30 Weird Things People Have Seen Other Families Do

1.

My best friend's family has a life-size cardboard cutout of Sarah Michelle Gellar. They would adorn it with accessories like scarves and sunglasses, then hide it just behind closed doors and around corners to scare each other and their guests with it. I was caught by it many times, and it was always a laugh hearing a random loud gasp or scream in the house.

2.

My friend's mom used to bust in on her daughter's friends using the bathroom and quickly snap a picture. She proudly showed me the photo album of random kids using the toilet looking surprised/confused as hell. Didn't really kick in how f*cked up that was until later in life.

3.

I knew a girl in high school whose parents were obsessed with dinner plates. They had such a huge collection of collectible plates in their house that every room was full of them on display. Their entire house was basically a library set up for these things. Her bedroom was a mattress on the floor surrounded by display cases of plates. You couldn't even lean on any wall, they were all like this.The last time I went over there, I knocked one off the wall by mistake.

I caught it and it didn't even break, but my God the rage her dad flew into was f*cking horrifying. He was inches away from punching me. Never went back! They tried to nervously laugh it off like, "Haha, good ol' Dad being funny, hahaha!"The one time I asked my friend why they had so many, she want on a passionate tangent about all the cool plates they had and why they were so awesome. It went on for an hour. I never asked again because hearing about neat dishware for an hour was like torture.

4.

Whenever the father would come home from work or some errand, every family member would greet him by the door, and then stand around silently for a minute or so, blankly starring into space as if they were thinking about their next move. Then, the father would go sit in the same spot, and they would follow and sit down... there was absolute dead silence during dinnertime, and they always ate the exact same meal each night.The mother also saved the children's dried-off belly buttons (the small piece of the umbilical cord that dries and falls off) and every tooth that fell or that was extracted. The children's hairs were tied into knots or braided and hung around multiple parts of the house.

5.

I got to know this one dude in junior high through a mutual friend and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. So, I went to his house a couple of times to play video games, ride bikes, etc. I met his parents who seemed... kind of "different." I couldn't put my finger on it, until...We were playing games one day, and his dad stepped in front of the TV and said, "Well, this is weekly family adult movie night. We always let one of the kids pick out a video from the store and we watch it together. Wanna stay longer?"Even though I was a young boy, that was just too much for me. The thought of him, his sister, and parents all watching porn together freaked me out. I didn't stay.

6.

In my first few weeks of high school I made a new friend who quickly invited me to his house. He and his family were extremely down to earth, normal people it seemed. When we sat down at the table I dont remember the finer details of the meal but.. after a while I noticed my friend and his younger brother licking every last crumb and bit of sauce from the plate, nothing out of the ordinary I thought, long day I supposed. This was until an hour later, when his mother brought my dirty plate into his room and demanded to know who hadn't licked their plate clean.

My friend nervously pointed at me. She was furious and asked how the next person was supposed to eat from it if I had not licked it clean. She left the room, surely what I was thinking couldn't be true? I asked my friend if they actually wash their plates and he replied 'of course, we use our tongues so the next person can use it?' Needless to say, I never returned to that house.

7.

I hung out and played with these three siblings. They were all pretty normal kids, but the mom seemed kind of clingy. During the summer we would play outside a lot; baseball, hockey, go karts, swimming, the norm.Every single day at about 12:00 pm, the mom would call the kids back to the house, one at a time. They would have to go inside for about a half-hour, and would then come out while the next kid would go in.

Never thought too much about it, until one day I was actually in their house with them and found out why she called them.She had mandatory cuddle time with each of the kids. They would lie on the couch and she would spoon them in the quiet for about 30 minutes each. Weirdest thing I've ever encountered.

8.

Something that I have witnessed for years only began to hit me as the realization slowly unfolded. A family that I visited frequently (all adult children who still live with their parents) would coincidentally always have the same movie on every single time I visited. They all huddled around as though they are watching it for the first time.Once, when I actually stayed over for a longer duration, the TV was finally turned off when the movie ended, only to be turned on again and the "play" button pressed for the same movie.

I finally realized that this movie is watched multiple times a day, every single day, almost like a ritual, and all the members of the family react the same way to the same scene repeatedly as if they have never seen it before....for all those asking what movie, it was called Just Ask My Children [about a couple accused of child exploitation].

9.

I went to this guy's house once after school. I wasn't friends with him, but we were assigned to a project together. We'll call him Gary. Anyways, we were working on this project when he excused himself to use the restroom. Fifteen minutes later, he returned. A little while later, I decided to use the restroom while he was making snacks.I walked into the bathroom and behold! Before my eyes, floating like a manatee through the brown estuaries of Florida, was the result of Gary's earlier bathroom excursion.

I shrugged it off (I mean, we all forget at least once, right?), flushed for him, took a leak, flushed again, and went to work on the project.Gary's mom gets home from work a couple hours later. She nods to us and says hello politely before heading towards the back of the house. A few seconds later she returns to the kitchen where we were working and screams, "WHERE IS IT?" I jump and am confused, so I shoot a "WTF" look to Gary.

Gary muttered, "It wasn't me, it was [name of Redditor]." His mom glared at me, huffed, and walked out.Gary later explained that every day after school, he would take a dump and was required to leave it in the toilet so his mom could check it. He wasn't even sick or anything, she just wanted to check it to make sure he was healthy or something.I never went back to Gary's house.

10.

I was babysitting for a girl and noticed weird furs on her bed. She explained to me very matter-of-factly that they were her cats. Her parents skinned her pet cats after they died (presumably of natural causes) and put the pelts on her bed. That was the only time I babysat for them.

11.

I had a good friend in elementary school. They lived in a farm house that looked like it belonged to the Adams Family. Every wall in this house had a crucifix on it. Not a small handheld-size crucifix, these were two or three feet tall. On EVERY WALL; bathroom, bedrooms, closets.They had a room upstairs that we were forbidden to go into, so of course we had to sneak in and see. I didn't know why it was forbidden, but it was basically a Vatican-style church chapel complete with burnt offerings, candles, pews, alter, and [a] six-foot-tall crucifix with Jesus hanging on it.

But this was not the most WTF thing.They had a cuckoo clock they called the "prayer clock." The clock had the 12 disciples for the numbers on [the] dial. I never knew what came out of the clock on the hour (probably Jesus), but every single hour that clock would go off. My friend's mother would round up all the kids and make us write thank you prayers and place them in the "prayer jar."We had to write down thank you notes to Jesus for everything we did in the last hour... If we were playing with Legos and had a snack, I would have to write down, "Thank you, Jesus, for letting me play Legos and eating string cheese."

His mom would read them and usually would have us edit them, saying things like, "You had apple juice, too, you don't think Jesus would be sad if you didn't thank him for the apple juice, too?"By about 4th grade, I refused to go over anymore. It was just too weird, especially since their mom had just had a new baby and they "didn't believe in diapers." They let the kid crawl around naked and piss/sh*t on everything.Twenty-four years later, what happened to the kids? The roaming pissing/sh*tting baby became a Catholic priest, the second youngest moved out and is a transsexual "entertainer," and the oldest (my friend) became a programmer in Silicon Valley. The father eventually left the mother.

12.

There was a family of girls I went to church with and none of them were allowed to cut their hair. They had to wait until they were 16 so they wouldn't get a haircut they'd regret, because the mother had. They also weren't allowed to talk at the dinner table.One time one of the daughters was laughing at something and coughed on her food. The mom was afraid of one of them choking and dying, so talking was banned. No one told me that when I came over for dinner. I just talked and they all stared at me.

13.

“Okay. Brace yourselves.I went on a picnic/barbecue thing with this family. Mom, dad, three or four kids, i don’t remember. We light the barbecue and start preparing food. The main attraction is chicken wings. Yum. The wings are covered in sauce. They are placed on the barbecue and the mother tends to them. After a forever, the food is ready. She brings the huge platter of chicken wings, sets them on the blanket. Everyone is taking plates, fixing drinks for themselves etc.

The woman picks up a chicken wing. Holds it with two hands, as you do, and starts licking it. She’s licking it, turning it over, keeps licking. I think, ‘umm weird, but okay’.’ Then she puts it back on the platter. I am stunned. She picks up another one. Does the same. Puts it back. All the while, she’s talking. Saying things like ‘alright kids, come on, get your chicken wings, eat’.’ As if… she’s preparing the wings for our consumption by licking them. I am still in shock. I can’t say anything. I’m looking at everyone else. No one, none of them is reacting. There is no sign on anyone’s faces that something weird is going on. She licks and licks and licks and they just eat it.I had salad that day.”

14.

The act itself isn't creepy, but I was very creeped out until I realized what was happening. I was at my SO's house, and her mom was cooking and said, "I think it's about that time." Immediately the entire family (mom, dad, and six siblings) started simultaneously mumbling something I couldn't understand. After they finished and saw the look on my face, my SO said they just said grace, but everybody is in a rush to eat which is why I couldn't hear what they were saying. I thought they were going to sacrifice me.

15.

My sister dated this guy in high school for a couple years. He had the biggest helicopter parents in the world. He would call to see if my sister was around, and then his whole family would show up (mom, dad and sister) would be with him. It was almost like they were going somewhere and dropping him off, except they would come inside and crash in the living room for hours while they waited on him. I felt so bad for the kid cause he was 17-18 y/o and his parents would 3rd wheel him everywhere.

16.

I knew a family that used breastmilk for cooking. After they had their third child, and when the mother was still lactating, they stored a bunch of her breastmilk in the freezer and on special occasions the family would use it in cookies and stuff. I tried not to ask about it too much because they had very strong opinions about its health benefits, but it always creeped me tf out

17.

This was not my experience, but my aunt's. It was back in the 1950s when my aunt was a teenager.She was hired by a couple to babysit. She'd never babysat for this couple before, but she was impressed because they were fairly wealthy and lived in a big house. The two small children (around five and six years old) were well-dressed and well-behaved. My aunt spent the day with them, fed them, played with them, etc. That evening she got them ready for bed.

The parents were due back later that night.My aunt heard some sounds coming from an upstairs closet. The children were in bed asleep. She opened the closet and found a crib, and in the crib was a baby. Both the crib and the baby were filthy. I think my aunt woke up the children and asked them about the baby, but their answers were vague. I don't recall my aunt having any luck getting information about the baby from the two older children.

My aunt cleaned the baby up. She washed the bedding. I remember her telling me that the baby didn't really make much sound other than the little grunts that had drawn her attention to... the closet. She probably tried to feed the baby, but I don't remember that part of the story.According to my aunt, the parents came home, paid her, thanked her, took the baby, and the dad drove her home. She never babysat for them again, and she has no idea what happened to the baby...

18.

I knew a family that would all suck their thumbs when they watched the television. I never went back over to their house.

19.

Growing up my friends family just [urinated] in one big bottle on road trips and would never stop like no emergency bottle type thing like they'd just go in the jar whenever. I only rode with them ONCE.

20.

I once went to my friend's house for her birthday party when I was [in] middle school... The family was super weird. All the walls were painted these horrific pastel colors and every single room had at least one photograph of Jesus, if not multiple.Anyway, we're all hanging out at the party and the mother comes up to me and very sternly tells me she would like a word with me. First, she was mad at me because, "We do not swear in this house."Okay, but I [had] said, "Jeez."Second, [she said,] "We do not frown in this house." If you weren't constantly smiling, you were in trouble.

21.

Went to a friend's house when I was 17. She asked her mom for a snack and her mom brought out a huge raw white onion completely slathered in mayo on a plate and she and my friend just went at it with their forks like it was filet mignon. 3 years later and I still think about that s**t from time to time.

22.

Growing up my best friends family didn't have traditional snacks like fruit rollups, gushers, etc. They ate sticks of butter. Sticks of f**king butter. Whenever they offered me some I always told them I wasn't hungry. They had multiple packages of butter in the fridge and freezer. They didn't consume the entire stick rather would cut off pieces. They weren't poor, they weren't fat, but they were f**king crazy.

23.

I had a friend who would never let me come over to his house. I didn't know why because I'd met his mother and father and knew his siblings and they seemed like a very happy normal family and they had a nice home which I'd see often from the outside and inside through the living room window a couple times. One time however I managed to convince him to ask his mother if we could have a sleep over and she said yes. After a few moments of being there I realized why he was reluctant to let anyone over.There were locks on every single door in the house. But not only that, every door required a different key and there was a set of keys for each door for each member of the six person family.

In the Entrance Hall alone there must of been 30 keys on a rack.To give one "short" example of how to get to the Bathroom from the Living Room and back again, you would have to:Take Living Room - Entrance Hall key from its specific place in the Living Room.Unlock the Entrance Hall door.

Go through the lock the door behind you.Store the Living Room - Entrance Hall key in its specific place in the Entrance Hall.Take Bathroom key from its specific place in the Entrance Hall.Unlock the Bathroom door. Go through then lock the door behind you.Unlock the Bathroom door. Go through then lock the door behind you. Store the Bathroom door key in its specific place in the Entrance Hall. Take the Living Room - Entrance Hall key from its specific place in the Entrance Hall. Unlock the Living Room door. Go through then lock the door behind you.Place the Living Room - Entrance Hall key in its specific place in the living room. Every. Single. Time.

And it was a large house. Sometimes requiring going through 3 or 4 doors to reach the room you wanted.It honestly felt like I was playing real life Resident Evil, collecting keys to open doors to progress. My friend was the only one who found it slightly embarrassing his sisters and brother and parents didn't seem to think it was odd at all. I asked my friend why it was like that and he just said his Mother thought it was safer for them all that way. I never stayed over again and all sleepovers after that were conducted at my house.

24.

I have an ex whose family would literally burn any meat they cooked for dinner. Chicken, fish, steak; all completely burned. They were terrified about bacteria on their food. I got them to cook my steak medium-well (less burned, but still above well) once, but I got some serious looks of disgust.The mother also forced me to draft a living will and instructed me on the proper way to seal a room to protect from a very likely chemical attack with duct tape and plastic sheeting.

25.

A friend of mine is a house appraiser in New Jersey. He walks into the living room of one particular client's house, and there is a glass coffin in the living room with the body of a woman preserved inside, like Lenin. The guy says it's his mother. My friend said it was the fastest he ever appraised a house in his entire career.

26.

A friend from high school theater used to invite me over to her family's house all the time. Her mom collected large vintage dolls like child-sized ballerinas, Victorian girls, and this one overly-happy clown. They'd dress it up in their own clothing and place it around the house like it was a family joke [and] that it was "alive."They also collected and played didgeridoos as a family group. It sounds cool, but they were all pretty odd individuals.

27.

My family collected "dead people cards". When my grandparents would go to funerals they would get those obituary cards with pictures and stuff and collect them. I think it started out as getting them for memory purposes but then they'd get them for other people, and it became like a card game. My grandparents and their friends would "trade them" and they coveted the ones that had misspellings or limited edition more. Like his one mans name was "haze" but they misspelled it as "hazel" and the ones before the funeral home reprinted them were kind of showed off as a novelty. I didn't realize it was weird for ever, and moms still in denial that it was weird. We had to throw out BOXES of dead people cards when my grandparents died and their stilling living friends actually got mad that we didn't distribute them again. Wtf

28.

I had a close childhood friend whose mom insisted that we treat their dogs like people. Whenever I went round there I had to "greet" these two cocker spaniels, say goodbye to them when I left, say "excuse me" if I walked past one of the dogs in the hallways. Stuff like that.Sometimes we'd be eating dinner and having a conversation and the mom would try to "include" the dogs by asking their opinions and we'd all sit there in silence like idiots until she decided they'd had enough time to reply, which they never did, being dogs.There was other stuff with those dogs but I don't really want to relive it right now. Not the weirdest thing ever, but weird enough.

29.

The parents of one of my sister's friends stuffed their dog. He was a little old dog when he died and they stuffed him. Now it's in their house like a teddy bear.

30.

I used to have to go overnight to my babysitter's house since my dad worked the midnight shift. When it came time for a bath, they would run the water, Dad would have a bath, then mom, then the oldest girl, then the two little ones.Without ever draining and running new water. They would just each bathe in each other's dirty water.