Things you assumed were normal

[meredithgrey1]

DH bought some weetabix to have for breakfast a few days ago and I was amazed to see him preparing it by just pouring cold milk on and then eating it like that! I can't eat weetabix now but when I was little my mum would pour the milk on, then microwave it, then mash the biscuits in to create something similar to porridge. I assumed at the time that this was the only way to eat weetabix but my husband was appalled at the very idea and after a quick google it does seem like I'm very much in the minority. So it got me thinking, what are some things that you thought were normal, but then you realised that you/your family were the only one(s) doing it like that?

I walked in on my boyfriend in the bathroom wiping his bum after a number 2, and he was standing up to wipe his arse!
He apparently thinks it's better to do it that way than sitting down to wipe.
MIND BLOWN
It would never occur to me to do it standing up!

I always stand up...

Eatchichken1 yy the wigwam enables the air to circulate around the toast so it doesn't go chewy and arrgh . I am the one in the hotel with a toast wigwam . Butter and marmalade ond 1st round. Marmite on 2nd . Also ginger biscuits, Philadelphia and lemon curd .

Bacon Frazzles dipped in Heinz tomato soup... Oh my days it's amazing!!
And Yorkshire pudding with syrup and butter

We didn't have French toast growing up, we had egg toast made by my father. It was bread dipped in egg mixed with Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, salt and pepper and then fried like French toast. I thought everyone ate it and when I found out that French toast was sweet I thought it sounded disgusting. I still make egg toast and can't bring myself to eat French toast, for some reason it just seems wrong.

Reading this thread I realise I eat most of these things both ways! Hot toast, cold toast, hot custard, cold custard, hot bovril or on toast. I'll eat it any which way!

Some people may say that makes me greedy. I say I'm beautifully easy going and unfussy!

Toofarbeliezero what you described is French toast to me. Without the hot sauce. The sugar version is American.

@frugalkitty I don’t like milk either. Well, I like chocolate milk and chocolate milkshake but I think it’s the chocolate, not the milk, I like. However, I do like cereal. Just not with milk. I lived off dry Cheerios at uni (and bacon pasta). My housemates though it was really weird when I wouldn’t have milk though.

I thought it was totally normal to have pickled onions as a side to Christmas dinner. Only realised when I visited MILs for the first time at Christmas and she asked what specific things we’d like in, DH said “you’ll need to get Cake some pickled onions”.

The way my family cook stuffing (paxo) is weird. We sauté an onion in butter, then boil the stuffing mix with the onion. Then add more butter and leave it in an ovenproof dish on the side to solidify, it doesn’t get baked. Housemates at uni were horrified when I didn’t put stuffing in the oven. DH actually loves our way of cooking stuffing though. I made a ‘posh’ stuffing this year for Christmas - hazlenuts, pancetta, put it in balls and in the oven. DH asked if I’d still do the paxo stuffing our ‘odd’ way. So we had two stuffings.

DH has bacon butties with brown sauce and mayo 🤢

Roughasabadgersbum l love Heinz tomato soup with Marmite crisps scrunched up on the top!

My OH makes what he calls "soup cocktails". He mixes two tins of soup together - his favourite is tomato and oxtail. The thought of it makes me gag.

One of my favourite things ever is a toasted Mars Bar sandwich. White sliced bread, slice the Mars Bar, make the sandwich, and pop it in a sandwich toaster. Heaven on earth!

I remember as a child I was hooked on eating dry uncooked spaghetti pasta ! Absolutely loved eating this, when I was about 4ish my parents had a right job stopping me from eating grass like a damn cow! Something not right with me thank god I dont do this weird shit.

My dad doesn’t drink tea and when I was young I always thought that no men liked tea. Can remember being really surprised when I went to a friend’s house and her dad was having a cuppa. Thought it was very odd.

As a child, my favourite sandwich was cheese, mayonnaise and beetroot... I had no idea this was considered a strange combination, until I was sent to school with it and everyone stared at my sandwich and asked why I had jam with my cheese!

I guess it’s a Dutch thing? (My mum was born in Holland.)

At home we had wooden napkin rings as my mum didn’t use kitchen roll. She used to make napkins out of old cloth and we each had a napkin ring assigned to us. She was always the aubergine, my dad was the pineapple, I was the watermelon and my brother was the grapes. I thought everybody had fruit/ vegetable napkin rings.

Both my parents worked and we couldn’t afford a nanny so me and my brother grew up with au pairs... the au pair was always allocated the apple napkin ring and then there was a spare one (a pear). I could never understand why the au pair didn’t get the pear ring...

The au pairs (there were at least 21) all had different rules and ways of doing things. One used to eat her spaghetti with melted chocolate, another only ate raw fish and raw vegetables for dinner, another made us cups of tea for dinner (because my mum had referred to it as ‘tea time’), another ate sandwiches of cheese, strawberry jam and slices of boiled egg. Another used to shout at us if she heard our forks touch our teeth when we were eating dinner, whilst another used to make pizza with broccoli and carrots as toppings. Another used to make us eat with newspaper tucked under our arms (to keep our elbows in)- a bit odd because it was only ever me and my brother, sitting opposite each other. Another used to wake us up in the middle of the night to feed us midnight feasts, even when we pleaded with him not to, as we had already brushed our teeth and were tired. Another hit us because we got out of bed, my brother was still in nappies, and it only occurred to me how wrong this was when I recalled it years later as an adult. One used to have all the neighbours round after school to teach them how to bake a perfect apple strudel from scratch. One day I’ll write a book all of them

It wasn’t until I was well into my adult years that I found out nobody else owned a fly a squat.... HA! They all owned fly swats. And they didn’t squat flies, they swatted them...

Ooh I've just thought of one!

When I grew up we had a separate shower and bath in the bathroom. My mum would have a bath before work on the morning and my dad had a shower before work. I still have a residual feeling that men shouldn't have baths. I always have a shower myself however!

Friend buys the cooked little cocktail sausages and reheats them! They defiantly need to be eaten cold.

Hot milk on weetabixs is all kinds of wrong. I remember being in the maternity ward starving and they brought me weetabix with hot milk. I could’ve cried.

Apple pips also can be found in one type of cancer medication. As a pp said, you need to eat an awful lot of them to be sick.

The ONLY way to eat Weetabix is with cold milk, and to pour on just enough milk so it is saturated but not soggy. This means you can only eat one Weetabix at a time, or else the second would go soggy while you are eating the first!

@FruityWidow the reason you don't eat the core is because apple pips have arsenic in them. 😵

I always thought the phrase "spend a penny" referred to a number 2. 😅

My dad always ate cereal with condensed milk - apparently not normal.

I though everyone grew their own fruit and veg when I was a child (my parents and grandparents did). I thought the fruit and veg for sale in the shops, was specifically for people who didn’t have a garden.

I didn’t realise people opened presents on Christmas Day. We usually got a gift after mass on Xmas eve (usually new pyjamas), our stockings on Xmas day and all the other gifts were opened on Boxing Day.

My mum told us that the ice cream van (music playing), was the dustman. We all believed this for years!

I too, can induce goosebumps, by sending a shiver down my spine.

My mum used to tell my and my brothers that if we left the house after having a bath we’d catch a cold, so we grew up only having baths in the evening before bed. We’d just have a wash in the mornings. It’s only when I got to my late teens and would feel icky in the mornings so needed a bath, my mum was horrified at first and I was worried I’d get a cold but eventually I realised that everyone in the world has a shower or bath in the morning so surely my mum wasn’t right

This thread reminds me of my Italian au pair! She made a cake for us and left it out on the counter. I texted to ask if it should be wrapped up (out of concern that it might go stale/dry). Her response: "no, no, it's cake!!"

Well, alright then

I think the right answer is that you store it in the oven (?)

Full disclosure: I'm American originally, so it's possible that my instincts regarding cake storage make no sense to most reading this.

@CakeAndGin
We must be related ,
*I thought it was totally normal to have pickled onions as a side to Christmas dinner. Only realised when I visited MILs for the first time at Christmas and she asked what specific things we’d like in, DH said “you’ll need to get Cake some pickled onions”(
We also have pickles with our sunday dinner , they have to be strong brown ones , none of this silver-skin malarkey .

I also do not bake stuffing , I fry onions until they are very well done burnt and mix them with any old stuffing and use meat juices to make the mix up . If I havent got enough meat juices
then I use the water from the boiled / steamed veggies.

I also like strong cheese and christmas cake or mince pies

And thin spread sweet chilli sauce on crackers with crunchy peanut butter but I accept that this is weird !

A friend of mine eats her mango skin and all. I told her the skin contains toxins but she just shrugged. I have never tasted a turnip, as my mother would not have them in the house on account of too many as a child.

Whoever mentioned onion dumplings has now made me want roast lamb and onion dumplings (which I've never tried) !!
I hadn't tried a toasted bacon sarnie until recently, what a revelation! Much nicer imo. I don't like butter on untoasted bacon sarnies.
When I make cheese on toast (grill) I toast one side the partially toast the other before I put the cheese on. No butter!
I really couldn't eat spuds without salt.
I love strawberries with black pepper, I will definitely try pineapple with black pepper, thank you to whoever said that 👍.
I like different textures and heats on my plate.
I'd have hot new spuds with salad for example, maybe with a hot meat.
French toast is always sweet for me. I put some caster sugar in with the egg mix . My sil thinks this is every kind of wrong 😂
If you have sensitive teeth it makes sense to brush your teeth with hot/warm water, providing you have a combi boiler.
We as a family enjoy cold baked beans 😁. Not for everyone. Have to have been in the fridge though.
I have been known to enjoy mash tattie sandwich.
I grew up not knowing fish came without batter..... apparently mum didn't like the look of a 'real' fish 🙄

Having cold fried egg sandwiches on a day out.

Try oranges with salt. It brings the flavour to another level. Also thinly sliced onion on fruit salad, and vinegar on strawberries.

I didn't realise until I moved in with DP that people saved their birthday cards to be opened on the day. I grew up opening them when they came and putting them up.
Also that when writing a card to someone you should put their name inside it.