What's something from your childhood that you thought was normal, but isn't actually normal at all?

1. My family are not comfortable around each other. Never any touching, kissing or cuddling. Any physical contact is forced and horribly awkward. No one also talks and any disagreements simmer for years with a grudging resentment. When I first starting dating my now husband I was shocked his family would just sit close to each other, like their legs would touch on the couch. Like not overly touchy, just normal, but not normal to me. They also spoke to each other if they were upset. I was quite envious.
   — Kitcat1987


2. I am adopted. From a young age, my parents were extremely open with me about the fact that I am adopted. So open, in fact, that I just started assuming that all kids must be adopted. My parents would always tell me the story about the day that they picked me up from the group children's home I had been staying at and I was officially theirs. I assumed that's where all babies come from... that their parents just go to a hospital/ children's home/cradle and pick them up, and viola! You have a kid. I was in for such a shock when I was 6 and one of my best friend's moms got pregnant and my mom had to explain to me how some parents have their kids biologically.
   — KissedByFire2194


3. Mum always called those mini sausages ‘little boys’ so naturally that’s what we called them too. It wasn’t until I was in uni and we had a party with kids party food I got called out on it... Thanks mum
   — spook96






4. I went to a catholic school (UK). Everyone was Irish. When I got into the real world, I was shocked by the lack of Irish people.
   — anothestupidname


5. Calling a remote control a box. I think it was just because my dad couldn't ever remember what it was called and was basically calling it "that rectangle shaped thing!" out of frustration. And my mom probably just thought it was funny and adopted it too. 21 years later I was all like, "Hey dude pass me the box." "The what??" "The box..." "..." I had no idea that it was a made-up term.
   — Afassih


6. Parents slept in separate rooms
   — 5WordAnswersOnly






7. Apparently when I was a kid I used to pick up quarters on the street. My parents didn’t want me doing that so my dad told me to not pick up coins, because people put them in their butts. I didn’t use change for anything until I started driving at 16.
   — venator217


8. Growing up my parents and grandparents when talking to me about my brother would refer to him as "brother" and vice versa. So we would do the same to each other and refer to each other as such. I thought nothing of it until around highschool when friends started noticing and asked about it. We still do it for the most part and have to consciously think about it to use each other's names. Note : We are identical twins and even my parents had trouble telling us apart; so I think this is where it comes from; guess they couldn't remember who was who. Hell; for all I know I started out as "A" and ended up "B". Edit: Just remembered I have two cousin both, not twins; who do the same thing with each other; honestly, they are the only other people who do this that I know of personally. Edit 2: Hearing that other siblings and family members do the same makes me feel better about it and not so self conscious. I kind of feel like it establishes how strong the bond between us really is.
   — temptedbyknowledge


9. Always had a clean room. I told my mother that my best friend didn't have to clean his. Turns out they were hoarders.
   — Flynn_lives






10. Not eating dessert. I didn't even know what dessert was until I was out at a restaurant with a friend from middle school and her parents. Friend's parent: "What do you want for dessert?" Me: "For...for what?" Friend's parent: "Dessert! Don't you want some cake or a hot fudge sundae?" Me: "Is it someone's birthday?" It was thoroughly confusing. My family had breakfast, lunch (at school for the kids), and dinner. That was it. You had your food, that's it. Sometimes my parents would have coffee with breakfast, and that's as desserty as our meals ever got.
    — WillINevah


11. When I turn my head too fast, I'll get a sharp pain on one side of my neck, my tongue will go numb, and my vision will go black on that side for a few seconds. I tried to ask my dad about it as a kid (he's a nurse, so I thought he might know why it did that) but I only had the vocabulary to describe it as "my neck hurts when I turn my head too fast" to which he responded "well, don't do that then." From then, I brushed it off as normal because he didn't seem terribly concerned. Fast forward around 15 years, and I'm hanging out with friends in college and accidentally turn my head too quickly. I make a noise/face/something to indicate that I'm in pain, come to, and complain about how I hate when that happens. My friends are clearly confused as to what just happened, so I try to explain. "You know when you turn your head too fast and your tongue goes numb and stuff?" I was met with blank stares until someone eventually tells me that no, they don't know, that's not normal. I'm still not *entirely* sure what causes it, but it sounds an awful lot like Neck-Tongue Syndrome.
    — br0itskatie


12. Insanity. Like, shrieking full bore fucking insane ranting insanity. Just all the time. I remember when I figured out that other people didn’t have that in their houses.
    — AccomplishedWall






13. Being taught to never trust the police, and serving as a lookout for cops while my uncle dealt drugs. I got so good at spotting police that even now I notice them before any of my friends.
    — monkeyhog