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Original poster

Visiting family sleeping in the living room - workable?!

27 replies

KeyboardMash · 03/04/2024 00:06

Genuinely looking for some perspective, as I'm overtired, can't sleep, and a little exasperated with this branch of the in-laws at the best of times - so there's a good chance I'm being a bit of an arse!

Do you think it is feasible for guests to be given a bed in the living room when it's the only communal room in the flat? So they cannot go to bed until everyone else in both families chooses to go to bed? Or is this unrealistic, impractical, and said guests should really have got a hotel for the sake of all concerned?!

I am one of said guests, and I would really like to be able to go to bed when I fucking want after a long day sightseeing - but I do understand that other people (e.g. DH and his brother, who we are visiting) would like to be able to stay up and chat. I guess if we were in a hotel there would be no option but to do that at all. But both the kids and I would be a lot better off! The kids have got a single bed to share which I also don't think is entirely feasible. They are 4 and 7, and would absolutely just kick each other and argue all night. As it is, I am in the single with DD2 and DD1 has been up till bloody 11pm then sleeping in the living room with DH. She's loving being up with her cousins all evening but I'm dreading trying to reset her after three nights of this. I'm getting kicked in the back all night and am now just generally cranky and can't sleep. So there's a chance my perspective is off! I am not sure if the sleeping arrangements were explained to DH before we came - I would certainly have made alternative suggestions if I'd known! An airbed in this room plus a single airbed in the study would have saved things - although one of us would have had to sleep in the living room!

OP posts:
Original poster
KeyboardMash · 03/04/2024 00:19

NewName24 · 03/04/2024 00:11

I have very fond memories of staying with my cousins, or them staying with us when we were growing up. We would be 12 in a 3 bed house.
So, I struggle to understand families staying in hotels when visiting family.

However, I think 2 nights is probably long enough.

Surely if you had booked a hotel, then you'd have the same issue with bedtimes though, as your dh would be wanting to stay up late chatting with his brother when you'd be wanting to travel back to the hotel ?

Could your dh and his brother not have retired to the kitchen ?

Yep. I think everyone else is going to come away from this with very fond memories. It's me that's tired and cranky! We're in another country - a two hour flight away - so three nights was what I beat us down to anticipating it would be cramped and difficult. You can't sit in the kitchen - it's too tiny and is completely covered in stuff (bottles, unwashed glasses, pans, old food, new food - it's a bit of a bohemian set-up!)

OP posts:
NewName24 · 03/04/2024 00:11

I have very fond memories of staying with my cousins, or them staying with us when we were growing up. We would be 12 in a 3 bed house.
So, I struggle to understand families staying in hotels when visiting family.

However, I think 2 nights is probably long enough.

Surely if you had booked a hotel, then you'd have the same issue with bedtimes though, as your dh would be wanting to stay up late chatting with his brother when you'd be wanting to travel back to the hotel ?

Could your dh and his brother not have retired to the kitchen ?