It’s no secret that every family has its own weird little quirks and traditions. Yet, there are some seemingly normal households who communicate on a whole new level of weird. While often such behavior seems natural to them, outsiders often see it as completely bizarre.

In this viral thread, user TheCastro asked what’s “the creepiest thing” people have seen other families do without realizing how strange it was, and thousands of replies started pouring in. Whether it’s mandatory cuddle time or weekly family adult movie nights, these stories sit pretty high on the oddness scale.

Bored Panda took some of the wildest answers from the post, so continue scrolling and upvote your favorite ones. Also, if you’ve encountered anything similar, be sure to share it with us in the comment section below.

#1

I knew a girl in high school whose parents were obsessed with dinner plates. They had such a huge collection of collectible plates in their house that every room was full of them on display. Their entire house was basically a library set up for these things. Her bedroom was a mattress on the floor surrounded by display cases of plates. You couldn’t even lean on any wall, they were all like this.

The last time I went over there, I knocked one off the wall by mistake. I caught it and it didn’t even break, but my God the rage her dad flew into was f*cking horrifying. He was inches away from punching me. Never went back! They tried to nervously laugh it off like, “Haha, good ol’ Dad being funny, hahaha!”

The one time I asked my friend why they had so many, she want on a passionate tangent about all the cool plates they had and why they were so awesome. It went on for an hour. I never asked again because hearing about neat dishware for an hour was like torture.

Image credits: EastLondon12

#2

My friend’s mom used to bust in on her daughter’s friends using the bathroom and quickly snap a picture. She proudly showed me the photo album of random kids using the toilet looking surprised/confused as hell. Didn’t really kick in how f*cked up that was until later in life.

Image credits: Smackofham

#3

Whenever the father would come home from work or some errand, every family member would greet him by the door, and then stand around silently for a minute or so, blankly starring into space as if they were thinking about their next move. Then, the father would go sit in the same spot, and they would follow and sit down… there was absolute dead silence during dinnertime, and they always ate the exact same meal each night.

The mother also saved the children’s dried-off belly buttons (the small piece of the umbilical cord that dries and falls off) and every tooth that fell or that was extracted. The children’s hairs were tied into knots or braided and hung around multiple parts of the house.

Image credits: Happykittykat

#4

I got to know this one dude in junior high through a mutual friend and he seemed like a pretty cool guy. So, I went to his house a couple of times to play video games, ride bikes, etc. I met his parents who seemed… kind of “different.” I couldn’t put my finger on it, until…

We were playing games one day, and his dad stepped in front of the TV and said, “Well, this is weekly family adult movie night. We always let one of the kids pick out a video from the store and we watch it together. Wanna stay longer?”

Even though I was a young boy, that was just too much for me. The thought of him, his sister, and parents all watching porn together freaked me out. I didn’t stay.

Image credits: Iliketotravel

#5

I hung out and played with these three siblings. They were all pretty normal kids, but the mom seemed kind of clingy. During the summer we would play outside a lot; baseball, hockey, go karts, swimming, the norm.

Every single day at about 12:00 pm, the mom would call the kids back to the house, one at a time. They would have to go inside for about a half-hour, and would then come out while the next kid would go in. Never thought too much about it, until one day I was actually in their house with them and found out why she called them.

She had mandatory cuddle time with each of the kids. They would lie on the couch and she would spoon them in the quiet for about 30 minutes each. Weirdest thing I’ve ever encountered.

Image credits: NotABoss0814

#6

Something that I have witnessed for years only began to hit me as the realization slowly unfolded. A family that I visited frequently (all adult children who still live with their parents) would coincidentally always have the same movie on every single time I visited. They all huddled around as though they are watching it for the first time.

Once, when I actually stayed over for a longer duration, the TV was finally turned off when the movie ended, only to be turned on again and the “play” button pressed for the same movie. I finally realized that this movie is watched multiple times a day, every single day, almost like a ritual, and all the members of the family react the same way to the same scene repeatedly as if they have never seen it before.

…for all those asking what movie, it was called Just Ask My Children [about a couple accused of child exploitation].

Image credits: Happykittykat

#7

I had a good friend in elementary school. They lived in a farm house that looked like it belonged to the Adams Family. Every wall in this house had a crucifix on it. Not a small handheld-size crucifix, these were two or three feet tall. On EVERY WALL; bathroom, bedrooms, closets.

They had a room upstairs that we were forbidden to go into, so of course we had to sneak in and see. I didn’t know why it was forbidden, but it was basically a Vatican-style church chapel complete with burnt offerings, candles, pews, alter, and [a] six-foot-tall crucifix with Jesus hanging on it. But this was not the most WTF thing.

They had a cuckoo clock they called the “prayer clock.” The clock had the 12 disciples for the numbers on [the] dial. I never knew what came out of the clock on the hour (probably Jesus), but every single hour that clock would go off. My friend’s mother would round up all the kids and make us write thank you prayers and place them in the “prayer jar.”

We had to write down thank you notes to Jesus for everything we did in the last hour… If we were playing with Legos and had a snack, I would have to write down, “Thank you, Jesus, for letting me play Legos and eating string cheese.” His mom would read them and usually would have us edit them, saying things like, “You had apple juice, too, you don’t think Jesus would be sad if you didn’t thank him for the apple juice, too?”

By about 4th grade, I refused to go over anymore. It was just too weird, especially since their mom had just had a new baby and they “didn’t believe in diapers.” They let the kid crawl around naked and piss/sh*t on everything.

Twenty-four years later, what happened to the kids? The roaming pissing/sh*tting baby became a Catholic priest, the second youngest moved out and is a transsexual “entertainer,” and the oldest (my friend) became a programmer in Silicon Valley. The father eventually left the mother.

Image credits: Dotelpenguin

#8

I was babysitting for a girl and noticed weird furs on her bed. She explained to me very matter-of-factly that they were her cats. Her parents skinned her pet cats after they died (presumably of natural causes) and put the pelts on her bed. That was the only time I babysat for them.

Image credits: Wawawawawawawa27

#9

In my first few weeks of high school I made a new friend who quickly invited me to his house. He and his family were extremely down to earth, normal people it seemed. When we sat down at the table I dont remember the finer details of the meal but.. after a while I noticed my friend and his younger brother licking every last crumb and bit of sauce from the plate, nothing out of the ordinary I thought, long day I supposed. This was until an hour later, when his mother brought my dirty plate into his room and demanded to know who hadn’t licked their plate clean. My friend nervously pointed at me. She was furious and asked how the next person was supposed to eat from it if I had not licked it clean. She left the room, surely what I was thinking couldnt be true? I asked my friend if they actually wash their plates and he replied ‘of course, we use our tounges so the next person can use it?’ Needless to say, I never returned to that house.

Image credits: QuiteQuiet__

#10

There was a family of girls I went to church with and none of them were allowed to cut their hair. They had to wait until they were 16 so they wouldn’t get a haircut they’d regret, because the mother had. They also weren’t allowed to talk at the dinner table.

One time one of the daughters was laughing at something and coughed on her food. The mom was afraid of one of them choking and dying, so talking was banned. No one told me that when I came over for dinner. I just talked and they all stared at me.

Image credits: Berinnaa

#11

My best friend’s family has a life-size cardboard cutout of Sarah Michelle Gellar. They would adorn it with accessories like scarves and sunglasses, then hide it just behind closed doors and around corners to scare each other and their guests with it. I was caught by it many times, and it was always a laugh hearing a random loud gasp or scream in the house.

Image credits: dzybala

#12

I went to this guy’s house once after school. I wasn’t friends with him, but we were assigned to a project together. We’ll call him Gary. Anyways, we were working on this project when he excused himself to use the restroom. Fifteen minutes later, he returned. A little while later, I decided to use the restroom while he was making snacks.

I walked into the bathroom and behold! Before my eyes, floating like a manatee through the brown estuaries of Florida, was the result of Gary’s earlier bathroom excursion. I shrugged it off (I mean, we all forget at least once, right?), flushed for him, took a leak, flushed again, and went to work on the project.

Gary’s mom gets home from work a couple hours later. She nods to us and says hello politely before heading towards the back of the house. A few seconds later she returns to the kitchen where we were working and screams, “WHERE IS IT?” I jump and am confused, so I shoot a “WTF” look to Gary. Gary muttered, “It wasn’t me, it was [name of Redditor].” His mom glared at me, huffed, and walked out.

Gary later explained that every day after school, he would take a dump and was required to leave it in the toilet so his mom could check it. He wasn’t even sick or anything, she just wanted to check it to make sure he was healthy or something.

I never went back to Gary’s house.

Image credits: [deleted]

#13

I knew a family that used breastmilk for cooking. After they had their third child, and when the mother was still lactating, they stored a bunch of her breastmilk in the freezer and on special occasions the family would use it in cookies and stuff. I tried not to ask about it too much because they had very strong opinions about its health benefits, but it always creeped me tf out

Image credits: justinsboyd

#14

The act itself isn’t creepy, but I was very creeped out until I realized what was happening. I was at my SO’s house, and her mom was cooking and said, “I think it’s about that time.” Immediately the entire family (mom, dad, and six siblings) started simultaneously mumbling something I couldn’t understand. After they finished and saw the look on my face, my SO said they just said grace, but everybody is in a rush to eat which is why I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I thought they were going to sacrifice me.

Image credits: rssmitty13

#15

I knew a family that would all suck their thumbs when they watched the television. I never went back over to their house.

Image credits: [deleted]

#16

Growing up my best friends family didn’t have traditional snacks like fruit rollups, gushers, etc. They ate sticks of butter. Sticks of f**king butter. Whenever they offered me some I always told them I wasn’t hungry. They had multiple packages of butter in the fridge and freezer. They didn’t consume the entire stick rather would cut off pieces. They weren’t poor, they weren’t fat, but they were f**king crazy.

Image credits: Holein5

#17

My sister dated this guy in high school for a couple years. He had the biggest helicopter parents in the world. He would call to see if my sister was around, and then his whole family would show up (mom, dad and sister) would be with him. It was almost like they were going somewhere and dropping him off, except they would come inside and crash in the living room for hours while they waited on him. I felt so bad for the kid cause he was 17-18 y/o and his parents would 3rd wheel him everywhere.

Image credits: Fatisbac

#18

“Okay. Brace yourselves.

I went on a picnic/barbecue thing with this family. Mom, dad, three or four kids, i don’t remember. We light the barbecue and start preparing food. The main attraction is chicken wings. Yum. The wings are covered in sauce. They are placed on the barbecue and the mother tends to them. After a forever, the food is ready. She brings the huge platter of chicken wings, sets them on the blanket. Everyone is taking plates, fixing drinks for themselves etc. The woman picks up a chicken wing. Holds it with two hands, as you do, and starts licking it. She’s licking it, turning it over, keeps licking. I think, ‘umm weird, but okay’.’ Then she puts it back on the platter. I am stunned. She picks up another one. Does the same. Puts it back. All the while, she’s talking. Saying things like ‘alright kids, come on, get your chicken wings, eat’.’ As if… she’s preparing the wings for our consumption by licking them. I am still in shock. I can’t say anything. I’m looking at everyone else. No one, none of them is reacting. There is no sign on anyone’s faces that something weird is going on. She licks and licks and licks and they just eat it.

I had salad that day.”

Image credits: tfdoido

#19

Went to a friend’s house when I was 17. She asked her mom for a snack and her mom brought out a huge raw white onion completely slathered in mayo on a plate and she and my friend just went at it with their forks like it was filet mignon. 3 years later and I still think about that s**t from time to time.

Image credits: epolenep88

#20

Growing up my friends family just [urinated] in one big bottle on road trips and would never stop like no emergency bottle type thing like they’d just go in the jar whenever. I only rode with them ONCE.

Image credits: notjawn

#21

My family collected “dead people cards”. When my grandparents would go to funerals they would get those obituary cards with pictures and stuff and collect them. I think it started out as getting them for memory purposes but then they’d get them for other people, and it became like a card game. My grandparents and their friends would “trade them” and they coveted the ones that had misspellings or limited edition more. Like his one mans name was “haze” but they misspelled it as “hazel” and the ones before the funeral home reprinted them were kind of showed off as a novelty. I didn’t realize it was weird for ever, and moms still in denial that it was weird. We had to throw out BOXES of dead people cards when my grandparents died and their stilling living friends actually got mad that we didn’t distribute them again. Wtf

Image credits: LadyProto

#22

I used to have to go overnight to my babysitter’s house since my dad worked the midnight shift. When it came time for a bath, they would run the water, Dad would have a bath, then mom, then the oldest girl, then the two little ones.

Without ever draining and running new water. They would just each bathe in each other’s dirty water.

Image credits: psyclopes

#23

I once went to my friend’s house for her birthday party when I was [in] middle school… The family was super weird. All the walls were painted these horrific pastel colors and every single room had at least one photograph of Jesus, if not multiple.

Anyway, we’re all hanging out at the party and the mother comes up to me and very sternly tells me she would like a word with me. First, she was mad at me because, “We do not swear in this house.”

Okay, but I [had] said, “Jeez.”

Second, [she said,] “We do not frown in this house.” If you weren’t constantly smiling, you were in trouble.

Image credits: KitchenSwillForPigs

#24

A friend from high school theater used to invite me over to her family’s house all the time. Her mom collected large vintage dolls like child-sized ballerinas, Victorian girls, and this one overly-happy clown. They’d dress it up in their own clothing and place it around the house like it was a family joke [and] that it was “alive.”

They also collected and played didgeridoos as a family group. It sounds cool, but they were all pretty odd individuals.

Image credits: 0w1

#25

I have an ex whose family would literally burn any meat they cooked for dinner. Chicken, fish, steak; all completely burned. They were terrified about bacteria on their food. I got them to cook my steak medium-well (less burned, but still above well) once, but I got some serious looks of disgust.

The mother also forced me to draft a living will and instructed me on the proper way to seal a room to protect from a very likely chemical attack with duct tape and plastic sheeting.

Image credits: slaytallica36

#26

I had a close childhood friend whose mom insisted that we treat their dogs like people. Whenever I went round there I had to “greet” these two cocker spaniels, say goodbye to them when I left, say “excuse me” if I walked past one of the dogs in the hallways. Stuff like that.

Sometimes we’d be eating dinner and having a conversation and the mom would try to “include” the dogs by asking their opinions and we’d all sit there in silence like idiots until she decided they’d had enough time to reply, which they never did, being dogs.

There was other stuff with those dogs but I don’t really want to relive it right now. Not the weirdest thing ever, but weird enough.

Image credits: Name_Withheld

#27

My best friends family growing up… They all slept on the living room floor together. (The mom, dad, two teens, two toddlers, 2 dogs and a cat). Their house was so full of clutter, none of the kids had their own room. They ate, played and slept in the living room. It was so hot in that room everytime I stayed over, none of them used blankets. They used their favorite stuffed animal as a pillow and that was it! I bought my friend (age 13) a sleeping bag and pillow for her birthday and she cried- she was so happy. Really sad now that I think back on it…

#28

I had a friend who would never let me come over to his house. I didn’t know why because I’d met his mother and father and knew his siblings and they seemed like a very happy normal family and they had a nice home which I’d see often from the outside and inside through the living room window a couple times. One time however I managed to convince him to ask his mother if we could have a sleep over and she said yes. After a few moments of being there I realised why he was reluctant to let anyone over.

There were locks on every single door in the house. But not only that, every door required a different key and there was a set of keys for each door for each member of the six person family. In the Entrance Hall alone there must of been 30 keys on a rack.

To give one “short” example of how to get to the Bathroom from the Living Room and back again, you would have to:

Take Living Room – Entrance Hall key from its specific place in the Living Room.

Unlock the Entrance Hall door. Go through then lock the door behind you.

Store the Living Room – Entrance Hall key in its specific place in the Entrance Hall.

Take Bathroom key from its specific place in the Entrance Hall.

Unlock the Bathroom door. Go through then lock the door behind you.

Unlock the Bathroom door. Go through then lock the door behind you.

Store the Bathroom door key in its specific place in the Entrance Hall.

Take the Living Room – Entrance Hall key from its specific place in the Entrance Hall.

Unlock the Living Room door. Go through then lock the door behind you.

Place the Living Room – Entrance Hall key in its specific place in the living room.

Every. Single. Time. And it was a large house. Sometimes requiring going through 3 or 4 doors to reach the room you wanted.

It honestly felt like I was playing real life Resident Evil, collecting keys to open doors to progress. My friend was the only one who found it slightly embarasing his sisters and brother and parents didn’t seem to think it was odd at all. I asked my friend why it was like that and he just said his Mother thought it was safer for them all that way. I never stayed over again and all sleepovers after that were conducted at my house.

Image credits: HarleyQuinn_RS

#29

I am told it is a little disconcerting at first, but people warm up to my very mixed family.

Here is the background, both of my parents have divorced parents that never spoke to each other and never wanted to be like that when they divorced. So we have large family get togethers where all my siblings and all my step siblings hang out with my mom, dad, step dad, and stepmom. This includes international vacations, various birthday parties, and Valentine’s Day. We just all get along and we are from a small town. It’s especially helpful because last year my stepmom was paralyzed from the chest down and my mom helps take care of her.

#30

One family all sharing the same toothbrush.

#31

Not really creepy, but kinda weird and funny. I used to go to this guy’s house after school, I was probably 11/12 at the time. His mom had all these crazy rules about everything, one of them was that we could only have our afternoon snack at 4.30, or she’d go ape s**t, whether it was 4.27 or 4.35. She would actually look at the clock before letting us eat, and my friend had his little alarm clock set to go off at 4.30 to make sure he wouldn’t miss snack time, crazy stuff.

But wait, it gets weirder. She kept two sets of snacks in the pantry. One for her kids, and one for her kid’s friends. Her own kids would get the nice stuff, and plenty of it (we’re talking stuff that my 12 year old self absolutely loved – immense jars of Nutella, crepes, brioches, all sorts of delicious pastries…). Her kid’s friends would only get a handful of the no brand budget stuff, and she would keep an eye on us to make sure we weren’t given any of the good stuff. Oh and this is a wealthy family we’re talking about…

#32

This was not my experience, but my aunt’s. It was back in the 1950s when my aunt was a teenager.

She was hired by a couple to babysit. She’d never babysat for this couple before, but she was impressed because they were fairly wealthy and lived in a big house. The two small children (around five and six years old) were well-dressed and well-behaved. My aunt spent the day with them, fed them, played with them, etc. That evening she got them ready for bed. The parents were due back later that night.

My aunt heard some sounds coming from an upstairs closet. The children were in bed asleep. She opened the closet and found a crib, and in the crib was a baby. Both the crib and the baby were filthy. I think my aunt woke up the children and asked them about the baby, but their answers were vague. I don’t recall my aunt having any luck getting information about the baby from the two older children.

My aunt cleaned the baby up. She washed the bedding. I remember her telling me that the baby didn’t really make much sound other than the little grunts that had drawn her attention to… the closet. She probably tried to feed the baby, but I don’t remember that part of the story.

According to my aunt, the parents came home, paid her, thanked her, took the baby, and the dad drove her home. She never babysat for them again, and she has no idea what happened to the baby…

Image credits: wanttoplayball

#33

Uhhhh, this is actually abuse, and my mom did call CPS on them, but I’ll say it anyway.

We knew a family growing up that the father would time their showers, literally 15 seconds under cold water, he would stand there and watch and then grab them out, one after the other.

They were not allowed to poop in the house. He had toilet paper for emergencies and guests. If they HAD to poop, he would pass them 5 squares of TP total, and watch them wipe. They trained themselves to only poop at school and church.

Summer would get to be 100 and still not air or fans in their bedroom, no open windows.

Probably about 20 more insane rules. Weird food rules. Very very very sad.

#34

Thinking eating ketchup packets for a snack was normal. F**king gross and they would feed their middle school children baby food and they loved that s**t.

#35

We had a family friend whose dad would take cuddling and kissing with his 2 daughters to another level. Like they’re both in college now and they still sit on his lap, cuddle up and kiss him all over (cheeks, neck, lip pecks, etc…) all in public. It’s not the first time I saw something like this but it’s probably the worst case.

#36

A friend of mine is a house appraiser in New Jersey. He walks into the living room of one particular client’s house, and there is a glass coffin in the living room with the body of a woman preserved inside, like Lenin. The guy says it’s his mother. My friend said it was the fastest he ever appraised a house in his entire career.

Image credits: usscakes

#37

Not drinking anything with dinner. They would have dinner, then after dinner someone would bring out a pitcher of water and glasses and they’d sit around the table, all drink their glasses of water without talking, put them down, and walk away.

#38

A family in our small town neighborhood were very odd. There were about 300 kids at the school which was k through 12th grade. So everybody knew everybody pretty well. Most people in the town were very normal open and friendly. The kids of this family seemed very normal, if maybe a little sweet/innocent/naive. The parents were weird as hell.

When you went to knock on the door to see if a kid could come out to play or go to a school function or whatever, the mother and father would only open the door a crack. And they would look at you like they knew you were definitely up to no good. You would only see half of their face at most. The windows were all very heavily curtained. Most of the time the kids were not allowed out for anything other than school or church. A very controlling household. The mother was such a shut in I only think I saw her once in a year.

Their 15 year old daughter started secretly banging an 18 year old friend of mine and got pregnant. By secretly I mean they’d sneak off at school and at church and at other strange timed because she wasn’t allowed to date. Not that she should have been allowed to date an 18 year old, but kids in this family were not allowed to date period. They ended up getting married right away, and he told me how weird s**t was in that house for his wife growing up.

No movies. No tv. No music. Not unless it was church related. Mostly for religious reasons, but we were all Mormon in that town, and every other Mormon family isn’t like that at all. Every time they came back into the house the kids would have to bathe immediately. If you went out, two or three times in a day? You bathed two or three times. All the kids were all given very regular enemas. Like at least once a week. This was not because of some digestive issue, but because, “harmful metals are everywhere and are constantly being absorbed into the human body.” The enemas were supposed to be somehow be leeching out the metal and keeping them metal free and healthy. They had all kinds of weird remedies they would take to help fight the metals, but homeopathic type nonsense isn’t that uncommon. Multiple enemas a week for children and babies? That’s super odd. Oh and the parents were the ones administering these enemas. To children ranging from 5 to 15 years old. Maybe I’m a prude, but I can’t imagine finding my mother and father taking turns lubing up and inserting an enema tube into my 15 year old ass on a regular basis, when I have no discernible health problems, normal.

The 15 year old probably got pregnant so young because she wanted out of the controlling household. But the brainwashing had taken its hold. She kept giving her newborn baby special enemas because she was afraid of the metals making it sick. My friend argued with her about it, but she’d just do it when he was at work anyway. They eventually got divorced over these kinds of strange medical issues. So now the kid only gets the enemas half of the year.

TLDR – y’all are probably dying from trace metal build up because you didn’t get enough enemas as newborn baby.

#39

My freaking cousins ruined all the pizza at the funeral home for my grandpa’s visitation. Some kind lady bought us 6 pizzas to eat when we got a chance. I was finally able to get in to take a break and opened the box. One bite was taken out of every piece. I thought it was a gag, so open the next box. One bite taken from each piece. Every pizza pie had a hole in the middle because my cousins family only likes the very first bite of pizza (the tip). They thought it was okay to take one bite of all 48 slices and put the slices back for somebody else to finish.

#40

My neighbors don’t let their kids have any condiments on their food. No ketchup on a hot dog or burger. No mayo on sandwiches. When I asked why, the wife went on this rant about how kids don’t get choices and they can have ketchup when they move out of the f**king house and get a job.

The really odd part is this is literally the only thing withheld from them. The kids have xboxes and bikes and toys and nice clothes and everything else they could want in the world… but they gotta eat their hamburgers dry.

#41

The parents of one of my sister’s friends stuffed their dog. He was a little old dog when he died and they stuffed him. Now it’s in their house like a teddy bear.

Image credits: [deleted]

#42

I went to elementary school with this really nice girl. She was the eldest of 4 girls, all perfectly healthy and beautiful. Kids were laughing at her because she was smelling really bad. I talk to her about it and she told me that her Mother makes her wear the same cloths for a week before washing them.
Her Mother was really busy praying to have a son. She was in the Church at 6am every morning and spend a lot of time there, always praying to have a son. Well the “miracle” happened and she had a son. That’s all they could talk about. It was like Jesus himself was reborn. It was weird.
Maybe 2-3 ago I saw her in the bus. The first thing she told me (after not seeing each other for maybe 30 years) was “Did you know I have a brother?” I was speechless…

#43

I went on vacation with my buddy when we were kids. They weren’t religious but before ever meal they would all say the same chant about being a better person and trying your best. It was really creepy because they would all say it in the same monotone voice.

It turned out the mom was just tired of everyone eating before she got to the table so she made up the tradition.

#44

When we would all go out to family outings, my cousin’s cousins would often come along. When we would go to water parks, their parents would make them strip and change in public. This wouldn’t have been weird if the kids were like 3-5 years old, but they did this to them up until the age of 12 or so. An age where they were mature enough to know modesty, and you could see how humiliated they were.

#45

When I was a teenager my best friend’s brother thought nothing of coming into the room she and I were watching TV in and pulling his junk out of his underwear and waving it around.

This was weird enough when he was 9, but he was still doing it when he was at least 12. The parents didn’t seem to notice or care beyond occasionally telling him to “put it away”.

#46

I worked at Pizza Hut for years and there was this one family that would the exact same thing time they came in. It would not be weird but they would dine in every day sometimes twice a day. They would order a Hawaiian stuffed crust pizza Cinnamon Sticks. and Mountain Dew every single time. It at times honestly felt like I was living through Ground Hog Day. The kicker is they came in so much that their daughter named their black cat after me. I’m black…..

#47

I was about seven or eight [when] I used to play with this girl that lived a few houses down and across the street. I live in a cookie-cutter, very safe, and fairly decent neighborhood, across the street from the high school, but her mother never let us play outside because “there could be a drive-by.” Any car we saw driving by could be someone with a gun and could very easily shoot us and kill us. She also never let us play in the living room near the windows for that same reason.

Another time I was over there playing with my friend and the mom pulled me aside. She pointed to a truck she saw parked outside my house on the curb (my uncle’s truck). She told me that it’s actually probably a burglar and he was inside my house killing my family at that moment. She wouldn’t let me go home either for the fear of me also getting killed. She finally let me go home after my mom called later and requested I come home for dinner.

That family is still crazy, even 13 years later.

#48

That just reminded me of a guy I very briefly dated. His mom would do stuff like lock us in his bedroom together and make creepy comments when she finally unlocked it later.

Never had sex with the guy, I was too creeped out and the relationship was very short. I definitely got the impression the mom was trying to trick me into getting pregnant.

#49

An ex-girlfriend’s family used to make food with no salt because they said it was bad. They went out to dinner almost every night.

#50

The father would walk around in his underwear after work. As in, you couldn’t come to the house and ring the doorbell, because the dad would be pulling a Breaking Bad and be in underpants only.

They were a weird kind of super religious where you couldn’t sing “it’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man is snoring” because they thought it insulted god. I was quite young when we were friends with their kids, so finding out the underwear thing was really bizzare for me. No one in my house did that.

#51

When we were in high school my best friend’s dad did some seriously creep stuff.

*When we were 13, he gave her a large diamond engagement ring and told her she was forbidden to get married until she found a man who could buy her a nicer one. Wth? We were 13, we didn’t want to marry anyone. We spent most of our time playing N64 and riding bikes.

*When everyone started dating, she wasn’t allowed. Finally she was very excited and said her Dad had had a vision from God that she was allowed to date now. I’m religious, so I’m not knocking religion, but dude, that didn’t happen.

*Came to a school dance and pinned the boy she was dancing with against the wall. Police were called. Dad was banned from school campus and all school functions. Even graduation.

Her mom never said a word that I heard. My friend was embarrassed by it, but more in a “omg, dads! LOL” way rather than a “wth this is creepy as s**t” way. She had 2 brothers, and they were allowed to do whatever they wanted.

#52

A white woman, with two white sons, two adopted young black children and no husband used to come into this fast food place I worked at. The mother and sons looked straight out of the 50’s, her adopted children did not look as well-kept. She owned a popular Christian pizza buffet in town, they even printed bible quotes on the napkins.

The sons would come up, order the same thing every time. Same for the mom, same thing every single time. She would always point to her adopted children and say, “They don’t need anything. Please don’t give us anything for them.” (We once paid for two kids meals for them. She was furious.)

They would return to the table, and would demand we bring them their food. Seriously, it would sit there for 20 minutes if we didn’t bring it out to them. They would pray, eat, sit there for ages and leave. The black kids always looked so sad. I never understood why she refused them food.

#53

I’m seeing a lot of overly affectionate families here, but my buddy gets to me with his lack of affection. Rather than Mom or Dad or something similar, he refers to his parents on a first name basis. It’s Doug and Karen. When asked why, he looks at me like I’m a crazy person and responds, “Those are their names..?” I don’t know why it threw me off so hard.

#54

My family was that weird family. From like 3-7 I would only wear my underwear when I was home (I felt free and comfortable that way). So as soon as I’d get home from anywhere I’d strip down to my panties and it didn’t matter who was at our house, be it my friends, my sibling’s friends, relatives, or friends of my parent. My family acted like it was completely normal. I’m sure people thought we were weird as hell.

#55

There was this girl I went to camp with once when I was younger, and after a while we became good friends. After the camp ended, she invited me over to her house to play video games. When I got there and knocked on the door, her Mom answered. But there was one obvious obscurity – She was completely naked! My mouth dropped open and I said “Oops! Sorry, wrong house!”

I found out later from the girl that her family consisted of nudists, unless they were to go out in public.

At the age I’m at now, I regret not entering.

#56

I used to go over to this kid, Neil’s house when I was in 4th or 5th grade. His entire family, including Neil would sometimes leave and go run errands, leaving me alone there. They also would tell my parents that I was invited for dinner, but then leave me in the basement to play video games by myself while they all ate.

I never complained because Sega Genesis.

#57

I knew a guy who was the oldest of 12 children (he was 20 at the time). He told me that a few months after his mom would have a baby his parents would go on a “hotel date” and when they did, all the kids would get excited and talk to each other about if he’s gonna get her pregnant. And then they would all bug the mom about it until a few weeks later when she would announce she was pregnant and all the kids would be so excited about it.

#58

Not sure if this is creepy or just…flat out disgusting.

When I was about 14 or 15 I would go over to this girl’s house (I am also female) and we would hang out, blah, blah, blah. One day she came out of her parent’s room with something in her mouth. At first I didn’t realize what it was but once she sat back down on the couch, I saw that it was a f**king vibrator. In her mouth. On. I kind of flipped s**t and asked her what the hell she was doing. She said her gums hurt, so she was massaging them.

The bad/sad/disgusting/weird thing was that she didn’t even know it was a vibrator. She found it in her parent’s room one day and thought it was for your teeth/gums. On top of that, her parents knew she used it for that purpose because they walked in and talked to her while she had it in her mouth. I didn’t go back.

#59

I remember it was when Euro 2004 happened. I went to a friend’s house for a sleepover. I was 12 years old then. So we go to his house where his and my mom dropped us there and left. His dad was there though. I never liked this man. Anyway, he welcomed us with the most unwelcoming manner, like he hated to have me for sleepover. We proceeded to his room, and played on his PS2. After half an hour, his dad enters the room and says “ok I think its about time Michael” (my friend)

So Michael sits up and unplugs the PS2 and hands it to his father, who takes it and places it on top of a high shelf. Then, the dad makes a hug gesture, like welcoming Michael to hug him, saying “speak the words” and Michael hugs his father saying “thanks father for reminding me to be moderate with distractions from the real life.”

The hug ends, he nods us to go to sleep. I went to sleep totally weirded out due to the happening, and cause my child brain back then felt bad for playing PS2 like it was bad.

The next morning we wake up, eat and greet his mother who was there. Michael goes to his father and knees before him and says “please father can I be distracted for a while?” His mother was making coffee like it was totally normal to have her son knee in fron of her husband and beg for his joy as if it was a sin. His father looks at me, then to Michael and goes and brings down the PS2 like it was the worst thing he had to do.

I didn’t even touch the controller. I was totally uncomfortable in there.

Never sleepovered there again.

Never.

Ever.

#60

Was just beginning to see this girl in highschool, we’ll call her Sara. After a few weeks she invited me over to her house for dinner. Classic valley family, pretty Christian , all blonde, Dads a construction worker, moms a hairdresser, live on a dirt road.
Anyway so my mom drops me off at their place all the way out of town. I meet them, we chat, everythings going well as we talk about current events. Since it’s early November of 2012, I start joking about how stupid it is that people think the world is going to end next month.
“SHUT UP”
You could hear a pin drop after that comment. Total silence. Sara is just glaring at me, her sister staring at her dad who is also staring at me. And I mean the angry dad stare. Oh f**k, what did I do. Then her mom starts bawling and leaves the table. “Whats wrong?” I ask. “SHUT UP” her sister yells again. I excuse myself to the washroom. I know I’ve f**ked up and should just go home but teenage me is trying to think what I could do to recover this night and turn it into getting some ass. When I come out Sara is waiting for me, explains that her mom is just sensitive to the idea of big depressing death stories like those and doesn’t like how sometimes she feels like she can’t get away from it, even when the tv is off. Okay, makes sense… So I tell Sara I’m sorry, she said it’s okay and that we should just go downstairs and watch I movie in the basement. Booyaa, night recovered.
Until I went to said basement.
THE ENTIRE PLACE WAS STOCKED FOR THE END OF THE WORLD. GUNS, FOOD, RAFTS, MAPS, EVERYTHING. I tried to play it off and ask what they were for, hoping a sane answer. “For when God will wash the wrong. We’re just being prepared” She replied.
I walked 20 miles home down the highway that night.

#61

I had a friend whose family would never close, let alone lock the door even when taking a s**t, so he’d be curling one out and his parents would come in and brush their teeth or whatever as if it was normal. I burst in on his mother having a piss one time and she just said ‘won’t be a minute’. Waaaat?

#62

I went to elementary school with this girl and every year she would have a big sleepover with all the girls in the class (only about 10 girls. It was a small school.). Anyways her parents believed in an early bed time, which isn’t crazy. However they also were super paranoid about robbers and had the most intense security system I’ve ever seen. This system was very sensitive and her parents would turn it on after everyone got into their sleeping bags. You were not allowed to get up during he night. You couldn’t even roll around without setting the thing off. They would send people to bed at 7pm and expect all the kids to be silent and still until the morning.

Every year someone would move, the alarm would blare, and the dad would run downstairs with his shotgun while the mom called the cops. Every. Single. Year.

#63

An old friend’s mum was completely paranoid that Al Qaeda would storm the small British town they lived in…Her solution? Have a massive bomb shelter built under their house. Not the weird part, though. About about 5 times a year, she would spend literally thousands and thousands of pounds on groceries to stock the shelter with. By this, I mean she would genuinely buy out the whole supermarket (it would take her about 20 trips over a week). Not just canned food, but perishables, too…I only found this out by sleeping over on one of her ‘shopping’ days, where food covered literally every single surface of their massive house. My friend just shrugged it off and was ‘oh, yeah, just restocking our bomb shelter! We always need to be ready for invasion’. Da [hell]?

#64

Not that creepy, but my ex boyfriend used to call his mom whenever he was stressed so that she could assure him that everything would be ok. He used to send her messages like “is everything going to be ok, mom?” and she’d reply with “don’t worry, you’ll be ok”. He was 28 at the time. He also gave her all his passwords so she could access his bank accounts and take care of his finances. And he got sent to a really cool destination for work for two weeks and spent the entire time moping about how much he missed his family. I love my parents and all, but cmon.

#65

I was friend’s with these twin brothers in high school and they always hung out at my house. Well one day they invited me to their house which was in the neighborhood. I go inside and the house is a mess, which I had no problem with because my house has a lot of clutter as well.

Everything seemed normal, we played video games until it was dinner time. They invited me to stay for dinner and after dinner I went into the kitchen to put my plate in the sink. That’s when I notice the huge pile of dishes, the stove was filthy and had ROACHES crawling all over it.

One of the twins came in behind me and opened the cabinet to get a glass, there were hundreds of roaches crawling all over the door, all in the glasses, and all over the plates. Plates that looked just like the one I had just ate out of! He thought it was normal, funny, even. As he opened the door he yells “It’s ALIVE!” I nearly barfed all over the floor.

I promptly turned around and left, didn’t say a word, and never spoke to them again. I saw one of them at a gas station recently, all of his teeth were brown and yellow and just a complete mess. He works at a nearby Rally’s, I no longer eat at that Rally’s.

#66

There was a weird kid in my neighbourhood named Neal. He had a club foot. That’s not what was weird it’s just sort of memorable.

Anyway we were invited to his birthday party down the street. His parents sent invites that we were to bring a present and ten dollars to cover the costs of hosting the party.

My mom was annoyed and confused but sent us with the presents and the money. We had to give the money to Neal’s parents before they let us in the house. We were each given one water balloon to throw, and exactly one slice of cake. Then we gave this kid his present and his parents sent everybody home after maybe half an hour.

#67

It’s a mom, a daughter who’s probably 16, and a younger daughter who’s probably 12. All three are always dressed alike, usually in a pink or white poodle dress, shiny black high heels, and long stockings. The youngest one usually just wears sneakers.

They all always have long white or black gloves on that usually go to their elbows. Their hair is always done up in big elaborate curls, and the older two always walk around with their hands cupped in front of them. Strange folk. All very nice and polite, but strange.

#68

I went to a friends house and we put some cartoons on. While we were watching I asked him a question but he didn’t respond, he was fixated on the TV, absolutely glued. His childminder just laughed “oh he’ll be like that all evening now”. So I just had to wait for my parents to pick me up whilst he unflinchingly watched TV for hours…

#69

Not other family, but still – one day my parents decided I’m big enough to start coming back home from school on my own. But apparently I wasn’t old enough to get my own set of keys. I used to spend 1-2 hours every day sitting on a doormat, waiting for my sister to come back from school and let me in. I was often really hungry and peed my pants at least five times. I was around 10 at the time. Our neighbours, who saw me there every day said nothing. Wonder if it was creepy for them. Oh, and we were a middle class family!

After half a year my parents decided I am trustworthy and made this big ‘funny’ ceremony of giving me the keys. Made me sign this ‘funny’ contract of the key bearer and s**t. Wasn’t that funny for me. They still sometimes make jokes about me not being responsible enough at the age of ten to even keep the keys.

#70

I went on a road trip with a friend’s family one time. It was a 5 hour drive, and the entire time, no one spoke. It was completely silent. No music, no talking, nothing. And even though they had drank tons of liquids before getting in the car, no one had to pee during that 5 hour drive. Weirdest and most unsettling drive of my life.

#71

I had a friend whose family would get the paper and the phone book, and go through crossing out the people who had died. They thought it would come in handy someday. That was how my friend justified it, but I’m certain they got some kind of twisted pleasure from it.

#72

Encouraging their teen daughters to have kids as early and as often as possible because then they could live off welfare and child support and wouldn’t need to work.

#73

My Long time friend growing up, she and her sister would walk around their house completely naked in front of there little brothers, dad and uncle… We were 15 at the time.
Source: boredpanda.com