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Original poster

Things you assumed were normal

685 replies

meredithgrey1 · 30/01/2020 22:44

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?

OP posts:
picklerickkk · 31/01/2020 07:51

Weetabix with butter on! Brown sauce sandwiches and Jacobs crackers with gravy (oxo cube) please someone tell me they also had this as a child!

dottiedodah · 31/01/2020 07:56

Fleetheart Bovril is a lovely drink! very warming and satisfying on a cold day .Also very nutriritious ! My DF had a thing about "building me up" as a child, and this was a childhood treat after Swimming on a Sunday morning .Brings back lots of lovely childhood memories!

Fizzypoo · 31/01/2020 07:58

I used to have cooked tinned tomatoes with toast to dunk in the bowl. I thought everyone loved tinned tomatoes until I had a friend round once and offered to make her the same as me. She thought I was weird for eating it so I never made it public knowledge again.

Lojoh · 31/01/2020 08:01

Raw weetabix is nasty. Hot for me, please.

Biancadelrioisback · 31/01/2020 08:07

Hot banana nesquik.
I refused to drink warm milk as a child but liked to join in when the adults had their cups of tea, so grandma made me a hot banana nesquik and it's still my favourite drink.
I now give it to my son.

Condensed milk sandwiches anyone?

BlackeyedSusan · 31/01/2020 08:10

We have tinned tomatoes on toast. With salt and pepper. Yum.

EarlGreyT · 31/01/2020 08:13

@picklerickkk
My mum used to give us weetabix with butter as a snack when we were children so you’re not alone with that one. We didn’t have the others, but brown sauce sandwiches sound lovely especially with cheese!

GoodnightJude1 · 31/01/2020 08:14

Cold milk on weetabix for me too...couldn’t imagine eating it hot and mushy Confused

I’ve always put vinegar on my bacon sarnies....this is the norm in my family.
It was only when DH looked at me in horror when I did it that I realised it’s not the norm for everyone! The thought of ketchup or brown sauce on it is gross....

SuperMeerkat · 31/01/2020 08:17

When I was a kid my mum hated butter (still does). She used to make sandwiches with no butter which were dry and minging. Plus also mashed potato with no butter or milk so mash really was dreaded in my childhood. When I left home and realised that butter was used in sandwiches and mash it was such a revelation and now I love both things.

Ijustwanttoretire · 31/01/2020 08:18

Ribena with milk (aka blackcurrant milkshake). ALWAYS drank it like that when I was young and was horrified when I was first given it with water...

hibiscuswater · 31/01/2020 08:19

Sprouts boiled for twenty minutes with the potatoes. I still can't bring myself to eat them.

saraclara · 31/01/2020 08:21

Tinned tomatoes on today with celery salt sprinkled on was my favourite as a kid. Now I want to make some!

saraclara · 31/01/2020 08:21

Ugh. Toast, not today. Thanks autocorrect.

yogo · 31/01/2020 08:29

The salting the saucepan lid is very Grin

AvocadoAdvocate · 31/01/2020 08:32

Mum used to occasionally make paella which we thought was very exotic as this was the 70's and we'd never been abroad. When I finally got to go to Spain in my 20's I was so confused when the paella I ordered wasn't rice boiled up with a packet of vegetable soup and some frozen peas, topped with chopped spam. I couldn't eat the real thing - I thought it smelled minging and still do.

PearTreeParty · 31/01/2020 08:33

We were not posh at all but my mum (or me or whoever was laying the table) always set out these heavy linen napkins that she had probably got as a wedding present. No table cloth, no fine china, but always the napkins.

I was invited to tea at my friend's house and we helped set the table. I did the spoons and then asked where I'd find the linen. Everyone looked at me like this Shock Confused

ChikiTIKI · 31/01/2020 08:38

I have my weetabix exactly the same as you!! ❤️ It's the only acceptable way 😁

ChikiTIKI · 31/01/2020 08:39

Oh, I am also partial to sprinkling on some cocoa pops or crunchy nut cornflakes once the wheaty porridge is done! 👍

ladybee28 · 31/01/2020 08:39

Ketchup on pizza.

I STILL don't know if this is weird or not but everyone I know who's seen me do it thinks I'm nuts.

My mum just always put a big dollop on my plate with pizza when I was a kid, and now I can't really imagine eating a home pizza without it.

(Obviously in Italy last year I did NOT ask for ketchup with my pizza – but those things weren't pizzas, they were flat doughy clouds of heaven)

itsgoodtobehome · 31/01/2020 08:40

Putting crosses at the end of Brussels sprouts. My mum always did it, so I did it too. This year, I just couldn't be bothered with it, so I didn't do it. Guess what......made absolutely zero difference. So I have no idea why you would bother doing that.

MissCherryCakeyBun · 31/01/2020 08:40

Cold tinned pilchards on hot toast.....according to OH I'm a freak Grinthey should always be hot pilchards Confused

GurlwiththeCurl · 31/01/2020 08:42

Mine is probably less humorous. When I was a child, we only had one bath per week. Probably because my parents had been brought up in poor homes and that was their norm. We eventually moved into a much bigger, posher house and area but the one bath/shower per week continued. I didn’t know any better.

Then I went on a school residential trip in my mid teens and everyone had a daily shower, sometimes two. I was so shocked and then embarrassed. I told my parents when I got home and everything changed. I still cringe when I think about it.

I was born in the 1950s and my parents were children during WWII.

Inherdefence · 31/01/2020 08:42

When we were little and played scrabble as a family we weren’t allowed to use a word unless we could define it. I was in my twenties before I realised that wasn’t an official rule!

I’m in my fifties now and recently went on holiday with a group of friends one of whom had some similarly arcane ‘family’ rules for Scrabble. She read and reread the rule book in her attempts to convince the rest of us that her way were the actual, official way and when she realised she had been playing it wrong all her life she rang her 80 year old dad in some distress! He talked her down and reassured her that when she next visited him they could play by the Smith family rules just as they always had.

Spied · 31/01/2020 08:44

Butter on digestive biscuits.
Treacle drizzled over Yorkshire pudding was our dessert of choice.

cybergran · 31/01/2020 08:45

salt and pepper on hot buttered crumpets... lush...

I remember having a garden sleepover in a tent when I was small... my mum made us a bog standard ,eat, veg and gravy dinner (no fancy picnics or take outs for us in those days)… my friend was completely baffled by the gravy... she had never seen it before.

I still love a meat, veg and gravy dinner