In our basement we have a mother-in-law suite. When we bought our house Evan immediately thought of renting out this portion of our house; however, I was leery of opening up our home to a stranger and it was in our first year of marriage. We passed on the idea. Then one day I was walking past my co-workers desk and she was looking at crime maps. Intrigued I asked what she was doing. She explained that her second oldest daughter got accepted into a university and now they were looking for housing for her. I recognized the name of the university and made the connect that this was only three miles from our home. Before I knew it I was throwing out the idea of the daughter coming to live in our basement. A meet-and-greet at our home, a meet-and-greet of the family, and a contract later we had a girl moving into our basement. We figured it was a good way to try out 'parenting'. Basically if we could keep a 19-year-old girl alive for two years would mean that we could probably be okay with a baby :)
Now take a moment to reflect to what you were like at age 19. I was a sophomore at SDSU. Always out and about, not a care in the world, working a part-time job and studying until I fell asleep on my textbooks. Now that you have walked down memory lane can you imagine the things we have gone through on Idaho? Here is a quick list/story of some 'interesting' moments...
- Within a month of living in our house she fainted in our kitchen at 2:30AM. When she fell (it was more like a face plant) it was directly into the counter. Her front tooth broke in half. At 2:30AM we had this girl laying on our floor and I realized I needed to make a phone call to her mother in Wisconsin. She is completely fine and it was a result of low sugar levels because she didn't eat enough that day. She is that girl that doesn't "want to get fat."
- Within two months her boyfriend of 5 years broke up with her at our house. Imagine seeing a weeping girl and long-time boyfriend walking away from her at your house. Awkward moment.
- Within three months, she had flunked out of several of her classes. After three semesters (her school is different than normal schools) she had to switch majors because the courses were not jiving with her. In my mind I was thinking - how does this work on her two year plan? And what do you do in your free time??
- Within five months, she got a job at Caribou opening at 5AM. She woke up at 4:00AM to do her laundry. For weeks, I woke up at 4:00AM with the sound of the washer. I was a bear. I associate this with waking up to a baby crying; however, there was no fulfilling feeling like it would be if I successfully stopped a baby from crying. I stopped this after several weeks because I thought I was going to go crazy with the 4:00AM wake-up ruckus every single morning.
- Within six months, she plugged the utility sink and we didn't know. When we do laundry the water drains into this… and with it being plugged, it resulted in the sink overflowing. Not impressed. Again, we had to address that fact that she couldn't plug the sink when it was not in use.
- Candles - I hate them. She lights 5 at a time. I cringe because they are unsafe and leaves soot. Tonight I addressed that and told her that she wasn't going to be the one scrubbing the ceilings. Use Scentsy candles.
- Space heaters - I hate them. This is like her baby. She literally carries this from the bathroom, living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc. I addressed this tonight with saying no space heaters. She said that she was cold. My response was to put on pants. 9 out of 10 times I see her in shorts in the dead of winter. I don't give sympathy to things that could be prevents.
- Locking Doors - Do it. She for some reason has a tough time remembering. Tonight I got home at 10:30pm and the door was unlocked and she wasn't home. Again, I addressed this since this was the third time that I have caught it. And to top it off was that Evan was traveling! Ugh!
- Lights - shut them off. This seems to be a forgetful subject since she never remembers even after I write post-it notes.
- Drying clothes to get out wrinkles. Great thought but unrealistic. I noticed that the dryer runs nonstop. So going on my suspicions I asked why it was always going. She denied at first, but I wasn't stupid. After pressing a bit more she admitted that she re-drys the clothes to get out the wrinkles since she didn't hang them up. AND that she likes to warm up her clothes. I gave her another solution. Iron the clothes. I offered her the iron and board. The response was pretty priceless.
It is safe to say she hates seeing me since I'm the one that lays down the rules. Yet, if I don't do it in my house, why would she be able to? Anyways, if you ever heard the quote "if your kids say 'I hate you' than you are doing something right." Well I accomplished it.
No comments:
Post a Comment