Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
then open in external browser
and click "Open in External Browser" 
50 Things People Considered ‘Normal’ While Growing Up, Only To Find Out They’re Actually Weird
For this post we'd like to rephrase the common saying 'It runs in the family' into one more fitting - 'Weird runs in the family,' and we have some solid proof, thanks to some funny kids, for that below.
During our early childhoods, we've picked up most of our day-to-day habits and even some weird things from our parents and guardians, learning to adapt to the world by observing and mimicking our surroundings. Most of the time, those routine practices are universal, so it's small wonder that people just assume them to be normal and expect everyone to be on the same page. However, there are times when your world suddenly collapses as you realize you're the only person in the room to call slippers 'fuzzy-footsers' or that you were the only crazy kid in the world to eat bananas whole, skin and all.
Did you have any mind-blowing weird stories from your childhood? Share your revelations with other bored pandas to feel less kooky about being lied to or told a plethora of funny things that you firmly believed in your whole life!
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
When I was little I was terrified spiders would eat me while I was sleeping on the top bunk, so my parents had this cool contraption that was a 'spider-trap-setter'. They’d bring it in at bedtime, I’d point it around the room, and click the handle to set a ton of spider traps each night so I could sleep. Fast forward to my fiancé and I registering for wedding gifts – he scanned a wine bottle opener (with the corkscrew and the arms that go up and down) and I immediately recognized it as a spider-trap-setter. It only then dawned on me that I’d been LIED TO,
Kristin Connon 6 years ago
I did something similar to my son, only it was "Monster repellent", AKA, Febreeze. LOL. He still associates the smell with safety and bedtime.
devon 6 years ago
Oh yes, the famous "monster spray" hahahaha I fell for that sooo hard when I was a child :)
Load More Replies...
Mindy Keys 6 years ago
haha, My Gran gave me a satin sheet when I was little - maybe 5 or so. "Silkie" would cover my head and would always protect me from spiders while I slept. So I am now... 40-something.... Gran is long gone, but I still sleep with, and am protected by my Silkie.
JD Cassavaugh 6 years ago
That was my blanket's name. 😊 I still have it, but tucked safely away from the human/fur babies.
Load More Replies...
Hayley Rodgers 6 years ago
That is adorable. They were trying to help you feel better, and it looks like it worked!
RELATED:
#2
In my family, it is a tradition that if somebody bends over they are going to get a swat on the behind. I figured out pretty young that this wasn't "normal" but continued the tradition anyway. At least until my son was about 4 or 5, and we were at the grocery store. A lady in the aisle in front of us dropped her can of pears, and I'll be damned if my lil' rascal didn't run up all excited and swat her on the butt. She spun around with a shocked expression while I made apology after mortified apology. She was cool though. She laughed and said, "It's okay, honey. That's the cutest guy that's swatted me on the butt in a long time." Props to her, but we still discontinued the practice at home after that.
Final score:
131points
Amanda Taugher 6 years ago
SAME in my family! On my mom's side. And then one time we were at a family party on my dad's side and his super grumpy older brother, my uncle, bent over.... I gave him a nice fun slap on the butt and he was just FURIOUS and i was so shocked and upset! What did I do wrong?!?!?! It is the tradition to spank a bent over bum! hahaha
bob 6 years ago
The tradition where I come from is to gently slap friends behind the head when they say something funny. I know it's wrong, but sometimes one can't help. I did that in Korea once. I didn't do it twice. I know what a psycho asking for blood looks like now. ;'/
Load More Replies...
Gerry Higgins 6 years ago
Oh Sure! When a little kid does it it's all "cute" but when I do it everyone get's all judgeee
Craig Reynolds 4 years ago
Ahh, that explains that inappropriate behavior of some adult men...
Jana Novotná 4 years ago
If it's showed it's allowed. (kde je vystrčino, tam je dovolíno) Used to be tradition in my family too.
#3
Growing up, whenever I would eat bananas my mouth would always hurt and sometimes go numb. Kind of similar to how it feels if you eat too much sour candy. It wasn't until I was 18 years old that I say to my mom 'Man, I hate the way bananas make your mouth hurt.' She then brought me to understand THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN. So yeah, turns out I'm allergic to bananas.
RaroaRaroa 6 years ago
I thought it sounded like the banana just wasn't ripe.
Load More Replies...
Himanshu Agarwal 6 years ago
Ok, I'm 30, and I just realized that it's not supposed to happen... 100% serious
María Hermida 6 years ago
Why did you keep on eating something that made your mouth hurt?????? So many years!!!
Hayley Rodgers 6 years ago
Celery makes my tongue go numb. No pain though. Thought it was normal for everyone but NOPE turns out it is a minor allergic reaction. Same with pea pod "strings" making my throat itch.
Valerie Williams 6 years ago
If bananas hurt to eat for you, please google and learn about Latex-Vegtable syndrome! It is estimated that 50-70 % of latex-allergic people have IgE antibodies cross-reactive to the antigens coming from some vegetable foods! You are probably allergic to latex!
Nadine 6 years ago
Something similar happened when I was growing up. I liked (and still like) bananas, but there was a period (from around 8 - 11 years old) during which whenever I ate a banana I would get a horrible pain in my chest. I would tell my mom but she'd never believe me because she thought I was just trying to not eat fruit. Eventually, it went away on its own and as I grew up I realized the pain I was feeling was intense heartburn.
DancingToMyself 6 years ago
Wow, you could have been dead. Was it happening from reaction to kalium (potassium)level?
Load More Replies... Craig Reynolds 4 years ago
That's not all. If you ever find yourself having to clear your throat repeatedly after eating certain foods (non-oily) you have an allergy to that specific food or something in it.
#4
When I was a kid I had a tiny Sony stereo for cassettes. I really loved listening to music - and still do - and children's stories. I would however only listen for like an hour or so a day, because I thought people inside the cassettes would become to tired and upset with me.
Final score:
130points
Melanie Peapell 6 years ago
I was the same with TV. I thought they were little people holding up the pictures on the screen!!
Pat Hodgson 6 years ago
I thought we lived 'inside' the world when people said 'what in the world....'and that we saw the stars through holes in the 'sky' or layer of the world over our heads.
#5
I was probably 12 or so before I realized that not all kids spend their entire summer vacation farming. I spent my summer days weeding, picking veggies, tending hogs, cattle, chickens and I enjoyed every minute of it!
Final score:
130points
Adam Hendron 6 years ago
Hitler enjoyed what he was doing. I think the important thing is that it builds character
Load More Replies...
Rafaella Bueno 6 years ago
More like not all kids have the chance to spend their summer vacation farming. It would be awesome if they did.
Kiki 6 years ago
I spent many of my childhood autumns on my grandfather's cattle farm picking pecans. In the cow pasture, usually in the rain (while I had a cold and an earache) and running from the cows that saw the 5 gallon buckets in our hands and assumed we were there to feed them. On top of that, we lived nearly an hour away and my parents had a truck so me and my bro had to ride in the back and since it was usually raining like I said, we wrapped ourselves with blankets that soon got wet and miserable and cold. Probably why I was always sick when I visited my grandparents.
DancingToMyself 6 years ago
@Kiki - sounds like fun! First, you had to pick pecans, then run away from the cows, while you had an earache and cold, BUT as a reward you would be able to ride in the back of the truck, while the rain drops would be such a nice touch in the favor to the whole autumn atmosphere. I bet you are much stronger than your peers! XD
Load More Replies...
#6
My mom and aunt were identical twins. My aunt lived with us from the time I was born until first grade. I never realized until I started Kindergarten that not everyone had two moms that looked exactly the same and one dad. What a shocker.
Final score:
123points
Annika Hanson-Carlson 6 years ago
my mom's dad was a twin and my dad is a twin, so many twins!
BusLady 6 years ago
I was born on my Aunt's 10th birthday. Growing up, I didn't think that was unusual.
Jeanne Cahour 6 years ago
my sister and I are twins, my niece and nephew would get confused when my sister would hand them the phone and they'd hear their "mum's" voice at the other end...
Susan Miller 6 years ago
That is funny !!! I have two children, a girl and boy who have the same birthday but are 4 yrs apart....now to confuse things just a little further our son has twins .... one of each ..We are just waiting for the day the twins grow old enough that they suddenly realise that not every daddy and auntie have the same birthday as each other ..... or perhaps that they might even think EVERYONE has the same birthday ! We shall wait and see ....
A_fangirling_Demigod_witch 3 years ago
my mom is a twin but fraternal i guess cause they dont look alike and its a boy and girl.
Greta Toločkaitė 6 years ago
my mom and her sis are identical twins, they live separately but meet from time to time only to realize they both bought something ridiculously alike, then we proceed to joke those two probably share one brain :D
#7
For the first two or three years after I was potty trained, I thought that everyone peed standing up. So there I was, a little girl with impeccable aim.
#8
On long road trips, my parents would tell my brother and I that if we closed our eyes, we'd get there faster. Believing them, we would close our eyes and eventually fall alseep. Magically, when we woke up we were almost there, and parents got a nice quiet drive with no kids fighting! Well played parents. Well played. Also used to think the windshield wipers magically knew when it was time to clear the windshield. Wasn't til I started driving that I learned about intermittent wipers.
Ladies and Gentlemen 6 years ago
Well, i could have used that, but my kids are now armed with mobile and gps and what not, they have outgrown me!
tuzdayschild 6 years ago
Thanks to technology, my windshield wipers do "magically" know when it's time to wipe.
Lily Mae Kitty 6 years ago
when we'd ask "are we there yet? How much longer?" my mom would use this calm voice, "Just a few more minutes...we'll be there before you know it...just relax...close your eyes..." dang...mom tried to hypnotize us.
Luisa Vasconcelos 6 years ago
Every mother or father should know how to hypnotize kids. Would be very useful after spending hours in the kitchen just to hear; I'm not gonna eat this, taste bad, without even look to the food.
Load More Replies...
Jan Williams 6 years ago
When my kids were young we frequently had a house full of neighbors kids. When I was ready for them to leave I would tell them "Go tell your mom she's calling you." They always left and it worked every single time.
Gerry Higgins 6 years ago
Gullible kids. My & my 3 brothers just fought the whole way. My parents had ear plugs
Swetha Umashankar 6 years ago
The indicator in our car had an annoying clicking sound and i thought the car knew magically when we were about to turn
Johnny Frostbite 6 years ago
They go off every 5 seconds or so, not too exciting
Load More Replies...
Master Markus 6 years ago
I also totally thought windshield wipers were like that, but I figured it was a sensor or something, not magic. NOPE, not that high-tech.
Nia Loves Art 6 years ago
Wait, it isn’t motion sensor? I am just finding out about this now.
Load More Replies...
#9
My family poops big. Maybe it's genetic, maybe it's our diet, but everyone births giant logs of crap. If anyone has laid a mega-poop, you know that sometimes it won't flush. Growing up, this was a common enough occurrence that our family had a poop knife. It was an old rusty kitchen knife that hung on a nail in the laundry room, only to be used for that purpose. It was normal to walk through the hallway and have someone call out "hey, can you get me the poop knife"? I thought it was standard kit. You have your plunger, your toilet brush, and your poop knife.
Zori the degu 6 years ago
Well, nothing bad about that! In fact, I find toilet brushes much more revolting. At least, a knife is washable compared to the disgusting brush.
Acacia Kelly 6 years ago
You aren't supposed to USE toilet brushes for that. You just wait 20 minutes, and the water will break it down naturally.
Load More Replies...
OI Loi 6 years ago
How else are they supposed to word it? Lol even I was weirded out at first, but then I cracked up toward the end
Load More Replies...
Richard McCoy 6 years ago
The poop knife story comes to mind now when I'm in the bathroom. I don't really need it, I just giggle thinking about it. :-)
#10
We used to lift up our table and say "hrrrmp" every day before dinner as a family. I though everyone did it.... I found out it was only us a a friends place for dinner...
Final score:
99points
Cathrine Iversen 6 years ago
This is something they do in Astrid Lindgrens "Vi på Saltkråkan" 🤷♀️
#11
I grew up in the country and firmly believed that ice cream trucks were myths and that they only existed on TV shows.
Kori K. Warriner 6 years ago
Me too!! Hahaha! I have told many people about that belief! Imagine my surprise when I actually heard my first REAL ice cream truck.
Faith Stroup 6 years ago
The only ice cream truck in my neighborhood is the one that was just a white van witch stickers on it that drove around to kids, then sped off when the parents came out :/
Load More Replies...
Betsy Braddock 6 years ago
I lived in the ghetto & pizza never delivered to our house. I thought it was normal & that pizza places only delivered within 5 minutes or less of their location. I didn't realize they were scared.
Master Markus 6 years ago
I grew up in a small city, but there were no ice cream trucks. I guess I never really thought about them "not existing". I think I thought they were something that Americans had.
Elizabeth Wilkins 6 years ago
I was 27 when I saw one that actually served ice cream. I'd never seen one that worked. This was in mid 2000's too
Inglewood333 6 years ago
SAME! My ma never let me have ice cream, saying that ICE CREAM was a myth, but i found out soon enough.
#12
As a child I really loved Green Mint Ice cream sauce. Me and my brother and two sisters couldn't get enough of it and would always ask for more. It wasn't until I was about 25 that I noticed it was always stocked in the alcohol section of the supermarket. When I bought this up with my partner he found it really funny. My beloved "ice cream topping" was in fact Crème de menthe, mint liquor. My parents had been giving us booze, Maybe it kept us four kids quite for 10 minutes!. It will aways be Green Mint ice cream sauce to me!
Final score:
96points
frederic eeckman 6 years ago
I live in Belgium, when I was a kid (I was around 6 or 7, I'm 42 now) we were served beer for lunch. It's called "bière de table", and it's low in alcohol (like 1%) but still... Today of course it's not like that anymore. I guess that explains why we were so calm in the afternoon !
Pittsburgh rare 6 years ago
Spaniard here...my grandma would give us a shot of a sweet spiced wine called "Quina" to build up our appetite before lunch when we were 6 or 7. We were actually insatiable eaters, but that did not seem to be enough for her 😂
Load More Replies... 
Craig Silberman 6 years ago
I'm surprised at the number of adults who think that "quite" and "quiet" are the same word.
Flash Henry 6 years ago
LOL! We used to sneak into the medicine cupboard to drink gripe water straight out of the bottle. I didn't learn until I was an adult that gripe water (at least the stuff we had in Ireland) has kind of a lot of alcohol in it for a small child...
Peta Everton 6 years ago
Someone was questioning me using that for my infant a while ago. I had to prove that they don't actually put alcohol in there anymore.
Load More Replies...
#13
When I was in kindergarten, I wore my Batman costume to school EVERY DAY! Under clothes, over clothes, rain or shine. Since my mom wasn't the type to crush my dreams of saving Gotham City or to enforce gender roles on me, I was free to be Batman(without judgement) until the middle of first grade when the other girls stopped wanting to play with me.
Final score:
95points
Charlotte Brine 6 years ago
She didn't wanna be catwoman, she was BATMAN!!
Load More Replies...
tuzdayschild 6 years ago
Unfortunately, if you get tagged as the kid no one wants to play with, it can last for years. Kids are mean.
BusLady 6 years ago
I wasn't popular, but I had all my siblings to play with, and a small circle of friends. I don't understand mean kids.
Load More Replies...
Leslie Mallard 6 years ago
My daughter had a classmate in Kindergarten and 1st grade who wore a Sleeping Beauty costume dress to school every day. Her mother had multiples, and just decided not to fight it.
blue-stars 6 years ago
I mean, it’s probably better than the phase I went through in kindergarten where I’d pretend to be a puppy. At least Batman is still a human...
Philoslothical 6 years ago
"...And that's the story of how I became a furry!"
Load More Replies... Flash Henry 6 years ago
My parents were mostly absent so I was left to my own devices at a VERY young age. And decided to dress like either a princess or a cowboy (depending on my mood) most days in pre-K and kindergarten. Sadly, we had to start wearing uniforms in first grade.
#14
We lived right outside NYC when I was young and whenever I'd be watching a movie or TV where they can see stars in the sky at night I thought it was fake because, Duh, you can't see stars from the Earth! We moved to North Carolina when I was 9 and it blew me away that you can actually see stars there. Another fun consequence of NYC light pollution was that I also thought rain and snow clouds were brown at night - because of the orange street lights.
Ivo H 6 years ago
This makes me sad... To think there is someone out there, who never look upon the stars, who never felt that feeling of amazement and immersion, when you lie down on your back and watch the infinite depth of the universe... Everyone should be able to try this. There are few better things than this.
Basil 6 years ago
To be fair though, as a country/suburban kid, I never got to go to a big city until I was an older adult and that too has an indescribably magical quality to it all its own- the pulsing aliveness of humanity, working together, building something, having to rely on one another just to function. Cities breathe with the togetherness of humanity in all its best and worst forms and that too offers its own form of amazement. (Not disagreeing, I totally agree with what you said. Just offering the flip side.)
Load More Replies...
Helene 6 years ago
There are people who have called 911 during blackouts in big cities because they saw stars for the first time.
John Ashley 6 years ago
Isaac Asimov wrote a story (Nightfall) about a world that orbited many suns and, as a result of it's orbit, night time only occurred every thousand years. No one believed stars existed and because everyone had a phobia of the dark, society would collapse when it came around. Civilization would fall and spend the next 1000 years rebuilding. They even made a low budget movie of it.
Basil 6 years ago
God, that novelette just blew me right the f**k away when I first read it. I didn't even know stories could BE like that like when I first discovered it. Sci Fi is magical.
Load More Replies... Pépé le Moko 4 years ago
On August 14, 2003, a giant blackout deprived (among others) New York of electricity. Even if some people take in hand the traffic and that a mutual aid exists, it's still a bit of chaos! Some people even had to resign themselves to sleeping in parks or on the street because public transport was no longer running. One chance though, the breakdown started during the day. As night falls, the emergency services (on generators) are inundated with panicked calls reporting a chemical attack and suspicious fumes. A silvery, coloured cloud is clearly visible in the sky. Has New York suffered a terrorist attack? Some are adamant that it is the beginnings of an alien invasion. Whatever it is, it's probably the explanation for the blackout. Actually, it's much simpler than that: Hello... New Yorkers? I present to you... The Milky Way.
carameltart1011 6 years ago
That's like the saddest thing ever, but I feel you, just vice versa. I used to live somewhere where you could look up and see the galaxy spanning out before you, and now it's just a spattering of stars... It's heartbreaking, after that, to only see the Milky Way, the galaxy we *exist in* in photos.
#15
I thought every person who get's killed in TV actually dies on set. I thought people, who weren't happy with their lives, would volunteer to die for the movie. I always wondered, how they could find so many suicidal people who were also good actors.
Final score:
77points
Kenny Kulbiski 6 years ago
Me too!. I thought maybe they were prisoners who were going to be executed anyway.
Jana Renner 6 years ago
I just thought everything on tv was real.Including death. Nobody told me about actors..I believed this longer than I am willing to admit. (I also thought tv advertisment was telling the truth..they had to have the best coffee, cars etc to be allowed on tv. Oh my!)
Freya the Wanderer 6 years ago
Did you think that spaceships were really in outer space? Then you'll appreciate the Sci-Fi Airshow: https://www.scifiairshow.com. They operate on the premise that many of the spaceships you saw in old SF shows and movies were the real (ahem!) McCoy.
Load More Replies...
Caitlyn Marquez 6 years ago
If someone does in a movie, watch their chest, the actors are always breathing. I have been doing this since I was little.
Siddharth Rath 6 years ago
I don't know if you know Shah Rukh Khan but as a kid I used to dig him... Every movie he'd ever made, I'd watched it. In one of his movies, his character dies. We lived in a smaller town back then so most people know each other. So there it is... an entire movie theatre trying to convince a crying kid that movie deaths are not real...
RaroaRaroa 6 years ago
Yes. I remember watching Zorro as a kid and a scene where some bad guys died in the street in the western town. I thought the same - that they found people who wanted to die. I guess I must have been very young, too young to have been watching Zorro.
Kate Priestley 6 years ago
I thought when TV characters got married, it meant that the actors were married to each other for real because they'd said the vows.
Batandwa Ndovela 6 years ago
I always thought people who got pregnant had to do so for the role
#16
I always thought that the menthol in cherry halls was what was making my mouth numb, but none of the other flavours did that. I am studying chemistry, and an instructor brought in a bunch of bottles of ketones and aldehydes for us to smell, all of which are used to flavour food like vanilla or mint. One of them was benzaldehyde, which is used for fake cherry flavoring. I took a whiff and my whole mouth went numb. I asked everyone else if it did the same thing to them and that's how I found out that it wasn't the menthol, I'm actually allergic to fake cherry flavour.
Steven Essex 5 years ago
The numbness, as long as it doesn't come with anything else, such as anaphylaxis, would be an awesome side effect... Particularly if you had a sore tooth or had bit your tongue.
Betsy Braddock 6 years ago
A teacher did something like this for us. She gave us these paper strips & had us put them on our tongues. Turns out they were soaked in compounds that you either could or couldn't taste dependong on your ancestry. I ran from the room gagging while most others were fine.
Barbara Berg 6 years ago
When I was 10 I ate a whole small packet of drink o pop (serbert like cooldrink you make with water). I was supposed to go to a camp and ended up going because of a bunch of red patches that would be extremely itchy, inflamed, thick burning painful patches that always start as a small red spot like that from the bite of a flea itching like bad and grow into those patches as I scratch. We first thought it was the eucalyptus oil my mom rubbed on the dogs for the fleas and tics until I ate the same cooldrink again and started to itch again and that's when we realized after reading the ingredients list that it contains tartrazine. As I grew into adulthood I started to realize after searching the terminology behind tartrazine that it's actually an artificial orange colorant and that that is not the cause of my allergies but all artificial flavorings cause it started with a grape flavored drink. Most products even claimed tartrazine free but somehow still got a reaction.
Lillukka79 6 years ago
I've never understood why they use benzaldehyde as cherry flavour. It's nothing like cherries more like bitter almonds.
#17
As a kid of nursery school age, I got tired of dressing the same all the time, so I put my arms through my pant legs, wearing my jeans like a bolero vest, and I put my legs through my shirt sleeves and belted my shirt around my waist. I was so impressed with my newly invented way of dressing that I told mom I was going to teach everybody to dress that way when I went to class. She tried to talk me out of it, but finally gave in figuring I'd be embarrassed and change back. Come the end of the day, she picked me up and there I was still wearing topsy turvy clothes, grinning and happy as a clam.
Final score:
71points
Kriel Kipjes 6 years ago
My son got so mad when he couldn't go out with his underpants on his head.
Daniel Murúa Martínez 6 years ago (edited)
Clams do look quite happy now that I think about it.
Giovanni Amore 6 years ago
in holidays when i was about 16 or so, some friends i made there sayd "lets switch our trousers like kriss kross." so i turned them inside out and asked " who the hell do i close the belt now..?" ; ) hahahahaha
#18
I have Cerebral Palsy, so I grew up with excruciating leg pain, leg casts, speech therapists, and physical therapists. When you are a kid and have to be shuttled around by various doctors, see guidance teachers to assess your development stages, and take regular medication- you think EVERY kid also goes through it- until you finally realize that your normal ISN'T normal. And that was an eye opener. As a well functioning adult I never bring my CP up, because it makes some people weirdly uncomfortable.
Final score:
68points
BusLady 6 years ago
"Battle Scars" Be proud that you were strong enough to get thru years of that.
Naima Ivansdóttir 6 years ago
i was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when i was 2 months old. can totally relate, but i do bring up my cf pretty often. i frankly don't give a fork if they feel uncomfortable about that. i take a lot of medication throughout the day and i cough a lot, there can be other inconveniences when i'm around, i can't stand passive smoke and i'd rather avoid certain types of environments, and if i bring up my condition i feel like i'm making it easier for everyone.
Skye Ramadge 6 years ago
I used to think every kid was adopted because I was adopted from birth
Rebecca Cote 6 years ago
Make people aware of CP, don't just "not bring it up". I work for a company that provides OT/PT/SLP (Occupational/physical/speech therapy) to the disabled. It is amazing what our clinicians are capable of doing to improve the quality of living for our clients. Be proud of who you are. The right people for you won't feel weirdly uncomfortable. For some of us out here, that is also our normal. My parents are home care providers, so to me, I grew up with a couple of mentally disabled adults, but to me, they were family. Be yourself....unless you can be a unicorn, then always be a unicorn!! You're so amazing. Keep being you!
Marie-Louise Wong 6 years ago
My son developed cancer at age two, it broke my heart when, still undergoing chemotherapy at age five, he asked which day other kids had their chemo. Tragically it was his normal. ( he's thirty eight now )
Carol Emory 6 years ago
Those people that get uncomfortable when you bring up your CP..they need to get over it..you shouldn't have to avoid talking about it. As the mother of a high functioning autistic son, I would much rather have people ask then sit and wonder why his behavior is different from others. There is power in knowledge..never be afraid to educate!
BusLady 6 years ago
My oldest son has Aspergers. He is almost 40 now. But when he was growing up, his behaviour was misunderstood by a lot of people. I was accused of not being a good mother, and that was very difficult. I was even accused of taking drugs while I was pregnant. So I know how it is. The main thing is that you love your child and accept him for who he is. Most people today are more aware and accepting of disabilities, thankfully. :-)
Load More Replies... Sophie Babbitt 5 years ago
*brings it up online for idk how many people* Not making fun! Way to be strong and battle that CP!
#19
When I was growing up my dad would always yell out 'the phone’s leaking!' whenever the landline rang. I did not realise that this was not a common phrase until I yelled it across the room at work one day to a coworker. Everyone was so confused and worried about the phone.
Nicky OldfieldDesciple 6 years ago
When I was I little my dad always called the static on the TV "Bionic Ants" and I genuinely thought that was it was called. Until when I was living away from home and all I could get was static on my TV. I worked with a man who was able to fix TVs and told him that all I could get on my screen was bionic ants and he looked at me wide eyed and said "what?" I then had to describe what I meant and He said "Oh, you mean Static!", and burst out laughing. And that was the day I learnt what static on the TV was.
María Hermida 6 years ago
My dad says "it smells of broken glass" when somebody drops a cup or plate. I didn't discover it makes no sense until I repeated it in front of flatmates and saw their puzzled looks!
#20
My whole family drank pickle juice out of the jar after all of the pickles were gone. When I did it at a party, people gave me dirty looks and made rude comments. Apparently, what my family did isn’t normal...
Final score:
66points
Bunnies are better!! 6 years ago
Pickle juice is delicious!!! When was 14 I poured it into my water bottle at a reunion and everyone else thought it was disgusting...
Hannah Ashby (Submission author) 6 years ago
Thanks for understanding my pain 😂😂
Load More Replies...
The Inferno 6 years ago
I, for one, LOVE pickle juice. Tell me i'm weird and i'll put your head in the jar.
Iveta Toderová 6 years ago (edited)
we did this too... actually we still do it but not in public ;)
#21
My parents put out scotch and cookies for Santa instead of milk and cookies. They told me that they didn't put out milk so that Santa wouldn't get bloated. When I discovered Santa wasn't real I immediately put it together that my dad just wanted to drink scotch instead of milk.
Lotta Roos 6 years ago (edited)
In Sweden santa comes in the evening of 24th and hands out the gifts. We usually give him a snaps, a shot of some strong liqour, so he keeps warm.
The Girl on Fire 6 years ago
My parents put out a hot dog and soda for "Santa." I only believed in him for like two years, I caught on that just maybeee it was my dad, as his favorite food was hotdogs.
BusLady 6 years ago
Then he would be saying Hi Hi Hi instead of Ho Ho Ho.
Load More Replies...
carameltart1011 6 years ago (edited)
In Australia we give Santa beer and scotch fingers. I always thought Santa would get drunk, and lived in fear of him trying to drive the sleigh through the chimney!!
Elizabeth Wilkins 6 years ago
We put out a box of grapenuts and milk with a bowl and spoon one year. Apparently "santa" was on the same diet my Opa was on. Idk do they even sell that cereal anymore? Mid 80's ot was a thing anyway lol
#22
Growing up, my Dad did almost every repair and upgrade to the cars, house, etc. I'm talking remodelling, car repairs, plumbing, installing appliances, rewiring the house. He build his own central cooling AC. (He put it in the old dog house....don't ask.) So, I actually, quite literally, thought that plumbers, electricians, handymen, and the like in the movies were a combination of made-up occupations and relics of the "old days". When I bought my own house and was too tiny and unskilled to do all that my Dad did, I was baffled. People at work ended up telling me there was such a thing as a plumber I could call. And I was thrilled to learn there were handymen! On the flip side, I did do a lot of stuff myself: Replaced a toilet tank, replaced toilet tank innards, stained many doors and baseboards in preparation for install, repainted my car, refinished my kitchen cabinets, and many other things, myself. Always cleaned my own gutters. I also fixed my car once with a good solid twist-tie :-)
Final score:
64points
Marnee DeRider (Submission author) 6 years ago
Just because I am proud, I will add that my Dad reshingled the entire house, added a roof extension over the patio with overhead lighting, and rewired the house with circuit breakers (replacing fuses) when he was in his late 70s. All himself. Now, I would have liked that he didn't HAVE to do it. And my Mom was terrified every time he got up on the roof that entire summer, but I am SO PROUD of him.
Crazy Cow Lady 6 years ago
Didn't you have career day in school? I'm confused by how you could get to adulthood and not know that things like plumbers and electricians were actual occupations.
BusLady 6 years ago
My mom raised 4 daughters who learned how to do a variety of these type of chores. My dad and brother were lazy. Someone had to know how to do it.
Siddharth Rath 6 years ago
You are bus'lady'... Holy s**t you are one of them...
Load More Replies... Ged Maybury 6 years ago
Awww... That's a great story, Marnee. Thx. I had a dad much the same - he did ALL THE THINGS! And it was a very positive influence on me. i became the can-do handyman too. Only trouble was I'd dive into things I really shouldn't have been messing with because I never actually trained in the finer points. Ruined a few cars in the process, I'll confess. (AND THEY WEREN'T MY CARS, EITHER!).
Flash Henry 6 years ago
My dad is the same, and I'm always so impressed. he figured all of that out on his own (he used to be a full time corporate controller). Now he always has a house project to keep him busy. Last year he re-did the whole laundry section of the basement, earlier this year he re-did the whole master bathroom, and now he's turning the basement into a nicer-looking extra living room/guest room. I wish I could just pick knowledge and skill up the way he does. You shoud be super proud. I know I am of my dadum.
BusLady 6 years ago
Is he retired now? Staying busy like that is great for the mental and physical health.
Load More Replies... Sal Altschul 6 years ago
That's brilliant!! I firmly believe that if you live on your own and/or own a car, then you should be able to do at least basic repairs. It's important stuff to know, keeps things affordable, and it's fun working with your hands!
BusLady 6 years ago
I admit that I leave that to my son. I assist him as needed.
Load More Replies...
#23
when I was younger my mother and I used to eat onion and blackberry sandwiches. I didn’t figure out this wasn’t normal until a 5th grade sleep over with a couple friends. Imagine their surprise when I asked for an onion-blackberry sandwich.
Final score:
61points
Marion Capriotti 6 years ago
I do, too, but I can't figure out the construction logistics - how do you make onion slices AND nubbly, bumpy blackberries stay on a sandwich?
Load More Replies...
Julie Lynn 6 years ago
That actually doesn't sound half bad... on a bagel with a little cream cheese? YUM !
Cassie 6 years ago
I was mocked for peanut butter and banana. Neither of these sandwiches sound bad to me. People just can't handle something they're not used to.
Nicky OldfieldDesciple 6 years ago
My Family from a tradition form my mother's family LOVE spreading Bovril on bread and toast. But anybody else I have told this to think it's really really weird. Especially as I HATE Marmite.
Louie Chubb 6 years ago
One of my children thinks peanut butter and ham is a normal sandwich filling. I'm sure there are other odd ones around.
Pretty Pangolin 6 years ago
I grew up on peanut butter and bacon. Anyone else?
Load More Replies... 
#24
I grew up with people that I called grandpa _____ and aunt _____ ani I didn’t realize until early into my school life that other kids didn’t have three or four grandpas. My family was just big hearted. (The “extra” family members were friends of our actual family that had lost everyone else so we “adopted” them into our family)
Final score:
58points
Bharath Deshmukh 6 years ago (edited)
This is very common in India. We refer to elders as "uncle" and "auntie" out of respect. It sure did surprise a lot of non-Indians when we referred to a friend's mom as auntie, during a potluck at their house in Miami FL.
Týna Ef 6 years ago
same here (Czech republlic) people older enough to be not called by name from us, but close to family (parents friends or parents of our friends when were close enough) were caled aunt or uncle
Load More Replies...
Pamda Panda 6 years ago
Growing up, my maternal grandparents were a lot closer to us (not physically, but emotionally), so they were just Grandma and Pop pop. My dad's parents, though they lived nearby, were not particularly close to us, so they were always Grandma Johnson and Grandpa Johnson. We used our last name to identify them, but nothing for my mom's parents. That probably didn't help the feeling of disconnect between us.
Amanda Panda 6 years ago
I still have to clarify for people that when I say sister, nephew, neice, aunt it's usually not someone I'm related to. They're just my people. I'm a firm believer in choosing your family, especially if the original is c**p.
Craig Reynolds 4 years ago
My wife is Chinese and in her culture all good friends are referred to as sisters (jie) or brothers (ge). If they happen to be older they are addressed as big sister (da jie) and big brother (da ge). If the age gap is significant then it's auntie (a yi) and uncle (shushu).
Steven Essex 5 years ago
The family you choose is often so much better than the family you were forced into.
#25
My parents and I used to play a game where I had to stop, drop and roll every time they say the word 'time', so I thought everyone does it until I was 12. I once went to my friend's house and they asked me what the time was so I stopped, dropped and rolled and hit my head on their bed.
Final score:
50points
Mackenzie Onyx 6 years ago
the part where you mention hitting ur head on the bed is distracting from the fact that you just randomly did a stop, drop, n roll bro
Julie Lynn 6 years ago
I'm with Lara B! That is hilarious!! Why on Earth did you start that game? Were you afraid someone was going to start a fire? Did you say "time" any"time" out of the home? When others said it, did you stop, drop, and roll? Like at school... ? Very funny. I'm glad you know what to do in case of a fire :)
Master Markus 6 years ago
That is a WAY too common word for that to be possible. Did you not learn how to read clocks in school?
#26
I am of European descent. My next-door neighbors were of African-descent (family here for 100s of years, mine for less than 100). Close by, there was a large community of Hmong, Vietnamese, and Laotian refugees from the Vietnam war (many of whom fought for the US, just fyi). In my teens, we also started having refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia. To me, growing up, this was just how all neighborhoods were. I was really shocked in my late teens to learn that the mother of my sister's roommate in college (from far up north in North Dakota) had almost never seen in person a person of African descent. I had to make my sister swear to me that it was true. And now, I realize that St. Paul, MN is unusual in that it has taken in a large number of refugees. (We are a very strong community, with generally much higher standard of living than the rest of the country.) But as a kid, I just thought it was how things were. When I am in a store and see people of all European descent, I feel out of place, even now at aged 50.
Final score:
48points
diane a 6 years ago
I come from, and still live in, a small town in the UK, although have lived other places. I must have been 8 or 9 before a family of colour came to the area. All us kids were fascinated and had never heard of racism.
Júnía Líf Sigurjónsdóttir 6 years ago
Makes sense...racism is not something you're born with...it's a learned behaviour...
Load More Replies...
Estellaleigh Franenberg 6 years ago
I'm black and went to visit a white friend once in Wisconsin probably in the early 70s. Her mom opened the door and yelled, "Oh my goodness it's a darky!" I feared for my life but she was so proud. Called all her friends bragging that there was a darky at her house and to come see. It should have been weird but everybody was really nice, they had just never met a black person before.
BusLady 6 years ago
And this was long before PC. They didn't know the term was offensive, I'm guessing.
Load More Replies...
Sal Altschul 6 years ago
I grew up in a super multicultural area in Sydney, Australia, and it feels strange to me, now, to live in quite a white area. It's not as lively and the food's not as good!!
Betsy Knox 6 years ago
I love your story! When you spoke about feeling strange among only people of European descent it reminded me of my time in college. I grew up in Southern California with all kinds of people. Then I went to college in Colorado Springs. Everyone looked so pale and washed out. I thought it just meant that no one got any sunshine. During my junior year, the school started a diversity campaign. On my way to lunch one day I saw all the kinds of faces I was used to seeing and suddenly it was clear to me what the problem had been all along.
Jessica Temple 6 years ago
I am from Stevens Point, WI and we had a HUGE number of Hmong's... Literally no one out of the state of WI ever knew what the heck I was talking about when I told them we were a largely Hmong populated area.
Luke Oakridge 6 years ago
I grew up in an area in America where almost everyone was either white or black as well as a small number of Native Americans. There was one Hispanic kid in my grade and no Asians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists.
Pine 6 years ago
You know that the last four you mentioned are religions, Right? That has nothing to do with their Look or origin!
Load More Replies...
#27
When I was a kid I called freckles ferckels- (FER-calls) And I would say it every time and my parents didn't mind. I said this until I was about 7 when my friends older brother told me (while laughing) it was freckles. I was so embarrassed I turned red and climbed a tree and started crying. and then I fell out...
Final score:
47points
Janette Smith 6 years ago
Perhaps your parents coulda assisted you in pronouncing words correctly
BusLady 6 years ago (edited)
I still pronouce the word coupon as Quew-pon. Everyone one else says Ku-pon.
issy 4 years ago
Thats how i say it, I think its the british way of saying it.
Load More Replies... Kylee bettencourt 6 years ago
I thought U-haul (the shipping vehicle company) when i was like 8 or something was pronounced uh-haul
Ged Maybury 6 years ago
Kia ora, Kiwi! Yeah, that resonates for me. Especially the bit about falling out of the tree! My specialty was (literally) falling flat on my face while showing off.
#28
My dad never used to eat at normal times. It's been like that since I was little so I always thought it was weird when I went to a friend's house and their dad ate with them. Like, 'your dad eats?? Dads don't eat.
thepotatogirl 6 years ago
ok... I can't see your comment but it has 4 upvotes :T
Load More Replies...
#29
I was rather sick as a little girl and after trying a lot of different options, my mom heard about the healing powers of garlic. So each morning we would start with a tea spoon of freshly squeezed garlic juice. I somehow thought that this was a normal thing people do, but turns out no one else does it... It did do the trick though, so I can second garlic's healing power :)
Final score:
44points
李米娜 (Mina) 6 years ago
We didnt do that as a daily thing but my mum is completely pro garlic for anything and it really works. For ear infections we chop it very finely, and heat it with olive oil, strain it so there is only olive oil left infused with all the goodness of garlic, and put it in our ears, hold it there for a while and wash. I can promise you it beats all store bought medicine, do it twice a day and by day two your ear infection is gone. But i discovered nobody else does this and they all thought I was nuts... I still think it works for all sorts of problems. Go garlic!
Jo Choto 6 years ago
Maybe it makes you smell so bad that no one comes near you and so you don't catch anything from anyone!
Olga Vol (Submission author) 6 years ago
Ahaha xD There are other ways to get sick too, though ;)
Load More Replies... Betsy Braddock 6 years ago
My mom always broke liquid garlic capsules open onto a spoon for us to take. That stuff was so gross!
Olga Vol (Submission author) 6 years ago
Didn't know there was such a thing. Cool!
Load More Replies... Julie Lynn 6 years ago
It's true! Using natural healing aids, like garlic is wonderful health practices. Good for you!!
Olga Vol (Submission author) 6 years ago
Were they like all-natural or something like that?
Load More Replies...
Loredana Kardia 6 years ago
yesterday my husband had a shift, working until today morning. So i ate some raw garlic after a long time. When i lived with my family we ate a lot of raw garlic. So...today morning...i woke up...I did not even open my mouth and i felt the garlic. I stayed away from my husband but he still smelled it. I know brushing the teeth is not effective at all. But i know something that is. Coffee! I made a coffee and it instantly made the smell go away. I don't drink coffee but today i did and it worked. I noticed this when we eat tzatziki, my husband is Greek, we live in Greece. I smelled like garlic and he did not. Because he would drink coffee after eating.
Olga Vol (Submission author) 6 years ago
Nice trick! I usually just try to eat something to get the smell off.
Load More Replies... 
Olga Vol (Submission author) 6 years ago
I do xD Real friend don't get scared about by some garlic. Unless they are vampires. Which is good for me anyway.
Load More Replies... Naima Ivansdóttir 6 years ago
actually, every now and then i do undertake a "garlic month", since it's a natural antibiotic i swallow a whole wedge every morning before breakfast. on the other side it lowers blood pressure and mine's really low already so i can't do it too often
Olga Vol (Submission author) 6 years ago
Didn't know it lowers blood pressure. That's actually a really good trick! I'll keep it in mind.
Load More Replies...
#30
We had a lot of places: malls, parks, schools, etc. named after Native American terms and phrases where I grew up. My dad took me to Neshaminy park often and would tell me "Indians" (now called Native Americans) still lived there and if I was quick enough I might see one running by. He never told me he was messing with me. Then in grade school in history class I made a total fool of myself by proudly announcing I knew where the Native Americans were and my dad was an expert at spotting them in the local park. So embarrassing!!
Final score:
43points
Carol Emory 6 years ago
I grew up in a town with a lot of Native American names. It was how we could tell who the out-of-towners were..because most of them couldn't pronounce the names correctly.
BusLady 6 years ago
Ha! Ha! Same where I live, but also French and Spanish as well.
Load More Replies... Daniel Murúa Martínez 6 years ago
Don't feel bad about it, you believed your dad and that's good.
#31
We always hid a pickle on a Christmas three, and whoever found it first gon an extra present.
Final score:
40points
Kiwi 6 years ago
that's a German tradition. out of curiosity.. was it a real pickle or an ornament?
Richard McCoy 6 years ago
It's a funny idea, but everything I've ever seen (and the Germans I have known) say that it's nothing they've ever heard of before. This year I finally found some information on it at this website: https://www.whychristmas.com/customs/christmaspickle.shtml Basically, the idea is that in the mid 1800s glass ornamnets imported from Germany came in a variety of shapes and sizes and items, including pickles. It's thought that an "old German tradition" was created to sell the pickle ornaments because...maybe they weren't selling so well. Anyhow, historians seems to agree, overall, that it's just a story that someone made up and not true tradition. It's still fun though! :-) I think I'll get one for next year!
Stimpy 6 years ago
Well sometimes "traditions" are just adopted because people hear that other people are doing it and think its fun. Not a bad thing, really, but it does not prove that there ever was such a tradition before
Load More Replies...
Aunt Messy 6 years ago
This is a common tradition, but I can't remember where from. I do know that there are several companies who make rather lovely Christmas pickle tree decorations.
Bored Fangirl 6 years ago
Nobody's really sure where the tradition came from– there was a claim that it came from Germany, but I believe that there was a study conducted that said that hardly any people in Germany had ever heard of it. There are a few myths relating to hiding the pickle in the Christmas tree, but nobody's found any proof of them.
Load More Replies... #32
I used to gather all the kids together to play a game I made up. We had to pass through the branches of this v shaped tree in our front yard. This was the passage to the afterlife. When you went through you laid down like you were dead and then you woke up in a new world. We would play the rest of the time like we were living in the afterlife. We all had fun and no one thought it strange. Thinking about it now that was a weird game.
Final score:
40points
The Girl on Fire 6 years ago
This reminds me of the game my brother and I used to play when we were little. We would lock ourselves in the pantry for a few minutes, and then when we got out again, we pretended we we had entered Narnia, and that our pets were characters, etc. A little weird, but hey, we were 6.
GB1997 6 years ago
this is so me and my siblings when we were younger. We had a game called 'broccoli heads'. I'm not even going to explain, kids are so weird... love it
MADELEINE KIMBALL 5 years ago
oh my friends and I used to make up entire fantasy worlds when we were in 5th grade (e.g., "too old" to play make-believe) and we were always a little embarrassed and laughed at ourselves. We never told anyone else for that reason but we got super into it when we were alone and it was awesome. :D so don't be embarrassed
Kristof De Smet 6 years ago
Just like a game a babysitter once invented at my place: dead fish! Three daughters ga suddenly silent and stay that way for quite a while...
Flash Henry 6 years ago
....we actually had a really similar game growing up with my cousins, in the bogs behind our houses. We also used to sneak out there at night trying to hunt down the "lights" responsible for luring people into bottomless bog holes.
#33
I was very lucky in that my Dad fixed all our cars himself, which made car repairs cheap. We always had a few cars around, though we were lower-middle-class. So, all of us kids (there were 5 of us) all had a car to drive once we got our licenses. Since we were poorer than most of my classmates, I thought all kids at school were like that. I was shocked in high school to learn that almost all my friends whose families were much better off had no car to drive, and that they generally had just two cars, one for their Mom and one for their Dad. I felt really lucky. The most expensive car my parents ever bought was maybe $2000. I drove hunks-of-junk, but was envied by many of my classmates. At one point, we had 5 cars, 2 vans, and a rickety old motorhome.
Final score:
40points
Jean-luc Picard 6 years ago
It's all about maximising what you have. I have friends in the same boat. Clapped out cars that they have fixed up that seem to outlast any other on the road. Always made the 'richer' kids jealous. Makes you wonder who is really the 'rich' one.
Mark Kelly 6 years ago
I fix cars myself too. Those richer parents should buy their kids a beater.
Zori the degu 6 years ago
To me, even 2 cars seems strange. Why on earth do some people have to pollute even more by having two cars per family, when 1 would also do(we have a young couple in our block that bought two brand new cars, so that each of them has one. That's just insane)? My family always tries to avoid situations when just one person from the family is travelling by car. But when there are two cars, this seems unavoidable, unless we are talking about a bigger than average family(3-4 members). It's not like I'm interested in other people's business, but to me, having two cars, when just one would do is just selfish towards the planet.
#34
When I was a kid, I didn't know the difference between perfume and spray-on deodorant. So guess what I was always giving to my mom as a Christmas present..
Final score:
37points
Bored Fangirl 6 years ago
Well, you need deodorant more than you need perfume, so I'd say you had some pretty good insight :)
Julie Lynn 6 years ago
HUGE GIGGLES!!! That's funny! And, in a way, you were making her smell better all the time! ;)
Zori the degu 6 years ago
This is relatively common, but still a little uncomfortable, we were basically telling our moms they need a bath. Ugh.
#35
Just a little thing, but you know how when someone's, e.g., pouring milk in your tea, or dishing you a helping of food, they prompt you, "Say when." Well, both of my parents would always respond with, "When." I'm not sure how old I was before I finally realized that, Duh!, you're supposed to say, "Enough" or "Stop" or "Now."
Final score:
33points
Ryo Bakura 6 years ago
You and everyone else. It's what you're asked to say, so you say it.
Load More Replies... Betsy Braddock 6 years ago
The italian restaurants where I live won't stop UNLESS you say when. I ended up with a pile of parmesan in my soup because I didn't realize that saying enough wouldn't work. I'm not complaining, I wanted that much cheese anyway but was trying to be polite.
#36
Apparently it's pretty uncommon to like eating raw potatoes, but I kind of like it. Although, I've never tried to eat a whole potato (like an apple), but I've been eating little chunks of raw potato since childhood.
Final score:
29points
Zori the degu 6 years ago
Well, our ancestors probably ate them in this way until some idiot decided that it was the leaves you should eat, resulting in the myth that potatoes are always toxic.
Berit-Bärbel Rebane 6 years ago
Eating raw potatoes is totally OK. They taste so much better than boiled ones. Just don´t eat green potatoes.
Daniel (ShadowDrakken) 6 years ago
Not that weird. Very uncommon, but I used to eat whole, pealed, raw potatoes all the time with just a little salt.
TheBoredPanda 6 years ago
I do this all the time! Recently discovered that sweet potatoes taste a bit like coconut!
#37
I get pins and needles REALLY bad. Agony. Excruciating. Exhilarating? Bad. Only when I was in my mid-20s did I discover I have Raynaud's syndrome - a circulatory issue. Whenever I got cold I would always turn purple/blue/white but I had no idea that for other people losing circulation somewhere was just a funny feeling and that's it. Ranynaud's also makes for really painful breastfeeding as well, apparently :/
Final score:
29points
Maria Ofar (Submission author) 6 years ago
ah it's not too bad, i haven't required medical intervention yet. the worst part was my partner telling to to basically suck it up and deal with the pain
Load More Replies... Basil 6 years ago
This is so fascinating, just the idea of how, at the end of the day, we all can't ever truly know what anyone else experiences life like. Until you learned otherwise, that's just how you thought things were for everyone, to some extent. I wonder if that revelation was similar to how I felt the first time I tried anti-depressants. Good post, OP. Sorry you have to deal with this.
Hannah Ingram 6 years ago
I have a connective tissue disorder so I can relate. and those moments when you just want to put your feet up but don't realise you've lost circulation until you go to put them down.
Barbara Korndoerfer 4 years ago
I didn't know it affected breastfeeding too! NO WONDER pumping was a special torture.
Pretty Pangolin 6 years ago
I was just at the bank, and one of the tellers' hands were just shocking - all purple and gnarled up. I'm guessing either a fire or rheumatoid arthritis. I felt for her - thats gotta hurt!
Lily Mae Kitty 6 years ago
I also have this and so does my niece. I moved to FL and have no more problems!
#38
Having lots of pets. I grew up with 2 Bernese mountain dogs, two cats, and sometimes a fish in a small suburban house. I was always baffled when my friends only had like a hamster or one dog. Obviously every person has their own pet, right?
Final score:
29points
d r e a m w o r l d 6 years ago
Lucky. I grew up without any pets, not even one measly goldfish.
BoredBirgit 6 years ago
I had to become 41 to get my first pets, 2 bunnies and 2 cats. Was not allowed as a child. You parents out there, every child should grow up with animals! :-)
Load More Replies...
Sasy 6 years ago
I tied a piece of wool around a cicada as a kid , he was my pet for about an hour until a mean adult stepped on him
Nubmaeme 6 years ago
Until I was five, I didn't know what a human playmate was. I had a dog, 2 calves, a hog, and numerous other animals to keep me company on our farm. Even though we moved from the farm, we still had various animals, including horses and cattle, throughout the years until I left home at 19. Even today, I still keep at least one dog. Home just doesn't feel right without a four-legged inhabitant or two.
Lara Verne 6 years ago
I grew up with dogs, cats, rabbits and chickens. As an adult, I rented small apartment. where landlord did not allow pets. It felt weird, I was used to have animals around :(
Rebecca Cote 6 years ago
I grew up with a lot of animals too. At one point we had 4 dogs, 6 cats, 2 guinea pigs, a rabbit, 2 hamsters, and 2 fish. Now, my husband and I have only a dog and a cat....and he doesn't want anymore pets, and it drives me nuts cuz I always grew up with a house full.
dankay01 6 years ago
My husband said the same thing, he even "put his foot down" bless his heart.....we now have 6 dogs and 7 cats.....
Load More Replies... #39
As a child, I couldn't stand a taste or smell of fish, so the only way of making me eat it was to let me have candies and cookies with it. Now imagine the eyes of my friends when I asked for cookies to go with a bowl of fish soup...
Final score:
29points
Mark Kelly 6 years ago
I don't like fish if it tastes like fish. A good seasoning goes a long way.
Craig Reynolds 4 years ago
Growing up my cousin refused to eat fish because he didn't like how they looked. His mom got him to eat tuna sandwiches by telling him it was "Chicken of The Sea". That worked until about 4th grad when a classmate informed him otherwise and he was never at it again. He also hated the sight of blood so ALL meat had to be well done to almost burnt. He ate chuck steak at family barbecues while everyone else ate prime cuts.
#40
When I was a child my parents were active members Social Democratic party of Finland. They also helped many different people. When Jehova's Witnesses built a new Kingdom Hall near my home my parents also helped them and talked very much about the Jehova's Witnesses. So for a long time I for some weird reason believed that also Jehova's Witnesses were a political party. I was over 15 years old when I finally realized that Jehova's Witnesses were actually a religion that is neutral to any political parties, they don't vote.
Final score:
27points
Bored Fox (Submission author) 6 years ago
Jehovah's Witnesses, sorry for the typos! I am not a native English speaker!
Amaranthim Talon 6 years ago
You did great! I assure you, I could not have written in Finnish :D
Load More Replies...
#41
Up until I was about 7, whenever my family went to the beach, we brought snacks. Normal, right? Well, I used to pick out those cheddar and sour cream ruffle chips. Guess what I did with them? I didn't use dip, but i also didn't eat them plain. I would grab my chips, plop down on a very dry area of sand, and opened the bag. I grab a chip, scoop a huge pile of sand onto the chip, and eat it. For some reason, I thought this was normal. Wasn't until I was 7 years old that I realized nobody else did this...
Final score:
27points
Harry Plopper (Submission author) 6 years ago
Sand doesn't taste like anything
Load More Replies... Master Markus 6 years ago
JAYSUS! I couldn't even stand how much sand you accidentally get in your mouth at the beach...
Nia Loves Art 6 years ago
If an adult was doing it yes. Kids eat a lot of weird stuff.
Load More Replies...
#42
When I was younger (about 5) I would bite my toes because I thought it tasted good. When I went to my first day of preschool, I took off my shoes and started to do this. Obviously everyone was confused there and grossed out, but I learned not to do that because it was (obviously) disgusting.
Final score:
27points
Hamlets twin 6 years ago
its only disgusting if you've been walking around barefoot a lot. you be you! bite dem toes
Mark Kelly 6 years ago
When I was a kid and asleep with a runny nose I used to like the taste of the snot but never actively ate it.
#43
Apparently sour cream and cottage cheese dip is not the top choice for fried potatoes, but I've been eating them that way since I was a kid and will continue to do so, despite what people tell me.
Final score:
26points
Shari H 6 years ago
These are fried potatoes. We do eat them in America. fried-pota...b8fc17.jpg 
ImAmazingAndUsedToBeNotOnFire 6 years ago
Wait? Having sour cream in fried potatoes is not normal?...I am just finding this out now..
Tiny Dynamine 6 years ago
Yes, of course it's normal. Savoury topping on savoury food.
Load More Replies... Zori the degu 6 years ago
Yummy... Who would say anything about that? And also, they are your fried potatoes! You can eat them in whatever way you like!
Teddy O'Malley 6 years ago
I've never had fried potatoes with that kind of deep, but I can see the appeal. It would be similar to a baked potato (but less healthy), I imagine.
#44
When I was a kid, my Mom would make us peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches. The two combine as well as toothpaste and orange juice, but we thought this was a "thing" and would actually request it at times. I cringe just thinking about it now.
Final score:
26points
Kori K. Warriner 6 years ago
Don't knock it until you try it. Mmmmmmm. I wonder if it is a regional thing. I grew up in North Central Pennsylvania.
Load More Replies...
Cheri Hayes 6 years ago
We did the same thing, but instead of mayonnaise, we used Miracle Whip salad dressing. Until I married my husband, I called Miracle Whip 'mayonnaise' because that's the only thing we used on sandwiches when I grew up.
Basil 6 years ago
I feel like the addition of pickles somehow makes it LESS weird. Like, otherwise it's just two fatty spreads on breads. Like a jam and jelly sandwich. That's not enough ingredients to make a sandwich from! But the pickles would add a little acid to cut through the fat and a crunch, so I can see it working. Still not gonna try it though. ;)
Load More Replies...
Teddy O'Malley 6 years ago
I got the idea for this when my family was going through a financial struggle when I was a teen (recession) and I thought it was good. I haven't had one in years, though.
Kori K. Warriner 6 years ago
Yummy - a childhood favorite that I still occasionally indulge in to this day! I don't know where it came from, but my sisters and I still love that combination, 30+ years later.
Kori K. Warriner 6 years ago
I'm shocked to hear we weren't the only ones, however!!
Load More Replies... #45
My family has always put cottage cheese on store bought pizza. It’s really good but imagine the look on my best friends face when I asked her for cottage cheese while we were eating pizza. Priceless!
Final score:
25points
Zori the degu 6 years ago
I see nothing wrong with that. I usually mix - half a pizza with some cheese and half a clean pizza.
Lucida 6 years ago
In Sweden, pizza with shredded kebab meat, garlic sauce, sallad and french fries is one of the most popular pizzas. Or pizza with fillet of beef and bearnaisesauce. pizza-5a73...b71530.jpg 
Trisha Dragon 6 years ago
Not that weird. Cottage cheese is often used in place of ricotta in lasagne.
Gayle Bynum Cardosa 6 years ago
well cottage cheese is close in taste (to me anyway) to ricotta cheese. It probably gives the pizza a bit of a lasagna taste.
Lisa Bo Bisa 6 years ago
Squishy white bread with strawberry jam and cottage cheese is really good, too.
Basil 6 years ago (edited)
That's funny, my family always served cottage cheese as a side for pizza night. I think ours was more about being children of the 90s during the low-fat craze and my Mom being a dieter. Cottage cheese has had a stereotypical history with dieting anyway (cottage cheese plate, anyone?). But the thing is, it went really well with pizza and hot dogs because it compliments strong flavors, either very spicy pizza with crushed red peppers or lots and lots of yellow or brown mustard. Dairy has a cooling effect anyway. I still serve chilled cottage cheese as a side dish for spicy hot meals, it's great.
Joe Berger 6 years ago
I actually eat my pizza with Slices of (raw) cucumber on top. I find that the crunch and the cool feel add so much to hot pizza.
#46
Being chubby. I was always happy with my bigger frame. I was told not to care and it was normal to be bigger than everyone else. Well middle school told me I was a fat pig and I wasn’t normal. Now I’m happy and losing weight but it still haunts me...
Final score:
24points
Betsy Knox 6 years ago
I'm so conflicted about this story so I was going to say nothing but I felt I had to say: love yourself because you're you the only you there is - big or small, short or tall
Nostalgic Hyena 6 years ago
I've grown up with a transphobic person. I hope he ends up feeling gender dysphoria real soon.
Load More Replies... FHKW 6 years ago
You may want to reexamine your life, health and attitudes. Being called a "fat pig" is an insult intended to hurt and not an objective evaluation. I respectfully suggest some thoughtful research on your part. Don't be too quick to accept information or opinions without some critical thinking on your part. I'm no expert this is just my opinion based on my life experience, so give it the same scrutiny as any others until you can verify what is true for yourself. I wish you the best.
tuzdayschild 6 years ago
It's hard to let things like that go. But try, you're amazing now and they are the past.
Carlotta Müller 3 years ago
It IS normal being bigger. The whole society telling people one has to be skinny. Every body is ok and normal! Those people in middle school telling you you are a fat pig are the unnormal ones. Bodyshaming is evil!
Nienke van der Put 4 years ago
i know im really late but this hurts me. You were okay with your body and thats amazing! Never let people bully you into believing you're not good enough!
Carol Emory 6 years ago
Shame on the middle school for calling you that. I've never been one to judge people on their size. I only get concerned when I see severely overweight people because I worry about how it's affecting their health. (Bad knees, heart stress and diabetes.)
#47
This is super stupid but once when I was like 7 or 8 my sister took me to a baseball game between the Orioles and the Phillies. I thought that the Orioles and Phillies always played each other and no other teams.
Final score:
23points
Kylee bettencourt 6 years ago
Its ok i grew up in a Redsox house and when i was like 5-7 i thought the yankees and the white sox were the same team
Rebecca Cote 6 years ago
Hey, I grew up in a redsox house to. My nephew likes the yankees but my mom forbid everyone from buying yankees stuff for my newphew for xmas. :) She said "we don't do that here, you're a sox fan and thats it" lol
Load More Replies...
#48
For the longest time, my little sis had hearing problems. She always was pronouncing things wrong (hurch for church, swapple for apple) because without much hearing, she couldn't pronouce hard consnants. She thought this was normal- until we took her to speech therepy. "But it's hurch! It's Hurch!" When we got home, she complained to our mom about "da wean wady who teach me wong wowds". (The mean lady who teaches me wrong words). She was furious when she was told this was going to be a weekly occurance.
Final score:
19points
Alexandra Smith 6 years ago
Probably because it isn't something weird, just a story about your sister's hearing problem
Load More Replies...
#49
I thought everyone owned fish as an addition to any pet they have. I mean, I grew up always having a tank of 15+ fish by my side and if anyone asked me if I had a pet I just said "Nah, I only have some fish." At the age of 5, this belief was broken. Somehow it didn't fit, ever since some people thought it's cute but said they didn't have fish. Now I have other pets as well. But the emblematic fish are permanent residents in our household.
Final score:
17points
Alia G. 6 years ago
Fish are lovely pets. They are very beautiful, simple, and just nice to have around.
Julie Lynn 6 years ago
A very cool thing to have as a permanent resident(s). My first pet was a goldfish named "Charlie." He was just a feeder fish to everyone else; however, Charlie and I did many things together. Fish are a GREAT way to teach a child responsibility for another living being and learning how important it is to take care of themselves and things they love. Your parents did you a great deed. I had many "Charlie's" along the way. The first one died when I took a bath with him. ;) Oops. We had a funeral for him outside in the back yard. He didn't get flushed. My parents were cool that way. ;)
Rafaella Bueno 6 years ago
Speaking of fish, I had goldfish as a child, like many people do. I was absolutely mortified years later when I found out goldfish were actually supposed to get huge and live for decades and mine only died so fast and small because my family unknowingly didn't take proper care of them. For several reasons I only have a couple Betta girls and a few other small tropical fish atm, but I dream of one day having a huge goldfish tank and making up to the poor ones I mistreated before. They're a bit troublesome, but definitely adorable.
Zori the degu (Submission author) 6 years ago
Goldfish are harder to take care of, indeed. They don't have the same stomaches as other species of fish (Some articles reckon they don't even have one)which means they are supposed to be fed several meals a day, not just one big meal like most fish. That's the main reason I can't have goldfish. Not that I want one. They are cool and very intelligent for their size but I'm a cat fish person.
Load More Replies... Magpie 6 years ago
Fish scare me, the thought of putting them in a prison, and then messing it up and they get sick and die... this is nightmare material for me. Seriously I wish you and your finny pets well and lovely pleasant long lives.
Zori the degu (Submission author) 6 years ago
Prison is a strong word. It's their territory, their home. Animals' habitats/territories are their natural prisons/cages. Fish living in an aquarium and getting food everyday must be much happier than their "free" wild relatives who are hunt down by predators and go through all kinds of difficulties in order to find food. As for the messing up part, yeah, there's always a chance it's not your type of fish/other animal and it doesn't do well under your care, but it's a rare occurrence, a good pet owner would've learned everything he/she needs to know about a particular type of pet in advance, thus making the chance of choosing a species/breed of pet poorly almost impossible.
Load More Replies... #50
When I was little, about 2-3, I had a rubber snake. It was one of the ones you'd get from a zoo gift shop. I bit off pieces of the tail, thinking it was normal, and ate it. I did this until I was about 5 when I realized it didn't taste that good. Now the snake has some of its tail chopped off.
Final score:
17points
Explore more of these tags
What do you think ?
MoZ 6 years ago
I thought LMNOP was a single letter. It was my favorite letter and I still kinda miss it.
Merlyn Emrys 6 years ago
My family told me it was normal for boys to beat their sisters, attack them regularly, and have explosive tantrums escalating into threats of murder where the sisters all hide and hope that this time he doesn't go through with it and kill their mother. "that's how boys are." And since I had one brother and nearly all the boys I knew at school were regular hellions whose favorite pasttime was tormenting me if they noticed me, I assumed that this is how boys are. Then I got older and boys at school would "tease" and verbally abuse me and make disgusting sexual comments, because this is how boys are. And I'd hide in my room and tell mom I spotted a noose in my brother's room and in between threating to kill us with a knife he acted "fine". "that's how boys are". It is now that I find out there's a psychosis where you have intermittent explosive episodes, and that a few men and boys out there are actually not stalkers, attackers, tormentors or perverts...
Miss Cris 6 years ago
It happened/happen in quite a lot of families but must of the others don't say anything. You're brave and I'm happy that you're lifecis better now.
Load More Replies...
Daria B 6 years ago
Most of mine are really cultural differences rather than personal or family things, but they kind of feel the same. When you've been eating "milk rice" all your European life as a simple meal/snack and then you mention it to someone else from east Asia and their reactions are like... Well, weirded out.
Zori the degu 6 years ago
It still baffles me some people believed some of these things for so long, though. I mean, the banana and cherry allergies are understandable, but the mint ice cream sauce and the "time" game? How could you not notice there's something funny about those? Also, some were unusual, but by no means weird enough to be worthy for the reactions they got, like the cottage cheese pizza and the pickle juice. Ok, I guess it's not very appropriate to drink it at a party, but what's so odd about it? I guess most of those that persisted for so long were really cultural differences ignorance. Milk rice is delicious by the way, especially with a good dose of cinnamon. ;)
Load More Replies...
Ivana 6 years ago
It was a few months ago when I was in the kitchen and took a bite of chocolate and I got that familiar sharp pain that spread across my mouth. So I turned to my friend and said "You know how when you first take a bite of something that has a strong flavor and it is painful and spreads across you mouth? I hate that." My friend was like "No, that isn't a normal thing." Turns out it is this thing called first bite syndrome that they think is caused by nerve damage from surgery or cancer. I have never had surgery...but if it is cancer, you would think I would have more signs after 30 years.
Bunzilla 6 years ago
I get that too! I wonder if it was from getting my wisdom teeth surgically removed, that would make a lot of sense. They had to put me out and drill into my jaw. I tried looking it up once, and all I could find was stuff about saliva ducts being blocked or having something wrong with them, but it never seemed to fit. Thanks for solving a mystery for me.
Load More Replies...
James Wiske 6 years ago
It's mainly food ones for me too. We lived on the edge of a small farming town with nothing but wheat fields past our backyard, half of which was taken up by a veggie garden (we were on just about an acre of land). I grew to love eating vegetables raw or cooked including potatoes, which would freak out my friends. Also would eat lemons like they were oranges. Grossed kids (and one teacher) out with peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch at school. And every now and then would put peanuts into a bottle of 7-Up, Sprite, or Coke, and eat them as I drank my soda, which people thought was crazy.
Bunzilla 6 years ago
Wait, they thought PB and banana sandwiches were weird? I grew up eating those too, never saw anything weird about it. They go really well together. Teacher and kids were missing out!
Load More Replies...
Crouching_Penn_Hidden_Teller@yahoo.com 6 years ago
when I was a really little kid I thought anvils only existed in cartoons (to get dropped on Wiley Coyote, etc.)
Angie Luck 6 years ago
I thought those lines in the sky (from planes) were the paper boy throwing the newspapers to people🤦🏻♀️
Mark Kelly 6 years ago
It's not the fact people believed weird stuff as a kid it's the face that even as adults some didn't figure it out.
thepotatogirl 6 years ago
I actually have three things, but idk if anyone else does them or not. Does anyone else: 1. Stir green beans into their Tuna Helper? 2. Have a wet rag to clean up with after eating? 3. Crush up their Ramen Noodles by hand before cooking them?
MoZ 6 years ago
I thought LMNOP was a single letter. It was my favorite letter and I still kinda miss it.
Merlyn Emrys 6 years ago
My family told me it was normal for boys to beat their sisters, attack them regularly, and have explosive tantrums escalating into threats of murder where the sisters all hide and hope that this time he doesn't go through with it and kill their mother. "that's how boys are." And since I had one brother and nearly all the boys I knew at school were regular hellions whose favorite pasttime was tormenting me if they noticed me, I assumed that this is how boys are. Then I got older and boys at school would "tease" and verbally abuse me and make disgusting sexual comments, because this is how boys are. And I'd hide in my room and tell mom I spotted a noose in my brother's room and in between threating to kill us with a knife he acted "fine". "that's how boys are". It is now that I find out there's a psychosis where you have intermittent explosive episodes, and that a few men and boys out there are actually not stalkers, attackers, tormentors or perverts...
Miss Cris 6 years ago
It happened/happen in quite a lot of families but must of the others don't say anything. You're brave and I'm happy that you're lifecis better now.
Load More Replies... Daria B 6 years ago
Most of mine are really cultural differences rather than personal or family things, but they kind of feel the same. When you've been eating "milk rice" all your European life as a simple meal/snack and then you mention it to someone else from east Asia and their reactions are like... Well, weirded out.
Zori the degu 6 years ago
It still baffles me some people believed some of these things for so long, though. I mean, the banana and cherry allergies are understandable, but the mint ice cream sauce and the "time" game? How could you not notice there's something funny about those? Also, some were unusual, but by no means weird enough to be worthy for the reactions they got, like the cottage cheese pizza and the pickle juice. Ok, I guess it's not very appropriate to drink it at a party, but what's so odd about it? I guess most of those that persisted for so long were really cultural differences ignorance. Milk rice is delicious by the way, especially with a good dose of cinnamon. ;)
Load More Replies... Ivana 6 years ago
It was a few months ago when I was in the kitchen and took a bite of chocolate and I got that familiar sharp pain that spread across my mouth. So I turned to my friend and said "You know how when you first take a bite of something that has a strong flavor and it is painful and spreads across you mouth? I hate that." My friend was like "No, that isn't a normal thing." Turns out it is this thing called first bite syndrome that they think is caused by nerve damage from surgery or cancer. I have never had surgery...but if it is cancer, you would think I would have more signs after 30 years.
Bunzilla 6 years ago
I get that too! I wonder if it was from getting my wisdom teeth surgically removed, that would make a lot of sense. They had to put me out and drill into my jaw. I tried looking it up once, and all I could find was stuff about saliva ducts being blocked or having something wrong with them, but it never seemed to fit. Thanks for solving a mystery for me.
Load More Replies... James Wiske 6 years ago
It's mainly food ones for me too. We lived on the edge of a small farming town with nothing but wheat fields past our backyard, half of which was taken up by a veggie garden (we were on just about an acre of land). I grew to love eating vegetables raw or cooked including potatoes, which would freak out my friends. Also would eat lemons like they were oranges. Grossed kids (and one teacher) out with peanut butter and banana sandwiches for lunch at school. And every now and then would put peanuts into a bottle of 7-Up, Sprite, or Coke, and eat them as I drank my soda, which people thought was crazy.
Bunzilla 6 years ago
Wait, they thought PB and banana sandwiches were weird? I grew up eating those too, never saw anything weird about it. They go really well together. Teacher and kids were missing out!
Load More Replies... Crouching_Penn_Hidden_Teller@yahoo.com 6 years ago
when I was a really little kid I thought anvils only existed in cartoons (to get dropped on Wiley Coyote, etc.)
Angie Luck 6 years ago
I thought those lines in the sky (from planes) were the paper boy throwing the newspapers to people🤦🏻♀️
Mark Kelly 6 years ago
It's not the fact people believed weird stuff as a kid it's the face that even as adults some didn't figure it out.
thepotatogirl 6 years ago
I actually have three things, but idk if anyone else does them or not. Does anyone else: 1. Stir green beans into their Tuna Helper? 2. Have a wet rag to clean up with after eating? 3. Crush up their Ramen Noodles by hand before cooking them?
Related on Bored Panda
