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Original poster

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

963 replies

BillHadersNewWife · 08/01/2020 13:59

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!

OP posts:
Franklymydearidontgiveadam · 08/01/2020 21:41

I remember my friends mum being an absolute health fanatic. The kids were banned from eating baked beans, Easter eggs would last months as she only allowed them to have a 50p size of chocolate a day. I remember her son getting so excited as he was allowed rice crispies for breakfast instead of branflakes. They would have Longley yogurts as a sweet and they would fight over the toffee flavored and dinner there would always be steamed fish and veg. Oh and butter was banned.
I'm all up for being healthy but the kids were so miserable. When ever friend came round me she'd be fascinated by my cupboards or fridge because we had beans, pizza or things like philadelpia etc.

iswhois · 08/01/2020 21:42

Have nothing to add as of yet but placemarking as some of these are hilarious

Janaih · 08/01/2020 21:47

Fascinating and in places heartbreaking thread. I'm certain some of these incidents will appear in upcoming novels. 👀

Butteredtoast55 · 08/01/2020 21:48

Some of these posts are so revealing in how times have changed, and some have made me laugh out loud. I don’t know why but the Dad who was in the navy climbing the stairs on all fours just tickles me!

StarburstSurprise · 08/01/2020 21:49

I can remember staying being around 9 or 10, my first sleepover with a new girl on the street, her mum seemed really young and dad quite alot older, I must have queried this with my new friend and she told me they were all Italian, mum looked after her, dad looked after all of then as he was a doctor. Later on, mum and dad were cooking dinner for us, completely naked, I must've again said something as not what my home life was like, friend said it was because they were Italian. Bedtime came, naked mum put us to bed, but after a while friend asked me to follow her, that she had something to show me. Bathroom door was left ajar and mum was on top of dad, obviously to me now, riding dad. My friend, Stephanie, told me that they usually leave the door wide open so that she could learn how to make love!! I remember returning home, feeling a distinct lack of sophistication, retelling my stay to my mum - she told me off for making up stories! How fucked up they were, looking back, not the nudity but the teaching daughter (9 y old) to make love! (Yuck)

Clawdy · 08/01/2020 21:51

I went to a friend's house for tea many years ago, and when we finished eating, she and her sister both chanted "Thank you mummy for a very nice meal, and please may I leave the table?" in sing-song little voices. I told my mum when I got home, and she said "That's stupid, not all meals are very nice! "

Lordfrontpaw · 08/01/2020 21:52

I knew a nanny who lived-in - the parents (French) used to wander around naked.

She said she didn’t know where to look when they would wander into the kitchen starkers to chat about dinner plans or give her a bollocking for something or other.

gabsdot45 · 08/01/2020 21:52

I went to a friend's house where they had pictures of naked women on the bathroom wallpaper. This was in the 1970s.
She told me her mum wanted the family to go to a nudist camp for a holiday.

HotSince82 · 08/01/2020 21:59

Stayed over at a friend's house, she lived up the road. I used to think her parents were so cool, the mum had long, braided hair and the dad was a leather clad biker. They had a slot machine in the back sitting room and lots of gothic ornaments etc.

Anyway my friend and I were banished upstairs around 9pm but as it was a weekend we wouldn't settle and came downstairs for snacks. The front sitting room door was locked! We could hear music from inside the room, I always remember it was 3 non blondes 'whats's up' and as we could get no answer upon knocking we spied through the keyhole.
It was quite obvious that her parents were getting it on with another couple.

My friend shrugged and went to the kitchen, she made me instant noodles but used sesame instead of soy sauce. My ten year old self was more disgusted with this than thw goings on in the sitting room Grin

MsAdorabelleDearheartVonLipwig · 08/01/2020 22:03

There was a family in our road whose kids got taken into care. I remember the mum always looking very depressed and the dad was often drunk. I must have been about 8. I once got invited round to their house for a play and it was absolutely horrendous, no carpets, filthy, messy, dog shit everywhere. I distinctly remember the feeling of wanting to go home and never go back but that was their normal. I remember it being a bit of a scandal when the children got taken away but at least they got to live a normal life for a bit.

And then there was my best friends house. I sometimes went back for tea after school. We’d all sit down and eat in absolute silence. Her dad kept a wooden ruler on the table and would slam it down if he thought anyone was misbehaving. Even with guests there. And he was bloody awful to my friend. Insulted her in front of friends, called her dreadful names. Looking back I think he had some sort of problem, he was most definitely abusive.

MrsSchadenfreude · 08/01/2020 22:05

A friend’s Mum used to have the thick Gratran catalogue. Her Dad used to open the pages where the bras were and shoot through the tits with an air gun.

Another friend, if we went round there for tea, children weren’t allowed to talk at the table, so we used to sit there eating in silence.

Huntlybyelection · 08/01/2020 22:09

At a friend's house for a sleepover when I was 11, I got woken up at about 2am by her father hoovering. My friend told me and the other friend that he hovered most nights as it was peaceful Confused

Huntlybyelection · 08/01/2020 22:10

*hoovered

Obviously if he was hovering that would also have been weird.

FizzyIce · 08/01/2020 22:10

Some of these are gold!
Although now I fancy marzipan cat cake ..

OneKeyAtATime · 08/01/2020 22:11

Eating soup in a glass. With a straw.

ExhaustedGrinch · 08/01/2020 22:11

Can't get over how many of us saw naked parents. Bloody awful! Confused

CuntyMcBollocks · 08/01/2020 22:13

Love threads like this. Place marking

Gammeldragz · 08/01/2020 22:15

Riveted to this but such an emotional roller-coaster. Heart breaking stories interspersed with hilarity and the downright bizzare.

I don't have any tales as I rarely got invited to friends' houses. We were the 'gyppos' (we weren't gypsies, but we lived in a caravan, mum was a bit hipppy and also a little mentally unwell, apparently we couldn't live in a house because the bricks were too oppressive!) and people didn't like their kids mixing with us.
I did however have a friend who lived up the road and occasionally her mum would let me sleep over and I'd get to have a bath, that was amazing!

That reminds me... When I was 4 or 5 it was just mum and me in a little caravan on a farm. Mum was friends with an elderly man in the village we lived near, she would go and cook him a Sunday Dinner, help with his gardening and he would give me a bath. There's a photo somewhere of me in his bath. We thought he was very kind. Only as an adult did I wonder about letting an unrelated man give child a bath and it has just now occurred to me that he may have taken more than one photo of me in the bath (and kept them?!). Pretty sure he never did anything to me, but it is a bit odd.

As a teen we moved to another part of the UK and lived in a two flat with my stepdad and my younger sisters. I used to bring friends round and my mum and stepdad would give us booze, let us smoke weed and take drugs. We'd all sleep under manky old sleep bags and duvets in the lounge! The friends thought my house was great! It was always chaos, with random odd people visiting (to buy baccy or drugs or just get drunk) and no rules. My youngest sister used to bunk off school in year 9 and bring her friends round to smoke weed, they all loved our house too!

minou123 · 08/01/2020 22:16

It's amazing how many dads out there who will not allow talking at the table. Where does this come from?
My dad also tried to get us all to eat in silence, but he lost that battle Grin

FizzyIce · 08/01/2020 22:23

I remember being round my best friends’ house when they were raided by police .
I practically shat myself !
Turns out her brother was a drug dealer and they found quite a lot of drugs stashed in her room as the bastard had hidden it among her videos under her bed

Iwantacookie · 08/01/2020 22:28

When ds1 started high school he brought a new friend back home with him.
I overheard his friend say "wow you have pillow cases"
That made me very sad as it was only 5 years ago Sad

TinyTimsCrutch · 08/01/2020 22:37

LetsSplashMummy I wonder if he had narcolepsy

DontCallMeShitley · 08/01/2020 22:41

Being given the option of cold or hot baked beans.What sort of monster eats them cold?!

I was lucky I suppose. I was once given a small bowl of baked beans and half a slice of bread for tea at a friend's house. When they came to mine it was egg, chips and beans, with as much bread and butter as you wanted. I always had friends wanting to come to tea.

Also went to another house where all they had was one small wrinkled apple in the fruit bowl which my friend was not allowed to take as she had already had her fruit for the week. It was a family of 7 children, 3 were earning, as were both parents. I went home hungry. She used to come to mine for breakfast.

One other girl, she squatted on the floor to play or pick something up, we were playing on the floor so I was at the same level. I will always remember her knickers were ripped to such an extent she may as well not have been wearing any, we were probably about 10. They were so obviously poor it was very sad. My lunch sandwich box always had a few extras, or an extra apple.

WitchitaMickey · 08/01/2020 22:46

My first boyfriend's house; his whole family were very hippy and he had lots of siblings who ran wild around this big old Victorian house. I went to use the toilet but there was no toilet roll... I mentioned this to bf and he said 'oh it's fine just use the cardboard tube'. Turns out their toilet roll runs out fairly frequently (being a family of 8), so to make it go that little bit further they would rip up the cardboard inner tubes into pieces and use that to wipes their arses. No wonder their toilet was frequently blocked Hmm house was rented too, a landlord's nightmare!

Lazydaisydaydream · 08/01/2020 22:56

I love how sheltered some people's lives are and the things they find surprising... Like the poster shocked at the waste of cereal milk Grin

In a similar very lighthearted and not-that-weird-but-has-always-stuck-in-my-head vein... One of my friends from primary school always ate toast for tea (the whole family), and they used to butter the bread BEFORE they toasted it!! I remember being gobsmacked and rushing home to tell my mum what a brilliant idea it was. She told me not to be so stupid Grin