Question: do you remember that time when you went over to a friend’s house for dinner and you left unsure if you could be friends with them anymore because seeing how they lived led you to believe maybe they were aliens?
It’s an oddly specific experience, but if this Reddit thread is anything to go by, it’s a near-universal one.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen happen at a friend’s house that they thought was normal?
byu/LiterallyEkam inAskReddit
Here are some tales of serious weirdness.
1. Living on the Edge
Found out my best friend thought the toilet seat was for kids.
He would straight up sit on the rim of the toilet and poop until I found out when we were in college at 22.
– ajeezy629
2. Super Dog
I walked into my gfs living room and out of nowhere their chocolate lab, from outside, jumps through an open window and lands on the couch.
I just froze and her sons like ‘oh he does that’ This was in Florida
– L3aveBlank
3. Read All About It
I had a friend in HS. We’re still friends today actually. His mom was a hoarder.
There were little pathways throughout the house but it was filled, from floor to ceiling, with junk. In the hallway to the bedrooms, she had stacked every newspaper she ever got. They were tied up in bundles.
When you walked in that hallway he would caution to not touch the papers because if a row fell, it would take a couple hours to dig yourself out.
– ferrariguy1970
4. Crave the Bell
I babysat for a family on occasion and the kids would always ask for a “cool cup” and I had no clue what it was. They asked for them constantly but were too little to really describe them enough for me to understand.
I mentioned it to the mom in passing one day and she started laughing and cut the tops off of some bell peppers and took out the seeds and then filled the peppers with tap water. The kids went nuts over them like there were treats.
It was really weird to me that drinking water out of bell peppers was a thing to beg for on the regular.
– Kikabennet
5. With Friends Like These…
Grew up in a trailer park where I don’t know any kids that weren’t abused/abusing others/neglected. One day I walked into my best friends living room to find a room full of about 15 boys ranging in age from 6-16 jerking off together to a p**n playing on the tv.
– try2rememberthisone
6. Don’t Have a Cow, Man
Growing up we had some goats and land but no cows…my brother decided to go to the livestock auction with one of his friends and saw a baby cow being sold for meat. I guess he just couldn’t stand the thought of this poor little cow being sold to be eaten so he won the auction for it.
Walked it home somehow. Didn’t put it in the pasture, nor the backyard, but INSIDE THE HOUSE INSTEAD.
My mom came home from work and was like ‘excuse me everyone, why is there a cow in the hallway?’
Lmao he got in so much trouble. Loved that cow though, he thought he was a goat
– bunnykitten94
7. Never Forget
In 6th grade my first ever sleepover I went to the bathroom and came out to him blasting p**n in the living room and I had never seen p**n before.
We watch it for like 10 minutes and he says “I’m so ho**y I gotta jack off bro.” Then he started cranking his d**k right there in front of me and I was shocked.
The video was some fat dude cucking another guy and making him cry I’ll never forget that.
– yale52
8. The Crawl
Roaches crawling around in daylight out in the open. I wouldn’t sit or eat anything the 3 times i went over.
His entire family seem to think it was normal to have roaches where he was. I had family in the same building and their house was almost sterile.
– spyro86
9. A Clean Start
Was about 9 or 10. Playing with some action figures with a friend in his room which had its own bathroom.
He goes in to take a s**t and then when he’s done he yells out “mom, come wipe me!”
He was otherwise like any other kid in the early 90s.
– smegroll
10. Prep the Patient
I’ll be the weird family.
My dad is a doctor and one day my friend came over who had a totally blackened toenail from getting stepped on by a baseball cleat. No problem, my dad says, just some blood underneath the toenail. We can relieve the pain by puncturing a hole in the toenail and letting the blood flow out. Well he proceeds to get out a dremel (tiny drill), sterilize a new drill bit, and drills a small hole in my friend’s toenail. Blood shoots out of the hole into the air. My friend and I were screaming and laughing the entire time. It worked, he was instantly relieved of his pain.
My friend asked if this was a normal occurrence in the house. I told him that my dad has always been the go to for caring for friends, neighbors, etc., but this did indeed take the cake for being the best “procedure” he’s done in the house.
– kwertyup
11. Just the Bears
One of the first times I met my husband’s family, I was over at their house and husband gestured for me to sit down and be comfortable. Their house was really very cluttered. Not quite hoarder cluttered, but close. They had a couple of couches facing each other and then some other chairs.
Not knowing the ‘rules,’ I sat on one of the couches, which had a lot of stuffed teddy bears on it. OMG, you would think I had sat down on live bears. There were probably 20-30 small – medium stuffed bears on this couch. Husband’s mother and twin brother both visibly reacted as if I had damaged the bears. (Not antique bears either).
That was when I was told that the couch was for the bears, and only for the bears and that no one was allowed to sit on the bears’ couch. Just the bears.
The bears all had little beaded necklaces with their names on them to tell them apart because they were all the same brand and style.
– floridianreader
12. Abuse Isn’t Fine
Kinda the opposite.
Had a friend over when my dad when on a tirade screaming and yelling at my brother and I. We thought it was normal to have emotionally abusive parents.
After that, that friend never came over again, I went to his house. And his parents seemed a bit more… interested? In me.
By the time we graduated high school I got my diploma and walked over to hug his parents before my own at the ceremony.
– xxkoloblicinxx
13. Taking Care of Business
More of a date story.
Was on a date with a guy who was cooking dinner for me and his dog took a giant horse p**s in the living room. I jumped up, a bit panicked, trying to get the guy’s attention to what just happened. The guy didn’t even look up when he said “Oh yeah, she does that sometimes” and that was it. I asked him if there was a towel and disinfectant I could use to help clean it up and the guy says “I’ll just throw some Febreze on it after dinner”.
I suddenly realized the musty smell I noticed earlier wasn’t from his cool and rustic cabin being under a canopy of trees, or that the floor in the same location that bowed when you stepped over it was because it was old.
Ate dinner at a table that was couple feet away from the dog toilet. Left.
F**king gross.
– Revolutionarysugar6
14. Assume the Position
Went with a few friends to one of their family’s houses for a birthday party when I was like 15 or 16. We smoked weed, swam, and had a great ole time.
After eating we settled in to watch a horror movie and at some point I looked around me and everyone in that family was sitting in the same criss-cross-applesauce position and slowly rocking back and forth while watching tv.
Definitely not the weirdest thing on this thread by far, but something about it was extremely creepy. They were nice as h**l, though.
– Pollowollo
15. Turn Up the Heat
15 years ago. Visit a friend house who live in san Francisco around 3rd street (bad neighborhood area).
Upon entering pass by the kitchen 4 gas stove flame was in full blast not cooking anything, no vent, you can literally see a big burn hole in the ceiling all the way thru the 2nd floor room.
His mom was upstairs one of those rooms far away from the bottom floor kitchen, watching tv in full blast.
Long story short. They are basically using their gas stove as a centralize heater for the whole house. I’m a certified fire safety director at my work. This almost gives me a heart attack.
– manks2016
16. The Bed Shift
When I was in about 1st grade, my best friend at the time had a lot of temper tantrums.
We were having a sleepover and I fell asleep in her bedroom. In the middle of the night, I woke up in a different bed with her father. I was so confused, but he explained that she had a temper tantrum and her mom went to sleep in her bed with her so they moved me to the guest room. I was young and didn’t understand that’s not normal that he was sleeping in the same bed as me, just him and me.
I told my parents when I went home the next day and they were EXTREMELY concerned asking me if he touched me, etc. I was highly confused because my pure innocent mind didn’t understand the concept of that lol.
Now as an adult I’m like, why didn’t they just move me to the other room, why did the dad have to get in bed with me? Lol.
They’re truly good people and nothing happened, but it’s weird.
– flowersandchocolate
17. The Gin Joint
Here’s an “I was that family” story.
My Godmother (who was practically an aunt) ran a fairly successful daycare out of her home in the 90s. She was a first generation immigrant to the US, whose parents came to the New England area from Ireland. My two younger brothers and I spent a lot of time at her home and I was generally the oldest child there.
When I was about 8 years old, she started to have me make her her favorite drink. Gin and tonic. She drank these ALL DAY, while running her home daycare. At age 8 I knew…how to mix cocktails, that forks were better for stirring than spoons, and that large plastic bottles of gin were cheap and low quality.
This went on for years, on pretty much a daily basis, until my family moved out west. My Godmother kept her daycare running until she d**d (I’m sure of health problems relating to al**hol). I was 15 when she passed and I’m in my 30’s now. I honestly went most of my life thinking NOTHING of it until I became a father a couple of years ago. At which point I was like… “How the f**k did anyone let her have a daycare?”
Side note, I drink but would consider myself an average drinker, if not below average. With that being said, I could never stomach the thought of gin and didn’t try gin until I was 30. This was because I once licked my finger, early in my daycare bartending career, after a couple of drops of gin splashed on my hand as I was pouring. That plastic-half-gallon quality gin was the worst thing I’d ever had in my life and I had no idea how my Godmother liked it so much. Complete ruined my taste for gin…at 8.
– Academic_Bar9792
18. The Hoarder House
Not really weird I guess, but first time in my husband’s parent’s house (just a friend at the time), I got to see what a hoarder house looked like.
It wasn’t even a well known term/condition back then so it just really shocked me seeing the giant mounds of stuff everywhere and having to navigate through it all.
His room was clean, the rest of the house, not so much.
– ArtsySAHM
19. The Photographer
Went to a sleepover at this girls house and her mom was obsessively taking pictures of us all night. At one point, we were watching a movie and my friend passed out and her mom , I s**t you not, pulls out a huge newscast-type heavy duty camera and starts recording her daughter sleeping for a solid 5 minutes .
I have trouble sleeping and so that night when us kids were in the bedroom to sleep, I was on the floor, just staring at the wall in the dark. I was facing away from the door, laying on my side.
I hear the door creak…some footsteps and then the darkness of the room lit with a sudden flash. I got up just in time to see the door close. I know it was her mom taking pics of us. The weirdest part to me is that it was about 3am when that happened…meaning the girl’s mom either had an alarm or just stayed up that late in wait….
– TraditionalEye4686
20. Hitting the Bricks
Family had like Styrofoam bricks next to the couch in the living room for the explicit purpose of throwing at the TV if they didn’t like the show, or if a character said something stupid.
– Garlicholywater
21. The Naked Truth
My best friend walks around completely naked. We have been friends for 25 years and it doesn’t bother me. I’m used to it, but it gets weird when she invites me, my husband and toddlers over for dinner.
“Hey girl, your house your rules. But since husband and kids are coming can you put some clothes on?”
“Sure! No problem!”
– I_am_dean
22. How the Other Half Lives
My family were very comfortable and my mom always babysat lots of kids from around the neighborhood. Basically her place was just where the kids hung out.
Once there was an emergency with my dad and my mom really needed somebody to watch me overnight and I wound up with one of the families that she babysat for. They were really nice people and I was close friends with their kids obviously because they were at my house every day. It was a new experience though.
This was the first time I’d ever seen people living in real poverty. I was kind about it and I didn’t say anything, but parts of it were a real shock to me. The toilet didn’t work, but they had just continued to use it to the point that it was piled up to the seat. We had to unscrew the lightbulb to turn off the lights because the switch would shock you if you touched it. I felt really bad for them.
It was just a real eye-opener for me as a kid and it gave me a much better understanding of exactly why my mom babysat and fed all those kids.
– Armistice8175
23. The Break In
Stayed at a friend’s house when I was probably 10 or 11, and we had a sleepover one night, and we were up really late playing games and just talking.
Around 3-4am, his dad comes in, frantic, saying that he heard someone breaking in upstairs, and that we needed to leave immediately.
Anyways, we walk out of the house, and he tells the neighbor that they need to leave too. The neighbor looked extremely worried, and pulled her phone out.
We drive to a place and he gets us some food, and eventually an ambulance comes, and so does the neighbor along with it, because apparently the father was schizophrenic and having an episode. There was really no break in.
Obviously my friend NOW knows this, but back then, we genuinely believed him.
– mellowgang__
24. Don’t Have a Cow, Man
Had a friend who’s family lived on a huge property and kept cows for the property tax exemption, not odd.. he told me to come by and get some purple ringers he collected for me.. invited me in to meet his parents and I swear to god, there was a full-size cow chilling on one of their couches in the living room.
That sight was way more wild than any of the hallucinations later experienced. Really nice people though lol..
– Veg305
25. The Christmas Room
Growing up in rural East England, had a friend who lived on a working farm, they had the stereotypical big English farmhouse, lovely old place, no flat floors or straight walls anywhere.
Anyway, downstairs was an interesting layout, they had a room that was almost hidden away that you could easily miss unless you knew it was there or noticed it from outside.
So, this room, I only ever went in once, maybe twice in many years of being friends and going over their house quite a lot, it was their “Christmas room” it has decorations up all year round, and during the year when they bought presents they’d wrap them and just put in the room and leave them there until Christmas.
It was awesome in a sense though, a whole room for this is great, often when it came to Christmastime they’d forgotten what something was that they got for another family member.
– AnotherLostSouls
26. Talk About Strict…
When I was younger I was best friends with 2 brothers from Jamaica, one of the days they asked me to stay over so we could play some Atari after we finished playing outside.
We came home 12 minutes after their curfew so their dad who was extremely calm told us to sit in the living room, I Sat in there with my 2 friends and they were super quiet which was a bit weird until their dad walked in with a belt and beat the living s**t out of them.
I s**t myself (not literally) because I thought I was in for a beating but he didn’t hit me which was a huge relief, after the beating he (their dad) asked if I would like some carrot juice while my friends just went back to normal and set up their Atari like nothing happened… I was sat on the sofa wondering what the f**k just went on.
– Shinzo19
27. The Gross House
My gf and her little brother were staying at a sorta foster home that was absolutely filthy. They knew it was, but weren’t going to complain about it since it was still better than their last situation.
But the parents there had 2 little boys of their own, and it’s their normal.
I feel bad that those boys will either realise their home is disgusting and never invite anyone over, or have someone over who then embarrasses them or doesn’t want to be their friend anymore because of it.
– smallblueturtle
28. Jesus is Watching
Slept over at a friend’s when I was around 10. She was the only girl in her family, and had five brothers (whose ages ranged from like 4 to 15).
Everything about my friend’s room/sleeping situation was normal. But her brothers’ room was bizarre. They shared one big room, with three bunk beds. Each mattress a fitted sheet, a pillow, and nothing else. No top sheets, no blankets, no comforters. Also, the boys didn’t have pajamas. They all just slept in the clothes they had worn that day – with their shirts tucked into their pants, and belts on, too. Their room didn’t have a door, and neither did their connected bathroom or their closets.
Turns out they were fundamentalist Christians, and the boys’ setup was meant to prevent masturbation.
– SSDGM24
29. Out for Blood
My house but looking back it’s unusual. My Dad was a doctor and it was not uncommon for him to take a patient’s blood on the way home and store it in the fridge next to the orange juice over night.
Then take it to work the next morning.
Can’t do that these days of course but the 70s was pretty wild.
– Ozdiva
30. The Candy Vault
When I was seven, I went over to play with a new friend and she asked if I wanted a snack. I said sure and we went into their playroom where there was a mini fridge just stacked with candy, full bars of everything, and she casually tossed me a pack of Rolos.
Now, the house was a manufactured home— not a trailer perse, but definitely not like the usual house either. I know this doesn’t indicate how much money the family had, but this was not in an upscale neighborhood or house.
I marveled at A.) the largest amount of candy I have still to this day ever seen and B.) the fact that she and her siblings all just had free access to it at such young ages.
She was surprised at my surprise and asked what did I keep in my snack fridge. I told her I didn’t have one of those, and then it was her turn to be absolutely gobsmacked at the idea that I didn’t have a mini fridge full of candy just at my disposal and whim.
– RuyiJade
Well that last one sounds pretty cool. Also maybe the one with the pet cow.
Do you have a story like this?
Tell us in the comments.
