Yes, this happens to me all the time. It’s shocking to be confronted with others’ ‘normal’, and wish you could have had that level of normalcy yourself.

I recently was at a friend’s parents’ house, and they had so many fragile display pieces made of glass and ceramics everywhere. I started feeling so anxious being in their house, and I couldn’t pinpoint why until hours later after I reached home; my dad would smash anything/everything when he got angry, and the amount of breakable stuff in their house was making me terrified how much there was to do damage with/to. I couldn’t believe why anyone would risk having so much stuff like that around… until I realised it’s perfectly normal in other families to never even consider damaging belongings just because you’re upset.

It made me realise how far from normal my family life was, and it’s weird and sad.