‘What weird thing did you witness when staying over at a friend’s house as a child?’ – 22 ways other people’s parents were bonkers

‘They turned the water off at the stopcock every night at 10pm, so we had to all go to the loo one after another before they turned it off.

‘Absolutely unhinged.’
–NotSoFabio

‘First (and last) time I stayed at my best friends house, it was June so really light nights, warm outside, it was great. I was so excited for it. We played a bit of football, then video games, ate junk and at 7.30pm his mother sent us to bed. Bear in mind we were 11-12 years old.

‘I was a bit perplexed, so I went along with it. My mate was asleep in seconds and I lay on his squeaky airbed for about 2 hours with sun shining through the window and listening to kids playing out.

‘In the end I was so fed up I got up and told his parents I’m just going to go home. Surely you don’t have a weekend bedtime of 7.30pm when you’re 12 years old?’
–pickindim_kmet

‘Her parents invited like 15 kids but didn’t think to actually sort out beds for us. I slept in a corner of the room because that’s the only place there was space. No blanket, no pillow – just propped in a corner lmao.’
–watercressnectarine

‘Not that weird really, but my friend’s mother used to come in to the bedroom during the night (whilst we slept, my friend had her bed and I had the world’s squeakiest camp bed). S

‘he’d come and tuck in the sheet and blanket/s on top of me, so that it was all tucked in under the mattress/bed frame. I used to wake up feeling like I was in a straight jacket, strapped to the bed. She did the same for my friend (who presumably liked it/thought it was just how you slept).

‘It was bad enough faffing around with sheets and blankets – I just had a duvet at home – and made worse by the fact their heating came on at full blast at something like 4am (they were farmers so everything started early) so I’d wake up sweating unable to move like a pre-packed sausage.’
–Hysteria_Wisteria

‘Friend had night terrors. Would have been nice to know before I stayed over. You can imagine my reaction.’
–JLPickacard

‘This one girl whose house I’d go to, Belinda. Her mum insisted that Belinda’s friends always bring a packed lunch with them. Which was fine. I was little, and I didn’t like bread crusts. So my mum would make me a jam sandwich, without crusts, and send me off with it in my lunchbox.

‘Except Belinda’s psychopathic mum didn’t respect my mum’s decision to not force me to eat crusts, she even remade me another fucking sandwich, specifically to make me eat the crusts!

‘This happened several times, and my poor brain has obviously tried to block out the crust-trauma because I can’t actually remember what happened in the end but seriously, why would you care whether or not someone else’s kid eats crusts, and to go to that extent to enforce it?! Pure psychopathy.’
–littlegreycells_11

‘Two of the four walls of his bedroom just fell down. I can’t even explain how it happened, just just fell flat. And everybody continues their day as if nothing happened!’
–CupOfManaTea

‘I was genuinely delighted to be served beans on toast for tea, at a friends. Unfortunately, I made a mess of expressing my surprise and joy to his mum, telling her that “we normally have proper food at tea-time”.

‘Luckily, she thought it was hilarious, and repeated it to my mum, who then (I was later informed) described me as a “little snob”.’
–RetiredFromIT

‘Guests had to eat the expired crisps which were kept in a bin bag under the stairs. I did think it was a little strange but went along with it. Now I’d politely refuse as they were actually stale.’
–single_fileladies

‘I had a friend who, like me, was a bit of a swot and a a good girl at school. Always tried hard, polite. We were more innocent than some of our more worldly peers.

‘I was invited to stay at her house and it was all lovely and perfectly normal and then after dinner, from nowhere, she lit a cigarette and smoked it in front of her family. I was absolutely scandalised by this. I could not comprehend it. She smoked quite a few times that evening as if it was the most normal thing.

‘The plan had been for her to stay over at mine but that was just not going to happen. I was mortified that she might just light up in my house which would NOT have gone down well at all.’
–emma_r_ta

‘My friend’s dad was in the bath with the family dog, a German Shepherd. A naked man wrestling the dog to clean her. I will have that image imprinted in my mind for life.’
–Nonce-Sense47

‘I had a friend who had budgies, like 10 of them, and I stopped going round for tea because her mam would let them out while we were eating and they’d just fly across the room and you had to really keep an eye on your plate and the birds location to avoid the shite.

‘I love animals and I love budgies but that was a high stress situation for little me.’
–bitofafixerupper