If we think hard enough, most of us can remember a family tradition (or two!) that was pretty damn weird.
Well, a viral Reddit thread asked people to share the weirdest thing their family does that they always thought was normal, and I swear, I had literal tears:
1. "In my family, if you took a bite of dinner that was too hot, the rest of the family would blow in your mouth until it cooled off."
2. "My dad used to whip out his bare ass at everyone. He once put it on the dinner table while I was eating, and my mom spanked it. That's when I realized something was off."
3. "Whenever we got fast food, we would put all of our fries together in a big mound to share — sort of like communal fries. Once I was at a friend's house and they bought us fast food, so I put my fries on a plate and pushed it to the middle of the table. Lots of strange looks."
4. "We had a diarrhea spoon, so we could test its consistency and find out how dehydrated we were — 'Need about 5 ounces there, Hon.'"
5. "In my family, we finished the chicken to the bone — no meat, no gristle, nothing left. And if you didn't finish it, someone would finish it for you. Well, flash-forward to college when I'm eating chicken in the cafeteria with my housemates. One of them didn't clean their chicken wing, so I casually reached over and took it to finish it off, without interrupting the conversation. After a minute, I realized everyone was staring at me. 'What?' I asked, someone else's chicken bone hanging out of my mouth."
6. "Instead of trick-or-treating on Halloween, my parents made us go around to different doors in our basement and answer Bible questions to receive candy."
7. "Our family had a communal underwear drawer until I was in high school. Apparently not common?"
8. "My grandmother always thought the hand signal for 'I love you' was to stick your middle finger straight up like you're flipping someone the bird. Well, when she would send my dad and his sisters out of the house for the day, she'd innocently flip them the bird while yelling that she loved them."
"Now, out of tradition, my family always flips each other the bird to say goodbye. We always get strange looks at the airport."
9. "My mother was so religious that I thought deviled eggs were called 'angel eggs' until I was 15, when I said 'angel eggs' at a family gathering and everyone looked at me like I was crazy."
10. "We'd go for a walk after every dinner. Rain or shine. Found out years later our neighbors thought we were weird."
11. "We always have our house in the 50- to 60-degree range, even during the Wisconsin winter. Everyone would always comment on how cold it was in our house, but it felt fine to me! Meanwhile, other people's houses — which are normally in the 70-degree range — are way too hot for me."
12. "Our family had solstice parties. I didn't think it was weird until someone called me a witch."
13. "My good friend's family used to put on a full Christmas pageant every year — I'm talking costumes, scripts, roles assigned at Thanksgiving, and always a live baby Jesus played by an infant in the family. They've even rented locations to fit everyone! She only found out that it was unusual in college, when we were discussing our plans for Winter Break and she casually mentioned 'the pageant.' Everyone paused and asked what that meant, and she said, 'You know, the family Christmas pageant.' We had to explain that no one else does that, and it was hilarious!"
"She was an angel that year."
14. "My friends suck the snot and boogers out of their kids' noses with their mouth instead of having them blow into tissues. Then they go spit it out in the trash afterwards. I gagged like a motherfucker the first time I witnessed it."
15. "A friend of mine's family eats corn on the cob for dessert."
16. "At one point in my childhood, we had 36 cats who only came inside to eat and sleep at night. Any time a friend slept over, they were amazed and delighted when a half-dozen or more cats came in to sleep in my room. My dad even thought he was having a heart attack one time, because he woke up feeling intense pressure on his chest — it was actually two dozen cats. I found out later that my neighborhood considered us the weird house because of all the cats I thought were so awesome."
17. "We always had a single hardboiled egg on our plate whenever we had spaghetti."
18. "I grew up on cream cheese and jelly sandwiches. I've never met anyone else who ever ate them or even considered it as a sandwich."
19. "My dad used to walk around the house naked in the mornings. I'd just be in the kitchen eating my Fruity Pebbles and minding my own business, and then his Cap'n Crunch Berries would be in my face. I found out it was weird years later, when I saw it on Malcolm in the Middle. And also, when no one else I've ever known has done this."
Some responses have been edited for length and clarity.