Why I Don't Have Family Visit Often

Master and I don't often travel down to visit my family, nor do we invite them to come up and stay with us. When they do, or when we go to visit, we prefer that there is a hotel stay involved whenever possible. Either we like my parents to stay at a hotel or, if we can swing the additional cost, we like to get a hotel room whenever we head down to stay with my family. There are a number of reasons for this, all of which are fairly good ones.

The first is space. Master and I have a good sized house but it's not infinitely large. We turned one room into my office/workout room and there is no longer a bed in there. That means that if we are having guests stay over, one of the kidlets is going to end up staying on the couch. They don't usually mind but it can be difficult for us to have large numbers of people staying with us.

My parents also have a house that can only hold so many people. If its just Master and I and the kidlets we can all have a bed to sleep in but if there are other people (like my brothers and their families) staying with them at the same time it means that there isn't much room for people. After a while people start feeling cramped and uncomfortable, both physically and mentally.

The second reason is that I simply do not get along with my father. He has some beliefs and opinions that are completely different than mine. He also doesn't know when to stop arguing about something and, to be honest, he really doesn't seem to care all that much when he hurts people's feelings. This is especially true when he has been drinking and he was doing quite a bit of that yesterday.

This was not the best visit with my family. My father polished off three martinis before supper and the quality of the conversations that he was having went sharply downhill after that.  Supper perked him up a little but in the end, the kidlets, Master, and I were all very pleased when my parents moved on to their hotel room.

I really respect the fact that Master is as patient and even handed with my parents, even when my father is behaving like a boob. I am fortunate that he supports me unconditionally and really doesn't make excuses for my father's bad behavior. Knowing that gives me more patience when I need it and some days, patience is in very short supply indeed.