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Growing up, most of us assumed our version of "normal" was exactly that. After all, when something is part of your everyday life, you don’t really question it, you just roll with it. But then you get older, start visiting other people’s homes, or casually mention a childhood habit in conversation, and suddenly you’re met with a look.
As it turns out, a lot of us were living in our own little bubbles of weirdness without even realizing it. From bizarre family traditions to oddly specific house rules that made perfect sense at the time, netizens shared things from their childhood they genuinely believed were normal, until life proved otherwise.
More info: Reddit
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#1
Before we left the house, every single time, my mom would touch the oven, the toaster, the microwave, and the fridge while saying, "Off, off, off, and closed." I used to joke that she has OCD. It turns out she literally does lol
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#2
I lived in a world where every woman I knew was constantly on a diet, and it was a constant source of conversation. I thought this was just what it meant to be a woman.
My mother was a world-renowned scholar in her field, and she would come home from every conference full of observations about what her female colleagues ate, "and that must be why she is so thin!" She would just talk on and on about it. I mean she could literally have won an award and she would lead with how she figured out it's better to order an appetizer as an entree.
#3
I was supposed to always let mom and her boyfriend know if I saw any cops in the area right away. Even if I was out playing with my friends, I was supposed to run home and tell them.
According to Simply Psychology, what’s known as the false consensus effect helps explain why so many of these childhood experiences felt completely normal at the time. This cognitive bias leads people to overestimate how much others share their beliefs, habits, and everyday routines.
In childhood, when your family and immediate environment are your entire world, it’s easy to assume that what happens at home is simply how life works everywhere else. Because of this, even the most unusual traditions or rules can feel widely accepted, reinforcing the idea that your experience is the standard rather than the exception.
#4
We were not allowed to flush the toilet. There were 13 people living in our house. So water was expensive. As kids we were not allowed to flush the toilet. Only adults could determine when it was full and to be flushed.
I grew up in hell. This was just one crazy aspect of it.
LizzieBoredom 1 hour ago
You know it's bad when an outhouse sounds like an appealing alternative.
#5
My mom used to double my dose of my ADHD stimulant medication so that I would go into a cleaning frenzy and clean the entire house. Mind you I was 8 years old at the time & getting no sleep because of how stimulated I was. I didn't realize how messed up this was until I had kids of my own. Not a fun time.
#6
My parents having no social life, or friends (that they ever saw, anyway) outside the family, and never drunk alcohol, or had intimate relations, from what I remember, and they also never, ever allowed guests in, either.
That sense of "normal" doesn’t just appear out of nowhere, it’s learned early and reinforced constantly. As explained by Verywell Mind, children pick up social norms primarily through observation, imitation, and reinforcement from the people around them, especially their parents.
From small daily habits to bigger household rules, kids absorb behavior by watching what’s modeled and how actions are rewarded or corrected. Over time, these repeated patterns shape their expectations of how life is supposed to work. In stable and familiar environments, these lessons become deeply ingrained, making even the quirkiest routines feel completely logical and unquestionable.
#7
My dad commenting and congratulating on my chest size at age 13, that it was bigger than my mothers.
#8
I grew up in a family that ran a cemetery and coffin making business. I didn't realize tons of things we did were 'weird' until I was near junior high.
#9
My dad added mayonnaise to borscht, soup, pasta, and even watermelon. I thought it was a sauce for everything. Only at the age of 20 did I realize that this was not a "refined taste", but simply a strange food dependency of my father, which shocks normal people.
The shift usually happens later, when those long-held assumptions meet the outside world. Psychology Town explains that realizing something "wasn’t normal" often creates a sense of awkwardness because it clashes with what you previously believed. This reaction is tied to Cognitive Dissonance, the discomfort that comes from holding conflicting ideas at once.
When combined with the false consensus effect, this realization can feel like a personal misstep, as if you somehow misunderstood what everyone else already knew. That’s why these moments are often accompanied by embarrassment or self-conscious humor, as people quickly reassess their past experiences through a new lens.
#10
Hating your siblings. I could never fathom how people liked or even loved their siblings. Turns out our parents had terrible ways of making us feel equally loved, disciplined, cared for, etc….
#11
Parents were divorced. All my aunts and uncles were divorced. All of my friends parents were divorced.
I think it was friends in college where someone close to me had non divorced parents, or parents in a functioning happy marriage. .
#12
I was never "grounded", I was put "on restriction". I don't know if this had to do with both of my parents having been in the Navy (they were out before I was born though). But I never gave it a second thought until I mentioned it after moving out & got strange looks from a friend.
And yet, with a bit of time and distance, those same awkward realizations often become the funniest stories to share. According to Science Friday, hindsight creates psychological distance, allowing people to revisit past experiences without the confusion or stress they once carried.
This shift makes it easier to spot the oddities that went unnoticed in the moment, as the brain begins to reinterpret them in a new context. What once felt routine can suddenly seem absurd, creating the realization that something was actually weird. In the end, it’s this mix of distance and perspective that turns childhood confusion into comedy gold.
#13
Talking to myself out loud like it’s a normal conversation.
As a kid it felt completely normal, like I was just thinking, but out loud. I could have full conversations, argue with myself, explain things, all that. (I’m NOT schizophrenic!)
Later I realized most people don’t actually do it that much, at least not openly, so it’s kind of weird when you think about it.
#14
My mother used to give us allergy meds to make us sleep when she was tired of us 😐
She even tried to get me to do it to my kids when they had a bad day (I never did because omg).
#15
Having to stay quiet because an adult in the house was in a bad mood. Thought that was just normal for way too long.
At the heart of these stories is a funny little truth. "Normal" is often just whatever you grew up with. What felt completely ordinary at the time can turn out to be hilariously strange when seen from the outside, and that realization is something almost everyone experiences sooner or later.
It’s a reminder that our childhoods shape us in ways we don’t always notice, at least not until someone else points them out. Curious to see how other people’s "normal" stacks up against yours? Keep reading, because you might just find yourself laughing, cringing, and realizing you weren’t quite as typical as you thought.
#16
Full on used to see animals and people walking around our house that weren’t there. I asked my mom once where they were going/where they came form just casually because I figured she saw them, and knew something about it. She was like whaaaaattt?. Don’t know when I stopped seeing them but sometime around age 10 or 11 I remembered and realized how weird it was. I’ve since asked psychologists and psychiatrists if I might be schizophrenic, and I’ve been told it’s not that unusual for kids to see stuff like that?!?
#17
My mother is a hoarder. I thought struggling to walk through your house was normal. Never being able to put leftovers in the fridge because it’s too packed. Never, ever throwing anything away.
#18
My mother’s sister was married to my father’s brother.
Not only siblings but cousins all shared the same four grandparents.
I had absolutely no idea this was unusual until I went to school. The other kids sure let me know.
#19
Being locked away as a kid and teen. And I don't mean grounded because I did something bad, I mean it was my normal lifestyle.
I returned from school and I got locked away at home, I spent many holidays, vacations and so on locked away.
At some point, I felt like a dog and I tried rationalising that lockdown like "They will remember where they left me if I am here" or "they won't be too worried where I went to."
Nowadays, I am always anxious and overwhelmed by everything when I'm outside.
#20
Being racist and homophobic...
Basically judging people in general for who or what they are or what makes them happy
My parents are still the same old miserable people tho.
#21
Having a dad who has a ridiculous amount of general knowledge stored away in his brain. He’s a naturally curious and very smart person with a memory like a filing cabinet. As a kid I could ask him any question about pretty much any academic subject and he would be able to explain it to me. I actually still remember how he sat me down at age 5 and explained the inner workings of a a supernova.
One day when I was at a friend’s house, she asked her dad something and he said “I don’t know that, I’ll look it up” and it hit me that not everyone’s dad is the equivalent of Google.
#24
Blaming things on the "house ghost", aka Charlie. Toilet running? Can't find the remote? Timer on the oven didn't go off? Lightbulb blows when you turn on the lamp? Oh Charlie, you rascal.
#25
Maybe not weird, but dads after work in the 90s were like "don't talk to me until I've had my beer". Children were seen but not heard. Think like standing in the alley in King of the Hill. All the dads hung out and worked on cars in one of their garages or driveways, smoked cigarettes, had the baseball game playing on the radio. The kids were not part of that. They just simply were not in that space. Luckily my dad was pretty involved with me, but not a lot of kids in the neighborhood had that privilege. They had sweaty, gruff, and "I'm a manly man" dads.
Millennial dads now, they play actively with the kids a lot more. My kids can go up to any of my friends or fellow dads and will be met with open arms. When I was a kid, you didn't talk to your friend's dad unless you were in trouble. I saw one figure saying Millennial dads spend 3x more time with their kids than previous generations.
#26
We had seven pet lambs fenced on our front lawn in the burbs one Spring. It was the corner section of of new cul-de-sac so having farm animals in the burbs was highly visible.
I loved it. .
#27
I thought having nearly every light off all the time unless you absolutely needed it was normal and that people having heir home lit up at night were weird...
Turns out my dad is incredibly cheap.
I converted everything to LED, and showed him that having every light on all the time with LED was cheaper than it was with incandescent lights on occasionally... He still flips out if a light is on sometimes.
His cheapness made so many things incredibly, pointlessly hard growing up for no reason.
#28
From the time I was about 10 or so, my parents would ask me for my opinion on large purchases such as the car, or what movie we should see, and ask me why. They would weigh the pros and cons of the choice and then we’d choose together. I didn’t think this was abnormal until I spoke with several other kids in school.
I know a good many people would think this is weird, but it helped me build critical thinking skills growing up.
#30
My dad kissing me on the lips all the time even in my teens. I always thought that it was bad for me to say no to his kisses because every time I rejected his kisses he’d always get mad at and sometimes get infuriated and spank me with the belt.
#32
My Dad and Mom drank wine, rather than beer, and my Dad listened to classical music and opera, while my Mom preferred folk music.
This was a couple in their early twenties in the early 1970s, both from pretty blue-collar families. The only "rock" album we had in the house was ELP's Tarkus, until my friend gave me a K-Tel record when I was 8.
I mean, it wasn't super-weird or anything, but growing up I didn't realize that it wasn't really normal either. I just thought that was what parents did.
#34
Eating grass, I know it sounds weird but I used to do it when I was a kid until my dad scolded me and showed me a cow doing it, you have no idea how embarrassed I was lol.
#35
I had to read the newspaper and then at dinner discuss the news with my parents starting around 9. They were/are huge with current events eg my mother was a policy advisor before becoming a lawyer.
#36
Just realized - my dad kept a pile of loose gravel in the hallway. the sharp crunch at 3 a.m. was how he caught us sneaking snacks. i spent ten years thinking every house had an indoor pebble path.
#37
Talking in accents or codes
Dinner table pirate voice? Robot day? Secret handshakes? I thought this was basic communication. Friends called it “insane,” I called it bonding.
#38
Pouring a cup of water on your dad who's passed out drunk in the car or under the table to wake him up.
#40
Riding in the truck bed on the highway to get mcdonalds. peak unhinged behavior that felt like a fun adventure at age 8.
#41
My mother used to pace back and forth around her bed in her room while blasting ABBA and The Partridge Family. Turns out she was doing illegal substances back then.
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