house guest

[rubyred]

a couple of days ago a female friend appeared to be in distress due to relationship problems, I offered that she could spend the night with us. Well to my surprise, she already had enough clothes packed up to stay a while. Then to our surprise her 3 kids showed up last night unannounced, slept here, unannounced, and this morning I find out that one, (probably all of them) of her kids have lice. Well I guess the house needed a good cleaning anyway. She was expecting to spend the next week with us, kids and all.

Did you ever have a gut feeling that something was screwed up really bad, didn't take much of a gut reaction in this case. Out they go, she didn't even have the guts to tell us about the lice until I called her this morning, at her house, where all these problems supposedly are occurring. I suppose I will have to put her stuff together and have it ready, since I cannot trust her at all. I have to go to work but want her to have her stuff out before I leave, hope I can get a hold of her. Lesson learned.

Lesson learned.

Well said. Allowing a distressed friend into your home for an extended period of time is nearly as bad as loaning any significant amount of money to a friend.

[rubyred]

I agree, she did ask me for money the first day she was here, thank God I told her I didn't have any. She just left and I am off to the drug store for lice stuff just to be safe.

[ooops]

It's also a ggod thing to buy some insect foggers for the entire house.
Remove any plants and pets first.

[nomaxim]

Originally posted by rubyred
I agree, she did ask me for money the first day she was here, thank God I told her I didn't have any. She just left and I am off to the drug store for lice stuff just to be safe.

If she comes back asking for more money, tell her you spent it for delousing.

[blackwatch]

Originally posted by rubyred
I agree, she did ask me for money the first day she was here, thank God I told her I didn't have any. She just left and I am off to the drug store for lice stuff just to be safe.

i wouldnt bother with the hair shampoo, as lice are becoming resistant to it. your best bet is to clean up and check your hair individually and thoroughly, buy a lice comb, much better bet. also the shampoo can be quite irritating to the skin, so keep that in mind.

[brandon184]

You're a lot more tolerant than I am... I would have freaked.

[OuTpaTienT]

Originally posted by RobRich


Well said. Allowing a distressed friend into your home for an extended period of time is nearly as bad as loaning any significant amount of money to a friend.

I don't necessarily agree with that. I do agree it's a good general rule of thumb for dealing with most...but I know I have at least a couple friends that I would allow to stay under my roof if they were in dire straights. And they could stay as long as needed.

Why would I do that for these friends? Because I know they would do it for me.

That being said, back to rubyred's situation... This is definitely a case where Rob's advice holds true. My only observation is why is this person even considered a "friend" in the first place? You said you can't trust her to do anything unsupervised in your house. To me, that right there disqualifies the person from being a friend. Maybe they could be an acquaintance that I'm friendly (or at least civil) towards...but not a friend. And if she wasn't classified as a friend from the get-go then quite possibly this situation would have never arisen.

Cure for lice: shaving cream & a Bic razor.

[sao95]

Originally posted by RobRich


Well said. Allowing a distressed friend into your home for an extended period of time is nearly as bad as loaning any significant amount of money to a friend.

i disagree, letting friends stay over or loaning them money is okay, what rubyred learned I think is that said person wasn't a "real" friend.

edit: that's what I get for not reading all the posts before replying, repeating what's already been said.

[RedFury]

Well, to put perspective on what everyone has input so far...

A friend of mine and his family lost their home and stayed with me....for 3 months! Got to be just crazy. Then, a few years later, i was without a home due to circumstances beyond my control, and they generously put us up ( or put up with us ) for 3 months in their home.

Then, a year later, their home burned to the ground, they lost everything. Yup, back with us for 3 months, only this time it was 10 of us total, a dog, 5 cats...in a 14x80 mobile home in the middle of January.

It's good to have your buddies back, because he might need to have yours later on. They have since moved out of state and we miss them dearly, it just isn't the same without them ( a little more peaceful, but sometimes it's nice to break the silence with some good ol' fun and debatchery )