<p>I’ve had lots of teenagers (some who’ve ended up living with me on short time basis and some long), lots of parents to deal with, and lots of guests (some more short lived than others).
Teens and youngsters are a no-brainer to me–you’re in my house so here are the house rules. I’ve never had a parent who didn’t back me up or rather a young guest who balked at helping.<br>
I expect my kids to follow “house rules” no matter where they visit.
Fortunately it has always been “a village” where I lived. My kids bide by house rules where they are and their friends bide by our house rules.</p>
<p>I have a rude host story. We were sent an invitation to a " reception after party" for a wedding. Not the wedding, not the dinner but to the cash bar only late night dance so we could drop off our gift! We didn’t go but I mailed a card and check. It has been 2 years and I still haven’t received a thank you.</p>
<p>RE: Thank you notes:
The last wedding I went to was beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Not insanely over the top at all…just very, very well done.
We gave some kitchen appliance they registered for (let’s say bread maker). In the the thank you note, they thanked us for the coffee maker. I scratched my head nd then noticed the the outside of the envelope. Someone scrawled, “We meant bread maker!!”
I just laughed…obvious thank you note burn out. I couldn’t get miffed because the whole event was just so lovely!</p>
<p>^^Woody:</p>
<p>It probably WAS thank you note burnout, but at least they sent a note! And even corrected their mistake! :)</p>
<p>I was raised to write good thank you notes and it’s a pet peeve of mine that people are so inconsiderate when everyone is busy but take the time to buy what they think is just the right present…in my case I often send checks since I hate guessing on what people would like…and they cannot even sit down to write two lines and mail it! Come on people!</p>
<p>I’m really very proud when people make a point to tell me that they loved my thank you note or ones from my children. Although my kids are far from perfect, they do write a good thank you note, and I’m proud of that! It really does make a difference when someone sees a nice note in the midst of all their bills that come in the mail!</p>
<p>I have some good ones that just recently happened to my friend.</p>
<p>Girl she is friends with on Facebook but rarely sees in real life messaged her to ask if she would watch her pit bull for one week. She said she would “PAY HER IN DOG FOOD” Not making this up!!</p>
<p>One of her other friends (again, more of an acquaintence) asked if she and her 4 children could stay at her house for a few days while their bathroom was getting remodeled.</p>
<p>I told my friend she must attract strays.</p>
<p>My first and last babysitting experience for a couple from my church when I was 13: It was the night before I was to start 8th grade and I went over on a Sunday afternoon for what was supposed to be a few hours. I had never babysat before. The oldest girl threw tantrums and ran around naked for what seemed like hours. It kept getting later and later and finally around 11pm they showed up. I felt like I was in a nightmare.</p>
<p>One time when I was babysitting, one of the kids locked me in the bedroom. Apparently the bedroom could be locked from the hallway. ( I never understood the reason parents locked kids in their rooms.) The kid would not let me out. I eventually saw a neighbor and yelled for help. He entered the house and let me out.</p>
<p>Juniebug, you story reminds me of my SIL again. She comes to my house and states “I am not responsible for what the kids do”. Who says that?! </p>
<p>It does not fail, each time, something is knocked over and broken. I cannot have candles out. Thankfully, as they get older, they have calmed down a bit. She hands them her iphone for entertainment. One of them asked me for mine at a restaurant and I just told her I had no games on it, which I don’t. I love these kids but I am afraid, very afraid.</p>
<p>They finally showed up around 4. SD and I had a sleepless night, we were both furious. Needless to say, she never sat for them again. >>>>>></p>
<p>Oh my gosh, how awful.</p>
<p>I still remember being asked to babysit for a family as a referral. I was very young (maybe 13 or so). The parents gave me a monster list of all the contacts for their kid who had been in & out of many hospitals recently, plus he was only ONE of the four little darlings plus pets I was supposed to watch for the evening. I really (at that time & since) wonder what was going through their heads that they thought that it was a good idea to entrust their medically fragile young kid to the tender care of a 13-year-old who couldn’t do much more than call 911 if the kiddo started having problems! By contrast, we generally had sitters who are our friends and the youngest one we ever hired was in late teens WITH older sib. NEVER was available to sit for that family again & shortly after that stopped sitting entirely–too scary to think I might be called upon to keep a medically fragile kid alive. Sorry for the slight detour on guests. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>></p>
<p>Oh my goodness. As a healthcare provider and experience mom of three, *I would not want to babysit a medically fragile child!</p>
<p>Yea, I was kind of ambushed on that and had NO IDEA that one of the kids I was supposed to be responsible for was medically fragile. This was also long before there were cell phones. I kept all the kids VERY calm & we fortunately passed a very uneventful evening. It turned me off from babysitting except if I knew the family VERY well from that point forward.</p>
<p>I have one where we were both guests. It was the first time I had met my boyfriend’s extended family. They have one aunt (his mom’s sister) that is just a very bitter, lonely, and miserable woman. Everyone avoids her if possible. I knew the night wasn’t going to go well when the first thing she asked me was what I did (I was 20 and a fulltime student and this was summer) for a living. I told her I was a nanny. Her response “You’re just a babysitter. Don’t need to use fancy terms to impress us. We’re not impressed.” I later got told off for not eating everything (I’m a vegetarian and I even helped cook most of it so I wasn’t snubbing anyone) before bf’s mom jumped in. I later found out that she criticized her sister for letting my bf date “a Jew”. She thought I was Jewish because apparently I look Jewish. Whatever that means. I do have a Jewish grandmother but I’m anything but. I spent most of the night being silent and avoiding her.</p>
<p>I like most of his family but I will not do that again. His mom apologized for weeks for her sister’s behavior. I am not the first she’s disapproved of. Apparently no woman is good enough to marry into HER family.</p>
<p>Romani–sweet mom that she apologized for her sister. What’s really great is when the mom can’t wait to tell you how wonderful the last girlfriend was…</p>
<p>Gouf-ouch!</p>
<p>My mother has four daughters and no sons. She is also a famous national leader in her field, in spite of being one of a small handful of women in her generation who entered her male-dominated field. So she’s pretty dedicated to the idea that women are the equals of men in every way.</p>
<p>A twentysomething relative who was a guest in my mother’s home, sitting at my mother’s dinner table, started lecturing her about how important it is to have sons. She told him that if he had any daughters in the future that he didn’t want, she would be happy to raise them. He decided to backtrack a little and stressed that it wasn’t that he didn’t want daughters, just that you need to have at least one son. Yeah, just keep digging that hole you’re in, buddy. It didn’t end well.</p>
<p>Hanna,I would have paid money to see that. lmao</p>
<p>Ok, I’ll bite. Hanna, what was the reason your relative thought it was so important to have at least one son?</p>
<p>(I had two daughters than the unexpected blessing of a son – whose gender sent me into a terrible depression.)</p>
<p>Personally, I just like the idea of having and raising healthy (or as healthy as possible) kids. Have never understood all the gender biases floating around & do NOT feel they are helpful at all.</p>
<p>There are many cultures in the world where having a son is viewed as critical, including Jewish, South Asian, and East Asian cultures. But this guy was raised in the U.S. mainstream in the 80s, and he thought that having a son is so important because he was a misogynist prick.</p>
<p>We had had a girl family for a dozen years by the time my son came along and we were very worried about having a new little one and how different a boy would be. I wouldn’t even hold him in the birthing room.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t you know that he is my heart and soul? The most loving person I’ve ever met. Sometimes God gives you not what you want, but exactly what you need.</p>
<p>I work with a lot of men in their mid/late 20s (finance). A lot of them are at the stage in their lives where their wives are having children. If a guy says his wife is expecting a boy, it’s high fives and congratulations. If a guy says his wife is expecting a girl, they practically get condolences. It amazes me. This is mainstream US, practically all protestant. I certainly feel a cultural bias preferring baby boys. My husband absolutely wanted a boy (which he got for our second child). He grew up with a sexist dad and a mom that worshipped the son and treated the daughter like garbage.</p>