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!

[SchadenfreudePersonified]

A portrait of Stalin

I bet they called their hamster Gogol . . .

[Marellaspirit]

I went to a wedding once that was held at the bride's parents house, big house in a nice village, parents wealthy and very good jobs. They had a marquee in the garden and there was no expenses spared. You had to go into the house to use the toilet-the house was absolutely filthy, they hadn't bothered to clean anything up, the downstairs toilet had the washing hanging up in it including the mum's bras and pants!

[Whynosnowyet]

My friend's fridge had a padlock on. Once we picked it and make cheese toasties.. Got caught wagging and fridge raiding when her sm found bits of cheese under the table!!

[lolaflores]

whatisthisfuckery I am doing mutley laugh round my pasta at the image of a mans arse chewing suppositories. Cant stop laughing

[MikeUniformMike]

A CATCAKE!

[Nannewnannew]

Oh just remembered another one! A friends uncle had a bicycle tyre hanging up in his shed and he used to put old teabags in there to dry out and then reuse! Fortunately I was never a tea drinker in those days.

[Itsnotalwaysme]

I went to a friends house, ages around 8.

Her mum was clearly drunk and slurring about some bracelet that she found that wasnt hers.

The dad came home and she went berserk, saying she had proof he had been cheating and what a horrible bastard he was.

The dad packed his stuff got on his bike and left as my friend and her younger sister howled in the drive for their daddy to come back.

It was horrendous and I had no idea what i was supposed to do but my heart breaks for them all everytime I remember it.

[RavenLG]

At about 9/10 my friend told me her dad would take her blankets off her when she was naughty as a punishment. I was terrified to sleep over at her house once, I silently cried myself to sleep as I was too scared to ask to go home.

Another friend used to share a bedroom with her mam which I thought was so weird. It was a single mum house hold, and she had an older brother and sister (twins) who we're 18ish when we we're 10 it was the easiest room solution without having to move house. They had single beds side by side and we used to jump from one to the other.

At 14/15 a friends parents house, they we're lovely. They had a sofa in the kitchen which I thought was cool, let us write on this one wall in the kitchen. They would let us smoke weed and drink in the house.

[Buster72]

Age 11 went to a party at a girls housenher dad was a compnay director and super wealthy, (owned a Porsche for the "weekend car".)
The house was a tip. Empty take away boxes whipped cream everywhere. Clothes on the floor. And they were allowed to watch "adult" films.

[foxyknoxy30]

I remember going to an 'empty' ,this is when the parents were out at about age 13,and someone found a massive big black vibrator in the parents bedroom

[GertrudeCB]

Nothing too weird - friends house only her mum was allowed to flush the loo so you had to tell her if youd used the toilet

[CatInTheDaytime]

I was amazed at my friend's house when we would all sit down to tea, including the dad and siblings, cooked by the mum, but she didn't have any and just stood and watched us as she was slimming. This happened every time.

Same family never let their kids go to the ice cream van, or touch their piano. They were such miserable twats. (They weren't at all poor)

We had neighbours we used to play with who had a huge house, and one of the massive bedrooms was just a dump for rubbish. They just threw any kind of old crap in, literally threw it. One time a tricycle had broken and the dad opened the door of this room and hurled it in, and it landed on top of an enormous pile of junk about 10 feet high.

It also blew my mind when some friends had their own keys and called their parents by their first names - I thought it was fabulous but actually they were quite neglected looking back.

[IrmaFayLear]

RavenLG - I think plenty of people have had to share a room with their mother. I don't think it's that weird.

I don't think the parents in your second anecdote were "lovely". If some parents had allowed my dd to smoke weed in their house at 14 I'd have gone round and stuffed it where the sun don't shine...

[crosspelican]

sat on top of the cake was a cat! OMG! That's hilarious!

This is the single most absorbing thread I've read on Mumsnet for AGES.

I am suddenly intensely grateful for my boring childhood and my boring parents!

[minou123]

@Patroclus
If you are ever in the area, visit the Beamish museum in county Durham. They have recreated 1890s terraced houses exactly how you describe.

Mine is: I was about 16 and my mum begged me to hang out with her friend's son as he didnt have any mates. So I was invited over to his house for tea. They were extremely wealthy.

He had his own living room, so I assumed we would just have pizza in there while watching tv. But no...

I was led to his OWN dining room, the table had been set up aka downton abbey style, crystal champagne glasses etc. Me and him had a full 7 courses meal and attended to by a butler and a waiter.
It was so super awkward trying to chat to him because I kept seeing the butler giving us the side-eye
The mum kept popping in saying "are you having a wonderful time, darlings".
She really made an effort, but it was completely wasted on 2 16 year olds!

[kenandbarbie]

I had a friend who had a massive house but lots of the rooms were shut up with cloths over the furniture and not used. Her dad used to sleep downstairs on the snooker table.

[loserssaywhat]

The weirdest thing I saw was the entire family sitting down to eat beans on toast with a knife and fork.
It's not that weird but it was weird to me because we were probably savages lol

[TinklyLittleLaugh]

In the early eighties, when I was 15 or so I went round to my middle class friend's house for tea and her Dad came home from work and cooked us a very nice dinner.

It absolutely blew my mind. My dad had never so much as made a cup of tea in our house; my mum waited on him hand and foot and if she wasn't around, I cooked for him. I had never seen any of my male relations or family friends cooking either.

I remember going on about it for ages and my mum getting a bit pissed off with me.

[Inherdefence]

This is such a sad one. I’d almost forgotten it until I read this thread. I was about 12 and went back to the house of a girl in my class. I knew she lived alone with her granny because her mum was an actress and was on tour. No one ever mentioned a dad and I didn’t think to ask. They lived in a massive house but most of the rooms were unused because they were full of junk and furniture and my friend lived between the kitchen and her bedroom two floors up. It became clear that her and her granny had no shared language (not sure what language the granny spoke, maybe something East European). Granny did the shopping and left food in the kitchen and my friend helped herself and did her own laundry etc. There were framed posters of her mum all over the place and I was shocked because they made it very clear that her mum was a stripper (looking back I think she was probably a burlesque dancer but I didn’t know that phrase back in the 1970s).

At the time I envied this girl because my mum was incredibly rigid and controlling and she had so much freedom, but looking back it must have been a very lonely life. In the 5 or 6 years we knew one another I don’t think her mum ever came home.

[aroundtheworldyet]

@loserssaywhat
Um, how do you eat beans on toast!!?? I use a knife and fork. I thought that was standard.

[Borisdaspide]

One lovely family I knew used to stand for the BBC News, hand on heart (as for the National Anthem). They'd all run in from different rooms, stand for the theme and headlines then sit down to dinner. Never questioned it at the time because I'd heard of people who did stand for anthems etc. Bless them.

[Lovemusic33]

I went over a friends house for a birthday bbq when I was 7/8, they were all naked in the garden (the dad was wearing a apron as he was cooking on the bbq), I can’t believe my parents left me there with the naked people.

I had another friend (when I was at high school) who had no carpet in their house and rats running around.

[loserssaywhat]

@aroundtheworldyet apparently it is standard but I just put the beans on the toast and ate it like a sandwich lol

[IrmaFayLear]

I suppose my weirdest one was going to the party of a girl in my primary-school class whose dm was, ahem, a lady of the night. I had no idea at the time, but clearly some other mothers did because quite a few girls were not allowed to attend. My own dm would have been entirely clueless and thought that it was kind to go as this girl was obviously neglected.

Anyway, the mother's profession was the least of the party's issues. Half-way through the party (and I can remember this most clearly) a group of men turned up at the door and all sat in the sitting room grinning and pointing and swiping at the girls doing musical bumps etc. I remember feeling uncomfortable and glad when it was time to go home.

Many years later with the Rotherham business I thought about all this and thought that my parents would have had a fit if they'd known about this party.

[Justabadwife]

My best friend lived in a massive farm house type house. I stayed a few times. She had a small ensuite shower room in her bedroom (normal) but she also had a fully working bath in her bedroom, behind a curtain. I was very confused.