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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:
AnnaFiveTowns · 10/01/2020 22:13

Yes, I'll ask for it to be removed.

aroundtheworldyet · 10/01/2020 22:22

I can’t work our who it was. There aren’t many people of the name you say

pallisers · 10/01/2020 22:25

I'm the last person to get any references but even I got the name of your friend's father, Anna. best to have it removed.

didyoueverdancewiththedevil · 10/01/2020 22:31

When I was seven or eight years old my mum used to do the Football Pools and collect the coupons to earn some extra money. I went with her one evening and I went to a bungalow on a street near my house whilst my mum collected from other houses. Anyway this man answered the door and asked me if I wanted to come in and play with his dead son. I ran away as fast as I could. I told my mother but she said I was making it up. I can still remember what he looked like.

Madhairday · 10/01/2020 22:43

When I was about 5 or 6 I went to a friend's house for tea. I was really jealous of her because she had a massive stack of scrap paper, think reams of it, and we got to draw and paint all we liked - paper was in short supply at home. My friend gave me a big pile to take home and I was delighted. It was only years later my mum told me they were all very adverts for a local brothel, complete with very explicit pictures Confused

When I was about 13 I had a good friend who lives with 5 siblings in a tiny house. It was utterly filthy, no carpets, except bizarrely in the kitchen which stank. I was never allowed to stay long because her dad didn't like friends there. One day he called her down to tell her she was in trouble for something and made her take her pants and skirt down so he could belt her on the bum. I was shocked and stood there frozen, and he turned to me and asked me what I was looking at, did I want some? He then said I should watch myself when I was at their house. Sad it was in the eighties and I never thought to tell anyone until a few years later when I realised how out of order it was :( my poor friend and her siblings.

As a teen I went regularly to this absolutely massive house. It was full of statues - not just in the garden, but all over the house, like proper museum pieces and all these cherubs. The toilet had gold mirrored wallpaper you could see yourself in, a solid gold toilet and sink, and a big water feature statue of a cherub peeing crammed into the corner. It was awesome.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 10/01/2020 22:50

Soup over chips or a potato and meat pie was a common thing to have when I was young. As was mashed potato butties

I have an idea that a pie in a bowl of soup is known as a "pie float" in Australia (a country whose astronomic delights rival those of Scotland).

NextdoorNeighbourIsATwat · 10/01/2020 22:59

aroundtheworldyet me neither. Lord knows I tried!

aroundtheworldyet · 10/01/2020 23:03

@NextdoorNeighbourIsATwat
Me too!! 🤷‍♀️

Qcng · 10/01/2020 23:16

There was a child on my road who I always thought had a "strange" house.

I knew her from aged 6-9 ish. Her father was absent, so as a curious child I asked about her dad.

She told me her mum "had married the wrong man" and being a child I took this literally, thinking her mum had walked down the isle, accepted the ring, only to find the wrong man standing there!

Obviously I now have more understanding of adult relationships, and feel sad for her.

But unfortunately this neighbor stole things from me, her mum threatened to chop off my babydoll's hair,

Mummy0ftwo12 · 10/01/2020 23:19

1994, popping round to a friends house to discover that not only had I inadvertently sat in daddy’s chair but the living room was full of fucking snakes - corn snakes but still

Qcng · 10/01/2020 23:19

^posted too soon,
Her mum threatened to cut off my Barbie doll's hair, and the house was always very dark.

Anyway, they moved away.

Marmelised · 10/01/2020 23:46

@Neveranynamesleft

Soup over chips or a potato and meat pie was a common thing to have when I was young.

Pimbletts by any chance? Only ever heard of soup and chips in my home town.

Footiefan2019 · 10/01/2020 23:49

@marmelised are you from a small place off the east lancs road ?!

Babybel90 · 10/01/2020 23:49

I had a very stable middle class upbringing with parents who were still married and a clean home with healthy nutritious food every day, I truly had a charmed life and I never knew how lucky I was.

I remember going to a friend’s house before school, it was his cousins house, his mum had left his dad and he and his mum shared a room in this cousin’s house for about five years. At 8am the cousin was smoking weed in the living room and my friend was drinking a can of Stella from a mug (the can was sat in the mug) while his mum was eating her toast. At the time I remember thinking it was a bit strange and that my mum wouldn’t approve of eating breakfast in front of the TV!

Dieu · 10/01/2020 23:51

The childhood innocence of this thread has made me smile; namely the interpretations of certain situations that you made when little. And how you feel looking back on it now. Fascinating stuff.
Some of these posts have made me so sad, and have really stayed with me in the days since reading them. Some adults are completely fucked up. The parents of my childhood friends were indifferent towards me, but I witnessed nothing like some of the situations described. I mean, grown men walloping their kids in front of their wee pals. WTAF?! Confused There are some revolting bastards on this thread. Angry

Butterer · 10/01/2020 23:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Babybel90 · 10/01/2020 23:55

I’ve just remembered a really weird one, in primary school going to another girls house for dinner and she had loads of younger brothers, maybe 3 or 4, and as we’re sat around the table waiting for our dinner the mum left the room for a minute and the girl explained that they weren’t allowed to eat the skin off the roast chicken but that I would be allowed to because their mum couldn’t make me follow her rules, and all the younger boys were all making noises like chicken skin was the most decadent food ever, and sure enough I was the only one with some chicken skin on my plate when it was served up. I remember strongly feeling that those children were really unhappy.

DrCoconut · 11/01/2020 00:04

I had a friend whose house was freezing in winter. There was no heating and they sat with bedding and hot water bottles. I know now they probably couldn't afford oil but back then it was odd because my folks like the house tropical and I'd never been cold indoors.

minou123 · 11/01/2020 00:06

I've remembered another one.

I loved my great aunt, she was a lovely person. But her living room scared the shit out of me. It had stuffed, as in taxidermy, animals in it.
There were foxes, birds, etc. But they were stuffed in really aggressive poses. The fox in particular had its teeth on show, snarling at you.
It became stuff of nightmares as a child.

Thegreymethod · 11/01/2020 00:16

I remember once years ago going back to a house after we'd been on a night out, around 10 of us, I didn't know the person who's house it was I think my friend kind of knew him but not well, didn't notice at first but once we'd started to sober up we realised the whole house was like a shrine to The Titanic..... not the actual boat, the movie!! There were framed photos everywhere all over the walls on any units and side tables it was just bizarre!! And there was dried dog poo everywhere too. Weird place, it was at least 25 years ago and I still think about it now

nothingcomestonothing · 11/01/2020 00:30

When I was 6 or 7, going to a friend's birthday party at her house. One of the games was her dad called us up one by one, whispered a question and we had to whisper the answer back. Everyone who got it right got a sweet. I was the only one who got it wrong and didn't get a sweet, I was confused and mortified and the other kids all laughed that I got it wrong. Turns out he'd asked me some obscure question about politics, and had asked everyone else their name. He thought it was hilarious, I think he was a sadist Angry

As a teenager, having soup for lunch at a friend's house and asking for another piece of bread. The dad asked which I'd had already, I said brown. He asked which I wanted now, I said brown . He said i had to have white cos everyone had to alternate so the loaves got used up evenly. I thought he was joking - he wasn't. Why didn't they just buy brown bread if that was what everyone preferred, instead of all eating bread they didn't like!?

Original poster
BillHadersNewWife · 11/01/2020 00:53

Coconut I grew up in a freezing house. There would be ice on the INSIDE of the windows in the morning. We all went to bed in hats. I remember a sleepover at a posh mate's house when I was about 16 and being astounded at the hot radiator in her bedroom. I just revelled in the heat!

I've no idea why my Mum was so tight with the heating...both she and my Dad worked...we weren't THAT poor!

OP posts:
IlluminatiParty · 11/01/2020 01:02

Not quite on topic but as a teenager I stayed at my boyfriend's parents farm around 1993 and there was zero heating. Our breath was in clouds in bed. It was absolutely perishing. Shaking with cold under the covers but that was normal for him and his brothers.

Original poster
BillHadersNewWife · 11/01/2020 01:02

Carpathian My own grandmother was killed in a bombing raid on Mill Road hospital in 1942. A real tragedy as my dad was only 4.

I remember my Nan talking about all the terrible losses. How a school got bombed and how she took a piece of the brick home with her because she was so devastated and couldn't think what to do...she'd come across it by chance I think. She spoke also of going out after a raid and walking around only to find an entire street smashed and knowing people in them.

She left Liverpool right after the war and moved to Wales with my Granddad and their two boys...one of which was my Dad. And my Dad then had this idyllic Welsh childhood...she was very beautiful my Nan and very intelligent. She'd have loved to see where I live now and I have her photo right up on my shelf where I can see her daily.

OP posts:
Lillyhatesjaz · 11/01/2020 01:31

I was a child in the 70s and we had ice on the inside of our bedroom windows, I think it was actually quite normal then to only heat the downstairs rooms. we had a rayburn and open fires downstairs as did many families my gran had just one electric storage heater. Central heating was very rare

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