Life childhood reddit

‘What did you grow up thinking was normal, and then realised when you left home it was really weird?’ – 21 shocking realisations

As children, we’re so immersed in the weirdnesses of our families that we don’t realise we’ve grown up with some batshit oddballs until we leave home and are exposed to normal people. And it seems it’s a universal experience.

Over on the AskUK subreddit, user Signal-Ad2674 asked: ‘What thing did you grow up thinking was normal, and then realised when you left home it was really weird?’ and added a particular quirk of their own family:

‘My Dad always had butter and then extra salt on toast. I did too, until my first girlfriend pointed out that this was utterly weird, and also a bread based heart attack on a plate. What thing did you grow up thinking was perfectly normal, and then realised when you left home it was probably really weird?’

And the answers just proved how unique, to put it politely, some of our upbringings were.

1.

‘Crust snails.

My mum always told me it was the best part of the sandwich. I went almost twelve years of my life calmly pulling the crusts off my sandwiches, rolling them into a tight roll and eating the resulting snail before a single person stopped to ask me what the heck I was doing.

I don’t know why I never realised that none of my friends did it either. I am 35 now. I still love making crust snails.’
fraughtwithperils

2.

‘We had buttered bread with every single evening meal. Then my girlfriend (now wife) pointed out it was really strange.’
gander8622

3.

‘Everyone in my family had an area of history they enjoyed and were very knowledgeable about. We’d have family quizzes and everything. As a kid, it was fully expected you’d pick your area and learn accordingly but also have a working knowledge of history generally. There was no pressure, It was just our norm.

We are working class and growing up it become very apparent that this wasn’t ‘normal’. I think I must have been one of the only 10 year olds in Essex who knew who the Tolpuddle Martyrs were.’
LadyMirkwood

4.

‘Ketchup on pasta instead of proper pasta sauce.

In my mums defence she was raised by a couple raised in post-WW2 ration times so a lot of the recipes she grew up on were cheap, cobbled together imitations of real food.’
PotentialOk4178

5.

‘I used to eat pasta and brown sauce. I bet your ketchup habit doesn’t seem so weird now.’
El_Scot

6.

‘Cornflakes in tomato soup. I still do it, but anyone who has seen me do it finds it utterly bizarre.’
BCircle907

7.

‘My maternal grandparents lived next door to us and my aunt would sometimes stay with my grandparents for a few days. And when I visited them all, we would sometimes have some limerick singing. We would take it in turns to sing a limerick about each other. And after someone sang a limerick, we would all sing the chorus. The chorus was:

That was a terrible song, Sing us another one, Just like the other one, Sing us another one, do.

I mentioned this to my friend a few weeks ago. And then I asked him if his family ever sung limericks. But he said that they didn’t.’
StrawberryF5

8.

‘We were never allowed to cut our finger or toe nails on a Sunday! Not sure why but my granny was religious and I guess my dad grew up the same way. Still feel uncomfortable doing it to this day.’
themushroombeast

9.

‘Calling the TV remote the ‘whizzer’. My partner finds it hysterical and loves nothing more than chanting ‘where’s the whizzer’ at me if we settle down to watch something. Neither of us have ever heard anyone other than my parents call it that.’
Aleswash

10.

‘Pouring cold milk on to hot puddings. Apple crumble and milk, treacle sponge and milk. Wasn’t til I left home that I realised nobody else did this. My dad still does it and will pass on the joys of cream and custard just for some cold semi-skimmed.’
Bourach1976