House Guest Etiquette's

It is great when you can go and visit with family and friends that live out of town. When doing so it is also nicer even when they offer you the closeness of opening their home up to you so that you can stay and visit longer by spend a night or two with them. But a lot of people do not realize that there is a way to behave when they are a house guest in someone else's home and a way not to behave.

The inspiration behind this came when my husband's niece came to visit for what was supposed to be a week visit. She did not come alone but we did know who all was coming since we went to their home and picked them all up. She came with her boyfriend and a 15 year old roommate of their, along with her four children. The children ranged from 5 months to 4 years.

Here are the etiquettes that I have really looked at that house guests should follow.

When you have kids keep control of them.

My husband's niece rarely kept control of her kids. They ran wild through my house and when they would do something they shouldn't be doing, she just ignored it. She would not make them mind at all. Her boyfriend tried to discipline them a couple of times but not to the point that it worked at all.

So when you are in someone else's home do not let your kids just run wild. You need to keep your kids under control. Just because you don't mind your child swinging from a chandelier and jumping on furniture in your home, does not mean that you host and hostess will like this kind of behavior in their home.

Make sure your trash goes into the trash can.

This was another thing that they did that had me going crazy. All three of the adults (I am including the 15 year old roommate in as an adult) would throw trash on top of the trash bag and next to it. Never did they actually throw anything into the trash bag itself.

This is a gross and rude thing to do when in someone else's home. So even if you are a slob in your own home and don't mind living like a pig, you still need to model some decent manners in someone else's home.

Don't eat everything in sight.

On Monday I had bought some snacks and different things that they adults could munch on aside from dinner. Well by Tuesday every bit of it was gone. They had just eaten one thing right after another until there was nothing left. Then they expected me to just run to the store and get more. Well I didn't do it. Meal food only for the rest of the week.

It is ok to snack and stuff when staying in someone's home but don't make a pig out of yourself and eat everything in sight. Try to limit what you eat when in someone else's home. Now if you brought your own munchies then that is a different story but if they are buying them, then you need to show some restraint.

Don't keep your host and hostess up all night.

They would all three stay up all night and blare rap music as loud as they could. I had two kids to get off to school and over slept their alarm clock twice during the week. I went so far as to walk out of my bedroom and shut the TV off and then went back to bed. I was only in bed for about two minute before one of them turned it back on and had it blaring again. They were in and out the front door constantly through out the night. I gave up and just got hardly any sleep through the nights they were here.

When your host and hostess have a bed time do not get loud to the point that you keep them up. This shows very poor manners. As a house guest in their home you need to do quite activities if you can not sleep yet. Opening and closing the front door constantly will disturb their sleep so refrain from doing this also.
Constant drinking.
They drank every chance they got from the time they woke up to the time they went to bed. Did not matter that I said that there could be no drinking on a constant bases. I would not have minded one or two beers once or twice while they were here but I did mind the constant drinking and getting loud in my front yard.

Unless your host and hostess drink constantly and you are all partying then don't do this. It is rude and disrespectful to turn their home into your latest party pad
while you are there.

Get up with your children.

None of them would crawl out of bed before noon unless I woke them up. That left me to take care of not only my four children by my husband's niece's four children by myself. Very frustrating task for me to do.

It is not your host and hostess's place to take care of your children while you are visiting. So you need to make sure that you get up with your children and take care of them. You are there to visit and have quality time with your host and hostess, not to use them as a babysitter while you are crashed out in bed or on their couch all day.

Pick up after yourself and your kids.

This was the final straw with them being here. They would throw their trash down where ever they wanted and not pick up one single thing after themselves or the children. This got to the point that my house was completely trashed. I don't mean just a little dirty with a little clutter. I mean dirty diapers under my couch, cigarette butts and ashes on my floor; my TV was colored on, food wrappers laying everywhere, dirty dishes, and beer bottles. It truly looked like a bachelor pad instead of a nice home.

As a house guest in someone's home you should clean up after yourself. It is not your host and hostess place to clean your every mess up. Nor for them to clean up constantly for your children.

Needless to say they were taken home two days early and banned from our house permanently. By using common sense you can avoid being banned from a loved ones home.