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!

[Stabilos]

^wall

[easyandy101]

Went to a friend's house at around 14 and they were nudists (i guess) and there was a family picture of them naked and quite a few individual naked pics dotted around the house

When i was about 16 i went to a friend's house in London and arrived before he got there, but his dad was home. Went inside and say and talked about movies and he suggested we have a spliff. I declined as suspected it was a trap

At a house party when i was about 16 my mates mum walked in when i was rolling a spliff and sat and smoked it with us

[aroundtheworldyet]

I remember going to my best friend at schools house and realising that her parents actually liked each other and slept in the same room. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment

[TheFormidableMrsC]

I was once invited to a schoolfriends house for tea after school (this would be late 70's approx). Mum was lovely and friendly and made a nice meal. When the dad arrived home, the whole atmosphere changed. As a small child, I can only describe it as "fear". Everybody went quiet, everybody tiptoed around, the Mum looked utterly terrified. He was a very intimidating character. This man was quite high up in the police and was frequently mentioned on TV in high profile cases. I have never been so glad to get home. I felt unsafe. The friend's parents did actually divorce but as an adult I can now see it was most definitely a DV situation. I have no idea what happened to the friend, she went to a different secondary school to me. Horrible situation.

[AndNoneForGretchenWieners]

My best friend lived with her parents and great uncle, I used to stay over most Friday nights. Her parents would go to the pub and her uncle would look after us, he would leave us to our own devices in the music room while he was in his bedroom on the third floor and it's only with the benefit of hindsight that I realised that his lady friend and he were probably leaving us to play the piano and sing while they were enjoying sexy times

[Stabilos]

I hated Tiswas @SaskiaRembrandt. Far more enjoyed the orderliness of Noel's swap shop. Was old before my time I think

[Patroclus]

Yeah this really puts that 'good old days' gobshite into perspective.

[Whatisthisfuckery]

Stabilos Grange Hill was banned in our house as well. I’m not sure why, something to do with the fact that it was London and therefore common, or somet. My parents were somewhat odd, and hypocrites considering they’re very working class Black Country folk.

[Buster72]

At 12 I was invited to sleep over at a friend's house. He explained that his dad worked late every night hence he was not home.

I thought his dad was having an affair with his secretary, just like the characters on Dallas the soap opera.

4 years later his dad came clean and divorce ensued. My friend was gutted his dad lied to him all that time.

[SVRT19674]

When I was about 8, (think 1982) in Spain a family from Ecuador came to the neighbourhood. To us they were super exotic. They owned the bar below our flats. So, we became friends with the daughter and went into the bar. They had a latin american taste in decor. On a shelf a head of an indian doll caught our eye, with its long black hair. I took it down and as we looked closer at it we realised the eyelids were stuck together and the lips were sewn together! It just fell out of my hands and we ran from the place right home screaming they had a decapitated head in the bar! NO one believed us. (Some time later it transpired it was one of those human shrunken heads, it was one of my friend's mother's heirlooms from times gone by!).

[Somanysocks]

A schoolfriend's bathroom suite at home was dark brown. Though she probably thought ours was weird being whisper pink.

[peachgreen]

My friend's dad used to go up the stairs on all fours (habit from climbing ladders when he was in the navy, I think!).

When I was 12 I went to a NYE party at my friends' house with some other 12 and 13 y/o girls. At midnight her dad insisted on coming round and kissing us all one by one on the lips. I was massively uncomfortable as even my own parents didn't kiss me on the lips but he said it was tradition and his wife and own daughters didn't object so I went along with it. About 10 years later he was arrested and imprisoned for soliciting sex with a minor.

[peachgreen]

Grange Hill, Home and Away and Eastenders were all banned in my house!

[SaskiaRembrandt]

Stabilos

The thing is, when I did get to see at other people's houses, I found it all very confusing, there didn't seem to be a consistent format so I had to pretend to understand it. At least with Noel there was order and continuity. I think my problem was that it was the programme the cool kids watched, and I massively resented being corralled into non-coolness.

[Blinkyblonkyblimey]

A new girl joined our class when I was about 10. I got friendly with her and one evening after school, I went round to her house to play. I had the distinct feeling that her mother didn’t want me there, and the girl took me out of the house and in to the shed. She gave me a sort of guided tour and opened a wooden box filled with all sorts of junk and told me to help myself to whatever took my fancy. Now I’m a bit of a magpie, so I took a piece of broken costume jewellery. A couple of weeks later, the family disappeared and (eventually) my mum told me that they had broken into the house while the owners were away and were squatters! I felt guilty about that jewellery for years!

[CarrotVan]

I remember my older sister baby sitting for someone in my class and being totally freaked out that all their tinned goods were alphabetised and only the father was allowed to remove or add a tin in case someone got it wrong. He also had a large array of riding crops and no horse...

[letsgomaths]

I knew someone who when it was her birthday, her family had a funny ritual for her presents: she had to find them in the room, on her hands and knees, while she was blindfolded. Some of them would not be wrapped, so she could feel them and guess what they were. She would only be allowed to see when she had found them all.

At first, I thought this was weird, but I learned it was the girl's own idea, because a couple of years before, her parents had gone all out to surprise her with her "big" birthday present, which was a playhouse in the garden, a "Wendy house" in those days. For that, her parents blindfolded her, took her on a short car journey (back to their house), led her inside the Wendy house, and closed the door and the shutters over the windows, before telling her to look, so that she would make the gradual discovery that the house was for her, and it was in her garden! For a few years after that, simply unwrapping presents wasn't exciting enough for her, and she loved blindfolded surprises! She also liked the Easter bunny to visit and leave the eggs while she was out in the garden, with her eyes covered.

[Cosypyjamaface]

When I was about 10 my friend's father took us to get pick up a mcdonalds. We went back to their house after to eat it.

I still remember walking up the drive and into the porch to be met by friend's mother stood blocking the door with the father's mobile in her hand. She read a text to the DF (stood behind me) which said "just drove by your road. Decided not to venture down. Can't wait to see you Xxx". They had this long and very tense back and forth about who this text was from. I was stood awkwardly in between them drinking a mcdonalds chocolate milkshake. I STILL remember the excruciating embarrassment and not knowing where to look as the mum got teary and that dad looked guilty! So cringe.

[Myimaginarycathasfleas]

Not me but DS who was invited home by a school friend who, it turned out, lived above a massage parlour.

DS was none the wiser. He thought it was a hairdressers because there were wigs hanging everywhere

[Sneakyisbest]

Not weird but unusual. When I was about 6 or 7 I went to a friends very posh house in St Johns Wood. I had never seen anything like it before, I was most taken with the spiral staircase and cuckoo clock. The most unusual was the basement bedroom, It was fully carpeted, walls, ceiling and floor, it could have been a set for Austin Powers and they had a sunken bath. Mind blown

[fazakerleyjackie]

My Grandad lifting me up to see the sheep's head ( and brain) "put to steep" overnight in the sink in a relative's kitchen. Being about 4, I was very impressed ( and disgusted) at it being told it was for their meal.

Going to a friend's house for Sunday tea, aged 10, and being given a lovely salad with boiled ham to eat. Rendered inedible by them pouring sugar over the lettuce. Apparently, they always ate it that way and could not believe I had never tried it.

[PrincessHoneysuckle]

Being given the option of cold or hot baked beans.What sort of monster eats them cold?!

[HoneysuckleSpeck]

@Mrshue 😮😮😮😮😮

[Howcouldyoubelieveme]

I had a friend when we were in late Primary/early secondary who’s parents owned a B&B. I used to stay over regularly and would spend the evenings and weekend days cleaning guests rooms. Changing beds, cleaning toilets, everything. It was gross. She had to clean before she was allowed to go out.

I’m all for a strong work ethic and didn’t question it at the time but now it strikes me as a bit odd tbh.

[QueSera]

Lying on the lawn were some remains of a groundhog.
Guess what was for dinner!