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 made me laugh out loud! What a weird random thing to serve to anyone never mind a child!

The bread and milk thing...that's not that weird. Just that it was served oddly. Bread and milk was a common dish years ago. Usually the bread would be broken up into chunks though.

I went to state school so the majority of my friends lived in normal three bed semi’s or terraced houses except this one friend who I’m amazed didn’t attend private school looking back.

She had an au pair which I thought was a baffling concept at the time, I didn’t fully understand what one was. They lived in a humongous six bedroom detached house at the top of a hill and had stables with horses behind it. She had a double barrelled first name which would probably be tacky as hell nowadays but back then it was unheard of and seemed posh. Her Mum always drove a fancy Mercedes Benz and she worked for a big radio company, Dad owned a building firm. For her birthday she had a limousine one year and another year her parents drove us to Alton Towers (think she invited a few friends so it must have cost a pretty penny).

Anyway, whenever I went to her house after school the au pair couldn’t cook or speak much English so my friend had to make us food. She always made eggy bread, I think it was the only she knew how to make and we’d only have one slice each. I went home ravenous every time and my Mum didn’t understand why I’d gone to the posh girls house for tea and basically not been fed . Her parents just never seemed to be around which I thought was sad at the time and the au pair didn’t really do much, I’m not sure why her parents employed her tbh.

I must have lived with n a bubble, although all my friends only ever wanted to come to my house. My mum used to cooked us meals fresh from the Delia cookbook, she’d set the table in the dining room and we would have lemonade in wine glasses. She’d always have a packet of French Fancies our for pudding. And in the winter have hit chocolate waiting after school. I didn’t appreciate any of it at the time but my friends did. One spent most the summer with us

A girl I was friends with in sixth form used to invite about ten of us over every Saturday night, as her dad would be staying at his girlfriend's and she didn't want to be on her own. One day her dad obviously got pissed off with us always being there and left a note telling us to only use one square of loo roll each, and then a break down of how many minutes he had to work work to pay for a roll of toilet paper! We all thought it was hilarious.

Another friend at secondary school had two older sisters who lived at home. The 23/24 year old had been with her boyfriend for about 5 years, but they were never allowed in her bedroom together, they had to be in the living room. Her other sister must have been about 20 and she always had her best friend staying over. I thought she lived there, as she was always there, but no they were just best friends. A couple of years later I was in the town's only gay bar and who should walk in but the sister and her "best friend", who immediately came over to say "please don't tell anyone we're here." Turned out that whilst the older sister was never allowed anytime in her room with her boyfriend, the middle sister had had her girlfriend in her bed for years! Right under the parents' noses! Good for them!

I went to a friends house when I was about eight years old, it was in the early 60's. Two men dressed in suits came round to have a word with the girls father, they went into the front room, after about five minutes they came out, straightening their ties, and dusting themselves down, say goodbye to The Mr Krays girls.
The mother went into the front room, and helped the girls father upstairs, all I remember was his face was covered in blood.
I shit myself and never ever went there again.

I was 13 and went to stay round one my close friend’s houses for a few weeks as I was unhappy at home and they kindly offered to put me up. I was close to my friend but her father creeped me out and her mother was rather odd too -a strict teacher.

I ignored my worries though as my friend was very kind to me. After a week there, I caught a cold and had to stay back while my friend went off to school. The girls’ father was home that day too and wanted to show me some photos of their recent holidays to France. He sat me down and showed them to me one by one. They were all photos of him and my friend completely nude, with one of her sitting totally naked on his shoulders, arms wrapped round him, others of her playing in the pool with him and one of her standing next to him naked cuddling up to him. He said they were naturists and next year I could go with them if I liked. I made my excuses, packed and left later that day- I almost ran screaming from the house. I found out years later that my suspicions were most likely to be correct that my friend had suffered some abused ( there were other signs). Nothing wrong with naturists at all- but it was just clear to me that something wasn’t right. He took an obvious delight in looking at my friend naked and showing me. Awful. I never spoke of it to my friend, I just said I had decided to return home. I told my mum but I don’t think she reported him.

I was good friends with the daughter of a well known rock star when I was 9 years old. He was never there as he'd run off with another woman but their house was huge and full of really bizarre things like real stuffed grizzly bears and gothic style 4 poster beds and creepy paintings. The mum used to swear a lot (but in a posh accent - "facking hell" ) and I was quite shocked / impressed by this. She also used to sunbathe topless in the garden in front of her male friends which I also found quite shocking - it was the early 80s. This friend also had a sauna house in her garden and we were allowed to.use it occasionally. I remember one time my friend needed a wee while we were in there so she weed in a cup and then because we didn't know what to do with the wee, she threw it on the sauna coals. I'll never forget the stench of that burning wee for the rest of my life! Her mum went ballistic when she found out what she'd done!

This weird family once came to stay with us. So this mum and dad had a blazing row in the kitchen how wasteful it is to put an egg in pancake batter.

My heart really goes out to those children who were brought up in a 'normal' (to them) home but what was actually abusive or criminal to even another child - but often not picked up on/reported by the adults around them.

My childhood was mostly poddling around our huge garden (digging holes or having bonfires) scoffing mums homemade cakes, playing with our cats and dogs, going abroad on long holidays, visiting dotty grandma and baking pies/making jam, piling into the car for 'surprise' picnics or trips to the edinburgh tattoo (mum lated admitted that she would spring these things on us or we would drive her mad with excitement if we had any warning).

@annafivetowns name the rock star!

my PILs - not a single photo of my DH when he was young. No family photos, no school photos, nothing at all, but loads of photos of other family members. They said there used to be some of him, but another sibling destroyed them in a fit of rage.

Nothing compared to some of these on here but one of my child hood friends parents used to not let any of us use the main family bathropm (they lived in a huge old farmhouse) which was near their play room and my friends bedrooms instead we used to have to go back down stairs and to the other side of the house to the freezing tiny bathroom by the back door

Some of this stories are so sad.

Rubyupbeat that is so desperately sad. What a traumatic thing for you to witness. I hope you are feeling ok as it’s such an awful memory

I would always eat fish and chips with a knife and fork from a plate.
And KFC. Pizza gets put on a plate too.

Surely the person waiting at home for the chippy tea sticks the plates in the oven to warm and butters the bread ready?

Yes! And gets the knives and forks out!

I had a very privileged upbringing in lots of ways, but my father was an alcoholic who used to beat my mother and control her (we had ooodles of money but she had no access to it herself and I would have to ask him when I was 5 for petrol money so she could drive us to school) until she finally left. I used to be absolutely fascinated when I went round to others houses if I saw their parents hug or kiss. And I was sad in a way when I saw it, because I knew it had to be my parents who were wrong.

I had friends who were twins and one had a HUUUUUUUGE bedroom and one had a box room. It used to annoy me so much for some reason - they just didn’t mind!

I use cutlery and plates for fish and chips and grew up with condensed milk on bread. (Still like it.)

I can't think of any really weird things but one girl I knew invited me for tea, we had meat pie and chips with tomato soup poured over instead of gravy.

Aprilsinparis
.......after about five minutes they came out, straightening their ties, and dusting themselves down, say goodbye to The Mr Krays girls.

OMG, that has both horrified and amazed me. What an experience. I'm not surprised you never went back. The Krays put the fear of god into the hardest of men!

I just remembered another one. When we were 8, my friend's parents were getting divorced, but still lived in the same house while waiting for the decree absolute. When I stayed the night, for the evening and night I was a guest of the mother, who would make us our meals and drinks and we were allowed in the rear living room. In the morning, I was a guest of the father, who would make us breakfast, and we were allowed in the front living room. The left side of the staircase was the mother's side, the right side was the father's side, and we had to walk on whoever's 'side' it was accordingly.

The bread and milk thing...that's not that weird. Just that it was served oddly. Bread and milk was a common dish years ago. Usually the bread would be broken up into chunks though My Mum talked about this one too, from the 1930s, she called it 'Pobs'.

Captain yes, Pobs! My Nan used to eat it occasionally. She was born in 1910. It was probably a treat to her as a child! She was born to a Docker and a cleaner in Liverpool. I bet milk was something to look forward to.

We had bread and milk a lot as children - at my grandma’s house. Always in a pudding basin. Always warm milk. Some salt and pepper. It was definitely a commonplace Victorian/Edwardian meal, especially for children or invalids - my grandma was born in 1901 so I expect she grew up with it. Peter Rabbit’s mother makes it for her children at the end of the story.

My mum (born 1929) used to try and get us kids to eat Pobs. But she served it with a sprinkling of sugar, rather than salt and pepper. Chucks of white bread (usually stale) in warm sugary milk. Vile! She claimed to have loved it as a child.