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!

[Cobblersandhogwash]

My friend's sitting room had white wallpaper with red flowers on two walls and red wallpaper with white flowers on the other two walls. I really liked it but it was a bit busy.

The sofas were covered in another floral pattern entirely and then coated in plastic. We would rustle, squeak and stick to the sofa in hot days.

Her dad used to yell at us for laughing too much. He hated us laughing. It drove him crackers. We were 12/13 and used to giggle a lot.

He kept his porn stash under the sitting room floorboards. My friend showed me and we would stare in fascination at the covers of the video tapes.

[TildaKauskumholm]

Fascinating thread, but what a lot of tragic stories. So many people really should never be allowed to have children.

[Puffthemagicdragongoestobed]

I remember being invited at a birthday party of a girl that I had met at choir. We were about 8 and the birthday dinner that we were served was pig’s tongue! My first and only time of eating tongue!!

[DeadyBear]

Went for a sleepover with another friend to our friends house. We were 16 and her mum was at work but their lodger was in. We were in her room munching on pizza when the doorbell rang, it got ignored... but later it rang again, then loads of loud knocking... then a guy shouting through the letterbox that he had the girl from the escort agency here! Lodger legged it downstairs, friends bedroom was above the front door so we looked out to see the lodger band the guy a load of cash and the woman come in! We called her mum straight away and she left work and basically kicked him out there and then!

[butterandbread]

Haven’t yet RTFT but @ChocChipWookie, the use of mum and dad when talking to each other cracked me up, my DPs parents do exactly the same thing! I found it quite odd too but scarily, having had our daughter, we’ve now found ourselves doing it 😂

[Nillynally]

Went to a friend's house to sleep over and we were talking quietly top and tailing when her mum came in, screamed and dragged her out the bed and made her sleep in the baby's room. I was terrified.

Another friend: her dad got really drunk and cried about what a shit dad he was on the landing for over an hour whilst my friend consoled him and I sat in her room. I think we were about 11.

Made friends with a loner at school who was adopted. Her adopted mum was batshit. Poor friend's bedroom looked like a little guest room from the 1950s (early 2000s) and she was just so strict with her. Very religious and cruel.

[foreverandalways]

Following

[WTF0ver]

I don't remember any weird things happening at other people's houses apart from being shown my friend's dad's porn magazines but I remember being mortified when another friend visited me once. We were sat on my bed talking and as my friend adjusted her position there came the tell tale rustle of plastic sheeting. For some reason my mother insisted on having plastic sheeting on my bed when I was 13, despite me not having peed the bed since I was tiny. Of course my friend asked if I peed the bed and I said no but I know she didn't believe me. Sigh.

[MAFIL]

ColdTatty I ask my family how much of everything, including potatoes, they want before I cook. My Mum always did it and it seems normal and sensible to me. Why cook food that's not going to be eaten?

[letmeinthroughyourwindow]

My friend wasn't allowed milk on her cereal because it was too expensive and extravagant. I found that out the hard way after a sleepover, when a cup of warm water was poured over my weetabix.

Our next door neighbours - normal council semi - made a bar in the lounge from the prow of a boat. It took up about two thirds of their living room, an actual boat, that they stocked with drinks and called a bar. We used to sit on it to watch Captain Caveman.

[BillHadersNewWife]

I remember a friend popping in and staying, and then saying they were hungry and what snacks did I have. All I could offer was toast or a cheese sandwich or an apple. We were just following how our parents brought us both up to have 3 meals and no snacks. That used to be the norm

That's us too. We don't habitually buy snack foods. People can have toast, eggs, cheese, fruit or veg if they miss a meal or if they're just hungry.

My DC do complain a bit and say "But X has a whole cupboard full of crisps and sweets and chocolate!"

I do buy crisps and chocolate..but about once a week...and then what I buy is eaten immediately. I'm not repeatedly buying that crap...I bake about once a week too...a cake or muffins...that's also demolished within an hour or two.

[BillHadersNewWife]

MAFIL but how do you know in advance how much of something you're going to want? I don't...what if something turns out much nicer than you thought and you only 'ordered' a couple of them! No...couldn't do that! I cook what I think will be eaten and leftovers are rare but if there are some, they're eaten that evening generally. People return and just have a cold roast potato or whatever.

[Myshitisreal]

@letssplashmummy my alcoholic father works have passed out like you've described. Just a thought

[MAFIL]

I guess it's just what I'm used to Bill. My family all seem to be pretty good at gauging their appetites and I don't get much left over either, nor do they complain about being hungry. I hadn't realised until today that it was an unusual thing to do.

[BillHadersNewWife]

THinking about it though I DO ask for example "How many sausages do you want?" or how many eggs...so I'm lying! I don't just cook! I just don't ask with veg...

[sam221]

Reading some these, it's so sad and some people really should not have children. I really hope these children all have happier adulthoods.
Growing up we fairly poor, sharing beds and similiar-ish meals daily. My parents were first generation immigrants here and really wanted us to be truly British.
Anyway when I about 8/9 I was invited to a friends house, for the first time. Her mother was really lovely and wanted me to really like their house. For dinner she made a huge effort, there smells wafting through the house-bless her she must have spent ages on it.
She called us down, proud as punch presented me various different currys! I had never had a curry before and had to ask what it was!
My parents were Asian but never cooked curry, due to not wanting the house to smell-or neighbours to complain.
They also didn't want us children developing a taste for curry, to avoid being stereotyped.
My poor friends mum was shocked I had never eaten curry and then felt bad. She offered me pizza! I ate my first curry that day.
When I went home, told my parents their first reaction was that I needed to brush my teeth and my clothes needed to go in the wash!
Years later I did ask them about these incidents and they said, they just wanted our lives to be easier.

[SpangleSparkle]

I’m so pleased that safeguarding is what it is now. In the 80s no one batted an eyelid at things which would now be investigated. My upbringing was also not great and nowadays it would be picked up by the school that there was an issue. Some issues still get missed obv but compared to when I was a child it is so much better for today’s children that these processes are in place.

[blubberball]

This thread is amazing.

[cakebythepound1234]

When I was 13 my best friend at the time invited me over her house constantly for sleepovers. She'd lived with her grandparents at one time but was then back living with her mum and stepdad. No idea why she had been at her grandparents back then but can make an educated guess now in hindsight. I distinctly remember her stepdad telling us he'd had his penis pierced and inviting one of my other friends sleeping over if she wanted to see it. I don't remember if she did or not but I do remember being terrified that he'd ask me. They were also barely ever there, I'd basically stay all weekend and we'd never see her parents - we just watched horror movies and raided the cupboards for food. She had a lot of mh problems which looking back makes total sense - she clearly was neglected and it's possible there was some sexual abuse there too. But at the time I just thought they were very relaxed.

I also remember when I was 16 a big group of us would go round a mates house and some of us would just smoke pot the entire time (not me, I was too scared to take any drugs) - his mum was always there sat in the living room smoking pot too. He moved shortly after- he concocted this story about him having to move to Australia because his mum was in lots of debt with drug dealers, but a few months later I saw him in a neighbouring town high as a kite with his mum. It was just so sad.

[TidaQuel]

I must’ve been about 14 when I went on a German school exchange trip. The girl I was paired up with was a bit of a loner. They had a lovely house, but it seemed miles from anywhere. Her parents both walked around the house naked.
I’d been on the exchange the previous year. The girl I was paired up with was the same age 13- 14 maybe- but I only met her mum once. She didn’t have a dad. She used to drink, smoke and hung out in clubs til late at night. It was very edgy and a real eye opener to me. I remember the club being evacuated as someone set off tear gas. My mum was horrified when I went home and told her!

[sashh]

kerkyra

I still eat oxo cubes, but they are not the same now they are crumbly.

[sashh]

Chocolate50

There is a couple whose garden backs on to min, for a while the woman's daughter and children stayed, the children's dinner was always

Sausage, hot dog sausages or fish fingers
oven chips or smash
frozen peas or tinned beans


Once a fortnight, when she collected her benefit money they had a McDonalds.

I can't remember why but I had the eldest stay over at mine once, I asked what he wanted for tea, he told me and I said I had no potatoes but I had sweet potato. He didn't know that mash and chips are both made from potatoes because he had not seen any made. He was about 11.

[LittleCandle]

I was invited to tea at a friend's house when 10 or 11. Her dad came in from work and announced he had bought new slippers that day, took one out of the box and gave my friend a really hard whack with the slipper and asked her how much it hurt. I was so stunned I could barely speak and I never went there again when he was there. He apparently used the slipper on his two daughters all the time.

[LilyMumsnet]

Hi all,



We're storing this thread in our famous classics vault, now.
Thanks so much for all of the nominations.

[PolaDeVeboise]

What an amazing thread - thanks all. Used to think my childhood was a bit shit, but it was nothing compared to a lot of these.