19 things people thought were normal because their families did them
Families are micro-societies and, as such, have their own customs and sometimes even their own language – on a small scale.
Writer Nicole Cliffe put out a call for examples of things people thought were normal because their families did them.
If you normalized something (non-awful) because your family did it and then realized it was not, in fact, normal or remotely common, I would love to hear about it.
— Nicole Cliffe (@Nicole_Cliffe) September 7, 2020
She had an example from her own household.
Our kids can say “Dad trained us to say ‘yes sir how high sir’ when he made a harrumph noise, as a joke, but honestly we always just did what we wanted bc he’s a colossal sucker.”
— Nicole Cliffe (@Nicole_Cliffe) September 8, 2020
Last time we checked, there were more than 4.5k replies, so we’ve barely scraped the surface, but we highly recommend you take a look for yourself – after you read our favourites.
1.
Drinking milk coke, was told it was a brummie thing by my dad, but it turned out it is Not A Brummie Thing.
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) September 8, 2020
2.
My mom would make up the absolute wackiest nicknames for me. It got to the point where she would just say something nonsense and I would respond knowing that it was a new nickname. It was normal for me, but then I realized I never heard anyone else nickname their kids that wildly https://t.co/1BVaTy0fpg
— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) September 7, 2020
3.
On Christmas morning my family took turns opening gifts. Even when we were young kids we still opened one gift per round, youngest to oldest. To this day when I’m around people opening holiday gifts all at once I feel such anxiety!
— Jada A Graves (@jadaagraves) September 7, 2020
4.
Answering, "Up your butt." whenever someone asks where something is or where they left something.
— gin. (@showupforthis) September 7, 2020
5.
my parents had a secret stash of dry goods in case the Rapture happened
also we weren't allowed to watch the Smurfs because it was communist
— Cora Linehan (@CoraLinehan) September 8, 2020
6.
My mom couldn't brng herself 2 say "vagina" – so she'd call it an "area." E.g. wash ur area. next thing u know I'm in 4th grade math n we're finding the area. I *lost* it in class. I mean, imagine your 4th grade teach telling the class how 2 find their dicks. No one understood.
— Forky (@Krow07100473) September 8, 2020
7.
My family has a Generalissimo Francisco Franco Christmas ornament, and every year when we trim the tree, whoever unpacks that ornament yells "The Chubby Guy!" and puts it on the tree. We also play Twisted Christmas albums and I legit don't know the real words to some carols.
— Alice is Staying Home and You Should Too (@AliSayNew) September 7, 2020
8.
My mom explained that we didn’t do particular activities because “Jews don’t ski” and “Jews don’t sail” and “Jews don’t bowl” – there was a very long list of things Jews don’t do.
— ⭐️bex schwartz (@starbex) September 7, 2020
9.
my parents are from Croatia & every time we'd go back to the old country for a visit the whole family would get new tracksuits. The plane was always full of Slavs so I thought everyone had to wear tracksuits while flying until I got to high school
— Rebecks 🐐 (@ozzthegr8) September 7, 2020
10.
I recently found out that ‘smooth a dog’ is not a phrase known outside of my family. I’ve been asking if I can smooth* people’s dogs for years. I’m 31.
*pet/stroke— Samantha Gizbo (@SamanthaGizbo) September 8, 2020
