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?

Well not just Coke. Coke/Irn Bru/ginger beer/cream soda and sometimes cherryade.

A few years ago I went to a friend's house and while I was there she asked if I'd like to stay to lunch, and would I like cheese on toast. Lovely. Until she gave me toast, with cheese on.....not melted! Just literally, cheese on toast my face must have given me away because she asked if I wanted it melted but I got all British about it and didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable so I said it was fine, but I've been about it ever since!

I don't like milk and people are often surprised that I eat cereal dry....don't you put milk on it? No, I don't like milk. Yes, but don't you put milk on it?

Weetabix is crunched into dust by hand and mixed with equal amounts of some sugar.....no milk

Yuck to butter in burger buns. DH's family put butter in sausage sandwiches which is equally gross.

@glummymacglummerson

I was brought up not to put elbows 9n tables (hate seeing it even today) and not,to yawn. I think the yawning is because it looks like you are bored.

Sausage and bacon sandwiches need butter.

Weetabix is best served with milk around it or over it to soften it slightly. Have never mushed it up.

We were out a while ago (( party type thing, but mainly adults )) and dp got DD in a head lock then started scrubbing her head and making monkey noises.

In return DD grabbed him by the nostrils and flicked him on the eyelid.

Looked up and people on the other table were like this

And that's when it dawned on me. That we're more than a little odd.

No, bacon sandwiches are rendered inedible by butter (also red or brown sauce). Just bacon, nothing else.

No. butter and ketchup.

The salting the saucepan lid is very grin

@yogo. I felt like a complete idiot! I should point out, I did also put salt in the water.

@BillHadersNewWife Doric is a dialect spoken in the north east of Scotland.

@GurlwiththeCurl One bath a week for us too. We didn’t need it any more than that.

As for cheese on toast. First time I said to DH that I wanted cheese on toast, he gave me toast with cold cheese on it. I said that wasn’t cheese on toast, it needed to be grilled. No, no he said, that’s “roasted cheese on toast” we still debate that to this day.

Rice with a roast. Never crossed my mind growing up that this wasn't the done thing in the UK - my parents are from Southern Africa where its just normal. My two year old loves a plate of roast chicken, rice and gravy!

A cream soda float is the best, thanks to the vanilla flavouring.

Coke makes it go curdled.

*

I grew up in a salt free house. To me, it was normal to hate food like bacon (slices of unsmoked were bought and soaked overnight in milk, then warmed under the grill until they went pale, rinsed under the tap and then lightly warmed some more), bread (no salt added to homemade), pastry, crisps (salt and shake with the blue packs removed) and butter. As I didn't like sweet things unless they were also in some way acidic/sharp, this instantly made me a 'faddy eater' and was given as the reason why I would go woozy, faint or fall over and hurt myself frequently, including frequent dislocations.

Turns out I need to eat salt or the dizziness gets worse - the number of hot days where I'd end up splatted on the pavement if I had to stand up and wait for a bus was ridiculous - I have to have something salty between 5am and midday if I'm not to keel over.

@craftycorvid I was told by my mother that the slice of bread and butter with 'treat' puddings was intended to fill the (many) children up while only being able to offer small portions

My grandfather liked to eat a slice of fruitcake in a bread and butter sandwich

@BritneyPeedOnALadybug I can sort of do it but not enough for goosebumps to appear!

I remember going to children's parties just after the war (don't ask which war!) and we were always given bread and butter to eat with our jelly

@canonlydoblue I want to try rice with a roast now, sounds lovely!

@Craftycorvid

Regarding black and white cats: perhaps there used to be more of them because the licence was cheaper than for coloured cats?

I think in some weird way this is what I sort of thought. Like you went to pet shop and they were 15% cheaper on HP.

My mum can't drink milk, and hates soy/almond etc. She has either apple or orange juice on her breakfast cereal instead.

I was born overseas and in a British pub with OH and his parents for the 1st time. His dad ordered the 'steak and owl pie'. I asked if the owls are farmed or wild, as I never knew you could eat them! Turns out it was ALE in the pie, but with his accent, I thought he said owls.

I used to think it was completely normal to keep butter in a dish in the microwave with the door closed as my mum always used to do it. It made perfect sense to me, didn't get too cold and hard in the fridge, kept the flies off... turns out that was weird.

It wasn't until a few years ago in a team meeting, that I discovered not everyone can read upside down.

Growing up, we had

Weetabix with butter and honey on

Oxo cube drink like soup

Cauliflower cheese with ritz crackers on the side

Hot meat pie with lettuce and grated carrot

(Actually I thought the above two were weird even as a child)

Jelly cubes out of the packet - mum said they'd make my nails strong

And in response to other posters, I was born in the 1960's , also had one bath a week on Sunday night . And we did drink tea as children , I thought everyone did then as there weren't so many alternatives.

Coke floats, I think, were popular in the 1970's - a treat drink at the wimpy bar!

Love cereal with cold milk only have hot milk with porridge. X

Biscuit “sandwiches” made with either rich tea or digestive biscuits filled with either just butter or butter and jam yummy dunked in tea

Another who had one bath a week until well into teens and we got our first shower. Seemed so modern at the time but it was awful, slow flow and ran from the taps it was almost impossible to get a constant ok temperature, often jumping in/out because we were either getting scalded or frozen! Scalded if someone flushed the loo!

When younger shared baths not only with siblings but if staying at grandparents cousins too! How nobody drowned I don’t know! They’d “throw” a baby cousin in with us older cousins and somehow they survived our boisterous behaviour! Come to think of it I’m amazed the bath didn’t go through the downstairs neighbours ceilings!

@nornironrock - eye level grills, I miss them I can’t get on with modern in oven ones at all! Best way to make cheese on toast!

Toast one side, flip, toast untoasted side with grated cheese mixed with a little mustard and black pepper, grill until golden - perfect

We salt our tomatoes and eat them on toast - grilled with black pepper

“Jam omelettes!!” Wait what?!!

@mrsfezziwig have you seen that YouTube video with the USA dad using a hoover to do his daughters hair in a ponytail?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VBkYy0R-CXc

“God this is so outing if my sister reads MN” you aren’t the only one thinking that! It’s stopped me posting certain things!

“They will probably be posting on a thread like this in 20 years.” Or that!!

“I always put cheese in my hot cross buns which I thought was totally normal until my husband asked me what I was doing!” Slices of cheddar on slices of malt loaf here

“Also egg in a cup. Hot hard boiled egg mashed with butter and salt and pepper in a tea cup, and eaten with a teaspoon.” We call that Chucky eggs.

“I used to drink Coke with a scoop of ice cream on top (in 90s South Africa). It was a legitimate thing to order in restaurants etc. Haven’t seen it since.” Come to scotland! Called an ice cream soda up here very popular, best with Irn bru and tablet ice cream or coke with cherry ice cream

Speaking of sausage sandwiches..:my mum does them by browning the outside of the sausages and then cuts them in half - but not all the way through - lengthways and fry’s the “inside” surfaces they go lovely and crispy and don’t slip out of the sandwich. But yes buttered and brown sauce too.

Pineapple juice on muesli. Never any other sort of juice, has to be pineapple. There are no other uses for pineapple juice & DH drinking it like orange juice is plain wrong.

Croissants with savoury fillings are amazing but still baffle me. As a child, we had croissants for special breakfasts when we had guests & you'd have a luke-warm croissant with a dollop of either jam or butter & you'd rip bits off the croissant & dip it in the butter/jam. I genuinely didn't know how to respond when presented with croissants filled with ham & melted cheese for lunch by MIL.

I've never heard of anyone else doing onion dumplings... Recipe is the same as stew type dumplings but with added chopped onion & then roasted in the same pan as the lamb. It's the lamb alternative to Yorkshire puddings which are only acceptable with beef. If anyone replies that their family does onion dumplings I shall have to assume we're related...!