Look, every family is — at their core — just a big ol' collection of weirdos doing weird things.
And recently, when Reddit user lamiller0622 asked, "What does your family do that you didn’t realize was bizarre until later on in life?" it really highlighted my point.
Here are just a few of the "strangest" family stories shared:
1."My wife's family used to pass around a Tupperware container full of vitamins after dinner. Like, just random pills, as if they were mints."
2."My family would have one hotel room for seven people. I didn't realize people could afford multiple hotel rooms until I was older. Still, some of the best experiences of my life were with my huge family in one room."
3."So, my family loves mangoes. When it was mango season my dad would buy a lot of mangoes and we’d all sit around and eat mangoes in our underwear, so we wouldn’t ruin our clothes. I thought this was normal as a kid, but it seems pretty bizarre now."
4."My family didn’t refrigerate leftovers. Pizza? Goes in the oven. Turkey from Thanksgiving? Oven. Fast food? Microwave. Now that I’m older, I understand that food goes bad and I refrigerate things, but my parents still don’t. I’m surprised no one’s ever gotten seriously ill from it."
5."At Christmas, we all give each other a set of underwear and — once you receive it — you have to say, 'Oh, thank you,' stand up, and put the underwear on your head. I had to have a serious conversation with my wife after her first Christmas with us..."
6."When my family made tacos, they always put that orange Wishbone French dressing on them. I didn’t realize this wasn’t a thing until I went to a friend’s house for Taco Tuesday with her family and I asked for French dressing. They looked at me like I was crazy."
7."I thought everyone who celebrated Christmas had a whole three-day celebration starting on Dec. 23. You see, we have Ham Day on Dec. 23, Turkey Day on Dec. 24, and Christmas Breakfast on Dec. 25. We also get together New Year's Day to eat pork chops and sauerkraut."
9."My immediate family? We don't fight. There might be minor, polite disagreements, but shouting at each other? Nope. When I got married, my in-laws were CONSTANTLY at each other's throats. It was so alien to me...like, you actually hate each other?! I couldn't cope."
11."My parents call doing a load of laundry a 'zenon.' My mom will ask my dad to do 'half a zenon' if she means to just put the stuff in the washer in the dryer and don't start a new load. Or a 'full zenon' is moving everything over, folding stuff in the dryer, and starting a new load."
13."When I was younger, my grandpa told my cousins and I that if we put fireflies under rocks, the next day there would be a quarter waiting for us, like a tooth fairy for fireflies. Told this to a few people years later who looked absolutely horrified. Apparently not everyone’s grandpa supports squishing fireflies under rocks for quarters?"
14."We have the 'Blue Binder.' It lists all sorts of aches and pains, and tells you what 'emotional' or 'ancestral' issue is causing that pain...my mom still swears by this."
15."My parents sleep in different beds and have for as long as I can remember. Not because they don't love each other, but my dad snores VERY loud, so that's a no-no for my mom."
16."To keep me from watching too much TV, my dad told me that we had a 'one-hour limit' on our TV viewing as a family. As in, we paid for one hour of TV per day and, if we watched any more than that, we would be charged extra. When I started going to friends' houses where the TV was always on, I just figured they had more money than we did. Eventually, I asked a friend 'how much TV time' they paid for, and she just looked at me like I was nuts."
17."When we watched movies as a family, we would discuss what was happening, what we thought of the characters, and any other random things that we thought of during the movie. When I would watch movies at my friend's house, they found this VERY annoying. I didn't realize people just sat in complete silence for two hours."
Now it's your turn! What's the weirdest thing your family does that you used to believe was totally "normal" (whatever "normal" means, TBH). Share your story in the comments below!
