People Are Sharing Their Weird Family Things That They Only Realized Were Not Normal Later In Life (35 Answers)
Every family is unique. And before we judge anyone for the way they live, we have to remember that other people might be in a totally different situation than us.
With that being said, many of us grow up with, let's call them eccentricities, without even realizing it! A popular Reddit thread by u/i-had-no-good-ideas has users sharing the weirdest thing their family does that they always thought was perfectly fine. From banning birthday parties to raising 36 cats, the entries prove the term "normal" is a rather relative one.
Continue scrolling and check out the most-upvoted ones!
This post may include affiliate links.
That my family gets together once a week for dinner. Not just my mom, dad, and brother. I mean 4-5 generations of my family get together every Wednesday night for the last 40 years. We also do every holiday too. It’s almost never called off and we just rotate who cooks each week. It’s about 35 people.
Interestingly, u/i-had-no-good-ideas came up with this question during a clash between two family worlds. "I was camping with my [folks] and another family that we're friends with and we were arguing about the rules of UNO and what was the right way to play and what was the wrong way," the Redditor told Bored Panda.
"It turned out that my family had been playing it wrong the whole time and that just blew my mind ... I had been oblivious to it this whole time."
We had absolutely no censorship growing up. Everything was available to us to watch or listen to or play. My dad taught my sister and me how to sneak into R rates movies by buying a movie for one but going to another.
My parents made themselves available to explain most things, and had an open door policy. My sister and I were shy, though, and rarely asked stuff...except the time my sister asked my mom what 69 was and she answered. My sister learned not to ask.
When people said they couldn't watch or play something it was foreign to me.
My sister and I turned out low key. Didn't have our first relationships until I was 18 and she was 19. Pretty introverted about sexual matters for even longer. Never in trouble and were dedicated to school. In school we never drank or smoked. Both of my parents asked me and my sister of we needed birth control pills when we were 16. We said no followed by eww, Haha.
I think our curiosities were extinguished through my parents open policy, and we never felt the need to rebel.
my mom was the same and me and my sister turned out to be pretty well behaved adults with no need to rebel
At one point in my childhood, we had 36 cats who only came inside to eat and sleep at night. Any time a friend slept over, they were amazed and delighted when a half-dozen or more cats came in to sleep in my room. My dad even thought he was having a heart attack one time, because he woke up feeling intense pressure on his chest — it was actually two dozen cats. I found out later that my neighborhood considered us the weird house because of all the cats I thought were so awesome.
Researchers believe there is no single 'normal' in the modern American family anymore. According to a report prepared for the Council on Contemporary Families, most commonly (34 percent), children live with married, dual-career parents, however, no single family 'style' is in the majority.
"We have not replaced one ideal family type with another," Philip Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, said. "We have replaced one ideal family type with what we call a 'peacock's tail' in the report because it fans out."
Cohen took data from the U.S. Census and from national surveys on family life and reconstructed the family arrangements of Americans in 1960 and 2012.
He found that in 1960, the American family showed a 'peak conformity'. That year, the age at first marriage was the youngest, the marriage rate was at its highest, and the number of extended families living together in multigenerational households was the lowest.
Back then, 65 percent of children under age 15 lived in a family with married parents in which the father was the breadwinner. 18 percent had married parents who were both employed. And only one child in 350 lived with a mother who had never been married.
In 2012, however, no family type held a majority: the number of children with married parents and only a father working dropped to 22 percent, while children raised by dual-income married parents rose to 34 percent. 11 percent of kids lived with a never-married mother and 7 percent with a parent cohabiting with a romantic partner. About 3 percent of children lived with a single father.
My grandmother always thought the hand signal for 'I love you' was to stick your middle finger straight up like you're flipping someone the bird. Well, when she would send my dad and his sisters out of the house for the day, she'd innocently flip them the bird while yelling that she loved them. Now, out of tradition, my family always flips each other the bird to say goodbye. We always get strange looks at the airport.
It is the same in a Mr. Bean movie when he goes to America. Lovingly flips everyone off.
About this time every year when local strawberries come into season, my Grandfather would make homemade strawberry shortcake for dinner. Not those stupid sponge cakes but with real homemade shortcakes. He would serve it with cream and it was a big deal because we ate pretty healthy. It was our way of welcoming Summer. His mother in the early 1900s would make one huge shortcake that would feed her, grandpa, and his 6 brothers and sisters.
In the fall when the local apples come in we would make apple dumplings for dinner because that was my Grandma's family tradition to celebrate the harvest.
I thought it was normal to have dessert twice a year for dinner to celebrate the changing of the seasons.
We all open our Christmas gifts one at a time, taking turns, while everyone else watches. I've never met another family that does this.
We do this. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid and continued it with my kids. It gives everyone a chance to see what everyone received. My entire extended family does this also and so do all of my friends.
Ours did. Mom always complained she wanted to watch so we would go round robin and open presents one by one.
On my mums side of the family we have always done this. We all have our own piles of pressies and we take turns from youngest to oldest. It takes a while but it's much more fun. I like watching other people open their pressies.
My family has always done it this way. If someone has more presents they’ll open two back to back. Part of the fun of Christmas is the GIVING, and you can’t enjoy the giving aspect when you’re busy opening your own gifts. It also extends the time opening presents. It usually takes my family of 3 about an hour to open the presents, if we did it all at once I’m sure we’d be done in 20 mins.
We do this, one person actually gives them out, like their all under the tree, and one person goes around and gives everyone theirs.
This is very common in sweden. You open the gift, show everyone, thank the person who gave it to you and wait your turn to open the next one.
My family has always done this too. We take turns to choose a present from under the tree (not for yourself) and the recipient reads the card (usually aloud) and unwraps it. Everyone gets to see all the gifts and appreciate them. In adulthood we did switch to a secret-santa type name draw, so you don't have to find gifts for everyone.
We've always done that in my family. Everyone else has to watch the person who's turn it is and take time to appreciate the gift. It's better that way, plus it means you get to enjoy it for longer. :)
My family does that. I always thought it was strange when people didn't do that.
Yep, we do this too, means you learn to be patient, but also grateful for each gift rather than tearing them all open, dumping them in a pile, and then focusing on one toy.
We do this too! That way everyone can see the reactions of each person when they open their gift. We also have someone play Santa and choose each present for everyone to open ☺
I'm clearly in the minority here, but as I said, we had 5 kids. And frankly, when we were kids, we couldn't care less what the others got.
Load More Replies...
My family does this! It slows you down and makes it a vit more about the giving than the receiving, I feel. I'll definitely pass the tradition down to my kids when the time comes~
We still do, and it can take up to 2 hours, wich drives me mad every time XD
I grew up doing that. My husband grew up as a Jehovah's Witness, so he didn't celebrate Christmas from ages 6-16. Now, he just lets the kids have at it so it's a complete madhouse for about an hour every year. I hate it. Not that I want to stare at each other, but I'd like to see their faces when gifts are opened. That's why I have very little pics on that day b/c there's just WAY too much going on w/ 4 kids.
I'm with your husband, but I grew up with us all going crazy. My dad loved watching us all (5 kids) go bonkers. As kids, we really only cared about what we were getting. It's not that we were selfish, just kids. When we started getting presents for each other, we would all just pause occasionally and watch the siblings open stuff. And boy did it get expensive. We bought gifts for each other, then as people got married, for the in-laws, then the grandkids. And mother mother always got several gifts for us when we got older and they had more money. It was crazy.
Load More Replies...
My family has always done this. Most of the joy lies in watching others open the gifts you've chosen.
Oh yeah, my family has always done this, I didn't realize that it was weird. I guess it's like a way of giving each person the time and attention, as well as to make sure you get to see their reaction.
My family has always done the same thing with one person designated as 'santa' to hand gifts out one at a time.
Really? I always thought that's how everyone did it. You get to see each reaction to the gifts and it makes Christmas morning last longer. The melee that would b Cristmas morning without taking turns would drive me nuts.
We did and do. Since I was born, the entire family, cousin, aunts uncles etc, gather together and opened gifts this way on Christmas Eve.
My family does that. Sometimes if there is a big gathering some will go 2 at a time. Also we organize it by who is the slowest opener to the fastest.
Youngest of 8. Did it every year! Christmas morning took HOURS lol. I have 4 boys. We do the same.
My family had always done this. Everyone tearing open all their presents at the same time makes me feel really uncomfortable.
Always done this. Did as a child, continued with my children. Make Christmas last!
We do this. I think it's better than the pandemonium in many families.
Somehow this tradition started in my family also, as a way (I think) of being appreciative of the gifts given and by whom.
My sister and I would rehearse our Christmas carols for 2 weeks before we went caroling.
My family does this too, with the added tradition of my mother writing down who got what from whom so we could write thank you notes.
We always did this in my family. My brother, when he left home but came back for Christmas, bought presents but never wrapped them. So he would open a present, disappear for a moment, then return with someone's present in the paper he'd just opened. This was before people talked about recycling paper.
My family has done this for years. The first one to open is our youngest, the next one is the next youngest, etc. When a person runs out of gifts to open, their turn is skipped and we go on from there until all gifts have been opened. Funny, it never occurred to me that this was that weird!
We do this! The one that opens a gift chooses which present is to be opened next
we do this as well, not only does it make you appreciate what you are opening and thankful to the person who bought it for you, it makes our christmas morning last for hours. we start with coffees and christmas treats and open gifts for two hours then have brunch together. i assume people who dont do this are done with their christmas in about 20 minutes
I do that with my kids. That way they learn the joy of giving gifts, not just receiving.
This was always the rule with my family. Takes forever but it's fun to watch
We do the same - and we also have an uncle dress up as Santa to hand out the gifts
We always did this growing up, did it with our kids who now do it with their kids.
We do that too. Even though there are no children in the family.
My family and my husband 's family do it this way... but they open on Christmas Day, while my family opened on Christmas Eve.. after midnight mass.
Ummm, mine does. Even with little kids. I think this is pretty normal
We’ve always done it like that. We share the experience and say thank you to the giver, if they’re present.
We sometimes do one at a time, and it just ends up being who ever is sitting by the tree who decides the order.
I like to do this too in my immediate family. It makes it last longer, is more fun and then makes the unwrapping exciting for even the people who aren't getting the gift! =)
mine does this as well And recently we also agreed presents are max for a very small amount of cash only so everyone is trying to think out of the box to buy something super cheap but suitable for the person getting it
Everyone does this where I come from (Norway) if there are a lot of people celebrating Christmas together (especially if there are a lot of kids) opening presents takes hours. One time we celebrated with another family and it took so long we had to take a break in the middle to eat a meal.
We do this we always pick a person to get them from under the tree and hand them out too .
I thought this was the only way to open Christmas presents. It respects people and the effort they made. I never understood how people on the telly just ripped the presents open and no one cares about the other.
Always have in both families (mother and father) and we do it with my kids as well. My mother always said "I want to see what everyone else is getting too".
We always do Christmas this way Takes a lot longer but makes it last longer
We've always done this. The only free for all is x-mas eve where we open stockings.
I've heard of other families doing this. We never did. My mother would just start handing out the presents, and it turned into a free-for-all. We had five kids, no way could we have waited and watched everyone. It would have taken all day.
Yup, add me to the list of "we did this, too." It makes the gift opening last longer, and you get to see what everyone else got. I remember spending Christmas at the in-laws; big gathering, close to 30 people which I'm just not used to, either. My MIL passed out presents as quickly as she could, everyone opening gifts at the same time. The kids in particular were horrifying (to me) to watch, as they would tear off the paper, toss the gift aside with barely a glance and nary a thank you, and move on to the next. I felt like I'd been through a hurricane...
We do this, you get to appreciate people opening presents you've bought for others and see what people get. I thought everyone did this?!
We had to do that as well. I just thought it was normal until my husband told me otherwise. 😂
We do this. I didn't celebrate xmas growing up but my wife and her family do. Their tradition was for one person to open one present at a time while we all watched. The first time I did it, I thought it was kinda weird but I got into it and after we started our own family, we kept the tradition alive with our own kids.
We do this too. Unless there are matching present and then they have to be opened at the same time.
We do this with our family. I’m usually the one playing Santa unless there is a gift that’s fragile or heavier then I can handle
I do this! And I was shocked when my family in law started opening the presents all at once, I thought, how is anyone gonna enjoy anyone's reaction? My family does this and it takes us hours to open them all! It's awesome!
I'll get in line here too, i guess. That's how my brother and I always did it when we were kids
My family does this too. Oldest to youngest, so the younger ones don't explode with their need to start building the Lego they just unwrapped. We still do it now and the youngest is 30!
We also do this. Since we were kids. And now that I have children my own we also do it this way. Christmas Eve ends about 11 pm!!
My family's done that my entire life! We always make sure everyone sees what the gift is and thank the person who gave it to us, too.
Not weird - I think it's just the sign of a fairly small family (like mine!)
My family did that in the 50s. I had to find gifts for each in turn and deliver them.
Oh We do this! It's nice to see what everyone gets and teaches the young ones to take their time and appreciate it.
My family does this. Makes the fun last longer, ya know? It usually takes us two to three hours to get through them all. And it's not that we have tons of presents. We just really like to take our time haha
We do this as well - I don't like the complete chaos when everyone opens at same time!
We do this at my house too. Not only that, but we always ask in what order we should open the gifts.
"The first and most harrowing thing I took away from the comments was that more families have poop knives than I thought," u/i-had-no-good-ideas said. "The second thing I took away was what a poop knife was. But the third takeaway was that I'm really glad that my family are who they are. I got a lot of comments that were largely concerning when you think about them too long and it just made me glad that the strangest thing my family do is play UNO wrong."
After going through the comments, u/i-had-no-good-ideas agrees with the before-mentioned study. "Everyone has a different view of what normal is," the Redditor said. "To some, normal could be wearing a tuxedo and top hat to bed or running around your backyard wearing nothing but a sombrero. So there is such thing as a normal family but the concept of normal is entirely subjective and there is no such thing as a wrong subjective view."
Philip Cohen believes people really sort of on their own figuring out how to make their family life work. In fact, the sociologist thinks it's the reason why we have a big parenting advice industry. Plus, the search for role models may also help to explain the intense interest in celebrity families and marriages.
We have always had cats. We have several “cat songs”. Some are just songs that we have changed the words to include our cats names, but others completely made up on the fly. We can still remember and sing the cat songs of our pets that have long since passed.
We also have a certain way we speak to each others pets that is almost like another language. Made up words, strange accents, weird pronunciation of syllables... the whole shebang. Incomprehensible to others, but makes perfect sense to us.
My dad’s side of the family always had this particular smell that I loved! But I never knew what that smell was... I only smelled it around them... It was such a nostalgic smell and I would be excited for family reunions so I could smell it.
Well, years later I discovered that smell was alcohol.
Alcoholism apparently runs in my family.
Growing up my parents would always give each other two cards for birthdays and anniversaries. One would be a comedy card and one is a love card. Thought that was how it just was.
Apparently my family is the only one that does that, but my girlfriend does enjoy the two cards very much.
In my family, correcting each other's mistakes in everyday conversation is normal, a thing to be grateful to the corrector for. The idea is that it's more important for everyone to be enriched or learning than it is for anyone's pride to be preserved while they're also wrong.
It created in me a love of debate and a willingness to revise my opinions / stances, but it's very frustrating to me now to calculate someone's pride into the equation, lest I be labeled rude or arrogant.
Our family had solstice parties. I didn't think it was weird until someone called me a witch.
in most of European countries solstice is a big think, especially midsummer (you cannot avoid that one in Baltics and Nordic countries), that's a lot of fun!
In my family, we finished the chicken to the bone — no meat, no gristle, nothing left. And if you didn't finish it, someone would finish it for you. Well, flash-forward to college when I'm eating chicken in the cafeteria with my housemates. One of them didn't clean their chicken wing, so I casually reached over and took it to finish it off, without interrupting the conversation. After a minute, I realized everyone was staring at me. 'What?' I asked, someone else's chicken bone hanging out of my mouth.
Saying 'I love you'. I'm very greatful to have grown up in a very loving and caring household. My parents and I say 'I love you' or 'love you' to almost everyone. But once I got to middle school (my first REAL group of friends) I realized that many kids did not grow up in a household to told each other that. Many times I saw my friends be uncomfortable when I told them that I loved them. Now I'm much more cautious when I say that. (Only say it to close friends now)
Probably selective memory, but I can't recall ever being told that by my mother as I was growing up.
We always had a single hardboiled egg on our plate whenever we had spaghetti.
We'd go for a walk after every dinner. Rain or shine. Found out years later our neighbors thought we were weird.
Yelling to communicate.
Everyone in my household just yelled and screamed at each other for little or no reason. Not even when they were mad at each other, but even when we were just working around the house or something, people would start yelling at each other like they hated them then after we were all done we just went back to business as usual as if nothing ever happened.
I didn't find out this wasn't exactly normal when I had my first girlfriend. I started yelling and bellowing at her about something, I have no idea what it was even about, and she started crying and said she was afraid I was going to hurt her. I thought this was the craziest thing i'd ever heard. I wasn't going to hit her, I was just yelling. We eventually sort of sat down and talked about it and she made me realize that the primary means of communication i'd been taught and had to use my entire life up to that point wasn't how people were supposed to talk to each other. I also learned that most women tend to cry if you yell at them.
I had done it throughout all my formative years so it's a bit hard to suppress. Sometimes I still find myself raising my voice to people, even my wife, and she'll just put her hand on my shoulder and its sort of our signal to remind me i'm getting carried away.
Weird thing is, i'm not even really angry or anything like that, it just happens automatically. But she knows I don't mean anything by it and helps me to keep it in check. It's not that bad these days, it has gotten better and better over the years being around more sane people that aren't from my family.
Working at renaissance faires. My parents have been doing it for decades, so I grew up doing it and thought nothing of it. I always thought it was normal that my family would dress up to interact with other people, also dressed up, wielding swords and the like. You can imagine my surprise when, in elementary school, no one had a goddamn clue what I was taking about when I spoke of my normal weekend activities Blew my eight-year-old mind
We had a diarrhea spoon, so we could test its consistency and find out how dehydrated we were — 'Need about 5 ounces there, Hon.'
People are often horrified by my parent's methods of discipline. When I was little we'd have to kneel on rice if we were too loud on the stairs, or get knuckle punched on the top of our heads if we did something wrong. Also, I now realize how strange it is for your parents to walk around naked. We also couldn't go to their bedroom after they went to bed. My sister broke her arm one morning falling out of the top bunk and my mom made her wait for hours until she would take her to the doctor. I won't go into the paint-stick rule. I didn't realize how messed up this was until I met my girlfriend and told her about it.
We're not super demonstrative or affectionate, so relationships were interesting early on. Wake up call for me was when my girlfriend got really upset with me because I didn't call her to find out how her doctor's appointment went. I was confused because I figured she'd let me know if anything was wrong and if I hadn't heard anything I'd assume everything was fine. It never registered that perhaps actual human people like to feel cared about sometimes and that - as her boyfriend - it would be appropriate for me to show a little more concern for her. My family is still like this, although I like to think I've grown in that respect - it's something I had to learn how to do though.
Meh, each to their own. My family were over involved (still are) in every aspect of each other's lives. Sending cards if you got a new job, or gifts if you were a little under the weather. It became a bit suffocating as you were expected to reciprocate and I couldn't keep up with it. My husband's family were a refreshing change, only milestone birthdays got a card. They weren't in and out of each other's lives, but kept a respectable distance. There if you need them, but would leave you alone to live your life. I much prefer that!
My dad used to whip out his bare ass at everyone. He once put it on the dinner table while I was eating, and my mom spanked it. That's when I realized something was off.
When I was little, my family and I LOVED the first Spongebob Movie. In the movie, they make these silly calls that sound like “LULULULU!” by pursing their lips and wiggling their tongues back and forth. One night, as my dad was tucking me in, he said “Goodnight, I love you! LULULULU!” And I repeated it back.
We still do this, and I’m 23. I think it’s his way of hanging on to his idea of me as a kid.
I draw the line at phone calls, though. I’ve gotten some weird looks from my boyfriend.
Eh, teach your boyfriend that families are weird. It's okay to be silly. If he judges you for it, find another boyfriend.
Whenever we got fast food, we would put all of our fries together in a big mound to share — sort of like communal fries. Once I was at a friend's house and they bought us fast food, so I put my fries on a plate and pushed it to the middle of the table. Lots of strange looks.
My friends suck the snot and boogers out of their kids' noses with their mouth instead of having them blow into tissues. Then they go spit it out in the trash afterwards. I gagged the first time I witnessed it.
We always ate pineapple slices on our hamburgers- every time- all of us
It was like putting ketchup on for most people, when I ate burgers at other people’s houses I would be like, where’s the pineapple in the same way people would ask for lettuce or mayo
That is delicious, but I don't think I'd call it a "must have." I bet the other families were pretty confused when you'd ask for the pineapple.
Let me tell ya bout the Wallbangies.
Thought everyone knew about them like the Easter bunny or tooth fairy. They are a tiny race of native American people. In the mornings you went around collecting belly button lint, and you would put what you find under your pillow when you made your bed. That night while you slept they would come and collect the lint, and eventually one day they would bring you a sweater they knitted from the lint.
I was 20 years old when I learned these itty bitty Indians aren't universally known..
*facepalm* Indigenous people are not elves, and they certainly are not interested in your belly button lint.
When we had dinner, if you took a bite that was too hot (temperature wise), the rest of the family would blow in your mouth until it cooled off. To this day my brothers and I wonder why our parents let us do this.
We always have our house in the 50- to 60-degree range, even during the Wisconsin winter. Everyone would always comment on how cold it was in our house, but it felt fine to me! Meanwhile, other people's houses — which are normally in the 70-degree range — are way too hot for me.
Our family had a communal underwear drawer until I was in high school. Apparently not common?
Growing up, my teachers and friends would tell me I had a 'sing-song' voice and sometimes would make fun of it, but that's how my entire family talks to one another. We have our own little familial variation on the local accent, words adopted from where most of us used to live, words made up as jokes over time, phrases that ended up sticking in our communal lexicon because of longstanding jokes or situations. It was enough that when I was in kindergarten the school insisted that I be put into speech therapy.
I didn't really realize it was weird until I was about 13 and my friends and I were watching Star Trek TNG and one of them pointed at the TV and said 'Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra. That's what you sound like!'
Your family sounds really cool actually. It would be fascinating to listen in.
My parents put certain foods (hot dogs, toast, etc) on paper towels instead of plates. Obviously things like pasta or rice would go on plates, but anything that didn't ~require~ a plate went on a paper towel. I grew up thinking this was normal. Until I served a sausage in a bun to a boyfriend on a paper towel and he looked at me like I had three heads.
Turns out my parents just really hate to wash dishes, so they destroy the planet by wasting paper and buying plastic cups instead. Real dishware only comes out on special occasions.
Did I mention they have a dishwasher but hate to use it?
My good friend's family used to put on a full Christmas pageant every year — I'm talking costumes, scripts, roles assigned at Thanksgiving, and always a live baby Jesus played by an infant in the family. They've even rented locations to fit everyone! She only found out that it was unusual in college, when we were discussing our plans for Winter Break and she casually mentioned 'the pageant.' Everyone paused and asked what that meant, and she said, 'You know, the family Christmas pageant.' We had to explain that no one else does that, and it was hilarious! She was an angel that year.
I'm more concerned that there's a new baby in this family every year. That's a lot of pressure!
Hoarding. But right after I left my family's home I became incredibly irate of any clutter. My home is now always organized and I constantly rid of stuff I don't use. But my housemate has a crap ton of ancient shit he doesn't use and it drives me nuts.
We never had birthday parties. Birthdays were observed, but there were never parties. I got toys, some good food, but no one was invited ever.
My father told me it was a family tradition. Many years later, when I realized that absolutely everyone I knew did in fact have birthday parties, I looked into the matter more closely and found that an ancestor had apparently died after his birthday party, and since then all parties were forbidden in the family.
Instead of trick-or-treating on Halloween, my parents made us go around to different doors in our basement and answer Bible questions to receive candy.
Note: this post originally had 65 images. It’s been shortened to the top 35 images based on user votes.
Every year since my daughter was born her and I get up early and we have a birthday princess tea party for her bday. We use her first tea set and I bake a mini cake that looks like a Barbie dress that I stick a small Barbie in. We drink hot chocolate out of the little cups and she opens her presents. I decorate the dining room table the chairs and the wall behind it too. She just turned 19 and it's still something she loves. It's a mini surprise party. When she was little she thought all moms did this.
I wouldn't even know where to begin with my family weirdness. But it takes all kinds to make the world go round. I grew up happy and healthy and that's all that matter.
We would eat an entire baguette while we shopped. Always paid for it of course but always bought two one for home one for store. I remember I watched family feud as an adult and question was top 5 foods you eat while grocery shopping. I kept yelling bread at the screen. It did not make the top 5. Only then it dawned on me maybe people don’t do that
OMG, I thought my family was the only family that did this! How could anyone resist a fresh baguette still warm from the oven?!
Load More Replies...
It wasn't until I was older that I realised that most kids had their first sleepover when they were like in their tweens or teens. We had friends that I'd known since I was really young, and everyone in our family was really close with everyone in their family. As a result of this, I had sleepovers from the age of 4 or 5. I was shocked when one of my friends said they had never slept over at someone's house until 14yo, because I assumed everyone was like me.
My husband’s family has a thing where you cannot do laundry between Christmas and New Years. It’s considered bad luck. They are very strict about it. The mere suggestion of washing anything during that time sends my hubs into a panic.
My family celebrates "1/2 birthdays". Halfway through the year from a person's REAL birthday, we speak, call or text a "happy 1/2 birthday".
I lived with my grandmother and 1/2 a grandfather ( lost his lower half in accident) across the yard from my mom, brother and gay gypsy uncle. The only weird thing we did was never putting our hats on the bed. The law would cone after you if you did. I believed that for years.
We celebrated thanks-Mortens-giving (a combination of thanks giving and Mortens aften). We had duck instead of turkey and always right between the holidays. So we both celebrated something American (father American) and something danish (mother danish).
Today I watched a documentary where a tribe in Peru makes alcohol by chewing yuca and spitting it into a large pot to ferment. They then gather and drink it later. That was the weirdest isht I have ever seen.
I feel strange after reading these. My family did a lot of these things (definitely not the naked parents or gross 💩spoon thing🤮), but some of the more quirky ones. My sister and I had a weird way of communicating with just "hmms", my mom and I always made up songs about our cats- lots of theme songs. The Beatles "I wanna hold your hand" became I wanna hold your paw as a general kitty song. Also the "kitty-licky gang" which I upgraded to "the meowfia"... lots of silly memories.
When I was younger, my family would have ice cream for dinner on Memorial Day. For some reason, it was also often avocado ice cream (which I found amazing when I was younger, but tried it again a few years back and nearly threw up).
I guess my mom, brother, and i are closer to each other than we are to my dad and brother. We have these common jokes between us and we are comfortable playing with each other. My mom still has a healthy relationship with my dad and brother, but they just dont spend a lot of time with us.
These threads are always a mix of A) quirky-cute family traditions, B) the occasional genuinely weird thing, and C) straight-up child abuse. I'm glad the person who compiled this for BP left out most of category C, but I really could have done with none of it.
I'm gonna need some unsee juice for a couple if these
Every year since my daughter was born her and I get up early and we have a birthday princess tea party for her bday. We use her first tea set and I bake a mini cake that looks like a Barbie dress that I stick a small Barbie in. We drink hot chocolate out of the little cups and she opens her presents. I decorate the dining room table the chairs and the wall behind it too. She just turned 19 and it's still something she loves. It's a mini surprise party. When she was little she thought all moms did this.
I wouldn't even know where to begin with my family weirdness. But it takes all kinds to make the world go round. I grew up happy and healthy and that's all that matter.
We would eat an entire baguette while we shopped. Always paid for it of course but always bought two one for home one for store. I remember I watched family feud as an adult and question was top 5 foods you eat while grocery shopping. I kept yelling bread at the screen. It did not make the top 5. Only then it dawned on me maybe people don’t do that
OMG, I thought my family was the only family that did this! How could anyone resist a fresh baguette still warm from the oven?!
Load More Replies... It wasn't until I was older that I realised that most kids had their first sleepover when they were like in their tweens or teens. We had friends that I'd known since I was really young, and everyone in our family was really close with everyone in their family. As a result of this, I had sleepovers from the age of 4 or 5. I was shocked when one of my friends said they had never slept over at someone's house until 14yo, because I assumed everyone was like me.
My husband’s family has a thing where you cannot do laundry between Christmas and New Years. It’s considered bad luck. They are very strict about it. The mere suggestion of washing anything during that time sends my hubs into a panic.
My family celebrates "1/2 birthdays". Halfway through the year from a person's REAL birthday, we speak, call or text a "happy 1/2 birthday".
I lived with my grandmother and 1/2 a grandfather ( lost his lower half in accident) across the yard from my mom, brother and gay gypsy uncle. The only weird thing we did was never putting our hats on the bed. The law would cone after you if you did. I believed that for years.
We celebrated thanks-Mortens-giving (a combination of thanks giving and Mortens aften). We had duck instead of turkey and always right between the holidays. So we both celebrated something American (father American) and something danish (mother danish).
Today I watched a documentary where a tribe in Peru makes alcohol by chewing yuca and spitting it into a large pot to ferment. They then gather and drink it later. That was the weirdest isht I have ever seen.
I feel strange after reading these. My family did a lot of these things (definitely not the naked parents or gross 💩spoon thing🤮), but some of the more quirky ones. My sister and I had a weird way of communicating with just "hmms", my mom and I always made up songs about our cats- lots of theme songs. The Beatles "I wanna hold your hand" became I wanna hold your paw as a general kitty song. Also the "kitty-licky gang" which I upgraded to "the meowfia"... lots of silly memories.
When I was younger, my family would have ice cream for dinner on Memorial Day. For some reason, it was also often avocado ice cream (which I found amazing when I was younger, but tried it again a few years back and nearly threw up).
I guess my mom, brother, and i are closer to each other than we are to my dad and brother. We have these common jokes between us and we are comfortable playing with each other. My mom still has a healthy relationship with my dad and brother, but they just dont spend a lot of time with us.
These threads are always a mix of A) quirky-cute family traditions, B) the occasional genuinely weird thing, and C) straight-up child abuse. I'm glad the person who compiled this for BP left out most of category C, but I really could have done with none of it.
I'm gonna need some unsee juice for a couple if these
