Visitors
Writing is suspended for a few days while hub’s brother and his wife visit. It. is. torture... they are talkers and we are not. It was impossible to put them off coming despite recent COVID restrictions - we prayed for a local lockdown but no... So
They often both talk at once - him to hubs, her to me or vice versa
She’s a gardener, so we gave them a tour of the garden. She didn’t look at the garden much, just mostly yabbered on to me about her neighbour’s cousin’s hairdresser (or similar)
They talked all through tea and biscuits
They talked all through dinner - we were literally watching him to finish so I could clear the plates for dessert
‘Can I help with dinner/washing up?’ NO please don’t, I’ve escaped to the sanctuary of the kitchen and you always put my dishes and pots in the wrong place
Luckily we persuaded them to stay at an Air BnB, otherwise we would go MENTAL. After two afternoon/evenings of this I am shattered, and we have at least two more days - we don’t know for certain how long they are staying. They normally go on a lot of foreign holidays as he worked for an airline and gets cheap flights. They may want to come to us more often...😭😭😭
How do you politely say - could you just - IDK, read a book (she worked in a library and is a keen reader), a newspaper, listen to the birds, just give it a rest?
HALP - please tell me how you cope with unwelcome visitors. I don’t dislike them, but I am shattered. God forgive me I find myself being unpleasant just to put them off.
PS Isn’t it ironic - when you are young and you love your friends and want them to stay over, you don’t have the time and space- when you are older and your kids have moved out, you DON’T want anyone staying, by then you dislike company...
