LIFESTYLE

The Strange Things People Think Are Normal

Spend the night in someone else’s house and you’ll see it immediately

I grew up NOT including the cat in meal prep, but you do you! Photo by Seljan Salimova on Unsplash

I find other people’s lives fascinating.

I’m essentially an amateur anthropologist the way I observe how differently each of us lives. The things I take as just normal life might look completely foreign to you.

I’m talking about routines, habits, the things you do without even really thinking about them or because you feel obligated to do them. Or because everyone else seems to do them.

There’s a surprisingly wide variation in how people organize their lives. And contrary to what you might expect, lifestyles don’t always line up neatly with money.

What We Think is ‘Normal’

Remember spending the night at a friend’s house as a kid?

Was that the first time you realized your version of normal wasn’t universal?

Were you surprised that other people lived so differently?

They bought products your family didn’t. There might have been behavior norms that you didn’t expect — I will never forget the way one friend’s family members screamed at each other, and there wasn’t any particular big drama going on…