50 Bizarre Traditions That People Were Shocked To Find Out That Other Families Don’t Do

Touching pointer fingers to say hello, think ET style.
Realised it was my dad's autism once I got older, his way of 'hugs'.

Say ‘I love you’ at the end of each phone call or goodbye. It could be a quick call that lasts only 30 seconds because one of us misplaced something, but if we didn’t say ‘I love you’ then it felt off.

My mom imbedded into me real young, and I imbedded it into my dad. If something ever happened to one of us then at least we know our last words would be ‘I love you.’.

When we went on road trips and crossed a border, say from Nebraska to Kansas, someone in the front seat would put their hand in the front of the dashboard and say “First one in Kansas,” and someone in the back seat would put their hand in the back window and say,”Last one in Nebraska.”.

Grew up with an autistic brother who makes a lot of humming noises to express emotion and the whole family eventually ended up doing it too (to a lesser extent). didn't realize it until someone pointed out we never shut up even though we're not actually saying anything.

My mother was a stay at home mom with 3 kids, 3 years and 8 years between them. Every night after supper, she had us all working like little soldiers: Dad stood at the sink in his button down shirt from work, rolled up at the sleeves, after his sweaty commute home in his unairconditioned yellow Ford Fiesta. He washed the pots and pans and fancy dishes by hand. I loaded the dishwasher, my sister dried and put the dishes away, and my brother took out the garbage. Mom put the leftovers away and wiped the table/countertops/stovetop.
When my sister got married, and when I eventually did too, we were always questioning how did mom do that? We somehow ended up alone in our respective kitchens. Probably can't blame anyone but ourselves.

Not hugging or show affection in general.

I remember being around 18 and graduating when one of my friends' mom gave me a big hug. So weird - I never hugged my own parents? But also so nice... 💕.

Yell at each other multiple times per week. I had my first serious girlfriend and her family got along all the time and a problem was a logical discussion not a yelling contest. I was like wow.

Sloppy Joe's are one of my all-time favorite comfort meals. We serve them open faced and eat them with a fork and knife, which makes sense to me because they're messy! But I only found out when I was like 35 that pretty much everyone else actually eats them like a sandwich! I tried it once, and half of my meat ended up on my plate and shirt, and I was like why would anyone eat them this way?!?!

Tie the hairbrush to the bathroom faucet.

My mom had 5 daughters and was tired of not being able to fix her hair in the morning because the brush had wandered off under the couch or a bush or something.

When we were really young we thought everyone had the Birthday Fairy, but as we got older we realized we were the only ones! But, she still came until we were 12, and as we aged out we became part of the Fairy team fur the younger siblings. Still love this tradition. Our parents started it because our dad was a traveling salesmen that was always gone, so this way our birthdays were still special on the day. ❤️❤️🎂 And FYI, it was like Santa or the Easter Bunny, but just for us!

My whole family has always quoted movie lines at every possible opportunity—not just particularly memorable or relevant ones, but often the most random bits that nobody else seems to remember even though they made a lasting impression on us for some reason. We just really love movies and watch our favorites enough times to memorize most of the dialogue, and basically every single lyric of any song. (Turned out we’re all autistic.).

I was home schooled and very sheltered. I also grew up working on a farm. I had my daily "chores" (mucking horse stables, feeding the animals, taking care of my own critters, cleaning the house, doing dishes, etc) that had to be done before I could do anything for myself or on the rare occasion, get to go to a friend's house. I thought everyone had chores they had to do before they could do anything. I was even more annoyed when I found out that they all got to hang out at each other's houses all the time. I rarely even got to go to a friend's place at all. Let alone all the time. I still don't think that was fair to this day. Lol.

We are very blunt with each other. Like if my brother is eating chips to loud, my sister will tell him to stop chewing like a cow, it annoys her. And he’ll say something like sorry I hurt your princess ears, should I i draw your bath and make your bed when I’m done. No yelling just dry, somewhat mean humor.

But it turns out other families tip toe around feelings. I like our way better. No one goes into a rage about the time someone ate someone else’s sandwich five years back at Thanksgiving in my family’s house.

I was extremely confused when the charcuterie trend took off because I legitimately didn't realize there were so many people not already eating exactly that. In Italian American families we refer to that board/plate as "antipasto" and it's ubiquitous at every gathering.

I didn’t know the appetizers on restaurant menus were like a before-dinner little treat shared with the whole table. (Honestly I do still think it’s weird to eat before you eat?). I also didn’t realize what a proper “meal” was. Growing up in poverty. Sometimes we’d have like slices of bread for dinner or chips and salsa. And we never went to restaurants. So when I was an adult and got invited out to eat, I’d order the appetizers because I was dirt poor and they were the cheapest things on the menu. And people would say “wow thank you!” and I’d be like “for what lol” and just eat the entire plate of mozzarella sticks myself. It wasn’t until I was in late 20’s when a roommate asked what I was making for dinner to eat after the handful of crackers I was eating, she was shocked to learn that *was* my dinner, and had to explain what meals were. I’m still embarrassed. I’m in my 30’s now (so this was only a few years ago) and I still feel weird about food around other people. Going out to eat with friends is embarrassing and stressful and I’m constantly anxious I’m doing something wrong. Always watching what everyone else is doing and copying them so I don’t out my poverty ignorance.

My mom washed the groceries before putting them in the cupboard… not just the produce, but boxes of cereal and canned goods and everything else. I’m not sure I thought it was something everyone did, but I didn’t realize how odd it was until I was I was older.

I didn’t see anything like it until Covid hit and people thought it was living on surfaces.

I thought every kid only saw their mom half the week. My mom works 3x12s Sun-Tuesday so I hardly saw her those days. It wasn’t until I started having a later bedtime that I got to see her when she got off on those days. I remember talking to a friend and she was talking about doing something with her mom that night and I went “wow, you get to see your mom on a Monday?”.

Thank whoever cooked the meal you just ate (mostly Mom or Dad as we grew up) and tell them you enjoyed it. Then the cook would say he or she was glad you liked it.

When my youngest sister got married, her new husband thought it was hilarious that all our little children would say “ ‘Joyed it!” as they got up from the table. He teased us by saying “ ‘Joyed it” and “Gladja!”

It had never occurred to our family that it was unusual, but it WAS funny!

Sit on the floor.

Big family, small house. Lots of visitors.. US littles sat on the floor most of the time.

Put peanut butter on pancakes.

Fry cold leftover mashed potatoes patties for breakfast.

Call the refrigerator an ‘icebox’.