Margaret Buckley
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Margaret Buckley • commented on 6 posts 1 year ago
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Margaret Buckley • upvoted 34 items 1 year ago
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
My dad’s side of the family always had this particular smell that I loved! But I never knew what that smell was... I only smelled it around them... It was such a nostalgic smell and I would be excited for family reunions so I could smell it. Well, years later I discovered that smell was alcohol. Alcoholism apparently runs in my family.
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Working at renaissance faires. My parents have been doing it for decades, so I grew up doing it and thought nothing of it. I always thought it was normal that my family would dress up to interact with other people, also dressed up, wielding swords and the like. You can imagine my surprise when, in elementary school, no one had a goddamn clue what I was taking about when I spoke of my normal weekend activities Blew my eight-year-old mind
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Let me tell ya bout the Wallbangies. Thought everyone knew about them like the Easter bunny or tooth fairy. They are a tiny race of native American people. In the mornings you went around collecting belly button lint, and you would put what you find under your pillow when you made your bed. That night while you slept they would come and collect the lint, and eventually one day they would bring you a sweater they knitted from the lint. I was 20 years old when I learned these itty bitty Indians aren't universally known..Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Growing up, my teachers and friends would tell me I had a 'sing-song' voice and sometimes would make fun of it, but that's how my entire family talks to one another. We have our own little familial variation on the local accent, words adopted from where most of us used to live, words made up as jokes over time, phrases that ended up sticking in our communal lexicon because of longstanding jokes or situations. It was enough that when I was in kindergarten the school insisted that I be put into speech therapy. I didn't really realize it was weird until I was about 13 and my friends and I were watching Star Trek TNG and one of them pointed at the TV and said 'Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. That's what you sound like!'
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
In my family, correcting each other's mistakes in everyday conversation is normal, a thing to be grateful to the corrector for. The idea is that it's more important for everyone to be enriched or learning than it is for anyone's pride to be preserved while they're also wrong. It created in me a love of debate and a willingness to revise my opinions / stances, but it's very frustrating to me now to calculate someone's pride into the equation, lest I be labeled rude or arrogant.
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
We had absolutely no censorship growing up. Everything was available to us to watch or listen to or play. My dad taught my sister and me how to sneak into R rates movies by buying a movie for one but going to another. My parents made themselves available to explain most things, and had an open door policy. My sister and I were shy, though, and rarely asked stuff...except the time my sister asked my mom what 69 was and she answered. My sister learned not to ask. When people said they couldn't watch or play something it was foreign to me. My sister and I turned out low key. Didn't have our first relationships until I was 18 and she was 19. Pretty introverted about sexual matters for even longer. Never in trouble and were dedicated to school. In school we never drank or smoked. Both of my parents asked me and my sister of we needed birth control pills when we were 16. We said no followed by eww, Haha. I think our curiosities were extinguished through my parents open policy, and we never felt the need to rebel.
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Yelling to communicate. Everyone in my household just yelled and screamed at each other for little or no reason. Not even when they were mad at each other, but even when we were just working around the house or something, people would start yelling at each other like they hated them then after we were all done we just went back to business as usual as if nothing ever happened. I didn't find out this wasn't exactly normal when I had my first girlfriend. I started yelling and bellowing at her about something, I have no idea what it was even about, and she started crying and said she was afraid I was going to hurt her. I thought this was the craziest thing i'd ever heard. I wasn't going to hit her, I was just yelling. We eventually sort of sat down and talked about it and she made me realize that the primary means of communication i'd been taught and had to use my entire life up to that point wasn't how people were supposed to talk to each other. I also learned that most women tend to cry if you yell at them. I had done it throughout all my formative years so it's a bit hard to suppress. Sometimes I still find myself raising my voice to people, even my wife, and she'll just put her hand on my shoulder and its sort of our signal to remind me i'm getting carried away. Weird thing is, i'm not even really angry or anything like that, it just happens automatically. But she knows I don't mean anything by it and helps me to keep it in check. It's not that bad these days, it has gotten better and better over the years being around more sane people that aren't from my family.
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
We always ate pineapple slices on our hamburgers- every time- all of us It was like putting ketchup on for most people, when I ate burgers at other people’s houses I would be like, where’s the pineapple in the same way people would ask for lettuce or mayo
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Growing up my parents would always give each other two cards for birthdays and anniversaries. One would be a comedy card and one is a love card. Thought that was how it just was. Apparently my family is the only one that does that, but my girlfriend does enjoy the two cards very much.Show All 34 Upvotes
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Margaret Buckley • commented on 20 posts 1 year ago
Margaret Buckley • upvoted 20 items 1 year ago
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Instead of trick-or-treating on Halloween, my parents made us go around to different doors in our basement and answer Bible questions to receive candy.
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
We never had birthday parties. Birthdays were observed, but there were never parties. I got toys, some good food, but no one was invited ever. My father told me it was a family tradition. Many years later, when I realized that absolutely everyone I knew did in fact have birthday parties, I looked into the matter more closely and found that an ancestor had apparently died after his birthday party, and since then all parties were forbidden in the family.
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
My good friend's family used to put on a full Christmas pageant every year — I'm talking costumes, scripts, roles assigned at Thanksgiving, and always a live baby Jesus played by an infant in the family. They've even rented locations to fit everyone! She only found out that it was unusual in college, when we were discussing our plans for Winter Break and she casually mentioned 'the pageant.' Everyone paused and asked what that meant, and she said, 'You know, the family Christmas pageant.' We had to explain that no one else does that, and it was hilarious! She was an angel that year.Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Growing up, my teachers and friends would tell me I had a 'sing-song' voice and sometimes would make fun of it, but that's how my entire family talks to one another. We have our own little familial variation on the local accent, words adopted from where most of us used to live, words made up as jokes over time, phrases that ended up sticking in our communal lexicon because of longstanding jokes or situations. It was enough that when I was in kindergarten the school insisted that I be put into speech therapy. I didn't really realize it was weird until I was about 13 and my friends and I were watching Star Trek TNG and one of them pointed at the TV and said 'Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. That's what you sound like!'
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
My parents put certain foods (hot dogs, toast, etc) on paper towels instead of plates. Obviously things like pasta or rice would go on plates, but anything that didn't ~require~ a plate went on a paper towel. I grew up thinking this was normal. Until I served a sausage in a bun to a boyfriend on a paper towel and he looked at me like I had three heads. Turns out my parents just really hate to wash dishes, so they destroy the planet by wasting paper and buying plastic cups instead. Real dishware only comes out on special occasions. Did I mention they have a dishwasher but hate to use it?
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
We always have our house in the 50- to 60-degree range, even during the Wisconsin winter. Everyone would always comment on how cold it was in our house, but it felt fine to me! Meanwhile, other people's houses — which are normally in the 70-degree range — are way too hot for me.Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Let me tell ya bout the Wallbangies. Thought everyone knew about them like the Easter bunny or tooth fairy. They are a tiny race of native American people. In the mornings you went around collecting belly button lint, and you would put what you find under your pillow when you made your bed. That night while you slept they would come and collect the lint, and eventually one day they would bring you a sweater they knitted from the lint. I was 20 years old when I learned these itty bitty Indians aren't universally known..Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
We always ate pineapple slices on our hamburgers- every time- all of us It was like putting ketchup on for most people, when I ate burgers at other people’s houses I would be like, where’s the pineapple in the same way people would ask for lettuce or mayo
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
When I was little, my family and I LOVED the first Spongebob Movie. In the movie, they make these silly calls that sound like “LULULULU!” by pursing their lips and wiggling their tongues back and forth. One night, as my dad was tucking me in, he said “Goodnight, I love you! LULULULU!” And I repeated it back. We still do this, and I’m 23. I think it’s his way of hanging on to his idea of me as a kid. I draw the line at phone calls, though. I’ve gotten some weird looks from my boyfriend.
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
We're not super demonstrative or affectionate, so relationships were interesting early on. Wake up call for me was when my girlfriend got really upset with me because I didn't call her to find out how her doctor's appointment went. I was confused because I figured she'd let me know if anything was wrong and if I hadn't heard anything I'd assume everything was fine. It never registered that perhaps actual human people like to feel cared about sometimes and that - as her boyfriend - it would be appropriate for me to show a little more concern for her. My family is still like this, although I like to think I've grown in that respect - it's something I had to learn how to do though.Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
We'd go for a walk after every dinner. Rain or shine. Found out years later our neighbors thought we were weird.
Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Whenever we got fast food, we would put all of our fries together in a big mound to share — sort of like communal fries. Once I was at a friend's house and they bought us fast food, so I put my fries on a plate and pushed it to the middle of the table. Lots of strange looks.Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Working at renaissance faires. My parents have been doing it for decades, so I grew up doing it and thought nothing of it. I always thought it was normal that my family would dress up to interact with other people, also dressed up, wielding swords and the like. You can imagine my surprise when, in elementary school, no one had a goddamn clue what I was taking about when I spoke of my normal weekend activities Blew my eight-year-old mindWeird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
Yelling to communicate. Everyone in my household just yelled and screamed at each other for little or no reason. Not even when they were mad at each other, but even when we were just working around the house or something, people would start yelling at each other like they hated them then after we were all done we just went back to business as usual as if nothing ever happened. I didn't find out this wasn't exactly normal when I had my first girlfriend. I started yelling and bellowing at her about something, I have no idea what it was even about, and she started crying and said she was afraid I was going to hurt her. I thought this was the craziest thing i'd ever heard. I wasn't going to hit her, I was just yelling. We eventually sort of sat down and talked about it and she made me realize that the primary means of communication i'd been taught and had to use my entire life up to that point wasn't how people were supposed to talk to each other. I also learned that most women tend to cry if you yell at them. I had done it throughout all my formative years so it's a bit hard to suppress. Sometimes I still find myself raising my voice to people, even my wife, and she'll just put her hand on my shoulder and its sort of our signal to remind me i'm getting carried away. Weird thing is, i'm not even really angry or anything like that, it just happens automatically. But she knows I don't mean anything by it and helps me to keep it in check. It's not that bad these days, it has gotten better and better over the years being around more sane people that aren't from my family.Weird-Things-Families-Do-People-Thaught-Were-Normal
In my family, correcting each other's mistakes in everyday conversation is normal, a thing to be grateful to the corrector for. The idea is that it's more important for everyone to be enriched or learning than it is for anyone's pride to be preserved while they're also wrong. It created in me a love of debate and a willingness to revise my opinions / stances, but it's very frustrating to me now to calculate someone's pride into the equation, lest I be labeled rude or arrogant.
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