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!

My ex boyfriends dad used to walk around the house in small bold print pants. As soon as he was home from work, he stripped to his pants to relax.

I felt really uncomfortable everytime I was there.

BillHadersNewWife

You can't eat a bloody fish with your fingers!

You can do anything if you try! (As me Mammy always told me ) Fish and chips from a chip shop just doesn't taste the same off a plate.

my grandad was was in Germany at the end of the war and "liberated" this clock from a Nazi submarine factory. It's still keeping perfect time

That's German engineering for you.

We used to put it out for the hedgehogs on a saucer or feed the (many many) kittens with it.

She was born to a Docker and a cleaner in Liverpool.
Yes, my Mum, was from Liverpool. Born in 1925.

Anon I thought you said he used to walk around in "Small bold prints" like...a nice floral print or a bright chequered fabric! :D and I thought "Well that's ok..."

Captain fancy that...I loved hearing my Nan's stories of growing up. It's astounding now I think of it. She came from another world entirely...and here I am in the digital age...and my best friend as a child was this woman who told me all about the trials and tragedies of life by the docks in Liverpool in the early part of the 20th century!

I had a friend at secondary and her family was super weird but especially her dad. I knew her from the age of 11 to about 18. I stayed over there once at about 16/17 and woke up in the middle of the night. She had disappeared. Turned out whenever she felt sick in the middle of the night she would get in bed with her parents. At age 17.

BillHadersNewWife My mother's mother died of TB when she was small and they eventually got moved into the paradise of a brand new council house … in Fazakerly. When she developed dementia she wanted to go back there but I don't think she would have found it the same. My Dad lived in a house with no running water until he was 15 but before he died, at 92, he was doing all his shopping and banking online. Big changes and, as you say, a different world. Apologies for the de-rail.

I have been amazed at the number of people who eat fish and chips from the chippy off a plate with a knife and fork . . .

I am obviously as common as muck, and until this thread had been totally unaware of the fact.

When I was 8 or 9 I was invited to a friends house after school for tea.
Tea was a fried egg that her Mum cut in half for us to share
She was v thin and pale

Captain yes, it's amazing to think of the world they lived in. I always remember my Nan telling me that her uncle died of lockjaw! He'd got it making soap in the backyard and cut himself on the old metal boiler he used for it. He'd sell this soap apparently. And her little cousin who died after being scalded. God knows I loved these sad old stories!
She also told funny ones mind you!

Chew my DD's friend did that to her on a sleepover! THey were about 9 or 10...DD was slightly horrified to wake up in the night without her pal in a strange house.

DH and I always thought those parents were lax allowing their DD to ditch ours in the middle of the night!

Surely the whole point of getting fish and chips is not having to cook or wash up? We eat it out the paper with our fingers so I can have a night off washing plates 🤣, I have eaten it off a plate in the past though (at other peoples houses and as a child).

Always off a plate here

Always off a plate unless al fresco at the seaside. We normally buy a couple of large portions to share, plus the sausages / fish, so need plates to dole out. Kids wouldn't cope with anything "wet" eg mushy peas, gravy on paper either. Up the table with knives and forks for us

People commenting that they went to someone else's house and were given a really small portion, do you not think with all the other posters mentioning poverty that it could have been because the parents couldn't afford to give more food?

I think that what they mean - or that the parents were very frugal (so maybe brought up during the war?). And remember people are telling these stories through the eyes of a child (who dont always consider things clearly).

My mum lived in fear of someone going hungry so would stuff anyone who came and usually sent them away with a bag of food - again a war child so I suppose she knew what it was like to not have as much as you would need.

Fascinating (and in places harrowing) thread. The weirdest thing I can think of isn't even weird. At a friend's after school, dinner time comes around and we had curry and rice, all good and fairly familiar. It was dished up 'normally' with a ring of rice surrounding a dollop of curry....with slices of fried potatoes placed on top of the rice. I'd never seen it before but apparently it was how the dad liked it. But even though it was 'weird' I ate it all because it tasted good and I'm a greedy sod

Oh and we had a routine for when we had fish and chips. Dad would go get it, mum would make a pot of tea and set the table and I insisted that buttering a plateful of bread was my job. The plate would go in the middle of the table for all of us to construct the obligatory chip butties. Common or not, a chip butty is food of the gods!

me and another friend were at my friends house (who i'm still close with now). We were about 14/15 and she took us upstairs to her parents room - i don't think they were in. She went to the top of her parents wardrobe and pulled out a plaster cast of her Dad's penis.... at the time we found it equally funny and bizarre.

Common or not, a chip butty is food of the gods

it very much is.

But it does remind me of a 'weird ' experience at a friends house.
In my house we made our own. Mum plonked the bread in the middle of the table and we all constructed our chip butties to our own tastes. (Mine was always dripping in ketchup, still is)
Yet in my friends house, the parents made the chip butties for us. They slightly toasted the bread, carefully selected the right length of chips, drizzled a small amount if ketchup and folded it.

Now there's posh for you.
Mmm. Chip butty.

We used to put it out for the hedgehogs on a saucer or feed the (many many) kittens with it.

If we're still talking about pobs (milk and bread), please don't give this to hedgehogs. They are actually lactose intolerant and it can give them diarrhea.

This was in the 70s when we didn’t know any better! I still love hedgehogs and hope the had the sense not to eat it! I think they actually ate the cat food.

When I was young we would often play at a friend's house, and the portion sizes there were noticeably smaller than the ones at home. I never really thought about it until Mum mentioned it recently, and thought it was because they were a bit mean or because they hadn't planned for extra mouths at the dinner table. Apparently they always ate smaller portions than we did.

My friend and her siblings have always been very slim (not skinny) and I come from a family of fatties.

Portion sizes have got much bigger over the years. The portions at the friend's house were a small dinner plate not piled up. At my home, they would be about a third bigger. Nowadays, suspect portions would be on a much bigger dinner plate.