Every family has its own traditions, whether major or minor. The behavior that surrounds you every day might seem completely natural to you. It’s only when you visit someone else or have a pal come over to your place that you start to realize that some of the things your relatives do might be a tad strange.However, sometimes, things get downright bizarre. Members of the r/AskReddit online community recently revealed some of theweirdest things they’d seenat their friends’ homes, though everyone living there seemed to think it was all normal. Scroll down for a big dose of oddness.This post may includeaffiliate links.
Every family has its own traditions, whether major or minor. The behavior that surrounds you every day might seem completely natural to you. It’s only when you visit someone else or have a pal come over to your place that you start to realize that some of the things your relatives do might be a tad strange.
However, sometimes, things get downright bizarre. Members of the r/AskReddit online community recently revealed some of theweirdest things they’d seenat their friends’ homes, though everyone living there seemed to think it was all normal. Scroll down for a big dose of oddness.
This post may includeaffiliate links.
I was in 6th grade and had to stay for a week at a friend’s house while my parents were out of town.The entire house smelled like ps and I found out that his younger brothers would just ps on the carpet in the corner of their room, because their Mom would beat them if they were up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.I grabbed my backpack and walked the few miles to my house so I could break in and live like a normal person until my parents got back.
Some differences in behavior are a natural thing. Imagine how utterly bizarre it would be if you’re invited to someone’s place for dinner, but they act just like you, have the same furniture as you, and eat exactly what you eat. It sounds very uncanny, like something you’d see in an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone.’But at the complete other end of the spectrum are people whose actions make you wonder whether you’re secretly being pranked or if your friend’s family are all aliens from outer space. It’s at that point that you start wondering whether you’re dealing with people who are simply eccentric or whether there might be some more serious underlying issues they’re dealing with. Or, potentially, whether you yourself might be the odd one out there.
Some differences in behavior are a natural thing. Imagine how utterly bizarre it would be if you’re invited to someone’s place for dinner, but they act just like you, have the same furniture as you, and eat exactly what you eat. It sounds very uncanny, like something you’d see in an episode of ‘The Twilight Zone.’
But at the complete other end of the spectrum are people whose actions make you wonder whether you’re secretly being pranked or if your friend’s family are all aliens from outer space. It’s at that point that you start wondering whether you’re dealing with people who are simply eccentric or whether there might be some more serious underlying issues they’re dealing with. Or, potentially, whether you yourself might be the odd one out there.
A friend up the street had a picture of a guy on his living room wall that was framed. Normal looking guy with a beard sitting in a chair. I asked him once who the man was? An uncle? No, he says, that’s God. I was too young at the time to really think anything more about it. It was not until years later I found out his family had been involved in a cult and the picture of that man was their leader.
Actually not a friend, but a party we attended of a friend of a friend, stools that were made from real elephant legs, made me sick to my stomach
The traditions themselves can range from religious and cultural practices to things that are completely unique to your family. All of these can beas meaningful as you make them, and they all provide a sense of identity and stability.
Their Dad always took naps on the living room couch and laid his head on the same pillow each time. The first time I slept over I thought I got lucky because I got the couch, until I laid my head down onto the greasiest/smelliest pillow to ever exist. They laughed so hard and said “haha you got Dad’s pillow!” Like, I would have hid that pillow before a friend slept there haha.Also same family, one day the Mom was boiling a huge pot of white rice. I asked what it was for and my friend told me they give it to their mentally disabled Uncle who lives locked up in the garage. I was like ok sure lol. Found out years later that wasn’t a lie.
Their mom had an eating disorder or some psychological issue and kept only her preferred soda, milk, and cereal in the house. The kids had to keep their food in their room or eat at school or their friends house. If they invited friends over they were expected to bring their own food unless they were ok with eating cereal.It wasn’t poverty, she had a very high paying job, her ex husbands were all also in the same high paying field and paying child support. As a family they had the absolute best of everything else and she didn’t mind if you ate her food and would offer it freely. They just weren’t allowed to have any other food in her kitchen.
My best friend when I was in my late teens was Sicilian. His parents were right from there. First time i went to his house, they were hollering and screaming at each other. I was like s**t do want me to leave, and he said no, this is just how we talk. Every time I went to his house, someone was hollering
Celebrating a holiday can be a way for you and your relatives to connect to your local community. Meanwhile, having a sit-down dinner with no phones every evening can bring your entire family together and strengthen the bonds between everyone.So long as these activities aren’t hurting anyone, you should be proud of these traditions. Though it might hurt someone to say that they think you’re a bit odd, some people are simply shocked when they see something new. However, there’s a commonsense line that shouldn’t be crossed, like in many of the examples featured in the r/AskReddit thread.Constant screaming, hoarding, excessive dirt—these are all behaviors that might be red flags, indicating a toxic household. They require greater self-awareness and potentially thehelp of a therapistto sort out.
Celebrating a holiday can be a way for you and your relatives to connect to your local community. Meanwhile, having a sit-down dinner with no phones every evening can bring your entire family together and strengthen the bonds between everyone.
So long as these activities aren’t hurting anyone, you should be proud of these traditions. Though it might hurt someone to say that they think you’re a bit odd, some people are simply shocked when they see something new. However, there’s a commonsense line that shouldn’t be crossed, like in many of the examples featured in the r/AskReddit thread.
Constant screaming, hoarding, excessive dirt—these are all behaviors that might be red flags, indicating a toxic household. They require greater self-awareness and potentially thehelp of a therapistto sort out.
In high school, I stayed the night at a friend’s house. We were making sandwiches. She brought mayo out, and I noticed the color was off. It was greenish. I checked the date: it had expired TWO YEARS before. I flipped out and told her she can’t use it, but she just looked at me like I was a puzzle. She said she’d eaten some recently and it was fine.She thought it was weird that I refused to eat anything but bread and a Kraft slice of cheese on my sandwich after that. No way was I eating the leftover ham or condiments.
Locks on the kitchen cabinets and the refrigerator. Three meals a day, no snacking, the family all sat down and ate together. Friends were sent home at meal time
Through grades 8 and 9, I was friends with an upper-middle class girl from a family that did those yearly portraits where everyone wore a matching turtleneck and blue jeans.The first thing I saw when I walked into the house was a very large framed photo of her mother, completely nude. The photo was from a boudoir shoot she had bought to mark her 40-something birthday. She had other, much less nude, photos from the same shoot that were scattered around the house, but they were so small and out of the way that you barely noticed them. This one took up an entire wall and was one of the first things you would see upon opening the door. It was the centerpiece of the foyer.Since my friend was fairly popular and had a big house, she hosted a lot so most of our classmates had seen it at one point or another. Whenever someone asked, she would say something about how her mom just loved having family pictures around to look at.
My friend told me not to use the towels in the bathroom to dry my hands because sometimes her brother wiped his a*s with them when they ran out of toilet paper.
Bird nest in the couch. Family has a giant poorly trained cockatiel who free flies around the home and has made a foot wide and 8 inch deep nest inside the foam cushion on their couch. Filled with debris like cardboard and bottle caps. They use the couch as if it wasn’t there, even sitting on the sliver of cushion that the nest is on. Bonkers!!!!!!
6 or 7 year old gingerbread house in the hallway. It stands there all year(s) around. The kids were not allowed to touch it, but yeah, with three kids, traces of nibbles visible.
Not something I saw but what i didnt hear when I stayed over at a friend’s house for the first time when I was 7 years old: nothing. At night it was distutbingly quiet. No creaks, beeps, appliances, ac, running water, pipe noises, etc., They were far enough away from other houses and streets where you wouldn’t hear other cars or neighbors. What was weirdest though was the lack of any ambiant nature sounds outside. SILENCE NEVER FELT SO LOUD
A rabbit which they trained to use a litter box. White fluffy bunny just hopping around the living room.As a fan of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I was a tad concerned.
Plastic over all the living room furniture, all the time.
Their kid….cr**ping in the yard. Don’t wanna go in the house to poo? No problem! Just go in the yard.
My friend had a room in their basement that was full of all sorts of containers filled with water. Like bottles, jugs, jars, buckets, etc. I asked why they had all that and she shrugged and said “in case we ever need them”. Never questioned it again.
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Hair brushes in the dishwasher. With the dishes.
A friend store her strawberry jam in the bathroom cabinet, alongside other toiletries. When I asked why, she just shrugged. Can’t judge her, she’s having a s****y year.
Dried chicken legs down to the feet hanging on the wall. I took off my contacts and wasn’t wearing my glasses so when I got up close to it at sniffing distance I saw the feet and screamed.
When I was quite young I went to a friends house who proudly showed off his older brothers snot wall. His brother picked his nose and smeared it on the wall. The wall was covered.The older brother was in high school at the time.
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I lived across the street from this girl, we were both 5 years old. She had three brothers, one was 7, one was 2, and one was a newborn. We weren’t very close friends, just played outside together when we were both out at the same time. I only went into her house once. When we walked into the living room her mom was breastfeeding her brother. The 7 year old one… even at age 5 I knew that was very very strange and I told her I had to go home
The mother was obsessed with apple (fruit) decor/objects. Not just pictures- anything and everything was apple related. Apple shaped kitchen utensil holder, not so weird right? look around… the bedspread- apples. The wallpaper- apples. Mousepad? red apples picture printed on it. The trash can? apple shaped with apples printed on it. The couch was an apple print fabric. She even had apple house shoes she wore around the house. A lifetime of collecting apple related objects.
Went to a friend’s house in middle school - they had a massive cooked lobster sitting in a bowl of popcorn
Trailer home. One bedroom had a rotten floor and there was a hole in the corner about 1ft wide which you could see straight to the dirt underneath. During parties it was used as a urinal pretty frequently.
In my childhood home my dad painted hieroglyphics on the walls that led to our refinished basement playroom.There were some confused faces on friends/boyfriends who visited over the years but to us it was normal.
I guess I’m the friend in this situation. I had some newer friends over once and they couldn’t believe that I let my butter sit in a marble butter container on the counter instead of in the fridge. It still gets brought up. I thought this was normal?
Neighbors when I was a kid would go to Las Vegas for family trips, to family-friendly places. They would win massive amounts of stuffed animals of various sizes, bring them home, and put them in their sunken living room which was the first thing you saw when you opened the front door. Just all over every space and all of the “steps” of the sunken part so that the only thing left clear was most of the floor. Huge ones to very small ones. They called it “the animal room”. So f*****g weird.
One friend and her parents walked around their house in their underwear in front of me.I’ve house sat or been in some other homes where there was stuff all over their kitchen counters and tables. I don’t mean a few things. I mean the entire counter and tabletop covered. So basically hoarders.
When I was growing up my best friends mom was a hoarder. Not the type that keeps literal trash, but she would buy stuff that she thought she could sell later. There was one time I went over, and she had 2 stoves, a dryer, 3 couches, a couple of stereos, and 3/4s of a pallet of Christmas wrapping paper in the living room.She is addicted to garage sales and free posts on Craigslist and Facebook, but never actually gets around to selling the stuff. It’s all stuff that is decades out of date too, so nobody really wants it in the first place. In her mind if she can make a dollar off it then she will buy it and store it.
After 3 years living in their large, lovely home, Sister in law arbitrarily decided the kitchen sink had to remain clean and dry at all times. Anything that couldn’t go in the dishwasher had to be cleaned or dumped in the bathroom sink down the hall. What the freak, over?
The only soap in their bathroom was dawn dishsoap in the bathtub.He had people over every day. No shame.
A collection of Yogurt
A Jamaican friend of mine many many years ago would always have her panties hanging in the bathroom on the shower curtain rail. One day I asked her about it and she said that growing up in Jamaica that was how everyone did it. They would get in the shower and just wash the panties that they were wearing and hang them on the line. That way they always had clean underwear.I was like yeah but you’re in New York now.
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