Kate Hackett
If you’ve never been to a friend’s house and wondered: what on earth is going on here as a kid, I have to ask…
Did you have friends?
Because those houses were different in some way and it was always a little bit of a mind-f*ck to realize you live in a very different environment. User_Not_Found_78457 and u/LiterallyExam both posted similar threads asking people what were the oddest things people have seen at other houses and the replies were too great not to share. Some of the most notable comments are pasted below & include a few from the Buzzfeed community too.
1. No TP
“I went to a friend’s house when I was 10, and in the bathroom they had four towels hanging on a towel bar near the toilet with brown marks on them. I asked what that was, and my friend said they didn’t have toilet paper — they each had their own ‘shit towel’ and they hung them up after each use! When I mentioned it to my mom, I was told I couldn’t go to Joey’s house anymore.” —OkieTaco
2. Pet Feeding
“I had a friend in high school whose family didn’t believe in pet bowls, so their two dogs and cat would literally get their food splattered all over the floor. And water bowls? Forget it — they just filled the bathtub every day and let the animals drink out of it.” —witchyribbon84
3. Behavior charts
“I once spent the night with a close friend in sixth grade, and as soon as I arrived, her mom brought me to her office and showed me a filing cabinet drawer of alphabetized ‘behavior charts’ of her daughter’s friends. She kept records of every kid who visited their house, and if you got a certain number of demerits, you weren’t allowed to come back… I got my first two demerits for forgetting to say ‘Yes, Ma’am’ and ‘No Ma’am,’ and my third demerit was for not bringing a dress for church the next morning. At the end of my stay, my friend’s mom determined that I could return as long as I made more of an effort next time, but it’s safe to say I never went back.” —lollygagging
4. A Python
“At my friend’s house, there was a 4-foot python roaming free around the room at a gathering with guests! The snake was chill as fuck, but still.” —Moar_Wattz
5. No drinks
“I had dinner at a friend’s house when I was around seven years old, and they didn’t allow any drinks at the dinner table. I had to stand in the kitchen and drink my water.”
6. Time for a shower
“The very first time I met my high school boyfriend’s parents was when I went to their house for dinner. Everything was going well and they seemed totally normal until dinner was ready and his mom announced that it was time to ‘wash up.’ I assumed that meant to wash our hands. But no, the whole family went upstairs to shower! His mom gave me a bathrobe and made me go wait in my boyfriend’s sister’s bedroom for her to finish her shower so I could shower afterwards. Then we all ate lasagna in bathrobes.” ‘It was totally bizarre, and dinner was lukewarm by the time all six of us had finished showering.” —jaylee99
7. Secret baptism
“I have a cousin who was really strict with her kids when they were growing up. Once, she finally let them have a sleepover, and they were so excited she was being more lenient. Turns out, she had the kids over so she could baptize them with holy water as they slept.” —bonbonfire
8. Moose head
“I visited a house where there was a moose head mounted above the wall over the mantle. The strange part, though, was that they’d installed electric light bulbs behind the moose’s amber glass eyes. So at night when the moose was turned on, it looked as though the beast was angry and ready to charge right off the wall.” —Back2Bach
9. Pet fur everywhere
“I remember when I first had dinner with my ex-boyfriend’s family, I was so shocked at how they let all their pets on the counter while they cooked. There was pet fur in everything that was served. It was so hard to just grin and bear it and try to eat around the furry bits.” —gryzll
10. Soup cake
“When I was in high school, a friend asked me and a few other friends to his house for dinner. His mom served homemade bean soup, which was good, but toward the end of the main course, she brought out chocolate cake for dessert. She cut each of us a slice and just plopped it into our bowls, in which we each still had about an inch of soup. We exchanged puzzled glances, but the family dug right in, so apparently chocolate cake soaked in bean soup was an ordinary thing for them.”
11. Guns, poops, this house is insane.
“I went to an incredibly rich friend’s house in second grade who used the master bedroom as hers. One day, she used the bathroom and called me in to see what her poop looked like. She even made me sniff the toilet paper after she wiped! And to make matters weirder, when she was done, she ran downstairs to show me her parents’ room, where she opened a nightstand drawer to reveal a gun. She asked if I wanted to play with it, and I quickly declined and never went back to her house again. I’m not even sure if her parents were home the whole time, although there might’ve been a maid or housekeeper around.” —sarahf48e21e123
12. Lipo surgery
“I saw a liposuction surgery taking place right there in the dining room. They had let a doctor from Mexico work from their house so they could make some extra money.” —scienceboicowboy
13. Everyone with king-sized beds
“I had a rich friend whose whole family had king-sized beds. One of the silliest things I’ve ever seen was my friend’s 3-year-old brother trying to go to bed. It took him like five minutes just to get into the thing! And his bed was filled to the BRIM with stuffed animals! It was like watching him climb Mount Everest only to be consumed by a pile of stuffies. I can’t even imagine sleeping in that type of luxury at three years old.” —SgtSilverLining
14. Wind chimes
“I once visited a house where the ceiling in every room was covered in wind chimes — I mean, there wasn’t a bit of space that didn’t have a wind chime dangling from it!” —Reddit User
15. Cat room!
“I knew my childhood friend had cats because she always talked about them, but when I went to her house for a sleepover once, I didn’t see any. So I asked about them, and she said, ‘Oh! Let’s go to the cat room!’ I thought to myself, ‘Wow, a whole room for your cats!’ only to encounter a room full of 20 cats — easily — no litter boxes, and cat feces everywhere! The smell was nauseating. She walked right in, no shoes on, onto the saturated carpet, and casually said that it was easier to just clean the room once a week then to constantly clean litter boxes. The rest of the house? Completely normal.” —k4049ba36a
16. No talking
“I had a friend whose family didn’t speak at all during dinner. The first time I ate there, I tried to make conversation and got a super weird glare and shake of the head from the mom. And after dinner, everyone would just go back to doing whatever! I remember eating in awkward silence, thinking, ‘Why would anyone want to eat like this every day?'”—Butwhytwo
17. Nightshirt
“In middle school, I had a friend who would immediately change into an Ebenezer Scrooge-style nightshirt whenever he got home. His father was always wearing the same thing, and his mother and sisters were always in nightgowns. His mom was always trying to get me to wear a nightshirt instead of my street clothes, which she assumed must have been terribly uncomfortable. It was as if jeans and a T-shirt were torture devices.” —dexm1981
18. Big movie fan
“One year ago, I went to a party and noticed that every single room of the guy’s parent’s house was decorated to the theme of The Highlander. All the guy could say is, ‘My dad’s a really big fan of that movie.'”—Azurien
19. Nine kids. All Js.
“I knew a family with nine kids whose names all started with the letter J. They were ‘unschooled’ because their parents believed that children should learn naturally, so they chose not to educate them and none of the kids could read.” —sarahs402d05f80
20. So many clocks
“My childhood best friend lived with his grandparents, and his grandfather was a clock-maker. Their large two-story house’s walls were completely covered in old restored grandfather and cuckoo clocks. Each one had a small sticker with a number so he could keep track, and the highest number I saw was over 700! And many of them were wound, so every hour we were treated to a symphony of clocks! I didn’t appreciate it when I was a kid, but those clocks were fantastic pieces of workmanship.” —farmerderpy
