Weird stuff your family did that only became apparent later

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Loosely related to LC's thread about coded language, I'm interested in whether there were things in your family that you thought was normal, then you grew up and had the dawning realization that your family was a bit odd.
For instance: my father, normally an intelligent man, used to wear his shirts or jerseys / pullovers inside out at home, cos he claimed it'd wear out slower. the weird bit was: 1. we didn't question the logic 2. i decided, perhaps to win his favor, that i'd do likewise. for a few months at least...

― paulhw (paulhw), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

beat me for my own good

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

hoo boy, where do i begin?

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Leaving home was like leaving a planet.

I'd have to write a book about this, and it will have a wacky title that's exactly that. Leaving Home Was Like Leaving A Planet! (The Sociology of Why Our Families Are So Goddarn Weird!)

Oh, where's Erma Bombeck?

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Dude, she's dead.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I know, but where is she?

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

What do I look like, Jeanne Dixon?

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I know, but where is she?

buried in Grant's Tomb.

duh.

― Kingfish Balzac (Kingfish), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

No one's buried in Grant's Tomb.

Duh.

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:11 (twenty-one years ago)

'Mrs. Bombeck is buried in Woodland Cemetary in Dayton, Ohio'

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

What about Jeanne Dixon?

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:13 (twenty-one years ago)

What am I, Google?

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought maybe you had, y'know, connections to syndicated columnists afterlife.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

In which case my book will be LITERALLY "ghost-written" by Erma Bombeck!

*slaps my knee and tickles my ribs and guffaws while choking on unsalted peanuts*

Oh, I can't take it. I better hold off on this week's "Life In These United States" section of this week's Reader's Digest or else I'll give myself a stroke!

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Worst kink ever.

― Tep (ktepi), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

go to my favorite website, findagrave.com

― Magic City (ano ano), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

My mother hid the phone and biscuits in her handbag.

I do too. It's a hard habit to break.

― penelope_11, Tuesday, 6 April 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not nice to try to confuse your mother like that.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

What Jody said. My whole family are confused and nuts and misguided, but it all seems very normal when you're living with them!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 21:28 (twenty-one years ago)

"Remember, you can never really trust anyone outside your immediate family. And never tell anyone outside the family what goes on in the house. Ever."

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Tuesday, 6 April 2004 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Locked the dalmation in the basement.

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Had smurf-blue carpeting.

― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

My family isn't weird. The rest of the world is. Hell, at least we had an excuse. "This is the way that they do it in England/South Africa/Wherever it was that we lived before that isn't here."

(And Mary, you were not the only family to lock dalmations in the basement. Bear in mind, it was a very big basement, but it was the only place in the house that there was nothing he could CHEW TO RIBBONS when we weren't home. Wood-working vice. Yeah, chew on that, Wonder.)

― Super-Kate (kate), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 06:55 (twenty-one years ago)

The talking Christmas tree that was so cold, it needed the little kids to rub its branches.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 07:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I looked at this thread title and inexplicably burst into tears.

― David A. (Davant), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 07:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh and DALMATIAN, DALMATIAN, DALMATIAN. They come from Dalmatia, innit.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 07:08 (twenty-one years ago)

My parents are naturists, but I was well aware this was weird.

(They started when I was about 5 years old. My introduction to it was: "we're going on holiday to a place where you can go about without any clothes on. And you mustn't tell anyone about it!")

― caitlin (caitlin), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 08:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Walked around the house naked, never locked or closed the toilet door, had full conversations while using the toilet and thought nothing of walking in and out the bathroom while somebody else is using it.
I had no idea this was unusual until I mentioned, around age 12, that the only penis I'd ever seen was my dad's - cue horrified expressions followed by awkward silence....

xpost

God and I thought my parents were laid back...

― smee (smee), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 08:39 (twenty-one years ago)

What Smee said, down to the Dad's penis conversation. All through secondary school Dad was still walking in to have a shave while I was in the bath.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 09:24 (twenty-one years ago)

We had to ask for food when i was a child.And we always got hit with a wooden spoon or a brush.Damn that shit hurt!

― kitty, Wednesday, 7 April 2004 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, what smee said as well! Hmm.

― Crackity (Crackity Jones), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

in my home, my parents wouldn't buy scotch tape, elastic band and kitchen tissue. for some hippie reason. so i only discovered later that these things actually existed.

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 21:45 (twenty-one years ago)

haha I started a thread once on how my parents didn't buy stuff for the kitchen like ladles and spatulas and I was only in my 20s discovering these things.

― teeny (teeny), Wednesday, 7 April 2004 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

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