Having Family in Town

You know having family spending time with you can be the best thing ever.  But there are some downsides to it too.  WHAT!?! How can that be? 

Well let me tell you a little about it -


A smaller paycheck.  My mom had been here for 2 weeks and I just could not let her stay all day all week long all by herself, so I took a couple of days off each week.  I mean someone had to play with her, and go to lunch with her, and visit the beach with her, and walk the streets and shops of Fallbrook with her, and .... (well you get the picture)


A gain of a couple of pounds.  Craig's parents dropped in too for a few days and between them taking us to dinner a couple of times and my mom taking us to dinner a couple of times, well I did not eat quite as healthy as I had been and a couple of pounds sneaked (I sure I had no idea I was eating that much ;)) back on.

A bigger heating bill.  California is not always sunny and not always warm.  We could not let my mom sit in a cold house all day and freeze at night so we had the thermostat turned up a bit warmer than we usually do.  We did the same for Gene and Norine (who prefer an even warmer home).  So poor Craig had to wake to a toasty 64 degree home at 4:00 am instead of 60 degrees to jump in his shower with.  And I had to suffer with a warm home when I arrived home from work.

Laziness. I mean when you come home and the dishes are washed and put away, laundry is washed and folded and sometimes even dinner is prepared and ready to eat; you can become a little spoiled and lazy.

A little less facebook and blog time.  When your parents want to play games with you like Rumikub, and Ingenious and Uno and Qwirkle; it can really eat up your time. Luckily they let you win occasionally. 

Prideful.  When your mom wants to know/remember how to blog; you can't just tell her no and let her miss out on this great way of communicating.  So you spend an hour or so every once in a while showing her what to do and typing up step by step instructions and sitting by her side as she experiments with your instructions to see if it makes sense and she learns to created her own blog posts.  And you feel too much of a sense of pride as you see her post her own blog all by herself while you are at work and hope she will continue to do so enabling you to read her thoughts and see her happenings in pictures while she is away.

Saying goodbye.  This is the worst of them all.  They go home and leave you with a house that is way too quiet and no more hugs and kisses at the end of the day telling you how grateful they are to be with you.  Really how can we deal with this.  It is just not right.

So I guess the decision you need to make is do the downsides out weigh the benefits and go from there. And I believe they do.