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!

This is the best thread ever! I remember being 10 years old and having dinner at a friends house. My friend lived with her nan, dad and little siblings (5 & 7). The nan served up mountains of fried chips and sausages to all of us on the sofas, as they didn't have a dining table! It was literally falling off the plates. I was so shocked at not eating at the table, and at the size of our dinners, i struggled to eat a quarter. I watched the little siblings clear their plates and ask for bread and butter! I asked where their mum was, she said in a matter of fact way mum ran away and left us all when we were little, because she didn't want us. We live with nan and dad now. That broke my heart. I remember going home afterwards and asking my mum, why would any mother abandon their children. I couldn't believe it really happened. Seven years later I bumped into said friend and siblings and they were all very obese. I was not surprised.

When I was a youngish teenager, my friend's mum was going away for a visit to her home country for a few weeks during the summer holidays. The daughter didn't want to go. She (the mum) said, rather casually "Oh, you'll help out, won't you, Cru" (not question).

I hadn't thought much about it until a few weeks before the trip when my friend said that her mum was expecting me to sleep at her house for the trip. "Oh, don't worry! You'll still be allowed to go home to visit sometimes!" I was quite shocked (I have always hated sleeping at someone else's house) and said that there was no way I'd be allowed. I think my mum rang hers and said she had to get an adult to look after her daughter as I wasn't going to supervise her.

I was a school year older but only older by a few months.

I went to a friends house and her mum asked if we wanted a cake, we obviously got excited and said yes please. She gave us all a slice of white bread thinly spread with margarine and folded in half. The disappointment was crushing.

Two sets of neighbours running off with each other’s partners and one lot stayed swapped!

I have to join in. When I was 9/10 so this is around 1986/87 my friend invited me to a sleepover. Her mum and her mums boyfriend who I found weird were there but went off to a pub and left us with a babysitter or someone. My friend had a brother he was around 8who tried to snog me but that's another story. Anyway my sleepover turned into a rave. The next thing I knew all these punks turned up, lots of smoke I remember heaving my way through and drinking. Couples all over the house slobbering over each other. And asking us if we are enjoying ourselves? Shocking but looking back my friend and her brother were neglected, other signs.

Another friend down the road cigarette butts all over floor everywhere. . And she had a bucket in her room to pee. I found that disgusting as at 11 I wouldn't never have peed in my room. The smell too.

Sorry I am pretty we didn't drink thankfully lol I meant lots of drinking going on.

My friend had a ‘playhouse’ - it was her great granny’s house before she died ... it had four or five bedrooms, kitchen, bathrooms, a massive double garage and every single room was full of toys, dolls, toy cookers, dress up clothes etc . Had a working phone line and satellite TV . Parents never used it, only her and her sibling and cousins . It was so so cold as no one heated it, and it was damp and eerie as it was silent .

DM suspected her parents/aunts etc were millionaires - they were all doctors, business owners, lawyers - but never have found out .

At the other end of the scale - other neighbours dropped their kids off once and disappeared ...

Daughter had burns from nappy rash, mum had the health visitor round m, screamed constantly, no food or milk provided . Other daughter had a terrible speech difficulty and wet herself numerous times . Parents turned up at midnight bladdered and hardly able to walk . I think of those wee girls every so often and pray they were removed from the family.

I was friends with a boy whose mum was a drug addict. Whenever we went to his place his mum was sprawled on the sofa in a right state, she could never talk properly - always slurred. It was horrible, hardly ever food in the house. I remember him pinching some money off cupboard shelf once and she shouted at him to put it back - he said he wouldn't because it was her drug money and he was hungry. She said she'd made him dinner but it was a pan of brown slop that contained god only knows what. He's grown into a wonderful man and is now very happy with a partner and a little girl, his mum passed away a few years back.

We were a weird family. We had no carpets, no central heating and all second hand furniture. We had one gas fire in the living room which was the only source of heat in the house. My parents never spent any money on the house at all and I was always very ashamed when friends came round. Everyone was made welcome though. Strangely, my siblings and I always had good clothes and shoes and food was plentiful. When my dad died, years ago, we discovered that he had in excess of £100,000 in his bank account. I believe I had a great childhood in spite of our terrible living conditions and loved my parents dearly. They are both gone now and I miss them every day. On another note, there was a family that lived in our road (nice, middle class area) and their daughter came to school on several occasions with a shaved head. She had nits and her mum's solution was to cut all her hair off. This was in the early 70's.

When I was a kid I used to go to my best friends house alot and we would sometimes play in his parents bedroom when they were out. His parents had a big photo of themselves completely naked, hanging on the wall

When I was a kid back in the 60s my friends mum used to stand in front of the fire, lift her skirt and warm her bare bum.

A primary school friend, went round once and used the loo but they couldn't afford toilet paper and instead used the freebie weekly newspaper... 😢

The house had the mother wearing a see through lingerie while coming to talk to us. When I gasped and looked away because I didn’t want to see her topless she asked me whether the issue is that me and my mum have small boobs and she had bigger ones. Switching on the TV at 7 am to the loudest setting when we were sleeping in the living room because that was the only place to sleep.

And then she decided to come and engage in a conversation about her intimate life when we were just teens.

Unfortunately though that was my step mum and that was on the first occasion when we were able to visit dad and apparently that was her being welcoming.

I was the weird one who was only allowed to turn the TV on for a specific show, and it went straight off afterwards! But I don’t think I’m the friend from page 1, because we had the TV guide that came with the Sunday paper, not the Radio Times.
One friend I had as a teenager had a TV that you had to put pound coins in to work it!

Having to peel potatoes at a friend's house.

Oh I’ve got a few!

1. I was getting ready to go out on a Friday night as a young teen, as a friends house. The mum of my friend came in and started screaming at my friend for borrowing her YSL concealer. She then snatched it off her and slapped her across the face!

2. Another friend who was lovely, and her family were so normal to the outside, had a full room full of dolls, and no one was allowed to touch them. Porcelain dolls for the most part but they had two shelves full of gollywog dolls!

Not exactly weird, but certainly unusual. I mentioned earlier my friend's Easter egg hunt, during which the Easter Bunny supposedly visited; one year, I took part in this hunt. (It gave a new meaning to pretences such as leaving a mince pie out for Santa!)

We children were taken into the garden with our baskets for eggs, sat on a bench, and given carrots to hold out for the bunny. The parents pointed out that the lawn was bare of eggs, and told us that the bunny was very shy indeed; so we would not be able to see him, but we could talk to him. We were blindfolded, and told us to listen carefully for the bunny. After a short while, we could hear the bunny on the lawn, moving about and hiding the eggs. The bunny then took our carrots, crunched them up and spoke to us in a squeaky voice telling us each to look for a certain coloured sticker on our eggs, so we knew which egg was for which person. After that, we were allowed to take our blindfolds off and start hunting.

I don't think my friend actually believed the bunny was there, but this ritual was weirdly fun!

Spurlingpipe
It sounds like you had a fabulous childhood xx

Bit odd a friend that was also a neighbour didn't have bedcovers, her and her Teo siblings slept in sleeping bags on their beds no other sheets just a plain mattress. She also sat back to front on the loo....as in facing toward the cistern.

Another one was a friend who shared her room with her dads old moth eaten looking collection of stuffed owls, I was petrified and never went back again.

So many of these posters grew up in the 70s with me.

Shocked when asking J what she was having for tea ( we weren’t rich, worse off than J) that she said “egg and chips, it’s Tuesday” further questioning confirmed their menu was 7 things only, the same dish on the same day of the week.

Never forgotten it.

Another day going to BFs house. Council house. Mum ten years younger than mine, no carpets, five kids, overwhelming smell of baby sick, no furniture other than a ripped pvc sofa.

Heartbreaking.

When I was a kid back in the 60s my friends mum used to stand in front of the fire, lift her skirt and warm her bare bum.

I do that, but only in front of family and the cat

We had no carpets, no central heating and all second hand furniture. We had one gas fire in the living room which was the only source of heat in the house. My parents never spent any money on the house at all and I was always very ashamed when friends came round. Everyone was made welcome though. Strangely, my siblings and I always had good clothes and shoes and food was plentiful

Aside from the carpets, this was my childhood home. All friends were welcome and they loved to come. I think we were lucky x

This is one of the most interesting threads thank you op

I have a few one that sticks in my mind is staying with a friend - she was my age about 8 our mums knew each other from playgroup. Her mum was an eccentric very posh but dressed like Bet Lynch with loads of bangles. I went to stay one weekend and we went out with her mum and stepdad (who I adored). They went off into the woods and we were told to watch the car. The mother was very cold towards my friend unless she cried but her stepfather wasn’t he seemed far more caring

I think it was the same weekend her mum gave me her dead fathers shaving kit. It’s silver, has his initials engraved on the razor handle and soap brush and in a beautiful leather case it obviously was expensive (I still have it and the half used soap stick) she said she wanted to give it to me as she knew I would look after it which I have but it’s such a personal item and bizarre that she gave it to me. She also gave me some of her glass beads. I also remember walking past her mother’s bedroom and I glanced in and the stepfather was in his dressing gown and only his dressing gown they both laughed when they realized I had seen him full frontal and he quickly covered up and I stood there embarrassed

I wonder how much we do remember and how much we fill in the gaps

I randomly was at my aunts house and went to call for the neighbours kids. I must have only been about 4 so why I was allowed to do this I don't know, my mum would never have let me. I went into the house looking for them and the dad came out of the shower and chased me out in a towel. He was so cross. But I was only 4!

Another thing I remember when I was much older about 18 is going to my Turkish friends house and his dad brought a whole sheep in and started to dissect it on the table! He wasn't a butcher - he was an accountant!

Bit odd a friend that was also a neighbour didn't have bedcovers, her and her Teo siblings slept in sleeping bags on their beds no other sheets just a plain mattress. She also sat back to front on the loo....as in facing toward the cistern.

Another one was a friend who shared her room with her dads old moth eaten looking collection of stuffed owls, I was petrified and never went back again.