Is it appropriate to give your in-laws the sofa bed when she visits?
For the last ten years, whenever my husband’s mother and husband visit, we’ve given them our bed. My rationale was that the bedroom was farthest away from the kitchen and front door. When we took the pooches out for their walks and when I was cooking a meal, they wouldn’t be disturbed. Lrudlrick and I would sleep on the airbed or the couches.
Well my mother in law has just told us she’s coming in August for a week and well, to be perfectly honest, I really don’t want to give up my bedroom. It’s not that I don’t want to give her my bed. I have no problem with that. It’s just that I’m really lazy and don’t want to ‘parental control’ my bedroom. Get your mind out of the gutter. It’s not like I have whips and chains and pulleys strewn around. I contain those things and hide them discreetly.
It just don’t want to pack my clothes and live in my living room. I don’t want to delete my pre-scheduled recordings on my Tivo because my father-in-law can’t figure out how to cancel a recording. I don’t want to have to explain how he doesn’t to shut off the cable and every other electronic equipment in our bedroom because then it won’t record the programs he wants to record. Most importantly, I don’t want my MIL waking me up by climbing on top me to make sure I’m alive. Yes, she has done this because she saw our window was opened and thought someone may have climbed up our building and into our apartment on the 6th floor. I just want a little sanctuary.
Sure I’m going to get the lectures about walking the dog when it’s dark and when it’s too early in the morning. I’m willing to take it.
I suggested to my husband that since our sofa was getting a bit on the floppy side and his mother was coming we should invest some money on a really nice sturdy sofa bed. There was silence on the other end of the phone. “Oh, sure. Let’s talk about it.”
I don’t think he’s opposed to it. I think he just thinks after a ten year precedent, it may be a bit awkward. It’s like that episode of King of Queens where Doug lied and said they were trying to conceive to get his parents to understand why they weren’t getting the bedroom.
So what do you think? What is the proper etiquette with houseguests that are your in-laws. Do you give up your bed or give them a really nice sofa bed complete with an all in one television/cable/dvr/dvd system?
You know the likelihood of me giving up my bedroom is high. I’m such a freakin' wuss I’m going to give up the bedroom, I’m sure. I just want to know if it’s inconsiderate to even think about giving them the living room.
Related tags: etiquette, in-laws, house guests
