(wince)

[jay]

I just set up patgreene, inadvertently... due to a variety of circumstances, kineticphoenix and sarahh were late picking up hopeforyou from work... I was giving her a ride, so offered to just bring her back home to wait. Big mistake... patgreene got a half-hour notice. The house was dirty, and the kids... were embarrassing. They practically swarmed poor Hope, who was tipsy to begin with. James was sullen and depressed. Hope looked relieved to leave, once her ride arrived... Laura and Sarah just looked bemused and a bit uncomfortable.

After they left, I felt ashamed of our terrible hospitality. Pat went back to her room and burst into tears. Augh.

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

And I think that none of those three women are at all the type who'd be bothered or discomfited. My house is usually a pigsty, and I wouldn't be ashamed to show it to any of them. They're better than that.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

An overreaction on our part, undoubtedly... good luck at your place today with your birthday party there, speaking of entertaining :).

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I can't wait until the weather settles down, so we can have real parties! This house can hold 30 or so people as long as we know we can use the back yard. In winter and unsettled weather, we're stuck with our tiny living room.

[who-is-she.livejournal.com]

Just a heads up to let you know that you don't have to worry about 'hospitality' or 'pigstyes' when I'm there.
:)
I don't care about either. I"m exceedlingly mellow.

the only thing about your circumstance that I"m not familiar with is kids... so if I look clueless or unfamiliar around them..... THAT's why.
:)
I'm sad that Pat got so upset. hope you and she have NO SUCH concerns when I'm there.
:)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

It is a small house, made smaller by virtue of the kids only using their bedrooms to sleep. 1100 sqft for five people, and renovations progressing slowly. I have 100Base-T to every room... but the bathrooms have missing tiles.

Imagine living at HW with only the downstairs and with two more kids in residence... that's roughly it.

[who-is-she.livejournal.com]

I will look forward to visting.
I'm really looking forward to meeting Pat in person.
:)

[dancing-star.livejournal.com]

Everyone knows you have three wonderful boys that are a handful. Clean house + 3 boys with less than 24hours notice? I for one would expect chaos upon walking in the door. If your worried nexttimeremind people of how excited your boys might be, and the moodieness possiblies and that the house is likely to be a mess. That's what I do, I decided long ago I could have happy kids or a clean house, I've pretty much picked happy kids, although we are working on a bit less mess.

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

I didn't care what the house looked like. I was in a down mood when I got in the door, but not because of what was happening in the house -- it was because I had a crappy day already.

I am grateful for their hospitality, and neither I nor kineticphoenix and sarahh thought poorly of them.

[dancing-star.livejournal.com]

Understood, I hope my comment didn't sound like I assumed you had problems with the house or boys, it was meant to show Brian, how I think and deal with the worry when people are over. My household is 9 people, 4 of them being children, along with 4 or 5 cats, and adults who are busy.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Whew... thanks.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Actually, in retrospect the house was bad, but not horrible. Mostly, I was concerned because David and Kevin wouldn't take "no" for an answer around Hope.

[dancing-star.livejournal.com]

It's hard when the kids want to love on someone. I know mine have a few special people whom they hang on, and hug and torture no matter what do do, short of sending them out of the room the person is in and forbidding them from coming back in.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I am sorry you and patgreene feel bad. I'm sure if I were one of the people walking in, I wouldn't think one iota the less of either of you for having the place a mess. Heck, I'd feel more comfortable: you're human, just like me! Yay! Now that's hospitality. ;-) Seriously though, I'm sorry to hear that you two feel bad about it. :-( I hate that awful feeling of "oh no look what happened" once a thing is past.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Thanks. We're human... lots of flaws in ourselves, in our living space, online ;). Clutter is tolerable to some extent... but I really need to ditch the threadbare sleeper sofa and wash the futon cover.

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry that Pat felt that way. I sure understand it! And I'm very grateful that you can walk into my house, and understand the chaos. It's comforting. You did a good deed by letting Hope wait somewhere other than work, no matter the state of the house.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

I've always been comfortable walking into your house. You do an amazing job to keep it up as well as you do, given children *and* all of the community and social events that you guys host.

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

Kids = messy house.
Kids + clean house = someone with a hire house cleaner or a severe mental illness. (;


I've got two nephews and just being around them together or individually makes me hinky. Kid energy takes some getting used to for me.

However, it still makes me crazy when people come over to my house and it is not clean. I know that they don't care but the ghosts of generantions of little german grandmothers is hard to squash.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Kids + clean house = school isn't out yet ;-).

Kid energy... thing is, many of our friends out here are childfree, either currently or by choice, and hence have minimal exposure. So I worry about them being overwhelmed... I'm used to little ones fussing between each other in the background, and suddenly having my personal space invaded...

[dangerpudding.livejournal.com]

Um.. I think that we were mildly amused at Hope's state, and feeling rushed due to having been so late, and gotten lost. Your house looked like a normal house to me (I'm used to kids), and your kids seemed very nice, actually. I have a sister who was nicknamed Molly "kickyouinthenuts" Huffman for years- you can guess why.

I am sorry that it made you and Pat unhappy- that's not good :(.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that you weren't uncomfortable with the kid-energy or clutter. From a large family yourself, you may be used to close-quarters and sibling squabbles...

Pat's much better today.

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

I didn't care what the house looked like. I was just grateful to not have to wait outside without a sweater in the cold.

The kids were a bit more than I could take, but not because I don't like them. They're good kids. I was just in a sour mood because I already had a bad day.

I hope Pat understands that, and how I was feeling had nothing to do with either the boys or the house. I didn't think you offered terrible hospitality... I think you did a fine job on such short notice.

Please give my regards to Pat. I hope you both feel better today.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

I wasn't going to leave you shivering out in the cold at the base front gates in your then-condition (smile). The kids... sigh. At least you've seen them before on better days. They were collectively chewed-out later in the evening for their failure to respect personal space.

Pat knows what happened now, and feels much better.