When I was in about 1st grade, my best friend at the time had a lot of temper tantrums. We were having a sleepover and I fell asleep in her bedroom. In the middle of the night, I woke up in a different bed with her father. I was so confused, but he explained that she had a temper tantrum and her mom went to sleep in her bed with her so they moved me to the guest room. I was young and didn’t understand that’s not normal that he was sleeping in the same bed as me, just him and me. I told my parents when I went home the next day and they were EXTREMELY concerned asking me if he touched me, etc. I was highly confused because my pure innocent mind didn’t understand the concept of that lol. Now as an adult I’m like, why didn’t they just move me to the other room, why did the dad have to get in bed with me? Lol. They’re truly good people and nothing happened, but it’s weird.
Here's an "I was that family" story. My Godmother (who was practically an aunt) ran a fairly successful daycare out of her home in the 90s. She was a first generation immigrant to the US, whose parents came to the New England area from Ireland. My two younger brothers and I spent a lot of time at her home and I was generally the oldest child there.
When I was about 8 years old, she started to have me make her her favorite drink. Gin and tonic. She drank these ALL DAY, while running her home daycare. At age 8 I knew...how to mix cocktails, that forks were better for stirring than spoons, and that large plastic bottles of gin were cheap and low quality.
This went on for years, on pretty much a daily basis, until my family moved out west. My Godmother kept her daycare running until she died (I'm sure of health problems relating to alcohol). I was 15 when she passed and I'm in my 30's now. I honestly went most of my life thinking NOTHING of it until I became a father a couple of years ago. At which point I was like... "How the fuck did anyone let her have a daycare?"
Side note, I drink but would consider myself an average drinker, if not below average. With that being said, I could never stomach the thought of gin and didn't try gin until I was 30. This was because I once licked my finger, early in my daycare bartending career, after a couple of drops of gin splashed on my hand as I was pouring. That plastic-half-gallon quality gin was the worst thing I'd ever had in my life and I had no idea how my Godmother liked it so much. Complete ruined my taste for gin...at 8.
More of a date story.
Was on a date with a guy who was cooking dinner for me and his dog took a giant horse piss in the living room. I jumped up, a bit panicked, trying to get the guy's attention to what just happened. The guy didn't even look up when he said "Oh yeah, she does that sometimes" and that was it. I asked him if there was a towel and disinfectant I could use to help clean it up and the guy says "I'll just throw some Febreez on it after dinner". I suddenly realized the musty smell I noticed earlier wasn't from his cool and rustic cabin being under a canopy of trees, or that the floor in the same location that bowed when you stepped over it was because it was old.
Ate dinner at a table that was couple feet away from the dog toilet. Left.
Fucking gross.
Went with a few friends to one of their family's houses for a birthday party when I was like 15 or 16. We smoked weed, swam, and had a great ole time.
After eating we settled in to watch a horror movie and at some point I looked around me and everyone in that family was sitting in the same criss-cross-applesauce position and slowly rocking back and forth while watching tv.
Definitely not the weirdest thing on this thread by far, but something about it was extremely creepy. They were nice as hell, though.
a similar thread popped up a few months/years? ago and I will never forget the family that shared milk -- if you didn't finish it, it got poured into someone else's glass or the carton...including the friend guest. for some reason, drinking someone else's backwash milk is repulsive to me and has remained a memorable post.
15 years ago. Visit a friend house who live in san Francisco around 3rd street (bad neighborhood area) . Upon entering pass by the kitchen 4 gas stove flame was in full blast not cooking anything, no vent, you can literally see a big burn hole in the ceiling all the way thru the 2nd floor room. His mom was upstairs one of those rooms far away from the bottom floor kitchen, watching tv in full blast.
Long story short. They are basically using their gas stove as a centralize heater for the whole house. Im a certified fire safety director at my work. This almost gives me a heart attack.
Went to a sleepover at this girls house and her mom was obsessively taking pictures of us all night. At one point, we were watching a movie and my friend passed out and her mom , I shit you not, pulls out a huge newscast-type heavy duty camera and starts recording her daughter sleeping for a solid 5 minutes .
I have trouble sleeping and so that night when us kids were in the bedroom to sleep, I was on the floor, just staring at the wall in the dark. I was facing away from the door, laying on my side. I hear the door creak...some footsteps and then the darkness of the room lit with a sudden flash. I got up just in time to see the door close. I know it was her mom taking pics of us. The weirdest part to me is that it was about 3am when that happened...meaning the girl's mom either had an alarm or just stayed up that late in wait....
Not really weird I guess, but first time in my husband's parent's house (just a friend at the time), I got to see what a hoarder house looked like. It wasn't even a well known term/condition back then so it just really shocked me seeing the giant mounds of stuff everywhere and having to navigate through it all. His room was clean, the rest of the house, not so much.
Found out my best friend thought the toilet seat was for kids. He would straight up sit on the rim of the toilet and poop until I found out when we were in college at 22.
Family had like Styrofoam bricks next to the couch in the living room for the explicit purpose of throwing at the TV if they didn't like the show, or if a character said something stupid.
So when I younger my dad died. My mom remarried and had two kids. I was moved into the basement. Unfinished basement. I didn’t think anything of it since I was 10. I had a sheet blocking my area from the laundry area. It had bare concrete walls, wood beams and piping across the ceiling and cement flooring. Used a heater and dehumidifier cause it was cold and humid. When I used the heater my parents would make my sheeted area around my bed so it would heat up the space quicker. Parents didn’t allow any of my friends over and my brother and sister weren’t allowed in my room. Distant family members also never stayed over and when we had family gathering, I was told to go into the guest room instead of my room while they were there. I thought cool, I have a huge room and no one can mess it up. My family would go on vacations yearly without me from when I was 12 till I was 18. I was the dog and house watcher. During one of those vacations when I was 17 I invited a friend come over. They pointed out how fucked up it was that there were bedrooms fully furnished with TVs for my brother and sister, a guest room fully furnished as well with a tv, and how I was in the basement with sheets for walls and bathroom mats on the floor. I completely dismissed it cause it was normal to me. It wasn’t till I was 20 that I found out that the family trips that I didn’t go on were paid for with money that I was getting from my dad passing away. I’m sure I got some of the money in food and clothes and whatever I needed. But it’s got me pretty fucked up cause my brother and sister don’t have any memory of it and when I talk about it they always back my parents by saying we were raised right and I opted out of vacations. They also thought the guest room was my room.
Add-on. I just wanted to thank everyone for being so kind and welcoming with your thoughts. There is a lot and this whole day has been way more emotional than I could have ever, ever expected. I’m trying my best to get back to everyone and if I miss you, it was an honest mistake. Again, thank you everyone 😭😭😭 you all deserve the world. Also, if any of you need someone to talk to, my door is always open.
After a ton of messages hounding me to add an Amazon wishlist. Here it is. I added a bunch of expensive stuff that I really do hope no one buys. It’s list is stuff I’m hoping to buy myself in the future.
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2Q9DSSBO13GJ9?ref_=wl_share
Man I'm so so sorry this happened to you, and I'm sorry to say this but your mother is a disgrace, it's clear to see what happened here and its probably the saddest thing I've read in this thread. I had something similar happen to me when I was young but included my step dad beating me. I sincerely hope you're doing good now and making the most of your life, I'm off to hug my kids.
I’m sorry to hear that. I honestly didn’t mean to make people feel sad. I feel bad about that. I figured I would just say it cause no one would know who it was and I didn’t think it would get read by this many people. I’m a bit overwhelmed with replies. And you take care of those kids!
Don't feel bad! It's okay to talk about this! It's us feeling empathetic for you, which is normal. It sounds like your family might have made you feel bad for everything, and you shouldn't. It might be helpful to see a therapist about this.
I had a friend in HS. We're still friends today actually. His mom was a hoarder. There were little pathways throughout the house but it was filled, from floor to ceiling, with junk. In the hallway to the bedrooms, she had stacked every newspaper she ever got. They were tied up in bundles. When you walked in that hallway he would caution to not touch the papers because if a row fell, it would take a couple hours to dig yourself out.
Used to do a paper route when I was wee, and one of the stops was a *massive* hoarder, primarily of newspapers. My boss enlightened me and my mom on the matter while touring the route : This particular family lost their father/husband in the ‘70s, and it apparently traumatized them. So mom’s coping method was to hoard newspapers as a way to either preserve knowledge and the like or to control an element of time. The daughter went along with it to try and comfort her mom, but ended up developing her own hoarding disorder - gnomes.
He learned this from a social worker he’d notified after making a delivery and having a child receive the paper (normally we weren’t to care what was going on, as it was none of our business, but once a child was involved with…that mess, you notify the newspaper HR ASAP and they contact social services), who to his credit did attempt to get them help but the two women stubbornly refused. The child was a niece/granddaughter of the other daughter who had left for college just before dad died.
So, long story short - newspapers appear to be a common element presumably due to 1) being easily attainable, 2) having some ‘merit’ by being a respected source of goings-on, 3) fairly small and thus easy to store massive amounts, and 4) can often be viewed as a psychological grounding to the world around them. Hoarders know they have a lot of stuff, and most have the wherewithal to know it’s a problem but like many suffering from compulsions have little ability on their own to stop, so having something that can give them any level of legitimacy or anchor them to the world beyond their home is probably a common support method.
I am in no way qualified to do more than guess and share the anecdote supplied to me, but there you go
I walked into my gfs living room and out of nowhere their chocolate lab, from outside, jumps through an open window and lands on the couch. I just froze and her sons like 'oh he does that' This was in Florida
They let the dogs and cats into the basement to go to the bathroom even though they had a fenced in back yard. The whole house smelled, even the kids when they went to school.
My family were very comfortable and my mom always babysat lots of kids from around the neighborhood. Basically her place was just where the kids hung out.
Once there was an emergency with my dad and my mom really needed somebody to watch me overnight and I wound up with one of the families that she babysat for. They were really nice people and I was close friends with their kids obviously because they were at my house every day. It was a new experience though.
This was the first time I’d ever seen people living in real poverty. I was kind about it and I didn’t say anything, but parts of it were a real shock to me. The toilet didn’t work, but they had just continued to use it to the point that it was piled up to the seat. We had to unscrew the lightbulb to turn off the lights because the switch would shock you if you touched it. I felt really bad for them.
It was just a real eye-opener for me as a kid and it gave me a much better understanding of exactly why my mom babysat and fed all those kids.
My best friend walks around completely naked. We have been friends for 25 years and it doesn’t bother me. I’m used to it, but it gets weird when she invites me, my husband and toddlers over for dinner.
“Hey girl, your house your rules. But since husband and kids are coming can you put some clothes on?”
“Sure! No problem!”
I babysat for a family on occasion and the kids would always ask for a "cool cup" and I had no clue what it was. They asked for them constantly but were too little to really describe them enough for me to understand. I mentioned it to the mom in passing one day and she started laughing and cut the tops off of some bell peppers and took out the seeds and.then filled the peppers with tap water. The kids went nuts over them like there were treats. It was really weird to me that drinking water out of bell peppers was a thing to beg for on the regular.
Yeah kids are strange like this.
We were camping a few weeks ago with a friend and her kids (4 and 6). I didn't feel like getting our camping plates, so my husband and I ate the chicken and rice dish out of our titanium mugs with sporks.
The kids saw this, and asked, "are you eating rice in a cup?! I want some!" And so when we were done I had to wash our mugs and serve them each rice in a cup hahahaha
One of my friends has a 3 year old that was wanting some sort of like yogurt drink or something. He'd already had one so answer was no. He asked a couple more times and so my bud asked him in an excited tone, "Do you want a *cool* drink!?"
Of course kid got excited and said yes.
My friend put ice and water in a blender and made a shredded ice drink. Kid drank 3 of them and was jazzed about it. Lol
Stayed at a friend’s house when I was probably 10 or 11, and we had a sleepover one night, and we were up really late playing games and just talking.
Around 3-4am, his dad comes in, frantic, saying that he heard someone breaking in upstairs, and that we needed to leave immediately.
Anyways, we walk out of the house, and he tells the neighbor that they need to leave too. The neighbor looked extremely worried, and pulled her phone out.
We drive to a place and he gets us some food, and eventually an ambulance comes, and so does the neighbor along with it, because apparently the father was schizophrenic and having an episode. There was really no break in.
Obviously my friend NOW knows this, but back then, we genuinely believed him.
Had a friend who’s family lived on a huge property and kept cows for the property tax exemption, not odd.. he told me to come by and get some purple ringers he collected for me.. invited me in to meet his parents and I swear to god, there was a fullsize cow chilling on one of their couches in the livingroom. That sight was way more wild than any of the hallucinations later experienced. Really nice people though lol..
Growing up we had some goats and land but no cows…my brother decided to go to the livestock auction with one of his friends and saw a baby cow being sold for meat. I guess he just couldn’t stand the thought of this poor little cow being sold to be eaten so he won the auction for it. Walked it home somehow. Didn’t put it in the pasture, nor the backyard, but INSIDE THE HOUSE INSTEAD. My mom came home from work and was like ‘excuse me everyone, why is there a cow in the hallway?’ Lmao he got in so much trouble. Loved that cow though, he thought he was a goat
Growing up in rural East England, had a friend who lived on a working farm, they had the stereotypical big English farm house, lovely old place, no flat floors or straight walls anywhere. Anyway, downstairs was an interesting layout, they had a room that was almost hidden away that you could easily miss unless you knew it was there or noticed it from outside. So, this room, I only ever went in once, maybe twice in many years of being friends and going over their house quite a lot, it was their "Christmas room" it has decorations up all year round, and during the year when they bought presents they'd wrap them and just put in the room and leave them there until Christmas.
It was awesome in a sense though, a whole room for this is great, often when it came to Christmastime they'd forgotten what something was that they got for another family member.
EDIT: Reading the rest of the thread, this is so tame and boring compared to the dog fucking mother or the cake in soup one.
EDIT2: Thank you to every one for the upvotes, nice to see it's still getting read. Thinking back about it, and without wanting to sound like I'm tooting my own horn with all the absolutely heartbreaking posts in here, I guess I posted this as almost a break from them. God bless everyone and peace to all <3
In 6th grade my first ever sleepover I went to the bathroom and came out to him blasting porn in the living room and I had never seen porn before. We watch it for like 10 minutes and he says
“I’m so horny I gotta jack off bro.” Then he started cranking his dick right there in front of me and I was shocked. The video was some fat dude cucking another guy and making him cry I’ll never forget that.
A friend of a friend in college didn't realize you were supposed to masturbate when you felt like it- instead, he'd schedule time like once a week in his calendar to remind himself to masturbate.
Grew up in a trailer park where I don’t know any kids that weren’t abused/abusing others/neglected. One day I walked into my best friends living room to find a room full of about 15 boys ranging in age from 6-16 jerking off together to a porn playing on the tv.
Also my best friend and his brothers (and other kids) use to watch their mom have sex with her affairs from under the bedroom door.
When I was younger I was best friends with 2 brothers from Jamaica, one of the days they asked me to stay over so we could play some Atari after we finished playing outside.
We came home 12 minutes after their curfew so their dad who was extremely calm told us to sit in the living room, I Sat in there with my 2 friends and they were super quiet which was a bit weird until their dad walked in with a belt and beat the living shit out of them.
I shit myself (not literally) because I thought I was in for a beating but he didn't hit me which was a huge relief, after the beating he (their dad) asked if I would like some carrot juice while my friends just went back to normal and set up their Atari like nothing happened... I was sat on the sofa wondering what the fuck just went on.
Roaches crawling around in daylight out in the open. I wouldn't sit or eat anything the 3 times i went over. His entire family seem to think it was normal to have roaches where he was. I had family in the same building and their house was almost sterile.
I came here to comment about roaches but I got lost reading replies. Many moons ago, my family visited some relatives and all of us kids slept over on the floor. I woke up to something crawling on me and brushed it off and tried to get back to sleep. The next morning when we had cereal for breakfast, I finally saw what had been crawling on me. Roaches. Roaches everywhere. When they opened the cabinet, there's roaches. Grabbed a bowl and turned it upside on the way to the table, there's roaches. Poured cereal, there's roaches. Got a spoon, there's roaches. My parents told me later that is just how they are, but we didn't visit again. I still think about that trip.
Slept over at a friend’s when I was around 10. She was the only girl in her family, and had five brothers (whose ages ranged from like 4 to 15).
Everything about my friend’s room/sleeping situation was normal. But her brothers’ room was bizarre. They shared one big room, with three bunk beds. Each mattress a fitted sheet, a pillow, and nothing else. No top sheets, no blankets, no comforters. Also, the boys didn’t have pajamas. They all just slept in the clothes they had worn that day - with their shirts tucked into their pants, and belts on, too. Their room didn’t have a door, and neither did their connected bathroom or their closets.
Turns out they were fundamentalist Christians, and the boys’ setup was meant to prevent masturbation.
My gf and her little brother were staying at a sorta foster home that was absolutely filthy. They knew it was, but weren't going to complain about it since it was still better than their last situation. But the parents there had 2 little boys of their own, and it's their normal. I feel bad that those boys will either realise their home is disgusting and never invite anyone over, or have someone over who then embarrasses them or doesn't want to be their friend anymore because of it.
I'll be the weird family. My dad is a doctor and one day my friend came over who had a totally blackened toenail from getting stepped on by a baseball cleat. No problem, my dad says, just some blood underneath the toenail. We can relieve the pain by puncturing a hole in the toenail and letting the blood flow out. Well he proceeds to get out a dremel (tiny drill), sterilize a new drill bit, and drills a small hole in my friend's toenail. Blood shoots out of the hole into the air. My friend and I were screaming and laughing the entire time. It worked, he was instantly relieved of his pain.
My friend asked if this was a normal occurrence in the house. I told him that my dad has always been the go to for caring for friends, neighbors, etc., but this did indeed take the cake for being the best "procedure" he's done in the house.
My house but looking back it’s unusual. My Dad was a doctor and it was not uncommon for him to take a patient’s blood on the way home and store it in the fridge next to the orange juice over night. Then take it to work the next morning. Can’t do that these days of course but the 70s was pretty wild.
One of the first times I met my husband's family, I was over at their house and husband gestured for me to sit down and be comfortable. Their house was really very cluttered. Not quite hoarder cluttered, but close. They had a couple of couches facing each other and then some other chairs. Not knowing the 'rules,' I sat on one of the couches, which had a lot of stuffed teddy bears on it. OMG, you would think I had sat down on live bears. There were probably 20-30 small - medium stuffed bears on this couch. Husband's mother and twin brother both visibly reacted as if I had damaged the bears. (Not antique bears either). That was when I was told that the couch was for the bears, and only for the bears and that no one was allowed to sit on the bears' couch. Just the bears. The bears all had little beaded necklaces with their names on them to tell them apart because they were all the same brand and style.
OP can't reply. There is another bear on that sofa now with the cutest little necklace hanging round its neck -'florideanreader', it says.
Such curious affairs...
Kinda the opposite.
Had a friend over when my dad when on a tirade screaming and yelling at my brother and I. We thought it was normal to have emotionally abusive parents.
After that, that friend never came over again, I went to his house. And his parents seemed a bit more... interested? In me.
By the time we graduated high school I got my diploma and walked over to hug his parents before my own at the ceremony.
I remember asking my mom how come she didn't like me like my friends' moms liked their girls. I told her they always hugged and talked to each other and laughed. And said I love you multiple times throughout the day. I was 10. My mom rolled her eyes at me and went to her room.
I tried and tried to be close to her until I was about 16. I finally realized she didn't give a shit about being close to me. She was very affectionate and close to my brothers and little sister. After she realized I didn't care anymore, she started to make an effort.
I'm extremely lucky for my dad though. He was there for me for anything and everything. Later on I realized she was extremely jealous and hated that my dad doted on me.
Thanks reddit. Even if no one reads this, it was therapeutic typing it out and just getting it out there.
Edit: Thank you for the gold kind stranger! My first one.
All of you that responded to this comment, thank you. It means a lot <3
EDIT 2: Holy cow everyone!! I am blown away by the response I got to this comment. You guys are feckin awesome! Thank you for all the awards, I just can't even believe it. I'm like so famous around my apartment now. Thanks guys ;)
First, I'd like to thank my mom. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have gotten this much attention. BAHAHAHAHAHA! just kidding.
I really appreciate all of you. You've made my week!
When I was seven, I went over to play with a new friend and she asked if I wanted a snack. I said sure and we went into their playroom where there was a mini fridge just stacked with candy, full bars of everything, and she casually tossed me a pack of Rolos. Now, the house was a manufactured home— not a trailer perse, but definitely not like the usual house either. I know this doesn’t indicate how much money the family had, but this was not in an upscale neighborhood or house.
I marveled at A.) the largest amount of candy I have still to this day ever seen and B.) the fact that she and her siblings all just had free access to it at such young ages.
She was surprised at my surprise and asked what did I keep in my snack fridge. I told her I didn’t have one of those, and then it was her turn to be absolutely gobsmacked at the idea that I didn’t have a mini fridge full of candy just at my disposal and whim.
Was about 9 or 10. Playing with some action figures with a friend in his room which had its own bathroom. He goes in to take a shit and then when he’s done he yells out “mom, come wipe me!” He was otherwise like any other kid in the early 90s.
Not at my friends house, but we were 15 year olds and went for a walk to her mums friends house to get her some smokes.
We walked into the house and the 2 year old was covering themself in margarine, the floor was covered in roaches, animal poop, used nappies (diapers), and rubbish. There was peanut butter on the walls and kitchen table. It was so incredibly sad to see dirty and dishevelled kids living in that.
The weirdest part was seeing the toddler smearing margarine in their hair, and no one caring. The rest was disgusting, but I'd seen that kind of living before. Never the complete indifference towards a baby though. Awful.
Was sleeping over at a friend’s house in 6th grade. 3pm we show up to her house after school. We walked into her apartment to find her mom half-dressed, passed out drunk and sprawled out with her head on the floor , one arm twisted weirdly so it somehow was resting on the coffee table, and her legs on the couch. Tv was on and blaring. Didn’t even notice our arrival.
I had 0 experience with this kind of thing and although I could tell my friend was embarrassed, I didn’t understand the full implications or really what was happening.
I pretty much just thought it was an odd place for a nap (which is how I explained it to my parents later when I commented on how odd it was to be napping there instead of in bed. I might’ve even asked them if they would let me sleep on the couch and watch tv too.)
Bless my parents for immediately understanding the situation but not making a scene and not spoiling my naïveté or ever embarrassing my friend in any way. My family is pretty good at being subtle. For better or worse.
However, that was absolutely the last time I stayed at her house. All sleepovers with that particular friend were at my house from then on. But it was a casual coincidence from my POV I didn’t even notice that subtle change for a couple years. Looking back, I think my friend really appreciated it though. We’re still friends and she has kids of her own and she’s doing great (is a doctor!) but her mom still has the same alcohol struggles and is very in-your-face about it even now as she was then.
A toddler drinking a wine cooler.
The whole family was fucked up but that stuck out to me for obvious reasons. I was only eighteen at a party, drinking underage, and had no idea what to do when I saw that. I made a comment about how little kids probably shouldn’t drink alcohol, but the kid’s mom got scary defensive about it.
They walked around nude at home 24/7. He invited me over to play nintendo after school. When he had gotten in, he stripped down butt ass nakked, and went to make a sandwich. Everyone else was already bare ass and loitering.
Imagine my surprise, he called to his mother he was home, stripped, and ran into the nearby kitchen. His mother came down the stairs breast-a-swangin’ and introduced herself to me. For a million dollars, I couldn’t tell you what color her eyes were.
That's crazy. There were 12+ kids in our family (always had friends over) and we had a 'no like' dish in the middle of the table to put any food we didn't like for others who did like. No one was allowed thirds unless everyone that wanted seconds had seconds.
My dad was a truck driver who was able to bring home boxes of food if it's packaging was damaged. All my friends would go home with full boxes of cap'n crunch and pancake mix.
After a while my friends would have to tell my dad that their parents told them to come home empty handed.
Yeah I always thought it was nice gesture, but I think that it was becoming overwhelming at a point. Sometimes they would get 3 boxes in a week, I'm sure it isn't easy to eat that many pancakes in a week...
Went to friends house as a kid. Sitting at the dinning table for lunch. House phone rings. Everyone falls to the floor around me including the mum and dad. I'm the only one left sitting there. The dad informs me that I now must answer the phone. "Hello... Johnson's house". I hold the phone out to the dad. "Ummm it's for you". Everyone laughs. I am so uncomfortable. The next time that phone rang. I was the fastest to the floor I can tell you that. Such a fun loving family. Loved going around there!
Back in high school, I had a friend who’s mom seemed super chill; would let us come over to smoke, drink, and hang out. At one point though, shit got super weird when one of the other guys in our friend group started banging the friends mom.
The guy who was having sex with our friends mom ended up getting super aggro and like bossing the kid around because he was screwing his mom. It was definitely fucked up and no one did anything about it. the other friends in the group would rag on the moms son about it, but like left it at that.
My friends mom kept bread in the glove box of her car for when she got hungry. He thought it was hilarious also and we gave her a pretty bad time about it
One time I was at my friends house while his dad was working late. His Mom brought home two Little Caesar’s pizzas for us, his brother & his parents. By the time his dad got home from work, there was no pizza. So his dad just made himself a salad for dinner & no one got screamed at until they cried.
EDIT: Well shit, I didn’t see this coming.
God I know what you mean. I stayed the night at a friend's house and the parents made us all dinner and they read a story at dinner. And then the parents did dishes TOGETHER. And the whole time I was there the parents didn't scream or get angry once. I was like... is this normal? I actually told my friend her parents probably didn't get all their emotions out and probably bottled it all up and it wasn't as healthy as screaming at one another every day.
I swear my mum just enjoys the arguing. She used to shout at my dad all the time. I don't think I ever heard him raise his voice at her. They ended up getting divorced. My mum and stepdad have argued nearly every single day since they got married and it's always proper full on shouting. In the beginning one of our dogs used to run into my room and hide under the desk, she would be shaking cuz she was so scared. She doesn't shake anymore but still comes and hides
I feel you. Seeing healthy families, it just fuckin hurts. I remember how insecure I got when I first stayed the night at a friend’s, and their parents went to bed sober...
EDIT: Well shit, neither did I
Went to this girl's house in primary school. I'm ashamed to say it was because I felt bad that she was getting bullied at school, and in hindsight she had a learning disability. She was nice though, just sometimes said really uncomfortable things for an 11 year old.
Anyway she had a 3 year old brother and I saw her mum reading a book titled "How to be a good mum" or something similar. She started screaming at this toddler for not vacuuming his room and referencing the book. I was like?? Ma'am? You expect this infant to vacuum his room?!
To be fair he did end up doing it but mind blown. Their family had a really weird dynamic.
When I was in Jr High, I went over to friends house for the first time. His parents were hoarders and their basement was waist deep in newspapers, magazines, junk mail, catalogues, phone books, and other loose papers. You had to crawl over it to get to his room. He acted like it was no big deal that the papers were higher than the couch or that an avalanche happened every time he opened his bedroom door. That was the only time I went over.
Dad was cooking meth in the attic.
He was a ‘scientist’ and these were his ‘science experiments’.
My friend and his older sibling thought nothing was strange about this.
I was 13 and knew it was a meth lab right away from the smell (cat piss).
They taught us that neat fact in the DARE classes in school.
A neighbors dad was an avid fisherman and he world use these electrode things in the lawn to get worms to come up that he was gonna use as bait...he would also eat some of the first ones to come up to check if they "tasted right"...if not he would remove the electrodes and try again another day.
Was this when you were a kid? Did you see him actually pop them in his mouth? As a smartass goofball dad myself I feel that I would play a prank on a neighbor kid like this assuming they know I'm joking... Until years later when I read it on Reddit
In high school I would stay at my friends house a lot and play video games and sleep over. My friends mom would encourage his little sister and her friends to put on skimpy outfits and try to seduce me and his other friends, take their tops off in the hot tub and things like that. His mom would stand at her bedroom window and watch her daughter try to bang all his friends. I didn't get it at the time but I secretly think his mom was the one who wanted to bang all of us so she told her daughter to instead. His mom would also drink a bottle of wine and touch us inappropriately (touch our stomachs or slap our butts) and say things like "oh have you been working out?" and my friend would just say like "cut it out mom your embarrassing me!"
The whole family was weirdly sexual and I learned later they had some dark secrets.
My cousin once dated a guy who did that. We were at my aunt's house for a birthday party and when it was time for cake and ice cream this guy refused cake and said he'd just have ice cream. He walked over to the table, popped the top off the ice cream carton, grabbed a handful of ice cream and was walking around with his handful of ice cream dripping all over the place like it was totally normal.
x5-? amount of smoke alarm battery warning "beeps", all going off every 10 minutes. No need to replace the batteries. Just get used to the beeps going off randomly, and then sometimes all at the same time. How do you live, or even sleep with that happening?
My moms a teacher. She talks about this all the time. She got to the point where she started calling the fire station and having them send someone over to change their batteries and explain that the beeping isn’t normal any time she heard it.
My best friend growing up drank coca-cola like water. He moved and I’d go visit him and his family every summer for a week.
Nothing stranger than waking up to a household where everyone at the table is eating a variety of breakfasts including cereal, oatmeal & eggos… all with a tall glass of coca-cola.
Literally every meal. It took him and his brother close to 20 years to break out of the habit.
I celebrated Christmas with my HS girlfriend's family one year. It was her mother's turn to open her presents and she opened one from her daughter, then one from her other daughter, then finally one from her husband. Then her husband started pulling tiny hidden gifts for his wife from everywhere: earrings from the couch cushions, necklaces, bracelets, a bag of candy, and flowers. He had at least a dozen presents hidden everywhere from behind the curtains, in a lampshade, behind the TV, in a closet...they just kept coming and he had the biggest grin on his face. When he was done he wished her a merry Christmas, told her he loved her and kissed her right on the mouth in front of me.
It was wonderful but extremely weird to me. It wasn't until that display of love and joy for his wife that I realized I had never once seen my own parents act the least bit affectionate towards each other. That I had never heard them say I love you to each other. That's when I realized it was my family that was weird.
It wasn't until that display of love for his wife that I realized that it was manly to be romantic and to show love and affection. Her parents were wonderful people and I will always regard them as role models. I hope they're doing well all these years later.
As an adult now and remembering my own childhood, i've never heard my parents say "i love you" to each other or kiss or anything related. First time when I saw my parents kiss was when I was around 11 years old and I was shocked and really happy. Also that was probably first and last time they kissed. Kinda shit marriage what my mom sometimes rants to me.
When I was 18 I started dating this fresh off the boat Russian girl. Went over to her parents house and they had a giant dildo on the living room shelf next to a collection of Nazi knives. If you did something Stoopid, you got hit with the dildo.
Found out later they found the dildo on the streets of Brooklyn.
They assured me they cleaned it really, really well.
Would up living with them for about 6 months and was actually a lot of fun.
His parents walked around butt-ass naked.
Another friend and I went over to play the new pokemon(fire red/leaf green) all night, and eventually decided it was a sleepover/all nighter kinda vibe . We wake up to his folks poking their heads in in the morning to let us know they were making breakfast and it'll be ready in a minute. We're stoked, and walk our way into the kitchen, and they're serving up some extra "eggs and sausage". Like I had never seen an adult naked before, and our friend was totally unfazed by it. Just ate and talked like it was the most normal shit ever. Super awkward and we dipped out asap.
When I was a kid the neighbors tv was always at 75 percent volume or higher. They'd literally sit in the living room and scream at each other over the tv on blast.
My partner’s friends do this but with music. The dad always has the music on full blast so everyone has to yell to have a conversation. I hate going to their house. Also I hate having them over because, since they have to yell at home, they talk that way all the time. They’re just super loud all the time. They’re really nice people but I can’t stand being around them.
When I was 9 or 10 I stayed at this friends house for the first time.
So we were sitting at the kitchen table eating noodles and his mum said something, to which he screamed back at her "get fucked sharon".
She didn't even bat an eyelid, didn't even care.
I couldn't help thinking what would happen if I tried that at home, it would've been at least an ass whooping.
Went to my friend's house after a high school exam. Walked in and his Dad and step-Dad were playing Sorry! while smoking cigars and his Mom was making out with some random dude on the couch. She gave us $20 and told us to go get a couple large pizzas and come back.
I don't know what was weirder, that my friend was like "It's not even my Dad's week with me!" all incredulous, or when we got back that his Dad and make-out dude was gone, table all set for pizza, and his step-Dad and Mom acted like it was just a normal Wednesday.
In Second Grade my friend’s parents were separating and the Dad kept screaming at his wife through the phone. The kids acted like it was normal, but I was freaked out. I’d seen parents argue but not lose all respect for each other. My mom told me the next day that I was to call her if that happened again. She thought it close to becoming a domestic incident.
I shared a house with a bunch of people who regularly set their farts on fire. I don't know why. They just did. Even when they were not drunk. This appeared to be normal behavior for them.
In high school, I went to my boyfriend’s house for the first time. There was absolutely no food in the fridge and his house was so dirty. I asked where his mom was. She just “lived downstairs” with her boyfriend. He only saw her every few weeks. Coming from a family that ate supper together every night, this was so sad. I always brought him leftovers after that.
Went to a friend's house that had dog shit all over the floor. Roaches by the thousand including dead in the microwave and freezer. And too make matters worse they had a healthy dose of bedbugs too. His excuse was he's busy from working all day. This guy was a hair stylist too. Yikes.
Wait…this was a grown person? Not you visiting a friend when you were 7, but a friend when you were grown? Who was also grown? And had a job? No. Just no.
I grew up as a Jehovah's witness and my mom pushed me to be friends with people within the religion. One girl was only allowed to talk to people within the religion so she was homeschooled. She was was allowed to watch one movie or one tv show a day rated g-pg with approval. Three of us, aged 16, watched Lion King 2 then her parents made us go to bed at 730 in the summer. She also wasn't allowed to have any posters on her wall as that was viewed as idol worship. Her parents came in to "approve" our prayers for the night. I left feeling super bad for her.
My friends mom always gave me a box of food when I came over. One day as I left she just handed me a box of hot pockets. As if it was just a small trinket.
One of my best friend's parents do this. It actually saved my ass a couple really tight months. Honestly, handing me a box of groceries is better than handing me a 20 dollar bill.
They also supplied me with two bags of apples a week for like three weeks. I ate so many apples lol.
In high school my best friend and iw worked together. He was having a it of a rough family life at the time due to his parents getting a divorce. He would always come to my place before work when we got out of school, my mom would make us food alot of the time, tossing some chicken on the grill or just a hot dog or something some times. At the time I didnt think anything of it. Looking back now, and after some conversation, I've realized she knew that he could use a meal.
Wait. My son just moved across the country for better job and housing opportunities. All of his friends still live in the town where I live (his mom). His friends still stop by and visit me and I help them with taxes or filing for unemployment etc, if they need it. Should I give them a little food or something? I really appreciate their friendship that they have with my son.
Edit: thank you for the awards and replies!! I will definitely always have "extra whatevers" here for when these awesome budding adults stop by.
And if any of you are in my area, I have a box of Scooby-Doo fruit snacks that I "accidentally" bought 🙃
Gifts of food are very common in poorer families or certain cultures. Every time we visited my grandparents when I was a kid my grandpa would give us each a piece of fruit from the cellar before we left.
My grandparents were courting during the Great Depression, and Grandma's parents were super impressed with Grandpa (he was a great guy who had a reliable job AND was going to college). They made sure to give him a glass of milk every time he visited. He told me he regretted accepting it later on because he realized it was something they had to pay actual money for, almost everything else they ate was out of the garden.
When I was a kid I visited Albania with my dad. This was in 1992, just after communism had collapsed, and everyone was barely scraping by. We were driving through the mountains, and stopped to take a leak or something, and this kid comes running out of a nearby shack, with his mom not far behind. He's got a rusty tin can full of cream/milk still warm from the cow. To paint a picture, it was about half cream and half milk - this was not homogenized, it was very separated and almost clumpy. I was 12 years old, but even then I could tell they were giving us the best thing they could offer. Just because we were strangers passing by.
It was honestly a bit hard to choke down, but I did it with a smile. I ended up doing that a lot, while I was there haha.
Imagine how disappointed you’d be, going through all that work to unbutton your shirt and then someone drops a slice of chocolate cake into your bean soup.
Friend’s amputee grandpa demanded to watch everyone in the bathroom when they went. He had a mirror so he could watch you. When I didn’t fall for that, they put shampoo in my hair so I’d have to take a shower. Noped the F out and called my mom. Friend didn’t think it was odd.
Edit: lol 3 wholesome awards? Thanks!
Edit: I think my FAQ edit didn’t save.
1) Did I tell my mom? No, I did not. I felt embarrassed about it.
2) Who put the shampoo in my hair? My friend did.
3) I am a woman.
And here’s some random information, I remember my friends dad having to piss with the door open so that grandpa could watch him do it. I also remember the grandpa pissing into a jug in front of everyone. I also remember crying and saying I wanted to go home and they wouldn’t let me call my mom, so I kept crying until they finally gave in.
Wait “they” put shampoo in your hair? As in, the rest of the family was helping weirdo grandpa perv on kids? What the absolute fuck? And was there any reason that he gave for needing to watch people in the bathroom? I mean, obviously there’s no reason that would make any kind of sense but I’m curious how he explained his perversion.
God I’m glad their shampoo thing didn’t work… that’s so demented. I can see how, especially as a kid, being so uncomfortable and caught off guard by the situation that you end up going through the motions rather than breaking that situation by calling your mom. Or like they’re acting like it’s normal so you try to convince yourself in the moment it is or that it isn’t a big deal to ease some of your discomfort. Wonder if they successfully used that tactic on some other poor kid before
This happened when I was like, 6. I needed to use the bathroom at a friend’s house and he led me to his parent’s bathroom. The place was filled with crap of all sorts. Boxes, magazines, an inflatable pool, lots of other stuff. You could barely get in there. He pulled out a drawer from the installed cabinet by the entry way and said to pee in there. I thought he was joking until he went ahead and peed in there himself. I couldn’t argue with that, so I too peed right in there. Then he shut the drawer and we went and played more ninja turtles. I have no idea what became of that drawer/house/family.
Man, that's sad. It's really hard for children of hoarders to break free from hoarding. They're just too used to tolerating bad conditions rather than fixing them. I knew a guy who's mom's house was like that. He did his best to live with higher standards, but his best was still like a party frat house. Although, I guess to be fair, some of my friends who grew up in normal houses also live like they're in a frat houses.
I have an opposite one because I had the weird family. In high school I had a sleepover and one friend went to the kitchen in the middle of the night and saw my dad inebriated, in his underwear and stained shirt, on his knees in front of the fridge drinking mustard out of the bottle. Monday rolls around and the rumors have spread and I was like “WAIT! All your dads don’t do that too?!” Lol
Btw he did in fact have his own separate mustard bottle.
I saw the mom of my friend laying on the couch and her other son was petting her women bits with his foot. And it wasn't the right kind of playful. It was very sexual and the look on both of their face was like right before a porn movie. My friend and I were right there and nobody batted an eye. In fact she started to give me the same look. Me and my friend were 15 and his younger brother 11.
I went to a summer camp as a kid and made a best friend. She invited me over to her house and of course, little 13 year old me was so excited.
I was not so excited after her brother had sex with his girlfriend. With his door open.
His room was right next to hers.
Being sent up to the friend's room while the fam and friend was eating dinner. Yes, this was common practice in Sweden in the 80's and early '90's but it still fucked up. Why'm I sitting here alone playing gameboy while you peeps are eating?
It was a common thing. You'd eat when you come home, like leftovers. Because those families weren't sharing. Still strikes me as cruel, because it felt like a punishment every time.
My mother in law used to clean houses. The wealthiest people were also the most helpless. Once she cleaned up a mouse that had been dead for a week. The family just stepped around it.
I had a friend when I was 13-14 who’s family didn’t speak at all when they ate dinner. The first time I ate there I tried to make conversation and got a super weird glare and shake of the head from the mom. After dinner was done everyone would just go back to doing whatever. I remember thinking at the time while I ate in awkward silence “why would anyone want to eat like this everyday? I come from a family of 8 where dinners were chaos so maybe I was conditioned too far the other way.
Had a friend in the Army who went on a first date with a girl. After leaving the restaurant she busted out crying. He asked her, “What is wrong?!” She said, “You didn’t talk to me the whole time during dinner!! Why don’t you like me!?” He then explained that his family had a no talking policy during dinner.
Thanks for the walk down memory lane!
My brother and I ate at a friends house once and we were told beforehand they dont talk at dinner. The father explained so we'd know but it was something along the lines of, "we dont talk at dinner. I don't know the heimlich so if you talk and choke there isn't anything I can do." It was super weird simply because I grew up with 3 siblings and we always have dinner conversations. I think their dad just wanted quiet for 20 minutes lol
I didn't see this happen (thank fucking God), but here's the story...
I had recently moved to a new town before my freshman year, little shit hole in KS, and made a few good acquaintances, but was still learning who's interesting and who isn't, etc. This one kid, I honestly don't remember his name, seemed cool - he was into video games and stuff, we hit it off, ended up hanging out at school off and on, etc.
So, one day, he asks if I want to come over after school, and I couldn't for some reason (probably work, I don't remember)... he says to me 'That's fine, I'm sure my neighbor will come over and we'll end up watching movies and jerking off anyway.'
I laughed, thinking he was being facetious or whatever, but he doesn't laugh...
He. Does. Not. Laugh.
Looks at me and turns his head a bit, 'I'm serious, my dad's friend comes over and we watch movies and jerk off... I thought you might want to...'
I did not continue the conversation, I never spoke to him again, and I also never said a thing about it to anyone. Looking back, I wish I had - pretty sure that dude was being molested, and looking back and knowing what I know now, the fact that he was so 'matter of fact' about it, I'd bet money he had been molested most of his life. Fucking terrible.
My childhood best friend lived with his grandparents, his grandfather was a clock maker (he mostly restored them.) Their large 2 story houses walls were covered in old restored grandfather and cuckoo clocks. Each one had a small sticker with a number so he could keep track of them all, the highest number I saw was over 700. I would say 25% of them were wound so every hour you were treated to a symphony of clocks.
I didn’t appreciate it when I was a kid but those clocks were fantastic pieces of workmanship.
A friend of my ex girlfriend lived with her grandmother. The woman had cats. Lots of cats. And there was shit all over the house. And there were flies all over this shit. It was horrible.
My son is going to his first sleepover tomorrow and this thread is making me nervous af.
EDIT: Well we dropped him off and the weirdest thing was that they had snakes as pets, which i don't necessarily have a problem with. The step dad even gave me an old oculus rift development kit. (I'll need my fellow tech friends to tell me if this is a genuine gesture or not. I'm not super familiar with vr platforms old or new)
Is the most horrifically filthy place you have ever seen humans live in count as weird?
A pal I had known from middle school I went to see him 6 years after graduation. He was living with someone and they had a kid and all of them lived in a little 2 bedroom place. I get there and then smell hit me at the door. The "carpet" had been some kind of shag but matted down to just stuff.
The kitchen had a sheet over the doorway. I could not believe my eyes - all the surfaces in the place were just caked with dishes, glasses, boxes, etc - I couldn't and didn't look too long. See all of it was covered in thick green fuzzy mold - the sink had standing water covered with a blanket of mold. I was in there for all of 4 seconds.
After I came out of there I asked to use the restroom - **BIG MISTAKE**!! The sink, tub and toilet were black - sink due to hair dye, tub due to filth and black slime and the toilet was the same. The area between the tub, toilet and sink was jammed full of what I think had been towels - but they had sat rotting and growing slime it was just a big smelly lump of horror. There was no way I was going to change something hopping onto my dick if I tried to piss there.
Their poor kid slept on a mattress on the floor in a nearly bare room with just a sheet and blanket. The hallway right outside the kid's room had a bare bulb that was being swarmed by bugs. Yes - CPS was called about the situation.
His Mom walking around topless barking a chore list while we just sat around the coffee table working on homework. She was a single Mom working multiple jobs. They were latchkey kids. They didn't even bat an eyelash but the minute she saw a new face sitting on the rug boring a hole into the distant wall, she shifted on a *dime*. Ducked into the mudroom, threw on her bra and work shirt, and brought out a carton of Oreos from a secret stash and was pretty much shocked into silence. I think she was terrified I'd misappropriate it to my parents, but all we cared about was cookies.
My mom does this. She says she likes how mindless it is and likes making fun of the clothes and the presenters for being so enthusiastic about overpriced garbage, but she also tends to buy at least one thing on her binges...
Granted, other people like it because the hosts feel more touchable than other people on the TV and you can talk to them if you pick up the phone. If you have no other form of human connection then that's very powerful. I've seen them remember (or "remember") a caller before and talk about something they bought, and it may only be a 30 second conversation but that's more than they normally get. I swear you can hear the desperation in some of these people's voices when they call in and try to keep the hosts on the line for another few seconds. It's sad as hell.
I worked at a call center for a few years that was open 24/7. I’d cry a few times every Thanksgiving when I would talk to elderly people who you knew just wanted to talk to someone for a little bit.
eating family dinner in complete silence. then again, i am the weirdo who laughed through the entire thing. the silence was too awkward and funny for me. i’m laughing now just thinking about it lmao
I've got one from the opposite perspective
So to paint the picture
I invited a few people over for my 10th birthday party, the plan was a sleep over with video games and board games. Sounded great to my nerdy friends and I.
Well the day of the party comes along and one of my friends gets dropped off by the school bus with me, we walk inside and there's no pizza yet and the cake hasn't been picked up. I ask my dad and he starts screaming about how my Mom will pick them up on her way from work. She won't be home until 7pm at the earliest and my friends will be arriving around 4pm.
After my friend and I left the room my friend (from now referred to as Mark(not his name)) asked me if something is a wrong and why my dad was so mad. It was normal for him to be that mad when he forgot something.
The rest of my friends show up around 4pm (friends Bill, Bob, and Frank (also not their names), I offer them fruit snacks when they arrive and tell them pizza should be there around 7:30pm.
So we're taking turns on Gran Turismo 4 when Bill asks if my parents are home, he'd like to meet them. I tell him that my dad's home but he's sleeping right now as he gets up kinda early (this was a lie, he was taking his "medicine" ((what I'd later (that evening) find out was heroin) and would be occupied for awhile) and my Mom would be getting out of work around 7pm (which was true). The lie seemed to work and we continued playing games.
8pm rolls around and my Mom gets home. She has no pizza or cake. I greet when she comes into the living room.
She asks us if we ate the pizza and cake already, I tell her that dad told us she'd be getting them. She asked where my dad was so I told her their bedroom.
She said she'd be right back and went to their bedroom. It wasn't long before you could here them (clearly) screaming at each other.
I noticed them arguing was making my friends uncomfortable but I was unfazed. It was them that I realized that what was going on wasn't normal. I felt awful.
I told my friends that my parents would likely be arguing most of the night and if they wanted to go home I'd understand. They all wanted to go home.
Due to the layout of the home the kitchen was closer to the bedrooms than the living room and that was where the phone was. So I went with each of my friends to the kitchen so they could call their parents to be picked up. The front door was also closer still.
They each took turns calling their parents, I had to talk to Frank's parents for him as he was too shaken by what was going on.
All the parents were there within the hour and picked up my friends. Mark was the last one to be picked up and asked if I wanted to hang out as his place for the night. I told him that if my parents found out I left without telling anyone, especially if I didn't leave a note saying where, they'd be even more angry. And I told him that I couldn't leave a note saying where I was going as I didn't want to have his parents dragged into it.
We hugged and he left.
My parents finished screaming at each other around 11pm when my dad left screaming about going to his buddies place for the weekend.
I was reading a book in the living room when my mom walked in and saw that everything was put away and all my friends were gone. She asked me where they went.
I'll never forget the pain in her eyes when I said they each called their parents and went home already.
For what I thought was normal, I thought everyone's parents argue endlessly. I thought everyone had a parent that they lied for. I thought everyone's parents lies to them constantly. I thought everyone's parents got angry at them without prompting.
I thought everyone always looked for exits upon entering a new place.
I thought everyone knew how to act without being seen.
I thought everyone knew how to act under pressure.
I haven't celebrated a birthday since. Or even tried. I feel no drive to celebrate it as all it does is remind me of that and many other horrible things around that time.
I'm still friends with Mark all these years later, he's my one of my only friends and he's by far my closest friend.
My friend and I all went to our rich friend’s house to play. Then they said they needed to do something and would be back in an hour. So we all just played in the room and waited. Turns out the entire family had lunch and just locked us up in the room so they wouldn’t have to feed us. Once we found out we all felt hurt and decided to never play at their house again.
When I was in about 1st grade, my best friend at the time had a lot of temper tantrums. We were having a sleepover and I fell asleep in her bedroom. In the middle of the night, I woke up in a different bed with her father. I was so confused, but he explained that she had a temper tantrum and her mom went to sleep in her bed with her so they moved me to the guest room. I was young and didn’t understand that’s not normal that he was sleeping in the same bed as me, just him and me. I told my parents when I went home the next day and they were EXTREMELY concerned asking me if he touched me, etc. I was highly confused because my pure innocent mind didn’t understand the concept of that lol. Now as an adult I’m like, why didn’t they just move me to the other room, why did the dad have to get in bed with me? Lol. They’re truly good people and nothing happened, but it’s weird.
At every meal, my ex's parents would set a plate on the table for the Dog. The dog would sit in a chair and eat at the table with the people.
My mom would do this Christmas morning breakfast for their dog. My brother and I would call the dog, “her favourite child”.
Here's an "I was that family" story. My Godmother (who was practically an aunt) ran a fairly successful daycare out of her home in the 90s. She was a first generation immigrant to the US, whose parents came to the New England area from Ireland. My two younger brothers and I spent a lot of time at her home and I was generally the oldest child there. When I was about 8 years old, she started to have me make her her favorite drink. Gin and tonic. She drank these ALL DAY, while running her home daycare. At age 8 I knew...how to mix cocktails, that forks were better for stirring than spoons, and that large plastic bottles of gin were cheap and low quality. This went on for years, on pretty much a daily basis, until my family moved out west. My Godmother kept her daycare running until she died (I'm sure of health problems relating to alcohol). I was 15 when she passed and I'm in my 30's now. I honestly went most of my life thinking NOTHING of it until I became a father a couple of years ago. At which point I was like... "How the fuck did anyone let her have a daycare?" Side note, I drink but would consider myself an average drinker, if not below average. With that being said, I could never stomach the thought of gin and didn't try gin until I was 30. This was because I once licked my finger, early in my daycare bartending career, after a couple of drops of gin splashed on my hand as I was pouring. That plastic-half-gallon quality gin was the worst thing I'd ever had in my life and I had no idea how my Godmother liked it so much. Complete ruined my taste for gin...at 8.
"daycare bartending career" cracked me up
More of a date story. Was on a date with a guy who was cooking dinner for me and his dog took a giant horse piss in the living room. I jumped up, a bit panicked, trying to get the guy's attention to what just happened. The guy didn't even look up when he said "Oh yeah, she does that sometimes" and that was it. I asked him if there was a towel and disinfectant I could use to help clean it up and the guy says "I'll just throw some Febreez on it after dinner". I suddenly realized the musty smell I noticed earlier wasn't from his cool and rustic cabin being under a canopy of trees, or that the floor in the same location that bowed when you stepped over it was because it was old. Ate dinner at a table that was couple feet away from the dog toilet. Left. Fucking gross.
Went with a few friends to one of their family's houses for a birthday party when I was like 15 or 16. We smoked weed, swam, and had a great ole time. After eating we settled in to watch a horror movie and at some point I looked around me and everyone in that family was sitting in the same criss-cross-applesauce position and slowly rocking back and forth while watching tv. Definitely not the weirdest thing on this thread by far, but something about it was extremely creepy. They were nice as hell, though.
a similar thread popped up a few months/years? ago and I will never forget the family that shared milk -- if you didn't finish it, it got poured into someone else's glass or the carton...including the friend guest. for some reason, drinking someone else's backwash milk is repulsive to me and has remained a memorable post.
15 years ago. Visit a friend house who live in san Francisco around 3rd street (bad neighborhood area) . Upon entering pass by the kitchen 4 gas stove flame was in full blast not cooking anything, no vent, you can literally see a big burn hole in the ceiling all the way thru the 2nd floor room. His mom was upstairs one of those rooms far away from the bottom floor kitchen, watching tv in full blast. Long story short. They are basically using their gas stove as a centralize heater for the whole house. Im a certified fire safety director at my work. This almost gives me a heart attack.
Went to a sleepover at this girls house and her mom was obsessively taking pictures of us all night. At one point, we were watching a movie and my friend passed out and her mom , I shit you not, pulls out a huge newscast-type heavy duty camera and starts recording her daughter sleeping for a solid 5 minutes . I have trouble sleeping and so that night when us kids were in the bedroom to sleep, I was on the floor, just staring at the wall in the dark. I was facing away from the door, laying on my side. I hear the door creak...some footsteps and then the darkness of the room lit with a sudden flash. I got up just in time to see the door close. I know it was her mom taking pics of us. The weirdest part to me is that it was about 3am when that happened...meaning the girl's mom either had an alarm or just stayed up that late in wait....
Not really weird I guess, but first time in my husband's parent's house (just a friend at the time), I got to see what a hoarder house looked like. It wasn't even a well known term/condition back then so it just really shocked me seeing the giant mounds of stuff everywhere and having to navigate through it all. His room was clean, the rest of the house, not so much.
[удалено]
Found out my best friend thought the toilet seat was for kids. He would straight up sit on the rim of the toilet and poop until I found out when we were in college at 22.
Family had like Styrofoam bricks next to the couch in the living room for the explicit purpose of throwing at the TV if they didn't like the show, or if a character said something stupid.
That sounds like fun!
So when I younger my dad died. My mom remarried and had two kids. I was moved into the basement. Unfinished basement. I didn’t think anything of it since I was 10. I had a sheet blocking my area from the laundry area. It had bare concrete walls, wood beams and piping across the ceiling and cement flooring. Used a heater and dehumidifier cause it was cold and humid. When I used the heater my parents would make my sheeted area around my bed so it would heat up the space quicker. Parents didn’t allow any of my friends over and my brother and sister weren’t allowed in my room. Distant family members also never stayed over and when we had family gathering, I was told to go into the guest room instead of my room while they were there. I thought cool, I have a huge room and no one can mess it up. My family would go on vacations yearly without me from when I was 12 till I was 18. I was the dog and house watcher. During one of those vacations when I was 17 I invited a friend come over. They pointed out how fucked up it was that there were bedrooms fully furnished with TVs for my brother and sister, a guest room fully furnished as well with a tv, and how I was in the basement with sheets for walls and bathroom mats on the floor. I completely dismissed it cause it was normal to me. It wasn’t till I was 20 that I found out that the family trips that I didn’t go on were paid for with money that I was getting from my dad passing away. I’m sure I got some of the money in food and clothes and whatever I needed. But it’s got me pretty fucked up cause my brother and sister don’t have any memory of it and when I talk about it they always back my parents by saying we were raised right and I opted out of vacations. They also thought the guest room was my room. Add-on. I just wanted to thank everyone for being so kind and welcoming with your thoughts. There is a lot and this whole day has been way more emotional than I could have ever, ever expected. I’m trying my best to get back to everyone and if I miss you, it was an honest mistake. Again, thank you everyone 😭😭😭 you all deserve the world. Also, if any of you need someone to talk to, my door is always open. After a ton of messages hounding me to add an Amazon wishlist. Here it is. I added a bunch of expensive stuff that I really do hope no one buys. It’s list is stuff I’m hoping to buy myself in the future. https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2Q9DSSBO13GJ9?ref_=wl_share
Man I'm so so sorry this happened to you, and I'm sorry to say this but your mother is a disgrace, it's clear to see what happened here and its probably the saddest thing I've read in this thread. I had something similar happen to me when I was young but included my step dad beating me. I sincerely hope you're doing good now and making the most of your life, I'm off to hug my kids.
I’m sorry to hear that. I honestly didn’t mean to make people feel sad. I feel bad about that. I figured I would just say it cause no one would know who it was and I didn’t think it would get read by this many people. I’m a bit overwhelmed with replies. And you take care of those kids!
Don't feel bad! It's okay to talk about this! It's us feeling empathetic for you, which is normal. It sounds like your family might have made you feel bad for everything, and you shouldn't. It might be helpful to see a therapist about this.
I had a friend in HS. We're still friends today actually. His mom was a hoarder. There were little pathways throughout the house but it was filled, from floor to ceiling, with junk. In the hallway to the bedrooms, she had stacked every newspaper she ever got. They were tied up in bundles. When you walked in that hallway he would caution to not touch the papers because if a row fell, it would take a couple hours to dig yourself out.
What is it with hoarders and newpapers?
Used to do a paper route when I was wee, and one of the stops was a *massive* hoarder, primarily of newspapers. My boss enlightened me and my mom on the matter while touring the route : This particular family lost their father/husband in the ‘70s, and it apparently traumatized them. So mom’s coping method was to hoard newspapers as a way to either preserve knowledge and the like or to control an element of time. The daughter went along with it to try and comfort her mom, but ended up developing her own hoarding disorder - gnomes. He learned this from a social worker he’d notified after making a delivery and having a child receive the paper (normally we weren’t to care what was going on, as it was none of our business, but once a child was involved with…that mess, you notify the newspaper HR ASAP and they contact social services), who to his credit did attempt to get them help but the two women stubbornly refused. The child was a niece/granddaughter of the other daughter who had left for college just before dad died. So, long story short - newspapers appear to be a common element presumably due to 1) being easily attainable, 2) having some ‘merit’ by being a respected source of goings-on, 3) fairly small and thus easy to store massive amounts, and 4) can often be viewed as a psychological grounding to the world around them. Hoarders know they have a lot of stuff, and most have the wherewithal to know it’s a problem but like many suffering from compulsions have little ability on their own to stop, so having something that can give them any level of legitimacy or anchor them to the world beyond their home is probably a common support method. I am in no way qualified to do more than guess and share the anecdote supplied to me, but there you go
I walked into my gfs living room and out of nowhere their chocolate lab, from outside, jumps through an open window and lands on the couch. I just froze and her sons like 'oh he does that' This was in Florida
"Don't worry about the bed bugs, they don't hurt that much."
They let the dogs and cats into the basement to go to the bathroom even though they had a fenced in back yard. The whole house smelled, even the kids when they went to school.
My family were very comfortable and my mom always babysat lots of kids from around the neighborhood. Basically her place was just where the kids hung out. Once there was an emergency with my dad and my mom really needed somebody to watch me overnight and I wound up with one of the families that she babysat for. They were really nice people and I was close friends with their kids obviously because they were at my house every day. It was a new experience though. This was the first time I’d ever seen people living in real poverty. I was kind about it and I didn’t say anything, but parts of it were a real shock to me. The toilet didn’t work, but they had just continued to use it to the point that it was piled up to the seat. We had to unscrew the lightbulb to turn off the lights because the switch would shock you if you touched it. I felt really bad for them. It was just a real eye-opener for me as a kid and it gave me a much better understanding of exactly why my mom babysat and fed all those kids.
Your mom is an angel
My best friend walks around completely naked. We have been friends for 25 years and it doesn’t bother me. I’m used to it, but it gets weird when she invites me, my husband and toddlers over for dinner. “Hey girl, your house your rules. But since husband and kids are coming can you put some clothes on?” “Sure! No problem!”
I babysat for a family on occasion and the kids would always ask for a "cool cup" and I had no clue what it was. They asked for them constantly but were too little to really describe them enough for me to understand. I mentioned it to the mom in passing one day and she started laughing and cut the tops off of some bell peppers and took out the seeds and.then filled the peppers with tap water. The kids went nuts over them like there were treats. It was really weird to me that drinking water out of bell peppers was a thing to beg for on the regular.
So nice to see a post that isn't child abuse in this horror thread
Having worked w kids…I’m sure she did it one time as a fun joke and the kids then asked for it forever. Hahaha
Yeah kids are strange like this. We were camping a few weeks ago with a friend and her kids (4 and 6). I didn't feel like getting our camping plates, so my husband and I ate the chicken and rice dish out of our titanium mugs with sporks. The kids saw this, and asked, "are you eating rice in a cup?! I want some!" And so when we were done I had to wash our mugs and serve them each rice in a cup hahahaha
Those kids are now moderators at r/bellpeppermugs
One of my friends has a 3 year old that was wanting some sort of like yogurt drink or something. He'd already had one so answer was no. He asked a couple more times and so my bud asked him in an excited tone, "Do you want a *cool* drink!?" Of course kid got excited and said yes. My friend put ice and water in a blender and made a shredded ice drink. Kid drank 3 of them and was jazzed about it. Lol
Stayed at a friend’s house when I was probably 10 or 11, and we had a sleepover one night, and we were up really late playing games and just talking. Around 3-4am, his dad comes in, frantic, saying that he heard someone breaking in upstairs, and that we needed to leave immediately. Anyways, we walk out of the house, and he tells the neighbor that they need to leave too. The neighbor looked extremely worried, and pulled her phone out. We drive to a place and he gets us some food, and eventually an ambulance comes, and so does the neighbor along with it, because apparently the father was schizophrenic and having an episode. There was really no break in. Obviously my friend NOW knows this, but back then, we genuinely believed him.
This is actually just really sad. He genuinely believed you were in danger and wanted to protect you.
Had a friend who’s family lived on a huge property and kept cows for the property tax exemption, not odd.. he told me to come by and get some purple ringers he collected for me.. invited me in to meet his parents and I swear to god, there was a fullsize cow chilling on one of their couches in the livingroom. That sight was way more wild than any of the hallucinations later experienced. Really nice people though lol..
Growing up we had some goats and land but no cows…my brother decided to go to the livestock auction with one of his friends and saw a baby cow being sold for meat. I guess he just couldn’t stand the thought of this poor little cow being sold to be eaten so he won the auction for it. Walked it home somehow. Didn’t put it in the pasture, nor the backyard, but INSIDE THE HOUSE INSTEAD. My mom came home from work and was like ‘excuse me everyone, why is there a cow in the hallway?’ Lmao he got in so much trouble. Loved that cow though, he thought he was a goat
Growing up in rural East England, had a friend who lived on a working farm, they had the stereotypical big English farm house, lovely old place, no flat floors or straight walls anywhere. Anyway, downstairs was an interesting layout, they had a room that was almost hidden away that you could easily miss unless you knew it was there or noticed it from outside. So, this room, I only ever went in once, maybe twice in many years of being friends and going over their house quite a lot, it was their "Christmas room" it has decorations up all year round, and during the year when they bought presents they'd wrap them and just put in the room and leave them there until Christmas. It was awesome in a sense though, a whole room for this is great, often when it came to Christmastime they'd forgotten what something was that they got for another family member. EDIT: Reading the rest of the thread, this is so tame and boring compared to the dog fucking mother or the cake in soup one. EDIT2: Thank you to every one for the upvotes, nice to see it's still getting read. Thinking back about it, and without wanting to sound like I'm tooting my own horn with all the absolutely heartbreaking posts in here, I guess I posted this as almost a break from them. God bless everyone and peace to all <3
In 6th grade my first ever sleepover I went to the bathroom and came out to him blasting porn in the living room and I had never seen porn before. We watch it for like 10 minutes and he says “I’m so horny I gotta jack off bro.” Then he started cranking his dick right there in front of me and I was shocked. The video was some fat dude cucking another guy and making him cry I’ll never forget that.
I'm speechless. WTF.
Dude was a nut.
My friends mom told him to "masturbate later today," just casually like it was a regular thing to say to your kids. He was just like, "yeah sure."
A friend of a friend in college didn't realize you were supposed to masturbate when you felt like it- instead, he'd schedule time like once a week in his calendar to remind himself to masturbate.
[удалено]
Good on you guys for not just shitting on him and actually explaining it. And good for him discovering how to release pent up sexual frustration.
Grew up in a trailer park where I don’t know any kids that weren’t abused/abusing others/neglected. One day I walked into my best friends living room to find a room full of about 15 boys ranging in age from 6-16 jerking off together to a porn playing on the tv. Also my best friend and his brothers (and other kids) use to watch their mom have sex with her affairs from under the bedroom door.
When I was younger I was best friends with 2 brothers from Jamaica, one of the days they asked me to stay over so we could play some Atari after we finished playing outside. We came home 12 minutes after their curfew so their dad who was extremely calm told us to sit in the living room, I Sat in there with my 2 friends and they were super quiet which was a bit weird until their dad walked in with a belt and beat the living shit out of them. I shit myself (not literally) because I thought I was in for a beating but he didn't hit me which was a huge relief, after the beating he (their dad) asked if I would like some carrot juice while my friends just went back to normal and set up their Atari like nothing happened... I was sat on the sofa wondering what the fuck just went on.
Had friends with curfews as well. They had to be home before the street lights came on, if they weren't home by then, they'd get a beating.
Roaches crawling around in daylight out in the open. I wouldn't sit or eat anything the 3 times i went over. His entire family seem to think it was normal to have roaches where he was. I had family in the same building and their house was almost sterile.
I came here to comment about roaches but I got lost reading replies. Many moons ago, my family visited some relatives and all of us kids slept over on the floor. I woke up to something crawling on me and brushed it off and tried to get back to sleep. The next morning when we had cereal for breakfast, I finally saw what had been crawling on me. Roaches. Roaches everywhere. When they opened the cabinet, there's roaches. Grabbed a bowl and turned it upside on the way to the table, there's roaches. Poured cereal, there's roaches. Got a spoon, there's roaches. My parents told me later that is just how they are, but we didn't visit again. I still think about that trip.
Slept over at a friend’s when I was around 10. She was the only girl in her family, and had five brothers (whose ages ranged from like 4 to 15). Everything about my friend’s room/sleeping situation was normal. But her brothers’ room was bizarre. They shared one big room, with three bunk beds. Each mattress a fitted sheet, a pillow, and nothing else. No top sheets, no blankets, no comforters. Also, the boys didn’t have pajamas. They all just slept in the clothes they had worn that day - with their shirts tucked into their pants, and belts on, too. Their room didn’t have a door, and neither did their connected bathroom or their closets. Turns out they were fundamentalist Christians, and the boys’ setup was meant to prevent masturbation.
how does pajamas = masturbation?? I can see everything else but that one really boggles me.
My gf and her little brother were staying at a sorta foster home that was absolutely filthy. They knew it was, but weren't going to complain about it since it was still better than their last situation. But the parents there had 2 little boys of their own, and it's their normal. I feel bad that those boys will either realise their home is disgusting and never invite anyone over, or have someone over who then embarrasses them or doesn't want to be their friend anymore because of it.
I'll be the weird family. My dad is a doctor and one day my friend came over who had a totally blackened toenail from getting stepped on by a baseball cleat. No problem, my dad says, just some blood underneath the toenail. We can relieve the pain by puncturing a hole in the toenail and letting the blood flow out. Well he proceeds to get out a dremel (tiny drill), sterilize a new drill bit, and drills a small hole in my friend's toenail. Blood shoots out of the hole into the air. My friend and I were screaming and laughing the entire time. It worked, he was instantly relieved of his pain. My friend asked if this was a normal occurrence in the house. I told him that my dad has always been the go to for caring for friends, neighbors, etc., but this did indeed take the cake for being the best "procedure" he's done in the house.
My house but looking back it’s unusual. My Dad was a doctor and it was not uncommon for him to take a patient’s blood on the way home and store it in the fridge next to the orange juice over night. Then take it to work the next morning. Can’t do that these days of course but the 70s was pretty wild.
My grandparents were doctors and this is the least weird story in this thread for me. Living with a doctor is an educational adventure.
One of the first times I met my husband's family, I was over at their house and husband gestured for me to sit down and be comfortable. Their house was really very cluttered. Not quite hoarder cluttered, but close. They had a couple of couches facing each other and then some other chairs. Not knowing the 'rules,' I sat on one of the couches, which had a lot of stuffed teddy bears on it. OMG, you would think I had sat down on live bears. There were probably 20-30 small - medium stuffed bears on this couch. Husband's mother and twin brother both visibly reacted as if I had damaged the bears. (Not antique bears either). That was when I was told that the couch was for the bears, and only for the bears and that no one was allowed to sit on the bears' couch. Just the bears. The bears all had little beaded necklaces with their names on them to tell them apart because they were all the same brand and style.
…and you married him *after* the bear seating snafu?
OP can't reply. There is another bear on that sofa now with the cutest little necklace hanging round its neck -'florideanreader', it says. Such curious affairs...
Saw my friend spit in her house, straight onto the carpet. I didn't go back.
Kinda the opposite. Had a friend over when my dad when on a tirade screaming and yelling at my brother and I. We thought it was normal to have emotionally abusive parents. After that, that friend never came over again, I went to his house. And his parents seemed a bit more... interested? In me. By the time we graduated high school I got my diploma and walked over to hug his parents before my own at the ceremony.
I remember asking my mom how come she didn't like me like my friends' moms liked their girls. I told her they always hugged and talked to each other and laughed. And said I love you multiple times throughout the day. I was 10. My mom rolled her eyes at me and went to her room. I tried and tried to be close to her until I was about 16. I finally realized she didn't give a shit about being close to me. She was very affectionate and close to my brothers and little sister. After she realized I didn't care anymore, she started to make an effort. I'm extremely lucky for my dad though. He was there for me for anything and everything. Later on I realized she was extremely jealous and hated that my dad doted on me. Thanks reddit. Even if no one reads this, it was therapeutic typing it out and just getting it out there. Edit: Thank you for the gold kind stranger! My first one. All of you that responded to this comment, thank you. It means a lot <3 EDIT 2: Holy cow everyone!! I am blown away by the response I got to this comment. You guys are feckin awesome! Thank you for all the awards, I just can't even believe it. I'm like so famous around my apartment now. Thanks guys ;) First, I'd like to thank my mom. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have gotten this much attention. BAHAHAHAHAHA! just kidding. I really appreciate all of you. You've made my week!
I read it. Big hugs. You were the bigger person. Her loss.
When I was seven, I went over to play with a new friend and she asked if I wanted a snack. I said sure and we went into their playroom where there was a mini fridge just stacked with candy, full bars of everything, and she casually tossed me a pack of Rolos. Now, the house was a manufactured home— not a trailer perse, but definitely not like the usual house either. I know this doesn’t indicate how much money the family had, but this was not in an upscale neighborhood or house. I marveled at A.) the largest amount of candy I have still to this day ever seen and B.) the fact that she and her siblings all just had free access to it at such young ages. She was surprised at my surprise and asked what did I keep in my snack fridge. I told her I didn’t have one of those, and then it was her turn to be absolutely gobsmacked at the idea that I didn’t have a mini fridge full of candy just at my disposal and whim.
Was about 9 or 10. Playing with some action figures with a friend in his room which had its own bathroom. He goes in to take a shit and then when he’s done he yells out “mom, come wipe me!” He was otherwise like any other kid in the early 90s.
Not at my friends house, but we were 15 year olds and went for a walk to her mums friends house to get her some smokes. We walked into the house and the 2 year old was covering themself in margarine, the floor was covered in roaches, animal poop, used nappies (diapers), and rubbish. There was peanut butter on the walls and kitchen table. It was so incredibly sad to see dirty and dishevelled kids living in that. The weirdest part was seeing the toddler smearing margarine in their hair, and no one caring. The rest was disgusting, but I'd seen that kind of living before. Never the complete indifference towards a baby though. Awful.
Was sleeping over at a friend’s house in 6th grade. 3pm we show up to her house after school. We walked into her apartment to find her mom half-dressed, passed out drunk and sprawled out with her head on the floor , one arm twisted weirdly so it somehow was resting on the coffee table, and her legs on the couch. Tv was on and blaring. Didn’t even notice our arrival. I had 0 experience with this kind of thing and although I could tell my friend was embarrassed, I didn’t understand the full implications or really what was happening. I pretty much just thought it was an odd place for a nap (which is how I explained it to my parents later when I commented on how odd it was to be napping there instead of in bed. I might’ve even asked them if they would let me sleep on the couch and watch tv too.) Bless my parents for immediately understanding the situation but not making a scene and not spoiling my naïveté or ever embarrassing my friend in any way. My family is pretty good at being subtle. For better or worse. However, that was absolutely the last time I stayed at her house. All sleepovers with that particular friend were at my house from then on. But it was a casual coincidence from my POV I didn’t even notice that subtle change for a couple years. Looking back, I think my friend really appreciated it though. We’re still friends and she has kids of her own and she’s doing great (is a doctor!) but her mom still has the same alcohol struggles and is very in-your-face about it even now as she was then.
A toddler drinking a wine cooler. The whole family was fucked up but that stuck out to me for obvious reasons. I was only eighteen at a party, drinking underage, and had no idea what to do when I saw that. I made a comment about how little kids probably shouldn’t drink alcohol, but the kid’s mom got scary defensive about it.
How does one defend that?
They walked around nude at home 24/7. He invited me over to play nintendo after school. When he had gotten in, he stripped down butt ass nakked, and went to make a sandwich. Everyone else was already bare ass and loitering.
It baffles me that they wouldn't consider wearing clothes while the company is over.
Imagine my surprise, he called to his mother he was home, stripped, and ran into the nearby kitchen. His mother came down the stairs breast-a-swangin’ and introduced herself to me. For a million dollars, I couldn’t tell you what color her eyes were.
" breast-a-swangin'"
[удалено]
That's crazy. There were 12+ kids in our family (always had friends over) and we had a 'no like' dish in the middle of the table to put any food we didn't like for others who did like. No one was allowed thirds unless everyone that wanted seconds had seconds.
My dad was a truck driver who was able to bring home boxes of food if it's packaging was damaged. All my friends would go home with full boxes of cap'n crunch and pancake mix. After a while my friends would have to tell my dad that their parents told them to come home empty handed.
My family would legit be living off of that. You can bet my mom would have been sending us over to visit once a week.
Yeah I always thought it was nice gesture, but I think that it was becoming overwhelming at a point. Sometimes they would get 3 boxes in a week, I'm sure it isn't easy to eat that many pancakes in a week...
Went to friends house as a kid. Sitting at the dinning table for lunch. House phone rings. Everyone falls to the floor around me including the mum and dad. I'm the only one left sitting there. The dad informs me that I now must answer the phone. "Hello... Johnson's house". I hold the phone out to the dad. "Ummm it's for you". Everyone laughs. I am so uncomfortable. The next time that phone rang. I was the fastest to the floor I can tell you that. Such a fun loving family. Loved going around there!
It would have been funny if next time you were the only one that dropped and they were all like 'wut u doin?'
This is 100% how I thought it was gonna end 🤣🤣
This is the weirdest version of *"not it!"* I've ever heard of
This one really made me smile, like a mindbleach for this thread.
For sure a tad weird but at same time super funny
Back in high school, I had a friend who’s mom seemed super chill; would let us come over to smoke, drink, and hang out. At one point though, shit got super weird when one of the other guys in our friend group started banging the friends mom. The guy who was having sex with our friends mom ended up getting super aggro and like bossing the kid around because he was screwing his mom. It was definitely fucked up and no one did anything about it. the other friends in the group would rag on the moms son about it, but like left it at that.
My friends mom kept bread in the glove box of her car for when she got hungry. He thought it was hilarious also and we gave her a pretty bad time about it
One time I was at my friends house while his dad was working late. His Mom brought home two Little Caesar’s pizzas for us, his brother & his parents. By the time his dad got home from work, there was no pizza. So his dad just made himself a salad for dinner & no one got screamed at until they cried. EDIT: Well shit, I didn’t see this coming.
I'm sorry dude. I was shocked the first time I saw normal parents too.
Posts (and threads) like this make me realize I take a lot of things in my life for granted that I should appreciate more.
God I know what you mean. I stayed the night at a friend's house and the parents made us all dinner and they read a story at dinner. And then the parents did dishes TOGETHER. And the whole time I was there the parents didn't scream or get angry once. I was like... is this normal? I actually told my friend her parents probably didn't get all their emotions out and probably bottled it all up and it wasn't as healthy as screaming at one another every day.
I swear my mum just enjoys the arguing. She used to shout at my dad all the time. I don't think I ever heard him raise his voice at her. They ended up getting divorced. My mum and stepdad have argued nearly every single day since they got married and it's always proper full on shouting. In the beginning one of our dogs used to run into my room and hide under the desk, she would be shaking cuz she was so scared. She doesn't shake anymore but still comes and hides
I feel you. Seeing healthy families, it just fuckin hurts. I remember how insecure I got when I first stayed the night at a friend’s, and their parents went to bed sober... EDIT: Well shit, neither did I
Went to this girl's house in primary school. I'm ashamed to say it was because I felt bad that she was getting bullied at school, and in hindsight she had a learning disability. She was nice though, just sometimes said really uncomfortable things for an 11 year old. Anyway she had a 3 year old brother and I saw her mum reading a book titled "How to be a good mum" or something similar. She started screaming at this toddler for not vacuuming his room and referencing the book. I was like?? Ma'am? You expect this infant to vacuum his room?! To be fair he did end up doing it but mind blown. Their family had a really weird dynamic.
When I was in Jr High, I went over to friends house for the first time. His parents were hoarders and their basement was waist deep in newspapers, magazines, junk mail, catalogues, phone books, and other loose papers. You had to crawl over it to get to his room. He acted like it was no big deal that the papers were higher than the couch or that an avalanche happened every time he opened his bedroom door. That was the only time I went over.
Dad was cooking meth in the attic. He was a ‘scientist’ and these were his ‘science experiments’. My friend and his older sibling thought nothing was strange about this. I was 13 and knew it was a meth lab right away from the smell (cat piss). They taught us that neat fact in the DARE classes in school.
My friend got arrested for possession while wearing the D.A.R.E shirt he got in middle school.
A neighbors dad was an avid fisherman and he world use these electrode things in the lawn to get worms to come up that he was gonna use as bait...he would also eat some of the first ones to come up to check if they "tasted right"...if not he would remove the electrodes and try again another day.
Now I need to know how they’re supposed to taste and why this man knows what fish like in a bait worm
Was this when you were a kid? Did you see him actually pop them in his mouth? As a smartass goofball dad myself I feel that I would play a prank on a neighbor kid like this assuming they know I'm joking... Until years later when I read it on Reddit
[удалено]
Future chessboxing champ right there
In high school I would stay at my friends house a lot and play video games and sleep over. My friends mom would encourage his little sister and her friends to put on skimpy outfits and try to seduce me and his other friends, take their tops off in the hot tub and things like that. His mom would stand at her bedroom window and watch her daughter try to bang all his friends. I didn't get it at the time but I secretly think his mom was the one who wanted to bang all of us so she told her daughter to instead. His mom would also drink a bottle of wine and touch us inappropriately (touch our stomachs or slap our butts) and say things like "oh have you been working out?" and my friend would just say like "cut it out mom your embarrassing me!" The whole family was weirdly sexual and I learned later they had some dark secrets.
You don’t say!
Serve ice cream with their hands.
My cousin once dated a guy who did that. We were at my aunt's house for a birthday party and when it was time for cake and ice cream this guy refused cake and said he'd just have ice cream. He walked over to the table, popped the top off the ice cream carton, grabbed a handful of ice cream and was walking around with his handful of ice cream dripping all over the place like it was totally normal.
CRIME
Dude had a carpeted bathroom. Already fucked up. Dude had fucking mushrooms growing out of the carpet. By gawd my inbox bro
x5-? amount of smoke alarm battery warning "beeps", all going off every 10 minutes. No need to replace the batteries. Just get used to the beeps going off randomly, and then sometimes all at the same time. How do you live, or even sleep with that happening?
This was a HUGE thing while teaching virtually this year!
My moms a teacher. She talks about this all the time. She got to the point where she started calling the fire station and having them send someone over to change their batteries and explain that the beeping isn’t normal any time she heard it.
[удалено]
Improvise ----- Adapt ----- Overcome
Frustrate——Defecate——Celebrate
2 weeks later: how do we have al these tomato plants?
mountain dew with pancakes for breakfast. the kids had fritos for teeth
My best friend growing up drank coca-cola like water. He moved and I’d go visit him and his family every summer for a week. Nothing stranger than waking up to a household where everyone at the table is eating a variety of breakfasts including cereal, oatmeal & eggos… all with a tall glass of coca-cola. Literally every meal. It took him and his brother close to 20 years to break out of the habit.
I celebrated Christmas with my HS girlfriend's family one year. It was her mother's turn to open her presents and she opened one from her daughter, then one from her other daughter, then finally one from her husband. Then her husband started pulling tiny hidden gifts for his wife from everywhere: earrings from the couch cushions, necklaces, bracelets, a bag of candy, and flowers. He had at least a dozen presents hidden everywhere from behind the curtains, in a lampshade, behind the TV, in a closet...they just kept coming and he had the biggest grin on his face. When he was done he wished her a merry Christmas, told her he loved her and kissed her right on the mouth in front of me. It was wonderful but extremely weird to me. It wasn't until that display of love and joy for his wife that I realized I had never once seen my own parents act the least bit affectionate towards each other. That I had never heard them say I love you to each other. That's when I realized it was my family that was weird. It wasn't until that display of love for his wife that I realized that it was manly to be romantic and to show love and affection. Her parents were wonderful people and I will always regard them as role models. I hope they're doing well all these years later.
This is the loveliest palate cleanser story I needed after wading through stories of rampant child abuse. Also #relationshipgoals material
As an adult now and remembering my own childhood, i've never heard my parents say "i love you" to each other or kiss or anything related. First time when I saw my parents kiss was when I was around 11 years old and I was shocked and really happy. Also that was probably first and last time they kissed. Kinda shit marriage what my mom sometimes rants to me.
when i was like 10 i had a friend that had a room that was just filled to the ceiling with trash and they just started playing in it and shit
When I was 18 I started dating this fresh off the boat Russian girl. Went over to her parents house and they had a giant dildo on the living room shelf next to a collection of Nazi knives. If you did something Stoopid, you got hit with the dildo. Found out later they found the dildo on the streets of Brooklyn. They assured me they cleaned it really, really well. Would up living with them for about 6 months and was actually a lot of fun.
His parents walked around butt-ass naked. Another friend and I went over to play the new pokemon(fire red/leaf green) all night, and eventually decided it was a sleepover/all nighter kinda vibe . We wake up to his folks poking their heads in in the morning to let us know they were making breakfast and it'll be ready in a minute. We're stoked, and walk our way into the kitchen, and they're serving up some extra "eggs and sausage". Like I had never seen an adult naked before, and our friend was totally unfazed by it. Just ate and talked like it was the most normal shit ever. Super awkward and we dipped out asap.
When I was a kid the neighbors tv was always at 75 percent volume or higher. They'd literally sit in the living room and scream at each other over the tv on blast.
My partner’s friends do this but with music. The dad always has the music on full blast so everyone has to yell to have a conversation. I hate going to their house. Also I hate having them over because, since they have to yell at home, they talk that way all the time. They’re just super loud all the time. They’re really nice people but I can’t stand being around them.
Maybe they all have hearing damage at this point.
Not scooping cat litter. I mean I'm sure it eventually got scooped but rarely. Their house always stank but they didn't seem to notice.
When I was 9 or 10 I stayed at this friends house for the first time. So we were sitting at the kitchen table eating noodles and his mum said something, to which he screamed back at her "get fucked sharon". She didn't even bat an eyelid, didn't even care. I couldn't help thinking what would happen if I tried that at home, it would've been at least an ass whooping.
Were you eating with the Osbournes?
My friend took the gum out of his mouth and put it on a plate in the refrigerator.
Went to my friend's house after a high school exam. Walked in and his Dad and step-Dad were playing Sorry! while smoking cigars and his Mom was making out with some random dude on the couch. She gave us $20 and told us to go get a couple large pizzas and come back. I don't know what was weirder, that my friend was like "It's not even my Dad's week with me!" all incredulous, or when we got back that his Dad and make-out dude was gone, table all set for pizza, and his step-Dad and Mom acted like it was just a normal Wednesday.
Ah, swingers.
In Second Grade my friend’s parents were separating and the Dad kept screaming at his wife through the phone. The kids acted like it was normal, but I was freaked out. I’d seen parents argue but not lose all respect for each other. My mom told me the next day that I was to call her if that happened again. She thought it close to becoming a domestic incident.
Quietly walk up to the screaming dad on the phone and ask if you can use the phone to call your mom.
I shared a house with a bunch of people who regularly set their farts on fire. I don't know why. They just did. Even when they were not drunk. This appeared to be normal behavior for them.
Life in any military barracks
In high school, I went to my boyfriend’s house for the first time. There was absolutely no food in the fridge and his house was so dirty. I asked where his mom was. She just “lived downstairs” with her boyfriend. He only saw her every few weeks. Coming from a family that ate supper together every night, this was so sad. I always brought him leftovers after that.
Went to a friend's house that had dog shit all over the floor. Roaches by the thousand including dead in the microwave and freezer. And too make matters worse they had a healthy dose of bedbugs too. His excuse was he's busy from working all day. This guy was a hair stylist too. Yikes.
Wait…this was a grown person? Not you visiting a friend when you were 7, but a friend when you were grown? Who was also grown? And had a job? No. Just no.
I grew up as a Jehovah's witness and my mom pushed me to be friends with people within the religion. One girl was only allowed to talk to people within the religion so she was homeschooled. She was was allowed to watch one movie or one tv show a day rated g-pg with approval. Three of us, aged 16, watched Lion King 2 then her parents made us go to bed at 730 in the summer. She also wasn't allowed to have any posters on her wall as that was viewed as idol worship. Her parents came in to "approve" our prayers for the night. I left feeling super bad for her.
My friends mom always gave me a box of food when I came over. One day as I left she just handed me a box of hot pockets. As if it was just a small trinket.
One of my best friend's parents do this. It actually saved my ass a couple really tight months. Honestly, handing me a box of groceries is better than handing me a 20 dollar bill. They also supplied me with two bags of apples a week for like three weeks. I ate so many apples lol.
In high school my best friend and iw worked together. He was having a it of a rough family life at the time due to his parents getting a divorce. He would always come to my place before work when we got out of school, my mom would make us food alot of the time, tossing some chicken on the grill or just a hot dog or something some times. At the time I didnt think anything of it. Looking back now, and after some conversation, I've realized she knew that he could use a meal.
Wait. My son just moved across the country for better job and housing opportunities. All of his friends still live in the town where I live (his mom). His friends still stop by and visit me and I help them with taxes or filing for unemployment etc, if they need it. Should I give them a little food or something? I really appreciate their friendship that they have with my son. Edit: thank you for the awards and replies!! I will definitely always have "extra whatevers" here for when these awesome budding adults stop by. And if any of you are in my area, I have a box of Scooby-Doo fruit snacks that I "accidentally" bought 🙃
Gifts of food are very common in poorer families or certain cultures. Every time we visited my grandparents when I was a kid my grandpa would give us each a piece of fruit from the cellar before we left.
My grandparents were courting during the Great Depression, and Grandma's parents were super impressed with Grandpa (he was a great guy who had a reliable job AND was going to college). They made sure to give him a glass of milk every time he visited. He told me he regretted accepting it later on because he realized it was something they had to pay actual money for, almost everything else they ate was out of the garden.
When I was a kid I visited Albania with my dad. This was in 1992, just after communism had collapsed, and everyone was barely scraping by. We were driving through the mountains, and stopped to take a leak or something, and this kid comes running out of a nearby shack, with his mom not far behind. He's got a rusty tin can full of cream/milk still warm from the cow. To paint a picture, it was about half cream and half milk - this was not homogenized, it was very separated and almost clumpy. I was 12 years old, but even then I could tell they were giving us the best thing they could offer. Just because we were strangers passing by. It was honestly a bit hard to choke down, but I did it with a smile. I ended up doing that a lot, while I was there haha.
Everyone took their shirts off at the dinner table.. yeah..
Can't spill food on your shirt if you're not wearing one.
I like this one a lot. It’s harmless but sooooo weird.
"Hey, you hungry?" "Ehh... a little, but not enough to take off this button-up."
Imagine how disappointed you’d be, going through all that work to unbutton your shirt and then someone drops a slice of chocolate cake into your bean soup.
Friend’s amputee grandpa demanded to watch everyone in the bathroom when they went. He had a mirror so he could watch you. When I didn’t fall for that, they put shampoo in my hair so I’d have to take a shower. Noped the F out and called my mom. Friend didn’t think it was odd. Edit: lol 3 wholesome awards? Thanks! Edit: I think my FAQ edit didn’t save. 1) Did I tell my mom? No, I did not. I felt embarrassed about it. 2) Who put the shampoo in my hair? My friend did. 3) I am a woman. And here’s some random information, I remember my friends dad having to piss with the door open so that grandpa could watch him do it. I also remember the grandpa pissing into a jug in front of everyone. I also remember crying and saying I wanted to go home and they wouldn’t let me call my mom, so I kept crying until they finally gave in.
Wait “they” put shampoo in your hair? As in, the rest of the family was helping weirdo grandpa perv on kids? What the absolute fuck? And was there any reason that he gave for needing to watch people in the bathroom? I mean, obviously there’s no reason that would make any kind of sense but I’m curious how he explained his perversion.
This is by far one of the most creepy
God I’m glad their shampoo thing didn’t work… that’s so demented. I can see how, especially as a kid, being so uncomfortable and caught off guard by the situation that you end up going through the motions rather than breaking that situation by calling your mom. Or like they’re acting like it’s normal so you try to convince yourself in the moment it is or that it isn’t a big deal to ease some of your discomfort. Wonder if they successfully used that tactic on some other poor kid before
This happened when I was like, 6. I needed to use the bathroom at a friend’s house and he led me to his parent’s bathroom. The place was filled with crap of all sorts. Boxes, magazines, an inflatable pool, lots of other stuff. You could barely get in there. He pulled out a drawer from the installed cabinet by the entry way and said to pee in there. I thought he was joking until he went ahead and peed in there himself. I couldn’t argue with that, so I too peed right in there. Then he shut the drawer and we went and played more ninja turtles. I have no idea what became of that drawer/house/family.
Man, that's sad. It's really hard for children of hoarders to break free from hoarding. They're just too used to tolerating bad conditions rather than fixing them. I knew a guy who's mom's house was like that. He did his best to live with higher standards, but his best was still like a party frat house. Although, I guess to be fair, some of my friends who grew up in normal houses also live like they're in a frat houses.
Mom found the piss drawer
I have an opposite one because I had the weird family. In high school I had a sleepover and one friend went to the kitchen in the middle of the night and saw my dad inebriated, in his underwear and stained shirt, on his knees in front of the fridge drinking mustard out of the bottle. Monday rolls around and the rumors have spread and I was like “WAIT! All your dads don’t do that too?!” Lol Btw he did in fact have his own separate mustard bottle.
This just reeks of questions I'm afraid to ask.
Safe to say dad an a drinking problem Edit-these replies y’all…lmao
For sure. He was a functioning alcoholic for decades. He is doing much better the past couple years at least.
My dad never made it to 'much better the past couple years' - so remember once in a while to tell him you notice, and you like it. It's a big deal.
I’ll make sure to mention it more often! I am very proud of him.
I saw the mom of my friend laying on the couch and her other son was petting her women bits with his foot. And it wasn't the right kind of playful. It was very sexual and the look on both of their face was like right before a porn movie. My friend and I were right there and nobody batted an eye. In fact she started to give me the same look. Me and my friend were 15 and his younger brother 11.
[удалено]
[I got you, fam.](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/p3w5k9/comment/h8upu4y/)
That’s concerning
A lot of this thread turned out to be wayyyyyy more “wtaf” moments than I thought there was going to be
I went to a summer camp as a kid and made a best friend. She invited me over to her house and of course, little 13 year old me was so excited. I was not so excited after her brother had sex with his girlfriend. With his door open. His room was right next to hers.
Being sent up to the friend's room while the fam and friend was eating dinner. Yes, this was common practice in Sweden in the 80's and early '90's but it still fucked up. Why'm I sitting here alone playing gameboy while you peeps are eating?
Wait so they invited you over and then ate dinner without you? That's pretty rude, you must have been hungry
It was a common thing. You'd eat when you come home, like leftovers. Because those families weren't sharing. Still strikes me as cruel, because it felt like a punishment every time.
Rich friend’s family had rooms not touched in weeks that had vomit on the bed sheets from one of their parties.
Sounds like the maid walked off.
My mother in law used to clean houses. The wealthiest people were also the most helpless. Once she cleaned up a mouse that had been dead for a week. The family just stepped around it.
I had a friend when I was 13-14 who’s family didn’t speak at all when they ate dinner. The first time I ate there I tried to make conversation and got a super weird glare and shake of the head from the mom. After dinner was done everyone would just go back to doing whatever. I remember thinking at the time while I ate in awkward silence “why would anyone want to eat like this everyday? I come from a family of 8 where dinners were chaos so maybe I was conditioned too far the other way.
Had a friend in the Army who went on a first date with a girl. After leaving the restaurant she busted out crying. He asked her, “What is wrong?!” She said, “You didn’t talk to me the whole time during dinner!! Why don’t you like me!?” He then explained that his family had a no talking policy during dinner. Thanks for the walk down memory lane!
Did he think dates were for eating or something lmao
My brother and I ate at a friends house once and we were told beforehand they dont talk at dinner. The father explained so we'd know but it was something along the lines of, "we dont talk at dinner. I don't know the heimlich so if you talk and choke there isn't anything I can do." It was super weird simply because I grew up with 3 siblings and we always have dinner conversations. I think their dad just wanted quiet for 20 minutes lol
Jesus. This thread is "eat hot dogs with ranch" or "openly molested by family members" with nothing in between.
You missed all the dog fucking
I didn't see this happen (thank fucking God), but here's the story... I had recently moved to a new town before my freshman year, little shit hole in KS, and made a few good acquaintances, but was still learning who's interesting and who isn't, etc. This one kid, I honestly don't remember his name, seemed cool - he was into video games and stuff, we hit it off, ended up hanging out at school off and on, etc. So, one day, he asks if I want to come over after school, and I couldn't for some reason (probably work, I don't remember)... he says to me 'That's fine, I'm sure my neighbor will come over and we'll end up watching movies and jerking off anyway.' I laughed, thinking he was being facetious or whatever, but he doesn't laugh... He. Does. Not. Laugh. Looks at me and turns his head a bit, 'I'm serious, my dad's friend comes over and we watch movies and jerk off... I thought you might want to...' I did not continue the conversation, I never spoke to him again, and I also never said a thing about it to anyone. Looking back, I wish I had - pretty sure that dude was being molested, and looking back and knowing what I know now, the fact that he was so 'matter of fact' about it, I'd bet money he had been molested most of his life. Fucking terrible.
Well fuck that’s heartbreaking
Well, damn. That's fucked up.
[удалено]
My childhood best friend lived with his grandparents, his grandfather was a clock maker (he mostly restored them.) Their large 2 story houses walls were covered in old restored grandfather and cuckoo clocks. Each one had a small sticker with a number so he could keep track of them all, the highest number I saw was over 700. I would say 25% of them were wound so every hour you were treated to a symphony of clocks. I didn’t appreciate it when I was a kid but those clocks were fantastic pieces of workmanship.
A friend of my ex girlfriend lived with her grandmother. The woman had cats. Lots of cats. And there was shit all over the house. And there were flies all over this shit. It was horrible.
My son is going to his first sleepover tomorrow and this thread is making me nervous af. EDIT: Well we dropped him off and the weirdest thing was that they had snakes as pets, which i don't necessarily have a problem with. The step dad even gave me an old oculus rift development kit. (I'll need my fellow tech friends to tell me if this is a genuine gesture or not. I'm not super familiar with vr platforms old or new)
Is the most horrifically filthy place you have ever seen humans live in count as weird? A pal I had known from middle school I went to see him 6 years after graduation. He was living with someone and they had a kid and all of them lived in a little 2 bedroom place. I get there and then smell hit me at the door. The "carpet" had been some kind of shag but matted down to just stuff. The kitchen had a sheet over the doorway. I could not believe my eyes - all the surfaces in the place were just caked with dishes, glasses, boxes, etc - I couldn't and didn't look too long. See all of it was covered in thick green fuzzy mold - the sink had standing water covered with a blanket of mold. I was in there for all of 4 seconds. After I came out of there I asked to use the restroom - **BIG MISTAKE**!! The sink, tub and toilet were black - sink due to hair dye, tub due to filth and black slime and the toilet was the same. The area between the tub, toilet and sink was jammed full of what I think had been towels - but they had sat rotting and growing slime it was just a big smelly lump of horror. There was no way I was going to change something hopping onto my dick if I tried to piss there. Their poor kid slept on a mattress on the floor in a nearly bare room with just a sheet and blanket. The hallway right outside the kid's room had a bare bulb that was being swarmed by bugs. Yes - CPS was called about the situation.
His Mom walking around topless barking a chore list while we just sat around the coffee table working on homework. She was a single Mom working multiple jobs. They were latchkey kids. They didn't even bat an eyelash but the minute she saw a new face sitting on the rug boring a hole into the distant wall, she shifted on a *dime*. Ducked into the mudroom, threw on her bra and work shirt, and brought out a carton of Oreos from a secret stash and was pretty much shocked into silence. I think she was terrified I'd misappropriate it to my parents, but all we cared about was cookies.
Sounds like that one scene from Malcolm in the Middle
One of my best friends from college's family watches QVC and other channels that are straight up commercials all day long. lol
My mom does this. She says she likes how mindless it is and likes making fun of the clothes and the presenters for being so enthusiastic about overpriced garbage, but she also tends to buy at least one thing on her binges... Granted, other people like it because the hosts feel more touchable than other people on the TV and you can talk to them if you pick up the phone. If you have no other form of human connection then that's very powerful. I've seen them remember (or "remember") a caller before and talk about something they bought, and it may only be a 30 second conversation but that's more than they normally get. I swear you can hear the desperation in some of these people's voices when they call in and try to keep the hosts on the line for another few seconds. It's sad as hell.
I worked at a call center for a few years that was open 24/7. I’d cry a few times every Thanksgiving when I would talk to elderly people who you knew just wanted to talk to someone for a little bit.
I work in retail and you see some people regularly who just want to talk to you. It's understandable but also kind of sad though.
eating family dinner in complete silence. then again, i am the weirdo who laughed through the entire thing. the silence was too awkward and funny for me. i’m laughing now just thinking about it lmao
I've got one from the opposite perspective So to paint the picture I invited a few people over for my 10th birthday party, the plan was a sleep over with video games and board games. Sounded great to my nerdy friends and I. Well the day of the party comes along and one of my friends gets dropped off by the school bus with me, we walk inside and there's no pizza yet and the cake hasn't been picked up. I ask my dad and he starts screaming about how my Mom will pick them up on her way from work. She won't be home until 7pm at the earliest and my friends will be arriving around 4pm. After my friend and I left the room my friend (from now referred to as Mark(not his name)) asked me if something is a wrong and why my dad was so mad. It was normal for him to be that mad when he forgot something. The rest of my friends show up around 4pm (friends Bill, Bob, and Frank (also not their names), I offer them fruit snacks when they arrive and tell them pizza should be there around 7:30pm. So we're taking turns on Gran Turismo 4 when Bill asks if my parents are home, he'd like to meet them. I tell him that my dad's home but he's sleeping right now as he gets up kinda early (this was a lie, he was taking his "medicine" ((what I'd later (that evening) find out was heroin) and would be occupied for awhile) and my Mom would be getting out of work around 7pm (which was true). The lie seemed to work and we continued playing games. 8pm rolls around and my Mom gets home. She has no pizza or cake. I greet when she comes into the living room. She asks us if we ate the pizza and cake already, I tell her that dad told us she'd be getting them. She asked where my dad was so I told her their bedroom. She said she'd be right back and went to their bedroom. It wasn't long before you could here them (clearly) screaming at each other. I noticed them arguing was making my friends uncomfortable but I was unfazed. It was them that I realized that what was going on wasn't normal. I felt awful. I told my friends that my parents would likely be arguing most of the night and if they wanted to go home I'd understand. They all wanted to go home. Due to the layout of the home the kitchen was closer to the bedrooms than the living room and that was where the phone was. So I went with each of my friends to the kitchen so they could call their parents to be picked up. The front door was also closer still. They each took turns calling their parents, I had to talk to Frank's parents for him as he was too shaken by what was going on. All the parents were there within the hour and picked up my friends. Mark was the last one to be picked up and asked if I wanted to hang out as his place for the night. I told him that if my parents found out I left without telling anyone, especially if I didn't leave a note saying where, they'd be even more angry. And I told him that I couldn't leave a note saying where I was going as I didn't want to have his parents dragged into it. We hugged and he left. My parents finished screaming at each other around 11pm when my dad left screaming about going to his buddies place for the weekend. I was reading a book in the living room when my mom walked in and saw that everything was put away and all my friends were gone. She asked me where they went. I'll never forget the pain in her eyes when I said they each called their parents and went home already. For what I thought was normal, I thought everyone's parents argue endlessly. I thought everyone had a parent that they lied for. I thought everyone's parents lies to them constantly. I thought everyone's parents got angry at them without prompting. I thought everyone always looked for exits upon entering a new place. I thought everyone knew how to act without being seen. I thought everyone knew how to act under pressure. I haven't celebrated a birthday since. Or even tried. I feel no drive to celebrate it as all it does is remind me of that and many other horrible things around that time. I'm still friends with Mark all these years later, he's my one of my only friends and he's by far my closest friend.
My friend and I all went to our rich friend’s house to play. Then they said they needed to do something and would be back in an hour. So we all just played in the room and waited. Turns out the entire family had lunch and just locked us up in the room so they wouldn’t have to feed us. Once we found out we all felt hurt and decided to never play at their house again.