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 friends' stepdad used to eat raw sausages, he'd sit with a bag from the butchers cutting the links and eating them (not envy). God knows how he didn't get food poisoning, raw pork ffs!

I used to go to my best friend's house regularly when we were teenagers. We got to the age where we would go to parties, discos etc and used to get dressed up. Her mum would always tell her she looked fat and then my friend would run screaming and crying back upstairs to her room and id just be left standing there. (my friend was a size 8!)
I often think about how we come across to our children's friends because we sleep in seperate beds in seperate rooms. And I also feel very anxious and unsettled when we have other people kids round so we definately aren't a fun family for them to visit

Years ago I had a fling with a guy I knew. Went to his and when he turned on the hall lamp it was a wall to wall shrine to princess Diana!
I made my excuses and left.

I went to my friends house when I was 8-9 they had a pet owl that was allowed to fly around the house- bird shit everywhere.
Then her mum took a load of dead mice out of the freezer chopped them up on the chopping board and said I could feed the owl like it was absolute treat. I declined.
Then she started making spaghetti bolognese cutting the onion on the same fucking chopping board.
I cried and had to be taken home

I went to stay over at a friend’s house when I was in my teens. It was a very large, modern open plan bungalow with pale carpet throughout. On the floor the parents had laid walkways of clear plastic runner everywhere, including the bedrooms, and woe betide you if you walked on the carpet. They also had a bookcase full of those faux leather, “gold” leaf reader’s digest books. I went to take one off the shelf to look at but was told not to in case I broke the spine. The books were for decoration not reading.

Was this in the 80's @barkandcheese? I feel like it was a theme of 80's and I wonder why? Possibly a time of plenty and people not used to having plenty wanted to keep possessions looking brand new

Friends from boarding would invite me to their house for the weekend occasionally to save being in school all weekend .
One friend told me her mother really didn't approve of me because of my tarty clothes .
I don't know why she told me , I was so ashamed. I could hardly look at her mum after that.
Despite what people imagine about boarders I had no access to cash and hardly had any clothes .
I didn't go back and it really soured our friendship .

Stabilos....were we friends?? Grange Hill,was banned in our house as parents were teachers and didn't want to cone home to watch a programme about school!!

cold rice pudding. Lots of corned beef as well

Can you give me their address? They're favourites of mine

@Fishfingersandwichplease ha! These parents were just quite strict and a bit prudish. I do understand where you're parents where coming from though

As a teenager attended a party at my friends house because her mum and her mums girlfriend were out. We got drunk, someone found all their sex toys and there were looooads.

It was indeed the 80s, would have been around 1988.

Great thread btw @BillHadersNewWife

For all my funny memories though I'm gutted for those who experienced a shit upbringing

We walked into the living room and in the corner by the fire was a footstool. It was a real elephant's foot with a leather upholstered top and I was so horrified I ran screaming out of the house and refused to ever go there again.

OMG I now remember going to an older relative's house as a child, and they had an elephant's foot WASTE PAPER BIN! I was totally astonished when they assured me it was real. It had toenails. I wasn't so much horrified, more just baffled that you would go to such lengths to make such a weird bin, when you could just make one out of wicker or plastic.

My parents amongst others collected the wine glasses with the petrol tokens. These glasses were put on display and were considered the household's best glassware. I do think it was a time for "luxury". Maybe fuelled by the American soaps

Some of these stories are quite disturbing, and some are just sad.

A bath full of hamsters. Every time I visited, over many years.
This was a house with at least 10 people living there and I can't recall any other bathrooms.
It was ace, I loved it. Like a little hamster farm.

I love this thread, people are just bonkers.
I am so sorry for the ones who had a rubbish upbringing; abuse, neglect, or just not a good one. I hope things are better for you now.

My mum became friends with another school mum, whose son was in the year below me in the infants.

We used to go round there sometimes on the way home from school. One day, we were invited to stay for tea. When my mum laid the table, her friend handed her 3 cereal packets.

My mum was puzzled by this, and her friend explained that her son had to have the boxes arranged around his place at the table, so no-one could see him eating.

I've often wondered if he continued this into adulthood.

I had a friend whose dad was an undertaker. One playmate, she took us into the 'shop' next door. No dead bodies, but lots of coffins to look at.

Roadkill brought home to eat. Lovely family though.

At a friend’s house, whose Dad was a local vicar. Went to their (only) bathroom to use the loo. Door was unlocked and the Dad was in there having a bath, obviously completely naked. In his haste to cover his genitals, he only succeeded in flipping them up and exposing them more.

I know that sounds dodgy but I think it was a genuine accident! Poor guy. And my poor friend was totally mortified (as was I!).

When I was about 13 went to a friend's birthday party. On reflection me and my Mum think her Mum was probably am adult film star.
Her birthday cake was a buxom women's chest in a corset.
I remember excitedly telling my parents afterwards thinking if was hilarious, funnily enough I never went to her house again.

Mine are a bit ordinary. Stayed for two weeks with a friend on a school exchange trip and her parents were at. each. other's. throats. All the time. In later years I discovered this was the norm for them, but I'd never seen anything like it. My parents argued, sure, but not in front of people from outside the family.

Did a one-off babysitting job in my teens to help out a school friend. Two kids, aged about 7 and 9. Bigger house than my parents had, mum and dad dressed to the nine, 'well spoken', fancy car. The house was like a tip. I went to the kitchen for a glass of water and the 'clean' glasses were all opaque with dirt. Piles of junk sliding off every surface. The 9 year old girl looked embarrassed and apologised for the mess.

hmmm not much but one friend had a bathroom with no lock and i walked in on her mum on the loo

i went to this other girl's house once and saw her dad throw her cat in the air like, really threw it. i only went there once.

when i was an early teenager probably 13/14 i remember meeting a friend of another friend's parents at a dinner who was, looking back on it, most definitely a bit too keen on chatting me up.

The mouse chopping board 🤢