police about what you saw.

If there is any chance this evil man is still alive he can be prosecuted for what he did.

The fact that your friend is no longer alive does not prevent him being prosecuted, nor does the passage of time.

The CPS are still prosecuting historic sexual abuse cases going back as far as the 1950s.

Please do it for your friend.

If this man is still alive, even if he is in his 80s or 90s he could still be a danger to children.

Although these things were once swept under the carpet, the police and CPS will pursue these cases.

Please report what you saw.

Such an interesting thread.

@ineedto kind of like in this ad?!