So today, at about half past eleven, whilst my DS (3) and I are in the kitchen washing our hands after he’s done a huge smelly poo in his potty in the living room, I hear a knock at the door. I assume it’s a JW or the postman and ignore it. Another, more insistent, knock; again, I ignore. Suddenly I hear a familiar voice calling my name – look up and there’s my aunt peering through the window.
SO basically I start sweating and my heart is hammering because I am NOT ready for a visitor and we definitely hadn’t arranged to meet. I am currently 22 weeks pregnant and all my clothes have recently become a bit uncomfortable and I haven’t got round to buying new ones yet, so I prefer to wear my old pyjama clothes until the last minute before we go out – meaning that at this point I am garbed in my husband’s faded underpants and a scruffy top with quite obviously no bra underneath. The kitchen (which can be seen clearly from the hallway) is a TIP because I was frankly a bit lazy last night and just fell asleep without wiping the counters or chucking old boxes/cartons away, and combined with the fact that the kitchen table is just always a mess regardless, it looks appalling. The living room still reeks of poo because I forgot to open windows and don’t like using air-freshener when I’m pregnant.
I have no choice but to let my aunt in because she has seen me through the window. I shove on a hoodie before opening the door, so the flopping around of my boobs under my shirt is covered, but I have no trousers to quickly shove on so my pallid, unshaven legs are on full show beneath my husband’s old boxers (which, I have just realised, may be faded to the point of being slightly see-through, and I was wearing nothing else underneath. Oh god.) When she gets inside, I realise there are some of MY old pants in full view on the stairs – no idea how these got here. She pretends she hasn’t noticed. Have to let her into living room which stinks of poo – she pretends she hasn’t noticed. In fact, she pretends she has noticed nothing awry, but after a brief chat she leaves quickly so I know she must have realised it was a bad time.
I am mortified. I have recently moved to this city, where most of my family live, from a city where I was horribly isolated and never got any visitors at all, never mind unexpected ones, so mostly I’m pretty ecstatic to be able to have people over, but 4ish years of serious debilitating isolation has also made me quite socially anxious and this was kind of a worst-nightmare scenario for me.
AIBU not to expect the unexpected when it comes to visitors? My aunt is a very polite and social etiquette-following kind of person, so I’m inclined to think IABU, but I just don’t LIKE the thought of having to be constantly visitor-ready...
(I’d also like to mention that we do go out almost every day so I’m usually ready by 12ish and often before – was just not the best day!)