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!

I'm another one who eats fish and chips on a plate. Our local chippy does huge portions so we have a fish each and share 2 portions of chips between 4.
My mum used to give me sugar sandwiches for my lunch and also dripping this was in the 1980s. I spent loads of weekends staying with my friend as a teenager, they weren't weird they were lovely people, this thread has just reminded me how much I miss her, she died far too young.

I've got two.

From primary school to secondary school age, I had this friend and were always invited round. We'd go up to her bedroom and she had two double bed pushed together as her bed. Only to find out she slept in one and her mum slept in the other.
No reasoning why as her parents had a good relationship, but she had no privacy whatsoever and just acted like it was normal.
No issue with this but all the way up until her mum died, they shared a bed.

I also knew a boy who had artwork of pregnant women that his dad had photographed and made him have in his room all his life. Was super creepy nude ones.

I was about 12 years old and went to stay with a friend who lived with her nan and grandad, I didnt understand why but she hatched this adventure for us to camp out in the garden shed for the night, so we took sleeping bags etc and did. Later on that night, her nan came into the garden, steaming drunk, banging on the shed windows screeching and swearing, we were terrified. Now I realise she was trying to avoid me witnessing what I think were her Nan's regular booze binges, by 'camping out'. poor kid :( I never breathed a word to my mum as she'd have gone ballistic.

in primary school i used to go to a girls house for playdates regularly, her family were quite well off but for some reason we only ever ate plain pasta with salt and pepper while we watched blue peter and then she got in to pyjamas straight after and went to bed before my mum picked me up! we were about 9/10 and it was only 6:30pm!

We always eat fish and chips on a plate. They don’t come in a tray where I live, they’re just wrapped up in paper and I’m not a total savage. I also can’t fathom eating fish with my hands.

Even eaten outdoors at the seaside I use the wooden fork from the chippy.

I remember being at a good friend’s house and the parents were discussing some arrangements for a forthcoming holiday and the sleeping arrangements the night beforehand.

I was about 10-11 but even I thought it a bit odd that the Mum said that she would be going on ahead with one of the DC while Daddy slept in the big bed with Christa.

Not a child, oh no. Christa was the au-pair!

What was even more bizarre was that this was all being said at a family mealtime, with Christa there too.

I remember being utterly flabberghasted while on a school trip once as one of the other girls was in tears on the phone sobbing that she missed her Daddy.

My house was the one where people only visited once because the atmosphere changed the second my father walked through the door and he wasn't worried about beating me in front of visitors. I had a friend get in touch after 30 years via faceache and admit that after seeing me being hit she'd been too scared to come back.

I do remember being at a friend's house and her being sick for some reason then being really confused when her Mum ran to the kitchen to make her tonnes of food to feed her back up again.

@SchadenfreudePersonified I'm common as muck too, apparently, lol! I just always found it easier to eat the fish and chips out of the poke, saves washing up Also now wondering what people do if they have fish and chips at the seaside

As I said above - the wooden fork.

I suspect we might have been the weird house. My dad used to take in alarm clocks for mending - the old style wind-up ones with a bell on top. He mended them by boiling them in a big pan. You'd come in from school and see something cooking and ask mum what's for tea and she'd say 'oh nowt much, that's just yer dad, boiling clocks again'.

@captainmycaptain but there's no need for the plates outside, so why at home?

Also, I'm pretty sure many people in India eat with their hands? Why would it be an issue?

I don't have any strong feelings about it, it's just what I prefer. I don't want to get the grease on my furniture. Having said that I can't remember the last time I had chippy chips at home, I really only have them at the seaside.

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

I eat fish and chips with a knife and fork too. Class has nothing to do with it. Greasy hands aren't a good thing, and using a knife and fork is just as easy.

This thread has made me want to laugh and cry in equal measure.
It reminded me of going to tea at a friends house when i was about 7. The weather was nice and i remember her mum bringing us what she called a picnic tea to eat in the garden. It was a couple of sandwiches and a packet of crisps to share. It wasnt what i was use to having for tea as i had a packed lunch at school so would always have a hot evening meal but it was fun to sit in the garden to eat. A little later when we went inside and my friends dad excitedly told her they could watch tv that night as he had "sorted it". Her mum lit a few candles in the lounge and we sat down for a bit watching tv before my mum came to collect me. I later asked my mum why we didnt light candles at night like my friend as to me it was something new and exciting. My mum looked a bit puzzled but said nothing and i thought no more of it. Anyway friend and i went to different high schools so i didnt see her for years until i bumped into her a year or so ago. We had a quick chat and i later told my mum id seen her again. It was only then she said oh yes that was the little girl who whos parents were evicted wasnt it? I had no idea what she was talking about and she then told me that the family were evicted a few weeks after id been for tea and the gas and electric had already been cut off. I felt so sad that something id thought was exciting must have been so terrible for the family. I still have no idea how he got the tv working either!

Could have been a car battery, North. We used to take a portable tv camping and ran it from that.

I nearly didn’t post my memories as they sounded a bit grim, but they pale into insignificance next to some of these.

I had a friend in my teens who was very quiet and well behaved but who was a tiny bit cheeky one afternoon in front of her parents. Her equally quiet and mild-mannered Dad asked if she would like “a spanking”. It wasn’t a creepy thing so much as an attempt to humiliate her by treating her as a much younger child. It worked, too, she was so upset.
I remember being horrified because in my home you did something wrong, you got told off. No adult would ever make you look stupid and embarrassed in front of your mates like that . Put me off her parents tbh, who I thought were ok.

Fascinating! Although a worryingly amount of pervy friend’s dads!

Visited many unusual homes as a child. I think a lot of it must’ve gone over my head but I do recall once visiting friends of my mum whose grandson lived with them (his mother had had him v young and reportedly been in prison). They lived in a large Victorian townhouse which was like going back in time. I remember the boy offering us some crisps from their pantry from a cardboard box that had a pair of his dirty underpants in it Why that’s stuck I have no idea!
Another I vividly remember was a friend from school who had 9 siblings. They lived in 2 terrraced houses knocked together and you couldn’t see the carpet in any room as clothes were strewn everywhere, even up the stairs. They also amusingly had a guinea pig who had escaped and just roamed free in their garden - believed to reside underneath a disused camper-van.

I'm common as muck too, apparently, lol! I just always found it easier to eat the fish and chips out of the poke, saves washing up

At least there's the two of us to keep each other company Luckystar - I think there was another poster upthread who regarded fish and chips as a night off from the washing up, too!.

@SchadenfreudePersonifiedhad I honestly think it tastes better eaten with your hands Three sensible folk, I think using cutlery is just plain weird for fish and chips

I'm having fish and chips for tea now because of this thread

(On a plate, with a fork sorry)

Funky could it have been that she was lying as she didn't want you to think less of her for wearing the pants? (Really hope so... I realise it's also possible she wasn't)

Re the fish and chips, my parents decant indian takeaway into pre-heated dishes before serving at the table in the manner of an elaborate meal cooked over many hours (although they do not pretend they cooked it, just are not capable of serving a meal from foil containers). It rubs off, I serve takeaway with napkins, plates, serving spoons and proper cutlery and can see myself edging towards the pre-heated dishes too .

In the spirit of the thread: I grew up in a very perfect, ordered home. My mother was a fabulous, adventurous and capable cook so we ate the best of what we could afford but they were formal (see above). When they went away (quite often) we were sent to stay with the most fabulous neighbours. They had 8 children and usually a few extra students or relatives staying too. They could walk on the furniture and the tv, the toasted sandwich maker and deep fat fryer were always on the go. The mum smoked and despite all those kids (there were two of us) always had time to listen and be interested in everyone. Nothing was out of bounds and whatever we did was just fine. My brother and I loved going there.

I have since learned that the dad was a bedbound invalid upstairs. We never made concessions to him (being quiet, etc), the mum was doing whatever she could to keep them going but their children were all good looking and very clever and ended up being very successful. I didn't manage it (formal mum too ingrained) but I aspired to be a mum like that. She was fabulous and we were lucky to spend that time in that household.

It wasn't weird, but the antithesis of what I was used to.

I was five years old and an only child. My school was a bus ride away so I rarely saw friends outside of school. One day I was invited to my best friend's for tea. She was Italian and from, what seemed to me, to be an enormous family. I walked home from school with her across a field and over a style (which seemed a huge adventure) and then to the farmhouse where the family lived. My friend was the youngest and the older siblings were all so lovely to us. We all sat round the kitchen table and the mum made sausage and chips for everyone. It was such a treat as chips were for high days and holidays and I have no idea how she managed to make enough for all of us.

I was used to a quiet home with just my parents so this loud, crowd of people was totally alien to me. They mostly spoke Italian but their affection and friendship was obvious.

I moved not long after that and lost touch with my friend. 50 years later I found her on FB and I was so pleased to be able to tell her how special that afternoon in her house was.

Now I think that my kids were the ones with the weird family - 5 kids, grandparents living in the garden, dogs everywhere and noise. Hope that visiting children felt the same warm welcome that my friend's family gave me - even though I understood nothing that was said!